Ryu Zata was a civilian ninja at the ninja academy in Konoha. He had been pretty average the first few years he was there, he had good chakra control, mediocre chakra reserves and had pretty average grades. What he excelled at was combat, be it kunai, kenjutsu or taijutsu, he thrived in combat. He often boasted that he once beat Sasuke Uchiha in a spar, it was his greatest accomplishment, yeah, kind of sad if you think about it but whatever, what happened one day changed his life forever. He was eleven years old, just had his birthday a few days ago and after the first sparring session of the week, in which he crushed his opponent, he went to sit down, he was dizzy, his vision was unfocused. It wasn't bad enough to go to the nurse, his teacher just sat him on the bench and gave him some water to drink. He watched the blurry shapes of his classmates fighting, when, there was a *ding* in his head and his vision turned sharp again and before his eyes appeared a screen, like that of a videogame. He played those every once in a while, like in everything else, fighting games were his favorite. Ryu tried breaking the genjutsu that had clearly been placed on him but even after channeling all his mediocre chakra reserves in the seal to break it, the screen remained. He felt tired after all that chakra usage. It wasn't a genjutsu then? His fellow students couldn't weave such strong genjutsu and their sensei was clearly more focused on the sparring, not channeling a genjutsu.
Hesitantly, he read the screen.
[You have beaten your opponent! Choose one of the three randomly selected abilities to copy:
A) Basic Academy Taijutsu experience; B) Basic Clone jutsu experience; C) Basic Kunai throwing experience]
The options looked like buttons. Was this true? Could he copy the abilities of his fellow student? If so, how? He had never heard of something like that. The sharingan was also called the copy wheel eye, it's users could copy the movements of others, therefore allowing them to copy taijutsu and ninjutsu alike but this wasn't like that. This screen offered him to copy something without ever seeing his opponent use it, Ryu had never seen this kid attempt the clone technique. Hesitantly, he chose option B, pressing down on it. The screen dissolved into red sparks and he could feel the experience flowing into him. It was as if he had practiced the technique an additional few weeks on top of his own experience. His Chakra -which had regenerated as he was staring at this screen- was put to good use as he tried the clone technique again. Before, he had been able to make one passable clone, but now, now he managed to make two. It was true. A genjutsu couldn't force him to become this much better at a technique, so it wasn't an illusion.
"Ryu, what are you doing?" Iruka-sensei asked, having noticed the two clones.
"Oh, I just… wanted to practice a bit more", Ryu smiled cheekily, rubbing the back of his head under the stern gaze of his sensei.
"Well, you did good but right now is sparring time, if you are fit enough to practice the clone technique, you are fit enough for another sparring session, you against her", Iruka-sensei guided him to the sparring circle, where Ryu and the girl -who's name he couldn't remember- did the seal of confrontation and began circling each other. She was nowhere near as skilled as Ryu but she was fast, very fast, she liked using the body flicker technique in spars, which was one of the few jutsu's allowed in sparring. At the beginning, when they were younger, only taijutsu was allowed but as they turned nine, body flicker and Dojutsu were allowed. It didn't come up often, because the only person with an active dojutsu was Hinata and she was too shy to really use it effectively. Anyways, Ryu lunged forward, knowing that if he let her make the first move, his chances of winning would decline massively. With the momentum of a body flicker, even the sloppiest of punches could turn potent.
He punched her in the chest, though she blocked the punch with her palm. She body flickered away, trying to gain distance but he followed her with his own body flicker. It was nowhere as refined as her's but it did the job, not letting her get room to breathe as he continued assaulting her with punches and kicks. Slowly, both of their chakra reserves ran dry and the battle turned into a taijutsu brawl. She may have had more chakra but her control wasn't half as good as his, so they both ran out at the same time. It was over the moment she couldn't body flicker away anymore. With one powerful punch, he sent her to the ground. She fell onto a rock and cut open a small gash over her left eye. They did a short seal of reconciliation and walked out of the sparring ring.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, you are a beast in the ring", the girl smiled, piping the blood from her brow.
*Ding*
[You have beaten your opponent! Choose one of the three randomly selected abilities to copy:
A) Basic sword technique experience; B) Basic history knowledge; C) Chakra reserves]
There it was again. So, it wasn't a one-off thing, this was truly his power now… was it a Kekkei Genkai? It had to be, right? How else could he explain this? The option to choose was rather obvious. His worst weakness was his low chakra reserves, so he clicked on it and again, the screen dissolved and Ryu could feel his body filling with chakra. It more than doubled his reserves. The girl had a bit more chakra than him, barely, so, it seemed that instead of getting a few weeks worth of experience, he got her whole chakra reserves. His reserves were still fewer than the clan kids' but he wasn't far off from the weakest of them. This Kekkei Genkai was awesome!
He watched the others, sparring and just imagined what cool stuff he could get off of them if he beat them. It was when he was watching Hinata, that the idea of copying her dojutsu came to mind. Could he even copy kekkei genkai? Even if he could, he would have to hope that the kekkei genkai was amongst the abilities that were offered. They were randomly selected. He had no influence over what abilities were available, so it was all up to luck. Even if it was possible, he wasn't sure if he should even copy the Byakugan. The Hyuga clan was powerful and they kept a close grip on the famed dojutsu. Now, the sharingan was a different idea, the Uchiha's were dead, all except one and that one hadn't even awakened the sharingan yet. That offered the interesting question of if he could copy the sharingan before Sasuke awakened it or if it was off limit till the last Uchiha opened those eyes. Then again, the main opportunity of the sharingan was copying someone else's moves, not something he needed now that he had his own kekkei genkai. It was still the question if he could copy a kekkei genkai… that's for the future to decide, he guessed.
Soon, the sparring came to an end and they returned to their classroom, where Iruka-sensei continued teaching them the history of Konoha. It was dread boring but he powered through it, taking notes. Everyone else was doing the same, everyone but the dead last, Naruto Uzumaki, who was sleeping. Ryu scoffed. That kid didn't even try. Back at the orphanage, before he had entered the academy, the matron forbade the other children from playing with the blonde boy. She never told them why but he didn't question it. Ryu felt bad for him, the boy was ostracized from the village for a reason he didn't know, neither did Naruto from all he could tell. Naruto sat next to him, so, out of pity, he nudged him awake.
"Huh? Wha-?"
"You better listen to this, Naruto, you will need to know this if you want to become a genin", Ryu whispered, pointing at the chalkboard.
"But it is so boooooring", Naruto whined quietly, laying his head back on the desk.
"You want to become Hokage, right?"
"Believe it!"
"As Hokage, you will need to know all this. No one would make someone Hokage who doesn't even know the basic history of Konoha. The same goes for the other classes, a Hokage needs to be well read", this seemed to snap Naruto out of his sleepiness.
"You are right… How can I become the best Hokage ever if I slack off now?", Naruto said.
For the rest of the day, he took diligent notes, though he got distracted very easily, so Ryu had to snap him out of it a few times. That boy had the attention span of a goldfish… Ryu strangely didn't mind, he found the orange clothed boy quite likeable when he gave him the chance. He sat with him at lunch -which he was very happy about- and they talked about their future plans.
"You know what I want to be when I grow up, what about you? You must have a dream, right?" Naruto devoured his food(cold ramen noodles out of a cup, sad, really), as he questioned Ryu.
"A dream?", Ryu's gaze shifted to something far away. Originally, he wanted to become a chunin, he knew that with his less than optimal chakra reserves, he couldn't make it to a jonin, he had thought that being a chunin instructor in the academy would've been fine but now, now, he wasn't so sure anymore. He had awakened his kekkei genkai, with which his growth was unlimited, as long as he continued fighting and winning, he could become the strongest. Hokage? No that was Naruto's dream, plus it didn't appeal to him very much. Becoming a jonin? Not high enough, he could do better. Anbu? No, not that either… what else? Maybe… yes he would become-, "the god of shinobi, that is the title I want to hold"
"Like the first and the third? That is a title worth of my friend", Naruto smiled before looking horrified, "I- I mean- well, we aren't really friends are we? Y- you don't want to be friends with me anyways, right? I- Sorry for-"
"Sure we can be friends", Ryu smiled at the young blonde.
"R- really?", he stared at him for a few seconds before his face lit up in joy, "Hell yeah! Naruto Uzumaki and Ryu Zata, friends! I have to show you my favorite ramen place! I have to show Teuchi that I made a friend! This is so awesome… to our friendship, Hokage and Shinobi no kami!"
"Indoor voice, Naruto", Ryu chided a sheepish looking Naruto, "The whole cafeteria can hear you"
"Right- sorry, I am just so…"
"Excited? Yeah, I noticed", he looked at the blonde and smiled. He didn't know what the matron had against him, he was a nice kid. If it weren't for the adults, he probably would have a great many friends. What they had against him, Ryu didn't know but it didn't matter, they were friends now.
After academy ended for the day, Naruto guided Ryu to Ramen Ichiraku, where a smiling cook was cooking up some ramen.
"Hi, Teuchi!", Naruto smiled brightly, "this is Ryu Zata, he will become the next Shinobi no kami, Believe it!"
"You made a friend? Good for you. The usual, I presume?"
"Yes, miso ramen for me and… for you?", he turned to look at Ryu who just nodded, "I'll have the same"
"Great! I'll have those right up for you, don't worry about paying, this is a joyous occasion, the food for today is on the house, as long as you promise to come back" Teuchi smiled warmly.
The food was delicious, the eggs were gooey on the inside, the pork tender and the broth had a nice, subtle spiciness to it. It was by far, the best ramen he had eaten, ever.