Shin Ikeda

by Kassien

COMPLETE! Quasi-Self Insert into Orphaned Shin of the Leaf. Becomes Heir of Ikeda Clan through random circumstances during the Kyuubi attack, and forges his own path through the Naruto world with Fuinjutsu, hard work, and his hero the Second Hokage in mind. Until Orochimaru throws in the biggest curveball, that leaves him fighting like never before. COMPLETE!

4. Chapter 4: Chunin Days

Shin Ikeda

By Kassien

Written: 10/28/22 - 7/30/23

Chapter 4: Chunin Days

Upon our return to Konoha, the Hokage instantly promoted me to Chunin, and gifted me a copy of a large Konoha Fuinjutsu scroll, I learned was originally created by Mito Uzumaki, wife of the first Hokage, and gifted to Konoha at her death. Only the Hokages, Kushina Uzumaki, Mito's student and successor, and Jiraiya had been gifted copies and since contributed something to the Main Scroll held by the Hokage, and now with the copy that was gifted to me. It was a somewhat daunting responsibility and task, to now all of a sudden have quite large expectations put upon me, simply by winning the Chunin Exams, I was now considered someone of true worth and value to my village, and I knew I wouldn't let the Hokage down, and jumped in with everything I had just as my conditioning taught me.

Along with my promotion to Chunin, my new flak jacket, my upcoming 16th birthday, and my increased responsibility in the world of ninja, I also decided to start increasing my financial footprint in Konoha as well, using my saved up wealth to buy up several properties that I could rent out, and start other revenue streams to tap into. I could also set up my best friends, and now former teammates with a nice low rent ground floor apartment, and the chance to start over with their lives and run a store of their own to make ends meet.

Takao wasn't going to try and make it as a one armed Taijutsu specialist, and Ito realized that it was more important to her to be with the man she loved, and was hoping to eventually start a family of their own. I would feel better knowing that they were being somewhat taken care of, and it would give them a chance at an independent and successful business they could call their own. Ito practically broke down when I finally had everything in place and offered them a very friendly deal on a store with an apartment above it. It completely changed them both seemingly overnight, as within days, the new young couple was settling into their small ninja supply store with enthusiasm and vigor that had been completely missing since the Chunin Exams.

As non-clan orphaned ninja, neither of them had anything in the way of family or additional resources, and with them both sidelined as Genin and now basically retired, their chance at long term survival or affording a family was greatly reduced before I intervened. Now, they were nominally protected under my small Ikeda Clan, and had a chance at a real future for themselves, and I couldn't be happier to have contributed. Guilt truly was one of the most difficult things to live and deal with, and I know it played a large part in my helping them after failing to keep them safe when it really mattered, and I would have to slowly get over it.

Their Ninja Supply Store, sold mostly minor and standard weapons and accessories for the average ninja, but also slowly started selling Fuinjutsu storage scrolls and explosive tags my clones created for me in mass, to give them something extra. I also gave the start-up money for a small Gyoza Cart run by an old cook named Gui, that set up right outside my small six unit apartment building and saved me many a day when I needed a quick and delicious snack. I also bought out the two now empty units on the ground floor, and now only shared the building with three other ninja tenants in rooms 3, 4, and 6, who I would try to buy out over time and claim the whole building as my own, and the start of my Clan Compound.

Although now it was nothing but three of the six units of the corner building, with my teammates' Ninja Supply Store catty cornered across from it, eventually the whole building, and hopefully the whole corner would be mine, and I started dreaming a bit about how to rebuild a Clan Compound and quickly realizing I needed more help and knowledge. Luckily, my promotion and return to Konoha, also came with a mandatory month off, so I had lots of time to get personal and administrative things done around Konoha, and my clones could still get in some work too. The Ninja Archives provided me all the details required for Clan Restoration on more levels than I ever cared to know about, and simply copied the many Clan Rules and Regulations I needed to know before sending clones to start reading and copying as much of the Chunin available material that I could now get my hands on.

Thankfully, what new information that was now available to me as a Chunin, kept my clones buried in reading and copying scrolls well past my month off and into my first dozen missions as a Chunin of the Leaf. Those were all very different, as I used the first several to try different types of mission, a tracking one with an Aburame Chunin which was surprisingly helpful, a large bandit cleansing, a B-Rank assassination on a team with two other Chunin, and even a short infiltration into a dockyard to find the mole. There were tons of differing types of missions that all needed very specific things or skill sets, and learning about them all was invaluable to my current growth and finding a place I felt fit my own style, skills, and temperament.

I quickly learned that some aspects of ninja life were just easier for me, and long infiltration and high end espionage wasn't my forte, as I lacked subtlety and patience, and was much more comfortable fighting out front. My speed was easily on par with most low ranked Jounin, and for a young Chunin, it was quite impressive and allowed me to often get the drop on most enemies near my age and rank. I hadn't sacrificed my strength either, as I was quickly realizing that a massive growth spurt had truly hit me after turning 16, and was already over six feet tall with thicker and stronger muscles seemingly growing overnight that made me look like a character straight out of an anime.

I had kept my outfit to the standard Konoha black-green combination, black ninja outfit now with the added dark green Chunin flak jacket, which had infinitely more pockets, but everything I stored in scrolls already, so it wasn't too big of an adjustment. I thought about really changing up my outfit and adding armor, but felt that I should wait until I had more power to back it up, as the outfit change I wanted would definitely get noticed in certain circles and put certain expectations on myself that I wasn't quite ready for. Once I was strong enough to at least challenge oncomers, I would think about incorporating more of my hero's style into my own, but for now was happy to just blend in with the other Chunin of the Leaf, and plan out my future ninja gear in my head.

My missions continued to be a mixed bag for the next several months, as most went just as they were planned and despite the danger, I was always capable of completing my part, as my control over water continued to grow and my Fuinjutsu barrier seals were starting to get me noticed and requested more often. I think that was also because of my many storage scrolls, I always had extra food and supplies that made traveling and camping much more enjoyable, which was confirmed by the last Chunin pair that requested me for the third time and joked about me being a great traveling partner. I didn't mind at all, as they were both quite skilled and quick to offer helpful suggestions for improvement, which I was all for at that point.

Everything I did was with the sole goal of improving my skills and becoming a better ninja, even my only hobbies, Fuinjutsu and visiting the Hot Springs, where I spent most of the time practicing water manipulation as my muscles soaked, was with this goal in mind. My biggest side project at the time was trying to figure out how to create seals in battle on the fly, as I was pretty much relying on having and finding the correct scroll for what I wanted or needed, and those weren't always perfect solutions. I needed a way to set a Fuinjutsu seal with only a touch of my chakra, and it was proving quite difficult, despite the small section written by Minato Namikaze in the Konoha Fuinjutsu Scroll about his method, I apparently wasn't quite at his level of Fuinjutsu genius.

It almost became a moot point as time progressed, and despite getting stronger and turning 17, I wasn't quite yet at Jounin level even if I was close, let alone Kage level, when I learned that the Konoha Chunin Exams were only four months away, and the invasion of Orochimaru, Sound and Sand was around the corner. I thought about trying to tell someone, but how would I even begin to explain the reasoning I knew about it, they would just throw me in Torture & Interogation if I was lucky, and I was never lucky. Instead, I thought of ways to expose Kabuto or Orochimaru, or somehow disrupt their plans, even if I didn't remember everything that happened exactly, nor could I count on it to be exactly the same now that I was included in the story, this might not even follow the Manga I was familiar with years ago in my last life.