'Beautiful.'

I took a look at everything I got from Yesterday's spar with Sasuke. Truly something to behold. This had been the best quest I had completed so far. It had given me a title and a level to all my skills. This was important because I had a title that actually did something and I now had access to Intermediate Kenjutsu and Taijutsu. Not only that but Running had maxed out.

[Title: Aspiring Prodigy: When training stats and skills increase 15% faster]

This had to be the best one out of the three. Not only because my stats increased faster but also my skills. This mean that I could train less if I wanted to and achieve the same results as before. But that would be a waste when I could be getting 15% more of everything for the same amount of training as before. I could even train more and have it mean more.

[Intermediate Kenjutsu Lvl 1:

Increases skill level with a sword depending on lvl.

Increases stats by 2 when actively used

Cost: 40 Energy points a second]

An active effect like running. I could use this for around Eleven seconds. Now that wasn't good but I could lower it. But this meant I had an active effect for other skills too. I just needed to unlock those skills. The +2 stat increase was actually pretty good. Most people would look at a 2 and brush it off as a low number. But in the context of the game +2 was really fucking great.

[Intermediate Hummingbird-Fist Lvl 1:

Increases skill level with Hummingbird-Fist depending on lvl.

Increases stats by 2 when actively used

Cost: 40 Energy points a second]

Pretty much just copy-pasted from Intermediate Kenjutsu. My thoughts toward it are the same as Intermediate Kenjutsu. If I got them both to a low enough Level I could combine them and get +4 everything. I could probably fight Mika without Weight Seals that way. Although I'm sure Running would allow that as well.

[Running lvl max:

Increases running speeds by 100%

Cost: 1 Energy point per second]

Now if this wasn't an overpowered ability I didn't know what was. I had double of my running speed for over 400 seconds which was usually enough time to end a battle. This was also probably around the level of speed Mika had and I could most certainly beat Naruto in the speed department now. I didn't like using Running much when sparring unless I needed too or unless it was Kiba I was against or I wanted to win.

Obviously I'd use it in an actual fight. No way in fucking hell was I stupid enough or delusional enough to not use it. I didn't want to use it in friendly situations much because I liked knowing where I was normally but in an actual fight having double of my already pretty fast speed was an incredible boon.

I can imagine using this in combination with a potential genjutsu seal would be wonderful or with the flame seal. I imagine it'd be a very quick fight if the person I was fighting was slower than me. Speaking of the flame seal, It still wasn't finished but I could feel I was making good progress on learning the Stabilizer seal.

I just needed to fini-

*Knock*

It was 10:30 at night... Once more I sensed an amount of chakra that I didn't want to sense again for a long time. Hiruzen... Oh joy. Hiruzen had apparently decided to visit me again. I'd never know why. I didn't want to know why either to be honest. If he thought I was a spy then as long as he didn't decide to kill me I'd be fine. Also it seems like he has a spider-sense for when I make Tea.

I tidied up the table real quick and then opened the door. "Hello Hokage-sama. What brings you here tonight?" I was less terrified than last time. I knew who it was this time. I wouldn't nearly piss myself again.

Hiruzen greeted me with a smile, "I'd like to return your notebook to you today Kukui-kun and I figured you'd be least busy now. May I come in?" He was probably the most polite dictator in history. He sounded like a friendly old man. Which at the moment he was. But there was that frightening amount of chakra he had. Ready to activate at any moment and paralyse me from sheer quantity alone.

I nodded, "Of course. Would you like some Tea?" The man had taste. I'd give him that. I gestured to the table as I walked back inside. I wondered what he did with my notes and ideas but I wouldn't ask. best not too. If they took my ideas that'd be fine. I imagine someone else could make better use of them. And yes this is me not wanting to think about what would happen if I got mad about it.

Hiruzen nodded, "I would love some Tea Kukui-kun." He stepped in and sat down on a chair. I quickly poured him some Tea and he blew on it before taking a drink. "Thank you for the Tea. Its marvelous like last time." I had to assume Tea fell under the Cooking skill which was maxed out. It was good but it couldn't be better than what he had right?

I grinned, "Thanks." He then unsealed my notebook full of my ideas and notes, "Thanks again. I was really looking forward to having this back to be honest." This was the accumulation of nearly a year of my lifes work. Hundreds upon Hundreds of hours of my life went into this.

"I understand why. Your ideas are really detailed. I assume you plan on trying your hand at seeing how they work once your done with your flame seal?" Hiruzen was right on the money. I had a few ideas like the Genjutsu seal, a medical seal, and potentially a seal that could replicate Kekkei Genkai. That would be out of my reach for years though as that was a level seven idea.

I sealed my notebook in a scroll. "Yeah. I don't know which to try first though. I could go for another elemental seal like earth but it would be difficult to learn it as I haven't finished the second stage of fire yet nor have I even started it. So I'd be dividing my attention between two things upon everything else which would not be recommended." I also still intended to study barriers. But I'd likely have to put that on the back burner until I could finish everything else.

Hiruzen chuckled, "So many choices. A shame you didn't have an earth affinity in the first place. It would have been better than fire in this scenario. It is a wise choice to wait until you finish working with fire before you move onto earth. Do you mind if I recommend something you should work on?"

Any idea from the Professor was bound to be a good one. So why not listen to him? "Not at all Hokage-sama. I imagine your wisdom would help immensely." Hiruzen had been alive far longer than I had been in both of my lifes combined. He survived three wars and ruled the village for at least two of them. If I should take the words of anyone into consideration it would be him.

"Well then how about you work on your medical seal? My student had an idea like that and it helped immensely. But a seal with more of a broad usage would do wonders not just for Konoha's shinobi force but for the village at large." He was thinking from the perspective of "Help the Village." I cared about helping the people but one other thing stuck out to me... I could help teammates with this.

But I'd need to learn Medical jutsu... Ah fuck it I had decent enough Chakra control. "That would be useful... I'll work on that after graduation then Hokage-sama." It'd give me time to gather books and all the needed material. The Medical seal I had in mind combined a stabilizer seal, a modified control seal, and an elemental seal modified for Yang alignment chakra. It would take me monts to achieve. If not then well over a year. I wanted that to take some level of priority.

Hiruzen nodded, "Alright then Kukui-kun. By the way congratulations on becoming the best of your year." Oh yeah that quest said I was now the best... "Your fight with Sasuke Uchiha proved your Taijutsu prowess and your intellect isn't something that has been ignored."

I had done it in roughly a bit less than eleven months too. The System definitely helped a lot. I rubbed the back of my head, "I had a lot of help along the way. Without my friends I'd probably still be working on beating Kiba." Without them my Taijutsu and Fuinjutsu would be way lower. And Kenjutsu would as well.

"That still doesn't discredit your effort. Without allies to help us none of us ever truly become strong anyways. Without our allies and friends winning a tough battle would be harder than it would be without them. What do you think it means to win?" Well that came out of left field. Hiruzen looked at me intently as he took another sip of his tea.

This was a tricky thing to answer... He was expecting something clearly. "Winning has a lot of meanings. A full victory would be meeting all win conditions with minimal losses. But to win is to be the successful one out of the two or the successful group out of the bunch. That victory may be a pyrrhic one but sometimes losses need to happen for those true victories. We won't ever truly win because that means everything would have to go right which it never does. But as long as we are the ones coming out better than the other with the least amount of casualties then we are the winner."

Hiruzen smiled at the answer, "That is correct. We can never truly win but thanks to our comrades we can minimize our losses." He then took a look at the clock, "Oh would you look at the time. Its getting late I'm afraid." 11:45... Ooh boy it wasn't going to be a good day tomorrow. "I guess it is time for me to leave. Have a good night Kukui-kun!"

As quickly as he stood up he was gone.

'My heart rate is slowing down...' That man will never not be terrifying.

"So I'm supposed to choose something to learn?" Hanabi asked as I laid three scrolls in front of her, "Why can't I just find new ways to use my Taijutsu?" Oh sweet, Nieve, and innocent Hanabi.

I chuckled, "You are a Hyuuga. One of the two most recognizable clans in the world is the Hyuuga clan. And the Gentle fist is recognized all around the world. We will be improving your Taijutsu of course but you should learn something else," I tried teaching her Fuinjutsu but she just wasn't interested even though it allowed me to create massive infernos from what looked like nothing.

She had three choices. Kenjutsu, Medical Jutsu, and Ninjutsu. I could teach her some Ninjutsu and a bit of Kenjutsu. Medical Ninjutsu was something we'd learn together.

Hanabi looked at the three scrolls laid infront of her, "Ninjutsu seems like the obvious choice although my clan doesn't use it often... I'll go with that." I'd also teach her Kenjutsu. No matter what I wanted her to have other options in Close Quarters Combat.

I nodded, "Good choice. Now before I teach you an element we are going to have you learn the academy three first." The academy three were D-rank jutsu for a reason. I could easily go into the sixth year section of the academy library and take an E or D-rank Jutsu but nah. I'd do that when Hanabi was ready.

Hanabi nodded, "Okay then Sensei." I knew what Jutsu to teach her. The clone and transformation jutsu's were useful in different situations but one universally useful jutsu was the Replacement jutsu. Or rather the Kawarimi. It saved lives. "What will I learn first?"

Now I did the Kawarimi in a rather weird way. Most people just replaced themselves with a log by connecting their chakra to a nearby log and having their chakra pull them back to where the log was and vice versa. I did it via having a seal on a log with my chakra in it. Before a fight I'd place the log somewhere and if need be I could connect my chakra with the seal via a connector seal allowing me to replace myself seallessly. It also allowed for a longer distance.

Hanabi wouldn't be able to do that method so I'd need to teach her the boring method. "I'll teach you the most useful of the three. The Kawarimi. AKA the replacement jutsu. It can save your life. It allows you to replace yourself with a nearby object or log. Normally I do it a different way but its a method you can't learn,"

Hanabi tilted her head, "Why can't I learn your method Sensei?"

I unsealed a log. "I use Fuinjutsu in combination with the kawarimi to use it. Since you can't use Fuinjutsu and don't want too you can't learn it. It doesn't mean the original is bad though. Its quite good for a D-rank jutsu actually."

Hanabi seemed a little sad, "Alright Sensei. How do I learn the Kawarimi?" Now was time to test my theory once more. I had seen it with Tree walking and Hanabi told me it worked with other things but I wanted to see it personally.

I grinned and kicked the log a few meters away. "Activate your Byakugan and watch closely." Hanabi did as told and activated her Byakugan. I then slowly went through the handseals. 'Tiger, Boar, Ox Dog, Snake.' I replaced myself with the log. 'Still feels weird everytime.'

I looked at Hanabi, "You got it?" I made sure to slowly go through the hand seals needed so she could see how my chakra moved exactly.

Hanabi nodded, "I did sensei." She then began cycling through the hand seals, "Tiger, Boar, Ox Dog, Snake. Kawarimi Jutsu!" Chakra smoke appeared where Hanabi was and soon after it dissipated and revealed a log. "I did it!" I looked over to where the log once was. There was a Hanabi who was grinning like Naruto when he got Ramen.

I was ecstatic. Suck it everyone who said teaching was hard. "Good job. Now keep practising. You have five more years to master that jutsu so I would like it if you could do it seallessly by the time you graduate."

Hanabi nodded but she did it with more ferver than last time, "Yes Sensei. I will get this jutsu down by year four," There was a fire in her eyes.

I felt my grin stretch, "Do that and I'll teach you whatever jutsu I develop by then,"

THat just seemed to motivate her more.

[Tenten Higurashi]

"They're incredible!" Naruto shouted as the pair of them watched their other two friends spar. Kukui was fighting Mika to a standstill. Albeit she was wearing weight seals. But still. He was fighting Mika. Someone who could face Neji and sometimes win nowadays and he was actually fighting her to a standstill. Not even Naruto could do that anymore.

Kukui flipped backward and cycled through three hand seals, "Fire style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Kukui spat three evenly sized fireballs at Mika who was grinning. They had been both going all out. Using everything they had to beat the other. Kukui had even used one of his ember seals and got a good hit on Mika's arm.

Mika went through some hand seals of her own as the FIreballs were flying toward her, "Fire style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Mika spat out a fireball of impressive size which ingulfed the other fireballs and was sent back at Kukui. The Fire soon enveloped him.

Oh sh-

Kukui suddenly appeared behind Mika leaving a charred log in his place and he punched Mika in the lower spine area before kicking her off the tree and down into the dirt. She flipped as she hit the ground and Shunshined up to Kukui and punched him before kicking him upwards.

"Yeah... Makes me feel a bit weak in comparison." Tenten knew she was the weakest Taijutsu wise. She was no slouch but the other three were monsters compared to her. Of course she could beat Naruto and Kukui in a spar going all out but Mika was a no go. But seeing Kukui sling fire around and move as fast as Mika with weights on was something that made her doubt herself a bit.

Kukui threw three Shuriken at Mika to which she dodged before he grabbed his Tanto. He blocked a hit with the Tanto as the two began to fall to the ground before Mika jabbed a Kunai into a- Kukui replaced himself with a log which got tabbed and Mika was kicked in the back of the head swiftly knocking the Uchiha and log to the ground.

Naruto meanwhile comforted Tenten with a pat on the shoulder, "Don't worry 'bout them! Your amazing in your own way and while you might not hit as hard as the rest of us you can kick our asses from afar better than anyone else!" Something about the way Naruto said... well everything just inspired her and made her feel better. She didn't know why but it just did. "You can pick anyone off with a Kunai or shuriken! Not anyone else I know can do that as easily as you can!"

Mika whilst groaning stood up and blocked another hit from Kukui before she grabbed his shirt and threw him into a tree. Both were very visibly injured at this point. But neither were willing to backdown. Mika spat out another Fireball at Kukui. A smaller one. Kukui dodged ito which led to him being kicked in the face.

Tenten smiled at Naruto, "Thanks. That was nice to hear..." Naruto grinned which made Tenten feel better. That damned smile was the nicest one she's ever seen. It made her day better upon seeing it.

Kukui over a few feet away groaned as a Kunai was placed to his throat, "Use chakra and you die." Mika's voice was serious but her face didn't convey she wanted to kill her friend.

Kukui raised his hands, "You got me... " Mika threw the Kunai to the side and sat down on the nice green grass. "That was fun... Everything hurts now though." Everything did indeed look like it hurt. Kukui was covered in bruises from head to toe and it didn't look pretty.

Mika chuckled before groaning, "Yeah... everything hurts a lot."

It was a nice sight to be honest. Both of her friends were on the ground and very much in pain but both of them were also happy. Mika was normally very cold and quiet at the academy but she was happy here. And Kukui looked a lot less stressed than normal.

Now they should rest.

"Should we go help them?" Naruto looked concerned. He cared a lot about the safety of everyone. Even if it was just a spar. He hadn't had the best life as she learned. He lived a very lonely existence so she understood why. He didn't want his friends to go.

Tenten shook her head, "No. They'll be fine eventually. They just need some rest." Then Tenten looked down at her most hated project. The elemental seal. "Now we need to finish this so we can make our own seals like Kukui's!" She'd forever be envious of his brain. He had so many good ideas that if pulled off would be game changing. He worked hard to try and pull off those ideas as well.

Naruto's grin came back in full force, "Okay!"

[Kukui Tanku]

Hiruzen's scroll on the Stabilizer seal helped me a lot. There were three components that the Stabilizer seal had to take care of. The actual stabilizing of the chakra. Latching onto the chakra. And in the case of it being applied to a person, the connection to the target chakra coils.

My first seal covered the latter two but not the first one. Which was what I'm fixing at the moment. Once I got the first part down I could make the Flame seal. With that down I could begin focusing on other projects. One I wanted to work on was the Genjutsu seal... I just needed to know where to begin.

That was tomorrows problem. My current dilemma was about to be solved. I looked down at the seal in the scroll and then the blank sealing paper I had in front of me. I could still feel the almost foreign feeling of my heart pounding in my chest. I was nervous. I didn't know what to do if this failed.

If this didn't fail then I'd have a solid foundation for most of my seal ideas. Not all of them because barriers were way different but most of them. I took a deep breath. "Take a deep breath Kukui." I cannot afford to be nervous. Failure here meant I'd be fucked over immensely. There were two weeks left until my possible early grad and I didn't want to be unprepared should I pass.

I honestly didn't want to pass. A year of extra prep time would be great and I'm sure there aren't many Jonin who have Fuinjutsu skills that'd be willing to teach me. So I wanted to be as prepared as I could be and two years of pre time would be a spectacular amount of time.

But canon as I knew it was changed well before I became Kukui Tanku. Naruto and Sasuke will likely graduate early anyways. I didn't want to let Naruto die so I would hopefully be on a team with him. He quite literally couldn't be allowed to die...

Although if he did then someone would need to take Kurama. Maybe I should learn a Bijuu seal just in case? That'd be a good idea. If Naruto were to die I'd need to take matters into my own hands. But thats hopefully unlikely.

Anyways back to the issue at hand.

I dipped my brush in ink and felt a nervous grin spread across my face. I'd do this. Here and now marks a change in my life. Once this was done I'd become more powerful than ever. I took my brush out of the ink.

I looked back at the seal paper and this would be the final time I had to do this whilst being nervous hopefully. I placed my brush down on the seal paper. I began drawing the seal. A stroke here and there. A delicate stroke there once in a while.

Within minutes the delicate seal came together.

I heard something that I've been wanting to hear for weeks now.

[New skill unlocked; Stabilizer seal]

[Stabilizer seal lvl 1:

Used to stabilize a targets chakra.

Cost: 50 Chakra points]

I felt like dancing.

It along with the other two seals was chakra intensive. Even after leveling the other two up this would still take a lot of chakra to make. I couldn't care fucking less. I could level it up and I could get more chakra. Fuck it if needed I could probably make a regular chakra storage like Tsunade did for her Byakugo seal.

I looked at the seal. I knew what I'd do with it. Naruto needed some more control right? Fuck it I was making one for everyone. My friends would be the most overpowered people ever for our age. I could probably slap like a hundred of these on me and get Tsunade level chakra control.

So much could be done with this magnificent seal.

I let out a mad cackle.

This was my first step into greatness! My first step into being the overpowered person I wanted to be!

I looked at the clock... Midnight...

Fuck.

I'd finish my work tomorrow... Or soon...

Still though. It'd be finished. That I was certain of.

So a lot has happened this chapter. Hiruzen came back for another talk with Kukui. Kukui teaches Hanabi the Kawarimi and reveals another use for the connector seal. I kinda came up with it on the spot so yeah... Tenten watching Mika and Kukui spar with Running on which is obviously unknown to everyone and another NaruTen push. Yes that is the only ship so far. Idk when it will pan out though. . But his speed is now on par with a weighted Mika which is about 0.70 her normal speed. Then we have Kukui finishing the Stabilizer seal and a sneak peak at his future projects.

I enjoyed this chapter a lot even though I was a bit scared to write it. I love writing about Fuinjutsu and its theories and how to use the seals. I also love writing side characters PoV's. And I love it when I have my MC just do things in general.

The old incarnation of this fic was my pride and joy for a while. This fic has already ursurped this position. I've had my other fic for like 5 months counting time I used to get chapter stockpile and I hadn't felt the love I felt for this fic for awhile. But for this fic? As of writing this its chapter twelve and only chapter one is out at the moment.

Anyways hopefully you enjoyed the chapter!

- Tobi!