Obviously, I don't own Naruto.
[Chapter: 2]
Malice.
Bloodlust.
Pain.
Dread.
He was here again, huddled into a corner as the world around him fell into pieces, clutching his baby sister as she wailed at the top of her lungs.
Like a tsunami, it surged and pummeled into everything in its path, unleashing a torrent of pure malice. Filling the air like a thick smog, it infected him from the inside out with promises of pain.
An overwhelming presence that sent him to his knees. It was evil, there were no other words to describe it.
And yet there was something on the horizon that was ten times worse.
There was a sense of deja vu underlying his time in this hell. But it was overshadowed by the sheer terror in his heart.
Something far away told him that this wasn't real. Every other part of him screamed out in protest, desperate to get away from what was coming. So what other option did he have?
He ran.
The sound of his heart pounding in his chest drowned out the rest of the world. Every step was urgent, driven by overwhelming terror. His breaths were ragged, matching the frantic rhythm of his footsteps. Logic had no place here anymore, it was only sheer survival instinct fueling him.
Time lost all meaning as he sprinted forward, clutching his sister in his arms as the surroundings were reduced to a blur of shapes and colors. His mind was a vortex of fear, consumed by a single minded pursuit of escape.
And yet, its arrival was imminent.
"Please," He whimpered, his breaths labored. His voice was hoarse. At some point he had been screaming, but he couldn't remember when or how long. "Please no."
Sadly, his pleas were not heard.
A burning crimson eye descended, scorching his mind and poisoning his body. It had finally arrived.
The nine-tailed fox.
"No-!" Haruki bolted upright in bed, his eyes wide open and his body drenched in cold sweat. Where was he? More importantly, where was Sakura? And where did that monster go? His eyes wildly darted around the room as he clutched his… bedsheets.
Ah.
Closing his eyes, he took deep breaths as he tried to calm his pounding heart. In through the nose… out through the mouth. Opening his eyes, he slowly let go of the bedsheets in his trembling hands. The room was bathed in a soft, warm glow, a stark contrast to his vivid nightmares.
A gentle knock echoed through his door, startling him out of his concentration. His mother's voice followed, soft and clearly concerned. "Haruki? Are you okay? I heard you yell."
"Y-yeah, mom," Dammit. He'd tried to keep the quiver out of his voice and failed completely. "It was just a bad dream, that's all."
The doorknob turned and Mebuki stepped into the room. Haruki grimaced at the sight of her worn-out robe. If she was wearing that old thing that meant he'd woken her up. For the nth time in a row. She was already dealing with a cranky Sakura and here he was making even more problems.
Gently, she crouched down next to his bed and studied his face intently. "Oh, sweetheart," She whispered, putting a comforting hand on his trembling shoulder. "You don't have to act tough in front of me. I'm your mom. Besides, I'd be more concerned if you didn't have nightmares after… that."
They both knew what she was referring to.
He sighed, a considerable amount of anxiety leaving his body. "I know, it's just…" Trailing off, he looked away. It was hard to put into words how he felt about that day. Why he ever thought he'd be able to easily shrug off the horror of that day was a mystery to even himself. Being a reincarnate didn't help all with trauma.
His desire for Gamer's Mind gnawed at him constantly. If he didn't have it… well, being a ninja would be decidedly less fun than he thought it would be.
It was one thing to vow to become one of the strongest people alive. It was another to have the willpower to face a creature of such sheer power that it dwarfed the mind with its mere presence. If there was a choice between fighting a monster or having his family perish, he would fight that monster even if it killed him.
But that was no mere monster. It was a natural disaster. To assume he could eventually face it felt fundamentally wrong.
Sighing, he tried again. "It's just… in the face of an overwhelming force, I was utterly powerless. All I could do was run away and hope everything would go alright. There was no fighting it. No amount of training felt like it would help. I was completely-"
"Useless?" She asked, cutting him off. "I get it, I felt that way too. I've felt that way for a good portion of my entire life. And you weren't useless. You might've ran away but, honey, you're a child. That's what you were supposed to do. If anything, you did more than enough by taking Sakura with you."
The moment he felt that vile chakra, all he could think about was running. Getting away. When they found him, he'd apparently passed out four miles away from the village. His legs were… not pretty.
He frowned, looking down at his hands. "There's that, too. I hadn't even thought about Sakura at the time. The only reason I had her in my arms was because she was already in my arms when it arrived. I'd forgotten I was even carrying her," His hands trembled. "...I completely failed."
She grasped his hands firmly. "Is that what this is about? That you couldn't control yourself in front of the 100 meter tailed beast rampaging through the village?" It wasn't funny, but his lips quirked up a bit. When she said it like that it sounded… ridiculous.
"And you didn't fail. Sakura is alive, isn't she? It might not have been a conscious decision, but it worked out in the end. You protected her, as a big brother should."
"But-" He protested.
"No, I get it," She put up a hand. "When I was your age, I was scared of anything and everything. It wasn't an exaggeration to say I was scared of my own shadow. But there was one thing I was scared of more than anything. That I would never grow out of it. That I'd run away from every problem and huddle in a corner when things got too hard. I was afraid of stagnation. For you though, it goes deeper. You're not really afraid of the Kyuubi, are you? No, you're afraid of imperfection. Of not being 'good enough' when it counts."
Stunned, he nodded. She saw straight through him, huh?
Abruptly, she stood up and stretched her arms upward. "Great! Well, not great, but it's good that you're struggling with this now rather than later. The longer you let fear root itself into your heart, the more damaging it'll be when you eventually have to yank it out."
Haruki blinked, not knowing exactly what to say to that. "So… what should I do, then? Would just graduating from the academy really be enough for me to feel… adequate? Only doing that much would be pretty lame."
"Oi," She protested. "I was a genin and I'm awesome! I see what you mean though. Being a normal genin wouldn't be enough for you," She hummed, her finger on her chin in thought. "How about I teach you, then? The academy will lay the foundation, but I'll give you an extra edge."
"You? No offense, mom, but you said it yourself. You peaked at genin. How is that any different from my training with dad?"
"The difference is that everything your dad taught you can be learned at the academy. What I'm teaching is beyond the curriculum," She explained, slightly smug. "And don't diss me, I could've been a chūnin or even jōnin if I wanted to. Becoming a ninja at all was enough panic attacks to last a lifetime, I was happy not being promoted."
"Oh," He responded lamely. "Well, what are you gonna be teaching me?" It had to be something good, otherwise there was no point in learning it. At the highest levels of the Naruto world, small stuff like how to throw a shuriken or kunai were fairly useless.
Well, unless you were Minato.
"You'll find out after school," She answered mysteriously as she walked out and shut the door behind her.
Wait. "What time is it?" He called out after her. Surely she wouldn't have just let him…
"You've got about fifteen minutes tops," He faintly heard her reply.
"Shit!" Jumping out of bed, he scurried around the room in a rush to get ready. It was the first day of the academy and he was already gonna be late!
Haruki yawned as he finally shambled his way to the entrance of the academy. As it turned out, he wasn't gonna be late because his mom had lied to him. He didn't have fifteen minutes, he had a whole hour and a half to get ready. Apparently it was payback for indirectly calling her genin status lame.
Revenge would be a sweet and slow process.
Because of her he rushed to put on clothes and came to school wearing a simple green shirt and cargo shorts. And honestly, he didn't know what other reincarnators were talking about, these sandals were comfortable as fu-
Another yawn interrupted his thoughts as he looked paused before the entrance and looked around. This part of the village was fairly unknown to him since he avoided the hokage building like a plague. It was either the park or home, everywhere else was too risky.
The academy was smaller than he'd expected it to be. He would call it adorable if it weren't so unsettling how it looked like both a place that trained child soldiers and an elementary school combined. As an example, the grassy field that kids were already playing on was filled with only practical things. Like the climbing walls and target dummies. Everything here had a calculated purpose, and nothing was built purely for the fun of children.
It was both sickening and fascinating.
Well, that was just how the cookie crumbled. This world was fundamentally different from his previous one, trying to insert his brand of logic into it would just be a fool's errand.
Shrugging, he languidly took his first step into the entrance… and then promptly froze, stunned. Where his eyes were once lidded and fatigued, they now were wide open with both surprise and pure elation.
In that suspended moment, his eyes roamed over something unseen again and again, causing his smile to grow wider by the second.
That is, until the moment is shattered by a kid carelessly bumping into him, jolting Haruki out of his frozen state. A fat, older kid, glaring down at him from above.
"Why are you just standing there like an idiot? Watch where you're going!" the kid snapped at him.
Haruki blinked and just stared at the kid like he was an idiot. Standing in the middle of the road was pretty stupid but wasn't he, y'know, standing? The kid obviously didn't look where he was going if he bumped into him.
Then again, it was just a kid. No point in getting riled up over nothing. "Just confused. This is my first day so I don't know where to go," He replied.
Blatantly looking him up and down, the chubster snorted. "My bad, bro. Thought you were one of the older kids. Man, you are one tall freshie…"
Was he, really? The chubby kid in front of him was taller, but he guessed he wasn't that much taller…? How tall was he, actually? Would his height affect his strengths and weaknesses?
…Questions for later.
"In any case, you wanna head to that part of the building over there," The kid pointed at a door off to the side of the school, before walking off. "Good luck, or whatever."
Watching the kid for a moment, Haruki shook his head and affixed himself with a mask of indifference, the fatigue returning to his face. Returning to his slumped posture, he casually made his way to the entrance that was pointed out to him, before walking in the sliding door.
Quickly, he scanned the rows of children before lightly nodding to himself. Yup, this was definitely a classroom. But the other kids weren't really that interesting at the moment.
Ignoring the few looks he got, likely for his pink hair, Haruki made his way to the back of the classroom and sat in the furthest back seat he could. Not too quick, not too fast. This was a ninja village, so he had to be as cautious as possible.
Especially since, after putting his head down, he recalled something he'd been waiting literal years for. The moment he walked into the academy, it had activated.
'Status.'
[Synchronization Complete.]
[Initiating Status Screen…]
=[User: Haruki Haruno] - [Rank: Academy Student]
(Chakra: 18/18)
▸Physical: [2.3]
▸Spiritual: [7.9]
▸Skills (1/5): [Heritage C]
▸Techniques: N/A
That… huh.
He didn't know how to feel about this.
On one hand, great! It works! On the other hand… What the hell was he looking at? This was nothing like he expected his system to be like at all!
For one, with the way it looked, it completely ruined all of his plans.
Most, if not all his plans hinged on the ability to level up. He didn't want to massacre roves of people unless it was a war, but he was planning on dumping all his stat points into a single stat… and he had nothing! No stats he recognized, no levels, nothing!
And it was a damn good plan, too! He would spend years in the academy, leveling up any skill related to stealth. Then, after he was basically undetectable by even the Byakugan, he'd sneak into the Forest of Death and kill all the giant animals that lived there. That was sure to give him a ton of exp.
Finally, he'd slap all his stat points into either Endurance, Vitality, or Intelligence and Wisdom, depending on which stats existed. Endurance would let him train for days on end with Shadow Clones. Dumping into vitality would make him nigh unkillable. Or Intelligence and Wisdom to basically make him have a supercomputer for a brain that could solve any problem. And that was just one of his plans!
Instead he had… this.
Sighing, he tried to not let it get to him. Things were still looking up, having a system at all was a blessing. It was just hard not to be disappointed when years worth of plans went down the drain.
Looking over it again, he tried to figure things out without clicking on anything. Firstly, it was clear both Physical and Spiritual made up his Chakra. 2.3 times 7.9 equals 18 if rounded down, after all. In regards to that, he needed to find out the average stats of everyone else quickly.
Was having a 2.3 a lot? A little? He had no idea.
The only other thing of notice was his skill slots. Was it linked to his age, perhaps? No, that couldn't be it. He'd recently hit six years old so it was 1 year off if that was the case. Then what else could it be linked to?
And that begged the question, how did he get skills? And how were they different from techniques?
Clicking on the 'Skills' part of the status, an answer was revealed to him.
[Skills to Choose From:]
-Ninjutsu
-Carpentry
-Genjutsu
-Chakra Control
-Blacksmithing
…
An absurdly long list of skills opened up, making him flinch. This… if this meant what he thought it meant, then he changed his mind completely about the system! He could choose any one of these hundreds of skills, and then he'd just have it?!
Though, based on the fact that his only skill, Heritage, had a C next to it, improving said skills was likely not easy. Or at least, improving them wasn't based on something linear like levels.
And if he could pick any skill he wanted, at the lowest level of course, what were techniques?
['Techniques' are derived from skills. Without the parent skill, a technique cannot be learned]
[Ex. Technique 'Rasengan' cannot be learned without skill 'Ninjutsu' at rank A.]
Oh. Oh he could work with this.
If anything, his system was just a guideline on how far he had to go before a technique was possible. It removed any of the uncertainty when training, which was huge since self-doubt was a major factor in training efficiency.
You didn't believe you could accomplish something? Simply put, you never would. Mindset was everything.
Though, before he contemplated which skills he should go for first, he should probably check out the skill he already had. The one that, annoyingly, was taking up a skill slot he could've used for something else.
=[Skill: Heritage]
▸Rank: [C]
▸The quality of the user's bloodline. Rank cannot be improved without extreme genetic modification.
▸At this rank, the user has average chakra levels and no bloodline abilities. Physical x Spiritual x Heritage = Chakra. The user's 'Heritage' is 1.
Haruki frowned. Well, this was just a kick in the ass. He already knew other people would have higher chakra levels than him, but this skill straight up told him to his face.
And he was hoping being a Haruno meant he got a boost to chakra control, but alas, it seemingly did not. Sakura was apparently just that good. She was a protagonist, though, so having her own talent was to be expected.
But none of that answered the question he was most curious about. How the hell did he get skill slots?
'Skill Slots'
…Nope, it didn't work. What else could he try? Maybe he was missing something in the status screen. After all, everything else seemed to be linked. The stats were linked to chakra. The skills were linked to techniques. Then, logically, the skill slots were linked to… rank?
He clicked his rank for an explanation.
[Path #763 "Shinobi" has been chosen. As the user becomes higher in the Shinobi Organizational System, their potential power increases.]
[Upon defection, rank will be calculated through average stats of other shinobi.]
=[Rank: Academy Student]
▸At this rank, the user has access to five skill slots.
Reading through it one more time to make sure he understood, Haruki slightly frowned. He'd promised that he wouldn't graduate early, so did that mean he was stuck with only four skills to choose from for the next few years?
…Bummer.
As the chatter in the room abruptly slowed to silence, Haruki stopped drooling over his shiny new system and sat up. Walking into the sliding door was a portly young man resembling the spitting image of a chūnin. He paused in his step at the front of the class, narrowing his eyes until it was fully silent before nodding.
"Good to see so many students ready to start the academy," He looked down at the clipboard that was definitely not in his hand a moment ago, and smiled jovially. "And not a single person late, from what I can see!"
"You can all call me Funeno-sensei, and although I want to get to know each and every one of you, we don't have that much time. In fact, we have to take an entrance exam in a bit."
Quite a few kids groaned, though Haruki kept quiet. A first day exam? Trash, but kind of expected.
"I know, I know, it sucks. But don't worry, half of the exam is practical so you won't have to write… much," Haruki groaned alongside the rest of the kids, then. Writing is evil. "Before that, I want each and every one of you to introduce yourself and tell everyone your dream for the future."
Almost immediately, students started whispering left and right instead of responding. Clearly, no one wanted to go first. It didn't make sense to Haruki why they were nervous, though, they were all six. What could they possibly do or say that anyone would care about…?
Eventually, someone spoke up, and Haruki tuned all of them out until a certain dark-haired one started speaking.
"I'm Uchiha Itachi. My dream is…" He trailed off, contemplation written on his face.
"My dream…" Itachi tried again, only to falter once more.
"It's all right, go ahead and say it," Funeno encouraged lightly.
Itachi took a deep breath before continuing, composing himself. "I want to be the greatest ninja ever, great enough that I can erase all fighting from this world."
For a moment, there was pindrop silence.
And then someone snorted, and the rest of the class began the repeat applause they gave every student.
Haruki, instead, was staring straight at Itachi with a blank expression. Shivers had gone down his spine the moment the young Uchiha had uttered his name.
Somehow… he'd completely forgotten about that kid.
Okay, so maybe he was overreacting a bit about the writing portion of the test. It really wasn't that bad.
He hadn't exactly breezed through it, mostly on account of his grasp on Japanese language still being less than English, but he'd managed fairly well. The test spanned from math, history, to even current politics (why…? They were children…), which meant it didn't take much time at all.
Sadly, Funeno's expression was carefully neutral, offering no indication of if he'd done good or bad.
Still he wasn't one of the first or even the second to turn in his test early, but was better than some of the other kids. A good portion of them didn't listen when Funeno said to just answer their best and racked their brains for answers they didn't know. An even bigger portion simply couldn't sit still for more than thirty minutes and just turned it in without finishing.
Haruki had an inkling of a suspicion that perhaps the freedom of when to pass in the written portion was a test in and of itself. A separation of the children who had problems focusing, the children who had trouble listening, and the truly exceptional.
Or maybe he was just being overly paranoid… Nah. This was a ninja village. He was being just paranoid enough.
More importantly, it was the second part of the test that really interested him more than anything. Mostly because it was actually outside instead of in a stuffy classroom.
Fuenono had simply told them to run laps and stop when they were comfortable doing so. Another test of willpower? Didn't really matter, in the end. Because it was that portion that he quickly realized the difference between himself and the other kids.
To put it simply? He was far ahead of most of the class. Perhaps his physical stat being a 2.3 was low in the grand scheme of things, but compared to the rest of the class it was monstrous.
Though if he was being honest, it likely had something to do with the way his dad trained him. Instead of teaching him… anything, they just constantly worked on his body. A consistent daily routine of working out a different muscle group, followed by reflective meditation on how to do better tomorrow. At first he was disappointed with that much, but over time it simply became routine and he got over it.
Besides, if he had to focus on both learning the language and working on complicated physical skills he likely would've burnt out. And on top of that, the system wasn't unlocked. So all the work that went into any skills would've been superfluous at best.
The only other person who kept up with him was an Inuzuka girl. The red triangle marks on her cheeks were the clear indicators of her birthright heritage… and that was all he knew about her.
Man, an 'Appraisal' type skill would be great right about now. But what category would a technique like that even be under? Detection? No idea, and no point in thinking about it. He'd look through the skill page thoroughly later.
After stomping out the competition on that part, they moved onto Taijutsu sparring. Since he'd never been in a real fight in either lives, he was far from composed. And so, in a panic of anxiety he'd sort of … uh…
=[Skill: Taijutsu]
▸Rank: [F]
▸The skill to determine the user's competence in hand-to-hand combat.
▸At this rank, the user has the skills of a street brawler, unable to contest against those who have proper training. Taijutsu techniques of the F-Rank are learnable.
Yeah… Admittedly, he was more nervous than he should've been, but he couldn't help it! He'd just watched someone get manhandled moments before his match since they pitted a clan kid with a civilian's child. He'd thought he needed some sort of advantage in case they put him against someone like the Inuzuka.
They, uh, didn't. And he literally just moved out of the kid's fist and tripped the poor child, making him feel silly for impulsively picking up the skill. He likely wouldn't even need it for a while, but there was no point not to get it, so he didn't have any regrets.
Well, besides letting his emotions make his decision for him. That would be a problem if it persisted.
At the very least, it confirmed that skills would start at the lowest level when chosen. No choosing broken skills and becoming a god in two days for him.
Finally, they moved to the last portion of the test. After the weakest warning in history to not cut themselves or steal anything, they were given sharp metal to throw at a board. Whoever set up this part of the curriculum obviously didn't understand what children were as a large portion of the class became quickly injured.
Nothing too bad, of course, just a quick cut on the arm or hands. Easily fixed up with medical ninjutsu. Did that mean it still hurt? Probably like hell with how hard some of them were crying, and that's why Haruki was being extra careful.
And while he could've chosen a skill to help him with aiming, he decided against it. Shurikenjutsu just didn't seem powerful enough to waste an entire slot on. Not until he at least chose the more important ones, at least.
It was while he was focusing on how to throw his Kunai without it spinning out of control that his eyes flickered off to the right. "You have to be fucking kidding me," He whispered under his breath, thoroughly annoyed at the sight to the side of him.
While everyone else was struggling just to hold the sharp weapons without hurting themselves, Itachi fuckin' Uchiha had thrown all five with one hand… and every single one hit the middle of the target without fail.
He'd been studiously ignoring the child, but this was just ridiculous. It was blatantly unfair, like Kishimoto had decided to just give the kid every talent known to man. One big fuck you gary stu.
In canon he was allegedly thinking at the same level of wisdom as a Kage by the age of five. By seven he would graduate from the academy, a year from now. And later on he would easily become the captain of the Anbu Black Ops. All when he wasn't even 14 yet.
And just seeing Itachi sprouted a question he didn't want an answer to. One that he'd been avoiding thinking about since the moment he spotted the little shit being overpowered in his corner of the room. One that constantly wouldn't leave him alone whenever he witnessed how much raw talent the child possessed.
In canon, Itachi Uchiha was undoubtedly and impossibly powerful. So much raw talent packed into one person was almost unreal.
And yet, even with all that potential, he still was forced to make a choice he didn't want to. To sacrifice the family he loved so much for the sake of a more peaceful world.
Naturally, an uncomfortable anxiety rooted itself in his heart.
If even Itachi couldn't avoid the cruel fate that people were due in this world, how could Haruki?
Yo.
I have no beta. So if you see mistakes? …Fuck it, we ball.
I was supposed to post last week, but I write all my stories on a little website called Wavemaker-cards. Sadly, it bugged and I lost months worth of plotting (for other stories, not this one), and I lost the chapter I had already written. So I had to rewrite it and speed-plot those stories so I didn't forget them.
…I'm gonna use Google-docs from now on.
I have a question before you go: Do you think the 'system' is too overpowered? Too underpowered? I think it's fairly balanced without being entirely useless.
See ya.