Chapter 23

"Bold of you to already be asking for a day off just to go on a date, brat!"

"It's not a date, and it's literally going to happen in a week at the earliest. I was just making sure you didn't have plans that need me for longer than expected, not gonna lie," I explained with a shrug.

"Other Genin would be terrified of talking back to their sensei," Anko raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged again. "But it's ok, I'll forgive you," Her smirk didn't reassure me at all, being perfectly honest. "I can give you the day off. To tell you the truth, I was already thinking of ways to get you to stop training. Your profile suggested it quite earnestly."

I felt my eyebrow twitch at that. Why did everyone insist that I was a training maniac? I wasn't fucking Maito Gai! Was it wrong that I feared for my life enough to want to be as strong as possible? It wasn't even like I wasn't relaxing… Although, maybe most my hobbies being training related didn't help my image…

"So, this actually helps me," She continued, clearly unaware of my thoughts. "Regardless of your love life," I decided to ignored the romantically oriented comment with a deadpan expression. "I've got some nice little presents for you, my workaholic student."

My eyebrow twitched again, even as my eyes focused curiously on the three scrolls that she presented before me. Two of which were in shades of yellow and the third one a burnt orange.

"This ones," She said, shacking the former two. "Are Lightning Jutsu. You've already got a nice set of three, but all of them require tools from you. With that in mind, I picked these two specifically because they are in your level and don't need anything but your chakra and technique."

"First one," She started enthusiastically, vaguely reminding me of a commercial from TV. "is a D-rank offensive one. Electromagnetic Strike. You may have heard of its C-rank sibling, Electromagnetic Murder. It's essentially the same thing except that it can't reach the levels of damage that the latter can, but it sets a nice precedent to learn it afterwards."

"Secondly," She flicked up the remaining yellow one. "the D-rank, Electric Flicker. A cousin of the Body Flicker, if you will, much more battle oriented but less useful for simple traveling. It can be used both for movement and for kicking, although at most it'll be like being hit by a particularly powerful Stunning Thread. It also is far from silent even if it's not as loud as some other Lightning techniques."

I almost frowned at that. With options like this (since I considered that there must have been a few more elemental versions of this), why would Shisui focus so much on the Body Flicker? It seemed… unnecessary. But maybe the silent use was more important than the damage… yeah, that sounded about right. A Stunning Thread level of damage wasn't much, so maybe it could be ignored… something to look into, I guess.

"And lastly, a Fire Jutsu, to start adding some variety to your repertoire as we discussed," She said throwing the orange scroll at me together with the other two. "It's an E-rank though, since we are just starting and you don't have an affinity. We'll see about getting you a D or C-rank latter if you master it. Simply called, Embers, and it has an equally simple description. It's the weaker version of Fireball, which is also the weaker version of, you guessed it, Great Fireball."

I kept my silence for a moment as I looked over the three scrolls. They sounded very good to me. Two D-ranks and an E-rank from a different element was great, actually. Especially the part where none of them would need me to have any weapons like my other jutsu so far.

"You'll be reading those for the rest of the week in your free time," She dictated, and I realized that she really wanted to get that part over with. She had spent the whole time speaking in this rehearsed tone that almost sounded genuine but didn't quite make it. "We'll start working on them next week or when you finish them. In a few weeks, you'll also start going to the Shinobi Hospital for your Iryou training three times a week aside from regular training. It's already been worked out. And once you get the techniques down, you'll be using your free time to study poisons."

"Sounds cool," I accepted, a smile forming on my face. This was already sounding loads better than the Academy. I blinked as I looked up and saw Anko staring at me with a strange expression.

"You really are a fucking training maniac," She grumbled and my eyebrow twitched again. "What kind of kid hears about all that work and that kind of schedule and goes 'oh, that's cool'?"

I raised my finger, opening my mouth to argue… Then I remembered that I would have more than half a day dedicated to training with Anko, then three times a week I would have to work at the hospital then I would have to study poisons and then I would have the training I would do on my own. I slowly put my finger down and closed my mouth. Internally grumbling to myself, I settled for putting the scrolls inside an empty pouch that I carried on my hips just in case.

"Just don't start shouting about youth, kid, and we'll be fine," We shared a shudder at that. Apparently, she was surprised that I knew what she was talking about. Instead of asking though, she stared at me for a long second. "I guess you aren't that obsessed."

"I like to enjoy my life too, you know," I shot back getting a smirk from her.

"Sure you do," She rolled her eyes. "Well, with the plan explained. Let's get today's session started," I was just about to prepare myself for more physical training like I had done the day before. Her widening Cheshire-like grin stopped me cold though. "Remember how I said that dealing with me would give you more than enough experience?" At that, I felt a chill run down my spine. What did she…? "Have fun, kiddo!"

And then she kicked me on the chest and sent me flying. The worst part was that she seemed to have aimed right in between trees for a good deal of forest, as I flew until I eventually rolled on the ground and finally hit a trunk with my back. I didn't have much time to process my forced new situation, as just when I went to stand up, a growl reached my ears.

Turning my head, my shoulders slumped and a sigh escaped my mouth at what I saw. A pack of wolfs that were almost certainly bigger than what normal ones were supposed to be. All of them on guard and already starting to circle around me.

'Now I wish I had been placed in a normal team,' I grimaced.

With a sigh, I straightened my back and my expression became neutral. Tilting my head to the side, my neck made a cracking sound. That had the intended effect of setting off the wolves. With that done, my hands came up from my sides already carrying a kunai in each that were quickly sent flying. One hit a wolf straight in between the eyes, which stopped it cold and the other buried itself on another's leg, making it stumble and fall to the ground.

I didn't have time to celebrate that small victory though, since I already had to jump and kick a wolf on the back to get me out of the circle I had been placed in. Before I could reach the ground, I spun my body hitting a close by canine with my feet and getting it away from my landing spot.

'One down, three momentarily distracted, three in short range, five in mid-range and two almost in long range, make that two distracted ones,' I noted as one that I kicked quickly stood up.

With a quick succession of hand seals, I fired off a bunch of Sparkling Shuriken. From the eight projectiles, only five hit their targets. From those only three hit good enough spots to kill the wolves. Good thing that the jutsu made it so that even if it didn't kill them it at least incapacitated them for a bit. But I hadn't waited to see that. By the time that happened, my hands had already finished another set and my fuuma shuriken flew towards the group, almost cutting one of the beasts in half and wounding four others enough that they were as good as done.

Only five remained. I smirked.

"Well, what are you waiting for, guys?" I taunted unnecessarily, deciding to deal with the last ones with Taijutsu. I probably could have done so from the start too, but I needed more practice with my Jutsu and that was as good an excuse as any. There was also the fact that I really enjoyed flinging Lightning techniques around.

My thoughts though, paused as I finished the last wolf with the kick to the side that cracked its ribs. Looking around at the decimated animals, I felt…

Nothing.

I knew I should have felt bad, or at least something. Instead, it was like nothing had happened. I had taken one look at the wolves and the only thought that crossed my mind was 'they are a threat' and thus, I had taken care of it. Granted, that was the right assessment… but still, there was more to it than just that.

My… some relative of mine would have been disgusted.

And I was too, to a degree. But not because of what I'd done or what happened. No, I was disgusted because I didn't feel anything. No regret, guilt or even sadness. Nothing at all. What had I become? I was sure that I wasn't like that before the Void.

And it was also kind of sad, that I shouldn't feel anything. That it was better if I was like I was instead of feeling bad for doing things like that. Especially considering that I would probably have to kill much more in the future. Especially because I would probably have to kill humans.

I took a deep breath in, before my mind derailed down that road.

And the moment of thought was broken by a roar that shook my bones.

Tilting my head to the side I grimaced slightly at the sight of a bear the size of a small house. The massive beast charged at me and I stood there as it raised its huge paw. My hands though, were already moving, and before the bear could hit me, I switched places with a branch nearby.

[Substitution Technique has gone up a level.]

'Nice,' I thought as my eyes left my assailant and trailed searching for my fuuma shuriken. This thing wouldn't even feel my shuriken and kunai, let alone my senbon, even if I used Sparkling Shuriken. No, I needed the extra punch of Flashing Shuriken to do something to this. And at last, I found it.

As I moved towards the weapon, my ears picked up a myriad of noises in the forest besides the bears.

"Remember how I said that dealing with me would give you more than enough experience?"

'Yeah, I'll get experience alright,' I thought to myself with an annoyed grimace.

I stopped with my hand mid-air towards the bigger shuriken though, when I noticed a small snake coiled right beside it. I had almost missed, and probably would have, if not for my honed observation skills provided by living with Naruto.

A loud crunch behind me told me that, yes, the bear was still there. My grimace intensified as I jumped to the side and turned to assess the situation. I needed to get rid of the snake, so that I could get the fuuma shuriken back and deal with the bear. 'I need extra fuuma shuriken,' I noted mentally.

Idly though, I noticed with some disappointment that the snake was wise enough to leave the gigantic beast alone.

Regardless of that, seeing both animals side to side gave me an idea. With a quick succession of hand seals, I threw a volley of lightning-infused shuriken their way, two from one hand, aimed at the snake, and four from the other, aimed at the bear's head.

One of the ones directed towards the reptile did its job while the ones for the mammals… did as well as expected, really. Which is to say that they annoyed it a bit, at most. The beast shook its head slightly as the weapons scratched its fur and growled at me. I clicked my tongue at that, I had hoped that one would get it in the eye or something, honestly. Sadly, hitting a moving target in such specific, small areas was more difficult than it sounded.

"Come at me, big guy," I said keeping an ear out for any other animal that may want to join the party we had going. As the bear charged, I took a deep breath in and went through another set of hand seals. I would grind the shit out of Substitution now, since animals were a much easier foe to use on than actual people. At least before perfected it so that I didn't need hand seals. This was also an especially good location to practice, since there were fallen branches, trunks and rocks my size basically everywhere.

As I switched places behind the beast, I turned and took my fuuma shuriken. And quickly went through the signs for Flashing Shuriken as the beat turned to me. It went down quickly as the weapon embedded itself on its head.

[Flashing Shuriken has gone up a level.]

'Nice,' I thought to myself as I took a series of deep, slow breaths.

With all the threats deal with, I took a moment to calm myself and decide what to do. I didn't remember exactly where I had come flying from, but I had a general idea. With that said, I would have to be careful. There were threats on all sizes here, apparently, from big ass beasts, like the bear, to small but equally dangerous animals, like the snake.

[Chakra Points: 88/270]

'I have to use my chakra more efficiently. Evidently, flinging them around isn't gonna cut it,' I thought to myself as I looked at the screen. 'Save the Chakra for Flashing Shurikens, to deal with big shit like the bear. I didn't need to use the jutsu to kill the snake, that was a waste. And I can deal with medium sized things like the wolves with just Taijutsu.'

With that decided, I turned towards the general direction that I remembered coming from. It was going to be an annoying trip. I could already tell.

'Experience, indeed,' I thought with a smirk.

[}-o-{]

"So, Kakashi-sensei told all of us that we need to improve our chakra control," Naruto explained as the both of us sat at the table to eat. It was almost weird to be by ourselves without someone else visiting, if I was being honest. "Sasuke because he wants to expand his jutsu repar… riper…"

"Repertoire," I offered with a slight smile.

"That!" He pointed at me with a huge smile. "and Sakura needs it for both genjutsu and iryoujutsu, whatever she decides to focus on. Sensei asked her but she says she still can't choose."

"Well, she only took academic electives, so she must be unsure," I shrugged while he hummed.

"Anyway, I also need that for what he wants to teach me," At this point, he started almost bouncing on his seat. "He wants to teach me how to use seals mid battle! Can you believe it?!"

"Sounds awesome," I admitted with a wide smile.

"It's even more than that!" The blonde exclaimed. "I could set up traps while also kicking ass, it's almost like a dream!"

I deadpanned at him for that. Of course the first thing that Naruto related combat seals to was with more traps. I didn't even know why I was surprised. He was as obsessed with seals and traps as canon Naruto was with badass jutsu.

"How about you, bro?"

"I was left in the middle of a forest full of deadly animals that reached the size of houses and had to fight my way back to the village," I explained calmly, like one would the weather, before taking a bite of my food.

"Hahaha," Naruto laughed. "I almost believed it, that was a good one. So, what training did you do?"

I simply looked up at him and tilted my head, suppressing a smirk. I did sound kind of unbelievable, which was the point of my casual delivery. The blonde blinked at me and then his eyes widened in disbelieve.

"No way," He breathed out in awe. "She actually did that? That's so cool!" He shouted and I chuckled.

"Yeah, she also said that we'll do that every day, for an hour or so, after doing actual training," I explained. "She'll also be teaching me some more jutsu and I'll start working at the hospital… which reminds me that I'll have to quit my job with the Yamanaka's. I won't have the time for it, sadly."

"Ino won't like that," Naruto said with an amused grin. I snorted. She really wouldn't, since it would mean more work for her when she wasn't training or on missions.

"Anko-sensei also said that we'll start taking missions tomorrow," I commented.

"Really? We won't be doing missions for a week still," He whined.

"Do you even know what D-rank missions are actually like?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah… but still, it's better than just training," He grumbled. "It'll get boring really fast though. I hope we can do C-ranks soon."

I went silent after that, the statement reminding me of something that I had almost forgotten. The Wave Mission. Naruto didn't have the Shadow Clone technique here. Would that endanger him? He did have his own things now, which meant that he would probably trap the hell out of that bridge if he could. And he also was a lot more competent. Not to mention that Sasuke was probably even better than in canon and Sakura probably wouldn't be useless either…

I suppressed a sigh as tried to calm myself. Worrying about it wouldn't help.

"Everything will be ok, Eiji," I turned towards Naruto as he spoke, a reassuring smile on his face. "I'm the best, believe it. And Sasuke and Sakura are with me. We'll be fine."

I grimaced at that. It looked like my feelings had been showing on my face.

"I know," I said, both to myself and to him. "I know… I still worry though. I won't apologize for that."

"You don't have to. You are still the best," He said with a wide grin. "I'll worry too though," He added.

"You are the best too, Naruto."

"Believe it," Both of us shared a moment of comfortable silence as we continued our meal. This, however, was quickly broken after the meal was done, as the blonde immediately got up and darted towards his room upstairs. "Can you take care of the plates, Eiji! I need to do something important!"

And there I sat for a long second, blinking dumbly before I sighed. It better actually be important, because if Naruto had just pulled that to get out of washing the dishes, so help me I would do something drastic. Like not cooking ramen for a month, that would teach the slacker.

"What was so impor… tant?" I asked as I walked back into the living room while drying my hands. My interrupted question was due to the rare sight of a nervous Naruto and a few blood red pieces of clothing on the table. Well, I say nervous, but I had to admit that anyone else wouldn't have noticed, which was a huge improvement from the boy that couldn't lie to his friends to save his life.

"I hadn't gotten you anything for your birthday, so, I've been working on this," He explained, his voice coming off slightly too fast belying his actual emotions underneath the usual grin. "I remembered that you are always complaining about the teachers and such not letting you use weights, so I made this. All of them have weight seals on them."

Surprised, I walked up to the table and looked at Naruto's… gifts. There was a simple t-shirt and four rolls of bandages. All in red, as previously stated. Taking one of the latters, I unfolded it to reveal that there was indeed a black seal on one of the extremes. My eyes widened at the sight of it, after all…

"When did you learn to sew, let alone this well?" I asked in awe, making him scratch the back of his head.

"Well… I started last year, a month after we started working on calligraphy. Jiji said that seals in clothes are even more complicated, but he would get me a teacher if I wanted to. I've been practicing while you work at the Yamanaka's."

"So… You kept this a secret from me?" I asked, carefully keeping my voice from sounding accusatory. I was merely curious, after all.

"Well," At this he grew shy and I already knew that he would say something that would be very wholesome. "I wanted my first work to be a gift for you… and a surprise, so… here we are."

"Thank you, Naruto, really," I breathed out, touched. "And stop acting so nervous, that's not like you. I love it. I absolutely love it. Now I feel bad for how little effort went into my gifts."

"Don't!" He exclaimed instantly before growing bashful. "They were… great, the best, really. I just wanted to even things out," He muttered, uncharacteristically shy as one of his hands went to his necklace that matched mine. "The clothes were great too, I've noticed less people glaring at me, actually. I think they've helped. And the necklace is the best thing ever… and… everything else you give me, like the seal supplies and such… It's more than enough, really. I wanted to give you something in return, is all…"

Instead of saying something, I just walked up to him and gave his arm a squeeze. He grinned at me and I grinned back.

"Oh," He blinked and his eyes widened a bit, seemingly remembering something. "Erm, also, I talked with Jiji, and he said that it would be a nice gift. But that I could only add one more seal every two weeks. And that's with permission from your sensei too. He was very insistent."

I took a moment to wonder if Hiruzen had strong armed everyone into denying me weights just for Naruto's gift. Oddly enough, I could see that happening. And I didn't even have enough in me to be angry about the whole thing if that were true. I was, actually, very content with how things had turned out. I would have to ask the Hokage and thank him if my assumption was right.

"It's good enough for me," I reassured him before my expression turned into a deadpan. "Also, it's getting late."

"Eijiiiiii! We were having a moment here! Couldn't you forget the bedtime for one night?!" He whined, like I had betrayed his trust in the worst way.

"No, because I know you waited until just before your bedtime on purpose," I countered neutrally and his shoulders slumped.

"I'm a damn genin now," He grumbled under his breath. "You can't keep me on a bedtime forever."

"And I'll stop as soon as you start cooking and-"

"Night, brother!" And like that, the little troublemaker was gone.

Standing alone in the living room, I smiled softly at the red roll of cloth still in my hand.

[}-o-{]

[Flashing Shuriken has gone up a level.]

'Very, very nice' I thought to myself as the screen appeared and the monstrous tiger in front of me fell.

[Lightning Release: Flashing Shuriken – Lvl 8

D-rank technique with which the user launches a lightning-infused fuma shuriken at their target. The weapon also has increased cutting power according to level.

Hand Seals – 3

Consumption – 16 Chakra Points per shuriken.]

'I almost prefer the reductions of Consumption than the ones in Hand Seals,' I grimaced. Checking my chakra reserves and seeing that I had less than a half remaining. 'Why couldn't I be a chakra monster like the ones in the series, that could throw jutsu around like nobody's business?'

Internal grumbling aside, my week of training in the forest of death had turned out to be very productive. Substitution and Flashing Shuriken especially, had benefited greatly from it.

Also, being quite honest, I was waiting for my stats to start going up. 'After all,' I thought as I tugged at the end of my shirt, taking a moment to feel the noticeable but not cumbersome weight of the clothing my brother had made. It was good that the bandages around my calves and forearms were hidden under the coat and pant and the red shirt was already part my outfit beforehand so I didn't have to worry about them being an eyesore or anything.

"Almost there, buddy," I muttered with a smirk as I pinned a snake to a trunk next to me with a kunai.

[Dexterity has gone up a level.]

[New Perk Acquired: Bloodhound]

My smirk widened. 'Perk at Dexterity 30? But then what was the deal with Autodidact? Or is it every time a stat reaches a multiple of 10? That'd be… weird,' In the end, I gave up my theories and pulled up the new Perk screen.

[Bloodhound

The user's Dexterity is increased by 10% when facing a bleeding foe.]

'That sounds like Dexterity perk a lot more than Autodidact did with Constitution… Anyway, this is a very good perk. I just have to worry about nicking my enemies fast and from there the fights get easier,' I mused, my eyes darting to the side where a panther tried to stalk me.

'Should remember to do something nice for Naruto, this weights are already paying off,' The pitch black feline jumped at me… or tried to, since it got stuck on a net of ninja wire that I had set up previously with shuriken. The threads had been left loose enough for the beast to get tangled in it and just right for me to proceed.

'I should feel bad about the massacres that I do in this forest,' I thought as I finished the jutsu and took a hold of the wire, electrocuting the panther to death. I had to overpower the jutsu for that though, considering how weak it normally was. That wasted twice as much Chakra Points, but saving all of them for Flashing Shuriken ended with me having chakra to spare. So, I had decided to just use one of my other jutsu here and there. 'I almost feel like I have Gamer's Mind… might be a world thing though, Anko positively preens every time she evaluates me on this. Looks damn proud of me and all.'

[Stunning Thread has gone up a level.]

'And that means… yep, one less Chakra Point used in the jutsu, nice,' I thought with a lazy smile. 'I expected the Forest of Death to be more dangerous though,' I thought to myself.