Big Events, and Another Friend?

The dinner with Isamu went well. I could've gone without my mom pestering me about my 'first and only friend', even though she's not necessarily wrong… Anyway, today is an off day for the academy, so I am going to start something I should've started long ago.

Chakra control.

Yes I know, how could I forget about chakra control? Well, I definitely focused a little too much on activating and progressing the system, and I… Kinda… Forgot? Yeah, it's a shit excuse, but it's the only one I got. Anyways, after breakfast, I inform my mom that I'm going to train. So I head out to the clearing behind the playground.

The only reason I'm not using the academy training grounds is that I don't want to have to lie about how I know about the leaf-sticking exercise. What? I suck at lying, ok? So once I reach the clearing I grab some leaves from the ground and sit down.

'First, I've got to feel my chakra. Then, I need to move it towards the leaf and imagine it sticking there.' Easy enough, right?

Surprisingly, it was at first. I stuck the leaf to my forehead for about thirty seconds, before my chakra decided to rebel against me and blow the leaf away.

"Damnit! Ok, next attempt."

And I continued like this for the next 4 hours, managing to exhaust my chakra and raise my leaf-sticking record to 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Which was okay for the first day. But most importantly, I check my status.

[Chakra

Skills: None

Progress: 14%]

"All that… for 1%... Well, it could be worse I guess." So I got up and moved over to the trees, where I started to practice my taijutsu. Because practice makes perfect, I think? Meh, it felt good to release all the frustration after sitting down for four hours. So I continued with my taijutsu practice for another two hours until it was about time for lunch.

After a filling lunch, I headed to the academy training ground to engage in my workout routine since it has a lot more space for laps than my usual spot. My one-punch man routine takes a lot of time, all the way till dinner, actually. But it was worth it as I could feel my physique getting stronger, even if the system's progress is slow.

And I continued my routine of training by myself and meeting with Isamu to spar once a week.

//////// 11 months later ///////

I can't believe I forgot. One of the most important events in Naruto.

The Uchiha massacre.

It didn't really change much, besides my mom not letting me stay out as late as usual and the tense atmosphere of the village. I wasn't really affected. I did hear the whispers though, which led me to the conclusion that something was a little different than how I remember it.

"Did you hear? That boy killed his entire clan in cold blood!"

"Yeah, and the only ones he spared were the kids under 12."

What? Not just Sasuke?

Shit.

I was kind of hoping to rely on my vague knowledge of Naruto canon, but I guess that route is going out the window.

'Well, this hurts to think about, so I'm not.'

Moving on, not much changed at the academy either. The only thing was that the teachers started to pity my Uchiha classmate, who also become much colder than before. Which is pretty understandable.

Speaking of other important things, I leveled up my chakra by a huge margin over the year.

[Chakra

Skills: None

Progress: 21%]

My taijutsu was also close to a breakthrough.

[Taijutsu

Skills: None

Progress: 14%]

I don't know how, but I just knew that once I hit 15% something important was going to happen. Just a gut feeling. My chakra was my real source of joy though. I can now hold multiple leaves to myself indefinitely as long as I'm not distracted. I even started attaching leaves to myself in secret when sparring with Isamu.

The next step though, is tree-walking. Which sounds super awesome but kind of difficult as well. Eh, I've got nothing to lose by trying. Well, that's for later. Right now, I'm stuck in the academy, which is super boring, by the way.

I've been sitting here, lost in thought, while my classmates were sparring. Two at a time. For 45 minutes. With this information, I know I'm probably going to be the last fight. Currently, Isamu is fighting some civilian nobody and absolutely dominating, so I'm not really learning anything.

Finally, after his sparring partner surrenders, I am called up along with a name that interests me.

"Tsurugi Kaen and Uchiha Ayame, come up here," Mizuki said.

'Well, this is definitely going to be exciting.'

As we both face each other, with me still being as far from Mizuki as possible, we make the seal of confrontation.

"3… 2… 1… Fight!" And then I moved towards her, nearing my top speed, which she was definitely not expecting, her eyes widening.

I opened up my attack with a jab that was dodged easily, so I followed up with a forward kick aimed at her knees. She jumped over my kick and launched her own at the same time, which I dodged by tilting my head to the left.

We continued exchanging blows for a while, with her firmly on the defensive, and I was starting to get bored.

'Is that it? Isn't she supposed to be the best of the best? An Uchiha? I'm not learning anything here.'

'I guess it's time to stop holding back' At this thought, I immediately transitioned to my top speed, which leads to an event I wasn't expecting.

'Sharingan, of course she unlocked it! I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be traumatized at having their clan slaughtered overnight.'

As soon as she activated it, she went on the offensive, as she could now dodge all my attacks with ease. She threw a sequence of kicks and punches at me, each with impeccable timing.

'Impressive, but it's not enough.'

The reason? Because I can just tank the hits that aren't aimed at my face and neck. And so I absorbed all the attacks launched at my chest and stomach to set up an uppercut to her chin. The look of shock on her face when I just shrugged off her attacks was priceless.

She tried to move away since she saw my attack coming with her sharingan, but her body was too slow. My attack landed and she was flipped out of the circle, nearly unconscious.

'Oops,' was all I could think as the instructor rushed over to check on her.

"Ayame! Are you ok?" Mizuki asked, trying to help her up. "I'm fine," she grumbled.

"Here just give me a second to scold Tsurugi, and I'll escort you to the hospital." He said.

Then he turned to me and scowled, "What were you thinking?! You could have seriously hurt her!" he yelled.

It was my turn to look away sheepishly, "Sorry, Mizuki-sensei, I just got absorbed in the fight."

"That's not good enough. You better believe I'm going to tell your parents about this." he threatened.

I immediately paled, 'Mom is going to beat my ass for hitting someone that hard.'

Seeing that I was thoroughly chastised, he turned back to Uchiha and started to escort her to the hospital to get checked out. While I was busy dreading my mom's possible punishments, I didn't notice her watching me as she walked away.

//////// The next day///////

"You ready to lose?" Isamu exclaimed.

"Big words for a guy who ends up eating dirt every time," I reply.

"Heh," he let out a small laugh and got ready to charge me, but we were interrupted by someone's presence. It was the Uchiha girl.

"What are you doing here?" Isamu asked, definitely not rudely at all.

She didn't waste any time with her reply and got straight to the point. "I want to spar with Tsurugi."

"Well, tough luck, we are already sparring!" He replied.

"Che!" She spat. Then she stepped back a bit and started watching without another word.

"What are you doing?" Isamu asked.

"Waiting," she said.

"Why?" He asked.

"For a spar."

"Oh."

He then started ignoring her. But I couldn't let the opportunity to insult him slip away.

"Don't worry, I'll have plenty of energy left after I'm done dealing with you," I smiled.

"You!.. Ugh, just get on with it." He said.

"Sure thing, pal," and before the last word left my mouth, I was already dashing toward him.

//////// 45 minutes later ////////

Isamu flopped onto the floor. "You're a freak of nature," he complained.

"I told you, I'm just built different." I replied.

We bantered for a little while before someone cleared their throat.

"Oh, you're still here." She looked vaguely annoyed by this. I wonder why.

"You're finished. So fight with me," she said.

"Well, I guess I could spare some time for it."

So she took Isamu's place as my combatant and we made the seal of confrontation.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied, her now red eyes swirling with one tomoe in each. Then, as if we had agreed upon it beforehand, we both charged each other.

//////// 20 Minutes later ////////

It was her turn to flop on the ground, completely exhausted. Personally, I was breathing a little heavily, but I could've gone on for longer.

"Ha! I'm not the only one!" Isamu cheered. Uchiha scowled at that.

"Welp, it's about time for dinner. You coming, Isamu?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute to regain feeling in my legs."

I walked over and helped him up. But as we started to walk away, I noticed a gaze on my back. When I glanced over, I saw Uchiha looking over at us with an indescribable emotion.

I stopped. "You hungry?" I asked.

"No-"

She was interrupted by her stomach growling.

She turned beet-red.

'Haah, fine. What is one more gonna hurt?' I thought.

"C'mon, Uchiha. My mom can make a mean stew."

I started to walk away, "But if you don't want to, I understand..." Predictably, she ended up following me.

As we were walking back, she mumbled something.

"Huh? Did you say something?" I asked.

"Ayame," she said, "Call me Ayame."

I felt a small smile form on my face. "Then you can call me Kaen. Call Isamu whatever you want. It's not like his opinion matters anyway."

"Hey! I resent that!"

And as we reached my house, a new friendship had formed.