Ch. 2 - About Thirty Thousand.
Within training ground fourteen in Konohagakure no Sato, a lone boy, much shorter than other children his age, ran around the large field, his breaths measured and controlled to the best of his ability.
This boy, or rather teen, was none other than Naruto Uzumaki.
...
Huff, huff.
"One hour and a half," Naruto managed to mutter out despite his exhaustion. That's how long he had been running at top speed throughout the entire training ground.
He had made sure not to augment his physical capabilities with chakra, as he wanted to push his physical abilities to their limits without the reliance on chakra.
As such, he had used the henge jutsu to transform into a normal person and bought some meat skewers on his way to the training ground to fill up his stomach and get some energy.
Sadly, that brought my savings down to only two thousand ryō.
He inwardly cried, cursing Hiruzen for not giving him more money to spend on food and better equipment for training.
However, he planned to change that soon after he visited the Hokage building and had a talk with Hiruzen, along with introducing his new persona.
Hopefully, I don't get sedated and thrown to Danzo.
He chuckled at that turn of events, not at all opposed to such a possibility (joking). After all, whether death or life, he couldn't care if he died or lived. He had already come to terms with the fact that death was inevitable in this world, especially when it could happen at any moment.
Of course, this didn't mean he would court death at every turn. Even though he didn't fear death, he would still try to prevent it, just to see how far he could go with things.
Sadly, circumstances forced him to reveal a little of his capabilities. Doing things in secret and being caught would lead to harsher consequences that could simply be avoided, and going with the flow of the original story wasn't possible, as he knew that with him taking over, the plot was already doomed.
He wasn't Naruto, yet he was Naruto.
After regaining most of his strength, he sat up, only to be greeted with a notification from the system, making his lips form a wide smile.
"Gotcha."
«Due to arduous running, your Endurance has increased +1»
He grinned, almost like a child receiving a lollipop from their parent, as a warm current passed over his body, making his muscles relax as if they had been massaged.
Considering I ran for close to two hours at top speed without stopping, I can basically deduce that Endurance is related to sprinting.
Not only that, but my body healed by about five percent after my Endurance increased. This might mean that Endurance is related to physical fitness along with health.
And just to prove his point, he got into a push-up position on the ground and began doing push-ups. He continued without stopping until his arms finally gave out at fifty-three.
Then, he lay there on the hard ground of the training ground, his shirt drenched in sweat, his chest heaving up and down in an erratic manner, out of breath, especially after having finished running not that long ago.
Once his breathing caught up and his numb arms gained some strength, he repeated the process and pushed himself to reach fifty-five push-ups before falling face-first onto the ground, rolling onto his back, and groaning in pain.
"Fuck," he muttered.
«Due to arduous training, your Strength has increased +2»
«Due to arduous training, your Endurance has increased +1»
Instantly, that same warm feeling that flowed throughout his body to heal it slightly appeared again, only this time a little stronger than before.
About seven percent? Yeah, close enough.
Naruto thought as he got up with numb arms and wobbly legs, before making his way over to a nearby tree and sitting down on the grass, leaning his back against the tree.
"Haah..."
He sighed, beginning to rethink his overall training.
This confirms that training my body to endure much more will cause my Endurance to go up, thus increasing my overall health, along with overall physical fitness, as proven by the fact that either push-ups or running could increase it.
As for Strength, it is probably connected to raw physical power; otherwise, it would've gone up from sprinting. This means lifting weights, doing push-ups, and carrying heavy objects may increase it.
With that, I've got both Endurance and Strength down. Next should be Perception, and then Charisma, though I've already come up with a few theories that are possible.
«For critical thinking and deep analysis of the situation, you have gained +1 Intelligence»
Yup, this confirms that using my brain to solve problems or analyze situations to a deeper extent correlates with an increase in the Intelligence attribute.
I can also feel my brain calming down and being able to switch to logical thinking faster, along with my thought processing speed increasing slightly.
He mentally called up his quest, reviewing its contents, before noticing new information had appeared.
«Quest»
Description - Find out the meaning of each attribute!
Time Limit - Indefinite
Reward - 5% exp / 1 Special Point
Strength (✓)
Perception (✗)
Endurance (✓)
Charisma (✗)
Intelligence (✓)
Agility (✗)
Luck (✗)
———
Is the system really that similar in the way it describes stats as those of Fallout? If so, then is Perception just my environmental and situational awareness, along with how accurately I can hit something?
He made a wild guess as he watched the quest flicker with golden light, before the ✗ next to the Perception attribute changed into a checkmark.
He smirked.
So I was right?
He then recalled what Charisma, Agility, and Luck represented in the game. He had played the Fallout series for years, so his knowledge of it was profound, yet it couldn't compare to those who had played obsessively in his previous life.
Charisma should represent my charm and ability to convince others, as seen when I transformed into a normal civilian and saw my Charisma increase from seven to fifteen, which should be the norm.
I bet clothes, hygiene, and similar factors also affect such a stat.
Agility is much simpler. I noticed its effect as I walked among civilians earlier today. Their movements seemed slower than usual, while my reflexes were sharp and caught a lot of details.
And finally, Luck—probably the most overpowered attribute by far. It can make the difference between life and death as long as it's high enough, or low enough.
Being the protagonist and an Uzumaki, it's probably why I have such high luck. Otherwise, I would've already been hunted down by the villagers and met a horrible death, or been taken in by Danzo and become a ROOT ninja.
This means Luck affects my overall good fortune. The closer to a hundred, the higher my good fortune; the closer to zero, the more bad luck I get.
«For solving a quest within a single day, your Intelligence is increased +1»
«Ding!»
«Quest has been completed!»
«+5% Exp, +1 Special Point»
With a quick thought, he called up his status screen, watching as the three holograms disappeared and a new one appeared to take their place.
«STATUS»
Name: Naruto Uzumaki
Level: 1
Exp: 5%
Health: Malnourished
Status Condition: Full / Exhausted
CP: 789 +
CC: 0% +
STR: 15
PER: 27
END: 20
CHA: 7/100
INT: 24
AGI: 14
LUC: 67/100
Rank: Genin
Affinity:
- Fire (2%) +
- Wind (100%)
- Lightning (2%) +
- Earth (0%) +
- Water (2%) +
SP (Status Points): 0
Special Point: 1
———
So, Special Points are used for upgrading anything but the Attributes. Things like raising my affinity toward an element, increasing my chakra control, and even expanding my chakra reserve.
Considering my chakra reserve didn't increase much despite gaining a few points in END and INT, I can cross out the idea that my stats directly affect my chakra reserve.
He sighed contentedly. He had feared that increasing his Intelligence and Endurance would lead to his chakra increasing, making chakra control even harder to master or raise its percentage, apart from using Special Points.
Thus, he hoped such a thing wouldn't be possible and that his chakra reserve wouldn't increase any further.
Just then, Naruto flinched a little as one of his clones popped, sending the information that it had mastered the basics of tree climbing, along with notifying him that each clone would disappear every other minute, one by one, to prevent him from suffering a headache due to information overload.
«Chakra Control has increased +10%»
The next few minutes were filled with three more notifications as the remaining clones practicing Chakra Control vanished, transferring their memories and experiences.
«Chakra Control has increased +5%»
«Chakra Control has increased +3%»
«Chakra Control has increased +1%»
This whole process had raised his previously nonexistent CC to a whopping 19%! Once he mastered it, he expected it to reach about 25%.
"No time to think about these things," he muttered as he got up and glanced at the sky, noticing the sun was still high.
His other clones, who were cleaning, had already disappeared while he was running and doing push-ups. He had simply let their memories fade away, except for one of them to assess their performance.
As for those studying at the library, they were still at it, consuming as much knowledge as they could before their chakra ran out and they disappeared.
With purpose, Naruto moved toward the Hokage building, a small smile tugging at his lips in anticipation of the meeting with Hiruzen Sarutobi.
...
Near the Hokage building, a blonde figure could be seen strolling lazily through the streets, attracting glares and suspicious looks from almost all civilians.
The blonde continued his leisurely pace towards the Hokage building, amusement sparkling in his eyes as he noticed the hostile glances from the people around him. He simply smiled, hands clasped behind his head.
How amusing it is to watch humans stoop so low as to blame a young kid for something he didn't do. It only serves to show how stupid and driven by hatred humans really are.
He thought amusedly, before promptly ignoring the people. Though, his senses were on high alert as he dodged and weaved through the crowd to reach his destination.
Once inside the Hokage building, he disregarded the rude lady who shot him a glare as soon as he walked in. She was the secretary responsible for handling missions, scheduling appointments with the Hokage for mission submissions and addressing concerns, among other administrative tasks.
"Hey, brat-!"
Before she could finish, Naruto promptly ignored her and walked up to the Hokage's office doors, opening them without knocking, disregarding the banshee screaming behind him.
"Sheesh, what a troublesome and loud woman," he muttered, closing the door behind him. The Hokage raised an eyebrow at his demeanor and noted he appeared covered in dirt and sweat.
"Naruto? What are you doing here? And what happened to you?" he asked, a quizzical look crossing his face.
Out of all the people he expected to meet today, he didn't expect the blonde who had just graduated from the academy to come to him.
Oh, right! He should be here to take his photo and officially register as a ninja.
Hiruzen thought, taking out his pipe filled with tobacco, before lighting it up with a small Fire Release jutsu. He breathed in the smoke deeply, filling his lungs to the brim, only to almost choke from shock at Naruto's demand.
"Hey, old man, I'm here to get about thirty thousand ryo."
Cough, cough!