'Status'
After saying the key work in his mind, a blue screen appeared in front of his eyes.
A hologram of his body appeared, showing a scan of his status page. Because he had just trained, several muscle groups were colored in a yellow teint, showing some sort of severe exhaustion. After months of training, he had learned to train his body to its very limits, a perk that allowed him to raise his strength from being completely average to one of the strongest of the class.
The only reason he was still behind the likes of Arya and Biwa were not due to him not working hard enough, but bloodlines. They were born strong, and just growing up would turn them into chunin, or even jonin. If they trained under a strong person, then their potential was probably elite jonins.
[Name - Takeshi Ryu | Level 12 Academy Student [130 / 380 EXP]
Attributes:
Strength - 14 [D] | Agility - 15 [D] | Vitality - 15 [D] | Chakra - 36 [C]
Perk - Water Elemental Talent (Medium) [+], Swordsmanship Talent (Medium) [+]
Passive Skills - Hidden Mist Kenjutsu [D], Kirigakure Academy Taijutsu [E]
Ninjutsu - Water Eagle [C], Water Shuriken [D], Water Clone [D], Water Shield [D]
Items - Forging Land Black Katana [C]]
"I have come a long way, huh...", Takeshi muttered after applying the bonus attribute point he had gotten from the system into the Chakra attribute. Instantly, his reserves of chakra increase by a substantial amount, his blood pumping in excitement.
Regular shinobi would have to go through extended period of training to grow stronger. And increasing their chakra reserves would often come with a lesser control over their pool of chakra.
But Takeshi was different. The growth was not only abnormal, surpassing that of regular clan heirs, it also happened to come with no decrease in terms of chakra control. It was a cheat that basically pushed him to become a ninjutsu specialist. However, being well-rounded was just as important. With just ninjutsu, Kirigakure shinobi like him would never get stronger than jonin level. However, if he could combine strong ninjutsu with high mastery of kenjutsu, he might just reach elite jonin level.
When he first reincarnated into Takeshi's body, he was only level 3, a weakling who was average or even below average, and definitely in the bottom of the class.
Having medium talent in anything was already a blessing, but having the system on top of that allowed him a growth rate that was unheard of for someone whose only shinobi descent was a nameless chunin father.
"This is definitely enough to survive the rite of passage..."
Kirigakure had this cruel tradition of making its academy students graduate through a survival battle, where only the very best would become genin. Caste, family name...None of it mattered as long as you were strong enough to survive.
Unlike Konoha who had an incredible legacy left behind the first and second Hokage, Kirigakure was a much weaker village in terms of potential and overall strength. Yet, it had managed to stay proudly as one of the five major Hidden villages, thanks to its military-like structure and bloodthirsty mentality.
Becoming a shinobi of the mist meant getting bloody at some point.
Shinobi was not a profession for the weak, and for some reason, Takeshi was fully prepared for it.
"I still have a couple of months to train...", he analysed calmly.
Takeshi was definitely not someone who admired the likes of Naruto. If anything, Takeshi was calm and pragmatic. He would never take uncalculated risks, though he was not so short-sighted as to think that he would be able to survive without becoming stronger. His view of the world came from two things: a data-driven approach that complemented his use of the system, and a reward-driven mentality that allowed him to always choose what was most beneficial to him.
In other words, he was both cynical and egoistical, but this is what allowed him to adapt so quickly to the way of the shinobi.
Months of observations had allowed him to come up with some conclusions. In his notebook, one could read:
Academy student - Level 1 to 10, Stats between 1 and 10, E-rank jutsu
Genin - Level 10 to 25, Stats between 10 and 50, D-rank and C-rank jutsu
Chunin - Level 25 to 50, Stats between 50 and 100, B-rank jutsu
Jonin - Level 50 to 100, Stats between 100 and unknown, A-rank jutsu
Elite Jonin / Kage - Level 101+, Unknown stats, S-rank jutsu
Based on those observation, Takeshi was already on par with mid-genin ninjutsu-wise, and beginner-genin level in terms of close combat. After all, he had already acquired the [Kenjutsu Hidden Mist Sword Art] technique and his physical attributes were already on par with some of the weaker genins.