{Somewhere in the Land of Waves}
{07:45 AM, 22nd Mar 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
Ren was sitting on the tree looking at all the items in his inventory and his status, Hayate sensei had asked him about his future training which prompted him to take stock of all the available resources once again.
'I can't learn the {Chakra Scalpel Jutsu}, {Uchiha Shurikenjutsu Skill Scroll} that I got from the graduating class, both of them have requirements that I can't fulfill right now.'
...
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[Learn {Chakra Scalpel Jutsu} skill?]
[Pre-requisite: Mystical Palm Technique Lv- 3, INT>100
[-/-]
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...
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[Learn {Uchiha Shurikenjutsu Skill Scroll} skill?]
[Pre-requisite: Advanced Shurikenjutsu Lv- MAX(-), DEX>100, INT>50
[-/-]
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...
Ren checked the prerequisite for both skills one more time before setting them aside, he couldn't do anything about these two skills at the moment.
'...I should focus on leveling up my kenjutsu and taijutsu along with physical conditioning and wind nature manipulation.'
Ren opened his skill block and looked at his kenjutsu, he had managed to level it up quite a bit because of the daily spars with Hayate sensei.
...
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[Dance of the Crescent Moon – A Rank: Lvl 3 (45.78% to Next Lvl)]
[A deceptive kenjutsu style that focuses on fast-paced feints to create an opening leading up to a devastating final strike.
Practitioners of Dance of the Crescent Moon concentrate on either using illusions or shadow clones to perform feints and disrupt their opponent's rhythm.]
[+15% to DEX when used.]
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...
'I could focus on learning other elements but it is a huge waste of chakra, in the beginning, if I don't have chakra affinity for that element, even learning skills would take a long time... later though I should learn the Hiding in Mist Technique, and that way I could also gain a fourth affinity while the jutsu further increases my advantages.'
The only problem with this approach is the fact that he would have to justify where he learned this skill. He had already searched Zabuza and Haku's weapon pouches and other storage scrolls they had but they didn't even have a single jutsu scroll on them.
'I should focus more on kenjutsu and sensing and wind manipulation, paying more attention to my advantage should help till I participate in the chunin exams. After that, I should have access to the chunin library and B-ranked jutsus and more rewarding missions which would further accelerate my growth.'
Ren looked at his status window and looked through the changes to his stats after just one decent mission, although the chances of them dying in this mission were a lot higher than in regular old D-Rank missions the rewards couldn't be ignored so easily.
...
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[Status Window]
[Name: Ren]
[Title: Rookie of the Year]
[Level: 27 Next Level: 1,500/80,000]
[Chakra: 890/890]
[STR: 99]
[VIT: 94]
[END: 98]
[DEX: 170 {-50}]
[INT: 150]
[CHA: 89]
[Control: 60%]
[Fire: 20%, Wind: 30%, Water:0%, Earth: 8%, Lightning: 0%]
[Specialization: Chakra Sensor]
Money: 69,000 Ryo
Attribute Points: 11
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...
'I gained 4 levels just from the side missions and I still have 2 bounty mission rewards safe along with the main reward for the mission, though my consumption of points can not be compensated with the growing amount of EXP requirements-'
...
"What are you thinking about?" A soft voice came from another tree that was just in his sensing range.
Ren sensed her before she spoke, he turned to look at the cat-masked ANBU walking up to him. She walked gracefully and her movements were swift, she jumped and landed on the same tree branch as him without disrupting the leaves on the branch.
'...almost perfect control of her movements,' Ren thought this small display was impressive to him as it once again displayed the difference between normal shinobi and ANBU. While ANBU members weren't necessarily stronger than the regular forces, they were superior in terms of stealth and teamwork.
"Cat-san," Ren nodded in greeting before he focused his senses on actively sensing around them for a bit, since they were alone Ren was a little more guarded but then again she was probably Hayate-sensei's girlfriend.
"I'm just taking a short break, any sign of Gato and his gang?" Ren asked, he hadn't participated in the raid that had taken place two days ago but Hayate sensei had kept him up to date about the massacre they had witnessed.
"Gang yes," Yugao replied as she looked at Ren, Ren wasn't super tall or looked super beefy at first glance, his face wasn't striking and his darker hair means he would easily be able to mingle in the crowd and not stand out.
'His eyes though, they contain a self-assured confidence in his own strength...' Yugao thought as she looked at the sharp gaze that was scanning everything around them.
"You want to spar?" Yugao asked, the urge to see how good he was couldn't be ignored so she simply asked.
"Sure," Ren's eyes lit up as he nodded he removed his weights and sealed them in a scroll before he dropped from the tree and unsheathed his sword, he attacked straight away finding the perfect chance as Yugao was dropping from the tree branch as well.
Yugao used chakra to blast herself from the tree and unsheathed her sword to swat away Ren's follow-up overhead swing. Ren's hands trembled as the difference in strength once again overwhelmed him, his eyes though were easily able to keep up with her movements.
'She's faster than me, at least she should be we aren't fighting at our top speeds right now.'
Ren used a slash and varied his speed 3 times during the attack before finishing the slash with his max speed. Yugao's eyes widened as she had to use her second hand to support the edge of the blunt end of the sword to block the attack.
'If he had used wind chakra this attack would have been a lot more dangerous,' Yugao thought and she sped up, she was expecting Ren to be fast but the difference between expectations and reality was a bit too much.
They exchanged a couple more moves as they moved through the forest, Yugao had gotten a feel for Ren's limits so she adjusted her max speed according to it. The battle instantly stifled for a moment as Ren adjusted his tactics, he started using chakra in small bursts to change his speed and used sudden breakthroughs to pressure Yugao.
Yugao had the advantage of fully understanding Ren's kenjutsu style so she was able to keep up with Ren without using chakra to augment her muscles but Ren was able to make her reveal her max physical speed.
A couple of minutes later Yugao began targeting the weak spots that appeared in Ren's stances, the transition between his attack and defense was a bit weak so Yugao was able to use it to disrupt his rhythm and easily break his attack.
A few moves later they both paused, the tip of Yugao's sword was pressed on Ren's shoulders and Ren was midway through the process of shifting his balance after his last attack. Yugao sheathed her sword back as she looked at Ren who had already closed his eyes as he too followed her actions.
After a whole minute, Ren opened his eyes and stared at the cat mask staring at him. He found out the problem that Yugao had targeted to break through his rhythm so he nodded in thanks to her.
"Thanks for our guidance, Yugao-san." Ren bowed slowly before he walked to the center of the clearing and started to practice his stances once again.
Yugao looked at Ren as he immediately began to go through his stances once again, his movements were slow but he had more control over his actions than before. She sighed and then jumped away after watching over Ren for a few more minutes she started patrolling the forest once again.
'Hayate was right, he won't be able to teach Ren for long, he's growing fast, and his max speed has already reached low jounin standards. How did he grow so fast though...' Yugao thought as she left.
Ren on the other hand kept on going through the stances one by one, he was used to practicing these stances and even their combination under resistance seals so when he fought without the influence of resistance seals just the difference in his attack and defense wasn't as harmonized as when he was under resistance seal.
'I will have to go through this again by decreasing my resistance seals one by one otherwise every time my stats increase it will destabilize my sense of rhythm.'
Having figured out the problems Ren stopped going through the stances, he looked at the tree which Yugao used to blast herself away, he walked to the tree, and used chakra to walk upwards.
'She expelled chakra from her feet to blast herself from the tree and changed her momentum in mid-air...' Ren bent down and examined the tree bark, there were no signs of Yugao actually putting her legs on the tree and even if she did the cracks from her chakra would have destroyed the bark.
'Did she even touch the tree or used the air itself to correct her path...' Ren thought but he shook his head, that seemed a bit absurd, the air didn't have any platform that she could have used to propel herself.
Ren walked up to the branch and then jumped down, he was far away that he wouldn't be able to touch the tree so he used the same principles of the tree walking exercise but overloaded it with chakra. A wave of chakra burst from his tenketsu at his soles and he felt a spike of pain but the chakra did propel him forward and he did a backflip and landed on the ground.
~Creak~ ~Woosh~
He heard a creak and immediately bolted as he looked back, the tree was bending forwards as it slowly collapsed on the ground. A blue block appeared in front of Ren that stole away his attention for a bit but then Ren walked closer and examined the fallen tree.
The blast from his chakra blew a hole threw the tree, he looked around and used chakra sensing to see if anyone was nearby before he focused on the block once again.
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[New Skill created {Air Gliding}]
[Air Gliding: Lvl 1 (0% to Next Lvl)]
[An advanced chakra control technique where the user sends strong blasts of chakra to propel themselves in the opposite direction. Only effective when close to the ground or any other surface.]
[Can cause damage to the ground or surroundings.]
[Uses 10 CP per change in direction.]
[+2% to chakra control per level.]
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A.N- 10 extra chapters on Pàtreon at - P.atreon.com/Version_401
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