46 Scroll of Seals (5)
Just as the silence was getting to the point of discomfort, Naruto thankfully and loudly interjected, "Hey Jiji! What's with the interrogation? Shinji's a good guy! He has always been nice to me, even though he does like super well in the academy. Not like that Sasuke-teme who is always so arrogant and haughty like he is the best in the world or something. But Shinji's not like that y'know? I can vouch for him, dattebayo!"
The Sandaime was shaken from his thoughts and smiled warmly at Naruto, "Oh that was no interrogation, Naruto-kun. I was just interested about your friend here. I'm sure he is a nice boy if you say so. Forgive my questions, Shinji-kun. Just think of it as humouring an old man's curiosity."
I smiled at the blonde's attempt at a rescue. Given their relationship, the Hokage was likely to trust his surrogate grandson's judgement of character. So Naruto's vote of confidence definitely played a big role in him easing off the informal interrogation. I was confident that with his intervention, the Hokage's suspicions have been allayed tremendously.
"Please, Hokage-sama, there's nothing to forgive. It would be my honour to answer any questions you might have. But thank you, Naruto. You're a good guy too."
"Heh, of course I am. I'm going to be the next Hokage after all!" The jinchuuriki rubbed his nose embarrassedly but at the same time proudly exclaimed.
The Hokage chuckled at Naruto's words, "Then I am glad to say that you have taken the first step to becoming Hokage tonight."
"Hmm? What do you mean?" The blonde asked in confusion.
"Well, you would have to become an official shinobi of Konoha to become Hokage right?" The Hokage replied wryly.
Naruto tilted his head uncertainly before widening his eyes in realization, "Wait, do you mean?"
The Hokage laughed and reached into his desk drawer to pull out a brand new forehead protector, placing it on the desk and sliding it towards the jinchuuriki, "That's right," he answered, "You are now officially a genin of Konoha. Congratulations, Naruto-kun."
"For real!? YATTA! Thanks Jiji!" Naruto happily cried out before quickly snatching up the offered forehead protector, as though afraid that someone would take it back before he could get his hands on it.
"Congratulations, Naruto. I knew you could do it." I offered while Iruka expressed a similar sentiment as well.
"I am going to become a genin! I'm so pumped! Heh, the other kids are going to get one hell of a shock when they see me with this!" The blonde cradled the forehead protector like it was his most precious treasure.
I chuckled at his excitement, "I hope we can be on the same team, Naruto. We would be unstoppable." That was a cursory attempt on my part to influence the Hokage and Iruka to put Naruto and I on the same team. Cursory because I already knew that since Naruto was going to graduate with us, he would naturally become the deadlast and thus be paired in the same team with me, the Rookie of the Year, as well as Hinata, the top kunoichi. I would be able to train him up to compensate for largely ignoring him while teaching Sasuke the past three years, and he would also get the opportunity to get closer to the Hyuuga heiress who crushed on him big time. Two birds one stone.
Said blonde turned to me grinning with a thumbs up, "Of course, Shinji! Let's kick some bad guy butts together!" before looking back at the Hokage demanding, "You better put me and Shinji in the same team, Jiji! Oh, and Sakura-chan too! We would be the most badass team dattebayo!"
The Hokage was now full of smiles, contrary to previously serious and commanding demeanour just moments ago. "Mah mah, Naruto-kun, we'll see. As an official shinobi of Konoha, you are now also responsible for keeping the village safe. But I'm sure you will do me proud my boy."
The celebratory mood immediately turned sour as Naruto's excitement rapidly declined into a sober dejection. Even I was caught off guard at the sudden shift in atmosphere.
"Protect the village? But I- Jiji… what Mizuki said, was it true?"
The Sandaime glanced at me before shifting his eyes towards Iruka questioningly.
"Shinji heard much of what Mizuki said… I think there'd be no point trying to hide the truth from him so it might be best for him to hear the full explanation as well." The chuunin respectfully advised.
Hiruzen closed his eyes, feeling the full weight of his old age, the burden of his position and the painful task ahead of him, before taking a deep inhale of the tobacco pipe and breathing out a thick plume of smoke in an attempt to reorganize his nerves.
"Very well then. What you are about to hear is an S-class secret that has to be kept classified on pain of death…"
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"Tell me, chuunin Iruka, what do you think of him?" The Hokage asked, exhaling a mouthful of tobacco smoke.
Shinji and Naruto had just left the office to return home after a very long and exhausting night followed by another mentally draining story of Naruto's circumstances. Although the blonde was quite down after being told of the truth, he had brightened up immediately after. The other child, however, took it very well. Too well in fact.
"Hmm, Naruto might be immature at times and he can act out on occasion, but for all his faults, Naruto is not a boy that will let something get him down for long. I'm sure he will be fine, but if Hokage-sama think it necessary, I will go check up on him later today."
The Sandaime shook his head, "He is a strong boy, and that strength and conviction of his leaves even me at awe sometimes. But no, I was not speaking of Naruto. I was speaking of the other child, Shinji."
Iruka tilted his head in confusion, "Shinji? Well he is a talented shinobi, as we have seen tonight. His true abilities really surprised me. Who knew he had hidden himself this well? I'm not sure if it is the influence of hindsight, but at the same time it also seems somewhat expected. I always knew he was a promising student, so I had high expectations as well. Indeed he did not disappoint."
Once again, the Hokage shook his head, "No, I was referring to his character. Tell me more about him."
The chuunin looked confused at the purpose of his Hokage's question, but regardless he was a loyal shinobi of Konoha and de jure subordinate of the Sandaime, thus he had no right to question his leader's intentions.
"Hai Hokage-sama."
He pondered for a moment, mentally putting together a coherent profile of his most distinguished student before answering.
"From what I have gathered throughout the four years I have been his chuunin instructor at the academy, putting aside his talents in the shinobi arts, Shinji Ikari can be described with four words: kind, friendly, helpful and charismatic. While he is able to pick up the material being taught at the academy at a relatively faster pace than the rest, Shinji does not rest on his laurels and be complacent. He often takes the initiative to practice more on his own and help out his classmates unprompted."
"He has a natural charisma that attracts the attention of many of his peers in school. Thus he remains popular and maintains many friendships. The civilian born children looks up to him, both because of his abilities and his friendly, kind disposition. It has also not gone unnoticed that surprisingly, he has even earned the respect of the clan students who have formed a clique with him as the nucleus of the group."
"In teamwork exercises, survival training and other large scale drills, the other students look to him as a leader and he has naturally taken charge of their peers whenever the situation calls for leadership. Even the cold and aloof Uchiha Sasuke willingly follows his orders on such occasions. When there is no one else Sasuke can even remotely tolerate, their friendship speaks volumes of Shinji's charisma for his age."
"Recalling the incident at the start of their second year involving his classmate and childhood friend Kaori; Shinji has exhibited a display of kindness and willingness to protect his friends as well as leadership capabilities when he was able to gather comrades to join him on his mission. While admittedly he could have handled the situation in a better way, I believe the whole incident ultimately depicts Shinji as someone who cares deeply for his friends and is willing to go the distance for them."
"Even tonight, Shinji's loyalty and friendship with Naruto drove him to pursue Naruto in order to minimize Naruto's punishment while at the same time paying attention to the boundaries of the law. At no time tonight did he forsake Naruto and I even in the face of overwhelming danger. Challenging a traitor chuunin, even if Mizuki was injured, shows remarkable courage. When Naruto accidentally… killed Mizuki, Shinji immediately made all attempts to convince Naruto that he was not responsible for Mizuki's death, displaying a consideration and thoughtfulness rare for his age."
"In conclusion, Shinji Ikari, in my humble opinion, displays all necessary attributes to become not just an excellent shinobi of Konohagakure, but also one that embodies the will of fire. Although he is an orphan who is deprived of the privileges of his peers, he has overcome that adversity and all the disadvantages associated with his background to become Rookie of the Year. I am proud to call myself his sensei, although truth be told I am not sure I have taught him much that he hadn't taught himself beforehand. End report."
Hiruzen was deep in thought as he took another deep drag of his tobacco pipe, processing the information Iruka just volunteered.
"It seems you have a very high opinion of the young man. Will of fire hmm…?"
Iruka was caught off guard at his Hokage's remark, not expecting such a dismissive tone. He had thought the Sandaime would have more of a reaction at least.
Hesitantly, the chuunin emboldened himself and asked, "Forgive my impudence, Hokage-sama, but might I ask… what are your thoughts of Shinji?"
The Hokage lazily glanced at his shinobi, before looking away again impassively, "On paper, Shinji Ikari displays all the necessary qualities to become a proud shinobi of Konoha. His talent is also unquestionable. But it appears more to me as if the young man has simply gone through a checklist ticking off bullet points – a 'to-do list' of things needed to be done in order to be seen as the person you have just described."
The chuunin instructor widened his eyes, struck speechless by what was functionally a denouncement by the Hokage of his most promising student's integrity and character.
"This… Hokage-sama, wh-what, why, I- I don't understand?"
The Sandaime waved a hand dismissively, "Mm, don't concern yourself too much about it. Perhaps this old man was just overthinking things. For now, carry on like I hadn't said anything. Go get yourself checked out at the hospital. Dismissed."
"I- Hai, Hokage-sama!"
As Iruka bowed and left his office, Hiruzen set down his tobacco pipe unsmilingly.
A low voice sounded off from a corner of his office, the speaker unseen, "Shall we send someone to watch the boy?"
Hiruzen glanced in the direction of the speaker before shaking his head, "Unnecessary. I am more interested in the traitor Mizuki. Investigate his backer. Someone of his calibre should not be bold enough to harbour thoughts of treason without sufficient confidence in finding refuge under someone with the ability to protect him following his defection."
"Hai."
The presence disappeared, only to be replaced with another in the next instant; although, to the untrained eye, there would have appeared to be no change whatsoever.
The Hokage turned to no one in particular and muttered to himself, "A talented orphan who seems like he is putting on an act… I pray that man has not yet sunk his talons in this child."
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The next day I exited my apartment with a renewed sense of purpose. The battle with Mizuki last night showed just how out of my depth and how cocky I was with my accomplishments in the Shinobi Academy against children. There are skies above skies and mountains beyond mountains. Meaning, there will always be someone better, stronger, faster than what I knew now. Being complacent with my growth would only invite disaster on to not just me but also the people I cared about.
I was sufficiently cautious, and my plan had worked in the end, but after action review showed me that I had been too conceited in my own abilities. Fortunately, Mizuki had sunk deep into insanity, and was thus reckless. But that was only because my initial sneak attack, though a hair off target, was a critical success that led to the ultimate defeat of the traitorous chuunin.
If I had been fighting a rational actor, someone in full control of his mental faculties, the fight would have gone in a completely different direction. I might have even been forced to reveal my Sharingan just to survive. This only demonstrated to me that I could no longer be confident in my meagre skills.
With my graduation from the academy and eventual foray into more and more dangerous missions and circumstances, events like the Wave mission and the chuunin exam for instance, I could not afford to be complacent. Last night reminded me that I was in a cutthroat world of ninjas, assassinations and powerhouses that easily could smash through mountains and overturn the earth. A single shred of carelessness could see me finding myself in that endless green room facing a floating blue screen that wrote 'Game Over'.
Thus, I made the easy decision of tackling the Rank E dungeon of the Uchiha Natural Dungeon. I had a week until team placements were announced, it was plenty of time to become stronger before I met my genin team and jounin sensei. I willed out my status screen, taking a moment to peruse my stats.
Status Page
Name: Shinji Ikari
Age: 12
Level: 21
Next Level: 3125/11550
HP: 5060/5060
CP: 5830/5830
STR: 80 (+5)
VIT: 71 (+7)
DEX: 78 (+13)
INT: 86
CHA: 17 (+10)
Points – 102
Ryo – 163,510
While my EXP gain was slow, relying on daily quests to slowly but steadily accumulate EXP, my stat growth was another matter entirely. This could be attributed to the two titles I had which have since disappeared - [Budding Talent] which increased all my stat growth by 20% while I was in the academy and [Precocious] which increased my INT stat growth by 20% before age 12.
These two titles, in addition to the Berserker's Eyepatch allowed me to rapidly increase my stats organically just by training for my physical stats and reading for my INT. Furthermore, the Bodybuilder's dumbbells allowed my STR to increase explosively, nearly catching up to my INT.
For my skills, another title of mine, [Zealous Student], boosted skill EXP gain by 20%. But it similarly was removed when I graduated the Shinobi Academy. But thanks to the title and diligent training, most of my existing skills were pretty much either maxed level or nearly there. Many of the passive skills gave outrageous passive bonuses, such as [Intermediate Body Conditioning] which at max level increased physical damage and movement speed and physical stat growth rate by 28%.
As such, I was pretty satisfied with my stats and skills. The only exception were my items. After seeing the effectiveness of Berserker's Eyepatch and Bodybuilder's dumbbells, I was determined to find more of such items from the next dungeon run that would crazily increase my stat or skill growth efficiency. Thus, my reason for going into the dungeon was not limited to just gaining EXP for levelling up but also for the delicious, incredible loot dropped by the creatures within.
I was somewhat optimistic about my chances of clearing the Rank E dungeon, given how strong I have become since the time I cleared the Rank F dungeon. However, as I had learned last night, complacency and carelessness would be foolish.
And so, looking at the over hundred free stat points I had accumulated, I made the decision to pump some of them in to my stats. Just for the sake of increasing my odds of survival and clearing the Rank E dungeon. After all, points could be earned back, but I only had one life. Or, well, two I suppose if you counted my previous life.
