27 27. Reaching level 10

"No, I will attend next year," said Aiko, looking at the place where the man had died.

"Death is something common in a shinobi's life, many people lose their lives during missions" said Shisui closing his eyes, but the moment before it closed the three tomoes in his eyes merged taking on a four-point pinwheel pattern before returning to normal.

Aiko looked at the boy beside him, because unlike his calm voice, shisui's aura was filled with guilt and shame, when he said the latter half of the sentence.

"It might be uncomfortable, but it is the job of a shinobi to do everything he can to protect what is important." he said looking at the boy with a smile, he had noticed that the boy was uncomfortable even though he had a calm face as he kept glancing at the spot the man had died.

Aiko nodded his head, he wasn't feeling sad or scared seeing some unknown man who clearly had ill will towards him die. He actually did not care, the same when he read about the death of some unknown clansmen or the village he had no memories of.

But he was able to perceive life slowly leaving the man as he collapsed to the ground and his emotions of hatred, fear and despair as he realised he was about to die was so intense before it just vanished without a trace like it was an illusion when he lost his life, and this experience of death itself made him uncomfortable.

............

'Ding! Host has levelled up

All attributes +1

Free Attribute points +3

Congratulations, Host for reaching level 10, a skill enhancer card has been obtained.'

Aiko heard the notification pop in his head as he completed his 200th push up on the training field, It had been a few weeks since the incident on the streets and September was coming to an end.

Kushina was expected to give birth on the tenth of October, both Kushina and Minato seemed happy and a bit nervous as the date was nearing, Aiko was also happy and curious about what the baby would look like.

He had been visiting Ichiro's house a few times the past months to see Sasuke, and also train with her(Ichiro) and he wondered if the hokage's mansion will also be covered with a more warm atmosphere as the Uchiha household currently was.

There was also an old lady who visited the house frequently the past few days and Aiko learned that she was the wife of the Third Hokage, Biwako Sarutobi and will help with the delivery of the baby.

.............

Aiko opened his status thinking about the free attributes points as he got information that he could assign them any attribute he wished, the thing that got him excited was the skill enhancer card, which allowed any skill it was used upon to level up.

Status:

Name: Aiko

Level: 9->10

Strength: 11->12

Agility: 16->17

Stamina: 13->14

Vitality: 17->18

Intelligence: 14->15

Charm: 12->13

Skills: calm mind [innate], Chakra assimilation [innate] mapping [lvl 5], Instinct manipulation [lvl 3], chakra molding[lvl 6], Seal creation [lvl 5], Chakra control [lvl 5], Presence concealment [lvl 4]

.........….

Aiko thought for a bit and decided to use the card on the skill that was with him longer than others but was still quite low in level.

He 'touched' the card in the skill interface, it had a picture of a clock on it, whose hands seemed to be speeding up, giving a mysterious feeling, the card broke into colour full specks and Aiko's skill window appeared in front of him with all his skills listed on it.

The innate skills were in red while the normal skills were coloured green and Aiko understood that innate skills couldn't be levelled up.

He focused his gaze on the instinct manipulation skill and heard a prompt ring in his mind.

'Ding! Do you wish to use the skill enhancer card, on instinct manipulation skill?

-yes

-no',

Aiko selected yes and watched as the colour full specks from the card got absorbed by the skill window and the instinct manipulation skill shined with rainbow light for a few seconds before going to normal and it's level increased from 3 to 4.

'Ding! Skill: Instinct Manipulation has levelled up'

Skill: instinct manipulation[lvl 4]

Allows the host to heighten or dampen selected instincts, and manipulate instincts, consuming stamina when active based on degree of usage.'

Aiko felt a warm current flow through him as he heard the notification and felt his instinct become sharper than ever, his senses enhanced and the stamina consumption for the usage of the skill reduced by half.

'The upgrade seems a bit more this time', thought Aiko as the previous level up had only reduced the consumption of stamina.

Next he focused on the free attribute points and decided to add them all into his stamina, because skills and seals were his important methods of combat and both of them depended on stamina. His stamina increased from 14 to 17 points.

Aiko spent his time training, he was now practising the three basic jutsus and was able to perform them properly, but he had a feeling that they could be still quicker and simplified.

Kakashi on his day off went to visit the graves of his friends, the people he had failed to protect, it had become a habit of his and it was his method of dealing with the guilt.

"Rin, The date of child birth had been expected to be 10th of october, my mission also ends on that day" said Kakashi, standing in front of the memorial tablet which had names of all the ninjas that had died on mission. There was a bouquet of fresh flowers at the feet of the tablet.

Kakashi also spoke about many things, about the recent incidents in his life, how he had trained a kid who seemed more talented and level headed than him and also apologized for the nth time for failing to protect her, not noticing that there was a phantom hiding behind the tree listening to his speech.

'So, the seal will be weakened by childbirth huh?' thought the phantom digesting the news and forming a plan in its mind. 'Konoha, it is time to pay some interest' it thought with hatred before disappearing.

Kakashi, not knowing that he had leaked top secret information, looked at the memorial tablet with guilt before he headed back home.

............

"Lord Fourth, my team of ANBU will be better suited to the job than Kakashi's" said Third Hokage as he sat in the Hokage office, listening to Minato's plan.

"They are all veterans and they have more experience in this type of missions." he added, because Kakashi was still young and this matter was of utmost importance to the village.

Minato thought for a moment and decided it was a good idea, he will not reject any extra protection as it was an important day.

"I will inform the leader and all will go according to the plan" said Third taking a puff from his ever present pipe.

"Biwako said the child and mother are in perfect health, so advance congratulations Minato-kun" he said smiling at the man in front of him.

"Thank you, lord third for your auspicious words." said Minato with a smile on his face. Actually he was more nervous than Kushina about this whole affair.