Naruto stared rahter comically at the mirror, and specifically at something that no one, not even the the Professor, the Third Hokage of Konoha, could see. Something so dramatically different from the rest of the world that he lived in. So dramatically different that he didn't know exactly what to do with it.
"Help..." he whimpered.
A flat, light blue rectangular box appeared in front of him. It glowed lightly, but didn't seem to affect anything in the dimly lit restroom with its own dim lights. But what was irritating to Naruto was what was written on it.
Help for: Instructions?
[Yes] or [No]
He lifted his finger and pressed [NO] for the seventh time this week(fourth year). He facepalmed. His hand slid down painfully from his face, and he turned his eyes back to the mirror.
And stared at the reflection of what was above his head.
Uzumaki Naruto
The Gamer
LVL 9
It was irritating, looking at what was above his head. It made him feel ... different from the rest of his peers.
"Why the hell am I four levels above them?!" he shouted angrily, shocking the ANBU stationed outside with his outburst, causing confusion for the ANBU.
Naruto sighed. This ability, which referred to himself as the Gamer, was something he discovered only four days ago. It had appeared one day, like a squirrel would, and then followed him around ever since then. 'Yes, I played few games instead of practicing my bunshin four years ago, but this is too much, God!' he thought miserably, not knowing that the said God had given the power to him. He just sighed again.
It was morning, and he had only ten minutes to not be late to Iruka-sensei's class .. and the graduation exam.
He shrugged it off, turning away from the mirror and quickly made his way out of his restroom and his apartment.
A brand new day awaited him, and he didn't want to start it badly, though the exam was going to make his day bad anyway, by getting another late mark on his report card -something the Hokage had demanded that he see every year.
Naruto ran like he usually did: on the rooftops. While no one hurt him, the glares he often received walking through the streets of Konoha was intimidating and depressing. So to avoid those glares, he began to run and jump across rooftops as early as a seven year old.
Fortunately, it did good for his young body. He was the fastest runner and the most versatile among the Academy's soon-to-be genins.
"Ping."
Naruto faltered in his jump.. and almost never made it across.
He tripped over a rock when the sound rang in his ear, and he flew across the rather large gap between the buildings, and ended up flying and landed only halfway on top of the building's rooftop. He quickly scrambled to get up.
"Damn it, what now?!" he growled angrily as he turned to his left, where most of those blue message boxes ended up showing up.
[Runner] Skill's LVL has increased by one {LVL: 16}
Passive Activation: No ENERGY required
Active Activation: 1.5 ENERGY per second
Passive: Base + 16%*Base-Speed
Passive: Base + 8%*Base-Reflex
Passive: Base + 1.6%*Base-Endurance
Passive: Base + 1.6%*Base-Attack Speed
Active: Base + 30%*Base-Speed
Active: Base + 10%*Base-Reflex
Active: Base + 20%*Base-Attack Speed
Naruto's eyes twitched, but there was also a somewhat happy grin on his face. If there was something awesome about the ability of his, then it was the fact that it alerted him to any sort of achievements, level ups, and alerts whenever it happened to be.
It was also by this alerting messages and his other skill [Observation] that he performed grand pranks... and got away with it.
[Observation] allowed him to see many things about anything, really. The more he LVLed that skill, the more he was allowed to see. For example, he used [Observation] on many chunin, jounins, and the ANBUs that were around him, and to his surprised found that the average speed for a chunin and a jounin had was only three; average chunins held :Speed: of 12, and jounins :Speed: of 15.
Naruto's own :Speed:, which was the base in his other speed related skills, was 16. He grinned as his mind quickly calculated his passive speed once more.
Base(16) + 16%*Base(2.56) = 18.56 Speed.
That happened to be faster than most ANBUs, just by 0.56. And that was his passive.
He quickly dismissed the message, pressing the red X mark on the upper right corner, nad he began to jump across the rooftops again.
"Ping."
"What now?!"
You're late.
"Crap. [Runner] activate!"
With that, Naruto had activated his [Runner] vocally without a second thought and ran noticeably faster.
Too bad he was going to be late anyway...
Umino Iruka
Konoha's 2nd Best Teacher
LVL 14
"OW!" Naruto yelped as Iruka's handchop came down moderately on top of Naruto's head.
"Ping"
'Damn it!' Naruto growled.
[Physical Durability]'s mastery has increased (4% to next LVL)
LVL 1
Takes 3% less damage.
'I don't need that right now!' he hissed.
"Be on time next time," Iruke said with a playful grin.
"Hai..." With that, he walked to his seat. He sat down on it, and pouted. But he was curious. That skill, [Physical Durability] was one he did not see before. That made him curious: how did it suddenly appear?
'My title is "The Gamer" ... Thus my ability should act like how any game acts like,' Naruto thought as Iruka began to explain the usefulness of the three basic jutsus they were being tested today. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'It's been a while since I played games. I activated my ability vocally, like how shinobis do with their jutsus. Perhaps my desire to become hokage transferred over to the ability?'
Then he lifted a random book out of his jacket and placed it in front of him as if he was reading.
"Status Page," he whispered quietly.
And there it was.
Two yellow boxes. One showed what he had on him (what he wore) and the other showed his status (Speed, Endurance, Attack Speed, etc). He had seen the later before, but the former was new to him.
Hell, it even showed him what kind of boxers he wore... and what brand it was.
'Good thing I'm the only one that can see this,' Naruto thought, suddenly happy about his power's secrecy.
He turned to his Status Page, one with his Base abilities points. And he began to use the arrows next to the numbers indicating the value of whatever base ability they were next to.
And right now, he was pressing three things using points he earned three days ago when he LVLed: Intelligence, Strength, and Speed. He left Endurance, Attack Speed, Control, Accuracy, Luck, Wisdom, and Dexterity. He only had 3 points from last level up; he had no room to invest in other Aspects.
And he realized something terrible.
He forgot about Control.
The one thing he needed... for bunshin.
"...F-!G#H$WAGU^UJ%M#$Y$^J%M?!"
"Naruto, outside! NOW!" Iruka shouted.
Naruto then let his head bang the head with a force that startle everyone with a large crack.
How bad can today go today?
Mizuki
A Teacher of Konoha
LVL 15
He should have invested in Luck. With that, at least he could have passed using Luck, but then he didn't ... and he didn't pass.
He dropped his head. 'God, I feel so stupid.'
"Hey, Naruto."
Naruto lifted his head up and saw Mizuki, the one who had defended him during the Exam.
"Oh, Mizuki-sensei..."
Mizuki smiled. He sat down next to Naruto on the rooftop. "Don't be hard on Iruka; he just sees a part of him within you."
"Why?" Naruto frowned.
"He was an orphan after the Kyuubi attack."
Naruto flinched.
"He lived pretty much like how you do these days. Getting attention from anything and anyone," he said. "...But I'm not here to tell you my friend's life story. I'm here to give you a special test."
"A .. special test?"
Mizuki nodded. "One that will give you the rank of genin if you manage to pass."
"Really?!"
"Shee... I'm not supposed to give you this in such an open place. Anyway, this is the special exam: sneak into the Hokage Tower and steal Scroll of Seals. Learn a jutsu from it, and show me it. If you do, then I'll pass you."
"Really?! Thank you, sensei!" Naruto laughed outloud as he tackled Mizuki, who unknownst to Naruto, smirked.
"Oh, by the way, Naruto, you have to complete this exam between dusk and midnight."
"Why?" the boy asked, confused.
"Because this is a stealth mission, and stealth operations often takes place during the dark."
Naruto beamed. "Hai!" With that he ran off at a speed Mizuki had hard time following.
'Damn...' Mizuki thought. 'Once he gives me the scroll, I better end him... For the sake of the village and myself.'
Naruto gave a bow with his hands together to the fallen warrior that was the Third Hokage. "Sorry old man, but I'm hoping that you'll forgive me," he said as he ran off to the scroll storage room.
There were multiple, no tens and hundreds of scroll in the small room.
He absentmindedly touched a scroll to his left, which was on the bookshelf, where he meant to lean on.
"Ping."
'...' He turned around.
Do you want to learn [Scroll of Sealing]?
[Yes] or [No]
Naruto's eyes blinked once. Then twice.
Then his eyes and lips stretched too far to be considered human.
:Learning:
It was one of his passive skills that he had when he discovered his power. Whenever he touched a book or scroll that was made exclusively for passing along knowledge, the previous message would pop up.
It made learning so much easier...
'I have to learn a jutsu anyway,' Naruto thought with his grin. 'And if this stays here, then there is always a chance someone else can steal it... ' With that thought, Naruto pressed [Yes]. The moment he did so, the scroll glowed with a faint white light before slowly fading away like a mirage. Slowly but surely. Then within seconds, it ceased to exist.
This was also one of the results of his power. In exchange for learning anything and everything as long as they were in some kind of writing, the scroll/book themselves would vanish the moment Naruto learned it. Of course, with his :Gamer's Knowledge: he can easily write everything back down again, but so far, he hadn't needed to.
"...Wow, that's a lot of jutus," Naruto thought outloud as he shook his head a bit.
"Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping."
Naruto stumbled back a little, surprised by the sudden flood of 'Pings.'
He slowly looked over them, and to his surprise, not all of the context in the scroll was jutsu.
Several of them were fighting styles and passive forms. "Let's see..." Naruto said as he removed the smaller message boxes indicating what he learned to the core of what he learned.
[Warlord's Aura]LVL 1 (0.00% EXP)
Desc:
A devastating aura that those who learn the skill may wield. It allows the users to mold chakra into semi-solid objects that can be molded into real objects with another's help. Be aware, however. Those with low chakra reserve should not attempt to learn this as it requires enough chakra to kill an average person.
Passively, it creates an armor molded from chakra itself. Wile acting like defense, Aura Armor act more as a physical barrier between the user of this skill and the outside world. It can be deactivated with "Aura Dissipate" and activated with "Aura Activate".
Passive: Learned Aura Armor as Physical Aspect.
Passive: Aura Armor = 20 points.
Passive: Base + 100%*Base-Aura Armor
Passive: Base + 10%*Base-Defense
Passive: 1 EXP/ [Warlord's Aura]LVL-EXP Gain
Active: Base + 1000%*Base-Control
Active: Base + 100%*Base-Accuracy
Active: Base + 100%*Base-Strength
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the last Active. Why was his strength increased...?
No matter, he had to leave the tower soon without getting caught, as this was a stealth mission. So he went out the way he came in: through the second floor storage window.