Time passed by relatively fast, after all it was merely the start of my new life here. Over this week, I had been training Shiina's mind, Kenjutsu and that was it, of course swinging a Shinai around counted as physical training, but I wanted to further that part of her training.
Thus one day, when I was in the library with her, she reading the book I told her to read, now on the Katakana section, but only the basics, I began to speak, "Today, we'll spend less time in the library, but not for training with Shinai or playing with them, this time I plan to teach you something new today. I'll tell you when it is time to leave."
I had a way to increase most of her bases, but before that she must be stronger physically. Dexterity wise, I would have her practise hand seals, run, and yoga, that would be easy, but let's start easy. Strength would be easy, push ups. In other words, I was going to make a lessoned form of my plan on training, to build her up, all whilst teaching her the fundamentals of Capoeira and Taekwondo.
Martial Arts would work incredibly well in this world, and Capoeira whilst not as effective as one might think, it was decent, and would work for anime world standards of combat. Besides, that, teaching her these styles would work for training one's flexibility.
Then I'll teach her Karate to build up the other fundamentals of fighting,
As I was thinking everything over, something strange happened.
Quest Generation Complete, sorry for the delay. Designing the Quest and integrating the system fully took a week.
Quest: Train Shiina
Quest Objective:
Bring Shiina to High Genin level - Low Chunin Level before Graduating the Academy.
Requirements for completion:
1. Teach Shiina Taijutsu.
2. Teach Shiina Shurikenjutsu.
3. Teach Shiina Kenjutsu.
4. Help Shiina in Mind, strategy and other factors of the mind, including trapping.
5. Train Shiina's Speed, Strength, Flexibility and other such physical factors.
6. Train Shiina in Ninjutsu, make sure she knows at least one C Rank Jutsu, the Academy 3 Jutsu's and 2 D Ranks.
Time of Completion: 10 years
Rewards:
10,000,000 EXP
25,000 Ryo
+ 20 increase to all stats
S rank Jutsu Creation Scroll
A rank Jutsu Scroll
2 B rank Jutsu Scroll
Title: Master Teacher
I had been waiting for something like this to appear, it was the true reason why I was training Shiina. To see how Quest generation works in person. Understanding the concepts was fine but knowledge will fade unless it is put into practice. Thus I decided to generate a Quest, by training Shiina.
Helping Shiina was never my intention.
it was always for myself. And now, the system has provided me with rewards for seeing it through.
I grabbed a book off of the shelf as I began to think, my mind flying through many things. Since there was 1 item on that list I was curious about.
Jutsu Creation Scroll? I can tell based on the name it probably let me create a Jutsu but now I was curious. Why would these scrolls exist? I mean I could do it myself.
Well it didn't matter much, as I cracked open the book I was about to read.
In Naruto the wars weren't explained properly, including the Warring States Period, many of these wars are important, thus I wanted to learn about them, alongside this, it would help me understand about the political structure of this world as war is often deeply rooted in politics.
There's many political reasons for war, many countries may fight over borders due to unclear borders and disputed ones. The fight for more resources and subsequently power can be another majoring factor. Expanding territories can be another major factor.
There's wars fought over religion or conflicting political ideologies. Examples include the Crusades, and the Communism vs Capitalism wars, mainly in the form of the Cold War.
Of course in Capitalist countries where greed rules, wars would be fought to unite the world under 1 flag. This too accounts for Economic competition as the main goal of Capitalism is the profit motive. Then again, it is the lesser of 2 evils.
There's also factors such as errors in judgement, miscalculations that can spring fourth the initial sparks that breed full on conflict.
Or when governments collapse, perhaps the leaders have become weak they create power vacuums in their wake leading to opportunities for those below the leader to revolt, causing a civil war or it allows other nations to invade what would be a weak nation, as a weak leader equals a weaker nation and a nation with no leader is doomed to fall into anarchy.
That man's words are consistently proven right, those who do not use their power effectively are fools, doomed to fail that was shown throughout history. If one becomes weak, they become vulnerable, thus they cannot use their power effectively, if they cannot use their power effectively, they will lose said power, and fall.
I had been reading the book whilst thinking, fairly quickly, my reading speeds being around 1050 words whilst not sacrificing reading comprehension. After around 40 minutes I already had a decent idea of what I was getting into.
Well, since it's been this long, "Shiina, put your book back."
Shiina would do as I said, obviously, "So what are we actually doing now?" She asked, a curious tone to her voice.
"So far, we've trained with Shinai, but that won't be enough for physical training, thus we are going to be adding an additional factor to your training, exercising."
"Exercising?"
"Repeated movements in some form designed to help train particular parts of your body to improve it, for example, running is considered a form of exercise due to it improving your speed. Swinging a weapon could increase strength and doing the Hand Seals could improve dexterity."
"I see, so it's about the physical side of chakra, then."
"You're already learning." I stated as praise, "Anyways, let's head outside for this, training on grass so this will be easier for you."
She had a bright smile, she loved the outside, "Yay!" She exclaimed with childlike wonder, which is accurate because she is 3 still. Even if she was now akin to a 7th graders vocabulary due to reading that book not to completion but again, she got rather far. It seems like when she got to Kanji, she'd be pretty close to an 8th grader. Though of course, Kanji is typically learned by first graders in Japan.
I should also get her a book on simple maths to work on.
I faked a smile, which looked real at her excitement. Of course for the same purposes as always.
"Ah, you're smiling again."
"I guess your excitement has affected me a bit."
My smile fell into my regular doll-like expression after that.
"Your smile is beautiful, Akari, you should totally smile more." Shiina had a chipper tone, as she spoke.
"Perhaps." I stated in response as I shifted to look at her, "Let's get going, Shiina."
"Okay."
I started walking through the hallway, with her following at my side, to the garden belonging to our orphanage. The hallway itself was as plain as normal, we passed by other children presumably running to get food or play.
As we walked, Shiina suddenly grabbed my arm, with no other children around us, "Akari, can I ask you something?"
"Yes?"
"I thought about this for a while, why do you have that expression constantly? Why are you always so serious?"
"It's just my nature Shiina."
"Your nature? Why though?"
"We're orphans for a reason Shiina," Lying as easily as I breathed I turned to face, "I read books all the time, as soon as I learned the alphabet, I began reading," That wasn't a lie either, Akari was an avid bookworm, meaning that most things were cut out for me. "Many books were simple, but I got my hands on one that taught me a lot about how things work. Death is common in this world."
Portraying myself as someone affected by the extremeness of the books I read at a young age - which would be the truth - was useful. Akari often read childish books, but she did have a serious personality based on memories, and that was due to reading and learning about death early on in one book.
Well not like it matters, since I was Akari now, although, it was good for me to have this body, rather than one like Shiina's. Acting differently than one aspects you to act like causes them to be suspicious. It's what leads many to discovering their partner was cheating on them, or some people learning that their partner was about to surprise them with a gift.
In other words, since I was now Akari, and she acted similar to me, it was not suspicious that I acted like this. At least to those that were unobservant.
"Akari, something changed in you last week, though. Normally you don't bother talking to me, yet here you are now, training me. No, Akari wouldn't act like that."
"Shiina," I cut her off, she was getting dangerously close to the truth, I knew she was more observant than one would think based on her age, but this, was too close, "Having friends isn't a bad idea to me, I just never saw the point in them, until I read about the camaraderie Konoha Shinobi share. When I did, I decided that having somebody would be a good idea. I just thought that training you would help cement the bond."
"I see." She seemed to be surprised by my words not expecting them, but she seemed happy because of them.
It was a lie, but believable, thankfully she was easily manipulatable, using what would be a lie to convince her that I thought of her as a friend, and to further this, I faked a smile, delaying it to make it appear genuine, when all my smiles have been fake.
To me Shiina was just the experiment to how quests were generated and a White Knight to my grander goals.
I should meet with Naruto soon. The idea would be simple, get him on my side by becoming his first proper 'friend' then from there I would be able to manipulate him properly, and then turn him against his support system.
All I would have to do was get him to learn the truth of what was sealed inside him, then convince the kid that the 3rd Hokage lied to him out of maliciousness and to use the boy's power as a Jinchuriki for the village. And in Iruka's case, well I just need to meet the boy before he turns 8. Teuchi, whilst a part of his support system, is better to not get rid of. He's somebody who provides Naruto with food, and can be used to help manipulate the boy if brought to my side.
Sasuke on the other hand, well I guess after the Uchiha massacre I accidentally reveal myself to him, get him to hide my identity, and from there, I'd have 2 of the most important characters in this world under my control. He might be mad about me, but having another Uchiha with him would be best. I can even bring Naruto and Shiina into that, to further my plans with them. Since he has no support system, beyond us 3, things will ease out for him, and he'd rely on us, with me being the main one he trusts.
Presenting myself as this kind compassionate person who was stoic was best.
Yet, I myself knew the truth, I knew how horrible I was, how defective I was.
I was a vile human being.
The world faded as I walked still as a memory resurfaced once again.
"Line up."
The instructor's command echoed through the room, and I, along with ten other children, quickly formed a line. I noticed one of us, a boy, was struggling to breathe. The instructor held our test results on a sleek tablet, his expression unreadable.
Suddenly, a loud thud broke the silence. The boy who had been gasping for air collapsed to the ground, clutching his chest. He was having a heart attack. Gasps and murmurs rippled through the line, but none of us moved. We knew the harsh reality: failures were discarded without a second thought.
I glanced at the boy, his face contorted in pain, then turned my attention back to the instructor, who remained indifferent to the pain. I too was indifferent, having seen this time and time again, I adapted to no longer care.
I walked outside, with Shiina, revealing a beautiful meadowy garden with a stone pathway leading to several places. It lead to flower fields filled with all kinds of flowers, ranging from calla lily's, magnolia's, purple lavenders and so much more in a cacophony of colours. The pathway was adorned by carefully cut bushes, looking lively as we passed the pathway and out to the green pastures, trees surrounded the area as well, some were Sakura trees, their pink petals falling, symbolising that the time of my rebirth was in fact during spring. There was taller bushes in one section, being a maze. Next to it was a worker there to make sure children were of the correct age to play. There was a fountain in the middle, circular in design, with cleanly carved stones, and the water clear, reflecting the glistening sun, making a miniature rainbow.
The sight was so beautiful, yet I felt nothing in particular towards it, to me it was just another sight to see. And besides for where we were going, we followed the pathway into the forest of Sakura, petals falling down to the floor as we approached the training area. The area had training dummies in it, being wooden poles for Taijutsu training for kids looking to enter the academy, hardly used as Academy students who are orphans lived in an apartment by themselves. This was coupled with a monthly stipend to live and buy supplies for the academy. As soon as we reached the area I spoke, "I'm going to demonstrate the exercises, and you repeat them, after me."
I first demonstrated a push up.
I start by lowering myself down to the floor, placing my palms flat on the ground, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. My fingers spread out for stability, and I press the balls of my feet into the ground, lifting my body into a plank position. My back is straight, core tight, and my head in a neutral position. As I lower my body, I bend my elbows, keeping them close to my sides, and feel the tension in my chest and triceps. My chest hovers just above the grassy ground, and then I push through my palms, extending my arms to lift my body back to the starting position. The movement is smooth and controlled, and I maintain my form with each repetition.
"Push ups you will do this 10 times a day." I spoke, stopping as I sat back up.
Next on the agenda was a sit up.
I lie down on my back, feeling the coolness of the ground against my spine. I bend my knees, planting my feet firmly on the floor, about hip-width apart. My fingertips lightly touch the sides of my head, elbows pointed out. Taking a deep breath, I engage my core and begin to curl my upper body off the ground. I feel the contraction in my abdominal muscles as I rise, my shoulders lifting, and I continue upward until my chest nearly touches my knees. I exhale as I reach the top, then slowly lower myself back down, feeling each vertebrae roll against the floor until I'm lying flat again. The movement is deliberate, focusing on the squeeze in my abs with each sit-up.
"Sit ups, 15 times a day."
Then I stood up, about to demonstrate Squats.
Standing tall, I position my feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out. My hands come up in front of me, either clasped together or extended for balance. I take a deep breath, engaging my core, and begin to lower myself by bending at the knees and hips. My chest stays lifted, and I push my hips back as if sitting into an invisible chair. I feel the weight shift into my heels, ensuring they stay grounded. As I descend, my thighs move parallel to the floor, and I feel the stretch in my glutes and quads. I pause briefly at the bottom, then drive through my heels to push myself back up to standing, squeezing my glutes at the top. The movement is strong and controlled, emphasising proper form throughout each squat.
"Squats, 10 times a day, but 15 if you can push it a bit," I stopped and turned to look at her, "Then there's running after this, I want you to run for 30 minutes without stopping. I will make sure you do all of these."
And with that, the physical side of training Shiina starts.