Exploiting Bugs

Chapter 13 – Strong and Stable

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

I blinked away my sleepiness as I was once more awoken by the small ray of light slipping through my window. It was waking up like this that made me truly glad about my system and my iron constitution trait, feeling completely comfortable in bed even after having trained myself into the ground the previous day. In an effort to vent my frustration at how Osamu had mocked me, I had managed to find Lee, and proceded to alternate between sparring, body conditioning, and running through katas until we were both panting with exhaustion; only to take thirty minutes rest and start all over again. I had forgotten that, determined though he was, Lee was not so outstanding a physical specimen before he met Gai. He did his best to keep up with me, but despite him dominating me in our initial spars, after a few hours of training, the spars had become basically even. Only Lee's superior skill and familiarity with the leaf taijutsu style kept my superior stamina at bay. Even when Lee had begged off, saying that his Grandfather was expecting him for dinner, I had returned to my apartment only to continue with round after round of body conditioning exercises. All in all, my efforts had gained me two levels in my taijutsu skill, two strength, and one constitution.

I was still a little concerned though. Even with my increases, I felt I would still keep getting completely dominated by Hideaki, and he would be expecting me for another spar this morning. Although I had initially decided to try and save up my free points, I didn't want to risk an accident that would leave me seriously injured and unable to train. Of course, I suspected that my system might heal a broken leg or the like if I slept in a bed overnight, but that would raise unwanted questions. Tentatively, I descided to assign a single point to my strength score, and was quite surprised by the result. My strength in my status screen now read:

Str: 5+1

That could mean a number of things, but my mind instantly jumped to a favourably possibility, that my free points would not affect the rate at which I could train my stats. Of course, I couldn't yet be sure that higher stats would slow their growth, but it would be better to experiment early and find out sooner rather than later. Of course, if I wanted to be able to notice a difference, I would likely need more than a single point's difference, so I dumped the remaining four free points into strength too, ending up quite pleased with the feeling of power in my body that came along with it. My status screen now read:

Name: Aburame Taiki

Age: 6

Level: 2

Exp: 0/2000

HP: 85 (+17 p/h)

SP: 95 (+19 p/h)

CP: 220 (+44 p/h)

Str: 5+5

Dex: 4

Con: 6

Int: 11

Wis: 6

Cha: 5

Free Points: 5

Chakra Control: 20%

Hopefully the added strength would let me block Hideaki properly, and turn our spars from me being utterly overpowered into a competition of skill. It seemed to me that each of my physical stats had a function beyond increasing my secondary stats, one that was much less quantifiable. Strength made me stronger, very obviously, while dexterity made me more agile. I suspected it might be increasing my reaction speed as well, but couldn't be sure if that was just my brain becoming more familiar with the taijutsu I was coming up against. Constitution, meanwhile, seemed to give my body more stamina; not stamina points however, which seemed to be more heavily affected by strength than constitution, but more literally my ability to carry on with exertion for long periods of time. My SP bar was not affected at all if I wasn't using a skill, so my actualy endurance was affected in other ways.

After making myself a quick breakfast, omelette again since my cupboards lacked variety and I lacked much skill in cooking, I set out for the Aburame compound once more. I didn't head to see Chika first this time, knowing that she would be expectng me for lunch, and instead made straight for the training room. Thankfully, my weights still sat in a pile by the targets where I had left them the previous day. I still left them off for now though, beginning to practice my shurikenjutsu. Compared to the previoud day, I definitely felt much more comfortable in how I held both the shuriken and kunai, and my average hit rate had also improved, now hitting four times out of twenty more often than not. It was somewhat odd, because I had not increased in my skill level since yesterday, but thinking about it, perhaps my skill at throwing shuriken, and my shurikenjutsu skill were fully disconnected. That is to say, my own muscle memory had gotten used to the weight of the projectiles, so I was now throwing more accurately to begin with, even before my shurikenjutsu skill reduced the deviance in my throws. I also noted that I was throwing more powerfully, likely due to my strength, that had more than tripled in score since my last training session. By the time my nemesis had arrived, I had managed to gain a level in shurikenjutsu, and also another point in dexterity.

When Hideaki walked through the door, I had just thrown my last shuriken, and had only a kunai left in my hand. I met his eye for a moment, before turning back towards the targets, spinning the kunai round my finger as I did so. I caught it in a firm grip, and hurled it at the target, where it landed with a satisfying thunk, only slightly off centre. I was worried for a moment that I might have provoked him more than necessary, but I was predisposed to grandstanding, and showing off a little had felt good after having my ass handed to me repeatedly by him. It didn't seem to affect him at all though.

"Think you're tough stuff do you now baby bug? Come on, lets see how hard your fists are.".

He dropped into his stance with that familiar wicked grin, and I barely had time to adopt mine before he had approached me. He must've wanted to get up close and personal this time, as he came onwards with a combination of punches. They were all simple punches that I'd seen before, so I threw the textbook blocks at each of them, and was met with success. I did still struggle a little, my arms shaking heavily each time I didn't redirect enough of the force with the angle of my arms, but my additional points in strength had given me much more leeway, and I didn't need perfect form to stop his blows.

After a swift onslaught of five punches, he danced backwards on the balls of his feet, his surprise at the success of my defence evident on his face. This time he came at me again, stepping into range and delivering a powerful roundhouse kick towards my mid torso. It was at a tricky angle to deflect, and though I could have dodged, I wanted to test the limits of my strength, so I stepped into it, limiting the distance his leg had to gain spped, and crossed my arms to catch his foot. His kick slammed home, and though it stung my arms, I successfully bounced back into my stance, before waving for him to come at me with my fingers.

He stayed at a distance for a moment, looking me up and down.

"Looks like someone ate their breakfast this morning huh, baby bug. Well don't blame me for not taking it easy on you anymore.".

He came at me again, and I was planning to counterattack as strongly as possible this time, but the reach was not in my favour. He threw a front kick, his toes snapping out, and I pushed it aside, but as I advanced, his fist was following up on his agression, and I had to abort, throwing up a hasty block. We broke apart momentarily, and this time I tried going on the offensive. My attack was thwarted before it began, as Hideaki seemed to be way more observant of our distance than I was capable of being. Before I was in proper striking distance, his foot was already coming straight at me, and I had to defend. I tried over and over, but his extra height and reach allowed him to control the whole fight, and with him being way more experienced than I, I wasn't able to find a gap in his guard. I felt like I was being mocked by the system notification that I received.

Due to your repeated training, you have gained a level in Basic Taijutsu (Leaf Style)

Apparently having had enough of toying with me for now, Hideaki advanced on me again, darting into range and throwing a jab. As I threw my arm up to block, I realised in horror that he'd held his hand back, and I left myself open to his right, which came screaming towards my chin. I tried to duck my head out of the way, but his knuckles clipped my chin, and I felt my legs turn to jelly. Everything felt a bit woozy for a moment as I lay on the floor, before Hideaki swam into focus standing above me right behind the notification I'd just gotten.

Due to your repeated exertions, you have gained a level in Physical Resistance

"Nice try baby bug, but now the kiddy gloves are off. You better not flake on me next weekend. I'll be waiting.".

I managed to sit up just in time to see the back of Hideaki's heel as he turned the corner. I hadn't realised before just how easy Hideaki had been taking it on me. Sure he may have been going full power, at least I thought he had, but it was only at the very end that he'd even thrown a feint, which I had promtly fallen for. I refused to believe that he was doing this for my own good, since it seemed to me like he just enjoyed beating me up; but he seemed to have some kind of perverse sense of fairness, refusing to allow the spars to devolve into an entirely one sided beat down. In the end, his exact motivations didn't make much difference to me right now, he was just a very challenging sparring partner.

I tentatively moved my jaw around. It didn't hurt, so it seemed like I hadn't received any permanent damage, though I decided to ask Chika to check me over later when I went for lunch. I still had some time before lunch would be served, so I made the most of my time, returning to my shurikenjutsu training, managing to gain another point in dexterity by the time I decided to stop.

As I entered the kitchen a little later on, I noted that Shino and Torune were absent once again. Shibi was reading from a scroll, while Chika was bustling about at the stove. It was a setting that I was becoming used to, and one that made me feel quite comfortable.

"Hey Oba~san, Oji~san, everything okay?".

Shibi just looked up momentarily, before returning my greeting with a small nod. Chika, however, came over to pull me into a hug.

"I almost thought you weren't coming Taiki. You look like you've been working hard, let me have a good look at you. You're not injured today right?".

I shook my head.

"I'm okay Oba~san. I only took one good punch today, and it just clipped my chin. Can you...".

I didn't get any further before Chika's glowing green hand was in front of my face.

"Looks like you're fine, but I do wish you would stop training with Hideaki if you're going to keep getting hurt. I'm just glad you haven't turned up as badly hurt as the previous two days.".

As she pulled me in for a hug, I wondered if I was now beginning to feel the downsides of a motherly figure in my life, i.e. being smothered. Still, I felt that the benefits outweighed the disadvantages quite heavily. As I took my place at the table, I sought to reassure her a little.

"Don't worry Oba~san, I've improved a lot after just a couple of days. I'll beat Hideaki eventually, and in the meantime, its good to have a sparring partner who can point out my flaws.".

Chika harrumphed at that.

"I could point out your flaws if thats all you need." She carried over some dishes to the table, stopping to pat my head before she returned to the counter. "I do understand you know. You boys like your competitions. Its just my job to worry about you.".

I was tempted to tell her that I'd be happy to take her instruction over Hideaki's, but unfortunately, learning from Chika wouldn't gain me 5000 Exp. Not to mention, she was actually right, Hideaki had sparked some childish competititveness inside of me, and the desire to beat him drove me to train hard. Actually, during those long and repetitive training sessions, once my mind began to wander, I often found myself imagining what sarcastic line I would deliver to him once I'd knocked him on his ass.

A/n: So we hit another milestone of 40k words with this chapter, which is another step closer to the story not being filtered out of searches based on length. We also had four days in a row of more than 1k views. Almost thwarted by the disruption in service though I think. As a result of that disruption, I've decided to start crossposting to AO3 just for increased redundancy, so if ffn ever truly does finally die, you'll be able to find my work there.

I want to quickly address a couple of reviews. Firstly, regarding pace and such, I've very much tried to follow the advice of the creators of south park, in that all aspects of your story board should be connected with 'therefore' rather than 'and then'. There is a certain density of events immediately due to him having just 'woken up' in the world, and meeting people for the first time etc. So far, everything that has happened has been directly or indirectly caused by the events that occured. I recognise that this isn't fully reproducible in the context of an intere story, but I am trying to emulate the approach as much as possible.

As a more general response to reviews past and present, aside from clarifications on things already revealed, I won't be providing additional information as a direct response to reviews for a number of reasons. Perhaps the information is undecided, i.e. I have a number of possibilities I haven't decided between, or still haven't found a good solution. I may also be trying to leave things flexible to facilitate the plot later as needed. Some things are already decided, but I plan to reveal in the story as a later date. Knowledge of how the system actually works, for example, is something that Taiki is experimenting with in an ongoing manner. As the story will be told almost exclusively from Taiki's perspective, the audience will get to find out information as he finds it out.

I also want to highlight that the story is being narrated by Taiki. There are hints in phrasiology, but everything is presented in a somewhat biased manner towards him. His narration might not always be reliable. His estimation of people's motives may not always be accurate. This allows for twists in the plot, and much more complexity to the story. This fic can be read at face value, and its perfectly reasonable to derive entertainment by waiting for Taiki to find out or reveal that things were not quite as they seemed. Equally, I am more than happy when people try to speculate about the plot (even if i neither confirm, nor deny those speculations). If I have held your attention as you think about the story, and what might happen to its characters outside of when you are actually reading it, that is quite possibly the greatest form of success I could have with this fanfiction.

TLDR: Thanks for your reviews, follows, and favourites. Apologies for the slightly short chapter (2.2k, so 300 short of my usual min target), had an awkward amount to fit in before a very natural break, so I'm doing two short chapters rather than burning myself out tring to write like 4k+ words for a single upload. 3 Rubi.