Chapitre 60: CH_3.1 (060)
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———
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The first day of Genin Corp had arrived and all the rookie genin, dressed their best, had gathered in a large hall to start their journey as shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.
Takuma glanced to his right at his friend, wondering how he should start. He felt awkward— he didn't want it to be, but after what had happened, he couldn't blame the vibe between them to be such. He decided to keep it simple,
"Healed?" he asked. Taro and Ai had visited him during the recovery period, even Masaaki had visited after he had somewhat healed from his less serious injuries (he got a yelling from Ai for it). Nenro, like Takuma, was on bedrest— neither could visit the other as they recovered.
Nenro, who was gazing around the complex, looked at Takuma. "For the most part. Did some training with Masaaki yesterday, there was some sluggishness here and there, other than nothing much. What about you?"
"A little stiff in the shoulder," said Takuma. Was it just him who felt awkward? Nenro didn't seem to be any different from usual. It made him feel awkward for other reasons, but he also felt better that nothing had changed in their relationship. Instead, Takuma even felt closer to Nenro after exchanging serious blows. He lightly chuckled, "Training with Masaaki? What did you do; chase around butterflies?"
Masaaki was as eccentric as he was strong. One moment he trained as if his life depended on it, but then the next moment he would stare at the clouds with a listless stare or get distracted by the simplest of things.
"He wanted to spar," Nenro sighed. "He came on so hard I was sweating in seconds. If he had used his bukijutsu, I would've been sure that he was treating the spar as a rematch."
Speaking of Masaaki, the guy was standing among the group of girls, Ai's kunoichi friends, with his arms crossed as he towered over them, listening to their conversation with a serious expression while they laughed and giggled. It was a chuckle-worthy sight.
Takuma looked to his other side at his other friend and asked, "So… what's going to happen today?"
Squatting on the ground was Taro, who looked up at Takuma. "… Listen, I appreciate you all thinking that I'm some sort of know-it-all— but it's not good. You're building up this unrealistic image of me— one day one of you will ask me something that I won't know, and that high-high pedestal that you've put me on will crumble. I'll be fine because I know I don't know anything, but you guys will suffer— come face-to-face with the fact that the image of me that you perceived as reality was all a lie that you yourself wove. It touches me that you think of me so highly, but it also breaks my heart thinking of the inevitable bitter future to come."
"So… do you know?" Nenro asked.
Taro hung his head for a moment. He sighed, "It's nothing special. We will be shown the mission desks, given a tour of the facilities, and told what we have to do every day until the day we die. I don't know, mom didn't tell me much about it. She did yap a lot about working hard and making the best of my time."
Takuma leaned towards Nenro and whispered, "We should visit Taro's mom with gifts and offerings. If we get into her good graces, we won't need Taro anymore. We can just ride her coattails to an easy life."
Nenro imitated a great serious node which would've looked real if his lips weren't twitching up.
"It's not whispering if I can hear it," said Taro.
Takuma smiled. Team-5 was no longer a team, but he was glad they could still hang around like this and joke around. A part of him was afraid that he would be left alone with Masaaki, Nenro, and Ai would go their own way and Taro would return to his academy friends and he would be left alone. He was glad that didn't happen.
"Attention!"
A loud voice cut through the chatter in the large hall. Everyone turned to the speaker and saw a girl in her mid-teens dressed in the shinobi gear. The little identification strap on her uniform told she was a genin. She was accompanied by a guy of similar age to the girl.
"I'm Saki and this is Nobuo," she pointed to the guy. "We will be giving you a rundown of the general rules that you'll have to follow while in the Genin Corps. We will be starting immediately. Chunin Yoshio and Chinatsu's group will follow me, the rest will follow Nobuo. We will not be waiting for those who're not here yet. It's their loss. Let's begin."
The crowd of rookie genin separated into two and they began to follow their 'guides'.
The hall they had gathered at was part of a sprawling complex built for the Genin Corps. The complex had multiple buildings and facilities to be used by the genin. It wasn't flashy like a commercial corporation's campus, but from the obsessive cleanliness and people dressed in uniform running around, it was definitely a military establishment.
They were first led to the Mission Desk Central with multiple desks. To Takuma, it reminded him of an 'Isekai'adventuring guild building with tellers/ receptionists working behind counters assigning jobs to the adventures— just in this case, both the receptionists and the adventurers were shinobi of the Leaf.
"As you guys are still rookie, the resource command doesn't trust you with choosing your own missions," the girl named Saki was blunt, "which is why until they think you're able to handle yourself, the command will assign you the missions. For a year, you'll have to participate in missions assigned to you— whatever and whenever those missions maybe. After the year ends, you will go through a performance review. If the command thinks you're capable, you'll be allowed the choice of missions. But that's in the future, so all you need to care about is to properly complete the missions assigned to you.
Everybody understands?" she didn't wait for a reply. "Good, let's move on."
They exited the mission desk central and were led to another building, larger than the mission desk central— though from the looks of it, this new building was deserted compared to the bustling Mission Desk Central.
"This is the Learning Resource Center, LRC for short," said Saki as they walked through the building. There were tons of classrooms inside, most of them empty, but once in a while they could see shinobi teaching other shinobi. Though it did seem strange that in the considerably sized classroom, the 'student' strength didn't once go over five heads.
They arrived at yet another big hall. Like the Mission Desk Central, there was a long row of reception desks, but unlike the Mission Desk Central, only one of them was occupied behind the glass with a bored looking shinobi who seemed to be flipping through a magazine behind her counter.
Saki pointed at the large wall across the empty row. In the middle of the wall, covering half of the wall's length was a railway/airport style information board stating various details like course subject, instructor name, code, price, and level. It was an analog type board with painted slates inserted into rails to make rows of information.
"By paying mission points, you can take courses from your fellow genin, chunin… and in rare situations, even jonin if they decide to hold a course," there was a light of longing in her eyes as she talked about the jonin. "The codes there can be used to get a course outline for more details at the receptionist."
Takuma looked at the board to see what type of courses the Learning Resource Center offered. Foraging, Personal Finance, Traps, Water Walking Practice, 10 Ways to Improve Patron Impression, Catch a Chunin's Attention in 100 Days….
Takuma couldn't help but wonder if those courses belonged better on social media ads. For him who hadn't been on social media for more than a year, the clickbait was almost tantalizing.
"Let's move on!" Saki commanded and they continued onwards.
She led them towards the training facilities available to the Genin Corps. Moving target practice with complex movements, indoor arenas that would shoot kunai towards you for dodging practice, durable dummies for various use, indoor arenas, outdoor fields, places specializing for practicing ninjutsu(for example, an entire area of sand to practice Katon(Fire) jutsu).
"Any and all of these facilities are available to you," said Saki before adding. "Friendly advice, the training facilities are almost always occupied. If you want it, book them in advance— the waiting line usually extends a week or two. If you don't book them, you won't ever get to use them."
The rest of the tour was filled with rules, the unofficial dos and don'ts, and hotspots in the Genin Corps complex. Takuma appreciated Saki clueing them with the unofficial side of things.
As the tour wound to its end, the group ended up stumbling with someone Takuma actually recognized.
"Are these the new batch of genin?" said the man wearing black sunglasses and the bandanna forehead protector covering his entire head. It reminded Takuma of Shady Guy, who dressed the same, but unlike the sarcastic Iryo-nin's lanky and wiry build, the man has an average build and his smile wasn't shady.
"Yes, sir," said Saki. She turned to the group and introduced the man. "This is Chunin Ebisu. He works as a counselor. If you—"
Ebisu interrupted her, "May I?" He continued when Saki nodded, "As introduced, I'm Chunin Ebisu. I'm a counselor currently working with both genin and chunin. What is counseling and why do I need it— you might think. All of you have just recently become shinobi, so many of you might not know but there are all types of shinobi, all important to the village. When you spend more time being a shinobi, you'll encounter these types of shinobi. But you might have already noticed how some people are better at certain things and you yourself are good at certain skills. As you grow as a shinobi, there will come a time for you to decide what type of shinobi you want to be. In what area do you wish to develop?
"That's where counseling can help you. Such decisions can be at times overwhelming. However, a simple helping hand to help you make sense of these decisions and help you logically guide you through the decision and progression process can be a boon. We can sit down and discuss your strengths and weaknesses and learn how to leverage them for your best future. If you have a goal, I can help you understand what needs to be done to reach it. So, if you're ever in doubt regarding your growth as a shinobi, visit me. My doors are always open to people willing to work hard to achieve their goals," he finished with a smile.
This Ebisu was different from the one Takuma knew. The Ebisu he remembered from the manga was grumpy— but if he remembered that was because every time he appeared it was with Naruto, and at that time the prejudice against Naruto stood strong. This Ebisu smiled and seemed like a likable person.
Takuma also didn't know that Ebisu worked as a counselor. But it somehow made sense. He was the Third Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru's teacher. To be given that job must've meant that Ebisu was skilled in teaching. Counseling made sense when Takuma thought like that.
One of the genin in the group raised their hand and asked a question, "What if we don't have anything we're good at."
If it was Takuma of before, he would've asked that question. But not now. He was really good at Bunshin no Jutsu(Clone Jutsu). Still, Takuma was interested in hearing that question because him being good at making illusory clones didn't mean jack shit when looking at either the small or big picture.
Ebisu replied, "It's not that you aren't good at anything. Instead, you simply haven't found the skill you're going to be good at yet. There's no need to worry. I can help you with that. We can work together to find your strengths and build on them."
That was a banger answer, thought Takuma. If he didn't have Maruboshi to advise him, he would've gone to Ebisu for counseling. Who knows, maybe he would give it a try in the future.
And with that, the first day at Genin Corp came to an end.
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———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 61: CH_3.2 (061): C-rank Jutsu!
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis.
———
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Takuma gazed at the sign of the multi-storied building situated in the industrial district. It was his first time in this part of the Leaf, and it had taken a bit before he found the address. Panka Couriers— said the blue and white sign over the entrance. He looked down at the mission slip in his hand that he had received from the Mission Desk Central with the mission specifics. On it, Panka Couriers was written under the patron's name. He had arrived at the right place.
His first mission. He felt jittery like a child about to go on their first errand. He knew D-rank missions were busy work and odd jobs, but he still felt nervous and wanted his first mission to go as smoothly as possible without any problems.
Even from the outside, Takuma could tell that the building was a large warehouse. Long and tall shelving racks covered the floor. In the back, Takuma could see people packing items in boxes and packages. He talked to the first person he saw, who walked him to the owner's office.
"Boss, a shinobi is here for the job."
Inside the office, a pot-bellied man in a white cotton shirt that hugged his torso was sitting behind a desk with a towel hanging from his shoulder. The man raised his top-bald head from the papers on his desk and looked at Takuma.
"Shinobi… you're here for the job?" asked the owner.
Takuma nodded and showed him the mission slip. The owner studied it for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, this is the one," he said and asked Takuma to sit down.
The mission, if Takuma could use that word for this job, was to work as a delivery man for Panka Couriers. According to the contract, he was to work for an entire week with a minimum quota of deliveries in a day. A certain number of package deliveries counted as 1 D-rank mission, and as long as the patron had enough work for him, he could do as many deliveries as he could, and at the end of the mission, he would be paid for the amount of D-rank missions he had completed. There were a couple more stipulations in the contract, which ensured that neither side could exploit the other.
All in all, it sounded like a simple enough job.
"It's good that you're here, one of the boys left suddenly without warning, and I couldn't find anyone to replace him," said the man. He stood up and asked Takuma to follow him. They walked deeper into the warehouse, where the owner was introduced to one of the employees.
"This is Ran; he will be giving you work," said the owner before leaving Takuma with Ran.
"Have you done this before?" asked Ran. He was a tall and well-built man dressed in a sleeveless vest, blue pants, and a yellow hard hat on his head.
Takuma shook his head.
"Alright, listen well then," Ran pointed at the map behind him on the wall. It was the map of the Hidden Leaf village, but it was marked differently than the maps Takuma had seen before. "We have divided the village into areas, and we divide the packages according to the areas, so when you go out to deliver, you will only serve one of those areas. You go straight to the area and then move around to deliver the packages. You will either get your load from here, or we will tell you to go to a client, and you will pick the load from there and then deliver it."
Ran then showed him the 'equipment'— a bag so large that when Takuma hung it on his back, it towered over his head. It was to store small and medium-sized packages. For large packages that couldn't be carried on the back, carts were used to transport them around the village.
"Donkey or horse pulls them, but shinobi usually pull the carts on their own."
Takuma nodded. Shinobi didn't use horses for travel. Traveling by foot when you could jump from tree to tree and cut through a forest or outlast a prancing horse which would tire down long before a chakra-enabled shinobi who could run for hours. Even when cargo was involved, shinobi would use storage seals to put away the weight and travel by foot.
Like most shinobi, Takuma didn't know how to ride a horse or control a cart-pulling animal. As for storage seals, he had only learned how to imitate the fuinjutsu script and chakra application to make the most basic storage seal that could only hold a few kilograms. Maruboshi, pushed for time, had chosen not to explain any theory behind the scrolls and only taught Takuma to make a monkey copy so that he could make a scroll without understanding what he was doing.
After a final explanation of how to approach delivery orders to take the least time and the rules, do's, and don'ts while delivering the packages, Takuma was off with the most oversized bag the warehouse had filled to the brim.
The bag was heavier than anything an average person could lug around, but for Takuma, it was simply a heavy bag. Other than the fact that it hindered his mobility due to its size, Takuma felt he could do deliveries all day long and get employer of the week by a long shot.
———
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Enthusiasm could take humanity to the stars. For Takuma, it took him to overperforming to the point that on Day-5, the owner sent him home earlier because they didn't have anything left for him to deliver when he returned in the middle of the work day to get another load. By the last day, Takuma had done everything from solo small-package deliveries to cart deliveries to pick-and-drop deliveries.
He had even accompanied another employee for a delivery run who had told him that his route order was terrible. The only reason he could do so much was that he could brute rush through the order deliveries faster than people who knew how to order their delivery route properly.
That was fine for Takuma. He was only in the delivery business for a week. By the end of the week, he had completed eight D-rank missions in his first week, which got him a commendation from the owner that turned out to be a plus point for Takuma as it went on his record.
But, at the same time, eight D-rank missions were all he did during the week. He didn't train, meet with friends, relax at home, hike on a nearby nature trail, learn other skills, or do anything. Every moment of his 'work' time went into fulfilling deliveries.
Before the contract, he had visited the jutsu archive every day to look at jutsu, but in the week, he had only visited once. He decided it wasn't worth it to dedicate that much time to missions. He needed time to train and do other activities. As long as he did two to three missions a week, he would make the monthly minimum, and he could supplement more to ensure he wasn't seen doing the bare minimum.
After he submitted his signed and stamped mission slips back to the mission desk, he was told that he could take a week off before returning to take missions which he complied with and spent the hours every day for the rest of the week in the jutsu archive, looking at C-rank jutsu, trying to figure out what he should choose. He looked at Doton (Earth Release) jutsu, he looked at Raiton (Lightning Release), and he looked at Raiton jutsu at the D-rank library— as Doton was supposed to be weaker against Raiton and he needed to know which Doton jutsu could be completely screwed over with a weaker Raiton jutsu and avoid those jutsu.
'Fuck me, choosing Raiton as my first jutsu,' Takuma felt he couldn't blame anyone but himself for choosing the one affinity opposite his primary affinity.
The chakra induction paper only showed the primary(highest) affinity, and while it could be possible that Takuma wasn't weakest at Raiton as just having Doton didn't mean he was automatically weakest with Raiton, but from his proficiency with Raiton: Shokku (Lightning Release: Shock) it was very well possible that he was dog shit with Raiton jutsu.
Takuma had entered his free week intending to choose his C-rank jutsu. By the end of the week, he had achieved his goal.
His choice—
Doton: Tsuchi Domu (Earth Release: Earth Dome)
His first jutsu, Raiton: Shokku was an offensive jutsu, something he chose to increase his firepower; even if it didn't go entirely as he wished, the jutsu did provide him a boost in offensive power. His second jutsu was Suiton: Kirigakure Jutsu (Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu), a supportive class of jutsu, something he had chosen to hinder his opponent while allowing him to put his existing options and weapons to better use. Other than his two D-rank jutsu, he had Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu), which Takuma had plans to incorporate into his fighting style under certain circumstances.
Takuma's fights while competing in the basic training final tournament were one of the most valuable experiences he had gained regarding combat. The second day had especially told him, through his beaten body, that he lacked a defense option. The long recovery period and his weakened state in his fight against Nenro clearly indicated that he needed to protect himself.
Moreover, he had also noticed how, similar to him, none of his opponents had a defense option. Nenro had shown Raiton: Shokku, a genjutsu, and a Katon (Fire Release) jutsu— all three fell under the offense classification. Yuhi Kame was a genjutsu user, and while that fight hadn't lasted very long, she hadn't shown any sign of using a pure-defensive jutsu. And finally, Fuma Arisu utilized her fuma shuriken from a distance to target him and had a modification in melee— she had only used bukijutsu against him and, yet again hadn't pulled a pure-defensive jutsu against him.
While all of them were still early in their growth as shinobi, and they could pick a pure-defensive jutsu in the future— his fights did tell him that if he could outlast his opponent by taking comparatively less damage, the chances of victory skyrocketed in his favor.
And with the offensive capabilities, everyone had shown him, it was only wise for him to choose a defensive jutsu.
Fortunately for him, Earth was the most associated with protection, and Doton had good options for Takuma.
His first choice was Doton: Koka Jutsu (Earth Release: Hardening Jutsu). By utilizing earth-natured chakra, a shinobi encased their body in surrounding rock, creating an armor. This casing could also create extendible weapons to strike a target with.
Takuma liked the jutsu as not only did it provide him with a great defense, but it also provided him with an option for boosted melee offense by extending the casing armor to form bludgeoning weapons to strike the opponent with. For the first three days, his heart stuck to the jutsu, but a single point shattered his favorability towards Doton: Koka Jutsu.
The armor that caused the user added weight to the body. Takuma was a poor match against faster and more agile opponents, with his taijutsu capabilities unable to keep up. His recent opponents had been a genjutsu user with weak taijutsu capabilities, a bukijutsu user who hurled around a heavy chunk of pure metal as her weapon, and a half-beaten shinobi who leaned towards strategic use of genjutsu to hinder opponents and use ninjutsu to deal severe damage from the distance.
But he knew the reality against the nimbler opponents. Further reducing his speed wouldn't do him any good.
So, he turned his eye to another jutsu and stumbled upon Doton: Tsuchi Domu, which according to its description, was a simplified version of B-rank jutsu Doton: Iwa-He (Earth Release: Rock Shelter)— he didn't know what made it a simplified version as it wasn't mentioned, but both jutsu created domes around the user.
It was a simple jutsu, which Takuma liked as it meant that it could be utilized in various situations without any circumstantial limitations.
The second alternative that Takuma considered was a Doton: Doro Gaeshi (Earth Release: Mud Overturn). Another defensive jutsu that brought a mud wall up for protection. Due to its composition, the jutsu was highly effective against Katon jutsu, but for the same reason, it was weak against Raiton jutsu— and for a Doton jutsu which was already vulnerable to Raiton to be weaker didn't seem like a positive outlook. The reason he had considered the jutsu in the first place was that the primary affinity for a great majority of people in the Land of Fire was Katon— and having a jutsu strong against Katon seemed like a legitimate option.
However, in the end, Takuma decided to walk toward the side of neutrality and confirmed his choice to be Doton: Tsuchi Domo.
Takuma turned to the shinobi with him in the room. "I have decided," he said.
The shinobi stepped closer, asked Takuma's choice, and walked out with Takuma's shinobi registration— and when he returned, he had a jutsu scroll with him.
Takuma looked at the scroll on the table in front of him, and with nervous hands, he rolled it open.
It was time to start learning.
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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