The New Normal!

AN: A couple of things before we start onto the next chapter, I want the setting of the world to be something along the likes of some form of talent is necessary to become a Kage or even a Jounin, and before you guys throw Lee or Guy at my face, listen to my argument year?

So consider the Naruto world for a minute okay, it is a world filled with bandits and missing-nin of unknown strength roaming around the world, with wars erupting every 5 years, and conflict among the 5 biggest shinobi nations. Other than the Elite shinobi like Kakashi, Guy, and every other Kage-level shinobi, everyone is vulnerable to death.

Now let's say that everyone can become as strong as Rock Lee or Guy if they work hard, practice like crazy with weights, and all that shit. That just makes the whole building a joke, if anyone can just train like a madman, and since no one is safe in the grand scheme of things, why would there be no one other than Guy, Lee, and Duy who was able to become a Kage with just strong Taijutsu.

Alright, I won't count Kage as Guy and Lee can only be Kage-level if they have to open the Eight Gates to reach that level. But they could be solid or even High/ Elite Jounin without the gates, that just means that no shinobi in the grand scheme of things should be a chunin, at least everyone should have jounin or even Kage level strength or speed if it could simply be trained.

I hope you guys agree with me, you can consider it as the fact that everyone has different reaction times, and you can train your reaction time with exercises, but everyone has different ceilings. So, long story short, there is a bit of a talent gap in this story.

Second Point, I'll be honest, if you don't like reading short chapters, honestly yeah honestly, set a time each week like Friday or Sunday, and read 7k words worth of content in a go. I'll be honest, I have tried to reach demands of longer chapters in the past and it doesn't work out. You see I can write 1k chapters every day no problem, maybe the story would be a little more fractured but when the story's done I'll combine chapters to make each chapter 3-4k words long. My problem is that if I don't post 1 chapter a day, I'll be lazy to post another thinking I have to make up words to complete the word limit and then it becomes a whole cycle of the story on Hiatus like every other time.

I don't mind fighting with you on my ideas of the Naruto world, so keep them coming yeah? But sadly I'll ignore the ones complaining about short chapters.

Now on with the story!

P.S.- The ANB after the years in the timestamp stands for After Naruto's Birth. I couldn't find a perfect timeline so I'll be using this one for reference to the story -naruto.fandom.com/wiki/User:Seelentau/Naruto_Timeline#1st_January_to_31st_December_0

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{Training ground, Konoha Academy, Konohagakure}

{5:45 PM, 1st April 12 Yrs ANB}

{Ren's POV} (AN: 1st time trying the 1st person type, tell me if you like it or I should go back)

...

"Hah... Hah..." I panted as I struggled to stand up, I had decided to add another plate to my leg warmers earlier today and after going through another boring day at the academy I was going through my usual exercise routine.

'This is a lot harder than I thought it would be...' I thought as I slowly collapsed on the ground, the grass was warm and it provided a warm surface for me to laze around.

'Ah, this is heavenly...'

The grass was warm, and as I wiped away my sweat with my hands, the splattering of warmth that was seeping through the treeline was a relieving experience.

'My legs feel dead...'

I knew I was over-exhausting my body every day before going to sleep every day my legs go stiff, but when I woke up the next morning nothing hurt and everything was back to normal.

'It is a weird feeling knowing that I can abuse my body as much as I want and the minor wounds would automatically be healed by the next morning.'

Life has been a bit weird ever since I walked into the clan class, I never expected to find myself here, growing stronger every day, stronger than I ever thought I could become.

"Here, drink up!" I heard Ino speak from beside me, she didn't run the full 50 laps so she should have rested a bit by now, I for the love of Kami couldn't figure out why the blond had been trying to be my friend, it was confusing at first but then I accepted this weird relationship as the new normal.

I reached out and grabbed the bottle from her hands, I took a couple of sips before gulping a few mouthfuls of water. The sensation of cold water going down my throat was one replaced by the feeling of bliss as I leaned back and enjoyed the last rays of sun before it ducked under the horizon.

"How many did you do?" I asked after a few minutes, the sun was slowly going down and I still had to go through a full set of physical conditioning exercises to go through. I hopped on my feet a couple of times, feeling the extra weight dragging me down.

"I did 28 today!" Ino replied, her eyes shined with pride so I nodded in her general direction.

"You know what's next don't you," I said as I dropped down and started doing pushups, the dissatisfaction that I had with my leg weights was more clear like this. While the weights were definitely helpful when I did exercises focused on DEX, they became useless when doing strength training exercises.

'Unless I go back to the shop and purchase the weighted vest, my STR stat will start to lag behind.'

It's been a month since the classes started, and while the classes have been boring I had to bless the boredom since I accidentally discovered another method to train my chakra control by playing around with my chakra.

"Can't we take a break, I know this barbeque place that should be open that makes the best steak in Konoha" Ino complained but she still dropped down and started doing pushups. While I didn't like Ino in the beginning it was nice not having to exercise alone, plus she was pretty to look at which was a plus in my books.

Ino had a slim and graceful figure, she was around 4 and a half feet tall. She possessed long, flowing platinum blonde hair that cascaded down her back, framing her face with loose bangs that partially covered her forehead. I learned through one of her fights with Sakura that Ino was a little insecure about her name. She was vain sometimes and her hair was often styled with a red ribbon tied into a little bit of a ponytail, adding a touch of color to her overall look.

However if you asked me, I would say her most striking feature was her large and expressive blue eyes, which were often filled with determination and a hint of mischief. Her eyes are framed by long, dark eyelashes, and she still maintains her purple-dominated fashion sense.

'Stop being an idiot and focus on your stats.' I scolded myself and looked back at the impressive transformation I had gone through.

...

[Status Window]

[Name: Ren]

[Title: Academy Student]

[Level: 11 Next Level: 1851/2000]

[Chakra: 240/240]

[STR: 19]

[VIT: 26]

[END: 25]

[DEX: 47]

[INT: 18]

[CHA: 24]

[Control: 36%]

Money: 2130 Ryo

Attribute Points: 30

...

'Okay so maybe not that impressive but at least throughout the month my DEX had gone up every other day, I need to find a better way to train my strength, running laps with weights on does help with my END so at least I have that covered...' I thought as I once again focused on the VIT stat, it was one of the stats that seemingly wasn't dependent on which exercise he was doing, one time it increased when I was doing pushups while sometimes it increased during my daily laps.

'The VIT stat had me worried in the beginning, with the rate at which my DEX was growing I was worried I would have to spend points to increase my VIT so that I don't have to go through the negative effects that the attributes block once claimed.'

My mind was jumping from one thought to another but by now my arm muscles were starting to burn a little bit, it was a familiar feeling that I had grown used to so I ignored the call in the back of my mind and continued with the routine.

"Ughhh..." Ino groaned as she collapsed on the ground, she was flopping around like a fish before she rolled over and panted as she looked up at the sky.

"You done," I grunted.

"Yeah... huff... huff... why are we doing this again," she gave me a questioning look.

I gave her a blank look, the mischief in her eyes shining again as she crawled to the water bottle and waited for me to finish. A series of sharp pain started flaring up in my arms indicating I was going into dangerous territory again, I paused and controlled my rhythm, decreasing the speed I did a couple more pushups reaching the number 160 before stopping.

'Alright, now time for the crunches...'

"Come on!!!" Ino whined as I ignored her, the sun was finally down and a soft breeze was ruffling through my hair.

'It wasn't like I liked torturing myself,' I defended myself but the sudden block appearing in front of me did cause me to pause for the briefest of seconds. I resisted the urge to smile as I continued to count the number of crunches I was doing in my head.

...

[Through continuous exercise VIT and STR increased by 1.]

...

'Fuck that, I like torturing myself...'

I was comfortable as I grunted a little, I didn't like doing crunches but the block in front of me was the only motivation I needed.

...

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AN- The story is now above 15k words so your power stones count, if you like the story and wanna read more, you know what to do! I wanna challenge the power rankings, as it is the only way for more people to read my story, so every vote counts I am thinking about dedicating at least 2 months (60 chaps) to this story and I hope I can at least get in the top 20 once! We'll see after that!

Also, review the story to let me know how you like it so far!

Peace!!