Exploiting Bugs
Chapter 7 – Class B
YOU HAVE SLEPT IN A BED – HP, SP, AND CP HAVE BEEN FULLY RESTORED
I suffered from almost complete disorientation for a few moments. As someone who would regualrly wake up confused as to which way around I was lying in my bed, waking up in another world completely knocked me for six. There was a little light streaming past the blinds on my window that was falling on my face, and it was only when I noticed the size of the tiny hand that I raised to block it out that memories of the previous day brought me out of my lazy stupor.
I sat up in bed, but surprisingly felt quite comfortable, not at all in the kind of half-dead just awoken state that I was used to in my previous life. Either it was a benefit of being six years old again, or that iron constitution trait that I had chosen was some really good stuff. I climbed out of bed and made my way over to the window, peering through the blinds. It still seemed to be quite early, with the first rays of light peeking over the horizon having woken me up. That might prove to be a useful natural alarm clock if I wanted to make the best use of my time each day. The whole system with visible progression thing had me chomping at the bit to start improving myself.
I heard a rustling a small clang behind me, and turning, saw that a letter had been pushed through my letterbox. Expecting it to be the results of my exam, I rushed over and tore it open, and was not dissappointed.
Dear Aburame Taiki,
You have passed the entrance examination for the Konoha Ninja Academy.
Please present yourself at the assembly hall of the academy at 9am on Monday
for your inaugauration, upon which you will join class 1-B.
Congratualtions,
Funeno Daikoku – Senior Instructor.
As I finished reading the letter, I received a couple of notifications in quick succession.
Quest 'Pass the Academy Entrance Examination' completed
Completed Objectives:
Get a high enough score in the Academy Entrance Exam to enter one of the academy classes.
Complete all sections of the Physical Exam (Bonus)
Answer All questions on the Written Exam (Bonus)
Get a high enough score to enter an advanced class (Bonus)
Rewards:
+100 Exp
+200 Exp (Bonus)
+200 Exp (Bonus)
+500 Exp (Bonus)
Congratulations, you have levelled up.
Excited at the prospect of havng levelled up, I checked my stats.
Name: Aburame Taiki
Age: 6
Level: 2
Exp: 0/2000
HP: 48 (+10 p/h)
SP: 45 (+9 p/h)
CP: 100 (+20 p/h)
Str: 2
Dex: 3
Con: 3
Int: 11
Wis: 6
Cha: 4
Free Points: 5
Chakra Control: 20%
My primary stats hadn't changed at all, but I had gained five free points, and my HP, SP, and CP had all increased by ten. I presumed that I would be able to assign my free points to my primary statistics as I pleased, but as I already had begun to suspect that it was easier to train up stats that were lower, I held of for now. There was no real immediate danger so I may as well try and make the most of my training time while I could. With that thought on my mind, I began to get ready to go out, wanting to see Shibi as soon as possible and start training.
There was a small clock on my bedside table, showing that it was only 7:30, so after getting dressed, I checked the fridge in my kitchenette and made an omlette with the eggs I found there. In the interests of being able to fuel as much training as possible today, I used six eggs, only to find that I had somewhat overstimated the appetite of a small child. So it was that I was making my way back towards the Aburame compound feeling overly bloated, and having thrown out the last few bites of the omelette I'd made.
The streets were just beginning to pick up in traffic at this time, now almost 8:00, as people were making their way to their jobs. I saw a few Chuunin walking around, and a few members of the Uchiha police force too, but the vast majority of foor traffic was civilian. I was quite interested to find out the actual ratio of civillians to ninja in Konoha. It seemed like there were likely way more ninja than were ever shown in the anime, but equally the village itself seemed more like a large town or small city than a village, albeit one without modern technology like cars or phones. That was another connundrum. I had never quite been clear on the exact level of technology that was enjoyed within the elemental nations. It seemed to have been confirmed that they had things like earpieces and radios, but they never actually seemed to show up in serious situations in which they might've been very useful, and I hadn't seen anything of the sort the previous day.
All too soon I arrived at the little copse of trees at the entrance to the Aburame lands that I had already begun to dread. Without the steadying presence of Shibi beside me, or rather, without feeling like I was being forced to walk through the trees, I felt a lot more apprehensive about going through with it. Still, if I was going to become a ninja I'd surely be going through much more serious and scary situations than walking past a few insects.
Deciding to get it over with as quickly as possible, I hurried down the path as fast as possible without actually running. As I got a few feet past the first trees, I heard that familiar buzzing sound. I froze. Only for a moment, or at least I think it was only for a moment. The previous time through, I'd had the presence of Shibi, which both felt reassuring, and pressured me into not making a fool out of myself. Now, it took a little more effort to galvanise myself into action once I felt trapped. I did though, and was rewarded with another notification for my troubles.
Due to your continued exposure to your fears, your [Fear Resistance} skill has increased by 1
Honestly speaking, I wasn't quite clear what came first, managing to unstick myself, or receiving the notification. It did raise an interesting question about how I raised my skill levels. Did I gain the skill level because I had overcome an obstacle, or did gaining the skill level allow me to overcome the obstacle. I'd give some cursory attempts to trying to find some kind of tutorial within the system that would tell me how everything worked, but so far was still just working off of my best guesses for how everything worked. Even for my secondary statistics, so far I had only used SP, not CP, and thankfully had not lost any HP. With the apparent uselessness of my observe skill, I had no way of comparing any of my statistics with others, so I might end up getting killed in a taijutsu spar if my hp were insanely low or something like that.
Still, being distracted by all of these thoughts allowed me to walk past all the trees without further worry, my curiosity working in my favour in this instance. I made my way towards the main compound, once again careful not to let my eyes wander lest I see something I really didn't want to. It was as I neared the compound that I realised that I only actually knew the way to the indoor training room, and as I was hesitating from indecision as to where to go next, I was saved from my dilemma.
"Taiki? Oh you've gotten so big, come here."
I turned to see a rather pretty, slim woman of shorter than average height coming at me at full speed. Before I could formulate a reply I'd been engulfed, and lifted off of the ground. Even though she was relatively short, as a six year old, she still had me beaten on height by over a foot.
"Shibi told me you would be coming over today, but I wasn't expecting you so soon. Have you already gotten your results? Come on through and have some breakfast.".
She was very much a force to be reckoned with, and I found myself struggling to get out a reply. She took me by the hand and led me towards one of the buildings, smiling down at me as we went. I was honestly floored at the level of closeness and familiarity that she showed, it was something that I had not experienced in many years, and was not particularly comfortable with. She led me into one of the buildings, through a hallway, and into a kitchen, where both Shibi and Shino were sitting waiting at the dining table.
"Look who I found! I have your results too.".
She grinned, pulling a familiar looking letter from her pocket and passing it over to Shino. He took it, and despite his impassive expression, began to open it as soon as he did. Shibi cast his gaze from Shino over to me, and cutting off the as yet unasked question, I handed over my own letter to him. Shino, as soon as he'd read his own letter, handed it over to his father. Shibi appraised the both of them with a satisfied smile.
"It looks like congratulations are in order, you've both managed to enter one of the advanced classes. You must have done very well on the written exam Taiki, well done.".
The woman, who I assumed to be the Chika whom Shibi had mentioned the previous evening, gave Shino a swift hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then did the same to me.
"Oh Hibiki would be so proud of you Taiki.".
Her joy seemed so genuine that it was infectious, and I found myself grinning back at her. Shibi waited politely for her to finish fussing over the two of us before he continued.
"Well since you've both gotten into an advanced class, then you both deseerve a little reward. I already know what Shino would like as he hasn't stopped asking me for it for over a week." At this moment, I saw Shino blush for the first time. "But what would you like?".
I thought for a moment, biting the nail of my thumb as I struggled to decide. I wasn't really sure of the value of things, and he had said little reward. Maybe as a kid I would be expected to ask for sweets or a trip to the park or something? Still, there was something that seemed like an obvious request to me, since my physical stats seemed to be quite far behind even someone like Shino, who was far from the most physically able of the rookie nine according to my knowledge.
"Um, would it be okay to get some training weights Oji~san? I want to get stronger and faster so I don't get left behind at the academy.".
When I said the words 'Oji~san' Chika almost seemed to vibrate with excitement beside me, but Shibi appraised me seriously.
"Well, I can see why you would want to, its important to build a good foundation. Being in class B, it'll be because your physical results weren't all that impressive, but really you should be focussing on your studies given its what you seem to be quite talented in. How about this, your allowance will increase now that you're joining the academy, so you can get some small weight bands for yourself. No more than half kilogram bands though or you might hurt yourself. For your reward, I'll ask Osamu~ojiisan to help you practice your caligraphy, then you'll be well set to learn some fuuinjutsu.".
Shibi's response gave me quite alot to think about, though I nodded in acceptance immediately. Firstly it confirmed that I must be getting some kind of allowance to support myself since I was living alone, which was good news. I was yet to find out the specifics of how I actually received said allowance, but there was the promise of it increasing and being enough for me to afford more than basic necessities so that was good news. What Shibi had said about me being in class B was a little more interesting though. From my placement, he could tell that my physical results couldnt have been too good, and that I'd done well on the written exam. That told me that it was probably an advanced class for the smart kids who weren't particularly physically gifted. There was probably a class A for the overall geniuses, or at least everyone who was very physically able, and I imagined Shino would be in that. It raised some questions as to how someone like Sakura would be there, but perhaps she just fell off later as she began to obsess over Sasuke.
I was also interested that Shibi seemed to think that practicing ahead of time for fuuinjutsu would be useful for me. In the show, Naruto hadn't even heard of it when he graduated, but then he didn't even know how to say chakra properly. Still, none of the other rookies seemed to know anything about fuuinjutsu either early on, so maybe it was something that only class B would learn about. Something along the lines of making the smart kids study and letting the physical ones train to be frontline ninja. If I were just your average, run of the mill Aburame, I might be entirely happy with that kind of situation, but as a freshly reborn person with a gamer system, and having seen some of the awesome stuff that ninja could do in battle, I was immediately determined to try and subvert my perceived fate. Of course, I wasn't sure if I was overreacting, but I was certainly wary now.
"Good, come by tomorrow and I'm sure we can get you started with your calligraphy. For now though, why not get some more training in? I'll leave you to catch up with Chika while I take Shino for his reward.".
Shino was ono his feet in a heartbeat, following his father out the door, who stopped to give a chaste kiss to the woman who I was now sure beyond a shadow of a doubt was his wife and not some overy affectionate housekeeper, the idea of which had been floating around in the back of my mind since nobody had ever told me explicitly who she was. I suspect it was something to know, but I didn't seem to have all the memories of this body. At least not yet. The knowledge of japanese did not seem to be inheritted from the child who was living in this body before I awoke the previous day, as I had the same skill in it as I'd previously had with the English language, but I had fuzzy recollections that seemed to be growing stronger from yesterday. For instance, I realised I knew my way around the main streets, and how to find the closest park and some shops and restaurants from my house. Perhaps such memories would strengthen over time, but I also suspected that Chika had not seen me in a while, given how excited she seemed, and the way Shibi had spoken the previous night. There was also a mystery to be solved in exactly what happened to my parents and how I ended up living outside of the clan. It wasn't quite clear as to which had occurred first. They couldn't died suddenly outside on a mission, or at least not my father, as Shibi had said he'd made a request on his deathbed. Still, maybe I would recall in time. If not, I had plenty of time to find out what happened.
Snapping me from my thoughts, Chika pulled me into a chair and sat down next to me, placing a glass of orange juice in front of me.
"So Taiki, have you been well? Did you enjoy the test yesterday?".
As nice as she seemed, I suspected that this might be a difficult conversation to escape in good time.; and perhaps the first of many.
A/n: You have no idea how frustrating it was to try and work out why people always say Tenten's surname is Higurashi. I wasn't sure if it was just a cemented part of fanon, I'm so used to reading it at this point so I thought it might be like the most ancient and noble house stuff you often see in hp fanfics. Turns out it was given in the Ultimate Ninja Storm games. Bangers. Also, I recognise that Tenten isn't related to this chapter really, at least not directly, but I got distracted on a mental tangent ahaha.
