2 Chapter Two- The White Fang
'What the hell is an inventory...' I wondered as once I woke up I was again greeted by a floating scroll. Again I was reminded that I agreed to treason, but if it was family over the village my choice would always be family. It was simple, so I again packed the thought away.
My question was answered as the scroll rolled itself up and reopened. It now resembled a grid with fifty boxes, they were all seemingly empty except the first one which had a square piece of paper.
Without any other option, I touched the box and my hand disappeared. I was scared for a moment before my hand brushed against a piece of paper. Grabbing it I pulled my hand out in a hurry. 'Seems like a lot of work to copy a storage scroll?'
'Well, at least I got something for that disaster of a day. It would've taken me at least three C-rank missions to buy this' I admitted as I immediately pushed my chakra into the paper, it glowed blue before it split in two.
[Wind Nature perk discovered!]
[Wing Nature- Boosts the learning speed, creation, and power of all wind-natured jutsus by 75%]
'No wonder it took me a month to learn the fireball jutsu, father was rather... Angered by my lack of talent. Fire is the hardest jutsu to learn for someone with a wind nature, surprised I learned it all. My main affinity is wind so fire should be the hardest to change my chakra into' I lamented as I got up from the cot and quickly put on all the gear I haphazardly threw away.
"Wonder how Sakumo is going to train me, honestly surprised I was able to talk him into it" I said aloud as I did a few stretches and left the barracks.
I arrived at the commander's tent just before dawn and saw Sakumo there waiting for me.
"Good, was going to be rather annoyed if I had to get you up. We're heading to the western forest, try to keep up" He said as he took off in a sprint, surprised I quickly tried to keep up with him as we exited the encampment.
I did well for the first minute or so but after that he kicked up the pace by a lot. I began losing sight of him before I opened the 'scroll' and added the five spare points into agility.
It didn't help much but I managed to keep track of his back before he entered the treeline.
Ten seconds later I made it into a clearing surrounded by trees, Sakumo was there waiting for me with his arms crossed.
"Not bad for a genin. I assume being an Uchiha you know the fireball jutsu?" Sakumo asked as he began walking around me, probably sizing me up.
Admittedly it wasn't much to look out at. I was skinny, about five four with black hair that spiked to one side and normal black eyes.
"Yes, but I'm wind-natured so I haven't mastered anything besides that" I answered with a slight lie hoping he might have a wind-style jutsu he could show me.
That caused him to pause his walk, but he continued quickly after.
"Well lucky you, fighting in the land of Wind will give you plenty of chances to steal jutsu. Have you unlocked your eyes yet?" Sakumo asked as his prowling came to a stop.
"No sensei, I honestly have no idea how to. My parents were always vague on the details, saying "I'd know when it happens" I said kind of angrily as it wasn't like I could ask them anything else at this point, they've been dead for four years now.
"Try. I have a Hyuga in my squad and all he has to do is send chakra into his eyes to activate his bloodline" Sensei ordered which I tried to quickly follow. Though my chakra was slightly sluggish I managed to send it towards my eyes. Then my world turned red, Fuza Sensei's body blown to smithereens, Ribia's body twisted and bent, the civilian girl Rika dropping to the ground with a kunai stuck in her forehead, tears still freshly falling from her face. All of it flashed in my mind like it just happened again.
[Bloodline unlocked- Sharingan]
[Two Tomoe Sharingan- When active it enables its user to copy movements and jutsu, they can only use whatever is copied if they are capable of it themselves. Grants the ability to see chakra and easily disrupt genjutsu. Cost: 5 Chakra a second.]
(Hint: Any jutsu or abilities cost can be reduced by practicing chakra control) 'not the fucking time evil scroll!'
I couldn't keep the bile in my mouth contained as I wretched on the ground, a rather morbid warning from my mother replaying in my mind. 'Don't rush to unlock your eyes dear. Everything comes at a price, every time you open them you will have to pay that price,' she said as she held my cheek lovingly and kissed my forehead.
'Every time I use them, that sounds more like a curse, mother...' I managed to wipe to bile from my lips as I returned to my standing position.
"You done?" Sakumo asked as he was slightly further back to avoid the splash zone. I just nodded, completely done with this week.
"Well, at least you've got your eyes already. That'll make what I had in mind a lot quicker for you. Here catch." He said as with a puff of smoke a sword was flying toward me. I caught it quickly and looked it over.
It was a katana with a yellow hilt, the blade seemed to be two feet long and slightly curved. A lightning bolt symbol on the guard shows exactly where Sakumo got the sword from, most likely a ninja from the land of lightning who lost against Sakumo.
"Thank you sensei" I said with a smile as I fastened the scabbard to the left of my waist.
"Got it off a corpse, don't mention it." He responded rather morbidly as he opened his pack and began searching for something. He found it rather quickly as he tossed me a scroll as well.
"Put these on as well, you are not to remove them unless on a mission" he said as I unsealed the scroll to find Limb weights, picking one up I noticed that each one weighed at least fifty kilograms. 'This is going to be hell. Well, I got what I asked for.' I sighed slightly as I strapped the weights on.
It was a struggle to even take a step but I eventually got used to the amount of force I'd need to take a step.
"Alright turn your eyes on again, and watch closely" Sakumo said as he withdrew his saber.
I cringed as the morbid scenes appeared again but I got through it as I completely focused on Sakumo. He went through a variety of movements. Slashing, piercing, footwork, it was odd in the sense that I could see a smaller silhouette of myself behind him doing the same movements. 'Rather creepy, but it does feel like I've done it before. Hundreds of times...' he finished with a few chakra-assisted jump slashes before sheathing his sword.
"You get everything?" He asked curiously. "Good, practice! Do it perfectly every time, it'd be a waste of energy not to" he ordered as I quickly tried to copy him perfectly.
I quickly understood what the scroll meant when it said I had to have the ability to do whatever I copied. I wasn't close to as fast as Sakumo, but I could still perform the moves albeit at a much slower pace. The weights greatly prohibit my flow of movement as well.
Still, I never gave up technique for speed, so I kept practicing until my movements started to flow better to match Sakumo's swordsmanship.
I lasted about twenty minutes under the weight before my muscles burned in protest.
[+1 Agility, +1 strength, +1 dexterity] 'I guess actual training makes the stats rise faster than running for hours does.'
"Wish I had eyes like that, you've got a basic grasp on swinging a sword in half an hour." Sakumo said as he came next to me. I hardly agreed though, in a real battle a genin could probably disarm me with a kunai at my level.
"I'm leaving you a week's worth of food and water. We're set to join the war front by then, train hard. I'd be pretty pissed to lose my student to a stray kunai." Sakumo said as he patted me shoulder a dropped a scroll on the ground.
"Should I only practice the sword during that time?" I asked quickly before he left.
"I'll check on you tomorrow, have you practiced tree walking?" Sakumo abruptly turned around.
"Yes, though my old sensei just started teaching us. I've only managed to make it halfway up a tree." I answered. Looking back it seemed rather useless to learn team formations instead of individual performance.
"That is....nevermind. Split your time between tree walking and swordsmanship. I'll give you some tips and show you a few more katas during the week. See ya tomorrow Toresu!" The young Jonin said with a wave as he left in a swirl of leaves.
'Asshole, I'm honestly unsure if he knows my actual name anymore. He's got too, he's way too close to Tometsu to not be messing with me….. just swing the damn sword' I gave it up with a sigh as I continued the series of katas.
The Next Day...…..
I managed to train my swordsmanship till nightfall and even managed to perform one of the more difficult jumping slashes before I called it a night. The scroll judged my progress with an extra point or two in the my physical stats.
The tree walking exercise was a great annoyance. I still only made it to the half point of a tree before I either slid off or was blasted back. Oddly those failures increased the intelligence stat by two points. Which raised my chakra pool as well?
The intelligent stat dictated my chakra pool. However from what I've learned that didn't make sense, as 'Chakra' was the result of spiritual and physical energies combining. Though it did make me slightly regretful of putting those ten points in agility.
'Status'
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Level 5 (120/2000)
Name: Tometsu Uchiha
Chakra: 220/220
Title: Konoha Genin (10% boost to fire-natured jutsus)
Strength:14
Dexterity:15
Agility: 22
Endurance:15
Intelligence:22
Stat points:0
-
Honestly, I didn't know how I felt about the 'scroll', it seemed to give me rewards and track my progress in a much simpler way compared to how I did before this. It was a scarily accurate judge of my abilities as well, it stated that my Sharingan would cost five Chakra a second. I had two hundred and twenty so I should only be able to use it for forty-four seconds. I tested it before bed and it only lasted for forty-two seconds before my vision swam and I stumbled slightly.
I knew from the academy's teachings that these were signs of chakra exhaustion, I trained a lot to become rookie of the year but not once had I ever experienced it. I began to feel sick as the scroll informed me that I only had five points of chakra left. I quickly cut the chakra to my eyes as I collapsed.
So, I could trust the scroll to accurately represent what I could do with my Chakra pool. The 'scroll' was beginning to become a very useful tool, and as any shinobi, I would use a powerful tool no matter the risk if it would improve my survival. I already agreed to its 'terms' after all.
After a quick breakfast of bread and soup I began my training again. Though my muscles were sore I knew I had to continue if I wanted to make it back from the war front safely.
An hour later after I finished the series of katas perfectly Sakumo reappeared.
"Progress report" Sensei said as he entered the clearing.
"I managed to complete the katas, though the tree walking exercise was a slight failure…." I admitted with a head slightly lowered.
"Explain?" Sakumo asked, slightly surprised that I didn't make any progress.
"I only managed to make it halfway up the tree again. Even that was a struggle." I admitted.
"You're not the smartest kid, at least you're not snobby. Guess I'll take a dumb Uchiha as my apprentice than a smart one with a stick up his ass" Sakumo said as he looked down at my red face with a blatant smirk.
"The hell do you mean?!" I asked in embarrassment. 'Did I miss something…. The weights! I was too focused on the goal of making it to the top that I forgot the actual point of the exercise.'
"You could probably climb a tree easily at this point, you did it with over four hundred pounds on you. Now you should focus on sticking to a tree as long as you can. Five minutes should be enough for you to have mastered basic chakra control." Sakumo said as he had a hand on his chin in thought.
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{Chakra Training Quest l}
Climb Monkey
Objective: Stick to a tree for five minutes with only your chakra.
Rewards: 500 exp, Perk: Novice Chakra Control
-
"Ok, so should I focus on that for today?" I asked hopefully as the perk was just what I needed, what kind of Uchiha couldn't even use their Sharingan for less than a minute? Father would probably roll in his grave if he heard that, well if he had a grave beside a name on a stone monument.
"Yes though if you want to have any hope of actually lasting five minutes you should lose the weights., Holding up that much weight for that long will siphon your chakra way too quickly" Sensei said as he permitted me to take off the weights. I did it with a smile as it felt incredibly freeing to not be chained down.
And to my honest surprise, I managed to last five minutes on my very first try, it seemed I wasn't that far off from mastering it in the first place. While I still had over half my chakra when I jumped down.
-
{Quest Complete}
Climb Monkey
Objective: Stick to a tree for five minutes with only your chakra.
Rewards: 500 exp, Perk: Novice Chakra Control
-
[Novice Chakra Control- All jutsu and ability costs are now reduced by 20%. You are now able to enhance yourself with Chakra, boosting your strength and speed at a cost.]
"Yes! How bout that Rika" I said as I paid homage to my former civilian teammate who managed to climb a tree on her very first attempt.
"Good job Tometsai, now onto the next level. Earth style- Trench" Sakumo sensei said much to my chagrin, I was more saddened that I didn't have my Sharingan on at that point. But I quickly activated it as I guessed he wasn't done.
Soon a decent-sized hole was made as sensei went through another set of signs that I quickly memorized.
"Water style- Wild Water Wave" Sakumo said as a literal ten-foot-long wave of water came from his mouth. In a matter of moments, there was a decent-sized pond in the clearing.
[Jutsu learned!]
[Water style- Wild Water Wave: A C rank water ninjutsu where the user uses their chakra to summon a wave of water towards their enemies. Cost: 150- ??? Chakra.]
'This thing gets more and more confusing. I can only guess that this is the kind of jutsu in which you can put as much chakra as you want to increase its power. Still, it's well over half my chakra to use, even with the perk. I need to increase the amount of chakra I have.'
"You learned it?" Sakumo asked to which I nodded. " Now you're going to try to learn the next step in chakra control, water walking. Trust me it's much harder than you'd think." Sakumo warned me.
I quickly put on the weights before giving it a try, luckily the water was only a few feet deep so I did not worry about drowning because of the added weight.
I landed on the water perfectly, I smirked and was about to boast to my teacher when my concentration slipped. Thankfully it wasn't a real lake and I only fell backwards onto my rear. Sakumo laughed at me before offering a hand to help me up.
"Harder than it looks huh? If you manage to stand on the water for five minutes you can move on to the next step" He said as he told me to turn on my Sharingan again. He quickly performed another set of katas before he again left to continue his duty as the active base commander.
-
{Chakra Training Quest ll}
Standing on Water
Objective: Stand upon any body of water for a total of five minutes with your weights on.
Rewards: 800 exp, +3 Intelligence
-
"What is the next step?" I asked curiously, a new bout of motivation welled within me after passing one of the hurdles.
"Fighting on the water. For the rest of the week, I'll leave a shadow clone with you to help practice your swordsmanship. The intent would be to train with the clone while you wait for your Chakra to replenish from practicing water walking." Sakumo said as his hands went into a cross pattern, my eyes turned crimson in an instant.
"Shadow Clone jutsu" Sakumo whispered as a perfect copy of himself appeared next to him. I gasped in surprise because even with the Sharingan I couldn't tell the difference, they were identical.
[Jutsu learned!]
[Shadow Clone Jutsu: A B rank jutsu where the user splits their chakra in half to create a perfect solid copy of themselves. The clone will share memories with their creator but they will be dispersed if they take a solid hit. Base Cost:500 Chakra]
"What the hell?" I muttered in disbelief as I realized how much chakra I'd need to even perform this jutsu. Almost five times my current amount. 'I'd need a thousand chakra points to even attempt this jutsu, it does sound incredibly useful though. In more ways than just battle if my guess is right'
"You're not going to try it?" Sakumo asked to which I quickly shook my head. "Good, I was ready to knock you out of it, would've killed yourself if you tried it at your level" Sakumo said with a sigh, it seemed personal as he might have seen someone die similarly.
"Well get practicing, focus on completing the basic water walking exercise. It is your lifeline in the field, if you waste it you could die to a Kunai without even being able to substitute." Sakumo ordered as his clone walked off toward the area I'd been using for sword practice.
"Yes sensei" I replied with excitement. 'So what my chakra pool is small, I'll just have to work that much harder to master control and train to raise my intelligence stat. Progress is progress after all'
