6 Chapter 6: The Grind

"Mmm, this is so good!"Atsuki had been rather (doubtful) when Shin said that he was going to treat him to the best Ramen he'd ever had, but now sitting here at the street side stall of Ichiraku made him a believer. In fact Shin himself was rather surprised when he first had it, it was far more tasteful than any other ramen shop in the village. According to the man himself, he had learned under the various noodle masters in the land of noodles, learned of spices from the land of Lightning and herbs from the land of rivers before studying under the ramen masters in the land of iron. In the end he returned home to Konoha, bringing the tastes of foreign lands.

However his tale was not so happy, he was rejected from every big restaurant because they considered his work to be too "revolutionary", making them unpopular among most of the mature audience. In the end, he decided to open his own shop and sell his own noodles to those that could appreciate it.

"Told you didn't I?" grinned Shin as he drank the broth, draining the bowel. "Fantastic as always Oji-san" Shin complimented the chef and paid, leaving with Atsuki towards their usual training area. "Ninjutsu training again?" Atsuki asked. "Yup, it'll really get us a step ahead compared to our other classmates." Shin replied. "What you mean to say is that it would help us not get our butts kicked after vacations." Atsuki mused. "Yah well we need every advantage we can get, especially if you want to graduate early. You could always stay at the academy and keep being the top dog." Shin smirked while suggesting. "As much as I would love to do that, I'm just gonna graduate early and by the time they become genins I'm gonna be a chunin already! Heh!" Atsuki grinned while imagining his future.

Atsuki really didn't like the clan kids, they always kept to themselves and acted haughty; treating the civilian kids as background characters. Clan kids had a massive advantage over the civilian kids, they were giving specialized guidance and training including clan specific fighting styles and jutsu, all of which no civilian kid could have access to. Since they were always at the top of the class, this made them think less of the civilian kids.

All this made Atsuki greatly disliked the clan kids, he didn't like the civilian kids either since they were always lagging behind and fawning over the clan kids. In fact if Shin was weaker than him, Atsuki wouldn't even bother talking to him. Shin knew all this and partially agreed and didn't mind the other parts since having someone that you can compete against was a great source of motivation and made sure that Shin didn't become complacent.

When the duo reached the clearing, they started with light warmup before flexing their fingers while Pineapple flexed her yawning muscles. "Transformation jutsu!" Shin declared and a second later with a poof of smoke Atsuki stood at the clearing looking at two black cats. He sat down and scrutinized the pair as they simply lay there wagging their tails and looking at one another as if there was a mirror in between them. "Right one!" He pointed before the left one exploded into smoke and a smiling Shin sat there "Hehe, wrong again." "Aw man! That's no fair!" He cried.

After the ninjutsu practice it was time for the daily spar. First it was taijutsu which was mostly dominated by Atsuki. It really helped them both learn a lot, since they were familiar with each other's style, they were able to counter the other who would in turn try to make up for his shortcomings. It was positive feedback and since they didn't have any specific clan fighting style, they fought using pure instinct. Their constant bouts had led to Shin developing a more defensive style since he couldn't risk getting hit so he focused on dodges, deflects and quick jabs.

When it came to weapons however, things were the opposite since Shin's speed allowed him to hit quickly and with weapons a single hit could spell the end. They used wooden weapons, kunais, shurikens, sharpened chopsticks and swords that were smeared with chalk so they would leave a mark on every hit. At the end they would comment on each other's moves and come up with ways to counter them. They didn't have any teacher but they were happy making their own path instead of following someone else's.

After the spar it would be time for them to play ninja, yes the game every child in Konoha played with their friends in the park. Both of them would take turns to be "it" every other day and today it was Shin's turn so he blind folded himself as Atsuki ran into the surrounding forest. Shin would count till 200 and then to seek.

"... 198, 199 and 200" Shin took off his blindfold and looked around. It was late in the afternoon so the sunlight came at an angle, the forest canopy blocking out most of it. He stood up and looked down at Pineapple, "Do you know where he went?" he asked the cat and a "Meow OwO" gave him the answer as the feline started to run into the woods.

Shin followed the cat while keeping an eye out for any movement, holding 3 wooden shuriken in his left hand and a kunai in his right.

The cat sniffed and ran across the ground and jumped between the branches, changing directions and wiggling her ears at every distant sound, trying to discern its source. Shin also looked around, he trusted his cat but he also knew Atsuki was crafty. He examined every footprint and broken branch. Sometimes a trail led elsewhere and Pineapple went the other direction only to find a piece of Atsuki's clothing and sometimes the trail led to a deadend and the duo had to retrace their steps.

Shin tried to be as fast as he could be without making a sound, he needed to find Atsuki fast because as the day died out, the difficulty of finding him grew smaller. "Meow!" he immediately halted, his right foot suspended in air, halting midstep. He didn't move as the cat jumped close to his right foot. Shin focused and found a dull thin wire, he immediately stepped back and looked around. "Stay sharp, he might be close." he cautioned the cat, tripping the wire as small bells rang.

He immediately lunged forward as he saw Pineapple's head jerk left and sent shuriken flying in that direction. He didn't get the whine from Atsuki that usually accompanied the loss so he kept his guard on. He heard a rustle as 2 kunai flew towards him from behind. He dodged them by side stepping and rushed towards the source. He saw a silhouette escaping into the distance as he threw every kunai he had towards it.

"Aw man! I was so close! Shin, it's cheating! You can't always rely on Pineapple!" The whining assured Shin of his victory as he went towards Atsuki. "And why not? It's not our fault that you don't have an awesome partner. Isn't that right Pineapple?" He scratched Pineapple's head as she jumped onto his shoulder and purred. "Whatever!" Atsuki pouted, "I'm gonna find myself a ninja pet too!" "Whatever you say, let's go back now."

The two boys chatted as they reached the village and then separated. Pineapple occasionally visited a few food stalls and brought back a few snacks for Shin and her to share. Shin had made huge progress in these two months. His summer routine consisted of waking up at dawn and doing his morning workout until his mother made the breakfast, after that he met up with Atsuki and the two trained their ranged weapon skills and how to defend against them until noon when they went for a lunch, then came the spar and finally they played ninja to improve their stealth, making traps and alarms and finally tracking.

His consistent effort had rewarded him 2 more levels and bet he could reach level 13 before the academy resumed. He had also learned the 3 basic justus and nearly mastered transforming into Pineapple, in fact the only way Atsuki could tell the two apart was through sheer luck. This meant that he only had to reach level 15, the lowest level genin that he saw, to graduate and he only needed a few more months for that.

"Maybe I'll become a genin before my 7th birthday." he mused. As he walked, Pineapple jumped onto his shoulder again, this time she held a bun in her mouth "Thanks grandpa Pan!" Shin yelled without looking back as a "You're welcome!" replied him back.

'Hm, I got time before mom gets back and got nothing to do… maybe I'll try to get something out of the system again' He had wanted to change his name from "The Overlord Of Chaos" after he reached level 5 but turns out the system meant level 5 as a realm lord and not a punny human child. He had stopped interacting with it after that since all he ever got as a response was [Insufficient Level].

'Hey Assal, can you tell me how powerful a level 5 realm lord is?"

[Insufficient Level]

'Hey Assal, can you tell me how many levels there are for realm lords?'

[Insufficient Level]

'Hey Assal, can you tell me if there is any other realm lord in this world?'

[Insufficient Level]

'Hey Assal, can you tell me why you are so useless?' Shin sighed as he complained about getting the most useless system in the history of all systems. He opened the door to his house and entered, only to stop dead on the threshold.

[System is running on emergency power, only limited features are currently available.]

'What the…'"Meow?" Shin went inside and closed the door behind him before rushing to his bedroom. After sitting down he gulped in anticipation as he said 'What features are currently available?'

[Following features are currently available:

Set a Reminder.

Record a Memo.

Take a Picture.

Calculator.

Use the Map.

Search for information.

Observe basic information about living things]

'Wtf! What is this Siri? No wait, what information can I search.'

[Any information that you possess in your mind.]

-_- #

'Its already in my head, why would I need to look it up?' Shin sighed 'Forget it, tell me about the map feature.'

[You can create a mental map of the locations you have already visited]

'Will it show things like, quests or hidden items or places or maybe nearby enemies?'

[No.]

"WHAT THE POINT!?" Shin yelled startelling the cat in his lap as it yelped in protest.

"Sorry Pineapple." he apologized. 'Ugh, this really is useless… or, maybe I'm not asking the right questions.' A lightbulb lit up in the room as Shin quickly moved to switch it off "That's weird, don't waste electricity."

'Alright Assal, you said you're running on emergency power, what do you need to become fully operational?'

[You can spend your personal energy]

'How much do you need?'

[For full operation: 10 million energy points]

'And how many do I have?'

[You currently have 20 energy points]

'Well flying fishing fudge! There is no way I can get that! System, what rank would I have to be to get that many energy points?'

[You would require the chakra equivalent to a tailed beast]

'Fudge, of course I would. By the way, what was that space I was in before I came here?'

[It was your realm]

'Huh, was rather empty. So when I die I go back there?'

[Yes, you are required to reach Level 30 in this world in order to return to your realm successfully]

Shin became a bit apprehensive 'And If I don't reach that level?'

[Permanent Death]

'Well thats nice… though my potential was not very high. Though, how high is it?'

[The potential levels were according to Realm Lord System]

'Wait So that means I have a Level 6 potential for energy? Hey Assal, translate my potential to this world's standard.'

[Physical potential: Elite Jounin

Energy Potential: Tailed beast]

'Holy! Does that mean I am actually a genius? I suppose that makes sense since I am leveling up so easily. Hey Assal, overtraining wont have any side-effects would it?'

[No. Even if you didn't train, you would realize your potential when you reach 40 years of age.]

'I can't wait that long. So training is only accelerating the progress?'

[Yes.]

'Can I exceed my potential?'

[Yes. Though special methods or external sources are required.]

'Interesting, very interesting indeed. I'll look inot that later, first I have to get ready to survive the canon. Luckily i have a nearly 5 year head start and when I am strong enough to move around, I'll go for the treasures.' All of a sudden Shin was very hopeful about his future in this world and looking forward to it, in fact he couldn't stop a smile creeping onto his face which soon twisted into a full grin.

"Hehehehe… hahahaha… MUWAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!"

"Meow?"

"Shin? Why are you laughing? Are you ok?"

"Mom!?"