8 2/2

The impromptu hit I received to my right kidney was nothing compared to the knee he received to his sternum. And just as his mouth opened for a gasp of air and my left fist was traveling to his mouth from under his own still extended right arm, sensei grabbed my shoulder while yelling something.

I stopped my attack and ducked back, Tadashi didn't, and his right hook collided with Ando sensei's face.

Tadashi plopped down gasping for air and holding his broken nose, while I squatted holding my right side. We were both smirking at each other though, completely oblivious to sensei's yells.

My afternoons and nights were spent, as always, training, meditating and reading. I got into the habit of playing with the iron sand while reading or taking notes at home or even swirling the sand in my pocket at the academy. All in all, a kekkei-genkai should be a second nature to the user, right?

From time to time, I also walked around the village, mostly at nights, to calm my mind from all the training and melancholy. I found another dungeon at the back of the hot springs in the expensive part of the village, it was packed with big red salamanders that spat fire and were immune to genjutsu. The dungeon itself was a deteriorating version of the hot springs, set at dusk and with ponds filled with water so hot that a thick mist covered the whole area. The dungeon boss was a double headed giant salamander the size of a cow and just as fat which also spat fire from both mouths.

It really didn't make much sense to fight fire spitting animals in the middle of the hot springs, but I was forced to fight over the water, so I maxed that skill. I also got a cool unique drop from the boss, although it was worthless for me:

Salamander Skin Belt- Said to be made from the skin of the ageless Salamander King Fudo to help those who enjoy loneliness.Quality: UniqueGives complete immunity to intrusive genjutsu.

It was a reddish-black belt that looked more like an old and slightly torn sash or a weird scarf, covered on very small opaque scales that felt rough to the touch. I saved it in my inventory until I could find a use for it, next to the gleaming golden pincers I got from the beetles.

The next dungeon I found was an abandoned warehouse in the red-light district of the village, full of large rabid raccoons that attacked in packs and a huge ninja dog as the boss that inflicted Bleeding Status with each bite.

The amount of experience I was receiving from dungeon dives was incredible, and that dungeon in particular was so full of enemies it became my favorite place to visit. I got two new jutsu from those dives, and they both were great.

Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique. Lvl 1 (1%)A rank- Creates physical copies of thrown weapons while they are on the air.Requirements: 70% Chakra control.Cost: 100 Chakra Points per copy.

Petrifying Gaze Technique. Lvl 1 (1%)C rank- When looking at the eyes of the enemy, immobilizes your opponent for a few seconds.Requirements: 50% Chakra ControlCost: 50 Chakra Points per use

The first one was fucking amazing. If I remembered correctly, it created physical copies of shuriken or kunai like the shadow clone jutsu. I couldn't learn it yet as I needed more chakra control and the chakra cost was high, about 200 chakra points per clone with my current control, but given time…

The second was a jutsu I never heard of, but it was very useful. All I needed to do was maintain eye contact for a second and the target would be immobilized for a moment. It was amazingly useful against the raccoon packs in that last dungeon, as I could immobilize one of the attackers while I dealt with the others. The chakra cost was steep, but it paid off.

After I completed the advanced taijutsu practice and the skill maxed out, I went to old man Yataro's.

"How's academy treating you boy?"

"Well enough, boring at times."

He kept smoking his pipe while reading the book on is lap, one about conflicting laws between clans and village regimes. He was an avid reader of anything he could get his hands on, I learned. He already lent me a lot of semi-obscure books about shinobi arts and history during my academy years. He had a collection of political treaties from Stone, some medical textbooks from Konoha, a puppet design manual from Suna… I was convinced some of those were banned in Kumo.

"I finished the advanced taijutsu book. It was amazing by the way, so thank you for that. Your notes about stability and balance while maintaining an advantageous weight distribution were really us-"

"Those weren't my notes, Kioshi," he interrupted me, "those were my father's."

Ok, wait. First, he called me by my name, then he told me that was his father's personal book and he actually lent it to me?

"I… I…Thank you, sir." I answered with a deep breath.

The next Saturday he handed me a dusty handwritten book full of diagrams and schemes of katas and crossed out notes on limb positions and whatnot.

"My father named it 'Veiled Fist', it is not easy and it still needs some work around the edges. I couldn't finish it, so I leave it in your hands."

And that's how I got my hands on an extremely rare taijutsu style, and how I started to visit the old man two times a week, always bringing strong tea and some snacks.

Veiled Fist Lvl. 1 (1%)- A difficult to telegraph and difficult to master taijutsu style, it also takes advantage of hidden weaponry to inflict damage.Increases unarmed and armed melee damage by 1%.

Sadako came back injured from the chunin exams in Iwa and had to spend some days at the hospital.

She was promoted to chunin along one of her teammates but the other one, the son of the council member, lost an eye, three fingers and almost went deaf. He decided to retire from the shinobi life and take over the family business.

When I went to visit her at the hospital, I found Sadako lying on the bed. Her other teammate was sitting right next to the bed, holding her hand.

Name: Maro Kanada.Title: Chunin of Kumo.Level: 35Age: 13Maro is a chunin from Kumo and wants to become a respectable member of the shinobi force, just like his parents.Relationship level: Good.

"Chipmunk!" She half smiled half yelled when I entered the room. "I'm so glad to see you!"

I walked to her bedside, looking at the bandages that covered the right side of her head and her right upper arm.

"Are you ok?" I asked her as calmly as I could.

"I got hit hard on the last round of the exams, a fire jutsu. I won that fight but couldn't continue the next one." She took a breath before continuing. "I'm ok now, the medics patched me up there and the doctor here said at most I might end up with a scar on my head. B-But hey! Maro here won the whole thing!"

Her tone, the bags under her eyes, the insincerity of her smile… I looked at her intently. "What happened?"

"I… I just co-"

She shut her eyes tightly, a couple of tears streaming down her cheeks.

"It was too much for her, for us." Maro spoke while holding her hand, "We got ambushed by a team of Ame genin during the second part; I almost lost my right leg from a sword and Sadako almost got hit with poisoned senbon. Eventually we got the upper hand, but they didn't surrender… the last one standing blew herself and her injured teammates up with a bunch of exploding notes that she had hidden under her shirt." Sadako whimpered and Maro held her hand tightly. "It was… gruesome. I tackled Sadako down but Kuniaki was too close… We ran and carried him to the rendezvous point as fast as we could, he was bleeding out to fast, but sensei and the medics couldn't do much to remove the shrapnel. He was escorted here to Kumo with the other teams. We… we decided to stay and complete the exams." He paused for a moment with his eyes shut. "That… that explosion… her teammates were still alive!"

I held Sadako's other hand until she stopped crying.

After her recovering, Sadako decided that it was enough and entered Kumo's medic program to train to be a med-nin. I saw her even less frequently, but from what she said on those rare occasions, she was doing great. The Shinobi Hospital had just a few medic nins and fewer genin interested on following the career, they were severely understaffed and underfunded. But Sadako was happy to be saving lives instead of taking them, always looking up to be the new Tsunade; a nasty scar over her neck and right ear as a constant reminder of that day.

Before I realized, it was the end of the academy year and I was still training full time day and night, and dungeon diving on Sunday mornings.

Ding!

Quest Completed!Let's see how far we go.

Graduate the Academy

Rewards:+1500 Exp, Master-level Antidote (3), Forked Lightning technique scroll.New Title available.

Ding!

You have received a new title!

Title: Genin of Kumo.15% faster Skill growth, better rep with residents of the Land of Lightning.

The academy graduation exams were easy.

Stand over water -not walk over water, just stand-, release a genjutsu, make a clone, show the replacement and the transformation techniques, show the first step of nature transformation -the leaf one- for extra credits, fight with a classmate and answer these questions about village politics, ninja history and general shinobi knowledge.

That was it, and about a third of the kids failed the written exam or couldn't stand over water for more than three seconds; most couldn't complete the nature transformation exercise.

"Pretty shitty batch of genin this year it seems. Grandpa always complains about how 'shinobi are not as they used to be' and shit, but man... even some orphans passed the exams but one of the fucking Mizuno twins failed the written portion. Fuck."

Tadashi wasn't happy. We were sitting at class, both with brand new hitai-ate on our foreheads. The day after the exams, the official last day of academy, we were supposed to hear different lectures of how our teachers were proud of us and how they hoped the best for us and all. Half of the class, myself included, were bored as hell.

"Any bets on team placement?" Tadashi asked me.

"Not a clue." I answered.

From the quest completion, I received some antidotes that might come in handy if I ever encounter a poison my resistance couldn't handle.

Master-level Antidote- A high priced antidote that cures most poisons and venoms.Cures up to A rank toxins. Drinkable.

The lighting jutsu, on the other hand... maybe if I ever learn Lighting Release, I might give it a try.

Lighting Release: Forked Lightning.B rank.- The user emits a lightning bolt that jumps to nearby enemies.Requirements: 50% Chakra Control, Lightning Release Lvl. 30

"So, before we move into team placements," sensei spoke loudly, interrupting my personal musings, "the best student award goes to Kioshi Shirasu. Congratulations."

Some kids clapped, other didn't give a rat's ass and Tadashi just turned his eyes and muttered something along the lines of "fucking baby genius stealing my spot".

"Now, team 1 will be Kioshi Shirasu, Kazuya Fuse and Tadashi Horiushi. You'll meet your sensei at training ground 13 after lunch…"

I looked to my right, only to find Tadashi giving the stinky eye to the Fuse kid. He looked back and nodded his head with a lopsided smile on his face; his wakizashi resting at his side, propped against the desk.

Kazuya Fuse, good with the sword and talented in taijutsu. He was a reserved kid, staying mostly to himself and rarely talking in class, but he always wore a proud expression on his face.

Name: Kazuya Fuse.Title: Academy student.Level: 17Age: 11Kazuya is a genin from Kumo and wants to win his father's approval.Relationship level: Neutral.

'His father's approval?' Maybe I leveled the Observation skill to the point it was finally showing more information, useless as it was.

After all the teams where called, Kazuya came over to talk to us.

"Hey," he said offering his hand and smiling, "I'm Kazuya Fuse. Should we go have lunch together?"

"Look man," Tadashi quickly responded, "not to be an asshole or anything, but go fuck yourself a little and then a little bit more. I eat alone and this one here," he said pointing at me, "he doesn't eat lunch here at all." He turned around and walked away with his hands in his pockets. He was pissed about something, probably because I took the top spot from him.

Before I could say anything, Kazuya shrugged his shoulders and walked the other direction. 'Well, as long as they work together as a team, everything should be alright.'

After lunch, Kazuna and Tadashi were waiting for me at the academy's entrance. All the last year kids were there, some showing their families their brand new hitai-ate with varying degrees of happiness while some others had tears in their eyes and were being consoled by others.

"Do you know where training ground 13 is?" Kazuya asked me.

I nodded and began walking in the direction of the training grounds, both teammates were following me.

The three of us wore almost the same attire; blackish ninja pants and short sleeved t-shirts and dark blue ninja sandals. Tadashi still wore his bandages around his right hand and a purple scarf over his neck. Kazuya was wearing his hitai-ate on his left arm just below the shoulder and was wearing a brown leather strip across his chest to hold his sword's scabbard in his back; the wooden handle of his wakizashi pointing up between his messy black hair. I was wearing the same outfit, the Rat pendant tucked in between my chest and my t-shirt and a Kunai pouch on my right thigh. I bought a new pair of gloves after I outgrew my old ones, and my new ninja sandals were completely closed, in contrast to the more common open toe sandals my teammates were wearing. Everything else I had stashed in my inventory; the empty sealing scrolls, the poison capsules, the antidotes, etc.

"Who do you think we'll get as our jonin sensei?" Kazuya asked trying to make small talk while we walked.

"Well, we were among the best of our generation and we have the local genius fuck here too, so I'm betting on some powerful jonin."

He was right, the three of us were on the upper levels of our graduating class. Kazuya was level 19, Tadashi was 21 and I was already at level 23. I've been training myself to the ground -blood, sweat and tears- and it was showing.

"Like who? From what I known, only low to mid-level jonins are assigned genin teams. So I don't think we'll be getting Dodai or B-sama…" Kazuya answered.

"Can't we get an ANBU jonin?" I asked specifically to Kazuya.

"Unlikely, the clan head is always complaining about the lack of ANBU members and how they need more recruits. I don't believe they have the personnel to assign to genin teams. Besides, inner regulations state that only a regular jonin can take a genin team, an ANBU member would have to resign first."

"Shit. Well, let's hope for a strong jonin, I have a lot of training to do yet to start my storm release transformation."

"Did you finish your Water release basic training?" I asked.

"Nah, I don't need to, I can force it anyway. I just need to improve the chakra molding and work on the fucking hand signs."

"It's always better to finish at least the intermediate exercise of one element before moving to another, especially if it's a nature combination." Kazuna responded "That's what dad says anywa-"

"Yeah yeah, fuck that. I know what I'm doing, ok?"

"What about you Kazuna, what's your affinity?" I asked.

"Lightning. I'm practicing now channeling chakra through metal so once I finish the intermediate lightning training, I can flow lighting chakra through my sword. What about you, what's your affinity?"

"Wind." I simply responded.

He nodded and we continued to walk in silence.

We arrived at training ground 13 and sit down under a tree. Kumo's training grounds were a collection of flatlands located in three small valleys to the east of Kumogakure. Small if you compare them to those huge lower valleys that surrounded the mountain range where the village was located; in reality, the training grounds were large and were divided by four-feet tall stone barriers. Training ground 13, the last one, was deep into the valley, at the base of a small set of almost impassable stony hills that marked the outer rim of Kumogakure. It was mostly covered in grass and scattered with big rocks and some huge trees. Now that was the middle of spring, those trees bore countless green leaves that danced with the winds. At the center of the training ground was a small clearing with ten straw dummies, that's where we plopped down to wait for our sensei.

"So, what's your specialty, fucker?" Tadashi asked Kazuya.

"Kenjutsu, taijutsu and a little bit of genjutsu, but you already knew that. I want to specify on kenjutsu and lightning release and want to develop some mid-range jutsu for support. You?"

"Taijutsu and shurikenjutsu mostly, I want to develop lightning jutsu to complement my close quarter fighting and once I get a hold on the fucking storm release y want to specify on ninjutsu. I've been practicing a fucking lot my chakra control and improving my chakra pool. My sister has a fucking dreadful training routine she promised me she would start me on after I graduated, so I'll be bothering her today to start that shit."

They both looked at me.

"I'm a close quarter fighter too, taijutsu and kunai wielding. I have a good aim-"

"Good aim? We know you asshole can hit a fly with your left hand from a hundred feet away while holding your dick with the other hand. Fucking kid, trying to be modest and all."

"Ok, ok," I continued, "I've got great aim with shuriken and kunai. I'm good at genjutsu too-"

Tadashi scoffed looking at me.

"I'm fucking great at genjutsu and basic ninjutsu, ok?" I looked at Tadashi annoyed. "I want to improve my wind manipulation to use with my blades and–"

I stopped talking and turned my head to the west. A small disturbance was heading our way, I could feel metal moving in our direction.

That was another thing I discovered when training the magnet release, I could passively feel or sense metal all around me, specifically when such object was moving. Since all shinobi wore metal, be it kunai, a hitai-ate or the metal reinforced jonin vest, I could sense with varying degrees of precision any ninja around me. I could clearly feel Kazuya's wakizashi, Tadashi's kunai filled holster and our respective hitai-ates.

But right now, we turned to see a blonde figure walking in our direction from the entrance of the training ground 13.

When she came closer, I recognized her immediately and, for the first time in months, I genuinely smiled.

Name: Yugito Nii.Title: Jinchuriki.Level: ?Age: 20Yugito is the jinchuriki of the Two Tails, Matatabi. She's a loyal shinobi of Kumo and takes pride in her status as jinchuriki.Relationship level: Very Good.

"Hello all." She said when she was close enough.

My teammates had their eyes fixed on her, slack-mouthed.

"Holy fucking shit, Yugito fucking Nii! Are you our sensei or is this another fucking joke from my sister?"

"Tadashi Horiuchi, Kazuya Fuse, Kioshi Shirasu; I'm Yugito Nii. I've been assigned as Team 1's jonin sensei."

I felt a huge weight drop off my shoulders; she was alive and well! She looked just as the first day I met her years ago. You could tell she grew up a little, but somehow, she looked younger, she looked calmed, happy even. Her hair flowed with the wind, glistening under the sunlight, no longer braided.

"Hello, I'm Kazuya Fude."

"I'm Tadashi."

The three of them were waiting for me to speak.

"I'm Kioshi Shirasu."

A small smile dangled on the corner of her lips before turning serious and straightening her back.

"Team 1, you were chosen to be a heavy hitter and front-line unit to serve the Land of Lightning as proud shinobi of Kumogakure. I was assigned as your sensei to teach you the ways of shinobi, I willtrain you to the ground and farther below, and you will be thankful for it. You will become the best team of the decade and I," she leaned a bit towards us, narrowing her eyes with a sinister smile adorning her face, "I do not fail. Do you understand?"

We all smirked.

"Yes." Kazuya answered.

Tadashi and I nodded.

"Good." She continued with a stern expression, "Get some spare clothes and extra weapons, have a big breakfast: tomorrow we start your training here at 8 am sharp. Dismissed."

As Tadashi and Kazuya nodded and began walking away, both with a small smirk on their faces, Yugito turned to me.

"Kioshi, a word?"

The muscles in her face tightened forcing a poker face, but her worried gaze betrayed her.

"Have you eaten recently?" She asked me blatantly.

I was struck back a little but answered with a dubious look.

"I… have."

"Good," she continued, "have you been taking showers, doing your laundry, cleaning up your house?"

"I have." I responded. It wasn't a lie, I did take care of my hygiene daily, I sweat a lot when training, and I clean the house every other week; it's not like I mess up the place much neither. What was she digging for with these questions?

"Good," she answered taking a more relaxed posture "I was worried you were… I know your parent's death must have been painful, but you helped me once when no one did and I don't want you to end up in that same place. Your file said you barely speak with anyone besides that old jonin Yataro Sada and that Hirano girl, and even then, you barely see them on a weekly basis. You don't even try to make friends and always went straight home after class. Look Kioshi, that detaching behavior is a sign of deteriorating mental health, and I… I think you're deliberately avoiding human interaction to protect yourself from something. I don't know if you understand me-"

"I understand," I interrupted her looking down to my feet, pain in my words, "You're right, I've been isolating myself, maybe to avoid dealing with my parent's death…" 'And to cover the fact that I'm not really a kid and I'm already tired of this fucking world.' I added bitterly in my mind. "It's just, for those who haven't lived it it's hard to comprehend, but it's worse to listen for us who have. Desperation, that is." She was right, I was avoiding the truth, that I was stuck in this world without knowing when or if I'll ever wake up from the coma, that this was a world I didn't comprehend, and I was mostly alone.

"Hey." she interrupted my thoughts. I raised my head and looked at her now caring eyes. "In this line of work, we need to be strong, mentally strong. We need to find a reason to do what we do and find people we care about and trust. I'll be there for you, Kioshi, always, and I'll train you as best as I can."

My mouth curved upwards a little.

"Thank you."

"To start," she continued, her expression stern again as if nothing had happened, "I want you to invite your teammates for lunch tomorrow."

"That's… a good idea." I answered.

I wasn't hopeless, and as she left the training grounds, I made up my mind. Fuck the timeline, fuck Madara and fuck the Otsutsukis; I finally had something worth fighting for.

New Quest.

- Whenever I saw a wildflower lie.Protect Yugito.

Rewards:?

'If there's something worth saving in this world, it's you.'

. . . - . . - - - . . . - . . .

"So," the Raikage started the meeting, "reports on the new genin?" Ten folders were stacked on top of his desk, and ten jonin stood in front of him.

"Meh, team 3 was a disappointment. They didn't talk to each other because both girls had a crush on the same kid, while the other teammate was screaming at the top of his lungs for them to shut up. You can tell the kid was the dead last, but the other two girls don't have the wood to be shinobi." A green haired jonin spoke. "Get it? Wood? They don't have the wood bec-"

"Silence!" Interrupted the Raikage. In all his years as the leader of the Village Hidden in the Clouds -which were only a few since his father's death during the third war- he's never been able to completely restrain his shinobi. In fact, disregarding his brother who was an oddity by himself, every jonin in Kumo seemed to have some sort of eccentricity which always translated to them breaking protocol and speaking out of place.

"In order!" He continued, looking at the figure of a young woman standing in the back of the group. She was reserved, she was proud, she was strong. 'A fine example of how a jinchuriki should be trained.'

"Yes A-sama." Yugito Nii began. "All members of team one aced their genin exams and are as exceptional as their files stated. The three of them are strong enough to be trained as a heavy hitter team and seem to accept each other as teammates. Tadashi Horiuchi might have an issue with authority if his cursing is anything to go by, but all three were eager to start."

"What about the young one?" The Raikage asked.

"Kioshi Shirasu," she continued with a poker face, "From what I saw during his graduation exams, an extremely capable shinobi for his age… He-"

"C'mon Yugito," the jonin standing next to her interrupted, "not even Yondaime-sama graduated with perfect scores. Is he really that smart?"

"No, not smart" she replied, her gaze a bit unfocused, "He seemed… old."

Author's Note:

So sorry for taking so long to update. Got a call from my old job to work on a very late project and we were running around like crazy. Also, I went on vacations afterwards and was able to write a lot, but with such a slow and extremely sporadic internet connection I couldn't access the websites I normally use to check grammar and spelling. So, it took time.

That small third person portion?, I'm planning of adding those at the end of each chapter to help showcase the state of the Naruto world outside of Kioshi's personal pov.

Regarding some questions: Don't worry too much about Stat points, the system was set from the beginning and all the growth curves are already estimated. Kioshi basically receives double the points each level in comparison to normal characters (1 point per stat vs 0.5 per stat), and that's disregarding training.

And in case you haven't noticed, I normally go through the old chapters to correct any spelling mistakes and update them. Only spelling or grammar mistakes, no changes to the story whatsoever.

The story will get some momentum now, and training montages will be shorter and less frequent starting the next chapter.

Edit: chapter reviewed for spelling mistakes... there were quite a few.

As always, point out any mistakes you find, and a big thank you to those who already did!