《Re:Naruto》
Prologue
The surroundings were shrouded in darkness. He could feel nothing, not even his own body. He was confused at first. Where was he? Why was he there? ...Who was he? He could remember nothing. Rather than any specific memories all he had were feelings. He felt like he was male. He felt that he was human. He felt satisfied with his accomplishments, whatever those were. But nothing spurred an actual memory to surface. This lead him to one thought and one thought only.
¡®Am I dead?¡¯ He wondered. The question was unnecessary. Not because there was nobody to answer it, but because he already knew the answer was indeed ¡°yes¡±. He wondered what would happen next. Would he spend eternity in this darkness? Or was this the Limbo souls travelled through between the living world and the afterlife? Or would he perhaps experience reincarnation? If so, he wondered, what would he become? Would he still be himself? Would he even be human? There was nothing much to do other than think as he numbly floated through this dark world. Yet this didn¡¯t remain so for long.
You have died and have earned the right to reincarnation.
Where you will reincarnate has already been decided, but how, has not.
Using the karma, you have accumulated amongst your past lives you can influence this.
Please pick out your options.
Karma points: 276,419
[Talents]
[Bloodline Limits]
[Reincarnation Modifiers]
For some reason he knows the world he¡¯ll go to. He knows what each category generally contains. And he knows that two hundred thousand karma is an enormous number he would have never expected himself to have. What did he do to deserve so much karma? Did he save the world or something? Well... maybe that was too much credit to give... he didn¡¯t know if that wouldn¡¯t give more karma than this. He just knew this was a massive number.
He put the thoughts aside. He felt he shouldn¡¯t ponder on them much. That life was now behind him. He had to look forward. His choices here would decide his path ahead. His life to come. He opened up talents and stiffened. There were options. So many options. From simple things like cooking, to large amounts of chakra, a source of energy he knew people in this world would have. There were options to better his control with it, options to increase his physical abilities, options to increase his reactions. Everything was there.
But before he bought anything a question came up. What did he want to be in this world? A normal person who would go about their every-day life? A powerhouse that would put villages to shame? This world he would go to was a world of ninja, shinobi. A world where war wasn¡¯t uncommon, but there were many more dangers than just that. Criminals, rogue shinobi, weren¡¯t rare either. Did he want to let himself be swept up in the waves of conflict? With the possibility of being unable to protect himself or anything he cared about? No. No he couldn¡¯t let that happen. Just thinking about it made him feel uncomfortable.
He needed ability. Power to protect and to resist the waves of others. But would giving himself too much power not be counter-productive? What if he couldn¡¯t handle it? What if he got twisted by it? Corrupted? As they say ¡°Absolute power corrupts absolutely¡± and he couldn¡¯t guarantee he would be above that. But then, what could he do? Just give himself a bit of power? Enough to protect himself if something bad happens but not enough to make major influences? If he did he would become nothing but a pawn. Even if his karma was high, the world he was going to was a dangerous one. He would probably have to go all out... In that case his career path would be that of a ninja. And he needed every advantage he could get to not get swept up in the currents, to make sure he would get to make his own choices and even influence those of the ones in power, perhaps even rise there himself. As for his worry that he might abuse the power... he had to trust in himself... in the soul that acquired over two hundred thousand karma, that next time he found himself here, he once again would have this much of it, maybe more.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
That being decided he went on a shopping spree. The lowest cost of a talent in an area was five points. The highest on most was a thousand. A thousand points meant he would be a genius of the highest calibre. He went ahead and bought many different ones. Mostly relating to battle and espionage. Talent in weapons, in stealth, in persuasion, intimidation, reading people, amongst others. The talents, he knew wouldn¡¯t guarantee that he would be the best good at those things. It only gave him an advantage in front of others and could not replace hard work.
He encountered talents with different combinations of affinity for basic nature transformations, but only bought the best one, costing two thousand and giving him an affinity in all five elements as well as yin and yang. What he did buy was an unprecedented talent in using natural energy, costing five thousand. The last thing that he bought from this category was a bit different and much more expensive. For fifty thousand karma he bought a near-bottomless chakra pool, comparable to even the strongest of tailed beasts, beings that were practically made of it.
Still left with more than half of his points, he proceeded to bloodline limits. He found three categories of them there. Ocular powers, body limits and natural transformations outside the basic five. He knew he could only buy only one of each. He opened the ocular power section and wondered if he should buy anything. On one hand he knew these abilities to be powerful, but on the other he could be hunted for them... well... he had already thrown caution to the wind. Might as well go all the way. He bought one of the two most expensive ones for a whole hundred thousand points and moved on to body.
For his body he wanted something that would help him with espionage rather than anything else. He would be a ninja after all. It¡¯s not all about fighting. But then again¡ nothing seemed suitable. There were several that could be used for fighting and would give him an advantage of some kind, but¡ he didn¡¯t feel any of them were needed. Some came with drawbacks, others were somewhat unsettling. In the end. He didn¡¯t buy a bloodline limit for his body. As for a natural release, after some debate he decided to pick up wood release, understanding that it would do more than just make him able to use wood release techniques. The cost was impressive at twenty thousand, more than any of the other releases.
In the end he reached reincarnation modifiers with around fifty thousand points left. This section was¡ interesting. Rather than connecting to the world it let him first choose what he would be reincarnated as, but¡ most of the choices were free. Human cost one point, and was bought instantly along with male. The soul assumed it meant anyone with a positive karma could revive as one whereas anyone with a negative would get no choice or perhaps would have to choose some kind of animal. The thing is. Some animals in this world had costs as well. There were giant toads, snakes, hawks, though the option of a tailed beast wasn¡¯t there. Which... only made sense really.
There¡ wasn¡¯t much else beyond that. Only one option caught the man¡¯s eye. And that was a simple option called ¡°Prophet¡±. The soul instinctually knew what this choice entailed and that it would allow him to keep some of the instinctive knowledge he had here after he was reincarnated. His knowledge of science, of the world and even some of his sense of self. This was a lifesaver for him, who¡¯s biggest worry was becoming someone else, someone he couldn¡¯t leave all this power to. This option would help him keep his path straight, even if it wouldn¡¯t guarantee it.. And so with ten thousand points, that was bought as well. The forty-four thousand, four hundred and nineteen points left were used to buy various talents that weren¡¯t too useful for his carrier, but were nevertheless something he wouldn¡¯t mind having.
Even after using his remaining points to buy some miscellaneous talents, he failed to spend them all, refusing to buy things he didn¡¯t need even if he could just do so. He did remember that the initial message said the points were accumulated across his lifetimes. In the end, with thirty thousand points remaining, he felt satisfied. The interface closed, and his consciousness faded.
Chapter 1
In an unnamed village in the Land of Fire, a mother held her newborn child. The mother, with bright red hair, green eyes and a slender frame was smiling happily as her husband, black-haired and eyed looked on. Finally, they had been able to have a child. Finally, they could live in peace and in happiness. The child was healthy, a boy. With a short head of red hair akin to his mother.
But the moment the child opened its eyes everything changed. His eyes were blood-red, not only the Iris, but the sclera as well. From the pupil outwards spread out four circles in increasing diameter, the first three of which each held three tomoe separated in equal distance from each other as if to form a perfect triangle if they were connected with straight lines.
However, in a literal blink of an eye it was gone and the normal black eyes of the child revealed themselves only for them to close again as the child went to sleep. Needless to say, the parents were surprised at this. The father instantly recognized it for its resemblance to the sharingan, something his own clan was famous for. But that can¡¯t have been right. Awakening the sharingan in itself was an ordeal, in fact he had not done so himself, choosing a normal life as opposed to that of a shinobi. His wife didn¡¯t fail to see the significance in this either. They were scared, terrified in fact, of what could be wrong.
Could it have been that they had witnessed the birth of a completely new bloodline limit? One never seen before? Or was it something so rare they had never heard of it before? Seeing the lines, the mother had thought of one thing, but it couldn¡¯t have been that. It didn¡¯t fit the description. The third great d¨jutsu wasn¡¯t supposed to look anything like the sharingan. This was something else.
Even as they took care of their son they couldn¡¯t stop worrying about it. But by the time they were tempted to take him to Konoha they found out that the village had faced a crisis. The nine-tailed fox had assaulted it and caused unprecedented amounts of destruction and death. They couldn¡¯t take him there in these circumstances. The village likely had more than enough to deal with their own injured, let alone a child that seemed completely healthy. In the first place, they had no idea how they would even prove that he had this d¨jutsu. He hadn¡¯t performed it once since the first time he had opened his eyes.
Months passed with everything seeming normal. The boy learned to speak at an unusually young age, but his parents were only happy for it. He continued to show promise as he learned to walk before it was usual as well. He was energetic, always crawling, and later even running around the house and when he was allowed to, outside as well. When he was old enough his parents decided to try to teach him to mould chakra. While his father wasn¡¯t a ninja, his mother knew a thing or two, even though she never got the chance to train much, before her village was destroyed and she was left in Konoha. She only really knew Kushina at first, but it had been a long time since then and they had proceeded down two completely different roads. That still didn¡¯t stop her from grieving when she heard that the Fourth Hokage and his wife had perished in the nine-tail attack.
The mother taught her child the tiger seal and asked him to feel his chakra. To her surprise he managed it quickly, even able to direct it to his eyes upon her asking, to see if they would recreate the same jutsu. To her surprise, rather than turning into the eyes they had seen once those two years ago, his iris became blood-red and three tomoe appeared around his pupil. In surprise she called over her husband and asked him to repeat it, shocking him just as much. At two years old, the child had a fully-awakened sharingan and enough chakra and control to maintain it. After a few days, he didn¡¯t even need the handseal to keep it active and he always did until his parents would tell him to stop.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
To the child the world looked so much more attractive when he had his eyes active. He could see so much more, do so much more. He didn¡¯t feel discomfort in it at all. Only wonder. The parents debated, argued even about what to do about this, but eventually the father approached the child with a question.
¡°Son, would you like to become a shinobi?¡± he asked, knowing the answer would probably come in the form of a question.
¡°A shinobi?¡± came the expected answer. The child was only two, he barely knew anything about shinobi, never even having seen one in their small and humble village.
¡°You see, shinobi are¡¡± he started explaining ¡°¡They¡¯re people who help others at any cost. They¡¯re people who train and protect their village and everyone in it.¡±
The child felt something was off with that description, but couldn¡¯t understand what exactly. He was much more concerned with something else. ¡°Would I be able to protect you and mom?¡± He surprised his father, though that surprise quickly turned into a happy smile.
¡°Of course.¡±
¡°Then I want to!¡±
The man felt somewhat guilty about not being able to properly explain what a shinobi is, but even he knew that his son would have to understand. When he¡¯s old enough to attend, the ninja academy would teach him what he couldn¡¯t. He would only truly become a shinobi when he graduated. Dropping out before that wasn¡¯t forbidden. So he hoped that during that time, his son would be able to really decide whether he wanted to stick to the career.
Only a week later, they moved. They had lived in the small village in hopes for peace, but they had to go back to Konoha. The boy¡¯s father had left the Uchiha compound in the past because of this, but learning that his son had awakened his sharingan already at such a young age they welcomed him into the new compound with open arms. ¡°Another genius,¡± they thought. ¡°Could he even surpass Itachi and Shisui?¡± They wondered.
The boy was wowed as he entered the village and ran around in happiness. But that didn¡¯t last for long. The nine-tail attack had only happened two years ago. Signs of destruction still existed, but moreso than in the village, it was apparent on people¡¯s faces. And he was clever enough to notice this.
That didn¡¯t stop his energy though. Upon arriving in the compound and seeing that they would live in a bigger house, he was elated. And now he didn¡¯t need to conceal his sharingan, even if only within Uchiha land. Even as they settled in and his training began, he was only excited to do it. Training was fun, learning to control his chakra, throwing kunai and shuriken, training his body and in taijutsu. All of it was fun to him.
Even though he was too young to even try for the academy entrance exams, he quickly showed skills on par with the average genin, perhaps more. Even if he had no one to learn any jutsu from, he was happy having achieved a high level of chakra control. When he was six, the day he would try out for the academy finally arrived. The entrance exam was easy. Testing out both his physical prowess and his ability with chakra. He passed without any problems and the first day of the academy quickly arrived.
An excitement not unlike what he¡¯d felt when he first arrived in Konoha in his heart, he sat down together with the rest of the students who would make up his class from now on. It was the first day. The first class. Everyone was supposed to introduce themselves and not even the fact that he was forbidden from keeping his eyes activated outside Uchiha grounds took away from his enthusiasm. ¡°Akimichi Choji¡±, ¡°Inuzuka Kiba¡±, ¡°Nara Shikamaru¡±,¡±Uchiha Sasuke¡±, ¡°H-Hy¨±ga Hinata¡±, ¡°Yamanaka Ino¡±. One by one everyone introduced themselves until it became the boy¡¯s turn. He stood up energetically, with an honest smile and spoke ¡°Uchiha Shinkumaru!¡±. That was the name given by his parents. And he would wear it with pride, no matter where that took him.
Chapter 2
Though the lessons of the Academy were simple, Shinkumaru enjoyed them. There was more to the Avademy¡¯s teachings than taijutsu and bukijutsu. Reading, writing, math, science, geography. This was all in the curriculum. Though during wartime the requirements for graduating were much less strict, therefore allowing these lessons to be optional, this has changed since the third great ninja war has ended.
It was the lesson in kunai throwing that was the most boring for him. He could hit the target with his eye closed after having practiced much more difficult kunai throwing by himself. The other students had no such luck, though one came close, attracting Shinkumaru¡¯s attention, though¡ the most attention was attracted by himself. The thrower most adept other than himself was Sasuke Uchiha. Now that he thought about it wasn¡¯t that the son of Fugaku Uchiha? Younger brother of Itachi Uchiha? No way! How could he have not noticed earlier? There was no way he wouldn¡¯t know of those people after living almost four years in the Uchiha compound. He berated himself for having not noticed immediately. He should pay more attention to others. He was there to make friends after all!
It wasn¡¯t just Sasuke that looked interesting. The blonde-haired one that was giving Sasuke the death glare, the fat one that seemed like he was concentrating more on eating his chips than throwing the kunai, there was one that was obviously not even trying, didn¡¯t look to even want to try, honestly. This class was full of colorful personalities. The child had never felt he would enjoy the academy more than when surrounded by these people. The fact that even as he was observing everyone else, he was still hitting the bullseye on his target helped.
The rest of the lessons included handsigns and some physical education, but that was it. No sparring, no fighting. Not yet at least. They would get to that part of the training, but they needed to build up some sort of form first, even if a few of them were already proficient that didn¡¯t go for all of them. The entrance exam certainly didn¡¯t require it, if it did¡ why go there in the first place?
Leaving the academy and walking to the Uchiha compound took a while. The Uchiha were relocated in the very corner of the village after the Nine-tails attack. It was good that the academy was at the foot of the Hokage monument. IF it was any deeper in the village it might have taken hours to walk there without skipping along the rooftops. And if nothing else, he was thankful for the exclusive training grounds the Uchiha were allowed. It wasn¡¯t a bad view either. With the lake in the middle. And it was good for practicing water walking too.
¡°Ah.¡± Shinkumaru suddenly remembered something and stopped. Looking back, surely enough Sasuke was walking behind him, on the same path back home. They were both Uchiha, of course they would be going home in the same direction, up until Uchiha grounds at least. He suddenly got nervous. He¡¯d never talked to someone his age before. How should he approach him? What should he say? ¡®Damn it, Shinku, get yourself together!¡±. He shook his head and walked over to Sasuke.
¡°Hey! I¡¯m Uchiha Shinkumaru!¡± He greeted energetically, trying to cover up his nervousness.
¡°I¡ know. Um. I¡¯m Sasuke.¡± Answered the surprised Uchiha youth, caught slightly off-guard for what to say.
¡°You do? Oh! Because we introduced ourselves earlier?¡±
¡°Well that too¡ But you¡¯re kinda famous, you know.¡± Said Sasuke, almost looking slightly discouraged, or jealous?
¡°I am¡?¡± Shinkumaru had never heard of this. Obviously his parents would never tell him and he didn¡¯t really interact with much people besides that. Maybe people avoided talking about him when he was around? He knew that he had overheard them talk about Itachi at least. Even how he might have killed his best friend, Shisui-san. But¡ that couldn¡¯t have been. Itachi-san seemed scary at a distance, but Shinkumaru didn¡¯t believe he was the type of person that would do that.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡°Mhm. People are saying you¡¯re the next genius after nii-san. Ah¡ Itachi.¡± Sasuke corrected himself, thinking maybe using the pronoun he was used to addressing Itachi with would confuse the other person.
¡°Oh come on. I know your brother. Who doesn¡¯t? Really though? I¡¯ve never heard about that.¡±
¡°You¡¯ve already awakened your sharingan haven¡¯t you? Even my brother hadn¡¯t awakened his at our age¡ so.¡± Of course, someone like Shinkumaru who had awakened his when he was two was unheard of until him.
¡°Yeah, but¡ The sharingan isn¡¯t all that matters. I don¡¯t think I could stand up against Itachi-san in anything else. I mean I don¡¯t even know any ninjutsu yet.¡± Shinkumaru felt he couldn¡¯t be compared to Itachi. Every child in the Uchiha clan saw him as an idol, himself not excluded. There was no way he could compare.
¡°Well¡ yeah. Yeah you¡¯re right! Nii-san is amazing, after all.¡± Sasuke regained some vigour. He was proud of his brother even if he was always in his shadow and he was glad to know that other people saw him in the same light. He was worried about talking to Shinkumaru at first, but it seemed like those worries were unfounded.
¡°Hey, hey. Will you be my friend? I¡¯ve never really made a friend before and I thought maybe since we were in the same clan¡ you know.¡± Shinku suggested. His heart was pounding. Did he word it right? Was he rushing things along too much? Maybe Sasuke would think he only wanted to be friends with him because of his brother? Oh no! That would be terrible! He definitely didn¡¯t want to come across like that. Thankfully, it seemed like that didn¡¯t happen as Sasuke nodded.
¡°W-Well¡ Sure. Let¡¯s be friends.¡± Sasuke said, somewhat embarrassed and causing Shinkumaru¡¯s face to light up in delight.
¡°Really? Then, do you want to train together?¡±
¡°Huh? But¡ you were better than me in everything today¡ won¡¯t training with me be annoying?¡± Sasuke expressed his lack of confidence. Even Itachi didn¡¯t take him training anymore, and even when he used to he would never teach him anything. He was probably annoyed having Sasuke along for training. He couldn¡¯t be bothered training with someone so much worse than him.
¡°No way!¡± Denied Shinkumaru ¡°Even if it¡¯s true I¡¯m better than you at things now, if we train together I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll catch up in no time! But if you ever learn any ninjutsu or stuff from your brother or dad you have to teach me alright? My parents aren¡¯t really shinobi so I have no one to learn from myself.¡±
¡°Really? Alright! So you¡¯ll teach me the things you already know?¡±
¡°I promise to do my best!¡±
The two talked more on their way home, bonding over their mutual admiration of Sasuke¡¯s brother and the policies of their clan, how they hoped they could in the future become great shinobi to protect the peace. Sasuke was a shy child, but he gradually got used to Shinku¡¯s more energetic personality. Getting to the compound Shinku stopped to buy some dango from a shop, run by a kind old lady he would frequent and was surprised to learn from Sasuke that they¡¯re one of itachi¡¯s favorite foods. Sasuke also decided to buy a few himself, hoping to maybe offer them to his brother in case he came back home that day.
Walking further through the compound they eventually split up as they live in different directions, deciding to meet up again tomorrow on the way to the Academy. Shinkumaru had been having so much fun he realized he had completely forgotten to activate his sharingan, though after remembering how defeated Sasuke looked at the fact that he had already awakened it, he decided against it.
Entering his home he announced that he was back before entering the living room, where his family would gather to eat together, being right next to the kitchen.
¡°Welcome back, Shinku. How was your first day at the academy?¡± His mother greeted from the next room, while his father seemed lost in thought, sitting at the table and staring into empty space. He had been doing that more and more often lately.
¡°It was fun! We learned some new stuff, and we had shuriken and kunai throwing practice, then we ran around some for exercise and we practiced hand seals. And I even made friends with Sasuke!¡±
¡°Sasuke?¡± His father chimed in, seemingly snapped out of his stupor ¡°Captain Fugaku¡¯s son?¡±
¡°Mhm!¡± Shinku nodded deeply.
¡°I see¡ What did you talk about?¡±
¡°Um. About training together, about his brother and¡ about the clan I guess.¡±
¡°Did he tell you anything new?¡±
¡°Mhm!¡± The answered, his father flinching slightly. ¡°Apparently Itachi-san really likes dango! Which reminds me. I bought some on the way back.¡± He put the bag of dango on the table as his dad relaxed, relief written all over him.
¡°Is that?¡± he smiled somewhat weakly ¡°I hope you have fun with him then.¡±
¡°Mhm!¡± The child answered innocently, not understanding what his dad was worried about. Completely unaware that it was what would lead to an unprecedented disaster for the whole of the clan. One that would remain in history forever. A massacre.
Chapter 3
Sasuke ducked with all his might, avoiding a fist only to find that a leg was already aiming to sweep him off his feet, jumping up and backwards he did a backflip before pushing off the ground with his hands and landing on his feet once more. This time it was him who kicked at his still-crouched opponent, aiming to hit his chin only to have him adjust his head slightly so that the attack barely misses, before leaning further backwards, making a bridge from his body he pushed up with his legs aiming to hit Sasuke with them on their way up. Sasuke, already off balance from his kick, failed to dodge, falling backwards onto his back as his opponent straightened up into a handstand, jumping up with his arms and landing back on his feet, similarly to how Sasuke had done only a second ago.
Sasuke sighed as he got up into a sitting position ¡°You got me again.¡± It had been more than a year ever since they entered the academy and became friends, yet Sasuke had never managed to win a single spar against his clanmate.
Shinku smiled ¡°But you¡¯ve gotten way better haven¡¯t you?¡±
¡°Still nowhere as good as you...¡±
¡°Then you only have to keep working don¡¯t you?¡±
¡°I guess... I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be better than you, but I¡¯ll still do my best to be worthy of the Uchiha name.¡±
Shinku nodded ¡°That¡¯s the spirit. Well, not that I¡¯ll mind if you aim higher than me.¡± And extended his arm to Sasuke. As Sasuke grabbed it, Shinku pulled him up and they both locked their right hand¡¯s index and middle fingers together, the same fingers they¡¯d used to make the one-handed earth seal, better known to students of the academy as the seal of confrontation, before they began the spar.
¡°It¡¯s already gotten dark.¡± Noted Sasuke, not having noticed while caught up in his training
¡°Oh boy... looks like we got carried away... Dad¡¯s gonna be mad...¡± Sasuke himself became palefaced thinking how his mother would react.
¡°L-Let¡¯s go back...¡±
¡°Yeah. Better late than never.¡±
Leaving the Uchiha training ground, they headed straight to the compound. The full moon was out and the night was well-lit compared to most. Though it could also be taken as ominous.
¡°Hm?¡± Sasuke stopped and looked up as they were walking through the streets. Shinku stopped and followed his sight but found nothing but an electric post. He tilted his head slightly.
¡°What¡¯s wrong.¡±
¡°I just... thought... Huh?¡± He suddenly noticed something else ¡°The lights are out¡¡± Shinku looked around as if to confirm this.
¡°You¡¯re right. Weird. It¡¯s not really late enough for everyone to sleep yet.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s hurry up.¡± Sasuke suggested, receiving a nod from Shinku before they ran forward.
They ran through the streets only to turn a corner and suddenly stop.
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°What?¡±
They both exclaimed in shock at the street littered with unmoving bodies of people from the clan. The old lady from the dango store, her husband, several other people Shinku had seen around the clan. What happened? Sasuke seemed to be thinking the same before he suddenly exclaimed.
¡°Dad! Mom!¡± And he ran forward. Shinku froze. That¡¯s right. His parents. He needed to check on them. But Sasuke¡ He couldn¡¯t leave him alone. He didn¡¯t have time to think. Cursing in his mind, he ran after his friend.
¡°Sasuke!¡± He shouted, though it went unheard. Running through street after street littered with bodies of members of the clan, Shinku finally caught up as Sasuke reached his home and opened the door. He went inside.
¡°Mom? Dad? Are you home?¡± He yelled as he took his shoes off. Shinku hesitated before doing the same and following Sasuke inside the house. They checked the kitchen first, but they weren¡¯t there, neither were they in the living room. Though as they entered it they suddenly heard a thud from somewhere. Sasuke quickly ran, following the sound, Shinku on his tail.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
¡°Dad! Mom!¡± He yelled as he threw open the doors of their bedroom. But what he found were the bloodied figures of his parents laid out on the floor. They only received a brief moment to process this as a man stepped out of the shadows. No, not a man. He was a child just like them, only not even five years older than Sasuke.
¡°Nii-san?¡±
¡°Itachi-san?¡±
Both children exclaimed.
¡°Nii-san! Dad and mom are! I don¡¯t understand¡ Why? Who would do such a thi-¡° He was interrupted as a shuriken spun past the two, cutting slightly into Sasuke¡¯s shoulder.
¡°Nii¡san?¡±
Shinku understood from the moment he saw him. Unlike Sasuke he couldn¡¯t deceive himself. He shivered in fear. Neither of them truly knew what Itachi was capable of, but what both of them knew was that they wouldn¡¯t be his match no matter what. Shinku activated his sharingan, he couldn¡¯t not. The next attack could be the last.
¡°Nii-san¡ what are you-¡° Sasuke couldn¡¯t finish his sentence, interrupted again, as Itachi¡¯s sharingan spun into a pinwheel shape rather than the normal three tomoe one. Sasuke suddenly screamed in terror and pain before collapsing on the ground.
¡°Sasuke?! What-¡° Shinku felt something impact his stomach, as he flew out the doors and into the house¡¯s garden. He didn¡¯t even see it coming. The one moment he took his eyes off Itachi was the moment it happened. He picked himself up, coughing out mucus and only barely managing to hold himself back from vomiting.
¡°Nii¡san. Why¡ would you do something like this¡?¡± Sasuke managed to ask, still lieing down on the ground.
¡°To measure my abilities.¡± His brother answered for the first time.
¡°Just¡ that? For something like that¡ you¡ killed everyone?¡±
¡°It was an important thing.¡±
Sasuke stood up shakily.
¡°Wai-!¡± Shinku tried to shout, but was interrupted as Sasuke yelled in rage and raised his hand against his older brother, only to get punched in the chest, the pain and shock of the impact almost robbing him of his consciousness. As Itachi retracted his fist and Sasuke fell to the floor he walked out towards Shinku, who had finally managed to get to his feet.
Laying on the floor as itachi moved towards one of his only friends, no doubt intending to kill him, the unmoving form of his parents reflected in Sasuke¡¯s eyes as tears started streaming from them. Regaining his consciousness, he quickly stood in a crouch and ran out screaming, overcome in fear. Itachi didn¡¯t look back at this for a second. Shinku gulped down his fear.
¡°My parents¡¡± Shinku hesitated¡ ¡°Did you do the same to my parents too?¡± Itachi looked into his eyes without answering, but that was everything Shinku needed to hear. He clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes, trying to hold back his tears. But his look quickly turned into that of determination. He couldn¡¯t die yet. Not there. Not then. He knew he was no match for Itachi. Instead of trying to do anything about him he jumped up and backwards. A shuriken flew towards him, but with his fully awakened sharingan no matter how fast it was, Shinku could see it. He was too slow to intercept it with one of his own, but he pulled out a kunai from his bag and slashed at the shuriken, deflecting it. Landing on the wall of the house he jumped down onto the street and ran.
Before he died he needed to see for himself. He needed to see his parents. Even if they were really dead. He had to confirm this with his own eyes, or else it wouldn¡¯t click for him.He wouldn''t be able to die in peace without confirming it with his own eyes. Shinku ran through the dead Uchiha compound. He ran until he reached his house, throwing the door open, he no longer had shoes to take off, simply running inside and to his parents¡¯ bedroom.
Throwing open the door he witnessed, just like Sasuke¡¯s parents, his own were both on the ground, their eyes lifeless, blood seeping from the the deep wounds in their necks. Shinku¡¯s eyes narrowed as he attempted to hold back his tears once more, this time failing miserably asthey started leaking. He walked over to his parents and fell to his knees as tears streamed down his cheeks, sniffing and sobbing.
He gently embraced the two lifeless corpses. They were still warm. The warmth of an already faded life. Why did they die? Why had Itachi killed them? To measure his own vessel. Truly? Just for that? Was it really that easy to take a life? As he questioned he heard a creak from behind him, slowly turning his head around he came to look at Itachi standing in the doorway.
The one most surprised wasn¡¯t Shinku though, but Itachi himself, his eyes slightly widening as he watched the young boy¡¯s tears become bloody, the tomoeof his sharingan spinning once into a pinwheel shape and then again, further into an even more complicated shape, as if combining the previous with another different one. Itachi hesitated. Here he was, a child with the mangekyo sharingan, something he had awoken from seeing his best friend throw himself to his death of his own accord. No matter how firm his resolve this was beyond his expectations. He knew the pain that was needed, both to awaken the sharingan and then the pain beyond that in order to awaken the mangekyo. But it didn¡¯t matter. He had to finish what he started. Only Sasuke was to be allowed to live. He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.
Itachi stepped forward drawing his sword. Shinku let go of what remained of his parents and stood up. Shinku lamented. Why? Why couldn¡¯t he at least let him mourn in peace? It was his fault. All his fault. Because he was here. As Itachi rushed towards him a ribcage surrounded Shinku along with a deep blue chakra. Itachi¡¯s sword struck it and failed miserably to pierce it. A skeletal arm formed next, swinging its fist towards the slayer of the Uchiha clan.
¡°Go awaaaay!¡± Shinku yelled from the bottom of his lungs and though Itachi dodged the attack the fist struck through the door, opening a gaping hole in the wall. Shinku turned, the arm following Itachi, ripping through the wall as it head for Shinku¡¯s former idol, who ran out of the way throwing four kunai at the child, two blocked by the ribcage¡¯s slight movements while the remaining two are deflected by the kunai in Shinku¡¯s hands.
¡°Go away, go away, go away!¡± He yelled again and again as the second blue skeletal arm finally formed and struck its fist out towards the running Itachi, anticipating his movement. Itachi stopped and rolled backwards out of its way and under the other arm. He looked the child in the eyes, preparing to cast a genjutsu upon him when the ceiling suddenly collapsed, too much of the walls having been destroyed for them to support that part of the building anymore.
Jumping out from one of the holes the skeletal arms had created in the walls itachi quickly found a place on the roof of a nearby building to overlook the collapsed section of the house as he pondered. If the child had survived, if he grew up in this village and remained loyal to it, he would become a great aid to Konoha when the village needed him. The child was too young to know anything. He should retain the original ideals of the Uchiha. If that¡¯s the case, it would be for the best that he be left alive.
As he observed the rubble move and a piece of it rise together with Shinku, Itachi closed his eyes and disappeared.
As Shinku rose from the debris he tried once again to summon whatever it is he summoned before. The ribcage formed around him followed by an arm, which started picking up the rubble until he found his parents underneath, taking them out from the collapse he caused himself, he let them down gently on the ground. But what if he did? What should he do now? Bury them? Where? On the side of the street? In the nearest park? No¡ Konoha should organize a funeral to honour the death of the clan. Where even was Konoha? Where were the shinobi? Where was the help? Why was nobody here? Knowing nothing, he began to wander. Observing the death throughout the compound. He wandered and wandered. All the way until morning. As he turned a corner for the thousandth time he came face to face with Sasuke.
Looking at each other they both looked terrible, their eyes looked dead, with bags under them. In one night they had both seen the death of their clan and experienced true fear of death. They were alone now. They had nobody to turn to but each other. They were the Uchiha clan.
Chapter 4
The downfall of the Uchiha clan was met by Konoha with a grand funeral, many people having gathered to mourn their friends or the clan as a whole. The Third Hokage gave a speech about the importance of the clan and stated his admiration for their ideals before he joined everyone in mourning. The only two survivors looked like they wanted to be there the least. Shinku himself didn¡¯t know what he was doing there. Perhaps neither of them did. Their lives had changed so much in that one night, both completely lost. No. In truth Sasuke had already found his answer. He would cling to what Itachi had told him, he would hate him, despise him and seek vengeance. Because if he didn¡¯t he had nothing else to live for anymore.
But what about Shinku? Revenge¡ wasn¡¯t really as attractive a goal in his eyes. Itachi needed to be brought to justice, but that was irrelevant from what he wanted to do. He didn¡¯t even think about dedicating his life to something so shallow. His thoughts spun in a different direction. To Konoha, to how they had allowed this to happen. But they weren¡¯t thoughts of revenge. Rather. He didn¡¯t want such a thing to ever occur again. If he couldn¡¯t trust the current village to have prevented this, then there¡¯s something wrong with the leadership. He looked at the Third, but no matter how much he observed him, he seemed like he was genuinely sad to see this outcome. That wasn¡¯t acting. If it was he should receive an award.
Then? The Hokage was the one who ruled the village right? If he seemed like he would have prevented this, but didn¡¯t then who¡¯s at fault? Whoever it was, Shinku would find out. If Sasuke would bring justice to the executioner, then Shinku would seek justice for the one who allowed the execution. There was no way Itachi could have massacred the whole clan without any sort of interference. But there were no deaths outside clan members. If there wasn¡¯t any sort of interference, someone must have prevented it. Someone allowed it to happen. Shinku would see to it that the truth in the matter is brought to light. And if nothing else, he had utmost confidence in his eyes.
The funeral eventually ended. Everyone left as the two funeral-attire-clad children didn¡¯t move a muscle. Even if they left now where would they go? Shinku didn¡¯t want to be there, but even if he ran back home what would he find there? A house half-destroyed by none other than himself and no one to greet him. Everyone now lay under the very ground he was standing on. As they stood there the Third approached them both, flinching mentally as the fully activated sharingan of Shinku met his eyes. He crouched in front of the two kids.
¡°I heard you wanted to go back to the Academy tomorrow. You can rest a few more days, you know.¡± The old man suggested.
¡°No. we can¡¯t neglect our studies for too long.¡± Answered Shinku, his eyes observing Hiruzen¡¯s every miniature movement.
¡°That¡¯s right¡ We need to become stronger, then graduate and become fully-fledged shinobi.¡± Sasuke chimed in.
¡°I¡ see.¡± The Third expressed disappointment. Shinku also detected guilt in what he said. What was that guilt of? Guilt for not being able to prevent this? Or guilt from purposefully allowing it to happen? No. If it was the second, he wouldn¡¯t express it so blatantly. There would be more of an attempt to hide it, even if subconscious. Again, Shinku failed to find evidence of the old man being responsible for this. ¡°Then¡ can I ask you to come to the Hokage office tomorrow? After school? I want to hear what happened from your perspective. If you don¡¯t want to talk about it, we can put this off¡¡± He couldn¡¯t put this off forever though. He needed to eventually question them. He thought that he might as well get it out of the way.
¡°No. I¡¯ll come.¡±
¡°There¡¯s¡ nothing I can say that Shinku can¡¯t¡¡± Sasuke expressed. Shinkumaru¡¯s story was much more impressive than his own. He had simply been caught by Itachi and knocked out. But what about him? After Sasuke had run off in fear Shinku had fought with Itachi and managed to force him away. Nothing like himself, who¡¯d just been told he wasn¡¯t even worth killing.
¡°I see¡ I¡¯m sure the two of you have exchanged stories. How about it Shinkumaru-kun, could you tell me what happened that night?¡± Hiruzen invited, getting a nod from the red-haired child. Hiruzen gave them both a pat on the head, before standing up. ¡°Then I¡¯ll see you then. Make sure to rest today. If you really intend to go to the Academy tomorrow, you won¡¯t be able to concentrate if you¡¯re exhausted.¡± He said before leaving the two boys to themselves.Stolen story; please report.
The two stayed there for some time more. They didn¡¯t really mourn. They just stood, still aimless and confused, it took several hours, until the sun started setting, for the two to finally decide to go ¡°home¡±. Their ¡°home¡± was now supposed to be Sasuke¡¯s house. They would receive some support from the village, but they had honestly inherited most of the Uchiha clan¡¯s funds. They didn¡¯t need much in the form of financial support.
Shinku had tried to dissuade Sasuke from still living in that house, but he vehemently refused, eventually forcing Shinku to accept. Shinku knew it wouldn¡¯t be healthy for Sasuke to remain there, but he couldn¡¯t be shaken on the decision. Living in that house he would be constantly reminded of his family, of what Itachi did, of his hatred, of his betrayal. That way he wouldn¡¯t forget his new goal. He wouldn¡¯t forget how he felt that night.
Shinku would rather forget, but it seemed too difficult to do so either way. Even if he did forget how he felt, that won¡¯t stop him from finding the one responsible. The two barely managed to sleep again that night, assaulted by nightmares, haunting them both in their wake and in their sleep. In the morning the two set out for the academy. Shinku didn¡¯t bother deactivating his sharingan anymore. He had no reason to. The people who had told him not to were gone and he had much graver things to hide.
It seemed like the children in the Academy hadn¡¯t heard about the incident. Maybe their parents kept it from them, or maybe they just didn¡¯t understand exactly what it meant. The two didn¡¯t know, but they didn¡¯t talk about it either way. They preferred it not be mentioned. The most they did was come off as more unsociable than usual. Sasuke especially, as Shinku at least tried to pretend to smile when others approached him. Sparring in Taijutsu class felt more boring to Shinku than ever. He didn¡¯t even feel like setting a handicap for himself today so he would actually benefit from it. As for Sasuke, he was challenged once again by the spiky yellow-haired one. Naruto Uzumaki, Shinku remembered. He hadn¡¯t interacted much with him himself, but he was too loud and too stand-offish to not remember the name. Not to mention he was an Uzumaki just like Shinku¡¯s own mother. Even if he was missing the signature red hair. Of course, Sasuke won without a problem.
Classes went by much the same. Shinku absentmindedly surviving through them, lacking his usual energy. Everybody seemed to stare at him whenever they got the chance. Or, to be exact, they stared at his eyes, Shinku refusing to turn his sharingan off even there. The sharingan was something he should be proud of as his Uchiha heritage, not something he should hide for no reason. Even if it did consume chakra, to him the amount was insignificant, and after years of practice the concentration needed to keep it active was practically non-existent. To him, to have his sharingan turned off felt more unnatural than having it on.
After classes, ended Sasuke and Shinku split up. Thankfully for him, the Hokage office was right next to the academy. The guards let him inside without even stopping him, and finding his way to the office was no herculean task, requiring only him asking for directions once. Opening the door, he met once more with the Third. He walked inside the room and closed the door behind himself.
¡°Ah, Shinkumaru-kun. Good day.¡±
¡°Good day¡¡± Shinku answered unenthusiastically. Hiruzen cleared his throat.
¡°So you¡¯ve come. I assume you¡¯re ready to relay what happened that night?¡± Shinku simply nodded in response and began retelling.
¡°Me and Sasuke were out training. We had gotten carried away and stayed back until later than usual. Realising this we hurried back to the Uchiha grounds, but by the time we arrived we found everyone had already been killed, bodies littering the streets. Sasuke hurried to his house, and not wanting to leave him by himself I ran after him. After searching the normal rooms in his house we heard a thud and quickly following the noise, we arrived at the bedroom of Sasuke¡¯s parents, inside of which we encountered Itachi, standing over the corpses o Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto. During the encounter itachi¡¯s sharingan seemed to change shape into something completely different from the usual, before Sasuke screamed in terror and collapsed. In the moment I was distracted by that, I was also thrown out of the room. After failing to attack Itachi, Sasuke ran away. I later learned from him that the reason he had screamed was because he was thrown into a genjutsu by his brother where he was forced to observe him killing everybody in the clan in real time and after running away, he was simply intercepted and knocked out.¡± He paused to give the Third a moment for this to set in, closely observing his reaction.
¡°As for myself, I managed to run away from Itachi and ran towards my house, where I set a trap for him using explosive tags to collapse the bedroom on top of him. Unfortunately, he easily evaded said trap and I was the only one buried under the debris. He might have thought that I was dead from that because I didn¡¯t encounter him afterwards. That was the last either of us saw of him.¡± Shinku hadn¡¯t taken long to come up with this story, not wanting to reveal the skeletal creature he could create and control. He had even gone back to his house once again to scorch parts of the rubble with the great fireball jutsu he had learned from Sasuke a few months prior, in order to make it believable.
¡°I see¡ Thank you for relaying this to me. I know it must have been difficult.¡± He wasn¡¯t wrong. Remembering the night was by no means pleasant for Shinku even if he feigned otherwise. Seeing that he received no reaction the Third continued. ¡°You can go home now. Rest well.¡± With a nod Shinku turned around and left.
He didn¡¯t immediately return home, rather heading to a heavily forested training ground. He checked very carefully for anybody following him, and was correct as he found traces of people trailing behind him. ANBU, he guessed by the fact that he never could see their forms. It was unfortunate, but he couldn¡¯t test his new capabilities further yet. Not with them watching. Instead he began a normal training session. But with time. Their guards would drop, he would stop being observed and he would finally be able to advance. What he just needed was time, time which he had close to five years of. He just needed to wait, patiently. That was what being a shinobi was about, after all.
Chapter 5
Days came and went. Time flowed like a river, eventually arriving to the point of the Academy graduation. Nearly five years had passed since the massacre of the Uchiha clan. Shinku looked back at those years as he walked towards the academy to receive his graduation test. He was alone today. Sasuke had gone ahead. If Shinku had to say, he thought he¡¯d come far in these five years, but this was only the beginning. He was only now standing at the starting line.
After the Uchiha funeral, Shinku¡¯s life progressed steadily with little troubles. He would often train together with Sasuke and on the rare occasions he wasn¡¯t under observation he would practice the powers he wished to keep secret, even from his own best friend. At least until the time to reveal them came. At first, his biggest problem was the lack of jutsu to learn. Even receiving the scrolls of the Uchiha clan only gave him a variety of fire techniques which he learned one after the other, but he had nowhere to learn other jutsu from. He supposed he was being a bit greedy. Just what he had was already impressive, even if it was far from satisfying the genius academy student.
He eventually found his answer as they started teaching more about ninjutsu at the academy. They learned about a variety of jutsu and although it was only on paper, they were supposed to learn the seals for the jutsu as well as their effects, which was enough for the red-haired prodigy to practice them in his spare time. As the years passed, the vigilance of his observers became more and more lenient, simultaneously giving him more and more chances to practice with his advanced sharingan, becoming familiar with its abilities.
Already an incredibly capable shinobi, ahead of his peers by leaps and bounds and only widening the gap, some even questioned if Shinku shouldn¡¯t be allowed to graduate already, but with Itachi¡¯s betrayal, the academy had gotten even stricter with early graduation due to overwhelming abilities, not to mention that when he was asked, he himself expressed his wishes to remain in the academy and graduate with his peers. Much unlike a fellow student with spiky blonde hair who had taken the academy test twice and failed just as many.
Sasuke and Shinku became like brothers after the incident, they lived together and spent much time together, and that bond tightened with time. Though Shinku hoped Sasuke would make other friends as well, the younger brother of Itachi kept mostly to himself, becoming even more introverted than he was prior the Uchiha¡¯s downfall. He only really opened up in front of Shinku and even that became a rare event with passing time, as Sasuke focused himself more on his goal of defeating Itachi. Shinku, taking his example focused on his own goal as well, doing some research.
He quickly learned that although the Hokage was the public face of the village and was the highest authority in the village in most people¡¯s eyes, it wasn¡¯t confidential that the Hokage had a council of advisors. A council that surely disputed amongst themselves. The members of this council included the Third Hokage¡¯s former team members under the teachings of the second Hokage Senju Tobirama, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu. As well as his former rival Shimura Danzo. There was a high possibility one of them could have been responsible for allowing the Uchiha massacre as they hold authority and respect in the public¡¯s eyes only second to that of the Hokage. Even if Hiruzen had learned afterwards that they had commanded someone not to act upon discovering Itachi, it would have been too late to do anything about it. Interestingly enough Shimura Danzo was removed from the council by the Hokage, shortly after the Uchiha downfall. Shinku narrowed his eyes in suspicion at this, but he had no proof. Not proof for others to be shown, but proof for himself to be convinced that this was indeed the target of his hostility.
This brought a new problem to the table though. And that was that in order to give such an order, this person must have known about Itachi¡¯s betrayal before it happened. Shinku clenched his teeth in rage upon considering this possibility. No matter how much he¡¯d been able to calm his emotions over the years he was still a child, a deeply traumatized one, one who was forced to grow up prematurely and in an uncontrolled direction. That his emotions ran wild from time to time was no surprise. If anything was a wonder, it that he usually managed to remain composed in most situations.
Pursuing the matter further though, couldn¡¯t be done. He would have to become a shinobi first, become a shinobi and rise through the ranks. What did he need to become to gain more information on this? Chunin? Jonin? ANBU? Perhaps even Hokage? In any case he wouldn¡¯t miss an opportunity to gain more information on the subject. As a child, he was too helpless to acquire any such chance. But he couldn¡¯t rush growing up either. He needed to bide his time. To be patient. He once more reminded himself of this as he chanted within his mind ¡®For that is what being a shinobi is about.¡¯If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
The occasional visits to the Konoha library weren¡¯t solely to learn more about the Hokage and the governing of the village however. During his stays there, Shinku had found a fascination for medical ninjutsu. With it he could be a big help in any team. Medical ninjutsu was something that would be welcomed anywhere with open arms, but it required a ridiculous amount of fine chakra control and knowledge of the human body, two things Shinkuhadn''t particularly focused on. Sure he had a bottomless chakra pool and he''d done excercises like wallclimbing and waterwalking even before the massacre, but he had never done anything with the honest intention of practicing chakra control in particular.Not that this stopped him from pursuing it, he practiced chakra-control on his own. It was something he could do even if his observers were there. Reading books on medicine, on biology and on the jutsu, when he was eventually confident enough he even injured himself in order to create injuries to practice on. There was a limit to how good he could become without official training, but through practice and perseverance, he managed to learn to heal various injuries, from cuts, to bruises. Anything more advanced than that, he couldn¡¯t allow testing with his own body as failure would come at too great a cost, but he should be able to heal if not a fatal injury and given enough time.
And here he was. After five years of preparations, he was standing in front of the Academy, in front of the starting line of his shinobi career. He stepped inside and made his way down the hallways to his classroom. Most were already there, but a few people were still missing. Sasuke himself was there already, but the two Uchiha only needed a single glance to acknowledge each other.
Shinku walked down the aisle and sat down in his usual seat. Minutes passed as more people arrived in the classroom, the instructor, Iruka, included. When everybody had finally gathered, Iruka started speaking.
¡°Now then. We are going to begin the graduation test. Those whose name is called, proceed into the next room. Furthermore, the subject of the test has been decided to be on the clone jutsu.¡±
Shinku wasn¡¯t impressed. The clone jutsu was simple and not incredibly useful. The clones didn¡¯t even have a form. They were only a visual distraction. That didn¡¯t mean they were useless, but they weren¡¯t realistic enough. Experienced shinobi would be able to tell a clone at a glance without even the need for any special dojutsu, let alone someone with the sharingan or, even worse, the byakugan.
Iruka called the first name before stepping into the next room together with the student. Then came back and called out the next. And so on. It was eventually Shinku¡¯s turn. Opening the door to the next room, instructor Mizuki was sat behind a desk, with Iruka walking over and sitting next to him. Shinku entered the room and stood in front of the two.
¡°Um¡ so. Do I need to do a normal clone technique?¡± asked Shinku, thinking that would be too easy. Iruka and Mizuki looked at each other then back at him.
¡°You have something else you can demonstrate?¡± Iruka asked, receiving a nod in reply.
Shinku put his hands together into the tiger seal. ¡®Water Clone Jutsu¡¯ he chanted in his head, three streams of water rising around him and shaping themselves into his form, then gaining color, looking exactly like him. Iruka and Mizuki¡¯s eyes widened.
¡°A water clone!¡± iruka exclaimed ¡°That¡¯s a C-rank jutsu!¡±
¡°Yes. Since we learned about it in class, I practiced it some.¡±
¡°Practiced it some¡¡± A sigh came from him. He should have been used to this from Shinku by now. There was no way he wouldn¡¯t graduate. This test was a formality in front of him. Iruka picked up a head protector with the Konoha symbol on it as well as a sheet of paper and handed them to Shinku. ¡°Congratulations. From today on you¡¯re officially a genin of the village. If it¡¯s you I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll catch up to us chunin in no time though.¡± He laughed.
Shinku bowed to iruka in respect and gratitude as he picked up the protector and tied it around his head, before taking the paper as well. ¡®Ninja Registration Form huh?¡¯.
¡°The orientation is in a week. Be sure to fill and submit the registration form by then.¡±
Shinku nodded before leaving. A number of people had gathered on the outside, in front of the entrance. Graduated classmates and some of their parents. Shinku was going to ignore them and head out to train, when he noticed a familiar spiky-haired idiot on the swing opposite the academy, looking defeated. Did he fail? Now that he thought about it the clone jutsu was always something he had trouble with. Shinku pondered what to do. He was about to step forward and try and cheer him up when Mizuki approached him first, starting a conversation.
¡®¡Well. Mizuki-sensei will probably do something about it.¡¯ He thought and went back to heading to the training grounds. His pursuers were missing. Perhaps he could have a go at using his advanced sharingan today. Ahhh, he needs to take a picture for the registration form too. So annoying. It was as he was pondering such insignificant matters that Shinku greeted his first day as a genin. But it was without a doubt that the starting line had now been crossed, and there was no going back.
Chapter 6
Shinkumaru opened the classroom door and walked in, Sasuke following after him. They each sat in their appropriate seats, though they were on opposite sides of the room. Shinku was amused to find Sasuke sitting next to Naruto who was there with a headband just like everyone else. Shikamaru even questioned his presence which Naruto didn¡¯t miss as a chance to brag about somehow making it. Why was he depressed then? Well. It doesn¡¯t matter. Shinku quite liked his spirit and his competitions with Sasuke were a constant source of entertainment.
Speaking of competitions, the door burst open as Ino and Sakura forced themselves inside the room and started arguing about who entered first, only to move on to fawning over Sasuke. Shinku was proud that his brother, er, best friend had so many female admirers. Even if none of them seemed like a good match for him, not to mention Sasuke probably didn¡¯t think of them as anything but annoying. Shinku was just glad his admirers at least kept their distance. Whoever they were¡ Shinku sighed.
That being said they weren¡¯t there to joke around. Today was finally the day teams would be announced. Shinku was looking forward to that, probably more so than anyone else in that room. That¡¯s why even as everyone raised a commotion about something, so much so that he even heard Sasuke himself having a yelling match with Naruto about something, Shinku simply closed his eyes and waited. Patience was the greatest virtue a ninja could have after all. He nodded to himself.
Eventually Iruka entered the room and looked across the students, sighing to himself as his eyes fell on Naruto¡¯s bruised and swollen, beaten face. He cleared his throat.
¡°As of today, you all have become full-fledged ninja. However, you¡¯re all still only rookie genin. The difficult part has only just begun. From now on, you will form squads of three and carry out missions under the guidance of your jonin teachers.¡± This raised a commotion among the class as people started discussing, the team arrangements. Who would be placed with who and who people would like to be placed with. Iruka continued after everybody quieted down.
¡°The teams have been decided by us, in order to maintain a balance of power between the teams. I will now announce them.¡± He started reading out the teams and names from the lists he was holding.
¡°Team Seven. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke.¡± Shinku almost laughed out loud. ¡®So Sasuke¡¯s on a team with someone he finds annoying and then also his biggest annoyance since the day we entered the academy.¡¯ That was a laugh. But he supposed if the groups were made based on a balance of power, that it made sense. But who would they put with him? Oh no. Wouldn¡¯t that mean he¡¯d get the most useless teammates, being by far the best-scoring student? Shinkumaru was suddenly not in a laughing mood anymore.
¡°Next is team eight. Hyuga Hinata. Inuzuka Kiba. Aburame Shino. Team nine. Uchiha Shinkumaru. Kurino Reiha, Sekka Asahi.¡± Huh? Who? Shinku looked around, seeing two people looking at him. He understood those were his teammates. Reiha was a girl with somewhat long, straight black hair and a reserved demeanor. Not in the same cold front Sasuke put up, but more of a shy one, though not to the same degree as the Hyuga girl either. That was just¡ overkill. Asahi was a guy with dark brown hair, tied in a short ponytail behind his head. He¡ well Shinku wasn¡¯t sure what to think of him. He just seemed¡ normal.
He had never interacted with either of the two before and knew nothing about them. Of all the people in the class the two seemed to be one of the ones to have no presence at all. Well, Shinku guessed that wasn¡¯t exactly right, but with such colorful personalities in the class, the blander people felt¡ just that much blander. Shikamaru was constantly lazy, but Shinku could occasionally challenge him to a game of shogi. He could talk with Choji about food and he even talked with Ino some about flowers, having studied some for their medical properties. There was nothing he could speak with Sakura with, but the girl¡¯s bright and colorful appearance attracted attention if nothing else. Hinata was too shy to hold a proper conversation with. Shino was¡ Shino. Kiba¡ only talked about dogs¡ Why did Shinku hang out with some of these people again? Now that he thought about it these normal people being on his team might have been a blessing in disguise.
While Shinku was lost in thought Iruka finished announcing the rest of the teams. ¡°That¡¯s it for the team announcements. Return in the afternoon for me to introduce you to your Jonin teachers. Until then you¡¯re free.¡±
Everyone stood up from their seats and started walking out, some people with their team, others with people they already know. Shinku himself met up with Sasuke and the two of them went out to eat. As Sasuke suggested, they bought riceballs from a store and went up to the second floor to eat them. The place was empty and Sasuke stared out the window as he ate.
¡°Seems like you got a team with some interesting people.¡± Shinku commented.
¡°Those two? Interesting? Yeah, right.¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
¡°Come oooon. Don¡¯t be so cold. I¡¯m sure you and Naruto can get along and uh¡ Sakura¡ can be there too.¡±
¡°Why would I get along with a useless guy like that?¡±
¡°Who knows. Maybe he¡¯ll become ¡°useful¡± down the road.¡± Sasuke didn¡¯t answer. Shinku knew his friend wasn¡¯t being honest. The truth was he was fond of Naruto. What did they call this kind of thing? Tsundere? That¡¯s right. That¡¯s what Sasuke was being. Well. Maybe they would warm up to each other eventually.
¡°Hmm?¡± Wondered Shinku out loud, as he saw Naruto in the window behind Sasuke, jumping in and knocking the stick keeping the window open off, causing it to close. Naruto attempted to overpower Sasuke, holding a rope only to get overpowered and tied up in turn. Well Sasuke was better at Taijutsu than Naruto by far, after all. But... Shinku having his sharingan activated, as always, saw that the one outmaneuvered was Sasuke, the Naruto in the rope turning into a log before Sasuke was jumped on by six clones¡ no Shadow clones. Then he watched as Naruto transformed into Sasuke and snuck back out the window, leaving the real one tied up on the floor with his mouth shut.
¡°What¡?¡± Was the only word that came to Shinku¡¯s mind at that moment.
¡°Mmmph!¡± Sasuke tried to say something through the tape, not allowing him to speak.
¡°Ah. Right.¡± Well. Whatever. Shinku was just thankful to Naruto for showing him how to perform the shadow clone jutsu. He¡¯d never been able to find the instructions on using it so seeing it performed live through the sharingan was quite nice. He crouched down in front of Sasuke and peeled the tape shutting his mouth off.
¡°Why didn¡¯t you do anything?!¡± Sasuke suddenly shouted.
¡°Well. I mean¡ I don¡¯t know. I guess I¡¯m kind of used to it? You know¡ with you and Naruto constantly going at it. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen him get the better of you though.¡±
¡°Shut up! That was just because¡ he¡¯d caught me off-guard. Would you have guessed he could make shadow clones?¡±
¡°Nope. But I mean you have to give him SOME credit for that right?¡±
¡°Just untie me already¡¡±
¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± Shinku hurriedly finished his jam-filled riceball in a few bites before undoing the knots holding together Sasuke¡¯s binds. Sasuke stood up and opened the window putting a leg through it.
¡°Where are you going?¡± Questioned Shinku.
¡°There¡¯s no telling what that idiot¡¯s planning on doing, looking like me. I can¡¯t let him be.¡± He disputed as he climbed out and let the window shut itself. Shinku simply shrugged. He guessed that¡¯s their problem now. Being in a team and all. It¡¯s not like Sasuke couldn¡¯t take care of himself. The unfortunate thing was that Shinku himself was left bored for the rest of the afternoon, until the class gathered at the academy again.
Jonin after Jonin came in and took away their respective teams. In the end, only Sasuke and Shinku¡¯s teams were left. Which was when an adult entered with Iruka, wearing a Konoha-issued shinobi vest.
¡°Team nine.¡± Iruka called out, causing Shinku and his teammates to stand and walk towards the front of the classroom. He tapped Sasuke on the shoulder as he passed by his team. ¡°Good luck.¡± Only getting a ¡°Hmph¡± as a response, he followed the jonin that would lead his team outside. The man wore a brown-rimmed pair of sunglasses and his black hair was wildly sticking upwards. He wore his forehead protector¡ as was normal, on his forehead, as did everyone on Shinku¡¯s team, including himself, though their teacher¡¯s was a bit uneven. The man lead them outside to the leaf village, to a place with no people around that was much like a park. He ushered the genin to sit down on the bench there, which they did. Though the two besides Shinku looked quite nervous.
¡°Now then.¡± He began. ¡°Let¡¯s start with introductions.¡±
Silence reigned supreme.
¡°Um¡¡± The girl, Reiha spoke up ¡°How¡ should we introduce ourselves?¡±
¡°Just say whatever comes to mind. Just keep it short, if you wanna just say your names that¡¯s fine.¡±
¡°Then¡¡± Spoke up the guy first. ¡°My name is Sekka Asahi, I want to someday enter the Konoha police force.¡± The jonin nodded.
¡°Next, you.¡± He pointed at Shinku.
¡°I¡¯m Uchiha Shinkumaru. Just calling me Shinku is fine. I would like to in the future be a shinobi that protects the peace in Konoha. I guess that¡¯s not too different from wanting to enter the police force as well. Though I haven¡¯t decided if I want to take my career in that particular direction.¡± The jonin nodded again.
¡°Um¡ then. I¡¯m Kurino Reiha. I want to someday become an amazing shinobi like Tsunade-sama.¡±
¡®One of the Sannin huh? Well. That¡¯s a common inspiration. Especially with kunoichi towards Tsunade. She¡¯s called the best medical ninja in the world for a reason, I assume.¡± Shinku thought.
¡°Good. Then. I know it¡¯s a bit sudden, but tomorrow you three will be going on a mission.¡± Asahi raised his hand. ¡°Yes?¡±
¡°Um. Sensei. You haven¡¯t introduced yourself yet.¡±
¡°Ahhh. That¡¯s right. Good. I¡¯m Yamashiro Aoba. I¡¯ll be your jonin instructor.¡± He paused for a moment ¡°That is. If you pass the test tomorrow.¡±
¡°Test?¡± Shinku questioned. Even he hadn¡¯t heard of this. Didn¡¯t they just graduate a week ago?
¡°That¡¯s right. Academy graduates go through one more test before they become full-fledged shinobi.¡±
¡°What if¡ we fail?¡± Asked Reiha in worry.
¡°Then you go back to the academy.¡±
Reiha and Asahi both gulped loudly.
¡°In any case.¡± Aoba continued. ¡°Gather at sunrise tomorrow at the 7th training grounds. That is all. Dismissed.¡± He relayed before disappearing using the body flicker jutsu. Leaving the three students to their own devices. The 7th training grounds were a thick forest with lots of trees and undergrowth with plenty of hiding spots. In the middle of it was a clearing where they would need to meet. There was a limited number of tests their instructor could give if he wanted them to meet there in particular. Seeing the other two shaking, Shinku stood in front of them and tapped them on the shoulders.
¡°Don¡¯t worry so much about it. If we work together I¡¯m sure we can pass it.¡± Shinku encouraged.
¡°But¡ if we fail this we¡¯ll be going back to the academy. And just when we finally managed to graduate!¡± Asahi exclaimed.
¡°Calm down.¡± Shinku flicked both their foreheads.
¡°Why me too¡¡± Reiha mumbled quietly.
¡°When I say we¡¯ll pass we¡¯ll pass. We just have to remember to face this as a team. I¡¯ll make sure to support you two so you two support me as well. Like that there¡¯s no way we can¡¯t pass.¡±
Asahi was slowly calmed down by Shinku¡¯s confident demeanor, starting to think they really will be able to do this. He nodded his head, slightly more confidently.
¡°Good. Then you two should go and prepare for tomorrow. Just make sure to get plenty of rest. We¡¯ll all need to be in top form, after all.¡± Both nodded this time. ¡°Then I¡¯ll be going. I need to get ready as well.¡± He said before he walked away. He did have a lot of preparations to make. No way was he going back to the academy. If the teacher thought he¡¯d have an easy time, he must really be underestimating them.
Chapter 7
Shinku approached the seventh training grounds early in the morning. The sun was only now starting to rise, though technically, they were supposed to already have met. The training grounds were surrounded by a fence, but it was easy to jump over for a ninja. He was called there and the place was public to shinobi in general so it¡¯s not like he was trespassing either. The fence was most likely there to keep wild animals in. Walking through the woods, he eventually got to the center clearing where the others had already gathered. The area wasn¡¯t that large. It was only one training ground, in the end. And nothing like the famous 44th training ground either.
¡°You¡¯re late!¡± Aoba exclaimed.
¡°Sorry, sorry. I overslept juuuust a bit. You know how far the Uchiha compound, well, former Uchiha compound is from this place?¡± Shinku made an excuse, drawing a sigh out of his instructor.
¡°Well it¡¯s you guys¡¯ loss. Now that you have all gathered I¡¯ll relay the mission objective.¡± The teacher took out a clock and put it on a cut off stump of a tree, setting the alarm. ¡°I¡¯ll be hiding somewhere in this forest. You must find and touch me before noon, when the alarm will ring. Got it?¡± Everybody nodded, though not with as much confidence as Shinku.
¡°Then begin.¡± The teacher made the tiger seal causing crows from all around to surround him and conceal him, by the time they cleared out the teacher was gone.
¡°Sh-Shinku-kun. Do you have a plan?¡± Reiha turned to their biggest asset.
¡°Mhm. Gather up and I¡¯ll explain it.¡± They huddled up together as Shinku went over his plan quietly, talking amongst themselves for almost twenty minutes. ¡°Understand?¡± He spoke up in a normal volume finally. The two nodded. ¡°Good.¡±
¡°But will we really be able to find sensei just blindly searching for him¡?¡± Expressed some doubt Asahi.
¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m sure finding him will be the easy part. We just need to touch him after that and with this plan it¡¯ll be easy. Let¡¯s go.¡± He quickly ran into the forest, not giving the other two a chance to hesitate as they immediately followed, even doing so as he jumped into the treetops. Even as their teacher followed behind them, having been observing them the whole time.
Aoba sighed mentally as he stealthily followed the genin team, only allowing to lose sight of them for moments as approaching too close would have him discovered too easily. Even with the ridiculous idea that finding him would be the easy part, he couldn¡¯t let his guard down against them. After all, they had Uchiha Shinkumaru in their midst and Aoba knew well that he was by far the most capable of the current genin. The Third had even gone as far as to say he might have skills equal to a beginner jonin or an experienced chunin.
Shinkumaru¡¯s two teammates had had trouble keeping up with him at first, but seemingly got used to hopping through the trees, following their teammate after a while. They still weren¡¯t going very fast, Aoba theorizing the Uchiha was holding back to let his team follow him. That was good. It showed that he had consideration for his teammates and he was willing to work together with them. At first Aoba had thought that the genin might be arrogant with how much praise he¡¯d been getting, but he was glad to find that not to be the case. Even if he did take the leadership position of the team, that was honestly to be expected. Surely he¡¯d advance to chunin in no time. He already showed some amount of the capabilities necessary for it.
Aoba would have to teach him better planning though. The plan he had made completely ignored the finding him part, leaving that to luck. Aoba didn¡¯t know what he intended to do to touch him in case they found him, but the way they were going about it, it seemed he wouldn¡¯t even need to worry about it.
Two hours of mindless running around the forest passed. Shinkumaru still seemed to be fine, showing impressive stamina for a twelve-year-old, but he finally succumbed to the complaints of his teammates as they stopped to rest, dropping down from the treetops and sitting on the ground, finally allowing the two genin who had been pushing themselves to catch up with the unfair speed of their leader some respite. Aoba as well, found a good spot from where to observe them among a tree branch with enough leaves to hide him.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
He did so for several minutes. All until he heard a branch behind him bend. Turning his head, he saw the figure of Asahi jumping towards him from behind. But how?! He was observing them the whole time and they¡¯d barely moved other than to speak after they¡¯d caught their breaths! He prepared to jump up and out of the way only to find Shinku dropping down from above him. And to his side another branch bounced up from someone¡¯s weight as Reiha jumped towards the teacher as well. The whole thing was almost perfectly synchronized. Even if Reiha was half a second slower it didn¡¯t leave enough of an opening to escape in any of the directions they were coming from. No, normally he would be able to escape no problem even if they were perfectly synchronized, but there was no way to do it without being touched.
He¡¯d been fooled! The ones that were resting must have been clones! But they had form. Shadow clones?! They can use that? Where did they learn that from?! But¡ even then they weren¡¯t well-prepared enough. Even if they had attacked him from all of his blind spots they couldn¡¯t attack him from the front which he was observing. The teacher simply bent forward, allowing himself to fall off the branch and adjusting himself in the air so that he would fall to his feet. He saw as the three genin collided into each other and fell towards the ground. Only to grimace as Shinku poofed into smoke and disappeared.
Aoba suddenly felt something grab his ankle, looking down he saw a hand grabbing onto his foot. He yelled as he suddenly felt himself being pulled under and before he knew it, he was neck deep under the ground while Shinku was crouched in front of him.
¡°Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Jutsu, sensei.¡± He said with a smile to the incredulity of Aoba.
¡°¡ Looks like it¡¯s my loss. Those shadow clones. When did you¡?¡±
¡°Which ones? The one who was observing you while you were observing us in the clearing? That I did yesterday. The one who was following you while you were following us? That¡¯s one the shadow clone observing you created before releasing itself to update me on the situation. The ones that you were following most throughout the day? I, well my clone, informed our team he¡¯d make those while they were whispering the plan, then made and transformed those when the team lost you for a moment simultaneously dropping down to the ground and hiding. And the one with my team? I made that one yesterday too. I spent the whole night here in this forest while I sent him home and had him arrive today as if he was me all long.¡±
¡°¡Then the whole blindly searching for me thing was¡¡±
¡°Acting.¡±
Aoba sighed again. He thought he¡¯d been taking this thing seriously but he¡¯d underestimated how seriously he should have been taking it in reality. The kid had been playing him since the start. His teammates approached with smiles.
¡°Sensei, does this mean¡?¡± The girl didn¡¯t finish her question, but it got across exactly what she was asking.
¡°Yeah.¡± Confirmed Aoba. ¡°You pass. Flying colors. Now. Could you get me out of here?¡± Shinku laughed as he grabbed his teacher and pulled him out.
¡®Who knew there¡¯d be a student who¡¯d go out of his way to spend the entire night on the designated training ground just to have the advantage in the test. That isn¡¯t the kind of thing a normal genin would do. Let alone a rookie one.¡¯ Aoba lamented in his mind.
¡°Good work. From today on, no joke this time, you three are officially genin. From now on you¡¯ll work together under me to complete various missions.¡±
¡°Yes!¡±
¡°Alright!
Reiha and Asahi exclaimed in happiness. They were finally able to become genin! But the celebration didn¡¯t last long, as they remembered how little they amounted to in the whole plan. Shinku had done the most work by far. If he wasn¡¯t there, there was no way they could¡¯ve passed.
¡°Then are we free for today?¡± Shinku questioned.
¡°Yeah, yeah. Go do whatever you¡¯d like. Gather at the same place as yesterday tomorrow morning.¡±
¡°The park with the bench?¡± The Uchiha asked.
¡°Yeah.¡±
¡°Got it. See you then.¡± He excused himself, walking away. He wanted to be there when Sasuke got home so he could ask how his test went. From what his best friend had told him yesterday, their teacher was quite eccentric, which was proven when Sasuke went out even earlier than Shinku¡¯s clone today, without even eating breakfast. He hoped Sasuke wasn¡¯t failed. Unlike himself, he didn¡¯t make any preparations beforehand. Seriously though the next time Shinku met Naruto he would have to thank him. If it wasn¡¯t for him demonstrating the shadow clone technique to the prodigy yesterday, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to do any strategy like this. Shinku disappeared from the sight of his team as he was thinking things like that, nonchalantly.
¡°Um¡ Sensei.¡± Reiha spoke up. ¡°Could you help me train sometimes¡?¡± She didn¡¯t know how good of a ninja she could become, but she at least didn¡¯t want to be as useless as she was today. She needed to become better so that she could contribute to the team more. As it happened today, her role could have been taken by one of Shinku¡¯s shadow clones and it would have been done better.
¡°Me too!¡± Asahi exclaimed.
Aoba, seeing this nodded with a smile. ¡°Alright. Then from tomorrow on in addition to missions you two and me will have special training sessions!¡±
¡°Um¡ what about Shinku-kun?¡± Reiha asked, not wanting him to be excluded. They were a team, after all.
¡°Shinkumaru¡ I don¡¯t think there¡¯s much I can teach him.¡± Aoba stated, causing the two genin¡¯s eyes to widen in surprise. A jonin had almost nothing to teach him? In that case did that mean Shinkumaru was already jonin-level at their age? The two, feeling defeated by this information and at the same time more motivated, decided. They would have to work hard to not just be a hindrance.
Chapter 8
Apparently Sasuke had a pretty interesting mission amongst the boring trash collecting, catching people¡¯s runaway pets, helping out on farms and other such menial chores. Even Shinku¡¯s patience was growing thin after a few months. The most exciting mission he¡¯d received, and Shinku had to admit it was pretty fun, was to hunt down some bandits in the south land of fire. The base was easily found by Shinku, but the plan that time had given his team more to do. They were the main offence while Shinku would handle the slightly more difficult and very much more annoying part of hunting down deserters that tried to run off.
Ah. That mission sure was fun. Shadow clones chasing down bandits running in every direction, scared shitless. Just remembering it was enough to put a grin on his face. He hoped he¡¯d get more missions like that eventually. His team got combat experience which helped them improve significantly off a single mission too. With his support the team would¡¯ve been able to take on missions like that no problem. Shinku wondered why they didn¡¯t give them more of them. Sure C-rank missions weren¡¯t as common as D-ranks. They cost more to request and the situations that required them were simply rarer. And that was true for every higher rank. The higher the rank the rarer and the costlier.
But based on what Sasuke had told him, other genin had it pretty much the same. With the exception that Sasuke¡¯s C-rank mission actually turned out to be a B. Shinku was glad that Sasuke had a reliable teacher like Kakashi. To think he would have the sharingan too. They probably placed Sasuke in his team on purpose then. Meanwhile Shinku didn¡¯t really need any help with his sharingan did he? Considering he¡¯d at some point earned the nickname ¡°Shinku of the Eternal Sharingan¡± in reference to how he constantly had it active¡ He would guess not. Shinku heard the door open, snapping him out of his thoughts. He stared at the open medical book in front of him, remembering he was reading that before getting distracted. Damn. He would have to finish it some other time.
¡°I¡¯m back.¡± He heard Sasuke¡¯s voice from down the hallway before he showed up to the entrance of the living room.
¡°Welcome back.¡± Shinku answered as Sasuke sat down across the table, Shinku putting a bookmark on the page he¡¯d gotten to before closing his book. ¡±How was today? Anything interesting happen?¡±
¡°Surprisingly. Yeah. Not the missions though. Those were a useless waste of time as usual.¡±
¡°Oh? That¡¯s rare. For something you¡¯d consider interesting to happen outside a mission.¡± Well. It was rare for something he considered interesting to happen at all, now that he thought about it.
¡°There were shinobi from Sunagakure here. One of them seemed pretty capable. Short red hair, seemed about our age. Gaara was his name. Can¡¯t say the same for his companions. They looked useless despite seeming older.¡±
¡°Sunagakure? What are shinobi from there doing all the way in our village?¡±
¡°Apparently. The chunin exam will begin soon. They said they were here for that.¡±
Shinku¡¯s eyes instantly lit up.
¡°The chunin exam?! When?! Where?! How do I sign up?!¡± He expressed, causing Sasuke to sigh.
¡°I don¡¯t know. Our jonin teachers will probably say won¡¯t they?¡±
¡°Is that so¡?¡± Shinku deflated. He definitely wanted to participate as soon as possible, get through it, become chunin, then maybe jonin, and go on missions that actually gave him some sort of challenge. Maybe even take a team of his own? Ohhhh. That¡¯d be fun. But it¡¯d have to wait until after justice is served. Need to concentrate on that first. ¡°Well. Guess we wait then.¡±
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¡°Seems like it.¡±
The two talked some more about their days, but there wasn¡¯t much to say on Shinku¡¯s side. They¡¯d done chores. Like almost any mission day since they''d become genin. Sasuke at least had that encounter with the Sand ninja to brag about. Apparently the red-haired one used some sort of jutsu relating to sand. The girl carried what seemed like an iron fan, while the other guy dressed in some weird all-black costume and carried around something wrapped up in bandages, something he would have used to fight, most likely, as he attempted to unwrap it when provoked.
The next day came and Shinku¡¯s team gathered again, in the same place as always. The two on Shinku¡¯s team had both cut their hair at some point during the months. Reiha having cut it to a medium length, while Asahi going away with the ponytail.
¡°Hey.¡± Shinku greeted.
¡°Good morning.¡±
¡°Good morning.¡±
They both greeted back. They sat around chatting about insignificant things while waiting for their teacher to arrive, Aoba eventually appearing out of nowhere as he usually did. All three students greeted him with a ¡°Good morning.¡±
¡°Good morning.¡± Aoba cleared his throat. ¡°Today I have something important to talk about.¡± Shinku¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°It seems like Shinkumaru knows something.¡± The other two looked confused. ¡°The truth is. The chunin exam will take place soon.¡± Reiha and Asahi¡¯s eyes widened and they lit up in excitement just the same ¡°But!¡± Aoba put on a serious expression ¡°Reiha and Asahi aren¡¯t ready.¡± This grounded everyone, their faces replaced with disappointment, Shinku¡¯s alone with slight guilt ¡°Shinkumaru.¡± Aoba addressed him.
¡°Yes?¡±
¡°The truth is. This exam is usually performed in three-man teams.¡± This reversed the situation, now Shinku looking depressed while the other two showed clear guilt ¡°But. The village has decided that as long as your team agrees they¡¯ll make an exception and you¡¯ll be able to participate by yourself. This could mean a huge disadvantage, seeing as you¡¯ll be participating in something meant for three people together by yourself. But it could also mean advantages in some places. Of course. None of it will matter unless Reiha and Asahi agree to this.¡±
¡°But¡ Having an exception made just for me¡ doesn¡¯t really sit right.¡±
¡°There is a precedent. There are people who¡¯ve been allowed to take the test by themselves in the past.¡± ¡®The fact that the last person to receive this exception was Itachi Uchiha, though, I should probably not mention.¡¯
¡°But¡¡± Shinku still didn¡¯t look convinced.
¡°How about you two? What do you think? Whether Shinkumaru¡¯s willing or not won¡¯t matter unless you two agree to this.¡± Aoba spoke to Shinku¡¯s teammates.
¡°That¡¯s¡¡± Reiha hesitated, the two looked down. ¡°There¡¯s no way we can reject it.¡±
¡°Yeah¡ After we¡¯ve been holding back Shinku the entire time. There¡¯s no way we can hold him back here as well.¡± The two turned to Shinku. ¡°Please. Don¡¯t mind us and take the exam. We know you¡¯ll definitely pass. Just because we¡¯re weak we can¡¯t ask you to stick around and babysit us forever.¡±
¡°That¡¯s right! If it¡¯s you, there¡¯s no doubt you¡¯ll become a chunin. Even jonin shouldn¡¯t be out of your reach! You¡¯ve helped us out endlessly these past few months, even helping us training, giving us tips, contributing the most on missions and always taking the more troublesome roles... We couldn¡¯t have asked for a better teammate.¡±
¡°You two¡¡±
¡°What¡¯ll you do?¡± Aoba asked, holding out the registration form for the exam. Shinku looked once more at his teammates who both nodded to him, before stepping forward and taking the paper.
¡°Thanks you two¡ I¡¯ll definitely pass this thing so that you guys can be proud. You don¡¯t stop working hard either alright? I know you can make it to chunin too, even if it takes a bit longer. Remember neve to give up.¡±
¡°Yeah!¡±
¡°Mhm!¡±
Asahi and Reiha both nodded once more.
¡°Alright. Since that¡¯s decided. Five days from now take that paper to the academy, room three hundred and one. Until then you¡¯re free to make preparations. As for the rest of us. We have missions.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll help out today, at least.¡± Shinku declared.
¡°Is that okay¡?¡± Reiha asked guiltily.
¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not like I have much preperations to do. I have no idea what the exam will even be about, after all.¡±
¡°Then let¡¯s make today count. And afterwards we can have a good luck party to send Shinkumaru off.¡± Aoba declared before starting to walk.
¡°Then it¡¯s my treat!¡± Shinku announced as everybody followed.
¡°Where¡¯ll we go?¡± Reiha wondered.
¡°Yakiniku?¡± Suggested Asahi.
¡°Ew, no! I don¡¯t want to eat just meat!¡± The girl exclaimed in disgust.
¡°Then¡ hot pot?¡± Suggested Shinku this time.
¡°Hot pot in early summer¡?¡± Asahi questioned this time.
¡°Yeah¡ I think that¡¯s a bit¡ you know.¡± Reiha also denied.
¡°Hey don¡¯t look at me like I¡¯m some sort of undiscovered animal species!¡± Shinku cried out, giving the other three a laugh.
Shinku came back home late that day.
¡°I¡¯m back.¡± He announced, despite the fact.
¡°Welcome back.¡± He heard Sasuke¡¯s voice from the living room, following it and sitting down at the table opposite him. ¡°You were late today.¡±
¡°Yeah. I had a bit of a celebration with my team.¡±
Sasuke smiled. ¡°Is that right? Then you got one of these?¡± He put forth an application form for the exam on the table.
¡°Yeah.¡± Shinku held up his own.
¡°In five days.¡±
¡°At the academy.¡±
¡°Looks like we got the perfect chance to relieve some boredom.¡±
¡°Yeah. I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡±
¡°I can tell. That grin hasn¡¯t fallen since the moment you came in.¡±
Shinku¡¯s grin only widened, causing both of them to laugh. They were finally getting the chance to advance further in the ranks, getting the chance to get closer to their respective goals. Chunin. Shinku couldn¡¯t wait to see the competition. Maybe at least somebody there would finally excite him.
Chapter 9
Sasuke woke up early that morning, yet his best friend¡¯s futon was already empty. He got up and dressed himself before leaving the bedroom they occupied, following the outer pathway until reaching the living room. He opened the sliding door and predictably found Shinku inside, staring at a book.
¡°Aren¡¯t you up from a bit too early?¡± Sasuke called out, guessing the red-haired Uchiha had been awake for a while already.
¡°I couldn¡¯t sleep too well.¡± Shinku¡¯s eyes left the book and he faced Sasuke with a wide grin. Sasuke sighed.
¡°What if you fail the test because of this?¡± Shinku¡¯s grin only widened causing Sasuke to shake his head. ¡°Don¡¯t blame me if that happens.¡± He said as he sat down.
Shinku cooked breakfast afterwards, taking his time eating together with his clanmate, before eventually both leaving.
¡°Don¡¯t you have to meet up with your team or whatever?¡± Shinku asked Sasuke.
¡°No. We¡¯re set to meet up in front of the academy. What about you?¡±
¡°No. I¡¯m the only one taking the exam on my team.¡±
¡°I see.¡± Sasuke answered, usurprised.
That was all the conversation the two had on their way to the academy. The two tended not to talk to each other much, nor did they need to after having lived together for years. That was just how their relationship was, not talking more than was needed to be said. At least, that¡¯s how it¡¯d been ever since the incident. Not even when Shinku made two shadow clones and sent them ahead, did Sasuke really question anything. He was used to Shinku¡¯s crazy ideas. He¡¯d especially been abusing that Jutsu in every possible way he could find since the moment he learned it.
It didn¡¯t take too long for the two to get to the academy. It might have taken long when they were smaller, but by now the way seemed quite short. Maybe they were just used to it. Maybe it was simply their concept of ¡°long time¡± that had changed. Shinku didn¡¯t know, nor did he really care. The two spotted Naruto in front of the academy, approaching him.
¡°Hey, Sasuke!¡± He greeted.
¡°Yeah.¡± Came the simple answer.
¡°Hi, Naruto. It¡¯s been a while huh?¡± Shinku greeted him instead.
¡°Ah. Um¡ Mhm.¡± He nodded awkwardly. Shinku never knew he could feel so depressed over having one knuckleheaded ninja not remember him.
¡°You know! We were in the same class for years! The genius of Konoha?! Shinkumaru of the Eternal Sharingan?!¡±
¡°Now that you mention it your eyes are the normal black today.¡± Sasuke interrupted him, causing Shinku to hang his head.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
¡°A-Ah! So it¡¯s you! That¡¯s right! Your eyes were so different I didn¡¯t recognize you, you know?¡± Naruto excused himself. This didn¡¯t make Shinku feel any better.
¡°So why is that?¡± Sasuke pushed the subject.
¡°Well, I mean shouting that out probably didn¡¯t help, but it was supposed to be so that people don¡¯t expect to have to deal with it when they attack me. Plus, going through this thing without it would be an interesting handicap, you know?¡±
¡°Well, knowing it¡¯s you I figured it was something like that.¡±
¡°Ah by the way, Naruto.¡± Shinku changed the course of the conversation ¡°I wanted to thank you for letting me see you perform the shadow clone jutsu that one time. It¡¯s been an enormous help.¡±
¡°Eh? Uh¡ When did that happen again?¡±
¡°On the orientation day. You tied beat Sasuke up by taking him by surprise with your clones and tied him up.¡±
¡°Huh? You were watching back then?¡±
¡°I was¡ in the room.¡±
¡°No way! I didn¡¯t notice you at all! That¡¯s amazing!¡±
Shinku put up his arms in defeat and shut up. Even as Naruto called out to him he didn¡¯t feel like talking anymore. He just waited patiently until Sakura eventually arrived.
¡°You¡¯re late, Sakura-chan!¡±
¡°Yeah¡¡± She nodded raising an arm in greeting. ¡°Sorry¡¡± She apologized, before turning to Sasuke ¡°Good morning, Sasuke-kun¡¡± ¡®Was Sakura always this timid?¡¯ wondered Shinku. He didn¡¯t remember that to be the case. Maybe she was nervous about the exam. He guessed she might be the least capable on Team 7. Naruto had shadow clones which also meant he had an impressive chakra pool and he was known for his incredible stamina and Sasuke was¡ Sasuke. Sakura¡ had great grades on written exams, Shinku guessed.
¡°Yeah.¡± Sasuke answered simply, though it seems he noticed she was acting weird as well.
¡°Good morning.¡± Shinku greeted as well.
¡°Ah¡ Good Morning, Shinkumaru-kun.¡± ¡®Yes! She remembered my name! Finally, somebody from my academy days that isn¡¯t rude! Fuck!¡¯ Shinku celebrated in his mind.
The four entered the academy and climbed up to the third floor, well, the second floor, noted Shinku, as he explained that he was there to take the test alone as his teammates could unfortunately not afford a recommendation.
A large group of people had gathered in front of room 201 which Shinku approached along with Team 7, wondering if he needs to point out that there¡¯s a genjutsu barrier in place. As they approached they saw two people blocking the entrance of the room while talking about how they were doing everyone a favor, not letting them pass, since they¡¯d only die if they couldn¡¯t even get through something like this. Shinku¡ couldn¡¯t disagree in theory, but the guys were quite the assholes about it. A girl with a double-bunned hairstyle and a weird guy with a bowlcut and just the most insane eyebrows Shinku had ever seen were already on the ground with a bruise on their faces. Sasuke walked up.
¡°What you¡¯re saying is a just argument. But, you¡¯ll let me through. And while you¡¯re at it why don¡¯t you just undo this genjutsu barrier already? I have business on the third floor.¡± He said in his usual cool manner, relieving Shinku some, now that he knew he wasn¡¯t the only one to notice the thing.
It seemed like most of the others in the crowd hadn¡¯t noticed. Sasuke proceeded to ask Sakura to explain, saying that of the team she had improved her analytical skills and knowledge on genjutsu by far the most, which she did, explaining that this was the second floor. Even Naruto nodded confidently, not a hint that he didn¡¯t notice it himself, which honestly surprised Shinku. ¡®Looks like they¡¯ve improved quite a bit.¡¯ He noted as the genjutsu came undone and the number of the room changed from 301 to 201.
The genjutsu failing, one of the two blocking the door attempted to attack Sasuke, who was closest to him with taijutsu, Sasuke raised a kick in turn. Shinku was ready to see his best friend kick some annoying guy¡¯s ass when the wild eyebrows lying on the floor suddenly intervened, getting in-between them and catching both of their legs. Shinku was impressed once again. That wasn¡¯t the speed of an average genin. Far from it.
His two teammates approached him, one of them being a Hyuga, Shinku observed, being able to spot one from a mile away by their exotic eyes. They started lecturing him on how they were supposed to not attract attention and that it was his idea in the first place only for the eyebrows to send an intense passionate glare at Sakura. Shinku¡ was terrified¡ ¡®Just please let this be over already.¡¯
Bowlcut approached Sakura and introduced himself as Rock Lee, before asking her out while swearing to protect her for the rest of his life. This was where Shinku drew the line.
¡°Sasuke, I¡¯m going ahead.¡± Shinku declared to his friend as Sakura brutally rejected Lee.
¡°Yeah.¡± He answered during a moment of intense, depressing silence.
Shinku didn¡¯t hesitate for a second in leaving the scene behind, walking way faster than should have been necessary and never looking back. Climbing to the third floor, he made his way straight to room 301, opening the door. The room was full of other ninja. Just at a glance at the forehead protectors, Shinku spotted ninja from, sand, rain, grass, waterfall, and, of course, leaf. It was enough to fill up almost the whole room, the people numbering probably over a hundred. Most of them, looking much older and more experienced than any genin Shinku knew. With a grin, Shinku stepped inside, expecting a fun and interesting challenge.
Chapter 10
Shinku was getting slightly worried. He knew he had gone ahead of Sasuke and his team, but it had been a while since then. No matter how long their stupid shenanigans with that Rock Lee fellow, they were cutting it a bit too close. It was then that the door opened and the three walked through, prompting a sigh of relief from the red-haired Uchiha, though he didn¡¯t miss that Sasuke was wearing a few new bruises.
¡°Sasuke¡ What happened?¡± Shinku questioned.
¡°Nothing.¡± He answered dismissively
¡°Heheh. This guy got beat up by bushy eyebrows!¡± Naruto ridiculed.
¡°So did you!¡± Sakura punched him the back of his head.
Shinku shook his head. He would heal Sasuke¡¯s small injuries, but not only did he know Sasuke wouldn¡¯t want him to, he also didn¡¯t want to reveal that ability here. He wondered when the exam would start when Ino suddenly jumped on Sasuke¡¯s back, putting her arms around his neck, before starting to flirt with him. Sakura didn¡¯t take kindly to this and they immediately started fighting as always. Ino¡¯s teammates followed behind her, Shikamaru mentioning how much of a bother this was, Shinku sharing the sentiment.
Team 8 arrived at the scene next, Kiba taking the lead with his dog, Akamaru on his head and Shino, who barely ever spoke and Hinata, who barely ever spoke and spoke in whispers whenever she did, behind him.
¡°Looks like this year¡¯s rookie genin are all participating eh? Shinkumaru, where¡¯s your team?¡± Kiba spoke up.
¡°Don¡¯t got one. Taking the test alone.¡±
¡°Huh? The test is supposed to be taken in teams of three though.¡± He retorted.
¡°Ah. Kakashi-sensei said something about that a minute ago. That this year there was one exception.¡± Naruto added.
¡°What¡¯s with that? That¡¯s totally unfair!¡± Kiba cried out, prompting a shrug from Shinku.
¡°W-Well¡ the test is probably going to be hard without a group too¡ so¡¡± Hinata tried to calm Kiba down. Her attempts at being the voice of reason in her team at least, Shinku thought to be admirable. He promised himself not to judge her shyness anymore.
¡°Ah. Whatever. Whether you¡¯re here alone or with a team, it doesn¡¯t matter. We¡¯ve trained quite a lot so we¡¯re not gonna lose to any of you guys.¡± Kiba announced.
¡°They say the weaker the dog the louder they bark. You sure that isn¡¯t about you and your big mouth, Kiba?¡± Sasuke shot back.
¡°What was that?!¡± Kiba, howled, causing Hinata to try and calm him down. Choji approached Kiba only for Shino to step between them, warning him not to step on a bug on the floor. Shinku brought the palm of his hand to his face. This was chaos.
¡°Hey, you guys.¡± A konoha shinobi with grey hair tied in a ponytail and wearing glasses approached them, causing everyone to turn their attention to him. ¡°You should be a little quieter. You guys are the rookies, straight out of the academy, right? This isn¡¯t a field trip, you know.¡± ¡®Yes, please tell them. The glares from everyone are starting to hurt.¡¯
¡°Who are you to be acting all high and mighty?!¡± Ino yelled, causing Shinku to return his palm to his face.
¡°I¡¯m Yakushi Kabuto. Anyway, take a good look around you.¡±
Everybody turned to look around them, finally noticing almost every eye in the room being on them, sending them death glares. No matter how you looked at it, they¡¯d attracted the attention, of everyone in the room and by extension, were possibly picked out as targets already. Shinku was with them too, so perhaps he was as well, but in his case, he didn¡¯t mind. In fact it would only make things more interesting for him. The others¡ well if they said the same thing Shinku wouldn¡¯t be able to say for sure that they¡¯re not overestimating themselves.
¡°Everyone¡¯s tense with the exam coming up.¡± Kabuto continued ¡°I thought I¡¯d warn you guys before you got into trouble with someone.¡± Everyone turned back to him. ¡°I guess it can¡¯t be helped.¡± Kabuto showed a wry smile ¡°You¡¯re rookies that don¡¯t know left from right. You remind me of my old self.¡±
¡°Kabuto-san¡ Was it?¡± Sakura asked.
¡°Yeah.¡±
¡°Then is this your second time?¡± She continued.
¡°No¡ It¡¯s my seventh. This exam is only held twice a year and it¡¯s now my fourth year.¡±
¡°So you know a lot about these exams?¡± Sakura questioned further.
¡°Kind of.¡± Kabuto said, causing Naruto to exclaim how impressed he was and Shikamaru to point out that he hasn¡¯t passed despite it. Shinku had to agree with Shikamaru, but he didn¡¯t say that out loud. That didn¡¯t mean that Kabuto wasn¡¯t a good source of information. Kabuto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
¡°Then maybe I¡¯ll share some information with my cute juniors¡¡± Kabuto said as he rummaged through his tool pouch, pulling out a deck of cards ¡°With these Ninja Info Cards.¡±
¡°What the hell are those¡?¡± Shinku finally spoke up, never having heard of something like that before.
¡°To put it simply, they¡¯re cards that have information burned into them and coded with Chakra.¡± He crouched down and placed the deck on the floor. ¡°I spent four whole years gathering information on this exam.¡± Something sounded off about that statement to Shinku. Weren¡¯t these things even held in different villages? How do you gather information on that? It can¡¯t be that they¡¯re the same every time. If it was a true statement, then Shinku had no choice but to admit he was impressed. This kind of information isn¡¯t shared with genin lightly, after all.
¡°I have nearly two hundred of these cards.¡± Kabuto continued. ¡°To open the data on them.¡± He put a card on the ground and started spinning it with a finger. ¡®Is he putting chakra into it? What¡¯s the point of spinning it then? Showoff¡¡¯ This caused a few people to question it, causing Kabuto to explain that the information can¡¯t be seen without his chakra. ¡®Like I said. Showoff.¡¯ The card poofed into a screen that showed a world map with some of the village symbols under it and numbers under those. Shinku guessed it¡¯s a graph of how many shinobi are attending the exam from each separate village. Hmm? What was that last one with only one team? A musical note? Shinku had never heard of that village before.
He looked around attempting to find where these three are, but with so many people in the room it was practically impossible. Meanwhile Kabuto explained what Shinku had already understood as well as asking some questions about the purpose of the chunin exams which Shinku thought the answers were obvious enough to. When he was done the card poofed into being pure white again. Sasuke stepped forward.
¡°Of those cards are there ones that hold detailed information on individuals?¡±
¡°There are.¡± Kabuto simply answered. ¡°Are there any that hold your interest?¡±
¡°There are.¡±
¡°Oh oh! IS there one of me?¡± Shinku intervened.
¡°There is, in fact.¡±
¡°Can you show me?¡± Shinku asked with shining eyes.
¡°Just so you know, the information isn¡¯t perfect, but even then I still have it saved on the cards.¡± Kabuto put the deck together and picked it up, swiping his hand over it quickly and retrieving a card. ¡®Show. Off.¡¯ He placed the card on the ground and put his finger on it. ¡®What you¡¯re not gonna spin it like you¡¯re doing a card trick this time?¡¯ Then he spinned it while putting his chakra in it and it revealed the information on it once more. ¡®Spoke too soon.¡¯This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
¡°Uchiha Shinkumaru, also known as Shinkumaru of the Eternal Sharingan. 15 D-rank and 1 C-rank mission complete. Incredibly impressive for someone fresh out of the academy. Your abilities are all high, but it¡¯s unknown exactly how much since you¡¯ve never been part of a mission that challenged you. A favorite for being promoted in this year¡¯s exams. It¡¯s rumored that you always have your sharingan active, but¡¡± He looks up at Shinku. ¡°It looks like that one¡¯s false.¡±
¡°Today¡¯s special, after all.¡± Shinku grinned, not failing to be impressed at the amount of information Kabuto had gathered on him. Still it was all the public stuff. Nothing about his medical abilities which he¡¯d never used outside of personal training and nothing about his advanced sharingan¡¯s abilities which he hadn¡¯t revealed to anyone.
¡°So? Can I ask next?¡± Sasuke asked, a bit irritated because of Shinku cutting him off.
¡°Ahaha¡ sorry. Go ahead.¡± Shinku moved away apologetically.
Sasuke asked about Rock Lee and Gaara. Rock Lee had a high score in Taijutsu but nothing else was special. Gaara¡¯s scores weren¡¯t known, but apparently he had come back from every mission he¡¯d completed unharmed, even the one B-rank. That was impressive, but there was always the possibility that the B-rank mission he was sent to was an easy one. There is a wide range to B-rank missions. You could be facing other genin or even a jonin. It all depended on circumstance and how accurate and detailed the information about the mission is.
Being done with handing out personal information, Kabuto next started explaining about the villages participating in the exams. Six in total, which, with the exception of the sound village, Shinku had confirmed all of earlier. Apparently Sound was a new village in a small country so there wasn¡¯t much information on it. This explained why Shinku knew nothing about it. Everyone talked some amongst themselves, discussing all the new information that was shared with them. Shinku was about to leave, starting to get bored when suddenly Naruto yelled out.
Shinku, turning to him saw him pointing at the crowd of people, that were about ready to tear each other to shreds at any moment.
¡°My name¡¯s Uzumaki Naruto!¡± Shinku distanced himself discreetly, not wanting to be associated. ¡°I won¡¯t lose to any of you!¡± Naruto continued as Shinku entered the crowd and blended in while they were distracted. ¡°Got it?!¡± he finished. Though it was hilarious to hear one of the sand ninja use the exact same line Sasuke had used on Kiba only a few minutes ago to describe what Naruto¡¯s actions. Sakura grabbed Naruto, trying to appease the crowd by apologizing, though how effective it was was¡ questionable. It was as she was yelling at the idiot that suddenly three people jumped out of the crowd.
The sound genin attacked Kabuto, one of them throwing kunai at him while another threw a punch at him, which kabuto dodged, through whatever sort of trick they used it still seemed to have done damage. It was then that at the front of the room a large shroud of smoke suddenly emerged.
¡°Silence! You degenerates!¡± The smoke cleared up revealing about a dozen Konoha shinobi, the one in the middle standing out as by far the tallest, wearing a black coat and with two long scars on his face.
¡°Looks like I made you wait.¡± That person spoke out. ¡°I¡¯m the proctor for the first test of the Chunin exam. Morino Ibiki.¡± He said almost as if to announce the official beginning of the exam. ¡®Finally!¡¯ thought Shinku. He was tired of waiting.
¡°You from the hidden sound!¡± Ibiki pointed at them ¡°Don¡¯t be doing whatever you want right before the exam! You want to be failed from the get-go?!¡±
The guy from the sound wrapped up in bandages apologized¡ in words at least. It didn¡¯t sound like a real apology at all.
¡°Hmph. This is a good opportunity so I¡¯ll say this.¡± Ibiki began again. ¡°There will be no battles between participants without the proctor¡¯s permission. And even if you get permission, actions that could lead to the death of an opponent will not be permitted. Any pig that dares disobey me will be instantly disqualified. Undestood?!¡± Silence overcame the room for a moment before the another of the sound nin, one who¡¯d thrown the kunai spoke up, calling the exam easy. Mmm. Shinku wondered if he¡¯d get to fight these guys. If he did he might want to teach them not to go dissing other people before they know anything about them. That could be dangerous. They could piss off someone they don¡¯t want to mess with, you know? Having manners was important. Shinku nodded to himself.
Ibiki ignored them ¡°Then, we will now start the first test of the chunin exams. Turn in your applications and take one of these number cards in exchange.¡± He held up something like a numbered badge. ¡°And sit in the seat matching that number. After that we¡¯ll distribute the papers for the written test.¡± ¡®Seriously? A written test?¡¯ Shinku thought in disgust and utter disappointment. Naruto seemed to feel similarly as he shouted out in pure distress.
Everybody started moving, giving their applications and taking their numbers in exchange, then heading to their seat. The process took a while but eventually everyone was in their seat and they started handing out the papers for the test.
Ibiki attracted everyone¡¯s attention, tapping a piece of chalk against the blackboard and started explaining the rules. They start with ten points. Each wrong question takes off a point. Each time they¡¯re caught cheating two points are taken off. If they¡¯re caught five times they¡¯re instantly disqualified. Pass or failure is also determined based on a team¡¯s total value. If even one of the team gets a zero, they instantly failed. Those two didn¡¯t even apply to Shinku.
¡°Furthermore!¡± Ibiki continued. ¡°In accordance to an exception in the rules for participation¡¡± Ibiki glared straight at Shinku, causing him to gulp deeply. ¡°I¡¯ve made an additional rule. Listen well. For those who don¡¯t have a team with them today to pass, you must finish with ten points!¡± Shinku sighed. OF course there¡¯d be a catch. ¡°Finally, the last question will be given forty-five minutes after the start of the test. Begin!¡±
Shinku flipped his paper and went through the questions. ¡®Wow these are actually damn difficult. There shouldn¡¯t be many people that would be able to solve these themselves¡¡¯ The way Ibiki worded it ¡°Know that those who perform clumsy cheating will bring ruin upon themselves.¡± Made it sound like this whole thing was made with people cheating in mind. That being said, unlike everyone else, Shinku needed all ten points to finish. He needed to solve all the questions and not be found cheating once. Now. He could just solve all the questions in time if he pushed himself¡ but that would be such a waste of effort and watching everybody else freak out and get caught cheating sounded so much more fun.
Like the guy who added his puppet amongst the proctors. Who the hell would think nobody would notice? Is this guy an idiot? These people are chunin or jonin, not four-year-olds. Scratch that, Shinku wouldn¡¯t have fallen for that even when he was four.
Or the guy who literally had his dog look through other people¡¯s sheets from on top of his head. Shinku had to admit it was impressive Kiba can speak dog¡ but impressive in the party trick sort of sense.
Shino¡ was probably using bugs. If Shinku turned his sharingan on he could probably notice them, but he was gonna go through this without that. Sasuke was¡ using his sharingan to copy someone¡¯s hand movements. Not bad. Naruto¡ is an idiot. Sakura is probably solving them herself. She at least has book smarts. Hinata¡ probably the same as Sakura? Either that or she was using her byakugan. Fuck the byakugan might as well have been made for cheating on stuff like this.
Through most of the exam Shinku was just watching other people. When people started getting dropped because they were found out too many times it really got funny, but at one point he got bored so he started actually solving the problems. Only he started from the last backwards. As for the rest. The crow outside the window would tell him all he needed to know. The crow observed the papers of people throughout the whole exam. At the point where it found someone who had every answer solved, it flew off, landing on top of the academy building and poofing into a cloud of smoke, revealing Shinku¡¯s shadow clone which then released itself, transmitting the answers into the original¡¯s mind. Just filling those in took him no more than two, three minutes and he was done. That being said the forty-five minutes were almost up.
He had spent most of the time doing nothing until his shadow clone managed to find someone with all the questions. Or, he guessed it was more of it waiting for all the questions to be filled in by someone who obviously knew them. Even if they saw the crow and figured someone was using it to cheat there was absolutely no way they¡¯d discover it was Shinku. And they wouldn¡¯t just stop it. I mean they obviously noticed the puppet guy¡¯s cheating, but it¡¯s not like they told him to stop or destroyed his puppet or whatever. Speaking of, he was in the toilet? How long¡¯s he gonna stay there for? Forty-five minutes are up, already.
¡°Alright!¡± Ibiki suddenly called out ¡°I will now present the tenth problem!¡± He paused some, letting the test-takers process this. ¡°But before that¡ I¡¯m going to add some rules to the last problem.¡±
Suddenly the puppet guy entered the room, returning from the toilet.
¡°It looks like playing with dolls wasn¡¯t a waste, after all.¡± Ibiki pointed out ¡®No, what are you looking all surprised for? Did you really seriously think they hadn¡¯t noticed?¡¯ Shinku had at some point started believing he had done this with the intention of sacrificing two points. ¡°Well whatever. Sit.¡± Ibiki waited for him to walk over to his seat. ¡°Now then let me explain. These are¡ the hopeless rules! First, I¡¯ll have you choose whether or not you¡¯ll take this tenth question.¡±
¡°What happens if we don¡¯t take it?¡± Asked the female blonde sand ninja.
¡°If you choose not to take it, then at that point your score will become zero. In other words, you fail. And of course so do the accompanying two from your team.¡± Everyone pointed out how there¡¯s no reason not to take it, which caused Ibiki to speak up again. ¡°And¡ one more rule. If you choose to take it and are unable to answer the question correctly¡ Then you will henceforth relinquish your right to take the chunin exam forever!¡±
¡®Is this guy kidding? There¡¯s no way that¡¯s the case. The villages want people to participate in these exams and perform well. Taking away someone¡¯s ability to take it forever would mean that even when they become a much better ninja they still wouldn¡¯t be able to participate in the chunin exam and raise their villages reputation, neither would they be able to take missions pertaining to their increased ability. It¡¯s a squander of human resources.¡¯ Shinku doubted. Then again. He looked closely at Ibiki¡ if it¡¯s him he might do it.
People spoke out. Mostly calling it bullshit. Ibiki only laughed at them, telling them he¡¯s the one who makes the rules. Yeah. If it¡¯s this guy it¡¯s possible. Still there was no way Shinku was quitting here. Not when he hadn¡¯t even done anything fun yet. The exams were only just starting and quitting here would be a huge disappointment. If he¡¯s unable to answer it and has to remain a genin for the rest of his life¡ then he¡¯d just have to operate outside of the villages normal rules in order to accomplish his objective. As much as he wanted to be loyal to Konoha if they would do something like this for real, there was no reason to be loyal to them in the first place.
¡°Now then. Those who won¡¯t be taking the tenth question, raise your hands!¡± ibiki commanded.
After a minute or two of hesitation one person managed to work up the courage to raise his hand and was sent out together with his team while apologizing to the two in tears. This opened the flood gates as more and more people started raising their hands and being disqualified. Shinku even saw that Naruto was struggling with the idea. Yet as soon as he raised his hand, he slammed it down onto the desk, crying out that he won¡¯t run and he¡¯ll take it, that even if he remained a genin for the rest of his life he¡¯d become Hokage no matter what.
Well. That was to be expected out of Naruto for Shinku. It seemed like his little speech also allowed the remaining people some courage as nobody else dared to leave after it. Ibiki asked one more time, but nobody else raised their hands. He waited a minute before speaking up.
¡°I like your determination! Then¡ For those who remained here¡ I declare¡ that you have passed the first test!¡± Shinku sighed in relief. Thank goodness. He was right.
Ibiki further explained that there was never a tenth question to begin with and if there was then that¡¯d be the question of whether to remain or not and that the test was mostly a test for their information-gathering capabilities. That there were people planted within the test-takers who had all the answers in advance. That in a mission information is something you¡¯ll have to fight to obtain with your life, taking off his headband which covered the whole top of his head and revealing the scars of various injuries on his scalp. Scratches, nail punctures, burns. Signs of torture. ¡®Not a pretty sight.¡¯ Shinku noted. The purpose of the tenth question was to test people¡¯s determination. A real shinobi doesn¡¯t get a chance to refuse a mission simply because it might endanger them or their comrades.
The lengthy explanation having barely finished, the window suddenly broke as something jumped inside two kunai flying out of it to attach a cloth¡¯s sides to the ceiling and revealing a busty, scantily clad kunoichi, who didn¡¯t waste any time in announcing herself the proctor of the second phase of the exams, Mitarashi Anko, leaving everyone in the room absolutely speechless. Only Ibiki who peeked his face from behind the cloth was able to speak up, telling her to read the atmosphere.
After a small conversation between the two proctors and Anko announcing that the genin should get the information for the next stage from their respective jonin teachers, they were dismissed and Shinku was only glad for it. The whole day had been a huge disappointment to him. In the end the only thing the first phase of the exam managed to test him for¡ was his patience.
Chapter 11
Shinku stood outside the fence of the 44th training grounds, also known as the forest of death, ignoring Anko¡¯s explanations as he watched a giant snake eat some sort of bird off a branch and slither out of the forest, hissing at the group of genin and moving back inside. He¡¯d heard of the forest of death before, but¡ wow. This was something else. He should have come here for training at some point. It seemed perfect. He didn¡¯t know if shinobi are always allowed inside. A kunai was suddenly thrown to the side of Naruto who was standing on Shinku¡¯s right. Shinku caught it out of reflex.
¡°Oh. Oops.¡± He threw it back at Anko at an arc, making it easy to catch. ¡°Sorry.¡± Anko clicked her tongue.
¡°Looks like we¡¯ve got a few cheeky ones this time. Well anyway. Before we start the exam I¡¯ll hand these out to you.¡± She took out a bundle of papers from inside her coat and proceeded to explain it¡¯s a consent form that we have to sign, saying that we¡¯re aware of the risk of death and have accepted it. Naruto walked up and took the papers, taking one and handing the remaining bundle over to Shinku, him doing the same before handing it over to someone close to him, which just happened to be one of Kabuto¡¯s teammates. While they were passing around the forms, Anko continued, explaining the exam.
She took out a rough map of the training grounds, showing a river running through the place and a large amount of forests all over it, with barely any land being free of them, and a tower in the very middle. The radius of the circle, the training grounds were stationed in, in other words the distance from any part of the fence to the tower, was around ten kilometers. The exam was supposed to be a survival challenge. There are forty-four gates to the place and each team would start from a different one. Each team would also receive either a scroll of Heaven or a scroll of Earth. In order to complete the test a team would have to bring one of each scroll to the tower in the center. Which meant at the very least half the teams would be disqualified, though that was a very optimistic estimate in reality. The time limit was five days. ¡®Simple enough.¡¯ Thought Shinku, though in reality he was excited. The prospect sounded incredibly fun to him.
The rules for disqualification didn¡¯t really apply to Shinku, excluding the last¡ If all three members of the team can¡¯t make it to the tower with the earth and heaven scroll within the time limit you¡¯re out. If a team loses a member or if a member became incapacitated you¡¯re out. And finally, absolutely not to look at the insides of the scrolls, the test also tried their trustworthiness with secret information, which chunin could find themselves handling. The assistant proctors put a curtain around the hut they were supposed to exchange the consent forms for the scrolls at. Unfortunately, there was a half an hour pause before the exchange would take place. Shinku laid his back against a tree nearby and waited it out while everyone seemed to be either staring at the consent forms, discussing strategy with teammates, or lost in thought. As it became time Shinku instantly hopped up and went behind the curtains first of anyone else.
As he heard Anko announce that they¡¯d simultaneously start half an hour from now, he wrote his name down on the form before signing it and exchanging it, receiving a scroll of Heaven in return. Leaving the curtains, one of the assistant proctors accompanied him as he walked over to his chosen gate. Gate 14 that is, one he¡¯d chosen completely randomly. Another half an hour wait was hell to him, as he restlessly tapped his foot against the floor or paced back and forth in front of the gate as his escort blocked it. As the time approached, half a minute before the start, the assistant proctor unlocked the chain holding the gate closed and right on mark, the gate opened, causing Shinku to run inside the forest at full speed, looking for his prey like a hungry predator. Jumping between trees as he thought of his strategy.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The most logical idea here would be to set traps around the tower. Unfortunately, Shinku wasn¡¯t there to use logic but rather to have fun. He would never afford such complacency on an actual mission where he was in charge of a team though and that was what the chunin exam was testing. Remembering this Shinku suddenly stopped himself, putting a hand to his chin while standing horizontally on a side of a tree. If he rushed forward would he really have that much fun? Considering he found someone who was a challenge then yeah, but what were the chances of that if he just ran around blindly?
No he needed to focus on it. Focus on finding someone that would get his blood boiling. Why did he even end up like this again? Was it that boring for him to do those missions? It really sucked to outclass everyone by so much, he guessed. Maybe that Zabuza guy from Sasuke¡¯s mission would¡¯ve given him a challenge? By the sound of it not really. The guy was freaked out by Kakashi¡¯s sharingan and he played around with him with the eye of hypnotism like he was leading along a small child. Then there¡¯s the fact he used the hidden mist jutsu a lot. And Shinku, as a capable user of wind release, could completely blow that away, taking away any advantage. Shinku also had confidence in his chakra supply, so he didn¡¯t think he¡¯d become tired before his opponent if it came down to a jutsu battle. What was he thinking about again? Right finding someone strong in the exam.
He had a lot of moments where he thought ¡®Man, the byakugan would be useful right now¡¯ and this was one of them. Maybe he could ask Hinata if he found Kiba¡¯s team? No, he didn¡¯t know if he could find them and there was always the chance that they wouldn¡¯t listen to the reason of ¡°You can¡¯t beat me so how about if you do me a favor I don¡¯t beat you up and take your scroll?¡±. In that case... he looked towards the treetops. It¡¯s had to be up. If he could get above the treetops he could observe from there if anyone used any sort of flashy jutsu.
If its effects could be observed from above the forest, whoever the user was, they should be quite powerful. The problem is that the highest point of the forest was not the treetops. Shinku looked deeper into the forest. It¡¯s the tower. So he should head there first, climb up to the top and observe the forest from there. Alright. That decided he jumped forward onto the next tree, adjusting himself in the air to land on the branch and continuing to hop from one to the other, heading deeper into the forest. At his speed he should have arrived at the tower in about twenty minutes, but about hallway there he heard the whistling of wind. as he landed on the next branch he suddenly threw himself back, a powerful gust of wind emerging in front of him, cracking branches and digging a trace in the ground itself.
He landed on the ground of the forest, thankfully having avoided the gust when a guy with some kind of stone mask suddenly rushed at him from the side. He wore gloves that had claws protruding out of them and aimed to swipe at Shinku¡¯s neck with them. Shinku activated his sharingan in that moment, easily seeing through the move, he used his legs which have a longer reach to kick his arm away, the enemy raised his arm for another swipe but was knocked away by Shinku¡¯s fist before he could execute it. Shinku heard the sound of water from behind him. Using the foot he had remaining on the ground, he jumped up, being missed by a torrent of water, which hit the claw user instead. Looking towards its source he saw a grass ninja, this one looking fat and having paint around the eyes and mouth.
A large amount of white smoke suddenly appeared over Shinku, before he could do anything else. A snake exiting it, falling towards him, opening its mouth with the aim to eat him. Shinku went through his options quickly, before putting his hands together, Snake, Ram, Boar, Horse, Bird, he formed the seals, wind gathering around his palms before he pointed them at the shinobi that was only now ending the water jutsu, releasing the wind, knocking himself backwards and out of the way of the snake, while simultaneously sending a powerful gale towards the fat grass shinobi, sending him flying backwards and smashing him into a tree.
Shinku himself adjusted himself in the air and planted his feet on the tree behind him, attaching himself to its side with chakra, as the snake fell to the ground with a loud thud. A part of the snake, close to the neck split open, a human figure exiting it, revealing the last grass ninja, a very feminine-looking, but still male shinobi with long black hair. The slime-covered shinobi from Kusagakure looked up at Shinku and smirked, his long, almost snake-like tongue, licking around his lips. Shinku grinned back. This seemed like it was going to be fun.
Chapter 12
Shinku stared down at the snake man. He didn¡¯t know who this person is, but him and his friends seemed to be pretty strong. Maybe they would give him a challenge. Well. His friends seemed to be down for the count actually. So that left him alone.
¡°Hey, hey.¡± Shinku called out with a grin ¡°Aren¡¯t you rushing things a bit? You don¡¯t even know what scroll I have do you? Maybe we don¡¯t even need to fight.¡±
The opposing ninja giggled ¡°It¡¯s not good to lie, you know. Or if you¡¯re going to, at least make it more believable. You¡¯re leaking so much bloodlust¡¡± He licked his lips. ¡°It¡¯s giving me the shivers.¡±
Shinku shivered in a whole different way. He felt something precious of his was in danger in this guy¡¯s presence. Creepy.
¡°Well then since we¡¯re gonna fight it out anyway. How about we confirm which scrolls we¡¯re holding just in case. Eh?¡± Shinku suggest.
¡°Well, that¡¯s fine.¡± He giggled, both him and Shinku, putting their hands in their tool packs and taking out their scrolls. Heaven for Shinku. Earth for the grass ninja.
¡°Looks like this is also gonna be the ticket to the next stage for whoever wins too.¡±
¡°I suppose so.¡± He said, giggling, before opening his mouth wide and placing the scroll over it.
¡°Hey. What are you doing? Stop!¡± Shinku cried out, as the ninja¡¯s tongue wrapped around the scroll, but didn¡¯t receive a reaction. ¡®Damn it, I need that scroll, who knows when I¡¯ll find another team with an Earth one!¡¯ He hesitated for a moment, before deciding. Him and this guy were probably gonna fight to the death after this anyway. It didn¡¯t matter if he saw. Shinku closed his left eye as he grabbed a kunai from his pouch and threw it up casually within his periphery. His sharingan changed into a much more complex pattern as he fed it an increasing amount of chakra and he called out in his mind ¡®Amenominakanushi!¡¯ The kunai disappearing with the scroll falling in Shinku¡¯s hand and his opponent being left to eat the sharp end of piece of metal.
The grass ninja¡¯s eyes widened, as the kunai fell in his mouth, though he quickly swallowed it, causing Shinku to wince. ¡°Mangekyo Sharingan¡¡± The ninja spoke out. Huh? What was that? Was that what the advanced sharingan was called? The grass shinobi giggled once again. ¡°To think you¡¯ve improved to such a degree¡ You¡¯ve made me want you more and more.¡± Shinku got a chill down his spine again. What was wrong with this freak? Well, whatever. He got the scroll. Now he can enjoy himself to his heart¡¯s content. He put away the scroll in his pouch.
¡°Let¡¯s do this then.¡± Shinku declared as he let himself fall from the tree, forming signs as he descended. The grass shinobi moved towards him faster than Shinku had seen anyone move before. As the ninja elongated his body like that of a snake and slithered up the tree, Shinku kicked off of its surface, distancing himself from both the tree and his enemy, at the same time finishing his seals and taking a deep breath of air. Upon exhaling he starts spinning his head, the stream of sharp wind following it and acting almost like a sharp whip, covering a large area and leaving little room to dodge, little room that the snake man easily exploits to slither through an opening, jumping towards Shinku and leaving the attack to cut into the tree behind him. ¡®Damn. Looks like I¡¯ll have to use a bit more than brute force here.¡¯
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The ninja threw a punch, which Shinku blocked and deflected, as his lower part transformed back into legs. A kick followed it, the Uchiha blocking that with both hands, before spinning around and trying to kick his enemy in the stomach, only to have him place his hands on the kick while it was incoming and using it as leverage to flip up over Shinku and land behind him. The ninja threw an elbow strike at Shinku while spinning around, which caused the red-hair to jump back, deciding Taijutsu is getting him nowhere. He forms a single tiger seal as he takes in deep breath, moulding fire chakra inside himself before spitting it out at his opponent ¡®Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu¡¯. The kusagakure nin screams in pain, but Shinku knows it¡¯s fake, the figure of the man melting into mud inside the flames.
¡®The real one is¡ there!¡¯ He turns around throwing a kunai at the form of the ninja exiting out of the ground, though he catches it between his fingers giggling. Shinku had a bad feeling about this. In that case, he¡¯d get serious. Closing his right eye, he called out as he focused his chakra in them once more ¡®Takeminakata!¡¯. The grass ninja looked surprised for a moment, then slightly confused as he felt the back of his neck with a hand, the form of a coiled snake now having formed there. ¡°Heheh.¡± Shinku laughed. ¡°You aren¡¯t the only here who¡¯s got a thing with snakes.¡±.
¡°Oh?¡± He giggled. ¡°I wonder what this does, then.¡±
¡°It keeps you from running away.¡± Shinku explained, before forming a set of four seals and slamming his hands on the ground, three walls of earth rising up to surround his opponent. Before throwing four kunai at him. The ninja simply smirked before jumping up incredibly high and out of the confines, the kunai stabbing into the wall behind him. He once more became snake-like as he slithered and weaved through the treetops at speeds too fast to follow with normal eyes, Shinku ignoring this and forming the seals for his next jutsu, finishing right as his opponent stretches out from behind him aiming to slam into his body.
¡®Idiot. Didn¡¯t I tell you? There¡¯s no escaping anymore.¡¯ Shinku mocked in his head as he took a deep breath, one of the kunai stabbed into the wall being replaced by the grass ninja who slams himself into the wall, unable to break through the sturdy, chakra-infused structure. ¡®You don¡¯t have your scroll anymore so I can do this with no worries. Eat the pinnacle of Uchiha fire techniques!¡¯ Shinku spoke in his mind ¡®Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation¡¯ he chanted out in his head as he spit forth a sea of flames, consuming not only the insides of the walls but also a large area outside of that. The screams of pain didn¡¯t sound fake this time.
But Shinku wasn¡¯t done, immediately weaving the signs for his next jutsu. ¡®Wind Release: Great Breakthrough¡¯. Again releasing a breath, he fired a devastating gust of wind at the fire, intensifying it even further, and so too does it do for the screams. Shinku felt in a moment how the enemy dug himself underground and started moving away at a great speed. ¡°Did you forget what I said already again?¡± He spoke out loud this time. ¡°Idiot.¡±
Half a minute passed, the ninja escaping as fast as he can when he suddenly found himself in front of the same scorched wall again, his eyes widening he looked back to see four of Shinku on the ground, four more standing on branches further away. Two of them suddenly spew forth a sea of flames, just like before, but now even more concentrated, two spewing forth gusts of wind, intensifying the flames even more just like before. At the same time, two of the others start forming seals, both of them surrounding themselves in a stream of water which forms into a dragon, the clones next to them touching the dragon and charging it with lightning chakra before it slams itself into the middle of the flames and into the ninja after he¡¯s burnt to a crisp, slamming him with a large volume of water and electrifying him at the same time.
All eight Shinku poof out of existence as the real one looks on from a branch further away. Normally he would need to wait for the effects of the jutsus to subside in order to know the fate of his opponent, but his opponent was marked with Takeminakata now, after all. In no circumstances could that person escape Shinku¡¯s sight. ¡°So he died.¡± He mumbled before standing up and stretching. ¡°Ahhh. That was fun. I haven¡¯t had a good challenge like that in a while. It¡¯s unfortunate I had to rely on my advanced¡ no. Mangekyo Sharingan was it? But well. That guy was way more durable than anything else I¡¯ve seen. No way would I have enough firepower to kill him without that.¡±
He closed his eyes, opening them again, revealing the regular sharingan, which then reverted to his regular black eyes. ¡°I really did use up a monstrous amount of chakra there though. Well. I still have quite a bit left in me, but it left me a bit tired. Guess I¡¯ll go find a comfortable place to sleep it off.¡± He stretched again, before jumping away.
Time passed and the flames and electrified water cleared up. cancelling each other out. The scorched body of the grass ninja remaining in the enclosure of the walls, completely unrecognizable. Yet the body suddenly swelled up and its mouth opened unnaturally widely, two hands appearing and forcing it open even wider as their owner dragged himself out of it. He¡¯d underestimated the boy by far. Just like Itachi, he doubted to be able to acquire that body. He would have to aim for something else. Something that¡¯s not as physically and emotionally strong. The man grinned, his long tongue licking around his lips.
Chapter 13
Shinku landed next to the river, running through the middle of the forest. As much as he wanted to rest, he needed some food first and he didn¡¯t feel like eating fried giant snake or centipede, even tiger for that matter. Instead, he attached a wire to his kunai, and Imbuing it with wind chakra, threw it into the river and straight through a fish, then pulled it back out along with it. He did this several times until he was satisfied with the amount of fish he caught. He gathered some wood and stones and made a fire pit. He also picked up two bigger stones which he placed on the firepit¡¯s either side and laid green tree branches over the top of.
He used a small burst of fire release to start his fire and let it spread as he cleaned the fish¡¯s innards and split each into two pieces, throwing the heads away back into the water, though he left the scales and skin on half of them, placing those on the branches with the skin down, essentially using the branches as a grate to cook them over the fire. The rest he cut down to small pieces which he started smoking over the coals after the fire had burnt out some, and while peeling the skin off of his freshly cooked fish, before eating them. If he had known he was in for a survival challenge he would have brought some salt, but even without it the fish wasn¡¯t bad.
Survival skills were one of the essentials of a ninja and he hadn¡¯t neglected training them. Cooking was also a skill that while not important or valued, would be highly appreciated in a team surviving in the wilderness with any experience of what it¡¯s like without anyone capable in it, and there was a reason Shinku was almost always in charge of cooking in the Uchiha household. The only times that wasn¡¯t the case was when he came back late or was eating out, which left Sasuke to fend for himself. The reason his best friend enjoyed the meals so much being that, in truth, Shinku had quite the talent for cooking.
Smoking took a long time though and there was no way to speed up the process, Shinku had to regulate the temperature of the fire for hours, though he did make sure to at least drink his fill of water and fill up his bamboo canteen with it. Another essential tool for a ninja as missions could take long times in which a ninja might not always have the chance to drink unless he has water on his person.
He heard a slight whistle of the wind, much smaller than when the grass ninja had tried to ambush him with the great breakthrough jutsu. He bent his body slightly and a kunai flew past him, klinging off of the rocky ground. ¡°You guys should really try looking for an easier opponent. You don¡¯t really stand a chance here.¡± He called out. The answer was a wind release projectile heading towards him. ¡®Shit!¡¯ He thought, quickly kneading a few signs together and slamming his hands on the ground, raising a wall of earth in front of him just in time to block the wind. ¡°You bastards you almost fucked up my smoking fire! You know how long I¡¯ve been waiting for this?!¡± That being said he couldn¡¯t show his mangekyo to these guys. They were too weak to warrant killing them. ¡®Well whatever.¡¯ He went back to adjusting his flame. ¡®Should be over in a few seconds.¡¯
His opponents were three. Ninja from Takigakure. The wall of earth, blocking both their sight and their attacks was a problem so they decided to go around it. The three split up, going around the wall in different directions. Yet. As one was jumping between two branches Shinku suddenly jumped onto the branch in front of him ¡°What?!¡± he screamed out loud as the Uchiha jumped at him from the branch, punching him in the face in mid-air and knocking him to the ground, robbing him of his consciousness. Another, who was running through the underbrush suddenly felt something stop his foot, tripping him and causing him to fall forward. He looked at what tripped him and saw a hand grabbing onto his ankle, then screamed as he was dragged under until he was buried up to the neck, he felt something strike him in the back of the head and everything went dark.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The last one managed to get the closest, jumping at Shinku with a kunai from a blind spot while he was tending to his fire. Shinku turned around looking into his eyes, the sharingan activated, before he suddenly exploded into kunai, the genin screaming as he crossed his arms in front of himself to guard his vitals. The kunai stabbed into him painfully, until he fell to the ground, only to find himself in a dark place. He tried to get up, but he couldn¡¯t feel the ground. He screamed, but he couldn¡¯t hear his voice, he couldn¡¯t even feel the pain from the wounds anymore. What was happening? Was he dying?
He grabbed one of the kunai, unable to feel it with his hand before trying to get it out of himself. Instead of the kunai being pulled out though, it was his hand that was easily ripped off, remaining around the kunai¡¯s handle. Distressed, he tried to scream again, but nothing came out. He tried moving about, but he could only kick at nothing, his legs eventually falling off just like his hand, decaying in the emptiness surrounding him almost as if melting in acid, along with his hand. His one remaining hand started decaying while still attached to him as well, more and more of his body melting away, starting from that hand and then once that was done all of his remaining limbs, becoming shorter and shorter. Left with nothing to do, but despair as he screamed in terror, the genin simply lost consciousness.
Shinku broke his eyes away from the genin who fell forward onto the ground, unconscious. ¡°That¡¯s why I told you, but nooo. You had to go and almost mess my fire up.¡± His shadow clones brought the other two and picked up the last guy too. They checked what scroll they had just in case, finding an Earth scroll, but Shinku wondered if he should take it. The less scrolls, the less of a chance for people to pass, less of a chance for him to encounter interesting stuff later on¡ yeah no. He didn¡¯t need it. He left them there, collapsed while he finished smoking his fish and then went off. If they were lucky nothing would eat them. If not well that¡¯s their problem. He didn¡¯t kill them, but he can¡¯t be asked to babysit them. Next was deciding where to sleep. But most places in this forest were about the same. His chances of being eaten alive while he slept, didn¡¯t change much no matter where, and he didn¡¯t like those chances being higher than zero.
This was the biggest disadvantage of not being in a group for this phase in his opinion. He couldn¡¯t sleep soundly as there would be no one to look out for enemies. He could set traps but there was no guarantee the enemy would fall for it. He could make a dome with earth release but there was no guarantee someone wouldn¡¯t break into it and he would be trapping himself, not to mention it would be screaming ¡°There¡¯s a shinobi hiding here!¡±. And lastly, he couldn¡¯t make clones, as they disappeared if he lost consciousness, hell even if he just lost concentration.
Should he head to the tower after all? Sleeping inside there would probably mostly be safe. Not that he would let his guard down. What to do, what to do? ¡®Alright. That should work.¡¯ Shinku jumped from tree to tree, eventually finding a place with less grass than usual, instead having a large patch of dirt, noting there was also a small shelter under a tree which seemed to be held up by a few rocks, its roots reaching down into the ground from there. That wouldn¡¯t work for him though. He formed the handseals for the technique and slammed his hands to the ground ¡®Earth Release: Moving Earth Core¡¯. The ground in front of him, not covered in grass, lowered by several meters before it stopped and he jumped down, forming some more seals, he slammed his hand against the hole¡¯s wall ¡®Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall¡¯ a wall sprouted from the side of the entrance to the hole, covering it up and leaving Shinku in the dark. ¡®If it¡¯s down here I won¡¯t be found too easily.
''Now then.¡¯ He laid down on the ground. It was nowhere near comfortable, but Shinku was used to it. Closing his eyes, he finally got the chance to recover some of his stamina. He might not have showed it, but he was quite exhausted. He recovered fast though. Tomorrow again. He would be at full strength.
Chapter 14
When Shinku woke up, he quickly stood, doing a few exercises to get rid of any stiffness, before looking up. Now that he thought about it how was he supposed to get out of here? He didn¡¯t have an earth technique he could use to get that out of the way¡ Guess he¡¯ll have to destroy it. Boar, Ram, Snake, Horse, Dragon ¡®Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder¡¯. Though he couldn¡¯t see, he pointed his hands upwards toward the entrance, a powerful stream of electricity spawning from them and tipping through the rock, destroying it. Shinku dodged through the falling debris as he jumped up from wall to wall, his sharingan activated to help him out and in only two seconds he had jumped out the hole and once more stepped on outside ground.
¡°Wha-? What¡¯s happening?!¡± He heard a familiar voice.
¡°Is it an enemy attack?!¡± He heard an even more familiar voice.
It was still dark outside. He had gone to sleep really early so he woke up during the middle of the night, he supposed. That being said, with the sharingan, although he couldn¡¯t see better in the dark, he could better make out what he could see in it. He turned towards the voices, towards the tree hollow he had noted a perfect hiding spot for a team of three, only to see three faces he knew.
¡°Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. Wow. What a coincidence.¡±
¡°Huh? Shinkumaru-kun?¡± Sakura called out surprised, while holding a kunai. He nodded, Naruto releasing a sigh of relief and stopped laying on the ground covering his head, while Sasuke relaxed his stance. ¡°What were you doing there?¡±
¡°What¡ I was sleeping? Unlike you lucky ones, I don¡¯t have anyone to watch my back while I take a snooze so I had to make that.¡±
¡°Ah, right. You¡¯re competing by yourself, after all.¡± She nodded.
¡°So? How was day one? You guys get a scroll?¡±
Sasuke shook his head ¡°We did get attacked once, but the guy got away. We haven¡¯t lost our scroll, but we haven¡¯t taken one either. And you?¡±
¡°Yeah. I already got my set. I luckily got attacked by some grass ninja in the first ten-twenty minutes. One of them actually gave me quite a bit of trouble. Looked almost like a woman, long black hair, and was like a snake. Barely beat him honestly.¡±
¡°You? Barely? Are you trying to be modest again?¡± Sasuke retorted
¡°No. This time I¡¯m serious.¡± Shinku¡¯s eyes narrowed into a serious expression ¡°That guy was serious trouble. If anyone else in the exam¡¯d fought him I¡¯m not sure they would¡¯ve survived.¡±
¡°W-Was it really that bad?¡± Sakura questioned in disbelief
¡°That guy was like me. At least jonin-level. To put it into perspective, he was comparable to Kakashi-san or that Zabuza guy you faced.¡±
¡°B-But you defeated him didn¡¯t you? In that case¡¡±
¡°¡±Are you stronger than Kakashi-sensei¡±?¡± Shinku asked, predicting what she would say next, Sakura nodding. The other two seemed caught up in the conversation, wondering the same, most likely. Shinku scratched the back of his head.
¡°Kakashi-san is probably more skilled, powerful and experienced than me. The third one is a definite. By far. I did some research on him after learning he was your team¡¯s teacher and he had a sharingan. He apparently became jonin at our age, graduating the academy at an age before we even entered it.¡±
¡°No way! But then¡¡± Sakura almost started to speculate before Shinku interrupted
¡°Putting that aside! Even then I have two or three big advantages over Kakashi-san that could let me win against him. One.¡± He put up one finger. ¡°Compared to me Kakashi-san should use up several times more chakra in order to use his sharingan. Two.¡± He put up a second. ¡°My chakra pool is monstrously large and I can¡¯t ever imagine myself running out of chakra, fighting him, while he very much can. Three.¡± A third finger ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure about this one, since I don¡¯t know what Kakashi-san¡¯s skill in the area is, but Jonin usually have two chakra natures mastered. Assuming Kakashi-san has three, being stronger than just any jonin. I can use all five no problem.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
¡°No way! You¡¯ve mastered all elemental natures?!¡± Sakura cried out.
¡°Is it that impressive¡?¡± Naruto asked causing Shinku to relax some. This goof always broke the serious atmospheres in the best ways. Sakura knocked him over the head while Sasuke shook his head and started explaining to Naruto about elemental natures, Sasuke distancing himself and walking over to Shinku.
¡°By the way what scroll do you three have?¡± Shinku asked, causing Sasuke to raise an eyebrow.
¡°Jeez relax a bit, Sasuke¡¡± Shinku took out his two scrolls from the pack and threw them at Sasuke, who, while surprised, still managed to catch them. ¡°See? I have both, no transformations or anything. Even if I AM a fake¡± Shinku rolled his eyes. ¡°I¡¯d have no reason to take yours. And if I just wanted to take it for the sake of reducing the number of teams, I wouldn¡¯t need to approach you like this or ask you what scroll you guys have.¡± He explained. Sasuke looking at the scrolls and nodding, throwing them back, only for Shinku to deposit them back in his pack.
¡°Heaven.¡± Sasuke said simply. ¡®Damn. I should¡¯ve taken that Earth scroll. Well. Hindsight is 20/20.¡¯
¡°See? That wasn¡¯t too hard was it? Jeez. You mistrust me too much. You¡¯ll hurt my feelings, you know.¡±
¡°Who¡¯s the one who taught me to trust nothing, doubt everything?¡±
¡°Heheh¡ Yeah okay. You got me there.¡± He scratched the back of his head. ¡°Do you have any sort of plan?¡±
¡°No. Our team lacks any real sensory abilities so it¡¯s hard to gather information.¡±
¡°I see. I guess that¡¯s a weakness I share as well. I should work on correcting that. Anyway. Unless you¡¯re desperate, you should stay away from the vicinity of the tower. There¡¯s probably people who¡¯ll have set traps to intercept people who¡¯re heading there to finish and get scrolls easy.¡±
¡°Yeah. I got it. What about you? You have your scrolls so will you be heading to the tower?¡±
¡°Mmm¡ I¡¯m wondering about that. I probably will. I thought yesterday that I¡¯d be wasting fun by heading straight there, but¡ Anybody that would be on my level would have probably finished by now.¡±
¡°Right¡¡±
¡°Well. Anyway. Sorry for interrupting you while you were probably sleeping. You should go back to that and get ready for tomorrow. I¡¯ll head on my way.¡±
¡°Yeah¡ Good luck.¡±
¡°Hmm?¡± Shinku thought he misheard. Did he- Did he just hear Sasuke break character and wish him good luck? He never thought he would see the day. He smiled. ¡°Yeah. Thanks. You too. See you at the tower.¡± He said before jumping away. He kept his speed reasonably slow as he jumped between trees. Just enough to appear fast for a genin, but not anything more.
He had hunting to do and today he was using himself as bait. The fact that he was being watched while he was talking to team seven was by no means a secret to him. It probably wasn¡¯t one for Sasuke too, though he probably wasn¡¯t sure who they were aiming for. Of course. If he left alone and gave them a chance to pursue after he showed off his scrolls, they would go for him. And he indeed felt them on his tail. He might not have any sort of sensor ability, but he did have a keen sense for being watched, a side effect of being stalked by ANBU since he was young.
Of course he wasn¡¯t just blindly letting them follow him. He would get the drop on them while they thought they were undetected. And the technique he was going to use was one that had become a personal favorite of his. Jumping down from a tree to where should have been a blind spot for his enemy, surrounded by undergrowth, he created four clones and scattered them, three into the surrounding bushes, while one proceeded running forward. He himself hid underground. As his pursuers passed the area, the clones suddenly sprouted from the surrounding foliage and struck, all three, punching them in the face at the same time, jumping at them to hold them down. Though as they did, one of them pointed a hand at them and with a piercing sound all three clones poofed, disappearing. That guy was the most dangerous in a three versus one fight as he could support the other two from range. Shinku didn¡¯t know the girl¡¯s ability, but this guy¡¯s one was dangerous enough that he decided to prioritize him.
Shinku¡¯s hand left the earth, grabbing onto the guy¡¯s ankle and dragging him down under while Shinku jumped out from behind him. The moment the two remaining ninja were distracted, the clone who had previously run away jumped on the kunoichi from behind tackling her to the ground, and putting her in a hold. The last one, the guy wrapped up completely in bandages tried to attack the clone holding the girl down, but the real Shinku got in his way. Not seeing another outcome, the sound ninja swung his right arm at Shinku. Unfortunately for him, Shinku didn¡¯t even need his Sharingan to see that attack coming. He¡¯d seen this guy¡¯s attack when he¡¯d attacked Kabuto before the exam started. It was an attack that hurt you even if you dodged it. Considering the other guy¡¯s ability and where these people came from, the ability probably had to do with sound. But then. What if it didn¡¯t hit?
Shinku put up his left arm and blocked the hit, a piercing noise emitting from the amplifier on the guy¡¯s arm, though what it did is make Shinku melt into mud.
¡°Substitution?!¡± the sound-nin called out, looking around for the real one until he looked up and saw him falling towards him and meeting his now-crimson eyes. The ninja hit Shinku in the gut as he was falling towards him, the amplifier sending out its sound and directing it to Shinku using chakra. Shinku screamed in pain as the sound ninja smirked behind his bandages and fell unconscious. Or¡ so it seemed, but he suddenly disappeared, the sound ninja-feeling something hit his chin from below so hard, he went flying. Before the ninja had any time to realize he¡¯d been affected by a genjutsu, everything went dark.
¡°Jeez. Even genin are no joke in this exam. I guess you guys are chunin candidates so that makes sense. I¡¯m guessing if I was fighting chunin it would be just as difficult if not more.¡± Shinku spoke out loud, as he ignored the two others screaming while uselessly struggling. His clone could snap the girl¡¯s neck at any moment, but¡ Shinku didn¡¯t like killing people needlessly. He walked over to the girl and gave her a hook to the chin, knocking her unconscious. Then did the same for the guy.
¡°Now then.¡± He went through their packs and found a heaven scroll. ¡°Ugh. And here I thought I would give it to Sasuke. He doesn¡¯t really need this does he. Well¡ there¡¯s no telling what might happen actually. I¡¯ll give it to him anyway.¡± Now then what to do with these three? Shinku felt these guys were more dangerous than the Taki ninja he¡¯d just left lying around yesterday. He was tired then and might not have made the best decision anyway.
He didn¡¯t want them coming after him again¡ but if he left them just tied up here they¡¯d just die¡ ¡®Alright.¡¯ He nodded and created three shadow clones in addition to the one already there. He gave the scroll to that one and asked him to deliver it to Sasuke. The rest would take care of the sound team by throwing them out of the forest. As for him. After he grabbed the supply of metal wire from the girl''s pack, could never have enough of that. It was about time to head to the tower.
Chapter 15
Jumping between trees was a very fun thing for Shinku to do. The wind on his face. The fun of planning your route on the spot, the satisfaction of being able to do this without even thinking due to how much he had practiced. Everything about it was a very interesting ordeal. But today, Shinku experienced another thrill of jumping between trees, one he swore to repeat himself in the future. This thrill was avoiding traps. And while Shinku could do this with practically his eyes closed, and even if he sprung them he would probably be too fast to be caught in the aftermath, he was thankful to whoever set them for opening his eyes to the brilliant idea of making a super difficult training course for himself.
Shinku avoided string after string, paper tag after paper tag, as he headed for the tower. If he had just rushed there on the first day the chances of there being enemies, let alone traps were astronomically small. Wait. They were, weren¡¯t they? So how did he encounter the grass shinobi? There was no way they just found him by chance. Did they aim for him? He suddenly remembered something the grass ninja said. ¡°You¡¯ve made me want you more and more.¡± He¡¯d said. Shinku hadn¡¯t paid attention to that at the time, but¡ that was definitely a sign they were there for him wasn¡¯t it? And what preceded that line that lead to it? ¡°To think you¡¯ve improved to such a degree¡¡±? No, no. ¡°Mangekyo Sharingan¡¡±. He stopped hopping between trees suddenly.
Sharingan. He wanted the sharingan? Shinku gulped as he thought of the possibility, he¡¯d have gone after Sasuke first. No offense to Sasuke, but he wouldn¡¯t stand a chance. Even with all three of them at once. Thankfully he¡¯d killed him. There was no fooling Takeminakata. Once a mark is placed on you, there¡¯s no escaping the sight of Shinku¡¯s Mangekyo sharingan. And that body was definitely burnt to a crisp. He had stopped breathing, his heart had stopped beating, everything had stopped. So why was Shinku getting such a bad feeling? As if that corpse would just get up and start walking around again. He shook his head. There¡¯s no way that was alive, just no way. It wasn¡¯t even recognizable; it was charred black in a form that resembled human only in its humanoidity. Was that even a word? Humanoidity? If it wasn¡¯t it should have been.
Shinku moved his body to the side, avoiding a kunai as he thought. He threw a kunai at a wire behind him, cutting it, causing a barrage of kunai to fly off, the pained scream of a man sounding out. He shouldn¡¯t be worrying about it too much. Even if his policy was to be paranoid about everything, he couldn¡¯t be paranoid that every almost completely destroyed corpse would stand back up and run away. ¡®Get yourself together, Shinku. You have a chunin exam to pass.¡¯ He reminded himself as he set off for the tower once again, leaving behind the kunai-riddled man and his team behind. It was just then that his clones released and he got the information of what happened back.
Everything went off according to plan. The sound nin were thrown outside the forest, probably earning a disqualification, and the scroll was delivered to Sasuke¡¯s team, though they tried to refuse it at first, Shinku¡¯s clone forcing it into their hands eventually. Now all Shinku needed to do was arrive at the tower, which only took a few more minutes. AS he entered the place, he found it to be quite well-lit in the first room. The room had a few talismans around the walls, but nothing about the place stood out other than the giant proverb hanged on the wall.
¡°Without heaven, enrich your knowledge and prepare for the chance. Without earth, run the fields seeking an advantage. Upon opening both heaven and earth, the way forward shall be redressed. This is namely the secret of the one who guides.¡± Shinku read out loud. ¡°So basically open both scrolls. You could¡¯ve just had a sign that says that. As Shikamaru would say, what a bother.¡± He put index and middle finger on both hands together perpendicularly, a clone appearing next to him. He handed the earth scroll to the clone and took heaven for himself, before they both proceeded to open them up at once.
The insides of the scrolls had some formulas written on them, surrounding a huge letter for ¡°person¡±. The letters for person started smoking, Shinku putting the scrolls on the ground one over the other before taking a jump backwards. A puff of smoke exploded from them, an unknown man appearing over the scrolls, wearing a Konoha forehead protector and a standard shinobi vest.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
¡°So it¡¯s you¡¡± He said, the two Shinku facing each other then back to him and simultaneously shrugging ¡°Well. For a start. Congratulations on clearing the second phase of the chunin exams. I¡¯ll ask just in case, but do you understand what¡¯s written there?¡± He pointed at the¡ riddle? Posted on the wall.
¡°Well¡ I get that it¡¯s some form of metaphor, but what it¡¯s pointing to is lost to me.¡± Shinku explained, the ninja nodding and reading it out again.
¡°The earth in this text means the human body. The heaven is the human head. In other words, those who lack physical strength, must strive in order to improve, those who lack mentally, strive to learn in preparation for your mission.¡± He explained.
¡°Ah. I see. In that case the missing letters are the letter for ¡°person¡± that was on the scrolls.¡± Shinku speculated, receiving a nod in reply.
¡°This survival excersise was created in order to measure the test-taker¡¯s abilities as a chunin. Considering you¡¯ve cleared that without even having a team, it is assumed you have both, in other words, it is assumed that you¡¯ll know how to lead a team to victory as well. To be ¡°the one who guides¡±. An idiot not capable of doing that wouldn¡¯t have gotten this far alone. In any case. Since you¡¯ve passed I¡¯ll show you inside.¡± The man said before leading Shinku to the inside of the tower and leaving. Shinku had to spend four days there waiting. At least there were rooms he could stay in. That was a relief. As he was walking around a hallway in the tower a group of sand shinobi appeared at the other end, walking opposite him.
¡®These guys¡ The ones Sasuke met with before the beginning of the exam? The Gaara guy seems to be about our age, but¡ there¡¯s something off about him.¡¯ He didn¡¯t know why but as he walked towards them and even past them, the tension in the air continued to be high. If they were there that early¡ maybe they could actually give him a challenge, Shinku hoped, though it didn¡¯t explain why he felt so tense around them.
The four days of waiting were hell. Not to mention that Sasuke¡¯s team had only made it in the last moments, making Shinku think they had failed somewhere along the lines, or even that his paranoia about that grass ninja was true and they were now dead. He worried to no end. That¡¯s why when the three walked inside, as beat up as they were, he was greatly relieved.
And as soon as they did they were asked to gather in the main chamber. A large arena-like area with two statues of arms, their hands put together into a ram sign. The teachers gathered ahead of us. Most of the winners of this part of the exam seemed to be Konoha shinobi, not to mention all the rookies were here. That¡¯s actually quite amazing. In total there were nineteen of them, including Shinku.
Anko congratulated them on passing the second phase, before the Hokage started explaining some fundamentals of the chunin exam, how it came to be and its history. He used a lot of difficult words and explained it in a roundabout way, but in general, to Shinku it all came down to three words. Inter-alliance politics. The chunin exam was basically a controlled war between the allied nations that they could use to apply pressure to each other without reducing their military powers. Shinku didn¡¯t care much about it. It was indeed an effective way to control the loss of military power while allowing the villages a different amount of power. But he didn¡¯t care about that. He hadn¡¯t come here to represent his nation or any sort of bullshit like that. He¡¯d come here to become a chunin and to have fun, that¡¯s what he was going to do.
When he was done with that and was about to explain the third test, a ninja appeared before the Hokage, introducing himself as Gekkou Hayate, the judge of the third round, the Hokage letting him take over the explanation. He coughed in the middle of practically every sentence. Was this guy okay? Is he terminally ill? Why is he a ninja like this? Let alone having been chosen as the judge for the exam? He could barely talk without interrupting himself! Shinku shook his head.
He said that before the third exam they would have to do something else. A preliminary exam with participation in the main one on the line. There were too many people there for the final exam to work and it was according to the rules that a preliminary would be held before the exam to reduce the numbers. Individual battles to the death. He asked for those who wish to drop out now. Only one person raised their hand. Yakushi Kabuto, saying he was already at his limits and fighting a battle to the death immediately was just out of the question. Shinku saw Sasuke seeming to struggle with something, his team whispering amongst themselves about something. He would have to ask what that was about later. The teachers also argued about something. Anko and Kakashi to be exact.
After confirming that there would be no more dropouts, Hayate announced the beginning of the preliminaries. He explained the rules, the battles will be to the death or until one gives up, though he reserved the right to stop any fight, he warned them not to expect it to happen at all. And revealing the screen where the participants would be chosen at random. He announced that without delay they would announce the first two names. The names appeared on the screen shuffling through each other. Shinku looked up at the screen expectantly. Now. Who here would be his opponent? He hoped that luck was on his side and it wouldn¡¯t be anyone boring.
Chapter 16
The names shuffled on the screen for a few seconds before stopping.
Akada Yoroi
vs
Uchiha Sasuke
Was displayed on the screen. Yoroi¡ Who is that? Not one of the rookies or else Shinku would know him. The sand ninja? Or is it Kabuto¡¯s team? He guessed he¡¯ll find out. Either way he¡¯d enjoy watch his brother kick some ass.
¡°Now then the two displayed on the signboard, come forward.¡± Sasuke and the sunglasses-wearing teammate of Kabuto stepped in front of everyone else. ¡°For the first battle, Akado Yoroi and Uchiha Sasuke have been selected. You have no objections, yes?¡± The two answered the question positively with confidence. ¡°Now then, we will begin the first battle. Everyone but the two competitors, please move to the upper area.¡±
Team seven remained down with Sasuke for the longest, even Kakashi approaching, though by then Shinku was already climbing upwards. Eventually Sasuke¡¯s teammates did as well, Shinku joining the two. Shinku noted that Sakura looked worried, which was strange. She usually had about as much confidence in Sasuke as he did.
¡°Did something happen?¡± He called out to her.
¡°Huh? Oh¡ No. Nothing. Why?¡± She answered, Shinku raising an eyebrow at the blatant lie, not even answering her back as he activated his sharingan and watched the fight closely.
The Yoroi guy activated a jutsu immediately with the start of the battle, with his sharingan Shinku could see his hand getting covered in chakra, but he couldn¡¯t guess what for. It wasn¡¯t a chakra scalpel. The chakra was too wild for that, not to mention that those are basically worthless in combat. The incisions they make are so small and precise that even with extensive knowledge of the human body there¡¯s no way you could target a spot on the enemy so precisely unless you¡¯re considerably faster than them.
As Sasuke drew a kunai, Yoroi threw three shuriken at him, which Sasuke knocked away. Everything looked normal, until Sasuke didn¡¯t recover his stance, but rather fell forward on the ground. Shinku¡¯s eyes narrowed. That¡¯s strange. Sasuke would never slip up like that. Did he have some sort of serious injury? He seemed to be low on chakra, but not that low as to be unable to recover from a simple move like that. Yoroi ran at him and smashed his fist down, Sasuke throwing himself out of the way and being blown back by the shockwave, stabbed his kunai into the ground to stop his momentum and tripped Yoroi up with his legs, then caught him in a hold as he fell.
But Yoroi¡¯s chakra-covered hand was only centimeters away from Sasuke now. He simply moved it slightly and grabbed onto Sasuke¡¯s shirt, before Shinku observed as Sasuke¡¯s chakra was drained away through it. What was that? A kekkei genkai? Shinku¡¯d never heard of one like that.
Yoroi punched Sasuke in the chest, Sasuke¡¯s strength having been drained along with his chakra. He tried to get up only for Yoroi to grab his head and start sucking out the chakra through it, Sasuke screaming out in pain and causing Shinku to grab onto the guard rails of the observer area tightly. ¡¯What¡¯s wrong Sasuke? You aren¡¯t even pulling out your sharingan. What happened to you?¡¯ Sasuke seemed helplessly pinned to the floor, his strength gradually leaving him.
¡°Sasuke! What¡¯s with that pathetic display?! Get yourself together! You¡¯re Uchiha Sasuke aren¡¯t you?!¡± Shinku called out.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Called out Naruto right after ¡°Don¡¯t be showing such a lame display! Do this seriously!¡±
Sasuke hearing this, struggling, placed his hand on his opponent, before throwing him off with a simultaneous push and kick. Picking himself up, he dodged the next attack, but the opponent still grazed him, draining a tiny bit of chakra. Shinku didn¡¯t know if the pain Sasuke clearly experienced was because of the technique or because of something else. Yoroi rushed at him again, Sasuke dodging the attacks this time, when he suddenly ducked at an incredible speed, so much so that his opponent lost sight of him, before kicking him in the chin and throwing him upwards, jumping up himself right afterwards placing himself in the shadow of his opponent.
¡®Dancing leaf shadow? When did he learn that?¡¯ Yet, again he shivered in pain even there, as a strange burning mark spread across his skin. ¡®What the hell is that?!¡¯ Shinku thought, gripping the guard rail even tighter, before the marks receded back and Sasuke started his attack. Placing a hand on his opponent he rotated himself and kicked him, the opponent blocking it. He rotated again, going to his opponent¡¯s opposite side while hitting him in the throat with an elbow, then a punch to the stomach, knocking him downwards. Doing a final spin as they¡¯re falling at the same rate he smashed his opponent into the floor with a powerful kick, cracking the tiles underneath as he called out.
¡°Lion Combo!¡±
The attack, so powerful that it threw him away from the body, dragging him along the floor and flipping him over, leaving him lying down on the floor. Hayate walked up to the unconscious body of Yoroi as Sasuke stood up from the ground and announced his victory of the first fight, finally allowing Shinku to allow his grip and give a sigh of relief. As Sasuke was about to fall backwards, Kakashi appeared behind him and caught him. The medical team arrived and carried Yoroi off on a stretcher. They offered to take Sasuke as well, but Kakashi said he¡¯d take care of him, before taking him away. Shinku watched this happen and turned to Sakura.
¡°Those marks that covered Sasuke. What were they?¡±
She looked down ¡°¡I don¡¯t know either¡¡±
Shinku turned to Naruto. ¡°I don¡¯t know either.¡± At least Naruto looked like he genuinely didn¡¯t know. He was a notoriously bad liar, after all. But if Shinku couldn¡¯t get it out of Sakura he¡¯d have to force it out of Sasuke. With how worried the girl seemed to be, he couldn¡¯t possibly force her to speak about it more. Especially since, knowing Sasuke, he was probably the one to tell her to stay quiet about it.
The screen started going through different names again until it stopped on two.
Aburame Shino
vs
Tsurugi Misumi
¡°The two of you, come forward.¡± Hayate called out, Shino and Kabuto¡¯s other teammate, climbing down and meeting in front of him. ¡°Now, we¡¯ll begin the second match.¡± He pauses for a moment and took a few steps back. ¡°Now then, please begin.¡±
Misumi instantly rushed at Shino, who simply stood there. He attacked with the back of his arm, which Shino blocked, only Misumi¡¯s arm stretched out and wrapped around Shino¡¯s, the man using the chance to wrap his legs around Shino¡¯s and his other arm around his neck.
¡®What the hell is that body? Another kekkei genkai I haven¡¯t heard about?¡¯ Shinku wondered. Were these just not documented? Or had he just not come across them in his reading? Who were these people and why had he never heard of them until now if they could do something like suck a person¡¯s chakra out through a mere touch?
Misumi continued constricting Shino with his limbs, gradually tightening them and explained. ¡°I can dislocate every joint in my body and control my softened body with chakra at will.¡± Shino didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°That¡¯s why I can squeeze you until your bones break. As long as you don¡¯t give up, I¡¯ll keep tightening. I can even snap your neck whenever I want.¡± Shino continued saying nothing. ¡°Do you want to die?!¡± The silence remained. Misumi, seemingly getting pissed, tightened the arm around Shino¡¯s neck and with a snap, his neck hung down. Shinku smiled. This had almost everyone fooled for a moment before that Shino started turning into insects, the real one showing up behind Misumi.
¡°Behind you.¡± He said, no better word to describe it than coolly.
¡°What?!¡± Misumi exclaimed as he tried to retract his dislocated limbs, but couldn¡¯t do so while he was covered in insects, his chakra being devoured too much for him to control his limbs efficiently. As the whole of the clone turned into insects, Misumi fell down on the ground his limbs, flopping around uselessly, screaming as his chakra was sucked out until he fell unconscious. ¡®Aburame¡ a terrifying clan...¡¯ Shinku noted, hoping not to face off against him in the finals. Checking Misumi¡¯s body, Hayate announced Shino¡¯s victory as the insects returned to their host and he climbed back up to the platform. The medic team arrived, picking up the next victim, before the screen lit up again, shuffling through the names for a few seconds.
Uchiha Shinkumaru
vs
Akimichi Choji
Shinku was overjoyed seeing his name appear at first, then instantly facepalmed reading the one of his opponent. How was he supposed to take this seriously? Put him up against the red-haired sand ninja. Come on. Not¡ Choji. Of all damned people. He sighed. He supposed it was better than being put up against Sakura or something. Sighing again, he walked down to the arena.
Chapter 17
¡°Both contestants step forward.¡± Hayate called out as Shinku and Choji climbed down and faced each other in front of him. ¡°We¡¯ll now begin the third match.¡± He said before stepping backwards ¡°Please begin.¡±
¡°Choji¡ Can¡¯t you just do me a favor and give up?¡±
¡°Free yakiniku is on the line for me in this match! I can¡¯t give up so easily!¡± He called out, more enthusiastically about something other than eating than Shinku had ever heard him. Did this even count as something other than eating if he was motivated for the yakiniku part? Shinku guessed it could be seen both ways. Choji made the ram seal and then slapped his hands together. ¡°Multi-size Jutsu!¡± he called out before his body puffed out into a ball shape. His head arms, and legs all somehow retracted, to where, Shinku didn¡¯t know and honestly didn¡¯t think he wanted to know.
He had his sharingan active. He saw what the technique was and how it was performed. He had confidence that he could do it himself. The Akimichi clan have chakra concerns that don¡¯t apply to him due to his enormous chakra reserves, so he doesn¡¯t even need the technique to convert his fat into chakra. He could just do it¡ but did he want to? The answer was no. Not¡ because of how the technique would make him look. The technique just wasn¡¯t suited to his less¡ enthusiastic eating habits. Plus, he didn¡¯t have the confidence that he would be able to beat out a regular user of the technique on his first try with it. Yes, that was the problem. It was definitely not that he would feel incredibly embarrassed using it.
¡°Konoha-style taijutsu!¡± Choji called out again ¡°Human Bullet Tank!¡± He started spinning forward towards Shinku. Shinku jumped backwards, putting his back against the wall. As Choji was about to strike him he jumped up and attached himself to the underside of the observation platform, Choji impacting the wall and getting stuck inside it. His legs appeared again and he tried to pull himself out. Shinku looked over to the judge.
¡°Um¡ I don¡¯t really want to hurt him. Can we just call that my win since he¡¯s stuck?¡± Hayate shook his head, causing Shinku to sigh. He looked down at Choji, still trying to get himself out of the wall. ¡®What do I do about this¡? I guess I¡¯ll use that. Hopefully it doesn¡¯t hurt too bad. Sasuke didn¡¯t scream when the guy wasn¡¯t holding his head.¡¯ Shinku jumped down next to Choji.
¡°Well¡ Forgive me Choji.¡± He first made two shadow clones, then with all of them, made the ram seal, their right hands becoming covered in chakra. They placed their hands on Choji and started draining his physical and mental energy. He had to admit. It felt good. Almost like he was being filled with strength. The fact that strength was someone else¡¯s was somewhat disconcerting though. He wondered if he could modify the technique to only suck out physical energy at some point. Choji eventually shrunk down to his normal size, Shinku¡¯s two shadow clones instantly putting him in a hold he couldn¡¯t escape, keeping him from forming signs to use jutsu as well.
All three continued sucking out his strength, until he felt Choji relax himself completely, getting his hands off him and releasing him. Choji couldn¡¯t move anymore. Hayate and Shinku waited to see if he would manage to stand up, but he failed, Hayate eventually announcing Shinku¡¯s victory. Shinku crouched next to Choji and put his hands together with his head bowed slightly.
¡°Sorry buddy. I¡¯ll treat you to some pork ramen as an apology later.¡± He said before standing up as the medical team came in, climbing up to the observation platform as they took Choji away. The next two names appeared on the screen after some shuffling
Haruno Sakura
vs
Yamanaka Ino
Sakura and Ino climbed down in front of Hayate as he called out for them and before long he announced the beginning of the fight. Shinku had the feeling that the fight was extremely emotionally meaningful from how the two looked at each other and how they put their headbands on properly, as if it had some meaning only they understood. They were rivals he guessed. Though he had no idea why. From what he remembered they got along wonderfully in the first one or two years of the academy. He wondered what happened.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The fight started out lightly. The two were obviously feeling reluctant about it and were pulling their punches, probably instinctively. Sakura used clones to distract ino and with build-up and release of chakra to increase her speed, she managed to get the better of Ino in that regard a few times. Their shurikenjutsu was about equal so they could never hit each other with them. Meanwhile, Ino couldn¡¯t use her Yamanaka clan¡¯s jutsu since it wasn¡¯t really meant for combat purposes.
They continued to pummel each other over and over. Sakura had a slight advantage over Ino, but she was also more exhausted from before the fight started. Naruto cheered for Sakura the entire time through, but they were obviously evenly matched. The fight took quite a while, but eventually the two each hit each other simultaneously, sending each other flying so hard their headbands fell off. Both attempted to get up, but Sakura had used up too much chakra. Moreso than Ino had since the start of the fight and she was more exhausted to start with. Because of that, she fell back down, while Ino managed to get up. Hayate announced Ino¡¯s victory and as soon as he did, her legs seemed to give out on her. Kakashi and Asuma body flickered into the arena and picked them up, then jumped back up to the observation area and laid them down to rest.
The screen shuffled names again and the next fight came up.
Tenten
vs
Temari
The two went down and before long Hayate begun the fight. Tenten instantly jumped back, taking her distance from her opponent, intending to observe her first. Temari provoked her about it, which caused Tenten to throw a group of shuriken at Temari, though they were easily knocked away with a fast swing, one Tenten missed, allowing Temari to provoke her further.
Shikamaru predicted victory for the sand. Naruto failed to understand, but Shinku knew what he meant. The Tenten girl¡¯s opponent was completely controlling the flow of the battle. Tenten could still recover, but Shinku didn¡¯t see it happening. The girl was already being caught up completely in Temari¡¯s flow.
Tenten measured the distance between her and Temari before running around her, probably to attempt and confuse her. It was useless. She jumped up and took out a scroll spinning it around herself in mid-air and summoning the weapons sealed inside as projectiles, but with a swing of Temari¡¯s not even-half-opened fan, they were all knocked to the ground. Their match-up was too bad. A ranged wind release user and a ranged weapon user. It was almost as if somebody had set the match up for Tenten to lose.
That didn¡¯t mean she would go down without a fight. She took out two scrolls this time, setting them on the floor, she formed a few handseals, before the area was covered in smoke, the two scrolls erupting from within it, spinning around each other, Tenten jumping up in-between them as the smoke cleared up. Just like before she started summoning the weapons sealed inside and throwing them at Temari, but simply increasing how much she threw wasn¡¯t going to be enough as Temari opened her fan a bit more and knocked them all away with another gust of wind.
As Tenten landed she jumped back up again, the weapons starting to lift off the ground and Tenten pulling them up, controlling them all with metal wire, and throwing them back down at Temari. Temari feigned surprise for a moment, before smirking as she fully opened her fan and flapped it, the strongest gust of wind yet, knocking the weapons and Tenten to the ground.
As Tenten stood up, Temari readied her fan again. ¡°Ninja Art¡¡± She started saying ¡°Sickle Weasel Jutsu!¡± She finished as she flapped her fan down and then instantly back up, creating a tornado-like gust of wind around Tenten, which started cutting her up. AS the wind faded and Tenten started falling, Temari folded her fan and rested it against the ground, Tenten falling on top of it with her back first, almost looking like she would snap in two. Shinku winced. ¡®That could have broken her spine. Fuck. That Temari lady is vicious.¡¯ She swung Tenten off her fan throwing her across the arena. Shinku was tempted to jump down and catch her, but he let Lee do so instead, sure that she would be happier being saved by a teammate than some random guy that could have been her enemy.
With Lee and Temari arguing, Shinku could see Lee was being provoked just like Tenten was. Getting caught up in Temari¡¯s pace. ¡®That¡¯s one seriously bad personality, woman.¡¯ He spoke to no one inside his head, before jumping down and putting a hand on Lee¡¯s shoulder right as he was about to rush forward.
¡°Calm down. Even if you fight right now it won¡¯t accomplish anything. Rather than fighting shouldn¡¯t you make sure your teammate¡¯s taken care of?¡± He attempted to calm Lee down. Lee looked back at him, surprised.
¡°Ah. Y-Yes.¡± He said, hanging his head, seeming ashamed of himself.
¡°Hmph. And here I was starting to think that every shinobi from the leaf is just an idiot.¡± Temari provoked again.
¡°What was that?!¡± Naruto called out from the platform.
¡°Shut up, Naruto!¡± Shinku yelled out, getting irritated at how easily provoked everyone was. He turned to Temari and smiled. ¡°You¡¯ll have to excuse them. Here in Konoha we have a lot of emotional and passionate people. You can¡¯t blame them if they can¡¯t be emotionally challenged like you guys from the sand apparently are.¡±
Temari¡¯s eyes narrowed in irritation before she turned around with a ¡°Humph.¡± And climbed back up to her team. The medical team arrived afterwards, Lee helping them get Tenten on a stretcher, before they carried her off and he climbed back up to the platform with Shinku. The screen soon started shuffling trough names again and in a second the next participants had been decided.
Nara Shikamaru
vs
Kankuro
Announcement
So. This isn''t a guarantee or anything. But I might not be posting stuff for a few days. I''m really really sorry. But I got sick and feel like shit. So I don''t know if I''ll be able to get myself to write or even if I do if I''ll be able to do it satisfactorilly. Head hurts, nose is stuffed, coughing, sore throat, fever. You know, the usual stuff. But anyway. I am really sorry and I wanted to let you guys know just in case I really am unable to write the stuff. Because even if I do it''ll probably be much slower than usual and I don''t want you guys to wonder what the fuck happened.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
On the other hand, hey. We got another 1 and 0.5. I can''t tell if the 1 is a troll who missed the last half a star or if he''s just some kind of butthurt. But it''s pretty funny nonetheless. I have a feeling it might be from the same guy who wrote the latest comment on chapter 8. But I''m probably wrong about that since the timeframes didn''t really match at all. I''d still like to believe it''s something similar to that. (I was honestly saving this for the next author''s note, but hey I needed 500 words for this anyway so I had to write something)