System and Surrogate

Last time on Cloud Gamer

"This… stay safe Itachi." I said, choosing to support his determination. "If you ever need me, just call." I walked towards him, Naruto in hand and pulled him into a hug. "Will you be able to return after discarding your patch?" I whispered, though I doubt Hiruzen didn't hear.

"It'll be easy, I'm the clan head's son after all." The signature Uchiha arrogance on full display, he pushed away from me and hopped onto the window sill, looking back at Naruto and I before vanishing in his own body flicker.

Chapter 50

'He said that… but I have a bad feeling about this.' I contemplated Itachi's espionage before turning onto the street where my apartment was, Naruto in hand. 'I wonder if Kurama is done with his work on Vix.'

"I've been done." Kurama snorted mentally.

'When did you return?' I replied, taking the steps up to the second floor.

"When she woke up, about an hour ago or so?"

'So you were basically done as soon as we left… great.' I sighed mentally, twisting the keys to my apartment before being glomped by a small fox leaping onto my face. I yelped out in surprise, attempting to tear her off of me while she held an iron grip.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" She squealed, her paws digging into my spiky red hair.

"Wh-What for!? Get off of me!" I finally pried the sniffling summon from my face, placing it on top of Naruto's belly for him to cuddle while I walked inside.

"Lord Kurama, as they've let me call them, has given me a great gift!" She yipped happily, letting Naruto play with her ears while she looked up at my face.

I curled an eyebrow, shutting the door behind me and taking a seat on the couch with Naruto in my lap, Vix to my side. "What sort of gift?" Clearly the chakra Ku took from me earlier had something to do with it, was it some sort of bloodline or something?

"Precisely." Vix shook her coat, the hairs bristling against each other fast enough to create sparks before she was fully engulfed in a coat of red hot fire, the tips of her tail and ears stained white. She was beautiful, like a spirit of fire, her glowing red eyes piercing into me.

"That's quite amazing Vix… and you seem to have quite a bit of control considering…" I gestured to the couch, and how it was not burning whatsoever even with a brightly burning lifeform on top of it.

She shook the coat away and smiled lightly before laying over the cushion again. "I've been gone about a month now haven't I? Catch me up." She said, finally finding a comfortable position in a tight ball.

"Well where do I start besides this little guy. This is Naruto, Minato and Kushina's son. As of their passing due to Kurama's attack on Konoha, I've been his charge in this apartment. It was tough the first few days, since I was battling with my regret and rage, Ku easily overtook me and exerted his influence over me in the form of a version 1 cloak. That was all before we made a deal, where I could use his chakra in exchange for a few things.

Then I had a few missions, and I joined the police force. I never knew the Inazuka could be so feral." I shivered at the thought of fighting that guy again. "Then I went back to the land of sparks and stopped a Konoha destroying attack by splitting it in half, with the help of Kakashi. The aftermath of that was weird, and now we're planning to help proctor the chunin exams with Kumo. Though, I'm not sure how that's going to work with the whole Uchiha war thing on the horizon." I decided to play with Naruto's little pudgy hands while talking, waiting for Vix's potential questions.

She seemed to have none besides a snarky comment along the lines of "They deserve it." Regarding the Uchiha, but I laughed it off to hide my own pain.

'They've done some bad, but we all have… they're just people.' I grimaced, resting my head on the back of the couch. 'System, explain your functions now. I'm ready.'

"I'll cover the basics first, then we can cover the new stuff, courtesy of a very, very long maintenance. There are 8 statistics, or I should say were, but we merged some together to create the most efficient experience possible.

First up his strength, your previous score of 285 has been lowered to 29, factored by 10 and rounding up. This has occurred with all of your statistics, since quite a few of the endgame players were complaining about how much of a chore the inflated numbers were becoming. As a result of this compaction, many felt a surge of power, or a decrease, but it was a much needed update. Getting back to the topic, strength is your muscular power and the amount of force you can exert behind physical actions like pushing or pulling something.

Vitality, from 223, to 59, including your chakra stat. It contains now all 3 of your attributes, be it physical endurance in the form of stamina, physical vitality in the form of health, or your chakra capacity in the form of chakra. These three can be toggled to be viewable constantly on your HUD, if you choose to enable that, or can still be viewed through status as you are used to. Chakra control has also been removed in exchange for a myriad of skills that provide passive boosts.

Next up, luck. From a simple 120, including all of your bonuses, to now 12. It affects all chance based things that happen around you, like the outcome of gambling, rolling a dice, or even as far as fate.

Intelligence, now called wisdom after its merge with willpower has gone from 200, with both of the stats combined together, to now 20. Wisdom is your cognitive abilities, including creativity, intelligence, and willpower of course.

Finally, charisma. Its effect over others has been lowered, and your score of 100 has been tuned down to 10. Its main purpose now deals in depth with the reputation system, which the higher ups thought was far too unutilised. That will be explored in greater detail later though, for now, secondary purposes are limited to your ability to formulate ideas to action, and talk your way out of situations.

Those are the main statistics we need to talk about in terms of your character sheet, now you may be interested to know that lower level players like new ones in the form of children have had their fair share of hardships with these new changes. You are one of the lucky ones who was in between the end game and early game player bases, so you weren't too heavily affected like they were. After some fine tuning, we no longer have toddlers running around able to lift thousands of tons, or live attacks from S-Rank ninjutsu. Yes,those were real cases my colleagues were in charge of."

'Wait, wait wait, there are more of you?' I asked, finding the information about statistics pretty standard, and helpful considering how clogged up the pages were becoming. The system hummed in approval before continuing to explain.

"There are over 6,000,000 operators between me and my brethren, but that is not important right now. Next we move onto one of the more redundant features, monthly lotteries. They've been modified slightly into a yearly tradition on a day of your choosing. As they're a yearly thing, the rewards have been significantly increased in return, also, pity has been removed as a result of the changes."

'Alright, well can I look at my main stats page now, since we've covered most of it…' I asked, impatient with her continued explanations.

"No, there are 2 final things to cover before you gain access to the character sheet again. First, levels, and then titles." She nagged, stopping me dead in my tracks before I opened it.

"Levels have been slightly changed and now give you only one stat point per level increase rather than 5. Furthermore, the amount of skill levels needed for each major level is tied to your major level amount, each ten major levels increasing the skill levels required by 5. Milestone gifts still exist, a notification of when your next is ready will be sent as you approach the target.

Titles also haven't been changed much, but more can be earned through the reputation and domain system. They of course give you the buffs listed with them but can sometimes come with flaws. Now you can feel free to check out your status, but don't spend too long, we have more to get through."

'Yes, yes.' I sighed, slightly regretting asking for a rundown of the mechanics. 'Status.' I commanded, a flicker of light appeared before me that expanded into a readable screen, far more efficiently formatted than before.

Shin Uzumaki(Chinoike)

Active title(s): Prodigy, Natural

(35% to exp gain from all sources, Wisdom + 30)

Level: 152

Health: 220,000

Stamina: 110,000

Chakra: 220,000

Strength: 29

Vitality: 22

Chakra: 59

Luck: 12

Wisdom: 20 (50 with bonuses)

Charisma: 10

Points remaining: 0

'Relatively simple, was the long winded explanation really necessary?' I asked.

"Yes. The amount of changes you have missed makes this reintroduction imperative to your growth, no point in having power if you don't understand how to use it."

'You talk like a robot…'

"No I don't!'

'Do too. We can save the rest for later, I'm eager to get back into real life stuff.' I ignored the rest of her badgering and looked towards the clock. It was nearing 4:00 pm, about time for Naruto to be crying for dinner. Surprisingly, the little tike wasn't sitting on my lap as I had left him, he was in fact curled up with Vix, my summon curling her tail around him protectively.

'Cute.' I smiled slightly at their interaction before getting off the couch and heading towards the door, determined to visit Kakashi. Once I stepped outside, it was a calm walk to the hospital filled with plenty of nasty looks from civilians and a few scowls from merchants, but nothing physical. 'Seems even the position of clan head won't get me away from these… but I also haven't done anything with the job yet. All in time I guess.' The automatic doors paved my way towards the receptionist who seemed pleasantly surprised at my arrival.

"Hello, can you please tell me what room Kakashi Hatake is in?" I politely asked.

"Of course Lord Uzumaki, room B174, on the second floor. You can access it through the elevators on your left."

"Thank you for the help."

"The pleasure is all mine."

I nodded and waltzed over to the elevator, calling it down before I made my way to Kakashi's room. He still seemed to be unconscious, but his heart rate was stable at the very least. I picked up the doctor's notes at the foot of his bed and scanned them with my eyes, 'Nothing out of the ordinary…' I mentally sighed and placed back the clipboard before looking at the clock. '4:19 pm, Naruto's probably awake by now.' I put my hands together and disappeared in a body flicker, barely missing Kakashi shift under the covers.

1 week later

"14th of November." I smiled, striking the date from the calendar with the slash of a kunai. "Vix, when did the Hokage say my compound would be rebuilt?"

"Early December, but that's something you should be remembering, not me." She huffed, swishing her tail past the baby Naruto's face like a foxtail toy.

"Oh I remember, I just wanted to remind you we're moving, into a manor, crazy right?"

"Incredibly." Vix responded in a dry tone.

"Kakashi still hasn't woken up…" I sighed, looking towards the clock in the living room. 'About 7:30, visiting hours should have started by now, right?' I stashed my kunai away and prepared to body flicker before Vix hopped onto my shoulder, Naruto on her back.

Konoha hospital - Kakashi's room.

'I'm prepared, as soon as he walks in, he's dead. As soon as–' The supposed target of his threats appeared with a baby and a fox on his shoulders. Kakashi continued to pretend to sleep, closing his eyes and relying on his instincts to alert him. 'For what he did to Minato sensei… for what he did to Rin, and Obito. I'll kill him.'

"Yes, all the destruction he caused to the city you love, make him pay…" 'Kakashi' said.

'You're right, and I will. He will pay dearly.'

"Then why haven't you moved?"

'I - Don't know.' Kakashi responded.

In the middle of Kakashi's internal conversation, Shin decided to sit on a chair next to his bed, counting the ticks of the clock while he idly listened to the flow of Kakashi's chakra. It was odd, like everytime it crossed the bridge between the stem of the brain and the organ itself, a small hitch would send it spiraling around the brain before it was sent back to the body like nothing had happened. Even deeper though, it could be seen the problem didn't truly occur at the stem of the brain, it was a single nerve that connected the optical nerves to the nervous system, though the Uzumaki couldn't sense this.

An ANBU officer flickered into the room, breaking Shin's concentration and dragging it towards the new visitor. "Does the Hokage require something?" The clan head asked, eager for the woman's departure.

"Yes Lord Uzumaki, your presence has been requested for the council meeting in 10 minutes. Please make your way to the hall in your garbs."

"Gotcha, thanks for the info Yugao." Shin smiled, watching the ANBU flinch slightly.

"It's Cat while working Lord Uzumaki, please respect my position."

"Well that's boring, call me Shin like normal, it feels weird having my friends calling me lord."

"I'm honored Lord Uzu–"

"Shin."

Yugao groaned and flipped the clan head off before putting her hands together in a seal. "I'll see you in the hall." Shin laughed while she disappeared before grabbing his cloak from his inventory and swapping his outfit in the room, unaware of Kakashi's blush? Or rage, even he(Kakashi) couldn't tell.

Clan Hall - Shin POV

I appeared in the room before Hiruzen, and a couple of the more rigid clan heads like Hiashi and Shibi. "Sup, what's this about?" I asked, looking around the room to confirm the only 4 occupants' presences, not including ANBU.

"Hmm, you'll see soon enough, no point in spoiling the fun." Hiruzen chuckled, massaging his chin. I sighed and hopped over my desk, sitting back in the comfortable chair with my head under the clan banner. Just a couple of minutes later, the rest of the clan heads, excluding Fugaku, entered the room.

"Alright, let's get this started shall we?" Hiruzen announced, much to the confusion of a few clan heads, namely Hiashi.

"Should we not wait for Lord Uchiha's arrival?" The Hyuuga lord inquired.

"No, we should not." Hiruzen replied. "He has been purposely excluded from this meeting as the first issue is connected to him." He paused for dramatic effect and I rolled my eyes.

"More the Uchiha clan itself. It's no secret that after the Nine tail's attack things have changed with them." Suddenly, I felt like a celebrity with all the high profile people looking at me.

"Lord Uzumaki, do you have an opinion on this?" Shibi curled an eyebrow, his black eyes boring into me like an excavator.

"Hmm? Are you saying that because I'm friends with Fugaku, or because I'm the container of the demon… or something else?" I leaned forward ever so slightly, daring him to pursue the matter. It's not that I didn't have an opinion, far from it, I just didn't want Shibi of all people to pursue the matter.

"Nothing like that I assure you, it's simply an inquiry of your opinion." Shibi smiled slightly, seemingly approving, or in an attempt to mock me.

I leaned back into my chair and looked around the room, seeing all eyes still aimed towards me. "The attack of the Nine Tails certainly changed the public's perception of the clan, but that's not to say they're helping themselves with their members' actions. I can only speak on my own account, but I've seen and heard of events that have occurred between the patrolling police forces and the populace. Specifically, the members of the force taking drastic action towards minor misdeeds such as petty theft."

"I see. So are you more on the fence in this issue, or leaning towards a side?" Shibi pressed forward.

"I'm completely neutral in this issue, all that matters is the betterment and wellbeing of the village." I gave a textbook answer, something Shibi seemed delighted to hear.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but Shibi, are you not being rather accusatory here?" Shikaku of all people came to my rescue, it seems not everyone in the room was at odds with one another. Shibi turned his attention to the Nara clan head passively.

"I don't agree Lord Nara, I believe his input is to be valued and heard, as a new member of the council here, should his opinion not be prioritized?"

I could see Shikaku deflate slightly, like he was already tired of the conversation after one sentence. "No, it shouldn't. Can we please move onto another topic, or save this for later? I'm sure there are other things on the agenda."

Hiruzen took the top page in front of him and shuffled it to the back, sighing slightly as he brought up the next issue. "Something I've been asked to prioritize is the current state of the academy's curriculum. In the past few years, casualties among genin have steadily increased in line with the more study and theory focused curriculum being adopted. Now for those of you with children here, your opinion is extremely important especially, so I would like to put forward a discussion of the type of academy you would like your children to be raised in, if they are to become shinobi." Two graphs were presented to each member of the council by assisting ANBU members, one of the genin casualty rates, and one of the curriculum changes in the form of a timeline.

Frankly, it was frightening to see. Over 17% of genin teams were completely wiped out in their first year, and a further 10% of that remaining 83% would either retire, or be wiped out in their second. Hiruzen was certainly right when he said things needed to change, and I couldn't help but think about how lucky the Konoha 12 were, whether through plot armor or luck. "I would also like to participate in this discussion, as a guardian myself. Naruto will be entering the academy at the same time as the clan leaders' children, considering his age.

"Of course, even for those of you without children, I'd like to hear your unbiased opinion on the matter of the next generation's education." Hiruzen smiled warmly towards me, before readopting his leader persona to talk to the rest of the council.

"I, for one, say the curriculum must be changed." Hiashi announced, scanning the room coldly to observe a single person that would argue against him.

I put up my hand subtly to propose an idea, one that might work, or might not depending on the personnel situation. "I agree with you completely Lord Hyuuga, but I think there is another way. Currently, and I'm not too sure on the statistics on this, graduates from civilian families are at an all time high, correct?" I looked towards the Hokage, who nodded in response. "Now we can surely judge by the results." I gestured to the graphs we'd been handed, "this curriculum isn't working as well as we would like, but instead of completely overhauling it, and removing these more theory type classes, we could instead add an advanced class." I put up two fingers, one in each hand. "One, the more theory focused lower classes for those of civilian descent or lacking in performance, and the other for those who are of shinobi or clan descent, or prodigious among the civilian descendants."

Hiruzen scanned me with a blank expression, but I could see my idea being considered in the thoughts of the many clan heads in the room. "To continue, exams either quarterly, annually, or whenever can be used for those in the 'lower' class to be elevated to the advanced one, but also taking the spot of one of the advanced class students. This could promote competition, and drive students towards a more self-sufficient mindset if they want to keep their positions."

Shikaku waited a couple of moments before adding his own opinion. "Now that is quite an idea, and let's say it's implemented, who will teach these classes? Surely you don't think instructors grow on trees." He smirked slightly and I turned towards him, he wasn't opposing me, he was challenging me.

"Jonin." The room's contemplative thoughts stopped and they turned to me like I'd grown a second head. "Their only real experience with their students comes from after graduation, during the exam they set out. Future jonin instructors, or volunteers interested, can offer to teach these classes every once in a while. This could even be offered as an exercise for tokubetsu jonin to improve leadership skills. Even if that isn't possible, for those jonin on break, can they not send in maybe a shadow clone, or even just a lesson plan for a chunin, or another instructor to pick up and follow?"

Tsume barked out a laugh, despite only being about a decade older than me, she treated me as though I was a child. "Because resting jonin and shinobi should be forced to also create lesson plans, exercises, and activities just so the brats can have a fun day."

"I believe that's why he said future instructors, tokubetsu jonin and volunteers? Please correct me if I'm wrong Lord Hokage, but have there not been several cases of tokubetsu jonin requesting promotion simply for the chance to have a genin team? I believe this is an amazing idea, if we can implement it correctly." Shibi put emphasis on the 'if', and I was starting to get confused where he truly lied in accordance to me. Was he on my side? Against me? Though some words Minato once said came to mind when I thought that.

Flashback

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Minato was sharpening one of his kunai against a whetstone, Kakashi and I sitting opposite him on the other couch. "It's funny how obvious some things are…" He smiled and closed his eyes, like he was reminiscing.

"For instance, we say things are good and evil, but isn't that so binary?" He flipped over the blade in his hand, revealing a slightly less polished side. "I've been called abnormal or weird, but it just doesn't make sense to me. Good and evil like sides of a coin, black and white, but things are more of a gradient y'know? Good people can do bad things, that doesn't make them evil, it just makes them a bit less good." He grabbed an uncleaned kunai to compare to the one in his hand, it was quite murky and almost brown with a conglomerate of different substances on it. This was right after he had come home from a mission after all. "Black." He shook the dirty kunai before looking at the one in his other hand. "Gray." He flipped it over to the clean side. "White. But there's even more than that… it's so simple but so many people are quick to pin someone to a side, they don't consider everything." He looked between Kakashi and I while smiling. "Am I rambling?" He laughed slightly, chucking the dirty kunai back in the pile while continuing the work on the one in his other hand.

Kakashi shook his head while I laughed. "Yeah, that is pretty simple, but it gives me a lot to think about. I wonder when people began to think like that?" I pondered, Minato and Kakashi both giving me a side eye.

"I mean, like you just said, it's not an immediate switch from black to white, on to off, so when do people start to blend other's actions together and decide what they are? What leads to that?" Minato laughed lightly, confusing me.

"Sorry, it's not to insult you… I just find how your mind works funny. There always has to be a logic to it, huh?" Minato smiled and put away his now clean kunai, picking up another. "What about you, Kakashi, what do you think?"

"I-I'm not too sure." He mumbled. Minato smiled to reassure him, while I decided to tease him a bit.

"That's so boring!" I laughed, Kakashi's visible eyebrow twitching after I said that.

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Flashback end

I smiled fondly at the memory of my surrogate father. 'Shibi definitely falls into one of those shades of gray. People are constantly changing, moving along the spectrum between white and black, all constantly growing into new shades of gray.'

"Is something funny, Lord Uzumaki?" Shibi questioned. I opened my eyes and blankly stared at him before laughing lightly.

"No, nothing. I was just reminded of something." I replied, waving him off.

"Care to elaborate?" Hiruzen inquired.

I rolled my neck, the audible pops soothing my mind. "Just a memory of Minato… a conversation we had when he came back from one of his missions, about black and white." I stopped there and Hiruzen seemed satisfied, a small smile on his face.

"Alright, well we can look into this advanced class at a later date, if you wouldn't mind writing up a proper plan for it Lord Uzumaki, considering it is your idea." It clearly wasn't a question, so I gave a thumbs up to the old Hokage and laid back in my comfortable chair.

[Chapter 50 complete]

Continue? [Y/N]

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I'm back! Decided to actually update my matron, so you can go look at that if you want, considering this, and future installments will be added there way earlier than !

Anyway, poll is on my profile so feel free to vote, for now I'll be chilling while writing out the next chapter.