chapter 49

It was a half-asleep me that walked into the Forest of Death that day, and it showed. My feet dragged over the ground, my eyes were more closed than open and shoulders were slumped. My lips, however, curled into a very satisfied grin.

"You look like shit," Anko pointed out, ignoring any sort of manners while doing so. "You also look entirely too smug, brat."

"I think it's possible to get it done by the Finals," I replied instead of addressing her words. A second later, I let out a long, drawn out yawn. Pulling an all nighter might not have been the best of ideas. But I had gotten through all the scrolls and books I had gotten on Elemental Jutsu Creation that Anko had given me. And I had also spent an hour or so checking if my idea was possible and how complicated it would be to actually pull it off. "I also slept an hour at most last night," I explained.

"Seriously, sometimes I worry about you, brat."

"Really?"

"Nah," She shrugged with a wide grin, as if I didn't know she was lying. I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes. "So, are you gonna be ok to work on anything today?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean, if we are gonna work on the Mark, I'll be wide awake, that's for sure," I commented with a grimace. After all, even with time passing, I wasn't even close to being used to the Cursed Mark enough for it to not feel like my chakra coils were burning me from the inside. That would change over the month… I hoped.

"Do you want to leave it for tomorrow? We can work on your Summons instead," She offered, and I gave her a half-smile that might as well have been another grimace. I knew that she didn't want to work on it. Especially since she was still working on her Mindscape to allow her to try to do the same thing. But I was confident that my defenses would hold.

"I want to do it," I nodded resolutely, and watched as her shoulders slumped. "The more I practice, the more under control I'll have it by the time I really need to use the thing. Besides, my Jutsu idea relies almost completely on it."

"Fair enough," She nodded, and I almost couldn't see the reluctance that she still held to. However, she seemed to ignore it herself well enough. "You've already delved into it in your battle with the eyebrowless freak," She pointed out, referring to my match with Gaara. "You only need to do it again… only for a few seconds. We only have to train you to be able to use it without feeling pain, not on how long you can maintain it. Afterwards, we'll do some routine training. Nothing too strenuous since it's just to do something while your body gets used to the effects of the Mark."

"Sounds about right… also, did you get the scroll?" I asked excitedly and she threw it at me with a roll of her eyes. Where she had taken it from, I didn't know, but my bet was a storage seal without smoke effect somewhere on her person. Catching it, I looked at the first few words.

'Yin Release: Intermediate Mirage,' I read with a grin. Genjutsu wasn't going to be my focus in the month of training, but I had slowly grown fond of the Illusion Arts. Besides, after seeing what the Void did to the Orochimaru Fake, I wanted to see if I could weaponize it out of my Mindscape too. It would take time though, since that entered the territory of much higher leveled Genjutsu.

"Great," I nodded, throwing the scroll back to my sensei as I took a deep breath in. It was time to get started, even if neither of us really wanted to do that. It was a necessity. Slowly letting the air escape through my mouth, I mentally called for the Cursed Seal skill. Instantly, I felt my shoulder burn, like I had stabbed a white hot knife through where Mark sat. Then, the burn spread through my body inside my chakra coils and I gritted my teeth. Hunching forward, I groaned and felt my nails dig into my palms as my hands curled into fists.

"Enough, Eiji!" Anko said and I deactivated the thing without protest.

Almost falling to my knees, I put my hands on my legs and started gasping for breath. Cold sweat rolled down my forehead as I felt myself shaking. It was much worse than that one time against Gaara, that was for sure. Probably because that had been barely a second or two and now I had held it for…

"How long was that?" I managed to breath out.

"Five seconds," She answered instantly, her expression completely serious.

'It felt both like a lot more and a lot less than that,' I thought to myself, still grimacing and struggling to breath normally.

[Cursed Seal: First Stage has gone up a level.]

'Nice,' I thought, mentally sighing. At least that announcement made the pain seem much more worth it. 'It still sucks though,' I thought as I felt my hands twitch against my legs. 'And also...'

[Chakra Points: 530/675]

'The thing burns through my chakra like it's going out of style,' I realized with a grimace as I pulled myself back to standing position.

[Cursed Seal: First Stage – Lvl 2

Sacrificing their own chakra, the user can access the well of chakra given by the Seal at the cost of their own mind.

Increases the efficacy of jutsu by 10%.

Consumption – 28 Chakra Points every second.]

'Good thing the Consumption goes down with every level,' I thought with a sigh.

"You good, Eiji?" Anko asked, tilting her head to the side. Her voice was soft and considered. A rare occurrence, to be sure.

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm ok," I nodded weakly. "It really took a toll on my chakra reserves, on top of the pain, that is," I explained and she grimaced together with me. "Could you give me that scroll? I don't feel like doing anything at all, but I guess I can see and read."

"Sure, only for a bit though. Afterwards, we'll work on your Taijutsu and Kenjutsu, brat," She grinned mischievously, and I was glad that she was back to normal. Nice Anko was weird at this point.

[}-o-{]

"Don't ANBU have better things to do than train Genin?" I asked in between laboured breaths, Nuibari held firmly in my right hand, as usual. My only response was a slash, courtesy of Cat, that I blocked.

While it was cool to have someone so high up on the food chain dedicate time to train me, my body was just a complete wreck after using the Mark. It was the worst condition I had ever been in while sparring with the Kenjutsu user. It was certainly a… challenging exercise, I could tell you that.

"Less complaining and more defending!" Shouted Anko from the sidelines. I might or might not have said a few not very nice things about her then and there. "And more dodging!" She added and my eyes widened.

"Oh shit!" I cried barely throwing myself backwards before a Kunai buried itself on the ground I had been standing on. "Nothing strenuous my ass," I grumbled, stopping Cat's sword with Nuibari's wire.

"This is a warm up compared to what you usually want to do, brat!" My sensei pointed out and I… had to admit she was right. I did so very reluctantly though. And I would never do so out loud, that was for sure.

"You suck," I replied instead, like the very mature adult in a child's body I was. Then I blinked and groaned when I didn't hear anything. Jumping to the side, I saw a handful of shuriken fly by where I had been a second before. "You really suck."

Redirecting another strike from the ANBU with the steel thread of my own sword, I twisted myself taking advantage of that moment to slash with Nuibari.

"He's fighting back, Cat!" Anko called out and I cursed her inside my head. I knew what was coming. 'That was a bad idea,' I internally lamented. "That means we don't have to go easy on him so much."

"You really, really suck," I grumbled as I parried away both the sword and the projectiles sent my way by both my teachers.

[Intermediate Kenjutsu has gone up a level.]

'Silver linings and all that.'

[}-o-{]

[New Skill Acquired: Yin Release: Intermediate Mirage Lvl 1]

"Well, that's done then," I said, stretching my arms over my head as Anko dispelled the Genjutsu I had placed on her which basically made me look like I was all colored in shades of blue. "Gotta work on it in my free time."

"You plan on doing anything but training during this month, brat?" Anko asked with a shake of her head. "I thought we were past this phase of yours."

"I mean… we kind of are. But the Finals are the Finals. I want to do really well in them," I explained with a shrug. I went to speak again, only to be interrupted by a yawn.

"Brat, you better get a good night's sleep today. I swear, if you come yawning so much tomorrow, I'll kick your ass extra hard. Lighter training be damned," My sensei chided and I felt the need to point out that the training hadn't been that much lighter anyway. However, I still had some self-preservation instincts.

"Sure thing, sensei," I mock saluted, withholding another yawn. I didn't even want to think about pulling another all nighter anyway. I would need all the energy I could get if I wanted to make my insane training regime for the Finals work. And that, coming from me of all people, should say something about how hard it was going to be.

"Also, tomorrow, we'll be working on Jutsu," Anko told me as we walked towards the exit of the forest. "Cat can't be here everyday to train with you. So, we'll adjust our times to hers. You don't want to focus on your Kenjutsu anyway, so I think it plays out."

"Yeah, it does," I nodded with a slight smile. "So, I guess we'll be seeing some oversized spiders tomorrow. Might as well get some of the Genjutsu training done too… I'll see if I can get the base Jutsu studied for tomorrow too. Having that one down should help when I get mine all sorted out."

"Honestly, I still can't believe what you are trying to pull off in a month," She chuckled. "And they call me crazy."

"Well, you were made to be my sensei for a reason, I guess," I shot back, earning a short laugh.

"Too true," She nodded. "I'll have to up my own training or I'll be left in the dust."

"Don't push yourself too hard, Anko-sensei," I advised with a 'concerned' look. "You know you aren't young anymore."

I gulped down as I held back a laugh.

"... What did you say?" Anko asked, slowly turning towards me and my lip twitched up.

"You know how it is, Anko-sensei," I continued, with some of the best acting I had done in both lives. Which was quite good, if I do say so myself. "You grow old and you suddenly aren't as-"

"I'll show you old!" She threw a punch at me but I had already Flickered away, running like my life depended on it. "Come back here, you little shit!"

[}-o-{]

[New Summon Acquired: Little Spider]

I almost snorted at the screen. It was kind of funny that the system categorized what I had in front of me as a 'Little Spider' since it was twice as big as my hand. However, it also made sense, considering the sheer size the things could reach.

Mentally calling for the Summon List itself, I nodded at the numbers.

[Little Spider - 10 Chakra Points]

'Around what an E Rank Jutsu costs, I guess,' I mused. It didn't really matter, since I could think of a ton of uses for the little things. Which is more, I kind of wanted to see if I could summon something smaller. A normal sized spider would make for a great spy, I was sure.

"So, how's it going little guy?" I asked and the thing tilted its whole body to the side.

"I'm a girl," The spider said, and the voice sounded so young, kind of like a little girl's. It would have been cute if it hadn't come from a spider… Actually, it was cute even coming from a spider.

"Sorry, girl," I apologized easily. "So, what's your name?"

"Shirakumo," She replied. "So, you are the new summoner?"

"I am," I nodded. Mentally wondering why she didn't have her name starting with the 'kumo' like all the other summons I had talked back in their realm. The name fit her though, since she was a spider, obviously, and she was completely white too, except for the light blue eyes. "Pleasure to meet you, Shirakumo. I hope we can work together in the future. I'm Eiji Satou, by the way."

"I hope so too, Eiji," She replied, and I couldn't help but smile. She sounded kind of eager, which brought the cuteness of her character to another level. Unable to stop myself, I brought a hand over to her and started scratching a spot between her eyes. "S-stop that," Shirakumo complained in the most unconvincing voice ever and my smile widened.

"Nah, I don't think I will," I replied cheekily.

"A spider shouldn't be so damn cute," Anko commented, finally speaking up.

"I know right?"

"I'm not cute!" Shirakumo whined. Honestly, with the way she was almost leaning against my finger, I didn't know why she was even trying. 'Did I get a tsundere summon? Is this one to be my Gamakichi?' I wondered, more than happy if that was the case. 'Look out, Inuzuka dogs, you might have competition.'

'Speaking off… I should make some time to visit,' I frowned, even as I continued petting my new spider friend. 'Maybe during the weekend.'

"Anyway, not that I'm complaining about just focusing on cutie here," Anko started, drawing another whine from the arachnid. "But you said something about training Genjutsu and such?"

"What do you say, Shira-chan? I need someone to cast Genjutsu on," I asked.

"Yes! I want to train!" She exclaimed pitifully and I got the impression that she was saying that to get out of the 'humiliation' of me petting her or whatever. Pity that. "Wait, Shira-chan?"

"You are too cute. I just had to give you a nickname. Do you like it?" I asked with a grin splitting my face.

"Hmph," She huffed, turning her body to the side. 'Definitely a tsundere summon,' I thought. "It doesn't matter, I guess."

[}-o-{]

"Eiji, long time no see!" Hana greeted me and I heard the dogs at the back go silent for a second before starting to bark like mad. "The guys have been missing you," The Inuzuka added unnecessarily.

"I've missed you all too," I replied with a smile. "I've just had too much training to do, with the Chuunin Exams and all," I excused myself with a grimace. "But I decided to make some time to visit. I needed to take a break anyway."

"Don't work yourself to the ground. I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't make you Chuunin as you are anyway," She said, and I scratched the back of my head embarrassedly. She wasn't wrong though, I knew I was already good enough for the title. The problem was that I didn't know if I was good enough for the possible invasion that was coming our way.

"You know me, I can't go without training," I replied instead with a shrug. Then, I turned around just as a very familiar black and white dog came around the door. "Yuki! I've missed you, girl!" I greeted, bending down to pet the ninken with a wide smile. The canine almost tackled me before she started licking my cheeks enthusiastically. "Been taking care of everyone while I wasn't here?"

Yuki gave me a very positive bark. Although, judging by Hana's dubious look, the dog might have been lying to my face. Not that she couldn't get away with it, anyway. I liked her, and all the others, entirely too much to be angry at them for anything. Not like I was the one that had to deal with the mess, anyway.

Hana had my most sincere sympathy.

"How are the puppies doing, eh?" I asked, standing up and making my way towards the back of the vet.

"They are doing alright, new ones come and the old ones grow more rowdy. You know how it is," Hana commented with a grin. She really loved the dogs. It was no wonder she had decided to take care of them as a profession.

"Well, hopefully anyone new will like the food I brought," I mused idly, bringing the bag I was carrying up for emphasis. It was a bit of a chore to carry such a big thing through the streets, and it earned me some weird looks, but it was all worth it for me.

"Eiji, I think there are actual Inuzuka people that would like that food, nevermind these guys," Hana said, rolling her eyes. "I swear that giving you those recipes was a mistake, now they rebel everytime I give them the normal stuff after you visit."

"Err… sorry?" I replied with a nervous expression, earning a light headbut from Yuki and a bark. I took that as a 'don't worry'. Although, I didn't know how reassured I should be, considering that she was probably part of the problem.

"Don't worry," Was Hana's response. "You-" And that was as far as she got before we stepped outside and I was immediately flooded with furry things and wet tongues. The vet's welcoming party was always nice, I had to admit.

"Hey, everyone!" I greeted, laughing all the while. "Come on, let me up. I have food and nobody's getting any if I can't even move!" And just like that, in a split second, everyone was standing at attention, an arm away from me and in perfect formation. "That's more like it," I nodded with a smirk as I opened the bag and saw Hana bringing bowls for everyone.

"I swear, they listen to you more than they do to me," Hana grumbled goodnaturedly.

"More like they listen to the food, am I right?" I asked, earning a snort from the older girl.

'I'm definitely coming here more often,' I thought with a small smile as I set the food for one of the new puppies and watched it absolutely devour the stuff. Honestly, training the Cursed Mark took a toll on me that I hadn't been expecting. It wasn't even anything really related to the Mark per se, either. My Mindscape was perfectly fine even after our training sessions.

No, it was just… tiring, to be in so much pain. It left me more than a little cranky for the rest of the day, even if I tried to relax. I had never been so grateful for my little drawing hobby as I was those days. Or so appreciative of the warm, welcoming atmosphere of the vet right at that moment. With some luck, both those things would help me get through my training until the pain subsided a bit more.

'For now though,' I thought as my grin widened. 'I have dogs to feed and puppies to play with.'

[}-o-{]

"Ok, brat," Anko started during one of our training sessions, walking around me and twirling a kunai in her pinky finger lazily. "Today, I want you to try something."

"And that is?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I want you to summon something and pour as much chakra into the technique as you can," She laid on me and blinked.

Tilting my head to the side, I wondered what I could get using that much. 'Would that be enough for Kumohoshi? The elder spiders?' I wondered, feeling myself grow excited at the prospect. Maybe not though, but I was pretty sure I could get, at least, Kumoken or Kumoyoroi with it.

"Ok, right now?" I asked. "Do I use the Mark or did you mean regular chakra?" I asked then. Because with the Mark, I was sure to have enough for anything I wanted.

"Normal chakra. We won't be using any Jutsu with the Mark until much later, if I have any say in it," She told me. The way she said it though, made me wonder how much of a say she actually had when regarding my training.

I liked to think that she was still mostly in control. However, lately, I had started to feel like Danzo or someone else was pulling her strings regarding me. Especially with how reluctant she was with the Mark and the initial Summoning thing.

"And yes, right now," My sensei, at least in name, added before jumping backwards and landing on a tree branch more than a little distance away. "Don't look at me like that! I won't take any chances with your stupidly impossible feats!" She shouted when I looked at her weirdly. Apparently, she expected me to pull Kumohoshi or something along that line.

"Ok," I thought to myself, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out slowly.

Then, in an instant, I bit my finger and ran through the hand seals for the Summoning Technique. And then, when it came time to put my palm on the ground, I focused on the chakra that traveled down my arm, pushing more and more energy into it. The black seals on the ground grew under me, more and more, until they covered almost the whole clearing. When I started to feel faint and my body started shaking a bit, I cut the flow and let go of the Jutsu.

A cloud of smoke covered the forest and I felt myself move upwards as something appeared under me. Soon, my head was sticking out of the grey mist from the upper side. As the wind sent the stuff away, I looked down and grinned from ear to ear.

"Hey there, Chief!" I called out enthusiastically.

"Ho?" Kumohoshi exclaimed, sounding surprised, or maybe impressed. "You managed to summon me so soon? We might have found a very good contractor, it seems," She voiced, although I wasn't sure if she was actually talking to me.

"Sorry if I interrupted something," I told her, looking down at her red eyes. "My sensei wanted me to try using as much chakra as I could manage," I explained, mentally calling for my Status screen to check on my chakra reserves.

[Chakra Points: 5/675]

I whistled at the numbers. 'No wonder I feel like I'll pass out any moment,' I thought, feeling myself grow weary by the second, the excitement of summoning the boss spider leaving me.

[New Summon Acquired: Kumohoshi]

'That's nice,' I mused tiredly.

"Do you mind if I sit on you? I'm spent here," I asked the gigantic spider.

"Go ahead," She replied, moving her body up and down with her legs in what I assumed was her version of a shrug. 'Or maybe it was a nod?' Regardless, I all but let myself fall down on her, taking a deep breath as I tried to regain some strength.

[New Perk Acquired: Spirit Surge]

'Oh?' My eyebrows flew up at the sight of the screen. Instantly, I called for the actual screen of the Perk to see what it did. As I read it though, my eyes widened and my mind cleared instantly.

[Spirit Surge

Increases Chakra Point gain for every Chakra level by 50%.

Increases Chakra Point regeneration by 100% every 10 levels of Chakra.]

'What the hell?!' I almost screamed. Not only did the Chakra Point gain, together with Calm Spirit's effect, mean that I basically had twice as much as I should have now, but that regeneration buff… 'Damn, I don't even know how much that is… what was the number I had calculated? 2% every ten minutes or so?' I mused, frowning as I recalled the numbers. 'It used to take around 8 hours to recover my full Chakra Points… but now...' I did the math quickly in my mind. 'A little under two hours...' I realized, almost laughing incredulously.

"You ok there, brat!" I heard Anko call, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah! Just tired, that's all! That, and I summoned the fucking spider boss!" I replied, still grinning from ear to ear. With two things left to check on, I called for my new Status screen and the Summon List.

[Chakra Points: 14/900

Cursed Chakra Points: 0/9000]

'That regeneration is already showing, I see,' I thought, more than a little pleased with the sight. 'I can almost make the 'Over 9000'' joke,' Was my next thought, amusingly enough. 'I don't even remember where that was from,' I realized, which dampened my mood a little bit.

Shaking my head, I turned to the other screen.

[Kumohoshi - 600 Chakra Points]

'So, I didn't need to use that much Chakra, huh?' I noticed. 'Wonder how much the Elder spiders need then,' I mused. 'For now though.'

"So, Kumohoshi," I started speaking out loud, grateful that the spider had just sat there, waiting. I was still half out of it from spending so much chakra at once. "I have to recover some energy, but do you feel like chatting for a bit? I would like to know more about the Spider Clan."

"Anything to avoid going back and hearing Kumoken make excuses about his fight with you, contractor," The spider replied, speaking very seriously, despite what she was actually saying, and I snorted. That sounded like something I could bring up with the blade user at a later date.

"Call me Eiji, please," I told her. "We have much to talk about."