Chuunin Exams (1)

My CP was already dangerously low after that prolonged and tedious battle, so I deactivated all of the buffs I currently had on me such as Sharingan and Chakra Enhancement. Then I took a look at the options presented to me and carefully considered my choices.

I scoffed at the second option, first and foremost. Though I couldn't know for sure what the skill entailed, but if it was something like infusing fire nature chakra into my taijutsu, then it was a skill I could create myself with some time. Furthermore, if it was indeed another taijutsu skill, I already had [Shinkyoken], a martial art that was both deadly and practical and a skill that I already levelled up to quite a high level. Having to get familiar with a whole new taijutsu style starting from level one would be too much trouble.

The best part about System imparted skills were that some of them were impossible to replicate purely with chakra. [Power Strike] for example, was truth be told an illogical skill.

At max level, it could increase physical damage dealt by 200%. That was a percentage increase rather than just a base enhancement. Yet, regardless of how much additional damage it provided, it would always only ever consume 50 CP. Such a thing only made sense with the Gamer System.

As such, skills that I could create with my own experimentation with chakra were only secondary. It was the skills offered by the System that broke logic that were truly valuable.

Similarly, the perk [Sharingan Master] was something I felt like I could eventually develop on my own or receive it as a quest reward somewhere down the line. Furthermore it would not be as useful as it sounded, since I already decided to seal away usage of my Sharingan outside of the dungeon.

There were too many eyes on the event, and with the threat of the snake and his spies lurking around at every corner, discovery of my Sharingan by Orochimaru posed an overwhelming threat to my continued freedom and welfare. Thus, I was resolute in not even activating it at any point in time during the chuunin exams.

The reason I entered the dungeon now of all times was for an immediate power up in response to the upcoming exams and unforeseen dangers. As a result, a perk that increased the effectiveness of my Sharingan which I had already decided not to use would be useless.

With the exclusion of the first two options, the only viable choice that remained was the third one which I selected. Hopefully it would not be an unusable garbage item, I hoped.

[Badge of Glorious Victory – Grade: Unique]

Once a symbol of a renowned hero's illustrious contribution to a long lost empire buried in the depths of history, now merely a decorative trinket.

Durability: 7/10

CHA +20

Item Skill: Sublime Conquest

Increases all EXP gain by 10%

I blinked. Huh. A 10% increase to all EXP gained might not sound like a lot, but in the long run, that slight boost would sure to be insanely useful.

Next, I approached and held the glowing purple loot orb that had appeared in place of the defeated Legion Zombie.

[Loot Gained:]

Ancient Weapon Fragment (3/6) - Unique

Intermediate Chakra Potion x50 - Rare

Legion Zombie Heart - Unique

The intermediate chakra potion was one I had already received before, from the mob Uchiha Undead Genin that I had slaughtered before arriving at the Boss fight. But a whole fifty of them were definitely precious loot.

I could only store the Ancient Weapon Fragment with a shrug. Right now, it was completely useless. It's use would only appear once I have gotten my hands on all six of the fragments.

The last item, on the other hand, was something I had never seen before.

[Legion Zombie Heart – Grade: Unique]

The crystallization of the Legion Zombie's essence.

When consumed, permanent +25 to VIT. There is a small chance of developing additional effects when the heart is consumed.

I took out the Legion Zombie Heart, a grey mass of flesh and muscle that vaguely resembled a human heart. Putrid fluids seeped out of the various valves, aortas and arteries protruding out of the organ.

"…I'm supposed to eat this?" I questioned out loud with palpable disgust in my voice as my face scrunched up in revulsion. I inspected the item in my hand, only barely tolerating the slimy texture of it on the skin on my palm.

No fucking way. Nope. Nuh-uh. It's way too fucking disgusting! Just holding it was nauseating to a degree, I couldn't imagine taking a bite out of the damn thing.

The logical part of me argued that it was a free 25 VIT stat points, so what was the cost of a brief moment of disgust? The saner side of me argued back that the cost was my dignity, self-respect and basic human decency.

The two sides went back and forth for a while before I made the decision to store it back in my inventory. I wasn't going to throw it away, but I really couldn't bring myself to eat an actual zombie organ just for some stat points. There was even a small chance of developing additional effects and I did not want to find out what those additional effects were.

With the Boss and Hidden Boss defeated, I was now free to leave the dungeon. However, with an hour left in the dungeon, there was one other thing I had to do.

I called over my Doppelganger, which coincidentally could last for an hour before vanishing. The fight took approximately ten minutes, so I still had some time before the skill duration was over.

I retrieved the Glass Eye of the Prophet from my inventory and looked at my Doppelganger in sympathy, "You know what needs to be done."

The Doppelganger was unfeeling, possessing no human emotion nor desires with the sole exception of following my commands. He already knew what my intentions were, since he was basically me without the individuality.

Without hesitation, the Doppelganger reached up and tore out its left eye with [Shinkyoken] enhanced fingers, the eye socket now devoid of its sight-giving organ and bleeding profusely. Unlike a shadow clone which would poof out of existence once a certain amount of damage was done to it, the Doppelganger shared no such weakness. It was able to take damage equal to my HP without disappearing as long as his HP remained above 0.

I gulped at the unfaltering ruthlessness of the Doppelganger. I was sure that the memory of tearing out my own eyeball would hit me once it deactivated and that was something I was not looking forward to experiencing.

With no time to waste, I popped the Glass Eye of the Prophet into the Doppelganger's empty eye socket before administering medical ninjutsu to staunch the bleeding.

The glass eye had a distinctively different appearance from my own eyes. While mine had black iris and pupils, the glass eye's iris was silver, almost mirror-like in its reflective quality. I could see my own reflection in the glass eye's silvery iris.

"Do you have it? The item skill, [Clairvoyance]?" I asked.

"Yes." It responded curtly.

My expression brightened. This opened up so many possibilities!

"Use it. What do you see? Tell me everything."

-------

Team Ten stepped through the gates of the Shinobi Academy, where the first stage of the chuunin exams would be held. Shinji smiled as he spied the various other genin who were flocking the main entrance of the building, similarly making their way to where they were headed as well. Most of them were from Konoha, and those from other villages stuck to their comrades.

There was a tension in the air, formed from a ubiquity of caution and aspiration emanating from each and every individual. The foreign shinobi were especially on edge, considering the fact that they were in an unfamiliar place surrounded by unfamiliar shinobi.

On the other end of the spectrum, Shinji could hardly contain his excitement. Though there was definitely a hint of unease as well, primarily due to the words his Doppelganger had said to him when it used [Clairvoyance] and when he saw it for himself when the Doppelganger was dismissed.

[Clairvoyance] (Active) LVL: MAX

CP Cost: 1000

When activated, allows the user to see brief glimpses of a possible future. Clarity and duration of vision can be increased using the user's lifespan. Prolonged usage of skill also decreases the user's lifespan.

What he had seen in the visions were, needless to say, disturbing, and they were not something he could easily change even if he wanted to.

Sighing, Shinji continued onwards to the Shinobi Academy, ignoring the look of concern coming from Hinata. Because there was no way she could understand the reasons behind his anxiety nor would he risk telling her about it.

Team Ten entered the Shinobi Academy and climbed the staircase to the classroom where they needed to get to only to find a throng of genin crowding the corridor.

Oh right, Shinji recalled, this was the point where Izumo and Kotetsu would be blocking off the doorway to a second floor classroom while disguising it as a third floor classroom for the purpose of weeding out the unworthy.

How that shallow level of deception managed to trick so many genin was beyond Shinji. The only guess he could make was that there were definitely many others who, like Team Gai, who decided to hide their own strength by acting foolish. That wasn't a particularly bad idea, but Shinji had too much pride to debase himself so. And he was sure that Shino and Hinata was similar as well, even if they didn't particularly portray themselves as being at all prideful.

Scions of large shinobi clans like them all held a certain level of pride and dignity even if they claimed the opposite. And it was especially so for the heirs and heiresses he had graduated with. They couldn't help it. That self-image was one inculcated in them since they were young, being raised in a prestigious clan they were born into.

Shinji spotted a few Konoha genin arguing with Izumo and Kotetsu about letting them through, while Team Gai were in the crowd of genin looking on. It seemed that they were still observing the situation and had yet to make the decision to hide themselves in order to not attract attention.

"Shinji-kun…" Hinata spoke up while tugging his sleeve.

Shinji turned to the Hyuuga and nodded, "Yeah I know. It's an illusion. Let's go around them. No need to make a fuss here."

"I agree." Shino succinctly agreed as the three of them turned around to find another path to their destination.

Unbeknownst to them however, pair of round eyes with thick brows had found their figures as they were walking away.

"That's… last year's Rookie of the Year." Rock Lee remarked, a look of decisiveness in his round eyes.

Tenten noticed her teammate's gaze and heard his comments before rolling her eyes, "What are you planning now, Lee?"

Lee stood silent for a moment, watching the departing Team Ten before turning to his teammate, "You guys go on ahead. I have something I want to check out."

"Huh? What're you talking about?" She questioned, an annoyed frown on her face.

The bowl-haired genin didn't respond, only silently following after Team Ten.

The look of confusion in Tenten's eyes heightened, "What the- Lee isn't usually like this…". She commented to her remaining teammate, only to find that Neji was similarly gazing at the departing Team Ten.

'Shinji Ikari… and her…!'

"You go on ahead. I have something I want to check out." Without waiting for a response, he followed in Lee's footsteps.

"Seriously!? You two are such… urgh! I don't care anymore." She exclaimed before helpless following the Hyuuga as well. "Honestly, you two are more alike than you care to admit…" She grumbled under her breath.

------

As we made our way through the Academy, we passed by the open area on the first floor, where I remembered Rock Lee challenging Sasuke before the chuunin exams began proper. I felt a weird feeling of nostalgia over an event that I had only ever watched through a screen yet was now standing at.

I wondered how the different Sasuke would fare against Lee. The Uchiha was a completely different person compared to how he was in canon. More patient and composed. His skills and technique were also a few notches above what he was supposed to be at right now, thanks to all the training I had done with him.

Not only was his taijutsu better, his mastery over his Sharingan and control over his chakra was also already at chuunin level. Add to that his proficiency in kenjutsu, honed fight IQ and sharpened instincts, it was uncertain who the victor between the two even if Lee released his chakra gates might be.

As I was flooded with nostalgia, I heard a voice cry out from above.

"Excuse me, hold on a moment please!"

I turned around and was shocked to see Rock Lee standing at the veranda of the floor above us, staring down at us, or specifically me, with a challenging look in his eyes. What was this situation?

"…Yes?" I forced out, past my initial shock. Was he here to ask me for Sasuke's location?

"I would like to ask you for a fight right now." He challenged before leaping down from the veranda and landing with the expected grace and technique of a taijutsu specialist.

"…Me?" I replied dumbly, as I looked around to see if he had actually directed the question to Sasuke who was hiding somewhere around here.

"Yes! My name is Rock Lee," Lee started, gesturing to himself before pointing towards me, "And I challenge you, Shinji Ikari, to a fight!"

"Wait, why?" I asked, still trying to figure out what was going on.

Lee smiled, "To be honest, I have heard a lot about you. Someone of civilian origin who was able to surpass all the clan shinobis in his generation and graduate as Rookie of the Year. And I'll admit, when I first heard of it, I felt angry. Angry at myself for not being able to do what you have done. You see, the strongest genin of Konoha is actually on my team. Hyuuga Neji, a genius of the Hyuuga clan, and someone I have never been able to surpass. Well, not yet at least."

"So I have to confess. The reason why I am challenging you is to verify my ability. Against someone who have already done what I aspire to: surpassing the geniuses from the mighty clans of this village! Which is why… please accept my request, Shinji Ikari. Allow me to test myself against you!"

[Quest Alert!]

[Genius of Hardwork]

Spar with Rock Lee

Defeat Rock Lee in a spar

(Bonus) Knock out Rock Lee

(Bonus) Force him to remove his weights

(Bonus) Force him to release his chakra gates

[Rewards:]

+5000 EXP

(Bonus 1) +5000 EXP

(Bonus 2) New Perk

(Bonus 3) New Skill

[Failure:]

REP lowered with 'Rookie Nine'

Perk [Monstrous Talent] removed

New Perk

Ah the brilliance in his eyes, one of unfiltered admiration, I can't stand it! I'm a cheater, Lee, a cheater! I am underserving of your praise and admiration!

But now I understood why he was challenging me to a fight instead of Sasuke. In Lee's eyes, a genius who have already been surpassed was one no longer deserving of his attention, probably. What he wanted to defeat was the genius that had never been defeated – his own teammate Neji. And to do so, he first wants to test himself against me, someone who was able to overcome his civilian background and defeat Sasuke… or so he thinks.

At the same time, however, I wasn't one who shied away from a challenge, especially one that was declared so openly and directly. It wasn't like I could say no either. Well, I could, and it was definitely tempting to reject his challenge. The failure consequences of the quest were heavy to say the least. My [Monstrous Talent] perk gave him 7 free points instead of 5 every time he levelled up, a definitively beneficial factor that increased my strength.

Even though it would be replaced with another perk, according to the failure consequences listed in the quest alert window, it would most definitely be of a lower standard – perhaps something that awarded 6 free points instead of 7.

Then again… try as I might, I couldn't foresee me losing. Even if Lee unleashed all four of the Eight Gates he had access to and even if I couldn't use the Sharingan to boost my visual acuity.

And besides, his biggest threat to me was his ability to open the first four of the Eight Gates, which massively increased the flow of chakra in his body and consequently massively increasing his speed and strength. However, even if the quest had a bonus objective of forcing Lee to open his gates, I fully doubted that he would ever use it in a friendly spar against a fellow genin outside of the exams.

Thus, I could only conclude that my chances were winning was over 90% if I didn't use the Sharingan, and over 80% if I held back the truly lethal skills in my repertoire. Of course, with the Sharingan, it would be 99% chance of victory.

With these odds, how could I say no?

"I accept." I declared, pushing aside Hinata's look of concern and stepping forward towards Lee. Show me what you got, Lee.