5 Sparring and unexpected friendship

//////// 1 month later ////////

My progress skyrocketed after one month of intense training… At least, that's what I'd like to say…

[Taijutsu

Skills: None

Progress: 9%]

[Chakra

Skills: None

Progress: 13%]

'2% in taijutsu and 2% in chakra??? Are you fucking kidding me!?' My progress seemed fast at first, with my taijutsu jumping 1% the first time I trained some new techniques. But it slowed down dramatically after that. 'That shitty system didn't even tell me everything. I guess it's still a good thing that I can get progress through learning techniques… Would've been nice to know sooner though.'

But my moping aside, it's finally time for sparring! Well, after this lunch period anyway. Where I still have no friends to talk to… Damn, I really should start socializing.

Thankfully, I'm broken out of my thoughts by a bell ringing, signifying the physical portion of the academy.

As I make my way towards the field outside, I notice that everyone seems as excited as I am for sparring.

"Heh, I'm going to kick your ass if we're paired up!" said random civilian number one.

"Yeah, right. You still trip over your own feet during practice," said random civilian number 2.

But Mizuki soon calmed everyone down. "Did you guys forget that sparring is only during the last hour? You've still got to run laps first!" Everyone groaned.

About 2 hours later, we were finally done with the physical training. It was time.

"Alright, everyone!" Mizuki shouted, "Before we start, I want everyone to show me that you know the seal of confrontation." So we did. "Good. Now I am going to call your names two at a time. When I do, you will come over here and stand on either side of the circle. When both of you are here, you will make the seal of confrontation and I will signal when you can start fighting. You will fight until one person gives up, if I call the match, or if one of you leaves the boundaries of the circle. Understand?"

"""Yes, Mizuki-sensei!""" we all yelled.

"Good. Now for the first pair, I want to see Ito Isamu and Tsurugi Kaen!"

Ooh, I get to go first. How exciting.

I walk up and stand on the far side of the circle from Mizuki (he still grosses me out with his fake happiness) and Ito stands on the other side.

Mizuki nodded, "Okay, now make the seal of confrontation." Which we both did. "On my signal, you will fight. 3… 2… 1… Fight!" And I was off.

Now, some might criticize me for immediately attacking without observing my opponent, but I have zero experience in doing that. And the best way to learn? Trial by fire.

Ito, while surprised that I was running at him so soon, took a defensive stance.

Right as I was about to reach him, I pivoted on my right foot and threw a roundhouse kick at his ribs. Ito saw this as I telegraphed it pretty badly (this is my first fight, sue me) and decided to block it with his forearms.

Bad choice.

He winced as my kick connected and he skidded back a few feet. 'Damn, that was a lot more powerful than I expected!' Ito thought, 'But it's not over yet!'

I started to move toward him again, this time slower and threw and threw a right hook at his head. He dodged it and counterattacked with his own punch directed at my stomach. I tanked it with relative ease and hit him on the chin with my forearm.

"Gah!"

The force of my blow took him off his feet and he crash down right outside the circle.

"Enough! The winner is Tsurugi!" Mizuki called out. I walked over to Ito after that and offered a hand.

"That was a good fight," I said.

"Nah, you whooped my ass! You're a lot stronger than I thought." He took my hand and I helped him up.

"Good fight, you two." Mizuki said, "Now, starting with Ito, what did you do wrong?" He asked.

Ito thought a little bit before replying, "I shouldn't have blocked his kick when I could have easily dodged it." He said.

"Well, that's one thing. You also shouldn't have put all your weight behind that last punch, otherwise, you wouldn't have been left open for a counterattack.

Tsurugi, you might be stronger than most fresh academy students I've seen, but your technique needs a lot of work. Even though you are fast, Ito was able to block and dodge your first moves because you telegraphed your intent too much."

"Okay, Mizuki-sensei," I said. He was right, by the way. In my past life, I don't think I ever got into an actual fight before and I never practiced martial arts.

"Alright, head back to the group. I'm going to call up the next students." So I started to head back when Ito came up by my side.

"Hey, you were pretty good," he said. "Thanks. You're not bad yourself," I replied. As we made it back to the group Mizuki started calling the next pair.

Ito still had more to say, though, "You wanna spar sometime? I figure you don't have a lot to do since I never see you talking to anyone. It would be good for both of us."

Well, that was unexpected. He was right though. Outside of training, I don't really do much. I contemplated for a second. "You know, that's not a bad idea. I usually train in a clearing near a playground, if you want to join me."

He looked at me weirdly, "You do know that there's a training ground for academy students, right?" Well, shit. I didn't even think of that.

"Yeah, of course, I know that!" I lied.

"Suuure… Well, I'll be there after class ends if you want to meet up," he said. Then he started focusing on the fights.

Well, I guess I could learn something by watching too. I started focusing on the fights as well, which was pretty boring in my opinion. At least it was until the Uchiha girl and Neji were called up.

"Alright, I need Uchiha Ayame and Hyuuga Neji to come up please," Mizuki announced.

"Oh, this could be exciting."

"A Hyuuga versus an Uchiha? Well, at least I don't have to fight one of them now."

'This could be interesting. Neji versus some random Uchiha I've never heard of?'

They both took their sides, while Neji looked over at her condescendingly. They both make the seal of confrontation and begin to observe each other. Which only lasted 30 seconds or so, because Neji decided to take the initiative. He immediately opened with a flurry of palm strikes, that were either dodged narrowly or redirected to the side.

As the fight continued, the more agressive Neji got with his attacks. I could see him starting to get annoyed with how much he was getting countered, so he activated his Byakugan and jabbed at the Uchiha's arms. This time, she couldn't redirect the strikes and ended up losing the function in her arms. But Neji wasn't done. He went in for more strikes at her chest and head, but Mizuki stepped in at the last second.

"Enough!" He shouted, "You've already disabled her arms, how much more damage are you going to do?" Neji scoffed and turned away. Mizuki sighed at seeing his less-than-stellar attitude. "Winner, Hyuga Neji!" He declared. He then turned to the Uchiha, "Ayame, your arms will be better in a couple of hours, ok? So don't do any training until you gain complete control again or you might actually get injured."

She nodded without saying a word and headed back to the crowd.

'Well, that was sort of interesting, I guess… It ended way too fast, I didn't even learn anything!' Which was a major bummer. I was hoping that by watching the fights I would get some hints at what I was doing right or wrong, but I guess I need to train my observation skills as well.

As that was the last spar, we were dismissed by Mizuki for the day. Instead of heading to the clearing I usually trained at, I went to the training ground closest to the academy. Turns out, it really is meant for academy students. It wasn't a large clearing, but enough to include a space for sparring, some wooden targets for shurikenjutsu, and some standing logs to toughen up your arms and legs. It was edged with lots of trees and a stream that was big enough to walk on ran on the left side, just past the tree line.

As I arrived, I saw that Ito was already there, warming up by throwing punches and kicks at one of the logs.

"Hey," I greeted. "Oh, you came!" Ito exclaimed. "I wasn't sure if you were going to show since we don't really talk normally."

"Well, I'm not one to miss out on an opportunity to learn more taijutsu," I said.

"Ha! That's a good attitude to have. Why don't you get warmed up, then we can start."

I nodded and approached one of the logs and threw some lightweight punches at it. After about 15 minutes, we were both ready, so we moved over to the clearing.

"Alright," Ito said, "This time I'm not going down so easy!"

I smirked, "We'll see about that."

This time, I didn't charge straight in. I wanted to test how good I was at defending instead of attacking.

After a minute of waiting, Ito finally got the hint. "Fine, I guess I'll come to you this time." He then jumped forward and threw a couple of jabs. I could tell they were fast, but I could also see where they were going to hit, and how much force was behind each punch.

'Huh, I guess that's one of the perks of the system that it forgot to mention. Or maybe I've just always been able to do this.'

So, using an appropriate amount of strength, I blocked all the jabs with minimum effort. He started mixing up his attacks, throwing in some kicks and elbows as well. But I much sturdier than a regular kid, so I was able to block every single attack.

Ito started to get frustrated, "Damnit! Why aren't you attacking?! Fight back!" He yelled.

'Well, who am I to deny him? This is starting to get boring anyway.'

He threw a roundhouse kick at my ribs, which I tanked easily and trapped his leg there. I reared my fist back and threw a devastating punch to his stomach.

"Guh!" He flew back as I released his leg once my punch hit and he spit some saliva as well.

"You had enough already?" I taunted. "Not even close!" He shot back up and renewed his offensive. I smirked.

After about twenty minutes, Ito flopped onto the ground and I was breathing heavily.

"Damn, you're such a monster! You just tank all my hits and hit back twice as hard. How can you fight like that the whole time and still look better off than I do right now?" He questioned.

"Heh, I'm just built different," I replied, "But those were some good spars. I feel like I understand the taijutsu technique of the academy better now."

"Yeah, I guess I could say the same," he grunted out. "Meet back here after class next week?" he asked.

I took a quick look at my status.

[Taijutsu

Skills: None

Progress: 12%]

'God damn! Three whole percentage points!?' I immediately agreed after seeing this.

"Yeah, sure. Only if you're ready to get your ass beat again."

He scowled at me, "No way. Next week it's gonna be you rolling across the ground!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night. I'll catch you later. If I'm late for dinner my Mom's going to kill me."

At the mention of my mom, he looked a little saddened. 'Ah, shit. I forgot he was an orphan. Wasn't one of his goals to make a family? I feel like an asshole now.'

I was originally going to walk away, but I changed my mind at the last second and turned back to him, "Hey, uh, Mom usually makes extras, and if you don't have anywhere to be… you could come over for dinner?"

He instantly perked up, "Huh!? Really? I mean, uh, yeah, of course." Then I realized something kind of embarrassing. "So, before we go… What was your name again?" He deadpanned at me.

"Ito. Ito Isamu. But since you invited me to dinner, you can call me Isamu."

"Sure. And you can call me Kaen." And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.

//////// A/N ///////

Hello people who are hopefully not bots and are actually real. This is my first story, so please leave lots of comments on what I could do better. This is also the first fight scene I've written, so please give me your opinions.

For clarification, Kaen is one year older than Naruto and will graduate with Lee, Neji, and Tenten. For power scale reference, his chakra and taijutsu are about elite genin level, if that even exists. That might seem a little op, but it won't be until he gets more combat experience. Then, it'll be kinda op, at least compared to his fellow genins. I plan on having him fight some stronger enemies later on.

One last point to explain how the system works. Each percent in taijutsu boosts his physical strength, speed, durability, and skill. Kenjutsu boosts swordplay, dexterity, and speed. Fire release boosts Chakra, Fire resistance, durability, and obviously flame manipulation. Chakra boosts chakra, control, and killing intent. He will eventually unlock Yamamoto's skills at certain percentages. I think that's all for now, so leave a review!