6 The Castle 1

Seven days, a week by any other words, on the dot. That was how long it took, seven god damn days.

…His wallet was running on empty at this point. Seriously, he only had nine thousand ryo left.

It was kind of demoralizing to see his money so low after having such a nice nest egg just a month ago.

But he'd done it, he'd gotten the jutsu down and made those numbers rise nicely in the process, he'd even made a cut in his palm with a kunai and healed it just to make sure he'd gotten it down.

[Name: Daiki Yurei]

[Age: 13]

[Chakra Capacity: 5420/6400 (Elite Genin)]

[Strength: 31/500]

[Endurance: 47/500]

[Durability: 31/500]

[Agility: 31/500]

[Taijutsu: 105/500]

[Ninjutsu: 55/500]

[Genjutsu: 10/500]

[Bukijutsu: 15/500]

[Chakra Control: 155/500]

[Chakra Affinities:]

[Lightning - (N/A): You have no training with this element.]

[Fuinjutsu - (Novice): You have reached the level of a Novice]

Taijutsu had finally broken a hundred and Ninjutsu over fifty, and all his physical stats had broken to over thirty. In a month, in pure physical ability alone, he'd become twice as strong.

That was kind of amazing really. And he'd even finally managed to cut down on his margin of errors with explosive tags and could more or less make them on the fly.

…Well, if on the fly meant sitting incredibly still and concentrating for five minutes, but semantics.

"Well, I've not used that much chakra, so I should be fine to go for now." Daiki hummed, stretching out his arms.

Well, first before he went and grabbed a mission, he had to head home and leave his weights behind. He wasn't confident enough to continue wearing them on a mission.

It didn't really take long, and he luxuriated in the feeling of being free of his weights. It almost felt like he was flying through the air with how fast he moved with them off.

He arrived at the Hokage building quickly, nodded at the guards stationed at the front doors and made his way inside, and made a prompt right turn, making his way towards the mission admission room.

When he entered, it was to see the Hokage himself sitting at the main desk, many a shinobi spread out over other desks.

"Ah, young Daiki-kun," the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi greeted him with a warm smile as he entered and made his way towards the desk, "It's been a month now since I last saw you, how are you?"

"Things have been good Hokage-sama," Daiki bowed his head respectfully, "I decided to spend the last month honing myself and becoming much stronger, I was shown just how weak I really was on the last mission."

"You are young, don't feel too rushed my boy," Hiruzen chuckled lightly, "Though, I do have to admit, it seems you have been training incredibly hard, your chakra has grown tremendously since I last saw you."

He noticed right away, huh? As expected of the Hokage. Amazing even, that he even bothered to remember a weak nobody like himself.

"I was offered some tips by an older shinobi when I saw him walking over water, he gave me a brief explanation of the tree walking and water walking techniques," Daiki replied as explanation, "On top of that, at the suggestion of the librarian at the archive, I applied to gain medic ninja training and have since learned the Mystical Palm Jutsu, and have been expending my chakra to the very limit, every single day."

"Impressive, such dedication to your training," Sarutobi complimented, "Perhaps you'll be the new head medic one day, surpass even my old student?" he mused, warmly.

Daiki felt his cheeks flush at the warmth the man just seemed to emit and ducked his head, "I…doubt it Hokage-sama, I was more interested in just the Mystical Palm Jutsu to augment my training for use in the field."

"I see, I see, that's quite smart of you," Sarutobi gave a small clap, "Though, enough from this old fossil, I'm sure you came here for a mission and not to have me prod at you all day."

"…No, I'm quite happy to speak to you Hokage-sama, whenever you want," Daiki's head shot up on instinct and he assured the red and white robed elderly man, "Actually, there was a question I was hoping you could answer for me."

"Oh?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, "I'm all ears my boy, fire away, if I can answer, I shall."

"Thank you," the teen replied, "It's about elemental jutsu, or rather, training for elemental jutsu. I have recently found out I have an affinity for the lightning element and was hoping you could tell me how I would go about training it."

"My, my, you do not aim low, do you? Elemental manipulation at your age? Impressive," Sarutobi chuckled, "Honestly, I do think it is a bit too soon for you, but, I can give you some tips. The key to changing your chakra into lightning chakra, is friction, forcing your chakra to rub against itself more or less at high speeds, in a way, akin to how electricity can be generated."

Daiki's eyes widened, that was so simple, how did he not figure that out? "I see! Thank you Hokage-sama, this will be amazing for my training."

"Well, I'll hope to see your progress in person one day soon then," the Hokage chortled lightly and waved off his thanks, "Now, what kind of mission are you interested in today? A D-rank? Or Perhaps a C-rank?"

He honestly needed the money, so a C-rank would be his best bet, "I'm hoping to compete in the next Chunin Exams, so accumulating C-ranks is what I'll be aiming towards," Daiki replied, "So yes, a C-rank please."

Hiruzen shook his head in amusement, "Aiming to compete in the Chunin Exams as a rookie? Your ambition is not small," he replied, before rifling through a few stacks of paper in front of him, "What kind would you like? I'll be keeping them generally low level C-ranks of course. We have a few delivery missions, and one bandit extermination mission request from the Land of Necks."

He almost shuddered at the thought of a delivery mission. His last attempt at one saw him murdered after all.

But bandit extermination in the Land of Necks? That was interesting. For one, it was on the way to Suna by his reckoning, so, very, very unlikely he'd run into any of those stone humping cunts.

But more than that, wasn't there a mission Naruto did in the Land of Necks? where he ran into a massive Chameleon summon disguised as a castle, holding the summoning scroll for its clan within?

If he remembered right, the chameleon was absolutely massive, possibly bigger than Gamabunta, there was no doubt it was a boss summon.

…It was risky to go anywhere near a boss summon with as weak as he was right now. But, if he could earn its allegiance, and he knew the spirit of its summoner was bound around for some reason, which made it plausible…the possibilities!

It was high risk, and high reward.

"I'll take the bandit extermination mission, Hokage-sama." Daiki decided. Besides, he needed to get used to killing other humans.

Bandits would be the best step to get started with on that front. And he'd be helping innocent people being terrorized by bandits.

Everybody wins. Except the bandits, but they were bandits, so who cared about them?

"Very well," the Hokage rolled up a scroll and passed it over to him, "The client is currently staying within the village, and will remain here until the completion of the mission, you do not need to take anyone with you, or guard anyone, you are free to approach this mission as you please, upon the completion of the mission, once you return, the client will then hand over the payment to us."

Daiki accepted the scroll and bowed his head, "I'll grab my gear and head out straight away Hokage-sama." he replied.

"Be careful out there Daiki, even bandits can be dangerous." the old man warned him.

Daiki thanked him once more after accepting his words and left to prepare for his mission.