Chapter 2: The start of the Newbie Taijutsu Ranking

#Author note: Hello everyone. The idea of having a ranking list in Naruto is inspired by the novel 'The Strongest Teacher' by Novelette_Seeker. Thanks to him/her, I was intrigue on why not have the same in Naruto world? So, here I tried to fulfill this little wish of mine. Hopefully you guys enjoy this fanfic, and please leave any feedback if you all have any suggestion. With that, enjoy the story.

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After seeing the first live announcement by the system, Zokuto felt the rush to improve in his Taijutsu training. So, on this five days, he tried the best he could in improving himself. Other than doing his routine training, he also tried to go around the village, and tried his luck on learning others taijutsu's skill.

One time he tried to peek on someone from the Uchiha while that guy trained. However, he did not manage to learn anything from the guy. He instead got chased out and almost suffered some injuries after the guy shoot some shuriken and kunai to him.

Knowing that it was wasting his time on going around learning Taijutsu, he decided to go and ask someone who might have many knowledge regarding Taijutsu. This someone that he choose to consult is someone very close to him.

Today was the second day after the announcement, and Zokuto was sitting on the ground meditating. If someone ask why he was meditating, it is so that he could talk to the Yang Kyuubi inside his body.

Inside a barely visible prison, the Kyuubi opened it's eye when it felt the presence of a human walking towards the door of it's prison. That human is Zokuto in a soul form.

"What are you doing here, Uzumaki brat?" said Kurama, while pretending to be half asleep.

" Hello Kurama. Nice to see you." greeted Zokuto.

The moment he said the Kyuubi's name, the beast stood up. As it stoop on it's four limb, Zokuto could finally see the size of the beast. It was a giant fox, with an intimidating look adding to it's menacing aura.

Kyuubi at this moment was looking at Zokuto warily. It spoke in human tongue and question Zokuto, "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"You know me, Kurama. You have seen me grow since I was a little baby, right?" Zokuto replied, showing a small smile to the fox.

"Come closer. I want to see who you really are."

"No, can't do. The moment I approach you, I'm sure you will try to attack me."

"Brat! I dare you to come close." The beast glared at Zokuto.

"Hey calm down. I didn't come here just to argue with you. I came to ask you on something." said Zokuto.

"Hmph! I have nothing to tell you!" Kurama grunted, and lay back on the floor. However, it was still looking distastefully at the little human outside the prison.

"Teach me some powerful Taijutsu." Zokuto asked in a serious tone.

"I said I don't have anything to tell you. Go away."

Bang!

"I dare you to teach me Taijutsu!"

Zokuto kicked the prison bar and demanded Kyuubi to teach him some Taijutsu. The Kyuubi was shocked silent before it's anger errupted. However, before the Kyuubi showed any reaction, Zokuto already run away and distanced himself from the prison bar.

GRRR!!

"You dare shout to me kid? Come here. Come, let me PLUCK that HEAD OF YOURS!."

"Hahaha. You are easy to get angry."

ROAR!!

The Kyuubi's roar reverberated in the prison for some time. After some time, the Kyuubi stopped roaring.

"You done?"

"..."

"You okay there?"

"..."

"Hello? You there?"

"..."

'He is ignoring me huh' thought Zokuto.

"Okay, sorry. That's my bad." In the end Zokuto tried to reconcile and apologize to Kurama.

"Let's make a deal, okay?"

"..."

"You teach me to become strong, and I will release you from this prison seal." Zokuto no longer played around and stated his deal.

Hearing that Kyuubi turned around and looked intently at Zokuto.

"I don't believe you." said the Kyuubi. "I don't trust your kind." it added.

"Sigh. Tell me then how will I be able to gain your trust."

"Open the seal." Kurama pointed toward the paper seal on the prison bar. Zokuto looked at the beast. 'Is he testing me?' thought Zokuto.

'System, am I in danger if I open the seal?'

[Host need not to worry. The system can help the host to reseal the Kyuubi if it show any intention to threaten the host.]

'Okay. One more thing, if I try to open the seal, will the soul of the fourth Hokage, Minato appear?'

[System is analysing.]

[Analysis complete. The probability is high. Another inscription seal is overlapped on the Eight Trigram Seal. This inscription seal is highly likely of containing the soul of the said fourth Hokage.]

'System, can you separate this seal so that it will not get in the way when I open the Kyuubi's seal?'

[Its doable. System can also keep the soul in another temporary space. Do the host want the system to do that?]

'Oh nice. Please do that.'

[Acknowledged. Task initiated...]

[Task Complete.]

After that, Zokuto jumped and ripped off the seal on the prison door. Seeing this, Kurama was stunned. He didn't expect the kid to be so daring to open the seal. After that, the prison door slowly slide to the side, and the entrance to the prison is now wide open.

"I already complied to your demand. Kurama, lets be friend." Zokuto spoke calmly towards the Ninth Bijuu, while holding out his fist toward the beast.

Kurama was still in shock. He was not expecting Zokuto to open the seal just like that. This made him conclude that Zokuto is a trustworthy person, or the stupidest person. However, he did not know that the system also exist inside Zokuto, which have the ability to contain the Kyuubi back to it's seal.

" Hmph, who want to be your friend." the Kyuubi then turned around, and laid back on the ground.

Zokuto's slowly put away his stretched-out hand.

"So, do we have a deal?"

"Go away. Leave me alone." replied the Kyuubi coldly.

"Hey, is it not enough? Fine, I promise you that I will release you from this place." Zokuto made his bow towards Kurama. Seeing that the beast was unmoved, he added, "I also promise you that I will make you a complete body once again."

Kyuubi trembled for a moment when it heard Zokuto's promise. However, it still did not look back at Zokuto and continued laying down.

Zokuto felt helpless at the beast for being so stubborn. Seeing that it won't budge any time soon, he sighed and walked away, leaving the prison.

"Wait. Take this." Kurama suddenly looked at Zokuto and holds up it's paw. From the paw, it let out a floating liquid like ball and throw it to Zokuto. For the first time, he seriously looked at the boy and demanded, "Don't forget your promise." After that, he resumed to rest in the prison.

Zokuto looked at the Kyuubi for some time, before bowing down, and kept the liquid ball given by the beast. He then left the place.

After Zokuto left, Kurama opened his eyes and looked at the place where Zokuto stand just now.

"If you really want to release me, you need to prepare to die." whispered the beast in silence. For once, Kurama is lost in emotion and has no desire to come out of his prison.

...

After getting out of the sealed space in his body, Zokuto felt the liquid ball evaporates and turned into a fragment of memory.

[An unknown skill which is 70% similar to Eight Inner Gates Release was detected in the memory fragment. Would the host like to learn the skill?]

[An unknown skill which is 95% similar to Gentle Fist was detected in the memory fragment. Would the host like to learn the skill?]

[An unknown skill which is 30% similar to Frog Kata was detected in the memory fragment. Would the host like to learn the skill?]

Three prompt showed in front of Zokuto. All three are skills that are similar to some of skills that he know in the original Naruto story.

"For real?" Zokuto was surprised and felt incredulous. He have been running around out there to find the best Taijutsu skill, only to find it inside of his own body. He didn't know whether to laugh or curse whatever he have been doing all this time. However, it was a good thing that he got these new skills while he still got some time to train before the ranking event.

Zokuto then accepted to learn the skills and the system proceeded to assimilate the skill from the memory fragment into his body. A moment later, Zokuto learned the skills instantly, as if he has known and practised these skill for a very long time.

"The first skill is almost the same as the Eight Inner Gates. However, it got another four additional point or gate in addition tho the eight gates of the Eight Inner Gates. These four points seems to be the points needed to be opened as to prevent one death after opening the eight gate, the Death Gate. Well then, lets call this new skill set as the Twelve Perfect Gates."

[skill name Registered.]

"Oh, I can name the existing skill. In that case I can name the other two too." Zokuto was happy for being able to name the skill.

"The second skill is certaintly have to do with the Hyuuga clan skill. It might be originated from those Hyuuga's ancestors as it seems to be better than the Gentle Fist. It also can shoot some kind of shockwaves? Is this Kame****ha thing? No, the shockwaves is to small and only can be done as a combo in the skill. I don't have a good name for this. North fist...no, Hadou Ken also no. Let just call it like the original, Gentle Fist.

[...Name registered as Advanced Juuken (Gentle Fist)]

'Did the system just make a change to the name I suggested?' thought Zokuto. Well, he did not really care.

"The third skill should be a Bijuu Kata as it is using the tailed beast chakra in tandem with natural energy and one body chakra to perform the Taijutsu."

[Name registered as Bijuu Kata.]

Zokuto then practised those skills. This is to let his body be able to perform the skill as good as he could. Although he already learned the skill, his body still need to get familiar to the skill. With that, he trained the three skill everyday until the deadline days of the ranking list.

On the morning of the fifth day, Zokuto was looking readily at the sky of Konoha Village. Right now, he was sure that his name should be listed high in the rank. He is also 99% confident that he will be listed at the first place in the ranking.

As the sun rose and illuminate the village, another golden light shone upon the sky above Konoha Village. The light spread wide and gradually turned into a golden screen.

- The [Newbie Taijutsu Fighter] will be announced today. Everyone on the ranking will be rewarded and eligible to be in the golden chat by focusing one mind into it. Reminder: the list is only for Ninja below Genin who enrolled in the Ninja Academy.

This golden announcement surprised the villagers in a delightful way. The mention of reward seems to attract their attention the most, especially to those student who has yet to become Genin.

Inuzuka Compound.

While training outside the house, Kiba was stunned when he suddenly saw those glowing notice. Kiba who was barely able to read and train was excited when he understood the golden word. As one who practise Taijutsu, he was excited to know his ranking in the school.

(A/N: lets just assume the kids are able to read, except Naruto).

Kiba who believe his name to be in the list tried to enter the golden chat.

- Inuzuka Kiba: He...llooo. Huh!? Oh yes! I'm on the list!

When Kiba's name appeared in the chat, the other student also tried to enter.

- Hyuuga Neji: So, I'm on the rank.

- Akimichi Choji: I'm on the list too. (Chomp).

- Inuzuka Kiba: Neji and Choji? I understand how Neji can enter in the rank, but Choji too? is not he just fat? Can he do Taijutsu?

Pow!

Kiba was smacked on the head by his mother.

"Watch your language. That screen is above the village, and everyone can see it. Do you want all the members of Akamichi Clan to despise us?" Inuzuka Tsume glared and scolded her son. Kiba grunted but was not brave enough to retort.

In the chat other than the three, it look like no one else managed to enter into the chat, or the others are not interested in talking in it.