13 Academy Arc 5

I sat with my sparring partner at the edge of the training ground, watching the fights while waiting for my turn. We barely exchanged any words, both engrossed in the spectacle before us. Quite a few duels have gone by now, with the most brutal one being with Sasuke and Naruto. The Jinchuuriki had charged forward immediately when the fight began, throwing a wild haymaker, but had been cleanly countered by Sasuke with a right hook of his own, knocking him down.

Not waiting for Mizuki to resume the match, Naruto ran right at Sasuke again, as though expecting a different outcome with the same method. The Uchiha merely took side stepped the punch and ferociously buried his fist into Naruto's gut that took him down for the second time.

If there was one thing that Naruto wasn't, it was a quitter. Any other student might have already tapped out at that point, kneeling and holding their abdomen in pain. But not him. The third time, Naruto tried a different tactic rather than just to rush and hope for the best. Instead, he rushed and went down low instead, intending to tackle his opponent.

But Sasuke seemed to either have anticipated this move or were able to react instinctively as he too ran forward and launched a flying knee that smashed directly into Naruto's face. The simultaneous force from his jump as well as Naruto's momentum from his lunge sent the blonde flying back, blood leaking from his nose reminiscent of a future victim of his 'Oiroke no jutsu'.

Naruto could sure take a blow however, as he was only down for the count for a few moments before snapping back up yelling how that knee was cheating or something along those lines. But Sasuke couldn't care less, vindicated from the boisterous blonde's earlier proclamation.

The rest of the fights went as I would have expected, childish slap fighting or roughly tumbling in an entangled mess on the ground. I was unsure of the wisdom behind the instructor's decision to pit untrained students against each other, the so called 'fights' would have been pathetic had they not been 8 year old children. They should have at least been through the Academy style taijutsu first before engaging in any duels.

"Ikari Shinji and Tanaka Shuichi!" Iruka called out as I hopped to attention. It was finally our turn.

He beckoned us forward and quickly rattled off the rules he had mentioned previously. When we both affirmed our understanding, he motioned for us to take our places.

I settled in to the Konoha Academy Taijutsu stance, not prompting any curious looks from Iruka as a number of other students similarly learned it from somewhere before entering the academy. My opponent on the other hand, had no such experience and clumsily held his hands up. This was going to be a cake walk.

I reminded myself of the bonus objectives of the assigned quest, which were to win without taking any damage and to known out my opponent. I hesitated to full-on knock the poor guy out, as no one else had done so yet, and the kid didn't even have the slightest idea what he was doing. Once again I questioned our instructor's decision. 100 EXP or mercy, 100 EXP or mercy? Hmm decision decisions.

On one hand I didn't really want to hurt my opponent too badly, and on the other, 100 EXP and I might win the respect of some of my classmates with a show of strength.

While I struggled over the dilemma in my head, Iruka turned to both of us and drew his hand up. "Ready?" He chopped his arm down, "Hajime!"

I watched the kid, Shuichi, take a few apprehensive steps towards me as I was left without anymore time to consider my decision. If I was going to do it, I will put the kid out of his misery as mercifully as possible. There, a satisfactory compromise.

I ducked under my opponent's amateurish swing and jumped back up with a forceful uppercut while activating [Power Strike].

My fist, empowered with the skill, crashed into his chin launching his small body flying up lightly before he came back down and collapsed like a bag of rocks.

I immediately yelled out in faux-shock and went down on a knee to examine the boy while using [Observe] to check his status., "Oh crap! I think I might have hit too hard, are you okay man?"

Tanaka Shuichi Lv 4

HP: 410/720

CP: 950/950

Status: Unconscious

Holy shit, the kid's almost half dead. I turned towards Iruka who was running towards us. "Uh, Iruka-sensei, I think he fell asleep."

"Move aside! Shuichi! Can you hear me?" Iruka cradled the boy's head while feeling his pulse. Breathing a sigh of relief that he was still breathing, he glared at me. "Why did you use so much force!"

[REP has decreased with Umino Iruka]

I paled, more so at the system notification than Iruka's glare, "B-but you told us not to hold back! And I didn't think he would go down so easily. He looked pretty tough!"

"You're not wrong… but, sigh, just take it as a valuable lesson and next time, you shouldn't be looking to knock off someone's head just for a spar." The chunin instructor admitted, but still scolded me.

"I understand, sensei. Is he- is he going to be okay?" I asked, looking with concern at the still unconscious student.

"Fortunately, he has just passed out, he should be regaining consciousness soon, but I better bring him to the school medic-nin just to be sure." Iruka lifted up the boy, careful to keep his head tilted up to keep the airway open. He turned to Mizuki who had stopped the fight he had been supervising when he noticed the commotion. "I'm taking him to the school medic-nin, help me take care of the rest of the class."

I saw that I had the rapt attention of the student spectators and, against my conscience, decided to display a degree of compassion to win their admiration as I had always been taught to capitalize on such occasions by my past family, "Can I come with you, Iruka-sensei. I-I feel really bad, and I wouldn't want him to be alone when he wakes up."

Iruka's expression softened, but he shook his head, "No, you should stay here. I can move faster without you. And don't worry he won't be alone when he wakes up, the medic-nin will be there taking care of him."

"Al-alright. I will wait for him to come back to apologize."

He smiled warmly at that and nodded, "You're a good kid, Shinji. Make sure he knows how sorry you are when he has recovered."

With that he sped off while carrying the still motionless Shuichi into an open window of the academy building.

When I awkwardly walked back to the rest of the class, feeling slightly guilty for the fight and my actions after, I could see them gazing at me silently, unsure of how to approach the entire incident. I looked down glumly before thankfully Kiba whooped out loud, breaking the silence.

"OH MY KAMI! THAT WAS AWESOME! He swung at you like a whoosh, and you went under with a whoop and then jumped back up with a KAPOW!" He exclaimed, while mimicking the motions of the fight.

"Shinji-kun, you were sooooo cooool!" Kaori similarly gushed, with anime hearts in her eyes.

With the dam broken, the rest of the students joined in, crying out and cheering.

While I was glad my gambit had paid off, I still felt bad for what I had done. "Guys wait, I- I feel bad, y'know? I didn't mean to hit so hard. And now he is being taken to see a medic-nin, we shouldn't be cheering about it."

Although the students agreed, though still smiling at the performance they had just witnessed, Kiba shouted boisterously again, "He'll be fine! He's at the Shinobi Academy, what did he think was going to happen? It's just his bad luck to have encountered you and your super punch.", to the laughter of the other students.

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, as I noticed the quest completion alert. Life's good.

[Quest [Prove Yourself] Completed!]

Participate in the proficiency test!

Finish the run in under 10 minutes (√)

(Bonus) Finish the run in under 8 minutes (√)

(Bonus) Finish the run in under 6 minutes (X)

Achieve 50% accuracy for the shurikenjutsu test (√)

(Bonus) Achieve 80% accuracy (√)

(Bonus) Achieve 100% accuracy (√)

Defeat your opponent in the spar (√)

(Bonus) Win without taking damage (√)

(Bonus) Knock out your opponent (√)

Rewards:

+150 EXP

+500 EXP for bonus objectives cleared

REP increased with 'Rookie 9'

REP increased with Umino Iruka

REP increased with Mizuki

REP significantly increased with Kaori