"Come on dammit. Turn into a ball" I said, angrily trying to make the leaf crumple into a ball. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and I wasn't exaggerating and that was sad. Eventually the edge of the leaf began to curl. "YES FINALLY PROGRESS!" I screamed happily. It had been nearly a month of nothing and I hated it a lot.
New skill unlocked: Lightning manipulation Lvl 1
Lightning jutsu use 0.5% less chakra
Lightning jutsu is 0.5% more effective
User is 0.5% more resistant to lightning
I sighed looking at the stats. It wasn't the best but it was to be expected. I didn't expect it to be better than my primary element. Still, I hoped it'd be slightly better. All that work for this. Still, I now had the capacity to do more jutsu. I also at least knew how lightning chakra felt like to a degree. Lightning feels like quick-moving blades. Untamed and wild.
I looked at the leaf. I decided why not train some more... I still had time left in the day to do so. If I wanted to learn how to bend lightning to my whims I needed to do this first. Walk before you run Kukui. I glared at the leaf with newfound determination. "I'll crumple you into a ball you stupid leaf. Then I'll do the next exercise" I said to the leaf and myself
I got back to trying to channel lightning chakra into the leaf
Training ground seven: Hayate/Kakashi's pov: third person
"You're right, this is entertaining. He keeps throwing it on the ground, screaming at air and picking up the leaf again" Kakashi said, flipping a page of his favorite book. They or more specifically their shadow clones have been watching Kukui for a few hours. He'd been trying to master lighting manipulation but he's been failing spectacularly... no it was just sad actually. He kept trying and getting mad but he still kept going. He kept trying until he finally got the leaf to curl just the tiniest bit and he kept going some more.
Hayate's clone nodded. "Its a bit sad though." The clone commented.
The clone closed its book. "A little bit, yes but still. He looks determined. I could see him pulling this off in a month tops. If he keeps going at this rate. Maybe he'll get it sooner" The Kakashi clone commented, grabbing a leaf and crumpling a ball up absentmindedly. Sometimes there were finer things in life than icha icha. Watching kids fail at something is one of them. It made Kakashi actually want to pass a genin team. But sadly almost nobody ever met his criteria.
The Hayate clone looked puzzled. "You really think it will only take him a month to get it down? This is a jonin level exercise. It should take him a few months or even years" The clone asked its clone comrade. The clone didn't know why the original didn't just give him a fire jutsu or another earth to learn. The kid could learn those easily with how he senses chakra.
The clone continued to watch the brown haired boy for a second. "He just needs to understand how lightning chakra works a bit more. If he can sense how chakra is moved and how a jutsu works then he should be able to do this with ease once he gets the feel of the chakra" The clone commented idly. The Hayate clone understood now. If Kukui could sense chakra that well then he could theoretically copy jutsu actually. Like a sharingan.
"I see. So the original must have understood this too" The clone commented Idly
The Kakashi clone nodded. "Yep"
*Crackle!*
"Make it a week"
Kukui's pov: Apartment.
"You lose again," Shikamaru commented. We were playing shogi whilst we were waiting for the others to arrive. We had played three games of shogi and I had almost won only one. I remembered why I hated board games in my first life.
I sighed. "Will I ever win?" I asked myself and him
He pat me on the back. "Maybe one day but not today" Shikamaru replied
I put my head on my hand. Today was my day off. Tenten had to work in her parents' shop and Mika had family matters. As did Sasuke. They were probably discussing something boring. I was the only one with nothing to do and I was threatened by Ino not to train all day and spend some time with them all. Dammit, I would have but I wanted to get some training in on my lightning affinity. Troublesome woman. "So are you looking forward to being a shinobi soon?" I asked my lazy friend. There were just a few months left until graduation day. I wanted to hear what the general consensus was
Shikamaru groaned. "You asked earlier when we were all trying to beat you. But I'm assuming you want a better, more in-depth explanation" Shikamaru said and I nodded. "Well let's start off with our other classmates. Most kids are the same. Sakura is trying to "befriend" Us to get closer to Sasuke. Sasuke has been more sociable. He's been opening up more to Naruto and to the rest of us. But mainly Naruto. Naruto's been doing seals as you know but now he has more wind jutsu in his arsenal... May I add those are a pain in the ass to deal with. Trying to do anything to him unless you're Sasuke it's just dumb. Ino's been learning more medical jutsu and poison's. Mainly paralysis poisons. She's also been focusing on learning more of her clan's jutsu. Hinata just joined us a few weeks ago after Naruto invited her too. Chouji's been learning more clan jutsu and how to use the Bo-staff. And I've been learning more of my clan's jutsu. I've also been learning how to throw senbon and how to manipulate fire. Ino told me how to begin and I figured they'd be useful to make more shadows" Shikamaru explained.
I grinned. "You've all been growing really strong. It sounds like you're all going to be heavy hitters soon" I said grinning. Nothing made me happier than knowing my friends were doing good.
Shikamaru's mood dampened a bit. "Not as strong as you though Kukui," He said
I frowned. "You guys don't give yourself enough credit. You are all strong in your own ways. You shouldn't use me as a measuring stick. I've been training with a jonin for half a year now and you haven't had that advantage " I said reassuringly. They were all strong. Just not as strong as me yet.
Shikamaru smiled a bit. "Its hard not too though. You're the best of our generation. You fought all of us at once and won within mere minutes. You took down Naruto and Sasuke with ease and you made the rest of us look like children. You can do far more to us than we can to you" Shikamaru pointed out. I nodded in acknowledgment. It was true I was far stronger than them. But I had a goal in mind. I had a reason. Whereas most of my friends have the goal of beating me.
I nodded. "That is true. But there is a reason. All the truly strong people in history have had a dream. A goal to work towards that keeps them going. I have the goal of being the strongest around, Sasuke has the dream of avenging his family, Naruto wants to become Kage. All of those are lofty goals. But they are what drives us to do better. To be the best we can be. There is a reason why everyone is as strong as they are" I said sagely. I understood. Goals and dreams were important in life. Without them we wouldn't be motivated to do anything but survive... That's not enough. You should strive to thrive. I want to not just thrive, I want to be the best.
Shikamaru's eyes widened in realization. "So you're saying you're strong now because of your dream?" Shikamaru asked.
I nodded. "Its what drives me. I want to be the strongest so nobody can kill anyone I care about. What is your dream?" I asked the Nara genius
Shikamaru thought about it for a second. "I want to create a world where my future children and grandchildren can live happily" He blurted out. I smiled. It was an admirable goal indeed.
I nodded. "Thats a worthy dream to work towards. To do that you'll need to be strong. If you want to change the world to your whims you are going to need that power" I said sagely. I'd help my friend toward his dream. I'd help all my friends toward their dreams.
Shikamaru nodded. "Could you help us train then? We could use the help" Shikamaru asked
I nodded. "Gladly" I said simply.
Soon we heard a knock on the door. I created an earth clone that opened it. Everyone was there
"Echo!" I shouted going through hand seals. I gathered chakra in my lungs, mouth, and voicebox. I shouted
A blast of sound came out of my mouth. Bastardized wind jutsu. I grinned. I had finally done it! I had finally fucking done it after a month of labor. I had completed my first jutsu! Hahaha! I fucking did it. "I did it!" I shouted in excitement.
New skill unlocked: Echo
Echo:
Creates a blast of sound that comes from the mouth. Used to disorient and knock enemies to the ground
Creator bonus: 50% More effective, 25% more efficient
Cost: 16 chakra points
Rank - D
Liebe from beside me smirked. "Good job. This is your first jutsu. A sound related jutsu too. Be proud. Even though it isn't strong it has great potential." Liebe had with pride in his voice. He had been teaching me how to use sound-like attacks. This was the first one I learned/made This was my first step into the raikiri ripoff
I grinned as well. "Thanks Liebe for teaching me how to use sound" I said gratefully I didn't know If I'd be able to do it without him. I'd been summoning him everyday in my free time for the past month to just talk and train. I'd been learning how
Liebe nodded. "Anytime pal. Now I gotta get going. Mom wants me home soon and I can't piss her off right now" Liebe said, going back to Komori cave.
I grinned once more. I had finally gotten the jutsu done. I figured it'd take longer to make... But damn It was a hard, long month.. Maybe It'd be longer If I wasn't trying to learn a second affinity. That was going well too. I was almost there and I could see it. Soon I'd be making my own jutsu for lightning and fire. Soon...
I decided to take a look at my stats. It had been a while since I had checked them and I was feeling good today
Kukui Tanku.
Title: Cockroach
Energy points 900/900
chakra points 220/450
Strength: 43
Dexterity: 44
Constitution: 45
Chakra: 45
Willpower: 55
Chakra control. C+]
I was doing good. I was starting to keep up with Hayate's shadow clone but I was still getting my ass kicked. Eh I was still doing good. Life is awesome right now and nothing was really bad. Life. Was. Good
All in all I was having a good week
Training ground 7
"Slave driver!" I heard Ino exclaim. I had borrowed the training ground for the day with Hayate's permission. I was "training" them. By training them I meant I was forcing them to do strenuous activity for hours on end. I loved my job. I could see why people became Jonin sensei. It was a great job.
I smirked. "You'll thank me later. Trust me. When you can beat the ever living shit out of your enemies with ease you will indeed learn that I'm helping" I said grinning. Again I enjoyed this.
Naruto spoke up next. "We'll get you back for this!" He shouted. He was dragging a stone around. He was doing the most because he had the most stamina. I was going to put it to work and make him tired for once in his damned life.
I smiled widely. "You won't. If you prank my apartment or me then you'll know pain" I said cryptically. If he pranked me I'd summon a bat to make a noise to keep him from sleeping every night for a week. Longer depending what he did. "Be more like Sasuke. He isn't complaining about my training methods" I said looking over to the tired out uchiha. He'd been training like crazy to hopefully catch up to me. He's been doing well too. With my weights on he was just about as fast as me. Although without them It wasn't even fair.
Sasuke said something unintelligible.
"See," I said grinning.
Shikamaru groaned. "Can't you be any more annoying right now?"
I nodded. "Yes I could but I value my friendships. This is all to help you guys out" I said, grabbing a leaf from a nearby tree. I focused my chakra into it. Hey, I could train too!
Lightning manipulation has leveled up!
'Nice' I thought excitedly. I was almost there I could tell. Almost there. "You can take a break now. It's about lunch time" I said and immediately everyone stopped and collapsed to the dirt. I threw them each a scroll. I was a nice guy... sometimes...
Ino grabbed it curiously. "What's this?" She asked, She looked like she was expecting an Iwa shinobi to jump out of it. It wasn't
I grinned. "Lunch" I said. Everyone quickly unsealed lunch.
Everyone quickly said thank you and dug in. They were clearly hungry. I made sure everyone had specialized lunch just because fuck it I could. I unsealed my own lunch. I had leveled up lightning manipulation to level 7. I was happy.
Everyone else looked exhausted and happy too. All in all, it was nice. Soon though it was back to D rank missions and bandit elimination missions... I had my first kill. Honestly I was expecting to be distraught. But I was sorta desensitized by that point. All of us were. The amount of times Hidan should have died were incredible. We seen a lot of blood that day.
I wished that it was only me who had to see all of that. I don't want anyone I care about to see that. I knew it was inevitable they'd see violence one day though. I had learned that the world was a cruel place. The world was a cruel place indeed.
Unknown area.
"I see you have captured the 5 tails," Pain said monotonely. Truth be told he hadn't expected it to happen yet. He had expected every member to wait until the time they were fully ready and funded. This was a fortunate turn of events though. This saved time in the future.
Deidara grinned. "Yeah the bastard didn't stand a chance against me and my art! He put up a good fight though un. But he couldn't get past me in the air, '' Deidara said coolly. "By the way we also blamed the tree huggers for it too." Deidara added on. Pain was pleased by the turn of events. Pinning the blame on konoha could spark the steps needed to get all the bijuu without putting heat on them.
Sasori spoke up. "Don't be so loud. Anyways we also managed to turn in some bounties on the way back. Deidara stopped on the way back to bomb a pocky factory though so we didn't make it on time." Sasori said, getting slightly frustrated at the mention of his partner making them late for the meeting time between the akatsuki.
Pain nodded. "That is fine. We can begin the sealing of the Gobi soon. I shall summon the rest of the organization soon. Be prepared" Pain said.
Truly Pain was indeed happy that they were getting the ball rolling on sealing the bijuu, Konoha was blamed for something they didn't do, and finally, their plans for peace were going to begin. The cruel world they lived in would know pain and would forever desire peace and peace would reign on the world
He sent out a ping to each of the members of Akatsuki's rings. The sealing of the Gobi would take roughly 3 days. So as soon as it was over he'd let everyone take a break to replenish their stamina and strength.
Soon 8 more people showed up on the gedo statue's fingers. One for each member of the Akatsuki.
"Great, why are we here today? I have more fuckers to kill for Jashin" Hidan asked rudely.
Itachi shut Hidan up. "Do not be rude to leader-sama. We are probably here for another assignment." Itachi commented softly.
"Eh probably" A shark-like man said
"Deidara and Sasori have brought the Gobi to us today. Since we have the jinchurriki ready we shall seal it today" Pain explained.
"So that's what you called us for. Could it have fucking waited?" Hidan asked before He was shut up in the real world by Kakuzu
"Shut up Hidan. You're not acting properly" Deidara said. He believed every member of the Akatsuki should be calm.
"Now that explanations are out of the way we can begin sealing the gobi" Pain said
Soon they began
Kukui's pov: Konoha
Today was just boring. I had nothing to do. Everyone was busy and I didn't want to train. I just wanted to find something new to do. Something exciting. Eh, not exciting, just something to occupy my time for now. I understand why people became teachers now... It took up a lot of time and it wasn't boring if you didn't have brats to deal with. I meant brat in the literal sense.
Lightning cracked to life in between my fingers. It wasn't much. Just a few sparks. I was bored and this was all I could do. I almost missed fighting Hidan. Almost. I looked around. Konoha was boring without Naruto and his pranks to liven it up. Man, I needed him to take on Konohamaru as an apprentice. He could prank In Naruto's stead since he's been quiet. Maybe I could find some kid to teach how to walk up walls or something. Give their parents a heart attack or something
Eventually, I switched to fire on one of my hands. I felt awesome.
"How are you doing that?" I heard a curious yet blunt voice ask from behind me.
I jumped and I almost had a heart attack. I looked behind me and saw a girl no older than 7. A hyuuga based on her eyes. She wore a sleeveless, blue v-neck shirt with mesh armor underneath; blue shorts and sandals. Her hair looked to be long. I recognized her as Hanabi Hyuuga
Now I didn't particularly care about child safety laws. So I'd tell her how because fuck it why not? I grinned. "These are my elemental affinities. Fire and lightning. They're dangerous" I said, grinning like a maniac.
The little girl nodded. "Then how do you know how to use them? Aren't they like jonin level material?" The girl asked, narrowing her eyes at me.
I grinned. "They are. But I figured it was best to learn young. Why learn later when instead you could learn before you truly need it?" I said asking a question at the end.
The girl made a hmm noise for a second. "Well wouldn't it take time away from other subjects? I've heard learning an elemental affinity takes a long time" Hanabi answered. It made sense. It took away from other subjects but still. If you knew it beforehand. Learning jutsu would be easier.
I nodded in acknowledgment. "That is indeed true. It would take away from other subjects like Taijutsu. But this is harder to learn. If you learn whilst young you could use it better as an adult. You'd have more experience and in the long run you'd be a better shinobi" I said sagely.
Hanabi nodded at this explanation. "That makes sense... If you know them as young as you look then you must be pretty strong" The girl said, nodding to herself.
I grinned. "I am strong but I could always be stronger. There's more to learn, more to do, so much more potential for growth. If you just stick to one thing then you'll stagnate and just be good at one thing" I said to the young girl. If I could stick it to the Hyuuga by causing their daughter to rebel then that'd be really cool.
The young girl looked wide eyed. "What do you mean stagnate? If someone focuses on one skill and they're good at it doesn't that mean they should be strong?" The girl asked. That would be true. But they need to consider other things. Like strategy, who they're fighting, and where they're fighting.
I nodded. "Yes and No. If someone's really good at one skill they can be strong but variety is better. If someone is a jack of all trades they could use long range jutsu to beat a taijutsu user" I said. Man, I was on a roll today.
The girl looked up to me. "Couldn't the taijutsu user just get close to the long range user?" The girl asked.
I nodded once more. "Yes they could but that's why we also have utility ninjutsu. Also, it's why we keep a skill in our back pocket like kenjutsu or genjutsu" I said. I sounded like Hayate sensei. I kept a few things in my back pocket just in case.
The girl then got a glint in her eye. "You sound good. You sound really good. Could you teach me?" The girl asked hopefully.
I grinned. Fate smiled upon me today it seems. I'd have something to do and I could stick the middle finger to a royal clan. I liked it. "Sure, You sound like you're interested in the shinobi arts and you hopefully won't tell anyone. But you'll have to listen to me. I also won't be teaching you as much as you'd probably like. Being a genin is busy. But I'll teach you whenever possible. Does that sound like a deal?" I asked after laying out my teams
The girl nodded. "Yes sensei. What will you teach me first?" The girl asked curiously and hopefully. The innocence of a child.
I decided to teach the girl something interesting. I'd teach her how to tree walk. I walked up a nearby tree. "I'll teach you how to do this" I said grinning
The girl looked gobsmacked. Oh, this'd be fun.
Chapter end
That last part was fun to write. I've always wanted Kukui to teach someone. Either Konohamaru as a fuck you to Hiruzen for tora missions, or Hanabi just to stick the finger to the hyuuga. I chose Hanabi as why not? It'd be fin seeing the little firecracker interact with our favorite protagonist(Okay my favorite) Anyways what did you think? Did you like the chapter? Did you like how full it was? I tried to make this a good chapter for plot and just to drive the story forward a bit whilst still being fun
Anyways Not much to say this chapter. So thanks for tuning in.
Question of the chapter time!
Question: What is your favorite Anime? Mine is not naruto. Its Black clover... Naruto is just my favorite anime to write about! I want to write a black clover SIOC gamer fic one day... or just a regular SIOC one... Heh
Tobi-kun out
Ta ta!