Chapter 3

[[[2 years later]]]

It's been two full years since that day. It turns out, Ino actually isn't a bad friend. She was just like any excitable child. Though, the meeting with her parents were something else.

The day she dragged me to see her parents, her dad, Inoichi, looked like he was trying to figure out a difficult detective case.

If a third party was present, the amount of questions he asked were enough to be counted as interrogation. Seriously, what ulterior motive would I have?

Unlike the canon Ino, this one didn't go on a diet. Not that she didn't try, but her dad and I talked her out of it, though he was surprised that I wanted to talk her out of it. My reputation with him increased after that.

It seemed that talking her out of it had somewhat backfired. Although she wasn't dieting, she now constantly tried to convince me to join the academy.

That's right. The academy had started. And I'm not going. The reason being that, she knew that I knew a lot about shinobi. Also she had seen me train a lot.

I couldn't stop training just because Ino was present, which she was a lot. Instead, I trained my basics even more. My chakra control was now almost perfect. It's not perfect yet due to my constantly increasing reserves.

My chakra capacity had now reached jonin levels, which I was ecstatic about.

After seeing me training, she had gotten even more excited for the academy. It didn't take long for that to come crumbling down. She had thought that she would learn the stuff I did in the academy.

After the first year, she was disappointed. Something which amused me. Looking at the difference between this Ino and the canon Ino are clear.

Before the start of her second year, she had asked me to train her, which was something I didn't expect to happen.

Truth be told, I was a bit reluctant at first but I finally conceded. Why? Because she had taken the initiative to start working out on her own, which convinced me.

Her training was...interesting. We had started on increasing her stamina which we did by running a few laps around the Yamanaka compound.

She had to take a rest every few minutes. Though, it was expected since she was only 5 years old at the time.

I, on the other hand had to make it a bit more challenging for myself by wearing gravity seals. You heard right. Gravity seals.

I had gone far into fuinjutsu. Far enough to be able to create seals in a matter of seconds. I had plans for fuinjutsu in the future so I had to keep going.

After stamina training, I had her start using chakra. It took her a few weeks to get the feeling of chakra. Her low chakra reserves actually slowed her training down a bit.

I had gotten curious to see the effects of the [chakra enhancement pill] on someone else. The result? Explosive. It turns out that the pill works differently depending on the user.

This made me dread the day that Naruto eats one, which wouldn't be possible since I'm the only one who has such pills and the shinobi world.

Of course, Ino didn't know that I fed her the pill. I had dissolved it in the water I gave her to drink after we were done with our training. Though I only gave her one, her chakra capacity is nearing genin level.

With my training, her chakra control is currently peak genin. I didn't want to have her try elemental jutsu yet seeing as how I hadn't checked her chakra nature so we stuck with none elementals. Though from what I've observed, I'm willing to bet that it's water.

It was her taijutsu training that made me so sure. When we trained in taijutsu, she had at first tried to use the academy taijutsu. That turned out to be a bust for two reasons.

First reason being that my taijutsu is a mix between [Needle Nabong Ryu] and my own basic fighting. Instead of using fingertips, I use fists and also add kicks into it.

Second reason being that the academy jutsu was too stiff for her. Ino's build...or at least what we're trying to build...is not made for power punches. It suited for speed and flexibility.

What we did was that we used the academy form as a base for her form. Then we started by omitting the parts that were stiff for her-which were a lot-and supplementing the with comfortable but effective moves.

This took a really long time to do but it worked out. The result was that her taijutsu now looked like an art. Like she was dancing around her opponent.

During the training I had come to a conclusion. Ino is a freaking genius. I didn't expect her to reach this stage yet. I'm not sure if this is because I'm the one teaching her or because canon Ino was kind of lazy.

If I were to judge her right now, I can confidently say that she can give most genin a run for their money. The only thing giving her a disadvantage would be size difference.

No matter how strong a 6 year old is, their physical strength cannot match up with that of a 12 year old. Well...unless you're me.

Now apart from training Ino, my own training has been going tremendously. With jonin level chakra, I can now use a lot of my move without having to worry.

My fuinjutsu has gotten to the point that I could create the explosion seal just by touching someone similar to how the forth hokage, Minato, marks people with his Flying Thunder God jutsu.

The skills in my repertoire have also increased. Right now, not including my previous skills, my list consists of; [Presence concealment lv.10], which the hidden Anbu were not aware that they helped me level.

[Healing Hands lv.5], which was like the [Mystic Palm] jutsu but more effective and advanced.

[Creation lv.10], this one caused me to be in a good mood for an entire week. This skill of course, is from my hero academia. Momo Yaoyorozu's quirk, [Creation]. The ability to create anything as long as you know it's components and properties. Though, where she uses lipids in her body, I use chakra.

Now last but not definitely not least, [Counter]. When I first got it, I was confused as hell. Though after checking it, I was grinning from ear to ear like an idiot. Even Ino was worried. [Counter] was divided into three parts which level independently. They count as three skills in my skills list.

First of them is [Full Counter]. That's right. Meliodas' special move. The ability to reflect attacks back at more than double the power. Though I was a bit sad that it only worked on magical or in this case, chakra attacks, I quickly got over it.

Second one is [Counter Vanish]. Rather than deflecting attacks, this ability disperses all magical/chakra attacks.

Last but not least, [Revenge counter]. The ability to convert damage received into power and strike opponents. This is considered Meliodas' ultimate attack.

These skills were too overpowered. I almost didn't believe it. I tested it with shadow clones. Yes, I can perform the shadow clone jutsu. I shot the fireball jutsu at a clone, which he reflected back at me.

In my excitement, I almost forgot that I was testing out a skill just from looking at the fireball coming at me with more than double the power. I regained myself at the last second and used [Counter Vanish].

Although these skills were overpowered, they didn't come with levels. That meant that this skill depends on both the user and the opponent, which I was perfectly fine with.

One more skill I got that came without levels was [Plunder]. The ability to steal skills or objects from a target. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this. I could probably steal someone's heart with it.

Though it seemed that every good thing came with it's downsides. They say that you can tell a lot about a shinobi from the way they walk. It seemed that with that, added on to the fact that Inoichi knew that I was training Ino, I was constantly asked to join the academy but I declined each time.

Something that most people and even shinobi underestimate is bond. Call it cliche...it is. As cliche as it is, it's very useful.

When I first met Ino, I actually thought that Inoichi sent her to me. Seeing as how she hadn't been trained yet in their clan ninjutsu, I used [Art of the mind] to do a quick search.

It turns out that Inoichi didn't even know that I was friends with Ino until she dragged me to him. At least that's what it looked like from her perspective.

I suspect that he already knew but chose not to approach either of us. With the number of Anbu almost always watching me, it's impossible for him not to know.

What he doesn't realize is that he just practically gift wrapped his daughter as a present. While I was training her, I was gradually increasing her loyalty towards me.

I didn't do anything like mind manipulation or brainwashing her. I won't stoop that low. The main reason I want her to be loyal to me is because I don't want to teach someone who'll end up trying to kill me. I'm not Orochimaru or Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Right now her loyalty towards me is very high. I'm not sure how to measure it but I can tell.

At the moment I'm on the roof of the building opposite the academy. Ino made me promise to come at the end of the academy. I'm not sure why I even agreed.

I've asked myself this dozens of times but I always come up with the same solution. In my last life I wasn't able to properly display emotions but now that I can, maybe it's a subconscious part of me that just wants to feel. Is it cheeky? Yes. I know.

Either way, I'm doing this. From what I can conclude from my second life, it feels good to just...feel. And that's something I've been doing a lot with Ino.

I'm sure this is what the hokage wants. For me to feel attached to someone in the village and then for him to use it against me. Unfortunately for him, things are going to play at my tune.

At this point if I wanted to leave the village, Ino would follow me. I know, I've checked before. Even if she doesn't, I can always take back most of what I taught her with [Plunder]. I'm sure it won't come to that.

What made my situation at the top of this building very amusing for me, was the person standing in front of me. The famous Itachi Uchiha. He was checking up on Sasuke.

From what I can see, Naruto and Sasuke just had a race which Sasuke was the winner. Seeing this, I realize that the Uchiha massacre will most likely happen in a few days.

Now back to us. What amused me was the fact that I've been standing a few feet behind him for about ten minutes...and he hadn't noticed me. At level 10, [Presence Concealment] is OP.

I'm practically invisible. Unless I actively interact with him, he won't notice me.

'Alright I've had enough fun. It's time.'

Schooling my features, I prepared myself for the risk that I'm about to take.

"Uchiha Itachi." I spoke softly. He looked startled before quickly turning back to face me. He relaxed a bit when he saw me.

"Izuna-kun. What brings you here?" He asked politely. He didn't bother hiding the fact that he knew me. He knew that I knew that he was one of the Anbus that were assigned to watch over me.

"I'm here for a friend." I say calmly. Itachi paused for a second.

"I see you escaped once again" he said with no surprise in his voice like he was stating a fact.

"Of course. Anbu need to up their training if I'm able to get past them so easily." I say with a slight smirk.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "You haven't been exactly forthcoming on the fact that you're able to sneak past well trained Anbu. Why admit it now?"

'Now here comes the tricky part.'

I look at him solemnly before speaking. "It's only fair that I admit it to you before you go."

His eyes widen a bit before he schools his features, asking carefully. "How do you know?" Came his short question.

"When you look at it from certain points of view, it's easy to figure it out. With how bad they are at hiding their contempt for the village, I'm surprised that most people haven't notice." I replied.

He stayed silent but I wasn't done talking.

"Which will you choose? The village of your brother...". As I spoke, I realized that the academy had ended so I had to wrap this up.

"Whatever you choose, come see me before you disappear. We'll talk then." I then jumped off the roof, leaving Itachi in thought.

I landed in front of the academy. I walk past the students rushing past me to escape from the bore that is the academy. I contemplated on whether I should wait outside or go inside.

After a full minute of Ino not coming out, I decided to go in. It wasn't hard to find the classroom, it was what happened next that annoyed me.

"Hey!!! Who the hell are you!?" came the voice of the blonde megaphone of a jinchuriki.

I didn't bother paying attention to him and just calmly walked to Ino who was watching in amusement.

"You planned this, didn't you?" I asked dryly. She only smiled mischievously.

"Maybe."

I could only sigh at her response. I don't know if it's because of me that she became like this. One thing Ino is good at is planning and unfortunately...or fortunately depending on how you look at it...she makes plans for her own amusement.

"Let's go." I said to her, still ignoring Naruto who was yelling something that I didn't bother listening to.

"Aww you're no fun." She pouted. We were about to go until something caught my eye. Not really something...someone. Hyuga Hinata.

Hinata was shyly standing quite a distance away from me. Her eyes lit in recognition as she seemed to remember me.

'It seems she remembers me. Not surprising given the fact that I didn't hide my face at the time.'

I turned my head to fully face her fully as the red hue on her face seemed to increase. Before I could even say anything-

*Thud*

-she fainted.

'It seems like I changed quite a bit of canon event. From what just happened I don't think she has a crush on Naruto. Does that mean that he didn't save her from the bullies this time.'

I was brought out of my thoughts by an annoying voice.

"Bastard!!! What did you do to her!!??" Naruto yelled as he ran towards me with his fist ready.

'It seems he's even more brash than I thought.'

Just when his fist was about to make contact with my head, I moved. With pure speed I moved out of the way and stood behind him with my hand on the back of his neck.

"You're annoying. Make a move and I snap your neck." I spoke coldly.

The eyes of everyone in the room-except Ino and the unconscious Hinata-widened at my speed and at my threat. Naruto on the other hand was frozen in fear.

My speed was something that they couldn't track with their eyes. After all, what academy student would be able to track low jonin speed. My threat to him wasn't just because I was annoyed.

Planting that fear in him at this early stage will make him think twice about facing me in the future, should the time come. Fear caused during childhood tends to stick around even until adulthood but this is Naruto. I won't be surprised if plot armor grants him some almighty power to remove his fear of me.

'Plot armor is such a cheat.'

Before I could go too deep into my monologue, I felt something lightly slap my arm. Oh. It's Ino.

"We talked about this." She stood beside me as she folds her arms. We actually did talk about me threatening her classmates. Before I could retort, she continued.

"Just for that...you're cooking. Let's go!" She finished as she excitedly walked towards the exit.

I could only sigh. I knew she was going to do. I got a cooking skill sometime ago. I only leveled it up for laughs but Ino sadly almost got addicted to my cooking. Now she uses every possible opportunity to get me to cook for her.

I released Naruto's neck and begrudgingly followed her out of the academy, leaving the scares Naruto still frozen.

As we walked out of the academy , Ino turned to face me.

"Izuna, did something happen? You seem a bit happier today." She asks curiously.

I smiled mysteriously. Of course she would be the only one to notice my slightly happy mood. Why wouldn't I be happy? My monthly spin with the gacha ticket was this morning. What I had gotten was the answer to a problem that I had almost given up on.

From the gacha I got [Structural grasp]. When I first got [Creation], I was happy that I was now able to create stuff instead of stealing them or buying them. Heck! I could even make money.

But unfortunately I hit a roadblock. Even after leveling it to the max; level 10, I still couldn't perfectly create a kunai. Sure, it would look like a kunai but it couldn't measure up to the real thing.

It was either too light, too heavy or too fragile. With [Structural grasp] working with [Creation], I could recreate anything once I've scanned them. I got so I excited that I've been leveling it all morning, using it on everything I could find. It is currently sitting at level 3.

"You're walking too slow! Hurry up!" Ino shouted with a pleading but excited voice as she pulled us toward my house.

Yes I said it. 'My' house. It's more of an apartment than a house. After the Hokage's numerous attempts to get me to join the academy, I used the opportunity to get rid of one problem. I told him that if he gave me my own house then I would think about joining. That was two months ago.

As much as I don't want to be a ninja under the third hokage, I need system points and the best way to get them is by going on missions or quests. I'll just take the exam at the same time with Naruto's year.

'What a drag. Now I know how Shikamaru feels.'