'Normal Speech'
'Thoughts'
'Bijuu/Summons/Gamer'
'Bijuu/Summons/Thoughts'
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, The Gamer, or any series for that matter. If I did the last thing I would do is write fanfiction for your amusement. I am also way too lazy to come up with new creative and funny disclaimers to post on every chapter, so I'll be copying this one and pasting it on every chapter. I've got better things to do with my time, like read fanfiction, write fanfiction, eat, do work, work out, read fanfiction...you get the idea.
(P.S. Did you guys know I like fanfiction?)
Chapter 4
Day 90
Ping!
Daily Quest Alert!
Training Arc II
Your beautiful but sadistic teacher is training you in combat and wants to see you improve in your skills. Show her how fast you can improve and try to land something on her.
Objective 1: Manage to land at least one hit on Kotoe
Objective 2: Make Kotoe Use Substitution at least once
Objective 1 reward: 500 EXP, +1 Stat point
Objective 2 reward: 1000 EXP
Failure: You may die on the field.
Do You Accept?
Y/N
I grimaced under my mask before turning to face my adversary. Kotoe was dressed in some of her Anbu clothing; She had the sleeveless black shirt, gloves, dark pants, and shinobi sandals down, but she lacked the typical grey flak jacket, metal arm guards and ninja pouches that an Anbu would typically wear on the field. Ever since Day 31, Kotoe had begun training me on hand-to-hand combat. She didn't teach me a style or anything, but just how to fight and handle herself and every day since then, I had received this quest.
I believe it goes without saying that I fumbled a lot and did not manage to hit her even after 40 days. More irritating was the fact that I knew she was significantly holding back to try and match my speed and strength, but that did nothing to change the vast difference in skill and experience. It wasn't until recently that I had managed to actually land a hit on her.
It did pretty much no damage.
And I got beat soon after.
But I had completed part one of the quest so I supposed it was alright, more so since she hadn't been upset about my lack of skill. I hadn't had any before anyway, so she simply encouraged me to do better.
"You're distracted again." A voice said behind me causing me to instantly take a leap forward to distance myself and turned to see Kotoe looking at me unamused.
"She's fast..."
"Try not to let your thoughts wander." she stated before getting into a loose stance, "Come."
I shook my head from any distractions and carefully looked at her poise. It looked like she had openings...and she did, but she was purposefully opening up her guard for me. I knew that it would be hard to exploit that opening, but I had to try.
I focused my gaze.
The rustling of the leaves signaled our fight.
I quickly threw a kunai from my pouch and watched as she merely tilted her head to dodge the projectile. It impacted the tree behind her so I rushed up to her another kunai in hand. She watched as I got closer and it wasn't until I had jumped up to her face level and swung the weapon that she decided to slightly move.
She leaned back at the blow causing my attack to hit air and leaving my still airborne body wide open. She instantly capitalized with a sharp upper kick aimed at my abdomen, but with great flexibility, I tucked my knees into my chest and the kick instead impacted the soles of my feet. I used the upward momentum of the attack to propel myself upwards allowing me to see her impassive gaze below. I strapped the kunai to my side and got out 10 Shuriken from my pouch and crossed my arms against my chest, 5 throwing stars in each hand. In a fluid motion, I released them from my possession and watched as they flew towards the ground.
They were thrown in a way that Kotoe would have little room to maneuver or dodge. Without so much as a pause, she jumped and gracefully grabbed 2 of the throwing stars in midair then quickly threw them. They impacted the other projectiles causing them to ricochet away from her and some even flew back towards me. I stood on a tree, parallel to the ground, and used the kunai strapped to my waist to deflect the 3 stars that had come my way.
Suddenly, my Danger Sense screamed at me to dodge to which I quickly reacted and jumped off the tree just in time for an attack shatter the trunk of the plant.
Kotoe landed on the ground after kicking the tree in half and looked at me appreciatively, "At least your instincts are satisfactory." No more words were said as she rushed towards me and used her longer reach to twist her body and throw a sharp right kick aimed at my ribs. I quickly ducked and used the opening of her missed attack to thrust the kunai in my hands upward towards her outstretched attacking leg.
In an impossibly smooth motion her feet, which had been pointed parallel to the ground, turned upwards at a 90-degree angle and became perpendicular to the ground. With this position the dropped her heel downwards aimed at my left shoulder while my right knife holding hand was poised to strike.
I could hit her.
But I would lose my shoulder in the process.
I quickly abandoned my attack by jumping forward hearing the crack of the earth behind me as Kotoe's heel impacted the ground. I rolled and stood up on one knee while glancing at my teacher. I needed to find a way to distract her for just a single second, so I thought for a moment before deciding a course of action.
This entire time.
I had been restricted.
It was to obviously aid in my strength growth while training, however, I could use this to my advantage. All the tricks I had used in the past would most likely not work on her the same way they had before. With that, I looked behind my teacher, towards the tree where the first kunai I had thrown was lodged.
Unknown to my teacher (hopefully) I had attached an extrememly thin, piece of ninja wire to my first kunai. With all the movements I had made around her, the wire was also now on the ground around her, so I lightly twitched my fingers and pulled.
Hard
Immediately, the wire on the ground made itself known and began to quickly wrap itself around Kotoe. My teacher looked marginally surprised, so I used this brief moment of distraction to run towards her as quickly as I could. With a kunai in my other hand, I swung it as fast as I could towards my immobile teacher, however, with her superior strength, Kotoe grunted before tearing the wire apart. She then quickly reacted to my attack by reaching her hand outwards and grabbing my wrist locking me in position. I quickly attacked and swung my right leg upwards towards her chin to which she opted to try to grab with her other hand.
At this moment, I focused on the restriction seal and released part of the restrictions on my movements and my kick suddenly accelerated catching her off guard. She was able to tilt her head to the side fast enough for my kick to miss, but not enough for a graze to appear on her cheek. I took the moment when she was touching her barely noticeable injury to slip out of her grip and backflip away.
Ping!
Congratulations! 'Perfect Movement' has leveled up by 1!
Congratulations! 'Hand-to-Hand Combat' has leveled up by 1!
Perfect Movement Lvl 25 [4.20%]
Perfect Movement is a skill given to those who have mastery of their own bodies granting the user amazing agility and accuracy. This skill allows the user to decrease the amount of wasted movement they make as the skill level increases.
50% Increase to Movement Speed.
25% Increase to Attack Speed.
25% Increase to Evasion.
25% Decrease in wasted movement
Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery Lvl 15 [1.40%]
Hand-to-Hand combat encompasses all forms of such combat. Increased mastery of any type of hand to hand combat will increase the level of this skill and the effectiveness of your hand to hand fighting techniques.
15% Increase to Physical Damage
15% Increase to Attack Speed
15% Increase in Reaction Time
"...You suddenly got faster." She stated while feeling the scratch on her cheek, "You released your restrictions to catch me off guard with a sudden burst of speed. Not bad Yoru, but don't try something like that out in the field." She placed her hands to her sides before continuing, "In the field, you will never have the chance to hold back which means that you won't have restrictions to suddenly remove to get the drop on your enemy. Always go for the kill on an assignment unless stated otherwise in the mission parameters. The only reason we are using restrictions to fight is so that we can get your stronger. Understood?"
I nodded at her statement. I had no plans of being stupid enough to hold back during a mission, but that also meant I wouldn't be able to surprise my enemies with a sudden increase in strength and speed. Too bad my life came first over anything and if I died because I held back, well my regrets would go with me to the grave.
Seeing me understand her lesson, she placed a hand on my shoulder. "Then we will call it a day."
Daily Quest Complete!
Training Arc II
Objective 1 reward: 500 EXP, +1 Stat point
Objective 2 reward: Failed.
With that, we left in a Body Flicker.
It was still Day 90 of my tort- training and we had finished taking a shower together.
Afterwards, I was all dried up and clothed, but it was pretty late at night. I sat on the dining room table wondering what Kotoe was going to cook up for tonight. Apparently, she had liked my omelet that day even though I hadn't done anything particularly special when making it. As a result, however, we alternated the days we cooked for each other which was fine by me since it helped me level my cooking skill.
I was broken out of my musings when I noticed Kotoe come out of our room dressed quite nicely. It looked like she was going out someplace. "...You look good. Who's the lucky guy?"
I was promptly flicked in the head.
Hard.
"...Ow." I said, rubbing my forehead
She retracted her finger then grabbed my wrist while stating with a slight smile, "Part of being a ninja is knowing how to blend in with your surroundings, especially in a foreign environment. I've never bothered to get you civilian clothing, but I think it is time for a change of pace."
Without waiting for my reply, she used shunshin and appeared in front of a clothing store. I was pretty used to the gut-wrenching sensation of being carried by that technique by now, so I was impassive if anything. "...I don't think shinobi use shunshin when they are trying to blend in."
For that, I got another flick to my head.
"Not with that attitude they don't. Now come on let's get you something to wear."
"...No, I'm pretty sure attitude has nothing to do with it." But I wisely decided to keep myself quiet. Afterward, we looked around the store and decided that I would look good in a simple red T-shirt, and some black sweatpants to contrast my white hair. At least the shirt was my favorite color. To be honest I knew about as much about fashion as the unfortunate size of my 4-year-old mini-me.
I.E. Very little.
That being said Kotoe seemed to know what she was doing so I let her play dress up with me all the while I was thinking about what we were going to eat. You know now that I think about it, I'm not actually hung-
"Maybe we should get your ears pierced." She said while rubbing her chin in thought
I raised a brow at the woman who said that to me and replied emotionlessly "...no."
She shrugged, "Alright then. But you look good in these clothes. I'll pick out a few more of these and then we'll go out to eat." I nodded at her and allowed her to do her things. I wonder what place she had in mind…
With those kinds of thoughts running through my head, Kotoe came back with a bag in her hand and in a 'puff' it disappeared. I looked at the paper tag in her hand and noticed that it had a seal on it. "A storage seal huh?"
She nodded while putting the seal in her cleavage, "it's very convenient for shinobi to have and it is one of the most important equipment a shinobi should acquire. It makes equipment storage for long missions a lot more bearable."
I nodded at her words then asked, "So where are we going for food?"
The woman lightly smiled, "I hear that there was a new ramen store opening up today. I wanted to try something new."
I was curious so I nodded. Kotoe decided to walk me there instead of using shunshin and so I enjoyed the Konoha night scenery while walking by. I could really appreciate the beauty of this place at a time like this; when I wasn't training eating or sleeping. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and we eventually came upon a small shop that read 'Ramen Ichiraku'.
I was able to hide the surprise on my face as I was dragged in by my glorified babysitter, "Mmm. It has that new shop smell."
"Is that even a thi-"
"MINATO! LOOK IT'S THE NEW RAMEN STORE! WE HAVE TO TRY IT!"
"Yes yes, Kushina, but is there a need to yell I'm right-"
"Hah?! Are you telling me not to get excited about Ramen?!"
"'sigh' let's just go inside."
My eyes widened in surprise at the sounds and names the voices spoke and I watched as the flap to the store was lifted up and two people came into view. One of them was a familiar face of 3 months ago with the same spiky blond hair and blue eyes.
The other individual was a woman who had a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, violet eyes, and red hair. It reached her ankles with shoulder-length strands that framed both sides of her face and a black clip that parted her hair to the left.
I noted that my teacher had frozen up for a moment as if she had felt something dangerous while looking at the red-haired woman. I looked at her in concern before I remembered, this red-haired woman not only had monstrous chakra from her bloodline, but she carried something which made her even more monstrous. To someone like my teacher who was an adept sensor, it must have been like a shock.
"Kushina…" I thought.
Well, what were the odds?
I tugged at my teacher's sleeve to bring her out of her temporary daze, however true to her skills as a ninja, she had already composed herself. She looked at me with a small smile donning her lips, "I'm alright Yoru, thanks for worrying."
I looked at her for a second longer, making sure she was really ok, before nodding.
"Well at least it is emp-" The blond haired man stopped speaking as he noticed the two other occupants in the room; me and Kotoe.
He looked at me with squinted eyes as if trying to remember something, before his eyes widened, "Ah! It's you!" He looked me up and down then before smiling, "And you look to be in good health as well. Not bad kid."
"Thank you for your praise Lord Namikaze." I said with a bow. Something about etiquette that Kotoe told me was necessary.
The man in question suddenly looked sheepish, "haha no need to call me that especially in this setting." He looked at me and smiled, "Mr. Namikaze or just Minato is Fine."
"...Alright, Mr. Namikaze."
"Hey Minato, who's the Kakashi rip-off?" The red-headed woman suddenly asked, most likely annoyed about how she was being ignored.
Minato, understanding that, held her hand reassuringly and stated, "He's someone I met a few months back at the place where I was going to test my Genin team. He's a very talented individual so I took note of him." The blue-eyed man then looked to Kotoe who lightly smiled in kind, "And I wasn't the only one to do so either."
Kotoe nodded her head before she replied, "Lord Danzo was impressed with his maturity and Yoru has only grown a lot more since then. His rate of improvement is astonishing and in a few years he may surpass me." She said that last part while patting my head, which I gladly accepted because it felt pretty good.
I noticed that Kushina was looking just slightly annoyed either about the fact that she was ignored again or the fact that she hasn't had Ramen yet. It was hard to tell with her, but seeing that, I decided to intervene, "Mr. Namikaze, would I be correct in assuming that the woman with the beautiful red hair beside you is your wife?" I had to make sure to compliment the red hair. Not only because I knew Kushina would like it,
But because red was my favorite color.
I saw her eyes suddenly widen before she disappeared. My danger sense kicked into overdrive and I moved to dodge.
But it was too late.
"Urgk!"
I found myself in a crushing embrace with my face in between 2 soft mounds, but I could hear Kushina squeal happily, "Hey Minato..." She started, crushing me deeper into her bosom. You know now that my mind had somewhat calmed down, I realized that I wasn't actually suffo- "I want one."
I could feel the pin drop silence at the utterance of that statement and my brain lost track of its ability to think as it processed those words. It took me a moment to realize what she had meant and it seemed like I wasn't the only one.
I could hear Kotoe laugh with a 'pfft' and Minato cough awkwardly with what I imagined were his cheeks furiously red. I wouldn't know because I was being crushed. "W-We can work on that dear, all I wanted was to have some dinner..." He muttered that last statement, but everyone pretended not to hear it.
The red-haired woman smiled then looked at me with a warm gaze, "Thank you Yoru and you're right, that man over there is my husband, someone I cherish."
I noticed Minato flush happily at the statement while Kotoe looked on with a slight smile. I nodded at her words, "Then he is lucky to have you." Throughout all this, however, I felt like we had forgotten something…
Kushina smiled at my statement, "Yes he is, after all-" the red-haired woman looked at Minato in irritation, "-if it wasn't for me he would still be stuck in that cave he calls his 'workshop'" she shook her head in exasperation, "Honestly sometimes I regret teaching you seals. It's like you love them more than me…"
The man in question hastily shook his hands in denial, "N-No Kushina it's not like that! I'm just getting really good at seals and I've been having some breakthr-"
"There you go again! Can't you go a day without talking about them?!"
"But if I can figure out how to reverse engineer the 2nd Hokage's technique-"
"Goodness you should just marry those things already!"
"K-Kushina…"
All the while Kotoe and I were watching impassively. "Is this what a married couple is like?" I asked.
The woman in question nodded. "Pretty much. Why? Having second thoughts about finding someone to protect?" She asked with a smirk.
"...I might be reconsidering."
"U-Umm excuse me?"
4 pairs of eyes stared at the new voice to which the owner flinched for a moment before coughing and recomposing himself. He was a man who looked to be in his late 20's with lightly tanned skin and light brown hair. "Since you all are here, would you like to order something?"
Ahh, now I remember what I had forgotten.
We were in a restaurant.
Minato looked on apologetically while Kushina had stars in her eyes. Kotoe and I looked at each other, shrugged, then sat down.
"Ahh! I'll have 5 Bowls of Miso Ramen please!" Kushina said while plopping down next to me.
Minato sighed and sat down next to his wife, "1 bowl for me."
"I'll get a pork ramen please." Kotoe asked.
"...Likewise." Was my reply. The man nodded after writing our orders, happy that he had gotten some business, before going to the back of the kitchen to prepare our meals.
After a little bit, the man came out with our food and placed the bowls in front of us. "Enjoy your meals." He stated with a smile before walking back into his work area.
Kushina dug in as soon as the food was placed down while Minato sighed and started eating much more liberally than his wife.
"AHH! Ramen never fails to satisfy me." The Uzumaki started after somehow finishing her first bowl. I looked down at my ¾ filled bowl and looked at her empty one. I touched my chin in thought at the mystery.
"So Yoru." Kushina started, swallowing strands of ramen from her second bowl, "Minato says you're pretty talented, like another Kakashi." She smirked as she continued, "You've even got the whole face mask down. Is that a thing that geniuses use nowadays?"
I idly twirled the noodles in my soup as I replied, "...I think I wear the mask better than him though." It was barely a whisper but I was sure they heard it. "I don't consider myself a 'genius' so to speak. I like to think that while I might have an advantage over others, I still work as arduously as possible in order to improve. I prefer the term 'diligent' if anything." Well, as diligent as one needed to be when they had an entire otherwordly system at their disposal.
"So you prefer to work hard huh?" She asked slurping up more noodles, "Then what do you do when you aren't training?"
I ate some ramen from my bowl, idly noting that I still had ½ left while Kushina was almost done with her second bowl, "...Eat."
I noticed that Kushina was looking at me intently, "And?"
"...Study."
Her eyes narrowed, "And?"
My bowl suddenly looked interesting. I wondered if it was made of clay? "...Sleep."
"And?"
"..."
Kushina didn't look too pleased with my reply and I wondered if the table I was on was made of clay as well. What if I was made of clay? Wait didn't the Titan Prometheus make the first human from clay? I wondered if we were all part clay…
"A shinobi should be able to easily interact with other individuals whether it be for infiltration purposes, talking to clients, or leading a team." Kushina moved her gaze towards Kotoe "I'm surprised you haven't moved to yeah him this skill."
The hazel eyes woman lightly smiled, "Actually, this night was the start of that training for him." She patted my head and continued, "I wanted him to get out and watch me interact with others and hopefully he would pick up on something." I always thought her sudden decision to bring me out for dinner was fishy.
Kushina looked thoughtful at that, "That's not a bad idea especially for a visual learner, but I believe interacting with people his age would help him build up his skills more." She rubbed her chin in thought before seemingly thinking of something, "Ahh I know!" The woman looked at me with a smile, "Why don't you come over my place whenever you aren't too busy training?"
Kotoe and I looked at each other before the former spoke, "I suppose I would work something out with his schedule, but how would this help him?" I could tell Minato was confused as well until he suddenly smiled in realization.
The Uzumaki smirked, "Minato usually brings his kids over after training. Yoru can be around and talk with them when they're there. I know that he and Kakashi are close to the same age and I feel like they would be good friends."
Kotoe thought for a moment, then nodded with a smile while looking at Minato, "If we can get a schedule on when you train your team, I could find a way to work around it, if you don't mind."
The future 4th Hokage grinned and nodded, "I don't mind at all. I think it would be a great experience. Especially for my youngest team member." With that, the mood in the dining table significantly improved and the adults talked about a bunch of things while I just sat there enjoying my noodles.
Where they made out of clay too?
Food for thought.
Day 180
Ever since that day 3 months ago, my teacher had changed up my training schedule slightly. It was enough for me to go visit Minato and Kushina's place for about a couple hours and hang out with Minato's genin team. Needless to say, the expression on Obito's face was priceless, though I think Rin was fine having me around and Kakashi didn't seem to care either way.
My training was more or less still the same with exercise and body conditioning in the morning then combat training. The quest to hit my teacher had been changed to a new one after she had decided to work on my stealth and infiltration skills.
Basically, we played hide and seek.
With a twist of course.
We usually played in a more forested training ground in which there were two parts to our game. The first part was the basic hide and seek where I had to hide and my teacher had to find me.
She usually did.
The second part was where I had to steal something from under her nose while in the woods. This was significantly harder and more often than not she caught me which would mean I had to cook for the evening. I fear that my increasing cooking skill was the cause of that punishment, but I didn't complain.
Now, however, I had managed to avoid my teacher's detection long enough for it to be counted my win and I had somehow managed to steal the metal token from under her nose. Afterwards, I made it back to my 'base' thereby completing the mission.
Daily Quest Complete!
Training Arc III
Objective 1 reward: 250 EXP
Objective 2 reward: 500 EXP
Ping!
'Stealth' has leveled up by 1!
Stealth (Active: ON) lvl 55 [2.45%]
Stealth is the fundamental skill that all ninjas learn to become, well better ninjas. Having good enough stealth allows you to more easily infiltrate enemy lines, assassinate priority targets, and spy. This skill is subconsciously activated when you need to go into stealth mode. It grants you increase stealth where your every movement is subconsciously inconspicuous, making it more difficult to notice your presence and find you.
Stealth infiltration, avoidance, and concealment ability are at 55%.
For stronger opponents, -2% for each level they surpass you by
With a sigh of relief, I sat down on the ground and no sooner did I see my teacher walking out of the foliage with a smile on her face. "You did good Yoru. You managed to hide from me even after I had discovered you. You then steadily made your way back here." She then sighed, "..as per rules I'll make dinner, but your cooking will always be the best." She finished with a grin.
I smiled despite myself, "You know that too much of a good thing isn't good right?" To which Kotoe shrugged then smirked before transferring us back home with a shunshin.
Day 364
"I can't believe it's almost been a year…" I thought while walking my way out of the forest grounds. My training had been more or less progressing at the same schedule with me occasionally going over to the Namikaze-Uzumaki compound. Had I ever mentioned how beautiful that place?
Nevertheless, somewhere along the line, my teacher had decided that it would be a great idea for me to have some survival training. Needless to say, I was not expecting what she had planned.
For starters, every other week she would drop me off in the middle of Training Ground 44, aka, The Forest of Death. I was expected to stay there for at least 3 days during which I would be surviving off the land and aiming to collect pelts from certain creatures that inhabited that place. She was apparently of the idea that I had been progressing so quickly that I was seemingly ready for this kind of training.
She was right...mostly.