voluntary beat down

a sharp smack rings through the class as I feel a stinging pain on my forehead "PAY ATTENTION WHEN I AM EXPLAINING THE END OF YEAR TESTS, ANNO!" the loud voice of Iruka yells at me.

"Argh! Will you stop doing that! Because if you weren't aware, it hurts!"

"Well, this is important, so just listen and I won't have to throw chalk at you" Iruka exasperatedly lets out, teetering on whining.

"I'm sorry, Iruka," I say with a sad sigh "but, I think that deep down, we both know that I just can't do that," I say in a voice filled with deep sadness, and boundless regret after which a few snickers were exchanged around the class.

"I'm being serious here! There's only a month to the first-year exams and you've barely improved in anything physical, you may very well flunk out" Iruka said, all joviality banished from his voice, as was the laughter from before.

I walked over to the railing on the roof, as I thought about Iruka's words from earlier, he was right, I was Improving far too slowly. But it wasn't as if I was just relaxing, quite the opposite, really, I had put so much effort into first building my own personal training ground which didn't pull any punches, swinging bags of rock, rope lines crisscrossing randomly around for me to balance on and so much more. But while I had improved, I just couldn't completely stop improving mentally, I sighed as I pulled up my stats.

[Status: | Level: 5 ]

[Name: Anno | Age: 9 ]

[HP: 310 | CP: 860 ]

[CON: 8 | STR: 10 ]

[DEX: 11 | INT: 46 ]

[WIS: 40 | ATP: 0 ]

I flashed a quick smile when I saw the changes I had made to the interface before it turned into a grimace when I saw the giant wet blanket which was my stats. It was annoying to see, just how close I was to getting one of my dexterity debuffs off, I would just need two more points. The other two weren't that far off either, the only questions left were how many I could get removed before the test and whether going from seventy-five percent to fifty percent would be enough. But the training wasn't working fast enough, all because of a very annoying aspect of the debuffs. It treated me as if I didn't have the debuffs when it came to difficulty. Essentially, the system evaluated all my actions from the standard that I had all my physical stats at around ten. Now the problem with that is that I can't do the exercises required for a ten to turn into an eleven, I can only do what would turn a three into a four, combined with my already existing seventy-five percent penalty and I was progressing at about the same rate Naruto would through a lexicon on the different types of rocks.

"Hey, uh, Anno? You don't need to worry about the exams and stuff, you'll do great! Believe it!" Naruto did his best to cheer me up, however with how worried he sounded it fell a little flat

I quickly pulled on a smile and turned around to answer "me, worried? Please! I know that to a normal ninja candidate complete and utter physical incompetence may be an issue, however to someone of my caliber, who, if you forgot, made academy history on his very first day here, it isn't even a slight problem"

"I know you got hit in the head on your first day, so that might be why you always forget that you broke the record for fastest failure," Naruto said with a teasing smile.

"Poor, poor, Naruto. You've got it all wrong, first of all, I didn't break the record, I shattered it, secondly, like I have told you many times before, it doesn't matter what record I Shattered It just matters that I did so on my very first day" I explain to the little idiot who can't seem to wrap his head around how amazing I am.

"Sure, whatever you say" Naruto responds doubtfully.

"Well, let's go find Shino and get some lunch, shall we?" I replied before he can try and convince me that my grand achievement on our first day was anything but great.

During lunch, I go up to Sasuke like I do every day and before I even have a chance to open my mouth, he already opened his

"no"

"Really? You're not even going to let me ask first? All right, fine, but anyways I want to ask you something different today" I tell him

"What?" he says, intrigued as I've never asked him anything but to join our group.

"You know how almost all the girls have a crush on you?" a quick nod of confirmation and a sour look is all I get in response. "Well, would you be all right with me starting a rumor that you want a girl to be a strong ninja? Just to help them a bit, make sure they become actual ninjas" I suggest, hopeful that he would accept and that Ino and Sakura would become stronger than they originally were.

A quiet grunt is all the answer I get, and all the answer I need, I swiftly leave to start a rumor.

I was waiting for two people out by the gate, I had told Shino and Naruto that I had something to do on my own today, so I was alone when they finally came out as the last people to leave the academy.

"ahhh, Kiba Inuzuka and Hinata Hyuga, just the people I were looking for," I said while leaning against the gate.

"Uh, why are you looking for us?" Kiba questioned, curiosity mixed with a slight annoyance in his voice, while Hinata just nodded meekly behind him.

"You see, I am here to make you an offer you cannot refuse, Hinata, I'll invite you to the group so you can spend more time with Naruto. Kiba, I'll give you free ramen once a week, what do you say" I asked trying to sound as confident as possible, even though I wasn't sure I had that much to offer either of them, and I was honestly going to invite both of them either way.

"I mean, ramen is good and all, but what do you want from us?" Kiba asked, looking a little confused about the whole situation, while Hinata was simultaneously exploding with joy and opening her mouth to accept, and then closing it again in what I assume to be fear of interrupting us.

"I need you" Hinata gulped, worried over what I could ask for with so much leverage, while Kiba looked bored since I effectively had no leverage over him "to beat me senseless!" I said with a smile.

"Huh?"

"w-what?"

"As you may or may not have noticed, I'm not the best in class when it comes to the physical side of things-"

"Everyone has noticed you flailing around like a concussed puppy" Kiba interrupted with a deadpan voice.

I continued, completely ignoring his input "as such, in order to pass the upcoming exam, which is primarily physical, I have to get better, and fast. The best way I can come up with to do so is to spar with two people way out of my league but still close enough to gain something from it. That would be the two of you"

"I mean, I get the idea behind it, and I get why you want me to do it, but why Hinata? She isn't that good, no offense" Kiba said, hurrying to add a no offense after noticing Hinata crumbling in on herself.

"y-yeah, why w-would you w-want m-me of all p-people," Hinata said, sounding disappointed in herself, probably for some stupid reason, like she was besmirching the Hyuga name or something by not being good enough.

"Don't worry about it, you'll do great, I saw once or twice where you got really amazing all of a sudden, it didn't last long, but you're great at taijutsu, you just also happen to be a nervous wreck" I finished with a light, teasing tone.

"y-you really think so?" Hinata asked in a hopeful tone, and with markedly less stuttering.

"Completely. Now let's hurry up! The two of you have someone to beat out there, and I have a beating to get to" I smirked as I walked off towards the forest, to find a clearing for us to spar in.

SMACK

"umph!" I get the air knocked out of me as I fall to the ground, after many, many, rounds of getting beaten, smacked, kicked, and tossed around by the two of them, with Hinata getting more and more comfortable as time went on. Which also, coincidentally, meant she got more and more effective at beating me.

"Hey, man, are you sure you want to keep doing this? You could at least take a break if you want to" Kiba said looking at me like I was some sort of mad man, and In all honesty, I couldn't quite blame him, it had been two hours of constant beatings for me.

"No need to worry, I'll be quite fine as soon as I regain my breath, besides, I can already feel myself getting stronger, so let's just keep going for a bit and we'll continue every other day from now on, agreed?" I wheeze out

"o-ok" Hinata tentatively agrees.

I pick myself up and get into position, but I need a plan, some way to last a bit longer, I'm fighting Hinata this time, her fighting style relies largely on her hands, how can I use that? Hinata immediately comes charging towards me, instantly putting me on the defensive like all other rounds before. The battle is incredibly one-sided, while Hinata is gracefully lashing out with lightning-quick palm strikes, while I'm desperately scrambling to redirect all her palms without getting hit directly and losing control of my arms. she was like a tornado with a constant barrage of attacks I can only hope to resist for so long. In a desperate move to change something, I let my legs give out from under me, I fall forwards in a way where I'm practically crawling along the ground, then I push forward with everything I have and tackle her legs.

This brings us down to the ground, her gentle fist style unusable, and me still the weaker one, I try to get up to gain an almost certain victory, but we both end up constantly getting in each other's way, I finally get into a crouched position, moments away from getting up, but I suddenly feel a palm smack into the left knee and I can no longer move it. Hinata quickly takes advantage, getting up and forcing me into a chokehold.

"Give up" Hinata says and a few seconds pass "p-please"

I try to tell her that I give up, however, her chokehold prevents me from doing so, I desperately slap her arm to get her to release me.

"You can't g-get out, no matter how much you s-struggle, so just g-give up, please" Hinata tries to convince me, while I continue attempting to give up but being unable to.

Darkness takes over my vision and my struggles lessen, until the last thing I hear is "uh, Hinata? I don't think he is able to speak when you choke him" and a panicked squeak.

I wake up slowly, feeling a sense of Deja wu from my first day in the academy, and sit to see an awkward-looking Kiba and a mortified Hinata sitting near me.

"I'm s-so s-sorry, I d-didn't m-m-mean t-to d-do t-that" Hinata stammers out, practically on the verge of crying.

"yeeeah, me too, I probably should have done something sooner... sorry 'bout that," Kiba says scratching the back of his head, clearly trying not to smile when thinking back to it.

"don't pay it any mind, you only did what I asked you to, although I think we should stop now, after all, I did promise myself id continue till I passed out" I smile at them.

"Wait, wait, wait, you wanted to fight until you passed out? What were we supposed to do after that!" Kiba yells out in surprise and annoyance.

"Well, that's why there's two of you, so you don't have to drag my body along the ground" I explain to Kiba.

As Kiba starts grumbling I quickly cut in before anything can happen "so! Now that we have a bit of free time, what do the two of you say we go meet up with Naruto and Shino at our ramen place?"

As we walk, I quickly pull up my skill notifications

[congratulations! You've leveled up the skill [hand to hand combat] to level 21]

[congratulations! You've leveled up the skill [acrobatics] to level 32]

Good results for what are essentially two months of work because of my debuffs, if I do say so myself.

And so, it continued like that, all the way up to the exams, where two days before, I finally got rid of half my dexterity debuff, the one from wisdom, thus bringing it to fourteen, but really seven.

Then, the exam came, it was the same obstacle course we had done on our first day, but this time, I would prove to everyone that I deserved to be here, and prove to myself that I could improve.

I breathed in and out, waiting for Iruka to signal my turn starting. And then, it finally happened.

"go!"

I dashed forward, going towards the plank with swinging sandbags that was the first challenge, I ducked and weaved, almost no skill was involved from an outside perspective, but to me, I used everything I had learned this year to its fullest, pushed myself to the limit and finally got past those bags. I continued like that, obstacle after obstacle until I had completed six and there was only one left.

I stood before it, the water pit, I wasn't sure my strength stat was high enough to pull it off, but I knew I had to try. So, I took a running start and vaulted over the one-and-a-half meter gap. And succeeded by the skin of my teeth.

"While that is the slowest run-through of the course designed purely to give self-confidence to civilian kids I have ever seen. You still did it and can continue to next year, congratulations" Iruka said teasingly, but with a happy smile on his face.

I stoically looked towards the sky and spoke "I see, so I made academy history twice in one year... god I'm great"