Ground Floor (I)

Each of the tents were only big enough for one person, so it was obvious they wanted all of us to learn to erect a tent and according to the Basic Camping Guide, even the bigger tents followed the same design language. So, if you learn how to erect the smaller tents, then you will be able to learn how to erect the bigger tents without much difficulty.

It was almost nightfall by the time I managed to set up my tent and while I wasn't the quickest one to set up my tent, I was still faster than most… There were some kids who obviously didn't believe me and decided to stay inside the building expecting someone to come and help them, but they were soon going to learn the errors of their ways.

It might sound heartless, but it wasn't my problem, so I simply decided to put the issue out of my mind…

"Now, let's see…" I hummed as I gently opened a ready-to-eat meal package. My stomach was continuously growling in hunger since I had to skip my lunch with everything going on. I took a bite and immediately grimaced at the taste… I forced myself to chew the damn thing and I practically winced at the disgusting taste. For a moment, I wondered if the MRE had gone bad or not.

The MRE tasted like cardboard… It made me wonder how many of the kids will be able to eat this stuff. Well, they were going to give in eventually, after all, hunger is not something you can ignore…

"Blergh!!" I heard someone puke. It seems I am not the only one who finds the taste of the MREs revolting. I hope I can get used to this taste, or I am not going to last for long. I stared at the rest of the MRE in my hand, looking slightly green and took another bite. Once again, I forced myself not to puke at the taste… Thankfully, a few bites later, I was finally done.

"Raijin, do you want to hunt something?" Jira asked, sounding hopeful.

"With bare hands?" I asked in an amused tone. "I don't think the goats would like it if I punched them" I added with a snicker and Jira huffed before she plopped down in front of my tent.

"Fine! But I don't think I am going to last much longer with this garbage" Jira growled as she jerked her head toward the pile of MREs inside my tent.

"This is the life of a Shinobi" I  simply shrugged my shoulders as I didn't know what else to say before I returned to my book. Jira simply huffed and slumped down on the ground.

"Um… Raijin, what are you reading?" Mira asked when she arrived outside my tent.

"I am trying to figure out the Body Replacement Jutsu" I revealed as I waved the book in her direction. I also noticed Azui standing behind Mira… Did he start considering himself to be a part of my group? Well… I don't have any problems with it, especially with how rarely he speaks. Additionally, he doesn't mind following my directions… I can work with that.

"Do you really think we would need to climb the wall on our own, without any help?" Mira asked nervously while fidgeting.

"What do you think?" Jira snarked, but there was no heat in her voice.

"...I believe so" I answered after thinking for a bit. "The camping gear, the MREs, the lack of anything else, the books… It seems they want us to learn these things before anything else" I added in a firm tone and Mira seemed to sag at my words. Once again, I started to feel sorry for her. Only if she wasn't an orphan then she could have made her own choice.

If I was being honest, she wasn't built for the Shinobi life… I wasn't sure if I could even live the Shinobi life…

After that, we talked about our dire situation some more before the three of them went to their own tents, which were coincidentally near my tent. The four of us were pretty tired after such a hectic day, so nobody could blame us, and all of us were excited about the Jutsus, so we wanted to get up early tomorrow morning so that we could start practicing them as early as we could.

I decided to start with the Body Replacement Jutsu since it was the most useful E-Rank Jutsu. In canon, characters kept using this Jutsu time after time even when the plot was about to end. The rest of the E-Rank Jutsus were pretty useless since you can only fool Genin or Civilians with the Transformation Jutsu and Clone Technique. Even a competent Genin would notice a Transformation Jutsu and Clone Technique from a mile away.

Tiger→Boar→Ox→Dog→Snake

I slowly practiced the hand signs for the Body Replacement Technique and continued to practice them until I was hungry again. After having another displeasing meal, I resumed my practice. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to learn the Jutsu, but I wanted to become impeccable when it came to hand signs. After all, I will need to weave hand signs for practically all the Jutsus out there.

The Rasengan didn't count since it wasn't invented yet, but I was already planning to recreate Rasengan after I could mold my Chakra… Maybe, I should recreate the Chidori too. Unfortunately, I needed to have Lightning Chakra to do that… Since both Rasengan and Chidori were out of my league for the time being, I decided to put them on my back burner.

I was only able to practice for another hour before my fingers started to ache really bad and by that time, I was barely keeping my eyes open. So, instead of pushing myself too hard, I decided to call it a night and fell asleep, dreaming about spamming OP Jutsus that could put Pein and Madara to shame… Yeah, I know it's dumb, but a man can always dream…

~~Timeskip~~ (One month later)

Just as I thought, learning a Jutsu was not easy at all… Even an E-Rank Jutsu like the Body Replacement Jutsu was really hard to learn even with the instructions in the books. I am not going to lie, they were pretty detailed and it kind of made me feel dumb for still not being able to cast the Jutsu. Thankfully, all the other kids were in a similar situation.

Maybe, if we had someone to guide us then the story might have been different…

That is when all of a sudden a ruckus broke out. "What happened?" I asked and Azui who was beside me simply rolled his shoulders with an unsure look on his face. I saw some kids rushing in a direction and decided to take a look. "Let's go and take a look" I said and instead of giving me an answer, Azui simply started to follow me. While I do like the fact that he rarely speaks, sometimes I wish he spoke more.

"Come on! Come on! Show us how you did it!" Someone screamed and I pushed through the crowd only to find a kid named Fuma in the middle of the crowd. Right now he was the center of attention and from the look on his face, he was looking really smug for whatever reason. "Yeah, tell us how you did it!" Someone else screamed from within the crowd.

"Calm down! Calm down!" Fuma said smugly while rubbing the bottom of his nose. "I don't know how I was able to do it, but it just happened. Let me show you" Fuma stated, and while some of the kids looked disappointed at the fact that he wouldn't be able to tell how he did it, everyone was excited to see a real Jutsu in action. Even I was excited, but I felt sad over the fact that I wasn't special.

Ram→Snake→Tiger

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Fuma exclaimed and two more Fumas appeared beside him and everyone around him, including me, which I wasn't proud to admit, gasped in awe. The clones weren't perfect by any means. They looked slightly pale and the color of the clothes were also slightly off, but he was able to cast an E-Rank Jutsu before any of us could.

(A/N: I decided to use the original name of the Jutsus to signify when they were being cast by someone. The original ones sound much better than the English-translated ones)

"So cool!" "Amazing!" "Can I train with you?" "Cool!"

Kids continued to exclaim in awe and Fuma continued to bask in their praises, but I simply walked away from the crowd. Azui gave me a questioning look but after giving Fuma and his clones another look, he quickly followed me. It might be a stretch, but Azui was a true bro… A silent bro, but still a bro nonetheless. Though I wonder where the girls are right now. I haven't seen any of them since the morning.

Even Sakura was able to cast the Clone Technique perfectly in canon, but the only reason she was able to do that was due to her incredible Chakra Control, and the only reason why her Chakra Control was so good was due to her small Chakra Reserve…

"From now on, we are going to practice harder" I said as I clenched my fists tightly and Azui simply gave me a determined nod. I hated losing, I realized that today…

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