Chapter 4 – New aspirations

The bell signalling the end of the class rang and given how boring the History teacher was, Naruto was not the only one who exclaimed in his thoughts 'Thank God it finally ended!'

This was the first day coming to school again for Naruto after an absence of two weeks and suffice to say, he was less than enthusiastic about it. It wasn't because he was too stupid to understand the subjects... it was just that for him school seemed pointless; a waste of time.

After spending his entire life in the midst of gangsters and other types of less than honest people, Naruto understood that the real power was being held not by the educated ones but by the wealthy people, by the ones with connections. If some of them happened to also have a diploma, that was most of the time because they had attended a college in order to meet new people and make new connections, to expand their influence. Sure, those truly brilliant, the hardworking individuals could get a stable financial situation in the future... but why would Naruto want to choose that route when he could simply find a random criminal on the streets and turn him in at the interested parties in exchange for a sum of money? That's right, being a minor bounty hunter was much more rewarding for Naruto than studying like mad in order to obtain someday a job where his boss would work his ass out every day.

'How boring.' Naruto lamented. 'Should I skip classes again?'

'I'd rather go home and take a nap in my own bed instead of sleeping in class.'

He grabbed his skateboard in one hand, his grey backpack in the other one and left the classroom without as much as saying good-bye to anyone there...that's because if he did that the girls and even some of the boys would probably start crying. Naruto almost felt tempted to do it and he had to stifle a chuckle at the thought of how would his classmates react. But the fact that everyone would flee in panic to the principal afterwards made him give up on that. He was just not in the mood to be nagged at and threatened with the cops.

As he walked out of the classroom through the corridors of the school his fellow students all quieted down as if they were at a funeral. They even stuck themselves to the walls of the halls like the military to give him space and no-one dared to meet his eyes.

To be fair though, Naruto didn't have the appearance of an extremely dangerous guy: a pair of grey jeans, a dark red hoodie, white sneakers, a grey backpack and a skateboard - he looked almost like an average teenager. Almost. When you looked at his face you'd take your words back about him being ordinary. There was a steel-like intensity coming from his blue eyes and the scowl that was permanently etched on his face coupled with his whisker-like "tattoos" gave him a rather mean appearance. His unusual facial features combined with his bad reputation made everyone avoid and fear him.

"Onii-chan, you're skipping classes again?" came the exasperated voice of Misaki from behind him and Naruto's previously scowling face was lighted up by such a bright and innocent smile that some of the girls watching him found themselves involuntarily blushing. It's not a secret that many teen girls dreamed about a "bad boy" that would act like a hard-ass to anyone except for them. And that's exactly how Naruto looked like in their eyes: he was a badass and he seemed to hate everyone around him except for his sister. In fact, his very bad reputation was gained exactly because of his care for Misaki - for example, the last guy who had tried to get into her pants had had his wrist snapped by Naruto in the middle of a class, right under the eyes of the P.E. teacher. When pulling off this kind of acts, was there anything to be surprised in regards to other students' fear of him?

"Aw, come on, sis, you know how boring is this for me!" Naruto turned towards the voice and said in an almost whiny voice that made the surrounding students feel chills go down their spine. They had a hard time accepting that a violent punk like him could act like that because usually, they didn't have the chance to watch the siblings' interactions.

Misaki simply sighed. She knew that Naruto was coming to school only for her sake. Had it not been for her he would have dropped out a long time ago. Him coming to school was simply to act as a deterrent for the fuckboys that might have had the hots for her. She began to walk alongside Naruto as he headed towards the exit of the school. When they got out Naruto took her by surprise and hugged her, a grin marring his face at her squeak of surprise.

"N-Not here, dumbass!"

Naruto let go of her and teased her all the while sporting a shit-eating grin on his face:

"Why, you make it sound like we were doing something else.."

Misaki's face reddened so hard that just a little bit more and steam would have come out.

"Haha, just kidding." Naruto laughed heartily and poked at her nose. "I'm going to Ichiraku's now, want me to bring you something for when you get home?"

Misaki's embarrassment vanished like magic when she heard the name "Ichiraku" and a longing expression appeared in her eyes. Her mouth got watery but she shook her head resolutely and swallowed her saliva.

"N-No, thank you." she barely managed to squeeze out some words.

Naruto was having the time of his life inwardly laughing at the mental battle Misaki was having against herself.

Ichiraku's was a rather famous restaurant in the Chinatown district of Gotham City. Besides other delicious dishes, Ichiraku was known for its heavenly ramen. There was nobody in the entire New Jersey state of the USA that had not heard about it at least once. In fact, Consumer Protection Agency had even suspected at some point the owner of Ichiraku Restaurant of drugging the food after seeing how many of their customers were almost addicted to their ramen.

...And it just so happens that both Naruto and Misaki were huge ramen consumers as well. If ramen were a drug then they'd be the worst junkies in existence... and while Naruto could eat like a filthy pig with no worries, Misaki was tortured with the fear of getting fat. Naruto exercised and trained a lot...it was rather understandable that he'd need a lot of energy to burn so he had to eat large amounts of food. But Misaki was just an ordinary girl. She didn't like exercising and getting sweaty. Apart from her angelic looks, she was no different from any other teenager: she loved shopping and hanging out with friends, she listened to mainstream music and she dressed in tone with the last trend. Therefore, inside Misaki's mind, there has always been an endless war for the last 5 years or so.

She had one existential problem: to gorge herself with ramen like a fat piece of shit or to keep a slim waist and toned body?

Sometimes she managed to win against her ramen addiction, but more often than not she lost the battle miserably. That was especially the case when Naruto felt in the mood to tease her with describing the glorious taste and heavenly aroma of the food of gods. Like he did right then for example:

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked slyly. "Don't you miss the flavour of the broth after you slurp the noodles at Miso ramen? No, no, wait, Shoyu ramen is even better! Oh, that spicy dish that old man Teuchi made three days ago was glorious! It smelled like-"

"Argh! Just go already, asshole!" Misaki shouted and Naruto began to cackle as he left a very flustered and clearly drooling Misaki behind.

After Naruto left, the playful voice of a girl was heard:

"Just look at you: red-faced, breathing hotly and with that intense look in your eyes... if I didn't know any better I'd say you're aroused. Are you such a glutton?"

"Barbara!" Misaki shouted and stomped her feet in embarrassment which only made the girl in front of her laugh even harder.

Scene break

"751.. 752... 753.."

...

"897.. 898.. 899.. 900!"

When he said 900, Naruto collapsed on his chest breathing so hard that you'd think he had just finished running a marathon.

After returning home from Ichiraku Restaurant, Naruto started his daily training because although his grandfather had died and that there was nobody to force him to train anymore, it had already become a part of his life. After relentlessly training every day for the past 11 years, martial arts have already become a part of his persona. And he has never slacked even once, always striving to surpass his previous limits. He was trying to do that even more now after having lost against the cyborg two weeks before.

Finished with the push-ups set, Naruto existed the dojo and went to the back yard where the training dummies were stored. The muscles of his entire body bulged in exertion and with a grunt of effort he picked up the largest log he could find. It was so thick that a grown-up man would not be able to circle it with his hands and it easily weighted over 500 pounds. After putting the large and heavy wooden log in the middle of the yard he grabbed a shovel and in a few minutes, he dug a 5 feet deep hole in the ground. His speed was nothing if not impressive. Then he picked up the enormous log again and put it inside the hole that he had dug up. He put back a part of the soil in the hole and while using his chakra, he stomped hard on the ground around the log to fix it well. Then he carried the leftover soil to one of the corners of the yard.

"That should do it." Naruto said pleased at his work.

It wasn't much, but what he needed was a very sturdy target to resist against a few thousands of hits every day - that's why he had chosen such a thick and heavy wooden log.

After having lost against that metahuman, a sense of crisis loomed over Naruto's mind constantly:

'What if one day another one of those freaky metahumans attacks Misaki? What will I be able to do?'

That's the kind of thoughts that were secretly tormenting his mind every day. And he hated being weak. He hated being afraid for his sister's safety. He hated to lose.

Naruto let out a shout and he kicked the log hard with his right leg. He winced in pain as the skin on his shin almost cracked. He gritted his teeth and kicked again, but this time with his left leg, the one which had been broken until a few days ago.

A powerful crack resounded in the backyard... but the sound didn't come from his leg but from the wooden log whose thin bark was now cracked.

Naruto looked in in amazement at his left leg.

"Just as I thought!"

"After my leg healed it became much sturdier than before!'

And he was right in his assumptions. After his leg healed it really became sturdier and more powerful than before. That's because it had not been healed normally... ever since he managed to unlock his chakra Naruto had felt that this mysterious energy was much more than it looked like at the first glance. He firmly believed that if he one day managed to unravel all of its secrets he could become the strongest in the world, even more than those metahumans.

Last week, while he was laying in bed bored out of his mind he suddenly thought about circulating his chakra since he didn't have anything better to do anyway. From his dantian, the warm energy began to travel through the pathways inside his body and as it moved he could feel how his body was getting invigorated. His muscles and bones acted as though they were a dried soil that was finally receiving the blessing of the rain. And then it hit him:

'What if I directed more of my chakra to my broken tibia?' - was what he thought.

Following that thought, in no more than 4 hours all the pain in his leg disappeared completely. At first, he had been very hesitant to take off the gips cast because his doctor told him that it would take from 4 months to half a year for his tibia to fully heal. . . To think that a wound that normally took 4-6 months to heal would heal in only 4 hours? Just what kind of concept was that?

But after a few days of hesitating whether to "test" his left leg or not, he finally did it today. And he was more than happy with the result.

"My grandpa only told me that chakra can temporarily empower my body while I circulate it through the meridians of my body... maybe he was already too old for his body to accurately feel all the effects of the chakra?"

"But that doesn't make too much sense...this energy can even be used to heal wounds. Not only that, I even noticed that whenever I circulate it through my meridians, my entire body is nourished and my physical strength passively increases."

"Did he purposely hide the other effects from me?"

But he shrugged his shoulders helplessly. The old man had passed away. There was no point in making accusations towards a dead man. Instead, his mind couldn't help wondering what else could this energy residing inside him do. As a child, in the few moments when he wasn't bitterly training, Naruto used to watch anime or read manga. It was the only recreational activity he was allowed to do. And he had been a great fan of the fantasy genre where the characters had amazing superpowers.

'Will I eventually be able to shatter even a mountain with just one punch?'

'Will I be capable of conjuring flames and controlling the thunder someday?'

'Will I also fly one day in the skies like the Man of Steel from Metropolis does?'

A brilliant fire shone in his bright blue eyes and he clenched his fist trying to hold in his excitement. But as he continuously circulated his chakra, his heart became calm once again.

"For ordinary people I'm powerful... but someone like Superman could squash me like a bug... I'm still weak. Pitifully so."

"Before smashing mountains with a single punch, I have to be able to smash this log first."

"Ojisan used to say 'A ten-thousand miles trip starts with a single step!'. As a child, I didn't understand these words back then. But now I do: looking at the peak of the mountain can make me miss the ravine from its base...There's no use in thinking about smashing mountains with a single punch. That's foolish. It's like an ant dreaming of becoming a god. I'll set myself realistic goals and then gradually surpass them one by one. I'm sure that one day I'll surely reach there!"

Having set his new goal and having gotten more resolute in his resolve to become much stronger in order to protect his sister, Naruto turned his attention back to his own body.

"Compared to grandpa who could be said to have reached a perfect grade of 10 with the Monkey Fist Kung Fu style and with his Bo staff, I'm different." Naruto said to himself.

"I'm more like a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. If I were to give myself a grade, I'd say I'm a 6 with the Monkey Fist Kung Fu... 7 with Muay Thai... an 8 with Taekwondo and a 6 with Aikido...mm not right, 5 with Aikido."

Naruto had very keen eyes and, as something that his own grandfather had instilled in him, he was very unbiased when he analysed his own skills. Therefore, his assessment of his own skills was very accurate. But looking down on these apparently average grades would be a mistake because, for example, most of the Taekwondo black belts didn't pass the grade of 7 in Naruto's eyes.

In an ordinary martial artist's eyes, Naruto could be considered a master...but after having trained his entire life together with a Kung Fu legend, Naruto's standards became different from those of normal people. While others considered Naruto to be a master of Muay Thai and Taekwondo and also very proficient with Kung Fu, Naruto didn't see himself that way. That's because he was always comparing his level of skill with that of his grandpa. And he always saw himself as lacking in comparison to Sarutobi Hiruzen.

That being said, Naruto's fighting style was extremely similar to that of those highly trained MMA fighters, it being a mixture of various martial arts. And from the 4 martial arts he was proficient with, what Naruto used the most in fights were Taekwondo's kicks and Muay Thai's elbows and knee kicks. These were some of the fastest and most lethal attacks in hand-to-hand combat.

Having these thoughts in mind, Naruto decided resolutely:

"Alright! 500 low kicks, 500 high kicks and 100 hundred spinning kicks. I'm not taking a break even if it kills me!"

Scene break

Six hours later a heavily breathing Naruto was lying exhausted on the ground beside the large wooden log. His face was as white as a sheet and he looked like he had anaemia... the reason for that was that he had lost a large amount of blood.

After kicking the wooden log just a few tens of times the skin covering his tibia couldn't take the punishment anymore and raw wounds opened. But this time, knowing that concentrating the energy inside his body on the wounded place would heal it very fast, he wasn't worried at all. After just a few minutes of intense concentration, the skin tissue regenerated and his bone strengthened. However, while chakra regenerated his flesh and bones, it couldn't restore the blood that was lost in a short amount of time.

By the time Naruto finished those 1100 kicks he had lost count of how many times the flesh on his legs had been ripped off, that being the case even more than so when he started to perform variations of the "Konoha Senpuu" on the log. Every time it happened, the pain was excruciating because the shin was one of the most sensitive regions of one's body.

It was a cruel method of training and no sane person would willingly and repeatedly hurt himself like that just so he could get stronger. But from this point of view, Naruto could be considered insane. No sacrifice was too big or too painful for him if at the end of the day his sister was happy and safe. It could be said that for Naruto Misaki wasn't just his sister. She was his reason to live. Her happiness was the reason for everything he did.

When Naruto finally caught up his breath he took a better look at how the training ground looked like, in particular to the obscene amount of blood that painted the large log and its immediate vicinity.

"Oh crap! How will I explain this to Misaki-chan?"

But there was no way he was going to clean it up. He was so tired that he found it a miracle that he wasn't unconscious already. He had lost a large amount of blood and his chakra has long since been exhausted. He just wanted to sleep.