Chapter 16: Movement in Konoha
Looking at the notice properly, I also saw the person got 3,000 Exp points.
With 1,000 myself, I could become a Jounin if I wanted to. The game might even have a village building system and lead the players' growth in a completely different direction.
And establishing a village itself must not be that easy. Considering it was done within 3 weeks, it must mean this person has a player base.
A player base of people, with potential Jounins already…
Was I playing the game wrong? Instead of hanging back and mastering Jutsu, should I be spamming missions and using the EXP points instead?
But a Chunin is cannon fodder in this world…that would be suicide would it not?
Or should I take more risk and treat this like a game?
"Shikomu? Are you even listening to me?" Naruto asked as he poked me with his finger.
"Yes. I am Naruto. You were talking about your potential mission." I replied.
"No. I was talking about Sakura-Chan." He said.
"Naruto, I always tell you this. She is a stupid person."
"No she is not. You just don't understand her yet since you barely spend any time with her."
"That is because she is stupid. I lost brain cells near her." I told him. At this point I wasn't joking. I didn't know if it was a debuff performed by the game or just Sakura herself but I felt stupid in her presence.
"I am sure it's not that bad."
It is Naruto. It really is.
I then decided to use' Elite-Chat'.
[???: Hello]
However I did not get any response.
…
2 days after that occasion I was having dinner with Shikamaru, Shikaku and his wife.
"So Shikomu, anything special happening tomorrow?" Shikaku asked me.
"From what I know it will just be my usual training schedule." I told him honestly. I decided that I wouldn't get much freedom until I had become a proper Chunin. So until then, I might as well just train. I didn't need to rush my advancements and could save EXP points for higher levels. I refused to believe the game would pass them out like candy. Even if it did, I knew ways to catch up to players.
"So Naido didn't tell you." Shikaku said as even Shikamaru looked at me in surprise.
"Well it seems like he will tell you tomorrow. When he does, make sure to take the news with a pinch of salt. That and good luck." Was all he said before he left.
I felt that that was weird but didn't say anything more. If an NPC decided not to say more it had to be for a reason.
…
The next morning, Naido-sensei had asked me to report before the sun rises at the Hokage's office.
So I followed the Hokage's secretary and walked into the room to see him, Naido-sensei Shikaku and 1 more person waiting for me.
A frail, old man. He had black, shaggy hair, and his right eye was bandaged — concealing a Sharingan underneath. He has had an x-shaped scar on his chi. He wore a white shirt, with a black or dark gray robe over the top of it covering from his feet, to just over his right shoulder. The robe conceals his right arm which was bandaged, and covered with three large golden braces.
Danzo.
"I believe this is unnecessary Hirzen. This should be treated as an S-ranked secret." Danzo told the Hokage.
"I understand that Danzo but the young Genin deserves what is going on." The Hokage said.
"Fine. I shall not be involved in this." Danzo said, as he walked past me, completely ignoring me and leaving.
"Sit, Shikumo. We have something to talk about." Naido said, as he motioned me to sit on the seat beside him which was opposite the Hokage, where Shikaku was standing behind him.
I was surprised a ninja was allowed to sit opposite their 'lord,' but decided it was not in my place to question such high-ranking members.
"So from my understanding, you do not know what has been going on?" The Hokage asked me.
"I do not know what you mean Hokage-Sama. I do not know why I am here." I said.
"He's smart. He must have realized, yet just chose to be in denial. Normal behavior for a child out of the academy." Naido-sensei said…seeming to defend me?
The Hokage didn't say anything but nodded for me.
"Did you realize that your teammates would often disappear after your morning training sessions?" Shikaku asked me.
As he asked this, I realized where they were going with this. I had also recently read a little about this, but since it didn't seem to happen in any of the main villages, it hasn't blown up in the online community yet.
"Yes I have. Ayumi would casually walk away and come back only when summoned or go sightseeing. But Kazuto would disappear and not let anyone know his whereabouts. Even where he eats." I told them what I had known.
"Yes, well they seem to each have their own circumstances." Shikaku told me.
The Hokage then raised his hands, signaling that he had wanted to continue.
"Of the 90 Graduates from the 3 orphan classes of the academy, only 3 had acquired a Jounin-Sensei. That being your 3 man squad." The Hokage told me.
"Following this, 27 of the 90 seemed to have contracted some disease which causes them to sleep at random timings of the day. Sometimes for long periods of time. Ayumi being one of them. We had decided to hold all 27 in isolation and monitor the remaining 90. You however are not being monitored anymore since you have never blacked out for long periods of time. Just usual rest times." The Hokage told me.
It seemed like the suspicions were true. When players logged out, their bodies would remain unprotected, and obviously high-ranking Ninja's would find that suspicious.
However the AI would never let them know of their existence as fiction, thus it seemed these 27 just have to 'magically recover.' It was probably the AI's way of telling them to play more or they would be kicked out.
"Of the remaining amount, we realized 20 people were constantly meeting. They constantly tried to discreetly meet merchants and gather information about high-ranking Ninja but failed." The Hokage continued.
"It is kind of Ironic that people without the skills of Genin tried to steal S-rank secrets." Naido sensei said from the side.
"Anyways, we have apprehended those 20. One of them was Kazuto. I am explaining this to you to tell you that from today your 3-man cell has been disbanded. From now on, you will be the sole Genin for Naido. He would also like to keep it that way. We have also assessed that it will not be long for you to become a Chunin and lead your own missions, so this arrangement is temporary. Guy also strongly vouches for you." The Hokage continued.
As all this happened, I also saw a notification from the Elite-Chat.
[???: Hello. I will make this short since I am a busy person. Tell me how you joined a clan and I will tell you how to establish a village]
Can this day get any more intense?