Glorious 1080P Resolution

Everything was clear.

By that I mean that it was like looking through the world in glorious 1080 resolution; high definition screen. It almost seemed like I had been someone who had needed glasses their whole life and didn't realize it until I had gotten those glasses.

I had factored the charisma jump, which would be going from 1 charisma scaled to Kage-level strength to 10 Charisma scaled to Kage level strength but I hadn't figured my Perception going up in such an incredible fashion. It was honestly amazing.

Well, not 10 yet. I've got some syringes I need to inject first and I'll do that now in case I forget. After all, I'm still human. Kind of.

So, I took out the cloth bundle from the storage seals that I had made a while ago. I unwrapped it, and laid it out on the vault floor, each syringe tucked away in its own pocket in the bundle.

Perception Check Success: 10/1.

Medicine Check Success: 100/50.

A cursory examination of the syringes revealed that none of them had been broken since I had procured them from the sewers and that the serums were still properly mixed together. Good. The first, of course, was strength. It was the first in the SPECIAL system, so it felt right.

I took my glove off and slid the needle beneath the skin on my hand into the vein there, making sure that my physical defense seal allowed it to pierce through.

As the solution was pumped from the syringe and into my hand, it started to ache just a bit. Sure, it's a smaller vein, but I just plain preferred to have shots go in my needle instead of my arm, I always had a poor experience when doctors tried to stick needles in the crook of my arm – from the needle bending in the vein to the vein exploding…just bad luck.

Probably not a factor now that I've got 10 luck but still; I want to be as stress free as possible.

As the solution finished leaving the syringe, I could the fibers of my muscles start to tinge like a massive case of pines-and-needles had over taken them. I felt the additional mass fill in, making my muscles denser and more packed in, making the actual increase in size minimal.

Inhale. Exhale.

Charisma Check Success: 10/6.

You know, Hisako really was just trying to help. Her effort was sloppy and messed up by her personal frustration with me and guided by her desire for someone she…loved, however illogically, to remain in good standing with the village she also loved; mostly so her parents would approve if they actually meet me.

I shook my head.

Love.

Well, if I didn't know any better, I'd honestly say she's just heavily infatuated, given that those feelings emerged after that dinner with Nichiren's family with the increased charisma but she still cared and found some of my quirks…my straightforwardness, my sometimes-strange vocabulary and the random bursts of insight I had to be downright endearing.

Might not be love anymore, given that I just about broke her heart. My insubordinate behavior is eating her and Nichiren up inside because they are, absolutely, one hundred percent loyal to Konoha. And as Danjuro pointed out in that one chat I had with him; I'm not. I'm loyal to my friends who just so happen to be loyal to Konoha and that loyalties been pushed really hard by recent events.

The feeling of pins and needles left my muscles and I took a deep breath. It's interesting that simply wearing the gear that gave me the stat bonuses didn't impart this same feeling. Sure, I was able to pass checks with the gear, but there was a clear and present difference between simply being boosted by gear and having it as an intrinsic part of my character. I mean, my bonus to charisma didn't actually start improving my mental state until it boosted the stat to seven. What's up with that?

I shook my head. If I ever find myself playing an RPG again, I'm never voluntarily taking a dump stat ever again.

The next syringe was Perception and I injected it into my hand as I had done with the strength.

This time, the pins and needles went across my skin. My eyes were immersed in the feeling and my tongue started to twitch slightly with the odd feeling that it had, frankly, never been subjected too. My ears almost felt like they were being cleaned out and I sneezed twice. My sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell had all been improved again.

I took a breath and waited for it to die down.

Charisma Check Success: 10/7.

…you know, I think my biological issues have really caused both me and everyone around me pain. My frustration caused me to act out which caused their frustration to mount and act out at me and so on, all because the only concept they have of someone being kept static in their development is intellectual and it's not a very clear concept. It goes against all of their instincts, all of their training, everything they've ever learned.

It's caused us both pain, and I was too stubborn and focused on getting Almost Perfect 'naturally', as it came with quests to preserve that feeling of achievement when I finally got it. But right now, I do feel accomplished and I don't feel like I didn't 'deserve' this power spike. In fact, I think I was being stupid and should've gotten it months ago when I really figured out that Jutsu Invention brings about boatloads of experience.

This isn't a game and part of my hesitance with getting Almost Perfect was because I was treating it like a game. Trying to avoid 'cheating'. Trying to 'preserve the accomplishment'.

Next, Endurance. I flexed my fingers, clenching them into a fist and injected the needle into the vein. This time, I felt the pins and needles within my muscles again, but it was subdued and barely noticeable next to the sheer change that was going over my internal organs; my heart skipped a beat, my breathing became difficult as my lungs were reknitting themselves together to pump air in and out at an increased volume. My intestines were following a similar change and I wondered how irradiated the food I could eat would have to be before I got sick.

Charisma Check Success: 10/5.

Do you know what I just realized?

I never told Naruto who his father was.

The fact that he's under surveillance honestly shouldn't have stopped me before now, it's simple enough to make clones, pull him off to my room where the blinds are always drawn and explain it to him in detail. He is the son of the Fourth Hokage. He is the Jinchūriki of the Nine Tailed Fox. He is, by and large, destined for greatness.

I know who my parents are. Even if I haven't seen them in almost thirteen years, I know who they are. But Naruto? A person who I know always wonders? Who tries to strive for greatness because he feels like no one in the village cares for him or about him, even his parents, save for me?

What kind of friend am I?

…I'm crying now. Screw it, it's not like anyone can see. When I get back to Konoha, I'm telling him. I'm telling him everything. I don't care if I have to let him into the vault so we can get some privacy, but I am telling him everything. If I get exiled from the village for it, so be it.

I can't believe I never told my orphan friend who his father was. At least he's discovered actual friendship with Sakura, Sasuke, Hinata, Nichiren, Hisako…so he's got a wider support group. Heck, Sasuke's benefitted the most from this support group if I'm perfectly honest.

Next syringe. Charisma. The big one.

I took a breath.

The one I've been waiting for.

Into my hand.

Much like I had figured intelligence to be, Charisma was almost entirely centered in my brain, as the serum just rewired my brain to handle social interactions with greater efficiency. It also changed my skin, slightly adjusted my faces bone-structure and face, this time with the intention of making it more aesthetically pleasing.

Well…I don't need the henge anymore. Let's dispel it.

Charisma Check Success: 10/4.

One of the things I want most of all is that, well…I just want to go home. I miss my family. I miss my culture. I miss Star Wars. I miss League of Legends. I miss just trying to be a writer and one of my only real worry trying to entertain people on the internet. I even miss Fallout. The real Fallout. I miss the American Culture, a place that was semi-friendly to new ideas, where technological innovation happened all the time, I didn't have to worry about being executed by the state for criticizing the leadership…

…not that Hiruzen would do that. At least not right away. He'd try talking to the person first. It's inciting rebellion that would force him to take drastic measures fast. Something that I wouldn't try to do in Konoha if it ever came to that.

Konoha has a history of (relatively) benevolent leaders, and it's a point in the villages favor. Well, benevolent military dictators.

But I still want to go home. Is it possible?

Intelligence Check Failure: Success Not Possible.

Perception Check Failure: Success Not Possible.

Fuinjutsu Check Failure: Success Not Possible.

Ninjutsu Check Failure: Success Not Possible.

…shut up game. I'll find a way. At some point, somewhere down the line, I will find a way. I don't care how long it takes. I don't care what I have to do (well, I kind of do), I will find a way. I'll find a way home and out of this madhouse. You hear me?

I will find a way.

Quest Added: The Voyage Home.

Find a way to return to your Earth.

(Optional: Stay in the Elemental Nations.)

Is this the games way of mocking me? Telling me it's impossible using the skills I have at maximum level, and those don't scale with the player level, and then giving me a quest to do it? I think it is. Whatever. I'll have the last laugh. I mean, I'd probably come back and visit a lot since I've been here for more than a decade but…yeah.

…I don't even know where to start.

I'll figure something out.

I'm going to keep the Intelligence syringe for now, I don't need the boost and I want to wait until I can make another one before I go injecting it for no reason.

Medicine Check Success: 100/100.

Hoo, boy. That's hard even for me! Do those plants even still exist anymore?

Whatever. The last syringe is Agility.

After the serum was injected, I felt…almost looser. Pins and needles, of course, but those were mostly set within my tendons as they became springier and more powerful. I also felt my own mind starting to change as well, and I felt my perception of events increase in speed – my eyes are capable of perceiving things moving faster now.

Or, as Captain America once put it – I can 'see faster'.

There was no Luck syringe. If he was capable of stacking the odds in a person's favor, I don't think he'd have died when fighting me. But regardless, there it was.

I was at all tens.

Intelligence Check Success: 10/10.

Charisma Check Success: 10/10.

I started to think over my life, looking at all the times I had been speaking to someone or otherwise interacting with them. The way I trained with the Genin over the past few weeks was all wrong. I just pointed out everything they did wrong but never once spoke of what they did right and they did some things right. It never occurred to me that they would need to hear that once in a while; how far it would've gone to ease their egos and help them actually learn what it was that I was trying to teach them.

Ai, the red-head from my class so long ago, had actually kept a dangerous habit that she had developed because she refused to see anything I said as valid because to do so was to admit that the rude perfectionist was right. Her resentment of me was getting in the way, to the point where she's in danger of tuning out her Jounin Sensei since he's actually started agreeing with me. Instead of finding a way around it, I just kept bashing into that wall she put up and made it stronger each time.

…if I didn't get Almost Perfect now, I might've been too late and accidentally gotten her killed.

That was really bad. I need to fix it as soon as possible.

I looked further back to when I first decided to attack Orochimaru. To that initial argument

"What about it? You guys already knew about it, right?"

That was a deflection, trying to push the blame off from me and onto them. I was fairly stressed out at the time after completing the second phase of the exam and because of that stress, that mad flight to the bedroom so I can decompress by flying around the dunes without having to watched every word I said while in foreign territory; it's hardly surprising that reporting Orochimaru slipped my mind.

Not surprising, but definitely bad.

"He's more like an A-rank…"

Did I honestly say that? Really?

…really?

What I had not understood, and I don't think Sarutobi understood either, was that while Orochimaru was S-class…so was I. I'm pretty sure I've hit double S-class now that I've got Almost Perfect. Sarutobi had a point as well. If I didn't have the Chakra Defense Network, which absorbed all of Genjutsu's, about half of Ninjutsu's and disrupts seal placement on me…by absorbing the seal itself and letting the jutsu or chakra it was meant to keep in place just fall out of me…anyway, the point of this is that if I didn't have it or my armor, Orochimaru would've been doing over 1000 points of damage per jutsu.

That's just a straight one-shot from me.

You know, I would've been curious before I redrew the seal with Shade Release if Orochimaru's cursed seal would've disrupted my control enough to stick and not get absorbed or if the seal would've gotten absorbed and the nature-energy thing been vented without doing anything. Now there's no contest.

Charisma Check Success: 10/10.

Sarutobi was trying to use my disability to control me.

That revelation brought with it a splash of cold water and ignited a roaring pile of rage at the same time. The same guy who I thought was a great leader, thoroughly benevolent and Naruto's surrogate grandfather, was taking advantage of my dump stat to keep me in line, to stop me from getting too much political power too early and try to shape me into one of Konoha's loyal servants in the time they had left.

Which would never work because while I liked the place, at one point, it's a military dictatorship. It's even got a whole department named Torture and Interrogation. Civil Liberties don't exist there. Or if they do, it's at the whims of the Hokage and the Clans with their many bylaws. Heck, the Hyuuga enslave half of their extended family with a seal.

And Hinata's caught in the middle of that. Heck, Neji's a victim of that.

I won't work for that guy. I'll try to be civil, but I'm handing in my resignation after the exams. Given this is a ninja village, I'll need to be ready for all kinds of skullduggery but they let Tsunade go be a drunken, compulsive gambler so there's a chance they'll just let me leave.

Better safe than sorry, at least. I'll be sending in a clone to handle that talk.

…Naruto wants to be the guy at the head of this village.

Obviously, he'll want the Hyuuga's barbaric practice outlawed. If anyone is interested in the happiness and safety of the people in Konoha, it's Naruto. Sure, it might've been born out of a desire to rub his new importance in the face of a village that tries it's best to ignore his existence, but he'll learn. He did learn.

Maybe I can help?

Now let's stop right there. I have no interest in molding and grooming Naruto into being a mirror image of me. He's his own person and will always be his own person. But if I can help him see more than one point of view, maybe thing's will be sped along toward that happy ending I was afraid my being here cost the Elemental Nations.

Although, if I want to do that, I'll need to be informed, which means understanding the current state of the world. Luckily, there's a quest currently burning a hole in my notebook, 1001 Tales, which is perfectly geared toward that. At least, in understanding Suna.

It'll probably lead to another quest and then another, but hey. That's great!

Charisma Check Success: 10/10.

You know, in as much as I only like Hisako as a (very attractive) friend, letting her and Ino fight over me was a scumbag thing to do. I mean, sure, I was really focused on the books I wanted to talk about them, I knew what was going on. I didn't do anything to try to put a stop to it, I didn't try to tell Hisako that it really was just about the books for me, I didn't try to tell Ino…something. I could've tried something. I might think she's attractive for her age (she's only eleven, looks thirteen) but…I could've told her I'm holding off on dating until I'm sixteen. That would've let Hisako and Ino actually, you know, put aside their differences and we'd have actually had some good discussions.

I mean, I enjoyed it. I didn't realize I enjoyed it, but I did, and that's bad. It's natural, but it's bad. I'm supposed to be better than that; not just some sleazy, scumbag preteen.

Crying more now.

I should've done something. Maybe the book club could've survived if I had. But I let my focus on the books blind me to what was going on around me. That's kind of a theme with me, focusing on one thing exclusively so I didn't think too much about the others. Focusing on Almost Perfect so I could ignore the social things I could do, focusing on my age so I didn't have to worry about getting paired up…focusing on building a vault so I didn't have to build to many ties to Konoha.

Why did I ever think it was a good idea to become a Ninja for Konoha? Thinking back on it, I might not have had a choice, given my proximity to Naruto. Sarutobi really tried to impress on me the importance of becoming a Shinobi before I entered the academy.

Charisma Check Success: 10/4.

Heh, that's kind of funny.

After I had selected my stats, I went from a normal looking baby to a statue. The matrons could barely believe that the average looking child and the new, moving statue they had were the same person. It really freaked them out until they actually recognized me. They thought I came down with something horrible. The doctor's said I was fine, they couldn't find what was wrong with me, no disease. It was just a bloodline, apparently. One that had manifested when I turned one-year-old.

All the kids hated me after that. They did everything they could to get away from me – they couldn't push me around or bully me, I hit pretty hard back then, but the only person from back then who I could've even consider a friend was Naruto. My best friend.

The ultimate best friend.

Charisma Check Success: 10/10.

…oh.

At the time, I was playing with blocks. The infant Naruto had come up to me and offered to play with me, which meant a lot to me since no one else would associate with me. At all. He was amazingly compassionate, even back then. I thought he saw that I was lonely. Or that I was a good person underneath the marble. Or just because he saw everyone as equal and didn't care about social standing.

He wanted to play with me because I was the kid with the blocks.

That was it.

It was such a stupid thing, but I felt something inside me die just now. Naruto only tried to play with me because, luckily, I was playing with the blocks he wanted to play with and then I was the only kid who ever would hang out with him once the social ostracizing started to leak into the other kids.

The friendship became genuine…but it was born out of necessity, not because of some magnanimous gesture from my best friend. Not because he was some savior of men that I had build him up to be in my head.

And that hurt. That hurt a lot.

Going back through my life, forward into the academy. Met Hisako on my first day; she was nervous about being in the academy and she displayed that as a cool indifference and when I walloped her in our first match, all her fears about being seen as inadequate came true. Eventually, she came to see me as an actual friend, somehow, but she did. Then we met Nichiren, a student of another class and the guilt of him cheating on his exams was tearing him apart. We passed Kakashi's bell test because I passed a few easy speech checks and he became our dedicated support Ninja.

…you know, if Hisako wants a nice guy who'll take care of her when she's feeling down, she needs look no further than Nichiren. That guy enjoys getting better and training as much as she does, even if the fields are sometimes different.

I mean, going through the Academy, only seeing Naruto some times and with Hisako as my only real friend, though she only interacted with me during Taijutsu lessons, I picked up…a surprising number of enemies. Kids who hated my guts because I beat them in Taijutsu or corrected them in class in front of everyone.

Intelligence Check Success: 10/10.

People like Ai, or…Satoru.

Gosh, I haven't thought about that guy in forever. He got lost in the numerous faces and names of people who always tried to put me down. He always called me names, got mad when I beat him and…our last conversation.

"Why can't you be normal for once in your life?" The kid had barked at me after I slammed him to the ground for the third time today.

"Well, if normal means terrible at everything, like you, then no thanks," I had barked out as a reply.

That came with a failed speech check, so I assumed he just blew it off.

Charisma Check Success 10/10.

Satoru had all the signs of having abusive parents. He had serious self-worth problems that I think the academy was trying to help him iron out, but I don't think they were really helping. I don't believe the abuse was ever physical, the Academy was especially on watch for Shinobi that had turned violent against their families because that meant they were a danger to their team, but he had serious emotional and self-esteem issues.

…and I just realized that the reason I never saw him again after that is because he committed suicide that night – partly because of my scathing insult.

I had accidentally helped push a child to suicide.

And I didn't even remember he existed until today.

I fell against the wall, the coolness of the synthetic metal bleeding through my jacket and shirt. My breath had left me as this revelation had snuck in. He was just a face in the crowd. He wasn't anyone I knew at all. But he was a person. A person with hopes and dreams just like everyone else and I helped push him off of the edge.

…why?

Why did I put Charisma as the dump stat? So, I could be obscenely lucky? So that the odds would always be weighted in my favor? Was it worth the cost of one of my detractors taking his own life? He was just a kid.

Words can cause emotional pain. I knew that too well. Sometimes the burden lies on the person being offended, as no offense was meant and they need to toughen up. But other times? I couldn't just watch what I said? I was being ostracized heavily but I couldn't just be a bit more compassionate? To not insult someone back?

Especially when that person believed he wasn't worth anything? He needed Naruto in his life…he didn't get Naruto in his life. If I could've only known…

Charisma Check Success: 10/5.

I didn't mean to insult Hisako there. I was just telling her that I didn't like that flavor dango. I mean, my tone was really, really harsh and I think I could've watched it, but still…

Charisma Check Success: 10/7.

If Nichiren wanted to stop getting his shin kicked, he needed to stop leaving that as an opening. I needed to tell him that or he'd die later because of it…did I really need make him feel stupid there?

Charisma Check Success 10/5.

An argument with Naruto over Ramen…telling him I thought raw eggs cooking on top of the ramen broth while he was eating it was disgusting…and he accidentally took it as me thinking he was disgusting for liking it. He came around, but I didn't mean to insinuate that.

Charisma Check Success 10/7.

I accidentally slammed a door in an old lady's face when walking out of a grocery store…she thought I was going to hold it open for her because I saw her and I caused her to fall and nearly break her back.

Charisma Check Success: 10/6.

…I wasn't trying to insinuate that the Fourth did a bad job of teaching Kakashi. I was just pointing out that he was mistaken about a few things but everyone's wrong about something. I really hurt his feelings there before he figured that I didn't mean it that way.

Charisma Check Success: 10/5.

…I wasn't trying too…

Charisma Check Success: 10/4.

That's not what I meant!

Charisma Check Success: 10/7.

I would never intentionally insinuate that someone should go jump off of a cliff. Especially not Hinata.

Charisma Check Success: 10/5.

Tears were flowing freely.

Charisma Check Success: 10/4.

Charisma Check Success: 10/9.

…make it stop…

Charisma Check Success: 10/6.

Charisma Check Success: 10/7.

Charisma Check Success: 10/3.

…please make it stop…