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***
- Saki-chan, do you want me to walk you home?
- What? What about today's training?
- I had something to do, so...
- What kind of things?
- Very long term...I'll be gone for about a week.
- Where are you going?
- To a special training session.
- I want to come with you.
- No, you can't. If you're away for a week, they might worry about you.
- But you too.
- There's no one to worry about me, so it's fine. Besides, my house is full of Clones. No one will notice I'm gone.
- I'll notice and I'll worry...- I couldn't hear what she said, but she's not allowed to anyway, so....
- Saki-chan, I have some very important things to do, so will you wait until I get back? I promise I'll be back in a week, but in the meantime, I'll have the clones train with you." and a smile from the handsome bishonen. I'm so glad I can do that!!!
- Okay.
- Well? Shall we?
- Okay.
***
After walking Saki to the Quarter, I decided to go straight to the forest. I created a clone beforehand and it transmitted all the information to the others. The forest was large and completely enclosed by a fence. Of course, it was not very high, so it was not too difficult to jump over. Walking a little bit into the depths already met a monster.
A mutant rabbit Ur.1.
It had more characteristics, but I didn't read them because it was too weak. So I decided to practice targeted YAKI on it. The result was worse than I thought. He just got scared and threw himself in a desperate attempt to attack. No freezing with fear like Orych, no self-harm due to a broken psyche, none of that. The kunai quickly impaled it, and I got a Level 1 Soul Crystal. Well, if there are quite a few of these mobs around here, it shouldn't be hard to collect the right number of Crystals. Taking a firm grip on Kunai already ran towards the Forest....
***
After that rabbit, I started to encounter other Level 1 rodents. Sometimes they even attacked me in packs, but I was just glad. Once I got past them, I came across Level 2 and 3 predators. I used only 20 clones, not too many to be noticed and not too few for me. After the small beasts started to crawl out, run out and fly out already mobs from the tenth to thirtieth levels. Some were dangerous, but not so dangerous that I was in trouble. I pumped YakI on them and after a week of such hunting, he pumped up to a good level. I can now scare the pants off a Genin or a Level 40 mob. The most useful thing is that the YAKI can be used immediately in battle, and the second delay of the enemy is ensured to me. For the whole week, all I did was hunt. At first I slept at night, but as it turned out night mobs are much higher Level, so I slept during the day, summoning clones to kill suitable mobs. In the evening, at the end of the week, sat at the roots of a giant tree and opened the Player's Auction. Here, in the information section, you could ask a question, for which you found suitable information. Publicly available information didn't cost much, but specialised information, such as the Eye Fusion Ritual, cost more. I asked my first question that I wanted to know the answer to.
- Do Players face each other in battle? - several answers appeared and they were inexpensive, apparently this is also publicly available information. After buying the first one and opening it, I immediately started reading.
"Players do not face each other at all. The thing is that each Player is allocated his own world, which others cannot enter. And when Players move to other worlds, they can only move to ones where there are no other Players besides him. It's not complicated, because there are so many parallel worlds. So, none of us have seen one yet."
Something like that. Hmm, that's good information for me. So my world can't be accessed by any of the Players, even in my absence, and when I travel to other worlds, I won't meet any of them. To be honest, meeting other players was scarier than meeting the entire Ootsutsuki clan. They're all over the place in their own world. Now for the next question.
- Who created the Player system?
There were no answers, not really. As I recall, in the fanfics and Ranobes, it was never said who created the system either, except in rare cases. It was something of a norm of the world itself. Like the normal laws of the world or the possession of magic, chakra and other forms of energy. So it's like that here too? None of the Players seem to know that. Okay, that's understandable. Next, I asked a couple more questions I was interested in, such as the History of the Uzumaki Clan, or the exact dates of certain moments. I also learnt a lot of publicly available information. After that, I bought the Nara clan gene. I was very interested in it. It's a gene that gives a pretty big boost to intelligence. Although I hope it doesn't make me lazy. It seems that geniuses become lazy because of the ease of learning everything, so you need to be a genius for a long time to become lazy, I hope.... Anyway, I didn't try to use it right away, but put it in my inventory. The shadow control techniques were very interesting to me too. It's still cool to be able to control a person just by touching their shadow, or to be able to attack without even moving! I used the remaining Soul Crystals to buy scrolls in this direction. That's it, we can go back now. It was a rather short journey, but I'm satisfied. Getting back was no problem either. I went into the house, ate dinner, and lying on the bed, I stuck a syringe in my arm. Then I drifted off into slumber...
***
Waking up wasn't great. My body was aching and overall I was tired. I went to the kitchen and got a glass glass and poured some water into it. After drinking it, I didn't feel any better. I decided to see what I had been given for the Nara gene and opened the notification window.
Congratulations!
You have received the Nara Clan Genome.
Intelligence X5. Affinity with darkness X3.
Basic Shadow Manipulation Level 1 available.
That's what I got. Honestly, I wasn't even happy about it. My whole body was in a shitty state. Was it the serum? Probably. It wasn't as pronounced the first time, so I didn't pay attention. It's also possible that I'm getting worse with each subsequent intake. If it's due to a weakness in the body, that problem should resolve itself as the level goes up, but if not...
Intelligence and affinity did go up and it was well pronounced. I tried competing with a clone that was created before taking the serum. We played chess for that. I hadn't learnt to play shogi yet, so with minimal manipulation I created a chessboard for myself. The results are obvious. My tactical thinking was overwhelmingly higher than the clone's. And I think not only that, I got smarter. The darkness manifested itself differently. My comprehension increased dramatically. I could control my shadow well, but not too far. A metre, two metres at the most. I would have to pump up that skill.
After a few days, I was back to normal. My condition had stabilised and I could think clearly. I did not change anything in my normal life, except for additional training with the shadow. I was already doing them as secretly as possible. I had to cut back on the time I spent training with Saki. After that, once a month I went hunting in the forest. I didn't spend more than a week there, and this time I killed less than before. My level increased, but slower each time. By the end of the year, I was level 40. I put all my characterisation points into control. For so long I had mastered the shadow and could extend it up to fifty metres, beyond that it was not controlled. Also, thanks to a large amount of chakra, I could create a shadow area around me with a radius of ten metres. Recently pumped the skill Stealth to the maximum and after it evolved into Killer-Step. With it, my presence could not be noticed even by a mid-level Chunin. YAKI has not yet pumped, but it can already scare Chunin, only he will be able to fight, just weaker. All of this took me a long time and in a fortnight I was already at the end of my first year of the academy. I would have to take the exam soon. Itachi said he was allowed to take it too, which wasn't surprising. I must have been the opposite, slowing his progression to Genin. I'll most likely be on the team with him. And the third will be one of the seniors? Well, it doesn't matter. In a week, I plan to go to the dungeon and train there until I gain the strength of a Strong Jonin....
***
In a spacious room with a rectangular wooden table in the middle, sat six people wearing the Jonin Vest. They were all Academy teachers and were currently sorting out information about their students. On the table was a pile of papers with data on every student and Jonin of the village.
Shinobi Academy teachers' meeting room.
- Next, Menma Uzumaki. What do you think of him?
- Son of the Fourth, he's also a Genius. And thanks to his mother's Uzumaki genes, he has a strong body and a large reserve. I think he's already at Genin's level. The exam will be a simple formal examination. We can already choose a team for him.
- The third suggested Itachi Uchiha and Sarikawa Uchiha for his team. They are also young geniuses and not too far behind him.
- Since the Hokage-sama himself suggested it, we can't refuse, but who will be their Sensei?
- Hmmm, it would take a strong enough Jonin for them to respect him and accept him as Captain. Unfortunately, in the Fox Attack, many worthy shinobi died and have yet to be replaced.
- What about the younger generation?
- Kakashi Hatake could be one of them.
- Kakashi's copying Ninja Sharingan. He attained the rank of Jonin in the war, and joined the ANBU afterwards. He only recently returned to regular missions and left the ANBU. We could have chosen him. Still, he has the Sharingan and could teach the two geniuses of the Uchiha clan something and he was a disciple of the Fourth and could take care of his mentor's son...
- Then...
- No. He's too young to be a mentor and he doesn't have much experience as a teammate. I don't think he's ready to be a Mentor-Johnin yet. And also, after all, he's got some very strange traits, like being late everywhere and all the time. He's even late for Jonin meetings. Also, his habits of reading Jirai-san's Books...and most importantly he's careless about the issue of mentoring.
- Then who should I choose?
- That's a difficult question.
- Hmm...
- What about him?" The shinobi who had been silent all this time picked up someone's file. The others, including the Academy Director, stared at him with uncomprehending eyes.
- It's...-they all chorused....
***
Coming to the same tree, he took the key in his hands.
Congratulations!
You have found the key to the dungeon.
Dungeon key: "Traini."
Activate the key and follow the red arrow, which will lead you to the dungeon.
Key validity time: 23:59:59.
It seems to have worked, I was partially worried that the key's validity time was still counting down from the moment it appeared, but it seems for nothing. Next I pressed the button and an arrow moved away from me into the depths of the forest. I walked in that direction and after ten minutes came to a clearing with a stone. The key was inserted into it, so I immediately opened the door and saw the transparent energy film again. The familiar feeling of walking through water and I came out in the same forest. I turned my head and saw no one.
- I decided to walk through the forest and suddenly a vine grabbed me by the leg and dragged me to one of the trees, which turned out to be not trees at all, but predatory plants. With a quick movement I tore the Vine with my Kunai and looked at the Plant.
Name: Venusina
Level: 30
Race: Predatory Plant
Danger: Medium
Characteristics:
Strength: 235
Speed: 300
Dexterity: 264
Endurance: 290
Spirit: 150
Intelligence: 110
Speciality: Mutant
And this is just an ordinary monster?! In the last dungeon, he could be considered a boss!!!! Is the dungeon adjusted for my level? I wonder. If there are about the same number of mobs as in the previous dungeon, I'll get a lot of expensive Soul Crystals.
- Oh well, here we go!!! Fire Element: Big Fireball....!
***
Hmdaa, it took a whole month to clean up the dungeon this time! There were many types of Predator Plants. Each one had its own special battle to fight against. Most importantly, they all had poisons. I even got an extra system property: "Resilience". Now I have a strong resistance to poisons. At the end of the sweep, it didn't hurt me at all. But that's just the poisons of these Plants, though I guess the weaker poisons from the real world wouldn't hurt me much either. There was resistance to the elements, too. But I had little resistance to them so far. It's just like Poison Resistance. But I'm pretty damn happy with it! Now I have a lot of Crystals!!! I've also leveled up to level 50. All the characterisation points, again, I invested in control. Now I can buy everything I want with crystals. Well, almost everything. The first thing I bought was the Hyuga clan genome. Specifically Hanabi Hyuga. Then I bought the technique to upgrade the Byakugan. These eyes have only one evolution. But you could say they're constantly evolving. The eyes themselves, though they don't evolve, are getting stronger. The newly acquired Byakugan are strikingly different from the ones that were trained. These eyes don't need to be awakened, they will appear as they are after being introduced. Next, I bought the eye fusion ritual and all the ingredients for it. They cost a lot, but I really need it. Then I bought the Fencer skill level 1 and the Kenjutsu technique level 1. I bought Kenjutsu and swordsmanship training methods. And of course sword and katana, of course weak, but I will use them only for training, and then I will buy better. Before leaving the barrier, I want to pump Kenjutsu and Swordsmanship to the maximum. The Sharingan will help a lot with that. I spent almost all of the Crystals I got not only from the dungeon, but also from the Forest of Death.
The dungeon boss was still guarding the Tree. I wonder if all the trees that the bosses guard have keys to other dungeons? Okay, we'll find out later, but for now, let's leave the clone and go train!!!!
***
POV Sarikawa Uchiha
My name is Sarikawa Uchiha, I am nine years old. I am a student of the Shinobi Academy and the daughter of Sando and Shikoto Uchiha. On the day of the Fox attack, I was training at my favourite place, a beautiful clearing surrounded by forest and with a large white stone in the centre. After a full day of training to improve my fire techniques, I overworked myself and passed out. I woke up in the hospital. I was told that I had chakra exhaustion and that I should sleep until my chakra recovered. I was about to do so, but suddenly there was a loud rumbling sound and through the window I saw a Giant Nine-tailed Fox. Everyone in the hospital started rummaging around. There were a lot of injured and dead residents being brought here. Seeing this made me worry about my parents. They aren't Shinobi after all and could get hurt, maybe even die! The Iryonins were very busy treating patients and didn't notice me running away from the hospital. I was very tired and there was hardly any chakra in my body. But I tried my best to hold on and ran straight towards our Quarter. I didn't want to go around the destruction, because then I might not make it in time. I was far away from Kyubey and didn't worry about it, but he was too fast. He was moving so fast that I didn't realise he was so close and at one point his tail flew straight at me! Before I could even move, someone picked me up and threw me upwards! When I turned around, I saw the silhouette of a boy no older than me and he was hit by the fox's tail, but before I realised it, I was picked up again and thrown in the opposite direction from the fox and the same boy was waiting for me there. He caught me and started walking away from Nine-Tails. In the moonlight I could see his face and the most shocking thing I noticed was the Sharingan! Even though there was only one Tomoe there, the fact that a guy my age already possessed it was unimaginable. But that wasn't all I was thinking about at the time. In the moonlight, his face looked very handsome and I blushed instantly as he carried me in his arms.
- Hold on tight!" he shouted, and I pushed myself against him as hard as I could. We moved for a long time and at one point he stopped and pulled me down. - Are you all right? Can you walk? Why were you going to Uchiha Quarter?" I didn't want to raise my head because my face was still red. Then he introduced himself and I told him my name too. He took me to my parents and left without a word. As we talked, I recognised the place he'd taken me to. It was my training ground, I know that for a fact. But how did he know about it? Or was it an accident? Maybe...he was the one who brought me to the hospital. The doctors said it was a five-year-old boy. Then if that's the case, maybe I can still meet him in that clearing?
The next day I walked straight towards the clearing and saw him sitting cross-legged on a rock. I quickly hid behind a tree. He was sitting still with his eyes closed. I stood like that for a long time and then decided to approach. Slowly I was ready to run away at any second, but he still didn't move. Coming to the closest distance I looked at him. He was really handsome. Unbeknownst to me, I reached up and touched his face. Soft skin. Suddenly, he opened his eyes. His eyes were as black as mine. But it wasn't until a second later that I realised what I was doing. "Fool! Fool! Stupid! What am I doing, he must think I'm weird. Maybe he'll think I'm an idiot!" - these thoughts were going round in my head and I blushed again and jumped away from him, hiding behind a rock. - "What am I doing again?! He'll definitely think I'm weird and leave. Fool!" but he didn't leave, he came up to me.
- Sarikawa, good afternoon. Are you all right? What about your house and your parents? He's so nice. He ignored the fact that I ran away from him and hid. We talked and I found out that he really did bring me to the hospital when I passed out and he's really five years old! He asked me a lot of things and every time he called me Sarikawa. I was uncomfortable because my parents call me Saki and I'm very used to it, so I dared to say- Can you.... you can. You can call me Saki! That's what my parents call me!" he quickly said yes, and I thought about it and wanted to call him something special too, since he calls me that, so I said, "Can I call you Dai-kun?" he said yes to that too, and then I asked him to show me his eyes. The Sharingan is a really beautiful eye. It's the first time I've seen it in person. I'd only seen it in pictures and scrolls before.
After that, we started training together. We trained until evening and he walked me home. I was so happy! Now we would train together. Before that I was lonely because no one wanted to do it but me, and when we entered the academy everyone had already distanced themselves from me. So I always trained alone. But now I'll have Dai-kun with me.
- I can't wait for tomorrow!!!- I squealed into my pillow and then fell asleep.
The next day after the academy, I rushed to the clearing. He wasn't there, so I waited for him. An hour passed, then two, and so I waited till evening, then I went home. - "Maybe he couldn't come today? "Maybe he'll come tomorrow?" I fell asleep that day. But the next day he didn't come again....
- "I guess he didn't want to hang out with a weirdo like me after all. Maybe I should have been more sociable. I shouldn't have blushed about everything! I'm an idiot! It's my own fault! Of course he wouldn't want to hang out with someone like that!" And so I spent that day in tears, not realising what I'd done wrong. The next day I went to the meadow with the idea that I would train alone as before, but when I got to the meadow, I saw him. He was sitting in the same place, cross-legged on a rock with his eyes closed. I quickly ran over to him and hugged him with all my strength so he wouldn't leave again and burst into tears. He woke up and asked with a worried look....
- Hey Saki, what's wrong? Did someone hurt you?
- Why didn't you come round? Did I do something? Don't you want to train with me? You don't want to hang out with me? I blurted it out to him. Why am I doing this again? He comes back and I blame him. Is he going to leave again?
- I'm sorry, Saki. I was at the hospital, so I couldn't come to you. I promise it won't happen again. Do you forgive me? I stopped crying and looked at him. How could I have thought so badly of him? He didn't mean it, why didn't I go looking for him? That day, he could have been hurt. Why didn't I think of that? Stupid! His parents died too. And I... I didn't even support him. Ashamed, I blushed again and buried my head in his chest. Without noticing, I fell asleep on his lap. Very soft, warm and cosy. In the evening we woke up and he walked me home again. After that we started to train every day and I was really happy. Sometimes he didn't come as a real one, but as a clone. Even though he was exactly the same, and he would merge back with the Original and remember our training and conversations, but I still wanted to communicate with the real Dai-kun. But then I quickly shook myself away from such thoughts. Dai-kun has a lot on his plate right now. His parents are dead and he's taking care of himself. So I have to be patient. Still, Dai-kun said that he's not doing this because he doesn't want to hang out with me....
***
After a few months, I could use all the academic Techniques. Dai-kun taught me everything and helped me. I was very grateful to him and one time, I wanted to talk to him in the neighbourhood to find out where he lived. It was hard for me to communicate with my fellow clansmen, but for the sake of doing what I had in mind, namely to surprise Dai-kun with my appearance and to help him in any way I could around the house, my mother said that I was a good cook and I liked to clean too. Anyway, I got over my shyness and asked them about Dai-kun. But no one knew him. Neither children nor adults knew him. And in fact, when the Fox attacked, none of the Uchiha died, much less became orphans. I was really scared then. If no one knows him, there are only two possibilities. Either Dai-kun had long ago fled the village with his parents and was coming to the clearing from far away, or Dai-kun was just my imagination. To be honest, I was quite afraid of both options. I didn't want to lose Dai-kun, but I needed to find out everything from Dai-kun. I wanted to propose a game of wishing and learn everything from Dai-kun the next time we played. And to do that, I trained and learnt Dai-kun's fighting style for a very long time. And so I was able to do it and I asked him who he was. I was very much afraid that he would say that he was just a figment of my imagination, but it turned out not to be so! I was very happy about that and that he wasn't from another village. He may have a Demon sealed inside him that almost destroyed our village, but the important thing is that Dai-kun is real and that he's with me. I hugged him and fell asleep in his lap again. This time I slept through the night! It was the first time I missed the Academy and maybe my parents are worried about me, but Dai-kun reassured me. Even though his name is Menma Uzumaki, I like calling him Dai-kun. I guess I'll have to call him by his first name when we're not alone. I then sent the clone home and we went for a walk in the forest after having breakfast. After thinking for a bit I realised that I don't regret what happened yesterday. And I'm willing to do it again if need be. At the end of the walk, we came across Bear. Though he was scary, he wasn't too dangerous and Dai-kun knocked him out with one Sharingan glance. Then he killed him and stood there with a pensive face for a few minutes. Then he said he was going to see me off and that he'd be gone for a week, and in the meantime he'd be sending out Clones. I really wanted to go with him, but he wouldn't let me. And after that he really didn't come for a week, and the Clones came instead. Even though they were Dai-kun, I was worried about him myself. Then something happened at the academy. My teacher told me that I was already Genin-level and that I could graduate this year. I was very happy, because he said that Menma and Itachi from the first year would graduate early, just like me. What if we're on the same team? On the same team as Dai-kun!!! I'm happy! I was going to tell Dai-kun about it, but then I thought about it and decided to surprise him. There's only two weeks left until the Academy graduation. I can't wait for the Genin teams to be announced!