Exploiting Bugs

Chapter 10 – Hard Work

I made my way down the path cautiously, not wanting to startle whoever it was that was training here. They may not take kindly to what could be percieved as me trying to spy on them, but I was really curious about what the strength of other people in the world looked like. So far I had only seen the capabilities of little kids around my own age, and I hoped to maybe catch sight of what a genin or a chuunin could do. As I continued down the path, I found myself shocked at how far I had to travel. The sounds just kept getting louder, so it must've been someone training pretty hard for me to have heard them all the way from the street.

I was quite surprised when I finally caught sight of the person repeatedly kicking and punching against the wooden training dummy in the small clearing I came upon, grunting loudly with each strike. He didn't yet have his signature bowl cut, or green bodysuit, but I recognised the distinct form of a young Rock Lee. I got closer, and he was so absorbed that he didn't notice my approach at all, so I eventually called out to him.

"Hello. You look like you're training pretty hard.".

He halted mid kick, foot in the air, and tried to look over his shoulder at me, promptly losing his balance and toppling to the ground. He shot up to his feet with all haste, and bowed to me at the waist.

"Hello, fellow citizen of Konoha, I am Rock Lee. May I ask your name?".

I was taken aback by his straightforward method of speaking, but I had expected him to be somewhat odd, and so took it in stride. Seeing him face on, his eyebrows were truly a sight to behold, but he had that serious look on his face that was quite endearing. Lee had never been my favourite characters, but there was a certain attraction about him as a person. It was not that he was likeable, his social skills definitely left something to be desired, but he was both honest and earnest, as well as being hardworking. It was a truly admirable combination.

"Ah, I'm Taiki, Aburame Taiki. Sorry for interupting your training Lee, I was running nearby and I head you from the street, so I thought I would come and look."

Lee's face seemed to light up when I said I had been running, and he couldn't wait to ask me what was on his mind.

"It is nice to meet you, Taiki~san. Are you attending the academy also? I am practicing my taijutsu before I return for my second year on monday, but am lacking a sparring partner. If you would like, we could practice together.".

My mood soared. I had not set out to gain Lee as a sparring partner, but I certainly wouldn't say no. I did, however, feel a little bit like I was taking advantage, just because even though he was probably relatively weak among his peers right now, I knew he would be a powerful friend to have in future. Then again, I wouldn't just be doing this for that, a sparring partner who wouldn't try and beat me half to death each time would be a good thing for me. The only thing that worried me was I didn't know if I'd be a good enough partner for him. If I was too far off from his ability then he might not want to waste time with me. The extra year of training would cause a big gap when I had only started levelling up my stats the day before. Still, I'd do my best.

"I'd love to train with you Lee. I have to warn you though, I'm only just going into my first year at the academy and just started learning the taijutsu forms this morning. If you'll still have me though, I do still want to train together.".

Lee barely even hesitated before flashing a massive grin and giving me a thumbs up.

"Not to worry Taiki~san, I will help you get up to speed. Let me see what you already know and we can take it from there.".

I shouldn't have expected any different from him really, though he had a few flaws, there was not an unkind bone in Lee's body from what I had seen in the show. I eagerly ran through the kata that Hideaki had shown me that morning to show Lee. It was considerably harder this time with the weights attached, and I was sweating heavily by the time I finished. Lee looked on with his serious expression, waiting for me to catch my breath and stand up straight before he started to give feedback.

"That was a very good attempt for someone who only learnt this morning Taiki~san. I think you need to work on your stamina though, your arms were beginning to shake near the end.".

I grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of my neck.

"Ah, that's because of the new weights that I got this afternoon. They make everything harder so I tire out pretty fast."

I held up my wrist to show the weighted band to Lee, and he looked at it curiosly, poking at it with a finger for a moment.

"Ah I see, so this is to help in your training by making it more difficult. What a wonderful idea, I should go and buy some so that I may get stronger more quickly.".

I was glad to have tipped Lee off on a potential method to increase his strength, but I was somewhat worried. If I remembered correctly, before he met Gai, Lee had been overtraining himself horribly. If he added weights to that it could do some serious damage. I knew I had to do something, because this would be a catastrophic change to the timeline only a day into my new life, and I really didn't want to accidentally ruin Lee's career.

"Actually Lee, weights can be good, but you have to be careful with how you use them. In fact, I'm going to take mine off for now while we practice our taijutsu, I'm not strong enough to practice with them on for long yet, and I don't want to waste your time. If you want to get some, you should try the Higurashi ninja supply store. The owner, Higurashi~san, made sure I knew the dangers when he sold them to me, so you should ask him to tell you about it.".

Ideally, I wanted to help Lee more with his overtraining problem, but it would make no sense for me to know about it yet, so I would need to bide my time. Lee looked quite dissapointed at my words, but after a few seconds, he nodded in acceptance.

"Of course Taiki~san, I will take your advice. For now, why don't I show you some more moves to practice. The first kata only has front kicks, I can show you how to do a side kick and a roundhouse kick. The instructors told me that while we are young, the only way to make powerful strikes is to use kicks.".

I happily agreed, and Lee spent fifteen minutes showing me the basics of how to perform the two kicks. I noticed that he did not have the same grasp of the specifics that Hideaki did. Don't get me wrong, he was incredibly patient and enthusiastic in showing me what to do, but while Lee seemed to take the approach of getting the approximate form and then putting as much effort and power behind the blow as possible, Hideaki had seemed almost clinical in the way he approached the moves and how he had shown and explained them to me. Due to Lee's instructions, I got a system notification.

Due to listening to someone more knowledgeable that you, you have gained a level in

Basic Taijutsu (Leaf Style)

This was already proving to be a fruitful exercise, and without my weights, which lay discarded in a pile by the training dummy, it felt much easier. After I had a basic grasp of the kicks, we squared up to each other for a spar. I noticed immediately that Lee's stance was nowhere near as good as Hideaki's, and it his footwork was also quite clumsy. It wasn't as poor as my own, but there wasn't a big difference. That only gave me confidence for a moment though, because when he stepped in towards me I realised that he still had a definite advantage in his stats. Despite what he had said earlier about focussing on kicks, he must've wanted to take it easy on me at first as he tested my guard with a jab, followed by a straight with his right. I batted them both away using the basic blocks that I had learned, once again wincing at the pain when our wrists collided. I supposed I would get used to that eventually, not to mention my physical resistance skill would help with the pain more once it levelled a little. Lee didn't even flinch. He did, however, have the good grace to allow me to throw a few punches too. He blocked them with basic form as I had done, and after chaining three punches together, I stepped back. Lee must've decided that this was enough warmup, because as I left the optimal range for punching, I reached the right range for his legs to do some work, and his rear leg swung around into a roundhouse. With the blocking forms that I had learned so far, I didn't have a good option for stopping a kick from this angle. Although I did my best, it glanced off my forearm and slammed into my hip.

-4 HP

I used the force of the kick to gain a bit of distance, bouncing on the soles of my feet, and assessing the damage. The initial contact had stung, but it didn't take out too much of my hp, and there was no real lasting pain in my leg. Lee came at me again, leading with a front kick this time. I suspected he was holding back his power a little, as this kick didn't seem to carry anywhere near the power of what Hideaki's had. I stepped in towards the kick, pushing it aside to get within Lee's guard, and following up with a straight punch from my right hand. He seemd to try to dip his head out of the way, but wasn't quite stable after having his kick pushed to the side, and I clipped his cheek.

3 damage dealt

He fell back slightly, and as I followed up with a front kick, he pushed it to the side, countering with another roundhouse. I still had the problem of not knowing a suitable blocking method, so I tried lowering my stance a little and leaning into the kick. Unfortunately, his kick seemed to carry more power this time, perhaps after taking my punch he realised he could go a little harder on me. Because I had thrown my weight against it rather than deflecting the kick, all the power unbalanced me and I toppled over onto my side, thankfully not taking any damage. Lee dropped his stance.

"Please forgive me, Taiki~san, I did not teach you how to block the kicks that I showed you earlier. Let's stop and practice that before we continue with sparring.".

I was glad to learn new things from Lee, so we spent anothe half an hour reviewing the kicks and how to block them. I even gained another level in my taijutsu skill. With Lee pulling his punches and me struggling to land hits, we managed to spar for over an hour before deciding we'd given each other enough bruises for the day. I didn't gain any more levels in the taijutsu skill, but I did gain a point in constitution. Still, with Lee's enthusiasm for training, we didn't stop there. We started doing some body conditioning exercises; pushups, situps, even jumping jacks. While we did so, Lee told me about what he'd done in his first year. He even told me about his low chakra levels and thin chakra pathways, which was why he was focussed on training his body now, since he was not near the top of his class in taijutsu either. I was also intrigued to learn that he was not in one of the advanced classes, but was in one of the four normal classes instead. I had a suspiscion that the opportunities upon graduation might depend upon what class you were in, but that might all be fixed once Lee met Gai in the future. I decided to tell him of my own issues though, thinking that we would be able to bond in our misfortune. He was entirely supportive.

"I'm glad that you decided to trust me with that information Taiki~san. Let's work together to overcome our difficulties. I will become the strongest taijutsu use in the village, and you will overcome your fears and learn your clan techniques!".

Lee's mood was infectious, and a smiled back at him. He probably counted as the first true friend I had made since waking up in this world. Shino seemed fairly neutral to me, and everyone else my age I had met I either barely knew anything about or they were outright hostile. Or both. Still, I was gladdened by the system notification that I got.

By interacting with your peers, you have gained 1 charisma

Well that was the final stat that I hadn't previously gained a point in, so now I had some confirmation of how to progress on all fronts. I was never the most social of people, so part of me was tempted to not bother and to just pump my charisma score up with the free points that I received for levelling, but that seemed so inefficent. Seemed like I would have to go and make some friends at school after all. I pulled up my stats to see where I stood now.

Name: Aburame Taiki

Age: 6

Level: 2

Exp: 0/2000

HP: 60 (+12 p/h)

SP: 55 (+11 p/h)

CP: 130 (+26 p/h)

Str: 3

Dex: 3

Con: 5

Int: 11

Wis: 6

Cha: 5

Free Points: 5

Chakra Control: 20%

It wasn't bad progress. I hadn't yet worked out why my mental stats didn't seem to affect my secondary stats at all, but maybe they just weren't as important as the physical ones. I didn't really have much data to go on, so time would tell I supposed. Or raher, I hoped. I was lucky enough, during the course of the conversation, to also gain a level in the body conditioning skill. That was a skill that I really wanted to level sooner rather than later since it would increase the rate at which I could train up my stats. Unfortunately, it seemed like the only way to do that would be by making sure to do body conditioning exercises as often as I could. At this point, I was brought from my reverie by Lee speaking to me once more, standing up from where he had been doing pushups.

"I must go now to eat with my grandfather. Thankyou for training with me Taiki~san. Can we do so again on another day?".

I was only too happy to oblige, and nodded immediately.

"Great. I will come here to train again tomorrow and the day after if you are able to come?".

I actually wasn't to sure I would be able to.

"Sorry Lee, I'm starting calligraphy lessons with one of the elders of my clan tomorrow. I'm not sure when they will be or how long they will last for, but I will try to come and train if I can. If not, we can meet each other on monday at the academy."

Lee grinned and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Not to worry Taiki~san. I hope you will be able to join me this weekend, but if not, I will come and find you. What class are you going to be in?."

"My letter said I'll be in class B".

Lee's smile seemed to falter a little at that information, but he was kind enough to not let it get to him.

"Ah congratulations Taiki~san, it seems you must be very smart to have made it into that advanced class. Since you are in class B we will not have lunchbreaks at the same time, so if I do not see you before then, I will wait for you in the yard at the main entrance to the academy building at half past eight in the morning.".

I agreed, and Lee started making his way out of the training ground, while I stayed behind to put my weights back on. It must've been hard for Lee to realise that the person he'd just started to bond with over our shared troubles was a 'genius' who was going to be in an advanced class, but I was determined not to let it come between us. Not just because of the value his friendship would hold in the future, but because he was genuinely fun to be around. He was permanently positive, and with his kindness he felt entirely unthreatening, and somebody who I could let my guard down around. In a group situation, I might find his lack of social graces embarrassing, but one on one, I thought he was great.

With my weights back on, I decided to retrace my steps to get back home. Exploring the village was all well and good, but after such an exhausting impromptu training session, I didn't want to venture into the unknown wearing weights that were in all honesty probably slightly too heavy for me right now. Even going via the path that I already knew, it was a gruelling run back to my apartement. I almosted wanted to collapse straight into bed, despite the relatively early hour, but after a lovely warm shower that soothed my aching muscles, I felt refreshed and awake. I spent a little time preparing a simle dinner of chicken and rice, with some vegetables thrown in for good measure. By the time I'd finished eating, I was feeling almost back to full strength, courtesy of my iron constitution trait I suspected.

It would've been great if I had something more interesting to do, I didn't have a tv or any books, but at least a training method other than body conditioning that I could do inside. After tomorrow, I'd likely be able to start practicing my calligraphy at a time like this, but for now, I started pumping out more pushups and situps. I was shortly rewarded with a point added to my strength stat, but quickly worked up a sweat again. For the rest of the evening, til the sun had dropped below the horizon, I alternated between daydreaming plans for the future, and doing some sets of pushups and situps. I didn't gain any more skill or stat increases, but that may have been because my heart wasn't truly in it, preoccuppied with thoughts of the future. I took another quick shower to wash away the accumulated sweat, before collapsing into bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

A/n: So I realise that so far Taiki has spent only two days in this world across ten chapters, and I'm hoping that the pace doesn't feel too slow for everyone. I promise that it'll pick up soon, I just want to give all the character introduction and world building a fair shake, and set up some plotlines for the future. I put some more sparring in here, trying to make it different enough from the previous one that it wouldn't get boring. I won't be describing all the sparring and training that Taiki does, but thought it would be a nice bit of action to keep people going for early in the story. I would like to hear if you have an opinion about how I write the fight scenes. Do you like the level of detail, or do you think its too much. I realise that its not sustainable to write fights in such a way for the whole fic, but I'm trying to snazz the more mundane ones up a bit before people start flinging jutsu around like rabid ninjutsu specialists. Also thats 3 3k+ chapters in a row yipee, not even including the author notes in the count either.

ZeroSpearow: Thanks for your reviews. I agree with you to a certain extent regarding stats. For now, Taiki is still trying to get a hold on how the system actually works and what exactly the stats mean. He's also not in any danger yet so he doesn't need to use his points. While I do have an idea for the main plotline for the entire story already, I'm not decided upon what all the stats and skills will end up looking like, so there's a certain amount of working things out for me to do also, but as I have already alluded to, Taiki is already begginning to consider using his free stats in unusual ways, such as giving up on training charisma and only raising it with points.

Thanks for reading,

Rubi 3