Exploiting Bugs

Chapter 11 – In loving memory

YOU HAVE SLEPT IN A BED – HP, SP, AND CP HAVE BEEN FULLY RESTORED

Despite how exhausted I had been the previous evening, I woke feeling entirely refreshed, likely a result of my system; or perhaps it was once more down to my iron constitution trait. Though the exact source of the effect wasn't really all that important to me. I rubbed my eyes slightly, before climbing out of bed to begin making breakfast. I went with the tried and tested omelette as I had the previous day, though I was a little more conservative with the number of eggs, and add some onion from extra flavour.

Thanks to the handy ray of natural light that streamed through the gap in my blinds, I had woken bright and early again, and so had plenty of time to still be able to meet Hideaki for our spar. I'd need to check in with Shibi first, however, and ask about the calligraphy lessons that I would be getting. Deciding to make the most of my time, I put my weights on, and started off for the Aburame compound at a light jog.

I was prepared ahead of time for my mortal enemy this time around, and continued at a jog past the trees at the start of the Aburame compound. It still raised the hairs on the back of my flesh to go through that area, but I was determined to do it without issue this time. My efforts were rewarded, as I swiftly passed through the area, and even received a system notification.

Due to your efforts, your [Fear Resistance} skill has increased by 1 level

It was curious that the text was slightly different this time. Perhaps I had gained a level because of my determination paying off, rather than just repeatedly exposing myself to the object of my phobia. It did imply that there were multiple ways to gain increases in at least skills, and perhaps stats. Firstly, via brute force repetition; and secondly, by dedicated and directed action. It was unclear as to which would be more efficient, or indeed, if thee was actually a difference. I was getting the impression though, that doing my utmost even down to the smallest details would help me gain strength in the long run, as the system didn't seem to magically do anything for me. Take my taijutsu skill, for example; the effect of the skill only made my strikes and blocks more powerful and accurate, it did not magically give me knowledge of how to perform any of the moves. I'd had to learn that the old fashioned way. It would be something to try out at least, and even if there were no increased gains, it would be pretty boring if I went around not truly trying at anything I did.

When I reached the kitchen once more, I realised that I was interrupting breakfast. Shibi sat eating lazily with one hand, and what looked to be some kind of report held in the other. Shino and Torune were sat next to each other, and seemed to be conversing quietly in between bites. Chika, however, noticed my arrival immediately and ushered me further into the room, pushing me to sit down at the table.

"Good morning Taiki, come and sit down. Have you eaten yet?".

She patted my cheek fondly as she finished asking her questions, and I smiled at her.

"I've already eaten Oba~san. I just came by to ask when I would be starting my lessons with Osamu~ojii~san before I got started with my training for the day.".

Chika looked like she was about to melt into the ground when I called her Oba~san, but Shibi looked up from his paper to answer my question.

"Osamu~san has agreed to teach you for an hour this afternoon, immediately after lunch. We've agreed that he will teach you for longer once you are able to go and learn from him in one of the greenhouses. For now though, that likely won't be feasible with your aversion to our insects, and he can't be gone from his task for too long.".

I nodded in thanks, and made to leave, but Shibi continued speaking, pulling me up short.

"How did the rest of your training go yesterday? Have you been to get your weights yet?".

I turned back, pulling back a sleeve as I did so to show off one of my weighted bands.

"Yes Oji~san, Higurashi~san was very helpful, and made sure I knew to be careful. They're a bit heavy for me to wear for long during taijutsu training for now, but I have been running with them on, so hopefully I will be strong enough soon. I also found a friend who's going into his second year at the academy and he showed me some more taijutsu forms, and practiced with me too.".

Shibi nodded, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"I'm glad to hear it. Well I won't keep you any longer since you seem raring to go. I might see if I can persuade these two to join you later also.".

He motioned towards Shino and Torune with his hand, but they seemed to be lost in their conversation, whispering conspiratorially to each other. I gave a small hug to Chika on my way out, which, from the way she almost crushed my ribcage in return, I was sure she appreciated. I then made my way to the indoor training room once more, and was pleased to find it empty this time. It was likely that Hideaki would come to give me the promised beating at some point this morning, although from his words I wasn't entirely clear if that would be starting this weekend, or only after he had returned to the academy. For now though, I decided to practice my shurikenjutsu. I'd done plenty of taijutsu practice and body conditioning the previous day, so I wanted to make use of the time that I had the training room to myself.

I realised after only a few throws that I would need to not wear my weights while training my throwing skills; at least for now. The added weight at the end of my arms made my throws so unstable that it was hopeless to actually reliably hit the target. That issue would likely lessen as I gained strength, and from the description of my shurikenjutsu skill, It would eventually entirely mitigate any extra deviance that the added weight would cause, assuming the skill worked in the way that I thought it did.

After divesting myself of my bands, my accuracy immediately recovered to an acceptable level. Or at least, to what it had been previously. Thinking to test my theory about how skill gain worked, I put some thought into how best to hold the shuriken and kunai that I was throwing. I realised pretty quickly that I had been pretty inconsistent with my hand positioning previously, so I tried to find a comfortable and safe way of holding them before I started throwing, which was a little tricky to do with the shuriken, and I was concerned I might end up cutting myself. Still, after a little experimenting, I had found a hold that felt comfortable, and began to throw. The first few went badly wide, but I quickly adapted so that I was getting them closer to the target. Once the first kunai stuck in the target, I got a system notification that seemed to validate my hypothesis.

Due to your repeated directed effort, your shurikenjutsu skill has increased by 1

Both the words and how quickly I gained the level led me to believe I'd gotten the level up faster by taking the extra time to think about my throws than I would have otherwise. With that in mind, I continued with my training. Of course, I wasn't sure that the way of holding the weapons that I'd come up with was anything close to the correct method, but I would ask for some guidance on that from somebody as soon as the opportunity came up. My new outlook on training paid dividends. In the hour or so of training that I did, I gained a further level in the shurikenjutsu skill, as well as a point in dexterity, as well as increasing my average hit rate to three out of twenty. I was still hard at work when Hideaki showed up.

"Huh, looks like you showed up after all crybaby~chan. You ready for another spar?".

I was determined not to show any fear, so tried to look as unflappable as possible as I turned to him, staring directly in his eyes.

"Of course I'm here. There's no quicker way for me to improve than having a strong sparring partner.".

We were locked in some kind of staring contest for a moment, and I saw a confused expression flash across his face for a moment. Perhaps I was proving a little more mentally tough than he had expected. Still, after a few seconds he just dropped into his stance, and waited as I put down my shuriken and kunai before adopting mine.

There was no courteous waiting on his part this time around, as he advanced upon me immediately, a powerful front kick snapping out towards my torso. It was just as scarily powerful as it had been the previous day, but I was determined to deal with it properly this time rather than scrambling out of the way. I stepped out to the side and steered his foot down and away, only barely succeeding as I felt the tug of his sandals brushing agains the fabric of my trousers. He followed up with a punch, hooking in from the other side, and I bounced off the ball of my leading foot, switching directions and managing to throw up a block just in time, catching his wrist with the upper part of my forearm. It wasn't the place I'd actually aimed to block him with, but luckily, due to the point of contact being so close to my elbow, I was able to resist his considerably greater power, blocking the punch without taking even a glancing blow. My left arm tangled with his right, I threw a short uppercut towards his chin with my free hand, but he lashed out his palm and pushed me away. I stumbled backwards and he regained his stance, before coming at me again. This time he led with a roundhouse kick, like the one that I'd learned from Lee. I used the correct blocking form, but with the difference in our strength, this more powerful type of kick crushed through my defense and crashed into my side, albeit with its power slightly deadened.

-4 HP

Now a confident smile crept onto Hideaki's face. What followed was a comparitavely slow and methodical takedown compared to how I had lost the previous day. I managed to throw at least a token attempt at a block at each of his strikes, but most of the time he crushed past whatever hasty defense I had thrown up, chipping away at my hp a little bit at a time. He worked the body this time, and I suspected that I had only lasted this long because he was dragging the fight out by not aiming for the head. What finally put me down was actually just a leg kick. With the accumulated damage, eventually I went past the tipping point, and found myself unable to stand up again with the pain shooting through my thigh. Hideaki stood over me, that familiar cruel grin on his face, and for a moment I thought he was about to finish the job, but he just sneered in the end.

"See you tomorrow crybaby~chan. You're a fun sparring partner.".

He turned and left then, leaving me panting on the ground, without the breath to speak a reply even if there had been one that I wanted to give; though glad for the additional level in my taijutsu skill that the fight had given me. My body hurt all over, except for my head, which had gotten off almost scot free. I gradually managed to get to my feet, trying not to put too much weight on my left leg, which felt like it might be broken. Deciding that my weights would be fine where they were, in a pile at the base of one of the targets, I headed out in search of Chika in the hope that she could heal me up again.

It was slow going at first, and every step made me feel like I was about to collapse. I was just lucky to bump into Chika while she was just returning to her house. She took one look at me, before promptly scooping me up in her arms and carrying me inside.

"Was this Hideaki again? You can't keep letting yourself get hurt like this.". She didn't take the way into the kitchen this time, instead taking me upstairs into what I assumed to be her bedroom, and placing me down on the edge of the bed.

"Come on, get those clothes off, I need to see what the damage is. Boys!"

The last part she seemed to whisper and shout all at the same time in her exasperation. I complied quickly, not wanting to get her mad at me, and though I removed my jacket and t-shirt easily enough, exposing a number of large, ripening bruises, I struggled when it came to my cargo pants, wincing in pain at the attempt. She tutted and put an arm under one of mine, lifting me up before gingerly pulling away the fabric. The outer side of my left leg seemed to all be one giant bruise. Her hand glowed green as she waved it over the bruise for a moment, but she seemed to relax a little moments later.

"Its okay, not broken so I can fix it up myself, but you have to be careful. I don't want to keep seeing you get hurt like this, and if its too bad you'll have to go to hospital. Training too hard can have the opposite effect you know.".

Her tone grew gradually more stern the longer she spoke, and I nodded my head, bobbing like a little chick as she fixed me under her fierce eye. I saw the bruising begin to reduce as she started healing my leg, although it was still a little sore when she moved on to other areas. Once she was done, I scrambled to get dressed, feeling a little awkward sat there in my underwear. Once I was clothed again, Chika knelt down in front of front of me, grabbing my hands in hers.

"I want you to know Taiki, that I'm proud that you're taking your training so seriously. Your parents would've been proud too, but I do wish you'd be a bit more careful and not put yourself in danger. It only takes a small slip while training for something to go really badly wrong.".

Her eyes welled with tears, and I felt my own doing the same in response. She pulled me into a hug, planting a kiss on my forehead.

"We've got a little time before I need to start preparing lunch, so why don't you let me take you to see your parents. We thought it might be too much for you before, but if you can take your training this seriously, you'll be able to handle going to pay your respects."

I nodded against her shoulder. In all honesty, seeing my parents didn't matter too much to me. It was more like an interesting mystery than anything else. What made me really want to agree was how much it seemed to matter to Chika. I knew she must have some training as a ninja in order to use the medical jutsu that she had, but even if she was technically a trained killer, she had be nothing but caring and loving to me in the short time that I'd been in this world.

We started to make our way downstairs. I was fine walking on the flat, but as I took a stair too heavily with my left leg, I winced in pain. It didn't escape Chika's eagle eyes, and she reached down to scoop me up again with one arm, holding me against her hip. I made to protest but she cut me off.

"Oh no you don't mr, you've gone and gotten yourself injured so now you're going to have to live with being carried for a bit. If you don't like it, then you'll just have to be more careful in future.".

Honestly that might've been the most effective method she could've used to urge me to caution, as the thought of being seen while she carried me around like a baby was mortifying. If Kiba caught sight of it I would never hear the end of it. I even caught her trying to hide a smirk, but I was too sore all over to argue with her. I was a little surprised that, espescially considering her slight build, she seemed to have no trouble holding me with only a single arm. Probably a benefit of training as a ninja early in life. We made our way out of the Aburame compound, and towards where I knew the training grounds to be. I suspected she was taking me to the war memorial rather than to my parent's graves; if they even had them; a thought which was confirmed ten minutes later once I saw the sign for training ground three.

I had very mixed feelings as we approached the stone, and the walk across the training field seemed to take forever with my heart roiling in turmoil. On one hand, this was an iconic location, and I was excited to see it; however, this was meant to be a poignant and solemn affair for me, with it being my first visit to the memorial. When we finally reached the memorial stone, Chika gently let me down, before walking closer and beckoning me over.

"Look here, their names are right next to each other.".

I looked, seeing Aburame Hibiki and Aburame Junpei appearing one after the other in the list of names. I swallowed thickly.

"Can you tell me about what happened?".

Chika smiled sadly and nodded, sitting down with her legs crossed, and reaching for my arm, pulling me down to sit in her lap where she hugged me, resting her chin on the top of my head.

"Less than a month before you were born there was a disaster in the village. A monster, one of the tailed beasts called the Kyuubi started a rampage, and thousands of people were killed. Your father was fine, but with her being weakened from pregnancy, your mother was one of many who were poisoned by the Kyuubi's demonic chakra. It was tough, but she pulled through the birth, and you came out all cute, if a little on the small side. The doctors scanned you and found that some of the demonic chakra had tainted you as well. There was actually a way to cure the poisoning, but because so many people had already been affected, the herbs to do so had become scarce and expensive, meaning that everyone who needed it would have to pay for their own treatment. Your mother's condition was too severe to be cured anyway, but they were determined to cure you. With all the devastation that happened, there was no money available from the clan to help, and even though Shibi and your father were great friends, he could not be seen to show favouritism when many others of the clan had also been affected. Your father started taking dangerous missions one after another to pay for your treatment, but before he could collect the full sum, he was severely poisoned whilst on a mission in Kusa no kuni. Thankfully, although it forced his retirement, his pension and retirement payout were enough to cover your treatment, but the poison took hold too deeply, and his suffering became chronic. Both of your parents slowly deterioted as time went by, but not for a single moment did they stop loving you. After your mother passed, it was like Junpei had lost the will to go on, so he called Shibi and I to your house, and made us swear to look after you no matter what. I fell asleep holding his hand that night, and when I woke in the morning, he was already gone. He had the most peaceful smile on his face though, and there is no doubt in my mind that he was thinking of you, and of Hibiki, even in his last moments.".

I heard her voice begin to break as she completed her final couple of sentences, and I wiped at my eyes, trying to hold back the tears that had already begun to roll down my face. I felt a little stupid really. They weren't people I actually knew. My consciousness had only awoken in this body two days ago, I barely even knew Chika. Not to mention I had never considered myself to be a particularly emotional person. Still, I couldn't deny the connection I felt with her, and with my late parents. I squirmend around in Chika's lap until I was facing her, and hugged her around the neck. She hugged me back, tightly, and we just sat there for a few minutes, crying on each other's shoulders.

After a while, our tears dried up, and we just sat in silence for a bit, until Chika suddenly began to stand, lifting me out of her lap.

"I have to go and prepare lunch, so lets go back now okay?".

She held out her hand to me, but I shook my head.

"Actually Oba~san, can I stay here for a while? I want to think for a little bit.".

She thought for a moment before agreeing.

"That's fine, but don't stay for too long, I want you to make sure you're back in time to eat with us, so no longer than half an hour.".

I watched as Chika walked away, a melancholy feeling overtaking me. That had been far more than I had expected on the way here. I sat before the memorial stone, cross legged, and closed my eyes, thinking over everything that had just happened.

A/n: So that was a difficult chapter to write for a number of reasons. The content near the end was a little difficult to put into words, but from a more pragmatic point of view it didn't want to fit into a nice normal length for a chapter. Ended up being not far off 4k by the time I reached the earliest point I thought it would be fine to end the chapter, but the start of the next chapter could well have slotted into this one.

This fic is really starting to gain momentum with back to back 1k view days now, and thanks to everyone who has been leaving reviews. I often find it quite hard to motivate myself to write, so all your reviews, follows, favourites, and even just the views and visitors help me keep my enthusiasm up. Cheers. Rubi 3