Thanks for the feedback, Xero the Reaper. This chapter should be fine for punctuation and grammar, I hope. Lolal, so there is no specific reason why our MC is Kaito. I think I remember just Googling some Japanese boy names, and this one popped up, and I thought it sounded decent, so I chose it. Doesn't help that I like the name Kai already due to Lego Ninjago, haha.
But my question for you guys is, what should Kaito's ninken partner be named? He will be a male, and his fur color will probably be black, so hopefully that helps you creatives come up with a name.
Anyways, without further ado, on to the chapter.
As I woke up in my new room, I looked around, inspecting the place. The room was quite large, no doubt due to me being part of the head family now. The walls were beige and spotless, there was a window with a view of the surrounding gardens. The bed I found myself in was decently sized, no doubt meant for me to keep until adulthood. The sheets were a pale blue. In the corner of the room, there stood a desk and a chair made from a dark wood, matching the floorboards next to a large bookcase, which was quite empty now that I looked at it properly. 'Hmmm, I'll need to buy some books in the future. Plus, since I'm half uzumaki, I think? So, I should probably be good with fuinjutsu, so I'll have to learn that at some point,' I made a mental note to myself. Eventually, I sighed, bored of just looking around. I got out of bed and opened my door, just in time to see my new mother looking down at me with a grin, alongside her ninken partner, who looked absolutely bored out of his mind. His one eye stared at me with curiosity.
"Oi, Kaito, good morning. Perfect timing, in fact, I was about to barge into your room and wake you up myself. Anyways, I'd like you to meet my ninken partner, Kuromaru. You're gonna be seeing a lot of him since you, ya know, live here now, hahahahah." Tsume said laughing boisterously. The now dubbed Kuromaru just sighed, clearly the one with the serious personality in the relationship, before looking up at me appraisingly. For some reason, I felt nervous as he looked at me like I was being observed by some sort of predator, which, now that I think about it, he totally was a predator. However, even feeling uneasy, I decided to step up to him confidently.
"Hey, I'm Kaito. It's nice to meet you, Kuro," I said with a smile on my face. To this, Kuro looked me up and down and smiled, somehow. Wait, can dogs even smile?
"Hah I like you pup looking forward to living with ya" he said before heading off with Tsume to Kiba's room presumably. 'Well that wasn't as bad as I thought it was' I thought before heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth and taking a shower.
later
Kiba and I, now dressed but groggy, were sitting next to each other at the dinner table while Tsume was cooking breakfast in the kitchen.
"Hey Kiba, how come Mom and all the adults have those markings on her face but you don't?" I asked, finally noticing how, like me, his cheeks didn't have the distinct Inuzuka markings or were they tattoos?
"Oh, it's because we ain't earned em yet. We have to wait until the new pups have been born, and then we can get our tattoos." Kiba said after a pause, clearly thinking about the answer. Well, he probably just forgot the lesson. When Tsume sits down with him, I'll just ask her. After waiting for a bit, Tsume served breakfast, which consisted of eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, and some steak sliced into smaller cubes. "I mean, I'm in a clan of people with dog/wolf like features, plus I'm training to be a ninja, so lots of protein in my diet does make sense." On an unrelated note, the food was quite good, not overly seasoned and also not particularly greasy. Maybe the animals in this world were more lean?
"Hey mom, how come me and Kiba don't have face marks like you and the other adults?" I asked after finishing my food. Since Kiba, well, he was Kiba, he probably didn't give the best of explanations.
"Oh like Kiba said you haven't earned them yet you earn them when you bond with a ninja pup" she said which didn't clarify anything well like mother like son i guess? Kuromaru looking at my clearly confused face just sighed exasperated before taking a few steps forward and facing me.
"Ok so the way it works exactly is, you and all the other Inuzuka children are going to unlock your chakra in the proceeding days and weeks. This is done to help you bond with your ninken pup. The way it works is, whilst a female ninken is pregnant, you continually stream in some of your own chakra, which would fuse with the chakra of the growing puppy, which forms a bond between you and the puppy. The moment the pup is born, you earn your marks to signify that bond." Kuromaru said informatively, entering what I'll call his teacher mode, which, unlike the others, really clarified how I earned my markings. 'Would my ninken be stronger if I stream in more chakra? Well, probably yes. Plus, our bond would probably be better off the get-go. So, my goal right now should be to increase my chakra pool, which should be easy enough since I'm an Uzumaki, plus I'm in a ninja clan, so they probably have some way to increase chakra pools. But genuinely, it wouldn't be hard. Chakra is a mix of yin energy and yang energy, which has to do with the mind and the body, so I should probably do some physical training and some studying,' I thought to myself, with a new goal in mind, filling me with determination and excitement to get a ninken.
[new quest received- chakra beast
-increase you're chakra to atleast 1000
-rewards 5 chakra points,10 stat points extra rewards proportionate to amount of extra chakra, uzumaki perk unlocked ] A blue transparent screen suddenly stated popping up in my face. 'well then looks like i've really gotta try especially because this is my first quest' I thought chuckling to myself before Tsume got up and clapped her hands.
"Ok then pups let's unlock your chakra and start some basic training, so be prepared for hell kids " She said with an evil grin on her face chuckling to herself, instinctively I looked to the voice of reason, Kuro, but he was grinning too. Well, looking at this positively, I'd probably get some insane stats. But despite all that logic, something primal inside of me stirred, urging me to face the challenge head on. 'Hey system, do you know what that'd be about?' [That would be your inuzuka side responding to the challenge presented to you] I got as a response. To which I smirked, ready to face the challenge.
"Bring it on mom/ I ain't scared give me ya best" Me and Kiba said at the same time before looking at each other grinning and fist bumping. Tsume looked down on us two and smiled lovingly seemingly proud of our answer same with Kuro 'maybe this was some kind of test of our wills ?' well no use thinking about it now instead I steeled my nerves and got ready for the supposed hellish training me and my bro would be about to undergo.
later at the inuzuka training grounds
"Ok Kiba, Kaito to start off with your training we need to unlock your chakra so both of you sit down cross legged and feel inside of you it should feel like a whoosh feeling then it goes kwoah" Tsume said to which I just looked at her bewildered 'what the hell could that possibly mean' I thought before looking over at Kiba who was next to me who to my surprise looked at the woman thoughtfully nodding seemingly knowing what she meant. Again my saviour Kuro just let out a small chuckle before sitting down in front of me and turning to me.
"Try feeling for an energy source inside your stomach. Once you feel that, try moving it little by little. Eventually, the flow of chakra should get faster and faster. When that happens, don't try to stop the flow. Just let it happen. There you have it. You'll have unlocked your chakra, kid," Kuromaru said, entering teacher mode again, clearing up all my confusion. 'Well, no use mulling over the details. Might as well give it a try,' I thought, sitting down and closing my eyes. Inside of myself there was a well of energy near my abdomen buzzing with life as if beckoning me to unleash it onto the world, remembering Kuro's words, I beckoned the energy to move. And all of a sudden, I felt a rush of energy flood my body until it calmed down to a comfortable buzzing feeling under my skin. I smiled and opened my eyes. And then it happened: the world was much brighter, noises were more loud, smells stronger, and tastes deeper. It was an overwhelming feeling. Looking over to Kiba, it seemed like he felt the same. Both of us fell to the ground, squirming with discomfort.
[Hidden quests completed- inuzuka heritage
rewards: 5 stat points,5 agility points, heigthened senses, new perk.
Hidden quest completed- unlocking chakra
rewards: 5 chakra stat points, access to jutsu] The system said but i couldn't focus on the rewards due to my sensory overload.
"Now kids, I know it feels really uncomfortable, but try to calm down. It should be over quickly. What you guys are experiencing is sensory overload. This is because, since we're Inuzuka, we have better senses than other people and clans. And when we unlock our chakra, they get even better, rivaling even ninken in some cases." Tsume explained as she calmed us both down. Eventually, it got better, and she even gave us a drink she said would help, which surprisingly did. Now that me and Kiba had a break, I thought this was a prime opportunity to look at my stats. 'status'
[name:kaito inuzuka
health: 200/200
chakra 650/650
strength: 5
agility:15
endurance:20
intelligence:10
wisdom:5
chakra:65
free points:5
perks: gamer, inuzuka, uzumaki(locked) ]
Well those stats look decent especially since I haven't even trained yet plus I'm getting closer to that chakra beast quest already. 'Hey system, what do those perks do exactly?'
[ Gamer perk: you are the gamer you see the world as a videogame allowing you to allocate stat points and gain skills.
-immunity to mind control
Inuzuka perk: you are a part of the inuzuka clan
-heightened senses
-access to inuzuka style jutsu
-50% increase to speed of learning inuzuka jutsu
-10% stat boost when fighting alongside ninken
-liked by all canines
-more likely to be liked by animals
uzumaki perk(locked): (unknown)]
'Well those perks are good, especially the no mind control bit. But holy hell, that Inuzuka perk provides so many benefits! But hmmm, that Uzumaki perk would probably be super OP since the clan itself was OP in the show. So, I really should hurry and get that quest finished.' I thought to myself. Well, no reason to hesitate at all. 'System, allocate 5 points into chakra.' [Affirmative] Well, that's done and dusted. It looks like our small break is over now, since Tsume and Kuro stood up, evil grins on their faces.
"Well then kids, let's start training. Start off with 10 laps around the training ground. Kuromaru here will keep you motivated. How will he do that? Well, simply, if he feels like you're slacking or falling behind, he'll bite you." She said boisterously, as if what she just asked wasn't absolutely ludicrous. The training field's diameter was approximately 1.5-2 kilometers, so she just asked us to run 15-20 kilometers at the tender age of 6. Well, I guess she really wasn't kidding when she said this training was gonna be hell.
later in the evening
I was lying in bed and quite frankly everything was sore damn that Tsume and her training she made us do some basic exercises like pushups sit ups squats running then some stuff I've never done before like holding a horse stance while balancing stuff on our heads running on all fours which was admittedly really fun it was really tough and quite frankly well hell as she'd put it but it did produce some good results.'well might as well look at my stats before bed ,status'
[name:kaito inuzuka
health: 200/200
chakra 700/700
strength: 10
agility:20
endurance:25
intelligence:10
wisdom:5
chakra:70
free points:0
perks: gamer, inuzuka, uzumaki(locked) ]
aaaaand there we have it, another chapter done! I tried taking more time to write this story, rather than giving myself 2 hours and immediately releasing the chapter. This time, I went over grammar and punctuation, all that good stuff, so I hope you guys appreciate the increase in quality. And if you guys are wondering about my other story, "The Foxy Trainer," I'll probably continue it as well, but currently, this story is the most fun to write.
On an unrelated note, have you guys seen any good animes recently? In the past week and a half, I binged Kaiju no.8, re:monster, which I read the manga for. I also caught up to That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. I should probably finish Fire Force, Blue Exorcist, Pokemon Origins, Inuzuma Eleven, and a bunch of other stuff, but I'm a serial procrastinator. Meh, I'll get to it someday. Ugh, that reminds me, I've got sooooo much school work to do over the summer. Well, I should probably start tomorrow, well, technically today, cause it's 1:50 am rn. Hahahah.
Anyways, let's hope the new chapter for Top Dog is out soon. The author is out.