Chapter 26 - Beyond a Student
[You have slept in a makeshift bed. HP and CP fully recovered. All negative alignments and abnormal status have been restored.]
[08:00]
Waking up Raito looked at the clock and thought inwardly, "As I thought. It depends on me when to wake up."
Before walking out of the cave, Raito brought out a few baskets from his inventory and placed them opposite to the bed. Stretching out, Raito he brushed his teeth and washed his face. The breeze of the untouched nature was as fresh as it could get and the light from the sun giving a warm feeling, making Raito feel the start of a fresh, new day.
Yawning, Raito walked for a while and reached an area with plenty of rocks. Activating the earth elemental manipulation Raito changed the structure of the rock making it into a water tank, below there was a curved pipe. Smiling happily at the level ups, Raito took out a brush, ink, and scroll. In a few moments, Raito made a five-line seal and with a pulse of chakra, the seals turned into a line marking the curved pipe. Activating the seal, a layer of earth formed inside the pipe blocking the way.
[Earth Element Manipulation Lvl 19 (Active)]
[Fuinjutsu Lvl 28 (Active)]
Feeling satisfied, Raito used the water condensation and water purifying jutsu to fill the water tank. Injecting the chakra on the seal, Raito washed his face using a face wash.
"That"s some high-level Fuinjutsu and your storage technique is also unique and would have made your wildlife easy….but the question is why didn"t you use it earlier?" Kakashi sitting on the rocks, with his hand on his chin, Kakashi asked in curiosity.
Raito gave Kakashi a brilliant smile and coughed lightly, seemingly preparing for a big announcement. Raito waving his hand answered, "I don"t wanna boast but I wanted to try and do it without my storage. I find that if I used my storage technique than this survival exam will be as easy as breathing. But I didn"t wanna do that, if a great genius like me depended on such a cheating technique then people might go crazy."
Kakashi felt ashamed hearing that, so he also coughed slightly.
"So what happened yesterday, was a little too much….How do you feel?" Kakashi asked with his usual lazy style.
Thinking for a long time Raito answered, "….I don"t know, what to really feel. I mean we survived, no one died or had any serious injury." Raito shrugged while cleaning the rock table and put a cloth on it.
"I remember dad telling me stories of missions. Of course, he would take out the bad stuff and all, but coming home in bandages and scar marks says much. I remember the last time he came back home. Although there were no wounds, the clothes had a lot of cuts and were even scars on his body. Scars happen because the skin and muscles are damaged. Now after learning about it, I feel how hard it was becoming a ninja." Raito started the fire and continued.
"When it was time for me to enter the ninja academy, mom gave me a bit of advice - "If I wanted to live long, I should not enter the academy". In the end, I was a whole week late because my mom didn"t want me to enter the academy." Raito let out a soft laugh.
"Well, I am glad that you all aren"t affected by yesterday"s incident." Kakashi sighed and looked at Raito with a glimmer in is his lone, lazy eye.
"I was already a ninja when I was at your age, this kind of things happened frequently before but it has somewhat decreased in recent years."
After a long pause, Raito asked Kakashi with some hesitation, "...Then Kakashi-sensei….what happens if one wants to quit? Or give up on the village or betray the village?"
"….You mean the people like Mizuki and Tokiji?"
"Yeah, but not only the traitors but also those regular who want to retire early." Raito tried explaining.
A vague idea formed in Kakashi"s mind but he quickly denied the idea. After leveling a gaze, he said, "Traitors to the village, will have their chakra sealed off and sent to a correctional facility."
"Just that?"
"That"s for normal traitors. For ones who are beyond dangerous, a much severe punishment will be given out." After that, there was a long silence.
"And?" Raito stopped his work and looked at Kakashi.
"You will know when the time comes. As for those who want to retire, looking at the condition of the person, decisions will be made." again ending halfway, Kakashi with a step back disappeared from the area.
Raito waited for Kakashi to continue but he didn"t. Instead, Kakashi with his high physical capabilities had disappeared from the spot.
"That was….cliffhanger?" throwing things in anger, Raito cursed.
Pakkun who was on a branch looked and made a comment, "Tasteless."
After everyone woke up, they found their baskets which held a brush, paste, bag of clothes and other necessary items. Ino was so happy that she cried while hugging the basket. Hinata wasn"t different either, although the reaction was not much, she hugged her basket with a vice grip.
Seeing the two Shikamaru only gave a yawn and Naruto scratched his head with a confused face.
Chōji walked out and saw that on the regular stone table was a table cloth spread on it and lying on it were various utensils, like pots and pans, and basic necessities like oil and salt.
Shikamaru couldn"t help but walk in a hurry and grab a container with a green cover. Seeing his own action, Shikamaru gave a weak smile and said to himself, "I never thought that I would be so happy to see tea leaves."
"T-That"s RAMEN!" Naruto shouted and dashed to grab the ramen container, tears leaking out of his eyes.
"….but just where is that Raito?" Ino questioned from behind.
"Raito-san has gone east with Pakkun, he is wearing weights." Just as Ino was ready to prepare for a bath, she heard Hinata"s weak voice. Smiling happily, Ino grabbed Hinata and went to the open area.
The previous explosion had not only created destruction to shelter but also the bath and the surrounding area. This showed how dangerous the ninjas could get, if someone of higher rank was against them than it was even possible that every one of them would be evaporated, drowned or buried hundreds of meter below.
On a direction not far away, Raito was running while wearing his weights and following him quite a distance away was Pakkun. Using the method Gai had taught him, Raito ran for half an hour making a few circles around the shelter.
Sitting down and breathing heavily, Raito fished out a water bottle and downed it in one quick gulp. Watching the increase in his STR and VIT by one, Raito was happy. Standing up, before he could walk any further, a low tearing sound came and the weights strapped fell down, hitting Raito"s foot.
"Ouch." quickly holding his leg Raito watched venomously at the metal plates. "Ow, it even hit with the sharp end. "Heal"." taking off his shoes Raito looked at the wound and used the healing skill.
[Extremely novice added weight] - (Common)
Durability - 0/50
Watching his creation turning into sc.r.a.ps, Raito felt sad. Sighing, he stored it inside the inventory, and after wearing the shoes, Raito went back to the shelter.
Coming back to the shelter, Raito found that Naruto and Shikamaru were doing physical training exercise, while for Naruto it was an everyday thing but for Shikamaru to do it and even in the early morning, Raito felt it was quite funny. Looking around he found Ino doing tree walking and Hinata hitting the tree with her finger strikes, each strike making a small press into the tree.
"I need some food in my system." Looking at the table, Raito found that items were mostly not even touched. Some food pills, fruits, and dried meat were gone.
"Haa!" a loud roar was heard but it didn"t disturb others, only causing Raito to turn his head.
THAP!
A loud sound was heard, this time it sounded like someone had heavily stepped on the ground.
Walking towards the origin of the sound, Raito saw Chōji who was carrying a boulder roughly around his size and jumping back and forth. In his training gear, Chōji was sweating heavily with his skin red and steam coming out from his skin.
Eyes widened and mouth wide open, Raito was staring at Chōji, he had no words to speak. "d.a.m.n that"s Jōnin."
Feeling the gaze, Chōji turned and saw Raito. After which he stopped and threw the stone down, making a bang sound, when it hit the ground. The redness on his skin and steam coming out of his body stopped and sweat came out of his body for a long time.
It took quite a while for Chōji to come back to normal. The whole time Raito stared at Chōji in awe. It looked like some kind of rare and secret technique to cultivate the body. After Chōji opened his eyes he patted his stomach, which seemed to have gone down a few inches and said, "I am hungry again."
"Training to point of steaming….if you did it regularly then you surely would lose some weight." Raito joked and pa.s.sed some meat bun to Chōji.
Holding the small basket Chōji glared at Raito and asked with an angry tone, "Raito…. Did you just call me fat?"
"Chōji, why are you calling yourself fat?" Raito with his innocent, confused looked asked back.
Ignoring Raito, Chōji looked at the meat bun in his hand, taking a bite, tears came running down. And while crying he quickly finished the small basket of meat bun, which held about a dozen. After the last bite, Chōji wiped his tears then hugged Raito. Looking at Raito as pitifully he could Chōji said in a tearful voice, "Raito never leave me. I wanna be in a team with you."
Hearing the shameful words Raito quickly pushed Chōji and said, "You are too sweaty."
Back in the shelter girls had already entered the bath while Naruto and Shikamaru were training. Rolling his eyes Raito ignored them and walked towards the girl"s bath and shouted, "Ino, Hinata."
"Eep!?"
"Raito?"
Tumbling and splashing sounds came from the inside of the bath making Raito sigh again.
"Did you heat the water? I forgot to leave the lighter." Raito asked
"Hai Raito-san, Shikamaru-san used the fire jutsu to heat the water," Hinata replied then again the sounds came.
"Eh!? He did that?" Raito exaggerated.
Then, Raito went to the boy"s side of the bath and heated the water. Taking out a small green pill from a bottle, he crushed it and let it mix with the water.
Calling for Naruto and Shikamaru, Raito and Chōji directly went inside and cleaned themselves then soaked in the bath.
As everyone sat in the bath, Raito saw that the mood wasn"t quite right. So he asked, "Hey, why are you all so off?"
"Raito…."
"Hey."
Shikamaru swatted the water and asked, "What if the help hadn"t arrived?"
"Eh!?"
"What would have happened if the ANBU didn"t come, what would...Tokiji have done to you or us?" Shikamaru shouted which made Raito flinch just a bit.
"Hey, nothing happened-"
"Don"t you dare say that." Naruto from the side stood up, pointed his finger and shouted.
"O-Okay." Raito wasn"t going to waste his breath anymore and let Shikamaru and Naruto vent out a little bit.
Chōji smiled and said, "Then we just have to take this as a lesson and train to become strong. Because we trained, we were able to last that long, if we hadn"t trained they would have killed us in a blink."
Chōji"s word which felt like encouragement turned a ninety degree and made the three uncomfortable.
Resting his elbow on the edge Shikamaru said after giving a bitter chuckle, "If we met with those two before our training then I am a hundred percent sure that we would be dead."
Raito had an awkward smile hung on his face. Before one could say anything Shikamaru continued.
"But because we trained, we were able to last until the help arrived. This time we can be considered lucky but…. I don"t wanna place my bet on luck."
"You are not the only one." (Looking at his luck stat.) Raito also voiced out in the agreement.
"We need cool jutsu and training to power up," Naruto shouted. "If we are stronger we can kick their a.s.s anytime and that type of thing would never happen."
"Yeah what Naruto said is right. We need to train more and more." Chōji supported the idea.
"Yeah we need that but what we need more is…. "Teamwork"," Shikamaru said with a stern tone.
"Konoha is famous for teamwork, never leave a friend behind," Naruto remembered and said in a solemn way.
"Oi….Shika, you Ino-ShikCho group has it good, with all heritage of fighting together." Raito leaned back.
Naruto"s spirit was dowsed but then he heard Shikamaru say.
"Ino-ShikCho is a star team of Konoha. There are other teams who have no heritage of fighting in a group but still has shown great results."
"I don"t know any." Raito refused to listen but Shikamaru continued.
"The Sannin. They went countless battles and fought enemies of higher ranks."
"The fight with Hanzō the salamander?" Raito said his one eye staring at Shikamaru.
Shaking his head, Shikamaru continued and Chōji and Naruto got closer.
"You know the Nara clan has all the battle records made into a library. One of the fights the Sannin had was with "The Five Evils"."
"Five Evils? I have never heard of them." Naruto said and Raito also shook his head.
"They are the five evil monks from a Buddhist temple known to have come from "Land of the Earth"," Chōji explained.
"These monks were a group of master and disciple. One master and four disciples, although they didn"t practice discipline, they practiced martial arts. They were talented and around their thirties, they had learned everything they could from the temple, even their master was already above the level of the head of the temple. It is said that the group of five one day had descended down the mountain, ate meat and drink alcohol. Then at the next descent, they killed men and enjoyed the women. Their acts grew larger and the head of the temple heard about the matter. When the time came to confront, the five killed everyone in the temple and roamed around the village. Wherever they went, their actions would follow, bringing fear and destruction. The Tsuchikage didn"t look at the matter at first but some deaths occur to his ninjas. Furious, the Tsuchikage sent his ninja to kill them but because they were in the middle of the war, Tsuchikage only sent a couple at a time. The five evils also found that their action had drawn the attention of the Tsuchikage, fled the country and entered the "Land of Fire". They had decided to pay more caution this time and keep away from the Konoha and the fire country and enter the "Tea country". But before it could go that way the evils had done it once again, killing and raping. At that time the nearest squad present were the Sannin."
Pausing Shikamaru looked at the three and saw the interest in their eyes.
"He is not making this up." Raito waited for the pop-up or any notification but it never came.
"Then, then, the Sannin beat them," Naruto said in an excited voice.
But Shikamaru had a "hard to digest" type smile at his face. "No, Naruto they didn"t win…."
"No way, not even the Sannin?"
"Not at first anyway. It was Jiraiysama, it was said that using special arts, he reached the place where the five evils were staying, leaving his teammates behind. Thinking that the enemies were weaker than him, but contrary to his belief, the five evils were strong, far stronger than him. The four of the evils played with him and were going to kill him when Orichimaru and Tsunade-sama came in just the right time to save him."
"That was stupid," Raito said.
"Even the Sannin."
"After letting her summon heal Jiraiya, Tsunade-sama and Orichimaru went to confront them but this time the result was just a little better than last. The master of the evil monks had intervened and this time Orichimaru had been injured. Tsunade-sama took Orichimaru and met up with Jiraiya. After that, the three took a couple of days to heal but on the other side, the evil monks also had to rest for a few days to recover themselves. Finally, the three Sannin decided to attack together with their summons ambushing them at the "Valley of Star Gazing" which is now known "Fall of Evil Star"."
"But what about that master? Easily capable of saving his disciples, he should be strong enough?" Raito questioned.
"With all working together surely they should have won, right?" Naruto also asked it seemed like the story had affected him deeply.
"Yeah, they won but don"t you want to know how they won?" Shikamaru asked.
"How?" Naruto and Raito asked.
"It was like this first, only Jiraiya and Tsunade went attacking the four monk disciples. Later Orichimaru joined and attacked the monk master with the summons."
"Divide and conquer," Raito commented.
"Yeah, after the monk master was busy with summons, Orichimaru joined Tsunade-sama and Jiraiysama to kill the four evils, which was far easier without the monk master. Later the monk master went into a frenzy, making killing moves. The three Sannin worked together with their summons and after working for quite a while was able to defeat the monk master and capture him."
"The Sannin and their summons." Naruto"s eye shined with intense light.
"To go against one monk master, three Sannin and their summon. The monk master was on quite a high level." Raito muttered.
"Yeah whole level higher than the Sannin, they said that the Evil monk master was only somewhat weaker than the Hanzō." Shikamaru said and looked at Raito secretly.
"So working in a team to fight stronger enemies?" Naruto questioned.
Raito stared at Shikamaru and Chōji for any kind of expression.
"Didn"t we all work together to keep ourselves alive?" Shikamaru didn"t answer but replied with a question.
Raito stood up and dried himself. And just as he was about to go out Raito said, "I somewhat understand, Shika."
"Food, food, food." Smiling happily Chōji also went out to prepare food.
Shikamaru and Naruto were still inside the bath, they both looked at each other, smiled and did a high five.
Outside Raito helped Chōji and the girls with making food. And after he was done with what he could help, Raito held a stone and changed its shape constantly, while he was deep in his thought. Raito ate with everyone then again went to train.
Everyone also did the same, training with all might. The event of the night before seemed to have a large effect on them. But for Raito, he didn"t have any mental pressure, maybe it was because of the "Gamers Mind". He just increased his training to match others.
While training he thought that, while going solo was fine to defeat the enemy, but when playing with the party it was indeed easy defeating the same enemy. "Games have so much knowledge".
Looking back at everyone practicing, Raito looked at one of his skills and grinned. "The time is just perfect to see what I get next."
[ID Create Lvl 15 (Active)]
-Instant Dungeon: Wasteland
-Instant Dungeon: Wasteland - Zombies
-Instant Dungeon: Tribal Lands
With a smile hung on his face, Raito went up to Shikamaru and called out, "Oi Shika, I think you were right."
Shikamaru who was standing on a tree trunk looked at Raito then jumped down.
"Teamwork is definitely important," Raito said with a smile.
Shikamaru still looked at Raito trying to figure out where he was going with it.
"More importantly we have to know how to fight in teams….so you know I came with an awesome plan." Raito gripped his fist in front of him and said loud enough that everyone could hear.
Raising his eyebrows, Shikamaru waited.
"Of course it is….dungeon."
"Dungeon….like in your games?"
"Hey remember that I showed you last time, monster, small ones, and big ones."
"Yeah. So, that"s a dungeon, huh?"
"You can fight and improve in that place, better, we will fight in teams."
"Fighting those zombies…. I don"t think-"
"Who said fighting the zombies, this time it"s something….different." Raito cut him off and steered.
"Different? You mean a different kind of monster?" Shikamaru asked with interest.
"Yeah, wanna go?"
Shikamaru kept quiet for a long period of time before replying, "Okay".
"I wanna go too!" Naruto jumped from the tree and shouted.
Ino dragged Hinata and shouted, "We are going too."
"You lot are seriously bad at stealth techniques." Raito looked at everyone and said seriously.
"I will make a lot of food then." Chōji quickly turned around and went to make food.
"But I have already a lot in my inventory," Raito muttered.
"Really!?" Chōji image appeared in front of Raito, grabbing his shoulder.
Raito pushed Chōji while Chōji asked Raito to show what food was stored inside.
"Why not? Let"s go right now." Shikamaru after thinking for a long time said.
"Yosh."
"Yatta."
"But I wanted to let Chōji learn this first…. Chōji, learn this…."Rock fist"." Raito brought out a small book and gave it to Chōji.
"But it"s yours." Chōji looked at the book in front of him and rejected.
"Huh!? What are you talking about? It is just a jutsu. Even more so it is from the village, not from my parents. See no problem." Raito played it down and forced Chōji to learn the jutsu.
Turning around Raito looked at everyone and had an apologetic face. With that, he said, "Sorry I don"t have jutsu for you all."
Shikamaru scratched his nose and said in a small voice, "Um…. I have a fire jutsu I know but I never practiced it."
Raito looked at Shikamaru with a blank look, the corners of his eyes twitching.
"Naruto beat him for me," Raito shouted and Naruto also acted beating him playfully.
Raito then turned to look at Hinata and Ino.
Hinata slightly dropped her head, with tears gathering in her eyes, she said, "M-my ffamily….my family…. Cant-"
"Ah, your clan.... (everyone giving him an eye) let"s learn in secret then." Raito laughed awkwardly.
"Yeah as long as your clan doesn"t know about it, it will fine." Naruto also spoke while holding Hinata"s shoulder.
Everyone was waiting for Hinata to faint but she only blushed hard. Her face looked like a tomato, making everyone laugh silently.
Then Raito finally looked towards Ino which made Ino whistle nervously.
"I know Genjutsu," Ino said simply and waited.
"Hehe, killing with Genjutsu." Raito laughed evilly.
"Yeah, that"s exactly so." Ino harrumphed.
Deciding everything the group started preparing and Raito helped Chōji learn the "Rock Fist". Naruto on the open field was using his shadow clones to read up every academy books, preparing for the exams.
"I"ll show them, I will top the exams. d.a.m.n it." Naruto mumbled and continued reading the books.
Sitting on the top of the waterfall side, Kakashi sipped his hot chocolate and enjoyed the little ninjas training. Sighing Kakashi commented, "Inefficient."
"Too bad, Hokage-sama told you not to interfere." Pakkun from the side said
"I will give them thirty." Saying that he turned back and waved his hand. Tenzō was standing behind with a clearly bored face.
"Senpai, why don"t I watch over them now?" it looked more like pleading from Tenzō.
Kakashi after hearing Tenzō, stared at him like Tenzō had stolen his favorite book.
"Tenzō we exchanged," Kakashi said.
"That may be so senpai but they are originally my mission." Tenzō reb.u.t.ted.
"Tenzō."
"Senpai."
"Tenzō."
"Ahh."
Seeing Tenzō jump, Kakashi looked behind and quickly jumped down, even letting Pakkun search for the children.
"d.a.m.n it they disappeared. I am reporting to Hokage-sama." Tenzō quickly took out the scroll ready to write down but his hand was suddenly grabbed by Kakashi.
"Senpai what are you doing?" Tenzō frowned looking at his grabbed hand.
"Don"t go hostile now. Pakkun, go." turning around he waited for Pakkun.
"They disappeared from here, not even a trace remaining." Pakkun clawed the ground marking it.
"You can report to Hokage-sama but you are not allowed to write it down. It"s a ranked-secret after all." Kakashi said releasing his hand, walking inside the cave shelter.
"What is this...happening?" Tenzō created a clone and sent it to report it to Hokage.
Walking inside the cave Kakashi could see that the cave as well made with seals for temperature and light. Also, there was a small room for foods and changing room. There were also a big futon, heater, light source, all kinds of entertainment items and so on. Kakashi walked slowly taking everything into consideration, not even moving too much, going as far as to coat his sandals with chakra.
"There must have been some kind of restriction," Kakashi concluded then walked out.
On with the group of Raito, they were standing in an open area with gigantic trees, bigger than any seen on the Konoha. The sky was navy blue with no clouds but had two moons, one red and another grayish.
Raito stood on a branch near the top of tree hiding himself properly but still watching the two moons which were in the totally opposite direction. Reading the notification in front of him, Raito went into thought.
"Hinatsan, take over."
Jumping down Raito concentrated on the notification.
[Return Point created. After returning from the dungeon, will be returned to the entry point]
Confirm
YES - - NO
Without further thought, Raito accepted and regrouped.
"What are your thoughts?" Raito asked with a smile.
"It"s definitely different." Shikamaru checked the surrounding, checking the leaves and trees then added, "We are definitely not in Konoha."
Hinata jumped down with a red face and reported, "T-There are monster." her voice shaking and eyes had a bit of tear.
"So….what are they like?" Ino asked patting Hinata and comforting her.
"Um…. Small gray hum- no monster, about a meter tall, thin and weak looking, in the group of three, two with a sword weapon and one with a bow." Hinata explained and looking at her she looked like she was going to say more but her face reddened more.
Giving Ino a hand sign, Raito used his chakra sense to find the group and continued where Hinata left. "Hmm….The monster with a height of about one meter. Short with little muscle ma.s.s, look weak….has a big head with long nose and ears. The archer is very aware of the surrounding, the warriors in front are walking forward with no hesitation, looks like they are searching for….food?"
Naruto and Shikamaru sighed when they heard Raito speaking. Raito was doing it again, giving the job to others and using game terms. Raito gave Naruto - "The Brawler" and Shikamaru - "The Strategist". It was because Naruto told Raito to go straight ahead and use attack, attack, and attack whereas Shikamaru would check the enemy"s stats and use tactics to defeat the enemy. As for Chōji, he was not interested at all, only interested in food.
"Raito-san! They...they have chakra network." Hinata shouted grabbing attention.
Stunned Raito paused for a bit then ran towards the group of monsters. Seeing them in flesh Raito felt a bit disgusted, ignoring him Raito used the skill, "Observe".
Goblin Warrior Lvl 16
HP - 4600/4600
MP - 500/ 500
STR - 40
VIT - 40
DEX - 30
INT - 30
WIS - 30
LUK - 10
Weak looking monster found in the forest, mountain or mines. Usually hunts in groups and are subservient to any hobgoblin in the group. They are very greedy and have a high libido. While raiding human carriages, they kidnap women to fulfill their desires. They have knowledge regarding all kinds of weapon and skills.
Raito pressed on the MP and found more about it as it was different from his own CP
[Magic points, mana points or in short MP used to trigger special skills or spells].
"It"s Magic." Raito gasped. In excitement, Raito pressed the "magic" word and waited for further notification but the description was not generated.
"Magic?" Shikamaru asked.
Raito froze, turning around he saw Shikamaru looking at him with curiosity. Gamers mind started working and Raito calmed down.
Looking at Hinata Raito asked while himself checking with his jutsu. "Hinata that is not chakra….right?"
Hinata didn"t speak for a long time, then spoke suddenly, "That….is not chakra."
"Chakra is like fire and water going through tenketsu points but it looks like a crystal ball and looks like water inside the crystal ball." Hinata tried her best explaining.
The group of Raito stood on the branches silently watching the goblins and hiding. Raito pointed at Naruto and gave him a hand sign. Naruto rolled his eyes and made a clone, which jumped down and attacked the goblin.
Naruto clone jumped down and kneed the face of the goblin warrior.
Kuwak!
The other goblins roared and another warrior swung his saber and slashed towards the clone, which the clone dodged. Taking out a shuriken, Naruto threw it towards the warrior 1, which was blocked by the saber.
Kuwak!
Warrior 2 roared, the goblin, as well as his saber, glowed red, dashing towards Naruto clone. The speed had increased and the saber fell on the clone cutting Naruto into half before the clone could react, letting it revert back to chakra smoke.
"Raito-san, the water inside the crystal ball decreased."
Raito nodded and looked towards the goblin warrior.
MP - 200/500
Not finding the body, the goblins were confused, dividing themselves, they searched for the body.
On the tree branch, Chōji frowned, signaling towards the group and approached the warrior goblin. Chōji hid in the trees and waited for the warrior to come towards him. Using partial expansion, Chōji jumped down and crushed the goblin. The Health points dropped to zero and the warrior turned into black smoke.
"They aren"t much different from the zombies. Just a bit smarter and have better battle skills." Shikamaru commented.
WOOSH
An arrow with a strong gust of wind neared the group.
"Down." Raito acted fast and shouted alerting everyone.
Goblin Archer Lvl 16
HP - 3800/ 3800
MP - 500/ 500
STR - 30
VIT - 40
DEX - 40
INT - 30
WIS - 30
LUK - 10
Weak looking monster found in the forest, mountain or mines. Usually hunts in groups and are subservient to any hobgoblin in the group. They are very greedy and have a high libido. While raiding human carriages, they kidnap women to fulfill their desires. They have knowledge regarding all kinds of weapon and skills.
"Goblin archer just used some kind of magic right now," Raito shouted jumping to another branch.
Naruto used a bunch of clones to suffocate the goblin archer. With sheer number and jutsu, goblin archer was easily defeated.
"Naruto-kun," Hinata shouted calling Naruto.
Naruto looked towards Hinata but seeing her expression his expression changed. Rapidly turning around Naruto saw the warrior goblin, who was glowing red with his saber launching down, ready to chop Naruto into two.
But before the saber could descent, an object pierced through the goblins head, with enough force making the goblin stagger back. Seconds later the warrior fell down and disappeared in smoke.
Naruto, while shivering, fell down. Hinata, worried, jumped down and hugged Naruto.
Raito gave a bitter laugh and just said, "Fangirls".
Chōji walked towards Naruto and waited until Hinata had her fill. Standing with a serious face, he made a fist and hit Naruto at the head.
"Ow." Naruto cried in pain.
"Stupid Naruto." Then Chōji sat down, facing one side of the forest.
Ino jumped down and kicked Naruto with full force, making potato grow from Naruto"s head.
Shikamaru looked around but didn"t find anything, so he clicked his tongue. If there were bodies then he could have a.n.a.lyzed things.
Raito jumped down and lightly hit Hinata on her head.
"You shouldn"t have just call out. In a situation such as this, where life is in danger, you have to calm down and give instruction, instead of calling out." Raito earnestly gave suggestion to Hinata.
"H-Hai." with tears from her eyes Hinata nodded.
Everyone gathered in a group and started "educating" Naruto.
Raito watched the pitiful Naruto being educated and smiled happily. But before he could enjoy more, his "Chakra Sense" saw a bigger monster coming towards their direction. So he immediately made a few hand signs and disappeared in treetops.
Everyone looked down towards the direction Raito had pointed. There, they saw a muscular grayish green monster of about two meters tall, muscular built and two small horns coming out from his forehead. Wearing a bone necklace and a huge club, the monster moved forward and stopped for a long time where the goblins had died, searching around for a few minutes in the same area, he moved forward.
"d.a.m.n." Raito wiped his sweat looking at the stats.
Hobgoblin Lvl 26
HP - 28,000/28,000
MP - 3,000/3,000
STR - 80
VIT - 80
DEX - 40
INT - 35
WIS - 40
LUK - 20
Evolved from the goblin, adept in using various weapons but mostly use heavy blunt weapons. The creature of the forest is adept at hunting and act on their desire and instincts. In a nest of goblins, hobgoblins lead a group with three goblins.
After he was gone, everyone regrouped. Raito looked towards everyone and asked, "Can we do it?"
Naruto didn"t speak and neither did anyone, only Raito had sparkles in his eyes. After a long, long time, Shikamaru finally opened his mouth, "Why not?"
Raito smiled back and used his three kilometers far "Chakra Sense" and said, "There are three groups of those goblins and hobgoblins in this two-kilometer radius."
Hinata using her Byakugan looked towards a distance and said, "Those goblins are patrolling more towards east and less at the west. So, maybe, their main camp is there."
"We need a plan," Shikamaru added.
"These monster can think and act, not like those dead monster. So I am guessing Genjutsu works on them and maybe I can use my clan jutsu on them." Ino also chipped in.
"But first we need to prepare ourselves," Chōji said as he patted his stomach for which Raito made a sound of acknowledgment.
"Ah….maybe..." Naruto tried speaking but Ino glared at him with her fist pumped up.
"Naruto-kun what is it?" Hinata asked with her sweet tone.
"Don"t go telling we should jump and attack all of them together." Raito harrumphed.
"I am not that stupid!" Naruto shouted and after calming down added, "Why not use my shadow clones and Exploding talisman? That way we can easily take them down."
"Stupid."
"I knew Naruto was stupid to this extent but he didn"t even know…."
"I fear that he may not pa.s.s the academy exams."
Hinata quietly went forward and whispered into Naruto"s ear what was really happening.
Raito walked forwards and from his inventory pulled out a smaller bag full of seals. Then handing the bad to Naruto, he said, "What you say is good, Naruto. We can indeed use these to kill them fast. These are half of the explosion talisman that I have made. Make good use of them."
After that Raito and the group started preparing for the fight.
The hobgoblin frowned as he walked around the forest. He had been calling his subordinates for quite a while but still, they hadn"t returned. But still, he continued to patrol, just like he had been patrolling for as long as he could remember.
On a distance away Raito placed the wooden sticks on the ground then disappeared from the area. He had already placed wooden sticks on different places already, minding the different routes the hobgoblin could take.
Soon enough the hobgoblin walked towards one of the areas with wooden sticks. The hobgoblin flinched but didn"t change his route or even care a bit.
Raito watched as the hobgoblin pa.s.sed through the area, his hand in half ram seal. Quickly hobgoblin reached an area with even more wooden sticks. Before taking a step forward the hobgoblin hesitated and decided to walk back.
"Unseal".
One after another, fire lit on the wooden stick like a mysterious ritual. The hobgoblin took a step back and his attention changed to the direction towards the newly lit fire. He gripped his club hard once again and slowly retreated back.
Raito whispered, "Do it, Ino."
Her hand in a diamond pattern and blood on her indexes, she locked on to the hobgoblin and sweat trickled down from her forehead.
"Mind-Body technique: Mind-Body disturbance - Confuse"
After activation of a large amount of chakra, the hobgoblin"s eye shook. Then he started smashing everything around him, attacking the trees with his club then after his club was broken be punched with his fist.
After five minutes only, the hobgoblin calmed down and returned to normal. Looking at himself, the hobgoblin shook in fear. He feared the abnormal happening in the forest, so he escaped or tried to.
After a series of hand seals, Raito activated his chakra and called out his skill softly.
"Demonic Illusion - h.e.l.l viewing technique".
The technique affected the hobgoblin, which made him rampage around making quite a loud sound. But after some time the hobgoblin raised his fist and hit himself hard.
"d.a.m.n." Raito cursed.
"It seems my family technique is far better." Ino pulled out her small tongue teasing them.
"Keep sticking your tongue out and I will bite it," Raito spoke venomously, clearly in a bad mood.
Ino quickly covered her tongue in shock then backed off. But the next moment she pointed towards Raito in anger.
At the tree, Shikamaru saw what had happened and quickly reacted. Jumping down with hand seals, shadows gathered under his command, which was quite large due to the shadows from the fire and quickly attached to the hobgoblin. Weak from the rampage and the self-harming blow, the shadows successfully paralyzed the hobgoblin.
Without any pause Chōji who had expanded his hand and was covered with stones, his fist landed on the hobgoblin, creating a devastating blow, making the earth below shake.
After the dust settled down, they saw that the hobgoblin was in a rather weak and pitiful state.
But what Raito saw was that the hobgoblin had only few hundred of health points, but resigning to his bad luck he saw Hinata who had landed behind the hobgoblin with her Gentle fist attacking stance, making a consecutive fifty or sixty strikes.
"Uzumaki drop!!!" Naruto rolled as he dropped down from the tree, hitting square at the hobgoblin"s head.
With a little resistance, the hobgoblin disappeared in smoke.
Raito had a mouth wide open. He just realized that a group of ten to thirteen had just killed a level twenty-six monster. Not even a single point of damage. That was huge, huge.
[You killed a Lvl 26 Hobgoblin]
You obtained 30 EXP.
You obtained a club.
You obtained a vial of hobgoblin blood.
You obtained cloth of hobgoblin.
[HELP: Experience point to the gamer has been allocated with the percentage of contribution to the challenge.]
"Too much work, just to kill one." Shikamaru murmured
"Let"s divide into groups and take them on. We can do it and also we should work towards strengthening our own groups." Raito said, his eye emitting blue light.
Raito smiled then said, "This time we will work in a group of three in our original groups. For the next three days, we will fight these goblins in teams. And for the finale, we can raid the camp using Naruto"s idea."
Three days later
[Yoshizawa Raito]
[Lvl 13 > Lvl 17]
As Raito looked at his status page and the acc.u.mulated status points, he laughed happily and closed his eyes.
On midday, outside the training ground, the supervisor, as well as the academy teachers, stood in front of the student with Iruka standing ahead of them. He had a small smile hanging on his lips as he looked at his students.
"Everyone, congratulation." Iruka clapped and the group behind him also clapped.
"I am proud to see you all standing before me. Sadly out of thirteen groups, only eight groups lasted till the original time period, then two groups and two members quit the exams. So to the students, being able to stand out, I congratulate you all on pa.s.sing."
Everyone who pa.s.sed cheered and discussed among themselves.
"Alright, alright. Let me continue." with a loud voice, Iruka continued, "You have three days off, for rest, then we are going to have academic exams where you will pa.s.s to step foot in becoming a ninja of Konohagakure. So, everyone, I wish you luck."
Iruka stepped back and another Chūnin, who was slightly fatter came forward. "Make two line, girls and boys, then enter the cabin to take your things."
The previous thin Chūnin handed Raito his things and said in a low voice, "If you able to do three-seal Fuinjutsu then, even when someone tries to look for them, they would not be able to find anything."
Quickly giving a tip to Raito, the thin Chūnin pushed Raito out and met others. Raito shrugged then regrouped with everyone.
Raito saw that Ino was lecturing Naruto to read the books properly and not play pranks on the people and Naruto was also laughing bitterly as he accepted with everything Ino said.
After the ending at the Hokage tower.
Raito peeked inside the Hokage office. Seeing the elderly figure, he called out and directly went to sit on the chair.
"Raito-kun, you seem happy. Did something good happen?" Hiruzen asked with his kind smile.
"Nope, nothing. I am just happy that the exams ended. Now I can stay home and laze around for a few days." Raito replied with a thought.
"Then I will not take much of your time and go straight to the point. I want you to tell me everything that happened from the time, Mizuki and Tokiji arrived, to the point, Mizuki was captured." Hiruzen asked as one of the ANBU held a clipboard and pen ready to jot down.
"Well…." Raito dragged.
"Tell me everything and I promise you will be rewarded, not only for catching and defeating the village traitor but also recovering secrets of the village."
[Quest Created]
Raito thought of accepting and focused on Hiruzen.
"We couldn"t do anything about Tokiji and that scroll was fake from the beginning," Raito muttered in a low voice then explained all the happenings to Hiruzen, some points exaggerated and some points downplayed.
Hiruzen nodded and the ANBU from time to time also noted several points.
"You used a healing jutsu?" Hiruzen asked in curiosity.
"Yeah." Raito nodded.
Hiruzen took out a scroll and pointed on a part before sighing, "And Iruka told me that the healing jutsu you did was "amazing", if not for the limitation of chakra pool, you would have healed him in an instant. I really didn"t dare to believe that."
"That"s what healing jutsu does right?" Raito replied simply.
His perception locking to s.p.a.ce above, Hiruzen continued, "Raito-kun, jutsu are the wonder of the human mind, making impossible, possible. The healing jutsu you performed, how to say it, maybe I am praising it too much but it may rank in the top ten in the village."
"Top ten? Doesn"t that mean it is really awesome? Jii-chan, what other top healing jutsu are there?" Raito asked in excitement.
"Hoho, maybe you have read it but my student, Tsunade has quite a name regarding healing arts." Hiruzen started touching his beard.
Head hanging down, Raito sighed, "Of course I have, but Jii-chan, you are getting too old. You are just too long-winded."
Hiruzen just laughed it off.
"She has one technique called "The Yin Seal", which lets her recover in an instant. That"s how powerful it was, any wound or fatal injuries healed in an instant. That technique was a wonderful feast for the eyes." Hiruzen sighed.
"Wow, for something like that to exist. I can"t believe it." In his excitement, Raito just wanted to say "Give me".
"You will know it sooner or later but the jutsu are wonders, created by humans. In this vast continent and beyond, people hundreds of ways they use chakra to accomplish the impossible. The only limitation is the user, himself." Hiruzen sighed then added with unbound curiosity, "How about a demonstration for this old man?"
Raito paused for a moment then nodded, "Who should I perform on, then?"
"Hmm…. How about…me?" Hiruzen folded his sleeves and took out a kunai.
The ANBU were alarmed, acting quickly one of them grabbed Hiruzen"s hand. But then quickly retreated with hints of fear, shown in his body.
"Jii-chan, if you do that, I am not going to demonstrate, let you bleed out and die" Raito turned his head.
A purple haired ANBU jumped down, unsheathing her sword and asked, "Then how about me?"
"NO." Raito directly gave a reply without even bothering to think.
Like a perfect cliffhanger, knocking sounds came from the door, grabbing everyone"s attention. Ibuki entered the room, His big body, tanned skin and scarred face giving everyone a faint sense of pressure.
Looking at everyone in the room while pausing a bit long to Raito, Ibuki stated, "We have confirmation."
"Ibuki-oni."
Ibuki looked at the chair and his eyes twitching replied, "Little Devil".
"CAT take him into my chambers," Hiruzen ordered and CAT followed.
"Nee-"
*Glare
"CAT-san, what do you think about my jutsu?" Raito asked playfully.
"Life-saving," CAT spoke few words and kept silent.
Unable to bear the silence, Raito walked around the room to search for anything when his eyes landed on the crystal ball. Moving his hand forward, Raito touched the crystal ball.
Would you like to learn "Telescope"?
YES - - NO
Would you like to use "Telescope"?
YES - - NO
"Only Hokage-sama can use that crystal ball, it was said that not even the fourth was able to use it." CAT looked at Raito, shaking her head she explained from the behind explained.
"….Say what if I can use this?" Raito asked.
After a long pause, she replied, "Any jutsu of your choice."
Raito waved his hand then asked, "Even S-rank and ranks?"
After one longer pause, CAT shivered then replied, "Yes."
"S-Rank Jutsu, be ready, here I come." Raito cheered then pressed "YES to use".
Feeling the chakra leaving his body, the crystal ball shined brightly and the scenery changed.
"It"s the view from Hokage monument." Raito"s eye widened as the crystal ball showed the view from the Hokage monument.
[5 CP per second]
Academy. The hot springs "So, that"s how he peeks." Training area. The gates. "Kotetsu Hagane" and "Izumo Kamizuki". Raito was even able to use his observe skill with the crystal ball.
"Stop, Raito." Hiruzen stern voice made Raito quickly cancel the connection. Hiruzen stood there with a stern face, determination in his eyes, he waved his hand and a thud sound was heard.
"Activate the seal and clean the room. Label it as a Cla.s.s A secret." Hiruzen ordered and everyone started working.
"Raito, we need to talk about things….but later."
Closing his eye in contemplation, he added, "Use that jutsu to disappear and go to the house. I will meet you there, stay inside and keep yourself busy….and Naruto too." as Raito was stunned for the moment, he added Naruto"s name too.
Hiruzen pushed his chakra, forcing Raito to arouse out of stupor. After staring for a while, Raito muttered words and disappeared from the spot.
"Kakashi, Tenzō. Can you tell how he did that?" Hiruzen asked.
"I couldn"t, Hokage-sama," Tenzō answered after a long time.
"There was a shiver in his chakra but nothing else. There was no s.p.a.ce fluctuation that I could see," Kakashi answered but the magatama in his iris still moved as if searching frantically which caused him pain.
Hiruzen sighed, "Make someone clean this mess and be with Raito unmasked. Take people with you, celebrate or anything and keep him busy." Hiruzen ordered to whom it was concerned.
"Hai." But before disappearing, she said in a soft voice, "You never scolded him before."
Hiruzen dragged his exhausted body, sat on the main seat and lit a smoke to handle his coming nonsense.
"Sorry old friends."
Time pa.s.sed and with a knock, Mariko entered the room. Her head slightly lowered, she announced, "Hokage-sama we have members of the elder council here, councilmen Mitokado Homura, councilwomen Utatane Koharu and head of the civilian council, Shimura Danzo."
Sighing lightly, Hiruzen replied, "Let them in."
A man wearing bandages, covering most of his upper part and one eye, hiding his bandaged right arm in the clothes and with a walking stick, he entered the room with two others elderly figure, one man with grayish black hair wearing gla.s.ses and one woman with grayish black hair made into a bun, held by a red hairpin.
He walked forward and stood in front of the table with two elderly figure behind him and asked, "Hiruzen, you should know why we are here?"
At the same time, Raito returned back home with tunnel vision. He just had one question in his mind. Jiji was angry, was it the scroll? Orb? Or the secrets he has been keeping?
Raito questioned himself and suddenly appeared in the house which frightened Naruto.
"Hey Raito that scared me. What happened? You look pale." Naruto looked at Raito and found that he was acting weird. Naruto grabbed Raito"s hand brought him to the sofa.
Taking a huge breath, Raito calmed down and said, "Jii-chan told us not to go out, for now, he will be coming to talk with us."
Mechanically, Raito moved towards the kitchen and then began the endless journey of Raito becoming the food king.
"So that"s how it rains? How simple, that teachers in the academy definitely don"t know how to teach. You are definitely the best at teaching, Raito." Naruto harrumphed.
"Only if you read properly, you won"t need teachers." Raito sighed as he stirred the pot. The soup gave a nice fragrance, which gave a refreshing smell.
Knock! Knock!
Without even needing to open the door, the door was blasted open following Anko"s shouting. Following her, Yugao and Mari entered the house.
"Congratulation, you two."
Anko held alcohol bottles, big enough to go all night long.
"It"s just survival exams, you know?" Naruto looked at everyone and said.
"It smells food here." Anko directly ignored Naruto and walked forward placing the alcohol bottle with care on the table and went to the kitchen top.
"Here, have some cake." Mari placed the boxes with cake on the table.
Anko took a deep breath as she started opening the lids of pots and pans.
"Jiji didn"t come?" Raito asked his emotions complicated.
"What do the three of you need?" Hiruzen asked eyeing his face menacing and with the Hokage robes, making the situation even direr.
"We just wanted to know what is happening in the village," Danzo answered, his eyes still closed.
"We want in too, Hiruzen."
"We were in the same team, have some trust."
The two elderly also chimed in.
Hiruzen sighed and commanded, "Prepare" to the ANBU near him.
"I alone will handle it. There is no need for you all to involve yourself. Go back to your residence and prepare for tomorrow meeting, just like every day" Hiruzen turned around in his seat and added.
Danzo stood up and shouted, "But why did you-"
"Kill him? I wanted the three of you to know (standing up he stared at the three, his voice turning heavier, the killing intent flooding the room) that those little "pests" here, I have tolerated enough."
"I just wanted to remind you that, while you two are the part of the elder council, I have the hat, I have the seat. And I have the power to do things, in my way."
"Those little birds you send here (looking at Danzo) may not return to their nest at the end of the day, returning to the ground as ashes.
"Danzo, you are representing the civilian council. Tell them, tell each and every single one of them. Any more of those little tricks and I will have to deal them without sensei"s method, the old way." Hiruzen gritted his teeth as the words escaped from his mouth.
"Keep playing like you always do." Saying that he pa.s.sed the three.
"Hiruzen!" Danzo struck the ground with his stick, making a loud, crisp sound.
"What?" Hiruzen replied calmly but the pressure building forced Danzo to take a few steps backward.
"Calm down, you two." the two elderly tried to placate the two.
"Hiruzen, we only came here to know who was it that made you mobilize such a large force. We may be able to help." Homura with his calm voice said.
"My old friends, I still want us to be friends till the day I see light."
Danzo gritted his teeth, even after so much of sacrifice, using Shishui"s eye and the life of his trained soldier. "Shishui"s eye is not that powerful, although this eye has powerful Genjutsu capabilities, what I wanted is still not this."
Danzo quickly exited the room and replied in a low voice, "I understand."
Homura and Koharu, walked forward standing behind Hiruzen and said, "Hiruzen, our grandchildren, thank you."
A few hours later.
"Hokage-sama Kabuto has disappeared. ANBU medical chief is also found dead. No other casualties." ANBU reported.
"Report to me of all the happenings," Hiruzen replied calmly as if everything was as antic.i.p.ated.
"Hey just asking but is Jii-chan not coming?" Raito looked at the clock for the umpteenth time and asked making everyone feel nauseous.
"Well…. it"s already seven now but you have to understand that Hokage-sama has a lot of work." This time Mari replied with an "I give up face".
"He will be here. If the old man said he will be here then he will be here." Biting on the meat, she replied.
"Yes, Anko. I keep my words." A voice alerted Anko from behind.
"Eep." Anko jumped at the voice like a frightened rabbit and backed away. The meat on her hand flew in the air, which was grabbed by Hiruzen.
"Hokage-sama." Mari and Yugao bowed.
"Jiji." Raito and Naruto cried out.
"You two." Hiruzen weak voice and his weary look made him look like an old weak man, making Raito somewhat sad.
"Yugao, go to the "room", it needs you." Hiruzen waved, making Yugao act.
Yugao walked and approached the two and said with a gentle voice, "Behave, okay?" then went out.
"Anko takes Naruto inside, I want to talk to Raito alone for a moment," Hiruzen said making the room turn heavy. Nodding Anko and Naruto went inside a room.
Hiruzen took a seat in front of Raito. And Mari took a seat at the side, a stern aura emitting from her.
Hiruzen laughed and waved at Mari, asking her to calm down. Looking at Raito in front of him, Hiruzen sighed.
First, he started with Raito, "Raito, you are stupid."
"Eh?" Raito was shocked.
Hiruzen smiled and continued, "Your new skills and new training, everyone can feel the difference. The change in att.i.tude and behavior, everyone can sense. Everyone has secrets, we don"t mind but you have made many mistakes."
"Do you think that the back of the house had magical hiding power? And even if you try to hide your abilities, people will still figure it out if you show off too much. You even involved the Ino-ShikCho clans, making quite a large chaos in the village. You disappeared from the backyard, Kakashi who was watching with a telescope saw that and when you returned he saw you again. You need to be aware that there are Byakugan and sensors in the village, which can watch from a far distance. There are also Chūnin and Jōnin who have great eyesight. These people can be out of your range and at the same time spy on you. Science and technology have developed in the last decade, camera, TV, video recorder, there are ways to find your secret."
Letting the words sink in, Hiruzen took out a scroll, where there were multiple storage seals. Channeling chakra into a seal, a book appeared.
Picking up the book Hiruzen went through a couple of pages. Waving his hand to call Raito, Hiruzen made him sit near himself, patting Raito"s head, he started, "From now on, before you use that jutsu, you will make sure to be prepared for everything. Mostly I wish if you could do it inside the house. Here, you even have the room." at the end Hiruzen gave Raito a book.
"I told you that I would be giving you an rank or S-rank but not, for now, you have to wait," Hiruzen whispered to Raito"s ear, his voice so soothing to hear.
Hiruzen smiled then hugged Raito, "You are smart but still inexperienced but time will change that. I believe in you Raito, I believe you would be a great man and outlive me. Your name will be known through the whole elemental nation for the path you decide. Let the enemies fear when they hear your name and let your families and friends may be filled with joy when they see you. You have a long journey and you have just started, you may fall from time to time but you must never give up."
Raito was shaking greatly as he heard Hiruzen speaking. He couldn"t believe how stupid he could be. Raito started cursing himself and promised that he will think of his actions. Words kept pouring and the hand patting his head felt heavy. Listening to the words, Raito felt small again, when his mistakes were just mistakes. Tears came pouring out of his eyes and his heart felt heavy.
A new t.i.tle has been acquired.
[A Seedling]
- Easier interaction with elderly and young.
- Easier gaining knowledge and pa.s.sing knowledge.
- 10% Increase in Stat and skill experience points.
- Gain extra 1 stat point per level.
[A Special t.i.tle has been unlocked. Points gained. 250 points.]
Releasing the boy, Hiruzen said, "Now go to your room for a while with Mari. I have something to speak with Naruto."
Raito"s eye shined but still walked with Mari to his room. Upon reaching the room, Mari sealed the room with her own version of sealing techniques.
Jumping back in bed, he eyed Mari and said, "I already know about it, Mari-nee."
Mari rolled her eyes and grabbed a chair, "Just stay in the room for ten minutes."
"Shikamaru knows it too." Raito continued. "He is smart, his father is smart but a lot of people are a fool."
Sighing she crossed her legs and said, "More than half of the village is a fool, then."
"But I want to ask Mari-nee, how can someone seal a tailed beast like "The nine tails" into a human "Naruto"?"
Mari kept quiet but seeing that Raito was still pressing forward she decided to explain it all, "The tailed beast is called bijū or Chakra Monster, they were present from a time long before the village or any civilization known. And the host that the bijū are sealed into is called Jinchūriki, the power of human sacrifice. There are nine chakra monsters going from one all the way to nine represented by the number of tails they have and so there are nine Jinchūriki altogether housing one bijū each. Just like Konoha has Naruto, the Jinchūriki for Kyūbi, there are others too."
"Like Killer B of Hachibi?" Raito asked with interest.
"Yeah, he is one of them."
"What about others?"
"We know about some due to their appearance in the third shin.o.bi war. But others, we don"t know, they have not made many appearances in public."
"Why are we not taught about that in cla.s.s, Mari-nee," Raito asked seemingly confused.
"Everyone is not so understanding about this subject. But mostly it is because the civilian council rejects them."
"If you have any more question, ask away. I am feeling lazy?"
Raito closed his eyes seemingly in a deep thoroughly. Opening his eyes he asked with a heavy heart, "Just….why Naruto?"
At the ground floor, Naruto had a letter and a picture of a pregnant red-haired woman in his hand and as he read, he cried in happy tears. The doubts that clouded him, slowly disappeared. He had parents, parents who loved him, cared for him, he was not abandoned. Hiruzen hugged the crying Naruto for a long, long time. Part of Hiruzen felt relieved, he had fulfilled one of his promises, the reason he was still alive. He had feared that he couldn"t live the day to give this letter to Naruto.
"Because he is an Uzumaki," Mari answered.
"Because he is an Uzumaki? Are you really telling me everything?" Raito questioned not feeling satisfied.
"Why don"t you think of this as a son or daughter inheriting a family business?" Mari tried changing direction.
"What do you mean?" Raito asked.
"Before Naruto, the Jinchūriki to Kyūbi was none other than his mother Namikaze Uzumaki Kushina."
"And what about before that?"
"The wife of the first Hokage, Senju Uzumaki Mito."
"….d.a.m.n." Raito could only curse. Every Jinchūriki was related to Hokage somehow.
After a long pause, Raito asked with a silly face, "So next Hokage is going to marry Naruto?"
There was a long pause when Raito said that. A twitching smile hung on Mari"s face before laughing out loud.
Wiping her tears, she cursed. Rubbing Raito"s hair, she brought out a scroll but when Raito saw that he immediately tried s.n.a.t.c.hing it.
Toying with Raito, she removed the red knot on the scroll before unrolling. "Let"s see."
Unrolling the scroll, there were lines and lines of characters drawn on the scroll with various circle and lines. From the simple storage seal to the more complex storage seal, looking at the complex characters, Mari sighed. Activating the chakra, the scroll rolled back and the knot was tied back.
Raito quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed the scroll back and gave a dissatisfied snort. Although it looked like Raito was angry, he wasn"t. This scroll was one of the research decoys he had placed in the house.
"You shouldn"t keep such precious things randomly in the house," Mari said as she took out a slightly bigger scroll and placed it on the floor. Inside the scroll, there were numerous storage seals present with unique characters in it.
"I saw that your katana was broken, what did you do with it? Hit a rock? Go ahead and see if you like anyone." Mari shook her head and opened her hands, the weapon in front of her each one of different shape and size.
Looking at each one, Raito salivated.
[War Hammer] (Uncommon)
ATK - 200
Durability - 2000
[Throwing Knife](Uncommon)
ATK - 30
Durability - 300
[Katar](Uncommon)
ATK - 45
Durability - 1900
[Ninjatō](Uncommon)
ATK - 140
Durability - 2800
[Katana](Uncommon)
ATK - 120
Durability - 3000
[Spear](Uncommon)
ATK - 80
Durability - 2500
And there were many more. Mari sat on the ground with her scroll unrolled. Weapons stood on the scroll seal with their handles on the top, letting the observer freely try them.
"Mari-nee, you are….a walking armory." Raito looked at each and every weapon on the scroll, watching their attributes and letting out a silly laugh.
"Choose." Mari hissed.
"Um….then I choose all." Raito spread his hand indicating all weapons.
"Only one. Make your pick." Mari glared.
"Haai." Every weapon was uncommon, so Raito had no choice but to sigh and choose a subst.i.tute for his katana.
"In Konoha, we have a lot of specific techniques for Ninjatō, if you want techniques relating to katana then they are more abundant in "Land of Iron"," Mari advised as Raito grabbed the katana.
[Sword Mastery Lvl 2]
[Subset - Katana mastery Lvl 20]
Sword with a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard.
Lvl 25 - Skill Locked
Raito smiled and shook his head then grabbed the katana pulling it towards himself.
[Katana](Uncommon)
ATK - 120
Durability - 3000
Special - (+5 DEX)
Made by - Ayoma Mari
Owner - Yoshizawa Raito
Katana made by Ayoma Mari, a newly ranked blacksmith. A sharp edge with a heavy back, with a long handle two-handed attacking, is possible to deliver damage with greater force.
Made using black iron….
Uses>
Flaws>
Raito swung the katana with a gentle movement but for Mari, her heart was in pain. She had started smithing as her new hobby and these were the best weapons she could make right now. To part with her weapon, made her feel some sense of loss.
Raito felt happy with the katana he had selected then seeing the face Mari had made, Raito brought out a bowl from his inventory. A meaty smell came from the bowl, noodles as a base and covered by shredded meaty gravy with chopped scallions on the top. Handing the bowl he gave her chopsticks and a bottle of purified water.
Smelling the meaty flavor, Mari couldn"t hold back. Quickly diving, she chewed, slurped and swallowed, and in minutes the bowl was all empty. Breathing out, she opened the cap of the bottle and took a sip. With a gulp, she was astonished, her chakra network was activated and sped up, and she felt a trace amount of chakra recovering. Closing the cap she looked at Raito with heaps of question.
Raito smiled and started explaining about the water. Of course, most of it was from the skill itself. After learning the skills, basics about the skills will be in his brain, which is mostly about the activation of the technique itself. Then after gaining a new effect to the skill, there would be another knowledge endowment, explaining how the effect came to be.
Night came and everyone left the house leaving Naruto, Raito, and Anko alone in the house.
Raito opened the door and walked in Naruto"s room, which was still lit. Naruto was sitting on his bed with a picture frame in his hand. He was trying to open the picture frame but was failing to do so.
Raito walked forward and s.n.a.t.c.hed the picture frame turning it around and opening it before giving it back to Naruto. In his regular orange clothes, which was now a little dirty, Naruto cleaned the photo of the red-haired women with extreme care and inserted it in the frame. After cleaning the table Naruto placed the photo frame in the middle of the table.
"She is my mom." Naruto voice cracked in the deep of night.
"Mm." Raito simply replied before walking back.
"I have a….a big fox inside me." Naruto with his head down and a weak voice said it to Raito.
"The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox." Raito smiled and continued, "But still you are ramen loving Naruto. I know what sealing techniques are, don"t compare me with those stupid people." With that Raito closed the door.
Raito walked down the stairs where Anko was standing in antic.i.p.ation. Happily walking forward, she grabbed Raito and turned him around. Facing him she spoke, "Take me there."
Tilting his head as saying he was confused, Raito asked, "Where?"
"To where you disappear," Anko spoke with a bit of sternness in his voice.
"Jii-chan asked you?" Raito asked with a strange tone.
Anko didn"t know what to say but decided to tell the truth. "Yeah he did but I want to know too. Before he told us not to ask so we didn"t ask."
The notification didn"t arrive and he didn"t find any hint of a lie in Anko. But what could he see with his low level to detect the lie? So kicking it out of his mind, Raito smiled happily and said, "Okay".
She was wearing a dark blue top and pants with lots of seals, which were skin tight. Hiding them, she was wearing a dark overcoat.
Extending his hands, Raito grabbed Anko"s shoulder and activated the skill. Another second later, Raito and Anko appeared in a deep forest with towering trees and blue skies with two moons.
Ignoring her, Raito walked and reached a branch, playing with Midori happily. Anko also did her work scouting the area, finding monsters and killing them in a blink of an eye.
After some time had pa.s.sed, Raito felt bored. So he searched for Anko and walked towards her. Standing on top of a branch, Raito sighed as he watched the scene.
Anko dance as she made cuts after cuts. The group of hobgoblin walked forward to attack but would be sent flying away, instead they would get two or three cuts every time. But they knew no fear, based on their memory they attacked the women. Acting on desire and instinct, the continued to fight.
Raito felt a little angry at what Anko was doing. Earlier when they went for the nest, Raito used a lot of exploding talisman and with help of Naruto clones destroyed the hobgoblin base in an instant.
"Anko-nee, come back. I wanna go and sleep." Raito called out.
Anko stopped and with a dragon fire jutsu burned them all to a crisp.
Raito gave up at that moment. Huffing, he turned around, ignoring Anko all the way. Taking out a bowl of noodles, he ate it.
"Oi, what happened?" Anko questioned the sullen Raito.
Days quickly pa.s.sed by, Naruto and Raito enjoyed the days by training, eating and reading. Raito completely forgot certain someone as his days were filled with joys. Slowly one by one Raito"s stats increased considerably and he considered himself as strongest in the current batch of students after comparing status with everyone. In this period of time, what Raito focused more, were his chakra pool and Fuinjutsu.
At the Hokage tower.
CAT knelt in front of the Hokage desk as she reported, "Raito may have some surprise in the coming academy exams. He spoke of a new type of Fuinjutsu."
"That kid." Hiruzen threw the hat on the table and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"No worries, make sure Iruka is accompanied by ANBU tomorrow. No matter what I would like to see what he has." Opening the drawer, Hiruzen grabbed a purple patterned scroll with a red string and gave it to CAT.
"I did promise. But…. I have a feeling that I would not be able to give him that personally." Hiruzen added with a weak smile.
"Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen shook his head then took out another scroll, "He never showed me his healing skill, check how good it is." lighting his pipe Hiruzen looked at the orange glow.
"Only if my students were capable." Hiruzen turned around and watched the bustling village.
Early morning on Wednesday students filled the cla.s.s, without making a single noise. Two papers with a pen in front of them. A serious aura filled the cla.s.sroom making most of the students nervous. Iruka stood with two other Chūnin by his side, watching students with their vulture eyes.
"I will say it only once, listen carefully. Your first exam is the questions in front of you which deals with Math, History, geography, language and Shin.o.bi code of conduct. For a total of a hundred marks, you have two hours and fifteen minutes. Then for your practical, you will have shuriken and kunai throwing, then Genjutsu breaking followed by Taijutsu, then we will be ending with Ninjutsu, which will compromise for another hundred marks. Exams will begin from nine and end by three."
Iruka voice was met by the nodding of students. He continued, "I will list out the rule and you will follow them. Number one - no cheating. Number two - You cannot ask anything. Number three - fill the boxes with answers and tick mark the multiple choice. If I find any of you cheating, I will be deducting marks, but only once. Then next time, you will be thrown out. This exam will determine when you will become a ninja, so be aware."
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The metal rod hit the bell making heavy noise.
Looking at the clock, Iruka shouted, "Turn your papers and start."
Heat flared, students picked up their pen and flipped the papers.
Raito went through one question after another, filling the box full of the perfect answer. "It"s surprisingly easy." he yawned.
"Ehhh!? So easy." Naruto cried out.
"Naruto!" Iruka shouted. "Shut up."
Glaring back at Raito, Naruto went back writing answers.
Raito chuckled and continued filling his answers, failing nearly all of his multiple choice questions to prevent topping the exam. After finishing everything, he looked around and saw Shikamaru already sleeping and Chōji copying him, Sasuke glaring at the paper then scratched a number. Sakura, Hinata, and Ino tried their best to finish everything perfectly.
Everyone below level ten tried their best to stock up the answers, while everyone having INT below fifteen had a problem to even complete their papers.
"She is all patched up." Raito looked at Sakura and frowned lightly.
Spinning his pen, Raito yawned and looking at the clock, half an hour more left to end.
[Chakra Sense]
[Fast thinking]
Once again, Raito felt the sense of detachment, observing as a third person point of view. Going forward Raito standing beside Iruka he watched everyone fighting against questions.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
"Pens down," Iruka shouted and the three Chūnin started collecting answer papers.
"You have a forty-five-minute break. Practical from twelve, now go." saying that Iruka left the room with others.
As soon as the Chūnin teachers had finished collecting the papers, Naruto who was in front, behaving nicely, attacked Raito. The conclusion? Naruto was thrown out of the room, directly.
"d.a.m.n you, Raito."
Everyone left the room except for Sasuke and Raito who stood in direct opposition to each other.
Scratching his head Raito turned around to leave the room.
"Wait," Sasuke called out.
Raito also accepted and turned around. "What does the great Uchiha Sasuke wants?"
"After exams.... let"s fight," Sasuke said with a smirk.
Raito rolled his eyes then explained, "We are going to a barbecue house, which is quite famous right now to party."
Sasuke frowned as he heard about it. "I am way stronger than before. Let me show you how much I have improved," he shouted, shouted for his desire, desire to fight, improve and be better.
"Let"s meet sometime later." Raito frowned slightly but exited the room.
On the academy grounds, everyone was discussing the exams, some worried and some happy. And there were students who didn"t care, such type was also divided into two kinds, one who don"t have any hope and others who don"t care for the marks.
Hinata opened the lunch boxes dividing them to the one surrounding her, with a sweet smile hung on her face. Naruto glared as he saw Raito coming but Chōji waved his hand. It was more like a picnic in the lands of death. The students who were around them saw what they were doing, whispered among themselves, creating much noise.
Ignoring them Raito sat on the cloth and took a box placed in his direction. Many students were eyeing them, making Raito fell quite difficult to eat.
Annoyed he commented, "Aish, how sad, future ninja." before eating, Raito laughed happily. His ridiculing tone made everyone mad but didn"t take action.
A small pup jumped and arrived near Hinata and yipped.
"Akamaru?"
Hinata gave Akamaru some meat, which made him happy. Akamaru jumped and disappeared with meat in his mouth.
But a few moments later Kiba who dragged Shino with him arrived near the group of Raito and sat down.
"Hey, do you have any extra, we forgot to bring ours," Kiba asked in a rather straight forward way.
Raito ignored Kiba and Shino as a way of showing his anger towards Sasuke. Hinata looked through her boxes but didn"t find anything, most of the food had been eaten by Chōji alone. With others also having their fill, there was nothing left. Hinata shook her head, which made Kiba a little sad.
Unable to tolerate Kiba"s and Akamaru"s sad face and whimpering, he brought out a few lunch boxes and gave it to them. Moments later they finished everything and even went as far as to lick the box clean.
"I am sorry for my manners but I have to say that the taste is really good." Shino licked his chopsticks and complimented.
"Man, you got some great food. If only we had some alcohol." Kiba patted his stomach with one hand and with another player with Akamaru.
"Alcohol?" Naruto looked at Kiba with confusion.
"You drink, Kiba?" he asked.
"Of course I do. Everyone in my family does. Even Akamaru had a lick before." Kiba laughed as he explained.
Scrolling through his inventory Raito brought out a couple of rice b.a.l.l.s and gave it to Shino. "Give it to your teammate, he likes it."
Shino held the rice b.a.l.l.s and looked at Raito for a few moments before walking away. When Shino was on the corner of his eye, Raito pulled out a camera and followed him.
"Oi Raito, watcha" doing?" Kiba seeing the abnormal behavior asked immediately.
Raito didn"t answer but activated his stealth skill and took turns around the tree. After much turning, Raito completely disappeared. The smell also disappeared which shocked Kiba a bit.
Hiding in the bushes, Raito held the camera, one eye going through the small hole. Index finger on the b.u.t.ton, which was trembling, ready to take actions. And in front of him was Sasuke, silently eating the rice b.a.l.l.s.
"Hehe, I am letting you be a part of my great plan."
Snap! Click!
Sasuke who was biting into his onigiri, jumped up and frantically looked around. He knew what that sound was, that was the sound of incoming disaster. He remembered a few months ago he had heard the same sound, later he found the photos of himself exercising early morning. Then the second time it was his swimming, then shuriken throwing and so on. So when he heard that devilish sound, he quickly searched around.
"Raito. Where are you?"
"Don"t you dare."
"I am warning you."
Raito couldn"t hold back and let out a laugh.
"Oops." Raito immediately abandoned and ran with all his might. Immediately taking out a marble from his inventory and changed its shape to look like a camera.
Running around the grounds Raito hid the "camera" behind the tree and under a couple of rock slabs.
Sasuke saw the abnormality in Raito"s running, so, he searched around and found the "camera" and destroyed it, throwing it to the ground. Laughing wildly, he stepped on the broken "camera".
But to others, the scene was quite confusing. What everyone saw was, Sasuke throwing a rock to the ground before stepping it.
"d.a.m.n my camera." Raito cried out grabbing Sasuke"s attention, which made Sasuke start chasing Raito once again.
[Yoshizawa Raito]
CP - 2000/3300
"That one seal took a total of thousand Chakra." Raito sighed and continued running away.
Watching Sasuke smirk and go his way, Raito let out an evil smile.
Naruto clapped Raito"s shoulder and dragged him to the academy training ground.
Later.
"Yoshizawa Raito, five shurikens, five kunai." The Chūnin instructor gave Raito shuriken and kunai, then stood by the side.
Raito felt the shuriken and kunai then without further ado threw them in succession, hitting seven inside the marks, the three hitting slightly to the side.
"Seven out of ten for shuriken and kunai. Pa.s.s." Announcing the result Chūnin instructor asked for the next one to come forward.
Sasuke watched from the back with a blank look then ignored it.
As Raito retreated back, he heard the girl hawkers talking.
"I knew it, only Sasuke-kun can do it."
"Yeah, only Sasuke-kun has full marks in shuriken and kunai throwing."
"Sasuke-kun is the best."
"That Raito will never as good as Sasuke-kun."
Girls squealed with zeal, making the academy training ground noisy. Hearing the girls, Raito"s face twitched.
Then Raito stood in front of the member from Genjutsu squad and waited for a long time for Chūnin instructor to announce.
"Top for Genjutsu detection and breaking."
Raito then fought with Chūnin instructor with weaker strikes and holds, which made Chūnin instructor for the Taijutsu to curse at Raito for not trying.
Sighing in Raito"s action, he announced, "Needs more training in Taijutsu. Pa.s.sable for Taijutsu."
Everything else was finished, ready for his Ninjutsu test, Raito walked inside the cla.s.sroom and stood in front of the teachers seated in the bench.
[Umino Iruka]
[??? ANBU]
Raito watched the ANBU in confusion, for a really long time when Iruka coughed lightly.
"Yoshizawa Raito, perform a clone technique, then body replacement technique and lastly a transformation," Iruka said for the umpteenth time today.
"Okay." Not even weaving a hand sign, Raito already performed the basic three and waited.
"Congratulations, Raito. You did well and if I add marks from this, then you will be the overall fourth of this batch." Iruka smiled happily and gave him a forehead protector.
Raito accepted happily and again waited.
"Then, if there is a technique you wish to show, you may." the ANBU from the side voiced out.
"Okay." Raito made a half ram seal and activated his chakra. And they waited and waited for a long time.
"Raito, don"t joke around." Iruka slammed his table and shouted.
"Iruka?" an old heavy but kind voice called Iruka. Astonished Iruka immediately came to attention and greeted Hiruzen.
"Hokage-sama?" the ANBU at the side frowned and called out but "Hiruzen" didn"t answer.
Activating the seal, he called out, "Hokage-sama?"
"Jackal, that"s a….. Genjutsu. Bring Raito upstairs." a voice sounded from the intercom at the ear.
Jackal grabbed Iruka and pa.s.sed chakra, freeing Iruka from the Genjutsu.
Coming out of the daze, Iruka sat down and penned down what happened. "That was beyond an academy student," Iruka commented.
Scribbling down in the register, Iruka grabbed a new Hitai-ate from the small box and gave it to Raito.
Raito grabbed the Hitai-ate and felt its heaviness. Quickly Raito wore it on his forehead and smiled happily. "Iruksensei, first step, complete." with a v sign and a hearty smile, Raito announced.
Jackal who was sitting down, grabbed Raito"s hand while saying, "Hokage-sama wants to see you." Then went out to tear away a piece of paper, then went upstairs.
Entering the room Raito sat on his usual chair and Hiruzen on his main seat, a Fuinjutsu talisman in front of him.
Hiruzen"s voice trembled, "What is this?"
Raito smiled happily then said, "You can unseal it."
"Then I will." Hiruzen picked up an empty scroll, opened it and placed it under the tag. Biting his finger, he placed it on the character seal. Chakra pulsed through and the character deformed, the ink spread covering the whole of the white of the scroll.
Shaking his head, Hiruzen burned the scroll.
"Jii-chan the scroll was small, you need a "plus three size" scroll," Raito said after everything was done.
"Hmm…. Raito would you contribute this to the village?" Hiruzen asked.
"….Should I?" Raito asked back.
"If you contribute this, I can give you things related to Fuinjutsu and sometime jutsu that is even better than this." indirectly saying "definitely you must".
"Okay, I will come sometime later. We are going to a barbecue house."
Hiruzen smiled happily and let go of Raito.
"Kakashi be prepared. This type of sealing techniques…..should be researched more." Hiruzen called Kakashi.
Then taking out a kunai he gave it Kakashi, "One day, sometime in future, he can have it. You decide."
"Hai." Kakashi took the unique kunai and stored it in the pouch.
"Hokage-sama….I don"t want to be rude but….the way you are acting nowadays…."
"Kakashi I know in future that he will be powerful. He has already shown signs of becoming strong but I don"t know if I will last that long." Hiruzen"s weak and heavy voice made it hard for Kakashi to hear.