Chapter: 6

So, where are we going today?" Naruto asked cheerfully as I panted, my lungs desperately working to give my body much needed oxygen.

"I hate your stamina, Naruto." I grumbled as he waved me off. We started making our way to the physical training area for the conditioning exercises.

"I hate exercising." Shikamaru said, to which all of us rolled our eyes. I'm sure even Shino did.

I case anyone is wondering, the Aburame hadn't quite become a regular in our group. But he did stay with us during classes and hung out with us now and then. He mostly kept to himself while out of the Academy though. None of us, had a problem with that. We just assumed he just was that kind of person.

"Honestly, I don't feel like doing anything today. How about we go to your house and play some Shogi, Shikamaru?" I asked with my breathing slowly coming back to normal.

"Sure." The lazy genius said smirking at me while Naruto groaned.

"Nope, I'm not going to spend my day like that. Ne, Chouji, how about we go…" While the blonde knucklehead started making plans with the Akimichi heir, I was acutely aware of someone's eyes on us. Shikamaru and I looked at each other.

"Even ignoring it is getting troublesome." He said with a sigh and I couldn't help but agree.

For the longest time, someone was almost stalking us. Although, being completely fair, this person's attention wasn't focused on us. It was focused on Main Character-kun. You have three guesses as to who I'm talking about and the first two don't count.

I turned my head slightly to look at the girl with dark blue hair and almost white eyes. Hinata Hyuuga really hadn't changed much from canon apparently. She couldn't keep her eyes off Naruto during Academy hours, and although I couldn't prove it, I was sure she watched him outside from time to time. This meant that she also watched our group most of the time, as we always were together with him.

It wasn't like we had a problem with the girl, not really. It was just a bit… tiresome, to deal with her stares sometimes, not that the oblivious idiot noticed, but Shikamaru, Shino and I surely did. The Aburame hadn't commented on it though.

"I'm really starting to think we should do something about it." I said with a grimace.

"Like what?" The Nara asked me with a raised eyebrow. And I stared at him for a second, he could follow my train of thoughts no problem. Sure enough, he sighed again. "Do we have to? I don't know what is more troublesome, doing that or keeping things like this."

"I kind of want to help." I said with an awkward half smile. "Shyness is kinda cute, but sometimes it's just… a bit much. That's her case, honestly." I said trying not to insult her. I really didn't have a problem with her, I knew she was a great person. But that extreme shyness…

"You are remarkably not troublesome, Eiji. But sometimes…" He just ended the statement with yet another sigh and I smiled apologetically at him. "During the spar wait time?" He asked resigned.

"I guess." I shrugged. I looked around "Reckon I'll have to fight Kiba today?"

"Probably." He answered disinterestedly. "Can't get past this week." I nodded in agreement. I had been fortunately dodging that bullet for a long time. I was running out of time. Luckily for me, I was already at a level that I was confident I could beat the Inuzuka, or at least put up a hell of a fight. "I wouldn't worry too much."

"Thanks." I smiled at him. Shikamaru wasn't one to give compliments, that was as close as he could get to one.

Just a moment later, I received a notification.

[Physical Conditioning has gone up a level.]

To which I brought up the skill's screen.

[Physical Conditioning (Passive) – Lvl 13

Improves the rate at which your Strength and Constitution increase during training by 65%.]

I didn't know how to feel with my progress lately. Some skills were starting to take a long time to level. Two weeks had passed since my official spar against Chouji and I had earned just one level on most skills except Shogi which had gone up three levels, Meditation having gone up two and Shuriken Throwing that hadn't leveled up at all yet. Even my stats slowed down considerably. I had only gotten one level for Strength and one for Dexterity, which still came with one for Chakra, and Constitution had leveled up twice.

I found myself wishing to get a new skill or something. I missed those times where I got levels left and right. But I was able to stop myself from delving in any other skill. If I fell for that, I would only increase my workload and slow my progress down even more. I couldn't afford that, not when none of my skills were at an acceptable level.

Once I had secured my place at the top of the class, only then I would consider something new. Maybe I would start training Senbon Throwing, or maybe I would ask Iruka-sensei for some tips about chakra control. That way I could get a head start on that while avoiding any kind of unwanted attention. But that was for later. I didn't have the time to use on other skills when I could barely manage as it was.

"Ok, ok." Sensei called for our attention while clapping. "Good job everyone, it's lunch break time and then we start with the Taijutsu spars."

"What did you bring today, Eiji?!" An excited Naruto appeared in front of my face as if he had used Shunshin, quickly followed by Chouji. I deadpanned at the both of them.

"You brought this on yourself." Shikamaru pointed out before I could say something and I sighed.

[}-o-{]

"Eiji Satou vs Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka-sensei called out and my mind instantly thought: 'GG.' After groaning and starting my way to the circle I consoled myself with the thought that at least it wasn't Kiba the one that would give me my first defeat.

As the brooding survivor made his way, I called a couple of screens.

[Eiji Satou

Title: Academy Student

Energy Points: 131/320

Chakra Points: 110/110

Strength: 14

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 16

Chakra: 11

Chakra control: E]

Well, he definitely had better stats than I did. The only thing I could probably rival him in was Constitution. But that was only a possibility, not a fact. For everything else, I was painfully behind.

[Basic Taijutsu – Lvl 16

Increases the skill of the user in hand to hand combat according to skill level.]

Maybe we were on the same level in Taijutsu though, so there was my silver lining.

[Physical Resistance – Lvl 4

Reduces the damaged received by purely physical attacks by 4%]

Physical Resistance was still painfully low. I didn't have any delusions about the skill. It was just something that was there. Not a game changing skill. At least, not yet. And at the rate it leveled? Not ever.

Shaking those thoughts from my head and toning out the fangirls' screams, I focused on Sasuke. His expression was as brooding as ever, no surprise there. What did surprise me was that he seemed to want to start the match quickly, almost… eagerly. He was never eager for a spar. Never. I gulped as we did the Seal of Confrontation. After that we both jumped back to put some distance between us and took our stances.

I waited, the Uchiha's Taijutsu style consisted mainly of countering the opponent's attacks. The Sharingan made that stupidly easy after all. And while Sasuke didn't actually have the Sharingan yet, he still used the style and with impressive results too. No, I wouldn't be the one to attack. My best bet was to try and counter himinstead. A gamble really, but considering that I was weaker than him in almost every aspect, everything in this match would be a gamble really.

He rushed at me and I braced myself. A punch was directed at my face. Rotating my arm, I pushed his out of the way, effectively preventing the hit. Meanwhile my other hand formed a fist and flew towards his side.

He stepped aside dodging my punch before throwing a kick behind my leg. Good news, I didn't end up on the floor. Bad news, my balance was ruined for a second. That second was enough for him to punch the air out of me with a fist to the gut.

With a step back he readied himself for another kick, this time for more than just ruining my balance. Coughing to get my lungs working again I followed his example stepping back, out of his reach. I felt the wind produced by his foot graze my face. 'Too close.'

As I focused on him again, I paled, he was already on me. Another punch to the gut made me fold like a wet paper and I fell to my knees. A kick to the side of my head made everything turn white and I felt my face hit the ground.

I heard voices, voices my mind was too slow to translate into any kind of meaning. I saw lights, flashes of color all over my sight. But the feeling of the ground bellow me was oddly clear. Slowly and shakily, I pushed myself off the ground. I heard the voices lower their volume, but not stopping. I didn't hear Iruka-sensei calling the match, fortunately for me.

"You should stay down." It took my brain a lot longer than it should to decipher what Sasuke said to me. But eventually I did. I was still laying pathetically on the ground, the only think keeping our teacher from calling the match was my arms supporting my upper body weakly and awkwardly in the air. Before answering, I pushed a leg underneath me. As the lights slowly blinked out of my sight, I found myself kneeling and staring down at the earth.

I slowly turned my gaze to the side, where the Uchiha stood, relaxed but still focused on me. He hadn't let his guard down. I chuckled to myself. Of course, he hadn't.

At that moment, I thought about it. I thought about giving up. And I thought about my friends too. I would have expected Naruto to be shouting some nonsense, to use his Talk Jutsu on me. Just as I still remembered him doing in the Chuunin exams with Hinata and Sakura. But he didn't.

"Stand up." It was Shikamaru. I was so shocked I almost fell face first into the ground again. "It'll be too troublesome to deal with your training if you lose." He said and I chuckled again.

"What the lazy ass said." This time it was Naruto. I could almost hear the iconic grin on his face.

They were watching. My friends were watching. But did it really matter? It was just an Academy spar after all. I could keep training and then come back for a rematch. It would be fine. It wasn't that important, not really.

"You have to dream bigger!" Naruto's words resounded in my head and I pushed myself off the ground, staggering to a side on my weak legs. Yeah, if I gave up here, what was to stop me from giving up later on. From giving up in my dream. No. I had a nindo.

Live life to the fullest.

Sasuke didn't look like he had any problem waiting for me. That was strange but I could definitely work with that. I looked around, acting groggier than I actually was. Looking for something that could turn the tide of the battle. Then I saw it and a crazy plan formed in my head. A smirk formed in my head.

"Oi," I called out while mentally bringing a couple of screens to see if my plan could work. Yeah, more than enough. Thank Kami for the schedule for the spars. "Two seconds. In two seconds, I'll take you out." He smirked back at me.

"We'll see." He simply said taking his stands.

'Running!' I casted in my mind while speeding towards him. His eyes widened in surprise. Once I was close, I jumped feet first towards him. He stepped to the side confidently. I kept smirking as I separated my feet and a second later, I wrapped both legs around his waist height.

The speed of my flight didn't stop though. So, with all that momentum I swung my body in a circle making the Uchiha's body rotate with me and throwing him completely off balance. And then I let go, throwing him off to a side. Both of us fell to the ground.

I laughed. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

"What's so funny." He said annoyed. "All that just for-"

"Winner, Eiji Satou." Iruka called out over my laughs.

"Huh?!" Sasuke wasn't the only one to shout that in shock. I turned towards him and with a smirk in my face I put my index finger to the ground.

"Look down." He did and his mouth fell open. He was just outside the circle. "Yes!" I exclaimed spreading my arms still sprawled on the ground. "First place, baby!" I laughed before I felt someone get a hold of my arm and pull me up.

"That. Was. So. AWESOME!" Naruto exclaimed, almost making me go deaf. "You should have seen the teme's face. It was priceless. Best prank ever, believe it!" He all but shouted while helping me to our group of friends.

"Good job!" Chouji congratulated offering me from his bag of chips. I happily took him on his offer. I felt amazing.

"Certainly, an unexpected tactic." Shino said pushing his glasses up.

"If only you were so smart during our matches." Shikamaru grumbled with a bored tone. I didn't even feel the need to smack him.

"We've got to get dinner at Ichiraku's. I have to celebrate this." I commented, making Naruto beam at me.

"Don't know what the fuss is about." Shikamaru shrugged. "You've trained for this all this time, haven't you?" He said as I took my seat. I stared at him as my brain caught what he really meant. I smiled.

"Sometimes I think you are a tsundere or something, Shika." I replied and he huffed unaffected.

"Troublesome." Was all the answer I got. My grin widened as a screen came up.

[Quest Complete: Win a spar against the first place.

Reward:

+6 Taijutsu Level

+2 to all Physical Stats]

[Chakra has gone up a level.]

[Chakra has gone up a level.]

'Wait, why isn't it Basic-'

[Skill Maxed: Basic Taijutsu]

[New Skill Adquired: Intermediate Taijutsu]

I looked at the screens in stunned silence before mentally calling another one.

[Intermediate Taijutsu (Active) – Lvl 3

Increases the skill of the user in hand to hand combat according to skill level.

Active Effect – Increases the user's physical stats by 2.

Active Effect Consumption 50 Energy Points per second.]

'Cool, an Active Effect, finally.' Then I froze. '… 50 Energy Points per second… are YOU FUCKING KIDDING-'

"You ok there?" Shikamaru said waving his hand in front of my face. I shook my head before turning to him. "He hit you pretty hard in the head, didn't he?" He added with his usual bored tone, his eyes looked slightly concerned though, Naruto and Chouji weren't as reserved.

"Maybe." I said weakly. "I'll be fine, don't worry. Just need a minute or two." They seemed to take my word for it and continued watching the spars. Fortunately for me, Shikamaru didn't push for a Shogi match.

"Sasuke is still the best!" Someone screeched. I turned to see a pink haired banshee screaming like her life depended on it. Not that she was the only one, just the more… vocal. "He just won with a trick! A cheap trick a that!" The rest of the fangirls nodded along as she pointed at me like I had committed the worst kind of sin.

"Really, Naruto?" I asked in disbelief. "Of the whole lot of them…" I shook my head.

"Well." He scratched the back of his neck. "I was pretty desperate."

"Don't worry, we'll get you a better girlfriend." I looked him up and down noting his still orange clothes. I hadn't been able to convince him to tone it down yet. But I would even if it was the last thing I did. "Eventually." I said grimacing.

"Can you stop insulting the orange?!" He exclaimed indignantly and I shook my head.

"Look at the bright side." Shikamaru said lazily waving his hand and I raised an eyebrow at him.

"And that is?" I asked and he seemed to take a moment to think about it.

"Errr… Ino isn't shouting together with her?" He asked more than stated and I turned again. Said Yamanaka was staring straight at me with an unreadable face.

"She isn't planning my death… is she?" I asked nervously.

"Hmm… Probably not." Chouji answered while putting another handful of chips in his mouth. I gulped before turning to the board between Shika and me.

"Let's just play Shogi." He didn't comment but we did start a match.

In between plays, I stared at the new skill. I had a good excuse for playing under my normal level anyway. 50 Energy Points was a lot. Basically, I could only use its effect for all of 7 seconds. That was shit. Especially considering that it only gave 2 points to each stat. Taking a deep breath in, I tried to see where the trick was. In the end though, I just deduced that the stat increase would be worth it after I leveled it up. That and hopefully the consumption would lower considerably too. 'Here's hoping.' I thought to myself holding back a grimace.

Once I got over that bitter piece of news, I slowly regained my smile. 6 levels in the Taijutsu skills and two in each Physical stat. Basically, I was top of the class in Taijutsu now. No matter that I barely won by a technicality. Now I had the power to back it up. I was sure I had better stats than Sasuke now…

Or that's what I would like to think.

However, the spar was too one-sided. There had to be a reason for that. And then I noticed the problem. My Dexterity was too low. He had been too fast for me to do anything. I had probably caught up to him in terms of Constitution and Strength. And the levels in Taijutsu probably put me ahead or at his level. But he was too fast for me to do anything. I wouldn't be able to beat him if I couldn't even land a hit. The only reason I caught him was my Running speed increase and a trick.

I had been ignoring my Dexterity. Mostly because I didn't have a good way to increase it nor the time focus on that stat only. But with the progress I saved due to the Quest, things would change. I could spend less time training Taijutsu and Physical Conditioning now.

With those thoughts in mind, I started changing my training routine. The only things I knew affected Dexterity were the Shurikenjutsu skills and to a lower extent, Running. Which actually made me pretty happy. I loved Running and I really wanted to start making perfect scores in the Shurikenjutsu training. I was also curious now that I had seen what happened with a skill that I managed to max.

We stopped playing when Hinata was called for a spar and focused on her fight. It was both interesting and entertaining to see. I had always thought that the Gentle Fist was really cool to look in action, it was even more so in real life.

"That style is really interesting." I commented lightly.

"Cool, isn't it?" Naruto exclaimed. "Think Hinata-chan would teach me?" 'She would probably faint just with you asking, Naruto.' I thought to myself. Shikamaru looked like he had thought the same thing.

"It could happen." The Nara ended up saying with a barely restrained smirk. I rolled my eyes.

"I don't think I could use that style." Said a dejected Chouji. I nodded.

"Probably not. It's all precision and less force, basically the opposite of your style." He nodded back. "I wouldn't feel too bad if I were you though. You are the strongest one here, that style wouldn't be suited for you." He paused his eating to turn to me.

"Thanks." He said almost beaming at me. He really had confidence issues.

"Just stating facts." I replied smiling back. A moment later Hinata won her match. The only ones that could do something to her were Ino and Sakura after all, and considering the small numbers of the female part of the class, the teachers couldn't keep the spars just to the capable fighters and heirs. That group was conformed only by the aforementioned trio after all, and that was too small a number to exclude the others. As she took her seat, I stood up. "I'll be back in a second."

As I made my way to where she was, I saw her start fidgeting and poking her fingers together, no doubt aware I was going towards her. I sat next to her and extended my hand to introduce myself. Not that I thought she didn't know me, but I wanted to keep myself as polite as I could.

"Nice match." I said with a smile. "I'm Eiji Satou, by the way."

"T-t-thank you." She stuttered out. I did my best to keep my face from expressing anything about it. "Hinata H-Hyuuga." She said shyly taking my hand.

"You hold back a lot when you spar." I pointed out and she tensed up. "I was just wondering why."

"I-I don't like f-fighting." She said looking away from me and poking her fingers together again.

"You know we are training to be ninja, right?" I asked keeping my tone from sounding like I was mocking her. Her only answer was looking down. "I meant that we need to know how to fight. I wouldn't want you to hold back if you sparred against me. It would make the spar useless if I can't improve. I don't know if what I say makes sense to you." I explained and she kept her gaze down.

"I-I know." She whispered, so low I barely caught it. "I still d-don't like it." She admitted and I held back a sigh.

"What's your style's name?" I asked changing topics.

"G-Gentle Fist." She answered.

"Why is it called that?" I knew obviously, but Eiji didn't so I played the part.

"B-Because even the lightest h-hit can do serious d-damage." Well, her stutter wasn't so bad. Or maybe it was because I wasn't Naruto. Yeah, that was probable.

"Wow, sounds dangerous." I commented.

"I-It is." She nodded, suddenly looking much more nervous.

"And why's that?" I continued asking.

"With the B-Byakugan and i-injected chakra through o-our fingers…" She hesitated for a second. "w-we can c-cause internal d-damage." She explained. "W-we can also close t-tenketsus." She added after a moment.

"Tenketsus are the places from where we can use chakra… right?" Thankfully, we had had classes about that, although sensei tended to just gloss over it as we would see it in depth next year.

"Right." She confirmed. Not that I needed her to.

"Closing tenketsus, wouldn't you basically disable someone without actually hurting them?" I asked this time and she seemed a bit stunned.

"It c-could be the case… P-People still can use T-Taijutsu though." She answered.

"Still, leaving someone unable to use chakra is basically taking them out. Not many can fight that well only using Taijutsu." I reasoned.

"True." She accepted.

"I see why someone would call it Gentle Fist. You can basically defeat someone without damaging them." I said. I had finally reached the point that I wanted to. If I remembered correctly, Hinata was a bit like Chouji. Too gentle to fight properly. I wanted to show her that fighting didn't actually mean damage, especially for her.

"I guess so." She nodded.

"It's a pity you need your bloodline limit. I would love to learn that style." I commented.

"Y-You could." She replied and my head snapped at her. I didn't know that, so, I was pretty surprised.

"Really?" She seemed taken aback by my reaction and leaned back with wide eyes before simply humming and nodding. "B-But, how?" I asked incredulously. "You said you needed the Byakugan." I pointed out.

"N-Normally, y-you do." The Hyuuga answered. "But some blocks and o-organ s-strikes don't need B-Byakugan precision to be done." She explained and I stared at her wide eyed until she started fidgeting again.

"Could you teach me?" I asked almost pleading.

"I-I'm not s-sure." She said looking away. "I-It's a c-clan style after all." Her eyes dropped and a sad smile formed in her face.

"Hmm. Then you need permission?" My voice came out calmer this time as I realized I was making her uncomfortable.

"Y-Yes, and I d-doubt I could g-get it." She replied with a sad tone.

"I see. Then… how about spars. You can do that outside of the Academy, can't you?" She seemed surprised that I hadn't pushed the issue or just left her after that.

"I-I c-can. W-Why?" Hinata asked curious and nervous at the same time.

"You could join us." I offered with a smile. "Shikamaru, Chouji, Naruto and I get together some times to spar against each other. It's good practice." I explained and I had to suppress an amused smile as I saw her face slowly turn red after I mentioned Naruto. "We do stealth practice, play Shogi and go out to eat too, if you are interested. As I said, you are welcome to join if you want." I finished while standing up and shaking the dust off my clothes. "It was good talking to you, Hinata, see you later."

"S-See you later." And like that, our little conversation was over. Internally, I wondered if she would be brave enough to ask her father about teaching us the Gentle Fist, or even just about hanging out with us. It would probably take a long time, if ever.

"Let's continue, shall we?" I asked Shikamaru as I took my usual seat in front of him.

"How did it go?" He asked making his move.

"It went well, I think. We'll have to see." I shrugged.

[}-o-{]

In two different locations roughly at the same time

"He defeated the Uchiha." Said a serious, yet curious, voice. "Admittedly, through a trick, but he did. What do we know about the boy?" The person asked his subordinate.

"Orphan of the Kyuubi Incident. Nothing of notice after that until the start of this year's Academy classes." Another voice replied. "Possible prodigy, possible bloodline limit, possibly both."

"What bloodline limit?"

"Unregistered, Unknown. So far, we have collected an increase in running speed at will, occasional decrease of presence while engaging in stealth based activities and an abnormally high development in the strength and stamina departments, all this without the use of chakra. It is believed that if he does have a bloodline limit it is one based around development."

"Hmm… anything else of notice?"

"He has been surrounding himself with the Akimichi, Nara and Aburame clan heirs and the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. He has also approached the current Hyuuga heiress."

"I see… Gathering political power or just capable individuals… or both… maybe…" The leader pondered for a moment before turning to his subordinate. "Keep me up to date with any new information that you find about him. Eiji Satou seems like an interesting… individual