Chapter 12 – Everyone’s walkin’

The boys returned home, covered in sweat, feeling exhausted and starved. It was already past noon when they reached home, and their stomach was rumbling for food. Although chocolate bars and chips were used to fill their bellies, without a bowl of piping hot rice, warm mellow soup, and the chewy fish, there would still be a sense of hunger. 

"I'm hungry. What's for lunch?" Naruto asked, holding his rumbling stomach. 

"How would I know? You were supposed to make food today." Raito directly lay on the sofa.

"Eh!" Naruto peeked from the back of the sofa and looked at Raito. "But…"

Raito rolled his eyes and said after a while, "Well, let's make food and eat." 

Naruto hurriedly nodded, then followed Raito to the kitchen.

Naruto washed the potato and said, "I'll be going to the back mountain. So, I'll be a little late." 

Filling the rice cooker, Raito added, "You really wanna run again?" 

"Mm, I want to beat that record." 

"That?" 

"Kiba's record." 

"Boy with the dog?" 

"Mm." 

"You are really serious about beating that record huh?" Raito had tears in his eyes as he cut the onion. 

"I just want to beat that record." Naruto replied. "I feel like I can really do it this time."

After finishing all the prep work and cooking, Raito cleaned his hand and said, "Everything will be ready soon. Go and wash yourself."

Naruto happily ran off, leaving Raito behind. 

As Naruto ran off, Raito continued preparing for food while doing various Chakra Control Exercise. 

Ding 

[Bonus period has ended. Congratulation for surviving. Hope we meet again in the future. –Yours, Game Master] 

'What? When? Why?' Raito tapped the highlighted words on the blue screen. 

[Bonus Period] 

-Twice the experience 

-Twice the rate of loot drop

Looking at the information, Raito despaired.

"If I had known, I would have killed more monsters." Raito murmured, rubbing his forehead.

Naruto dropped down. "What if you had known?" 

"Didn't I tell you to stop jumping inside the house?" Raito glared.

"Oh, sorry, sorry." Naruto let out a smile and scratched the back of his head. 

"Wait for me," Raito closed the lid and turn off the heat before walking towards the bathroom.

Dipping inside the tub, Raito glared at the notifiCATion box.

[Bonus Period]

Twice the experience 

Twice the rate of loot drop 

"Why couldn't you have said it sooner?" Raito shouted, slamming the innocent wall.

Raito looked through the logs and made an estimated the total amount then divided everything by two. "It's not just… argh."

Raito closed all the notifiCATion boxes then walked down the stairs to see Naruto spreading all the seal-works on the small coffee table.

Ignoring the mess, Raito walked towards the kitchen and started plating the food.

"Food," Naruto made his clones focus on the job while he himself dashed for the table.

[Calligraphy Lvl 25]

[Fūinjutsu Lvl 9]

Grabbing the chopsticks, Raito frowned, 'All the Fūinjutsu books only amount to this?'

Naruto quietly sat opposite to Raito and saw him frowning while staring blankly at the space. "Oi, Raito." 

"Oi," Naruto waved his hand and clapped his hand. "What the heck are you doing?"

Eyes flashed with blue as Raito closed the notifiCATion boxes. "Nothing important, I… I just remembered that I had forgotten to meet that duck-butt last week, and now, I can't think how annoying he will be today."

"Sasuke?" Naruto thought for a while then asked, "What do you guys 'really' do?"

"Hm, nothing really. Just fight a couple of times." Raito shrugged.

"Hah," Naruto shouted with his chop sticks pointed forward. "That's why- 

"No shouting at the dining table," Raito glared. "And, don't point with chopsticks."

Naruto quietened down and said, "That's why he was staring at us, no, that was like a glare… his squinty eyes."

"He even gave me goose bumps." Naruto pointed at his hand and made faces.

They finished their food and decided to go their own way.

Naruto went to the back hills, and Raito went outside the house and started practicing. 

At the Hokage tower. 

"Sensors are the most difficult to spy on." The lazy Jōnin sighed and pulled down his forehead protector.

"Is that so?" Hiruzen continued with his paperwork.

"I am still trying to figure out the range. An academy student should have been easy to deal with but this one is quite... troublesome." Kakashi turned around to look at the room full of paperwork.

"They are not your student… currently, Kakashi. So, let them be for now." Replied Hiruzen as he let out a puff of smoke. 

Kakashi looked up and said, "I don't know but I have a feeling that they will pass my test." 

"Sometimes, I think the bell test at the very beginning of the shinobi career, is not right. But, on the other hand, there is hope that there could be a team that could figure out the meaning of the test, than the five-year course at the academy would not be called a waste." Hiruzen said with a sad look came to his face. Turning around, he released the smoke, which slowly dissipated into the air. 

Knock! Knock! 

"Hokage-sama, Ayoma Mari, from 'Intelligence Department' and Yamanaka Inoichi from 'T and I' are here for the new implementation."

Mari walked in with a folder and three men, wearing grayish white clothes. Then Inoichi walked in with three men, wearing black trench coats.

"When I said uniform, I didn't mean it like this." Hiruzen murmured and looked at Kakashi. "Take the scroll."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Kakashi picked up the scroll then disappeared.

Mari and Inoichi stood in front with their subordinated behind. Mari stepped forward and said, "Hokage-sama, everything is ready. We are just waiting you to sign these folders."

Inoichi walked forward then opened the folder. "After a thorough investigation, they match what you asked for."

"Hm," Hiruzen looked at the six people and waved his hand asking them to come forward.

The six took a couple of step forward then stood with their backs straight hand hands on the back.

Hiruzen looked each one in the eye, one after another, then knocked his table. "Not only will you have the most difficult job in the tower, but if there is any problem, you will undergo a standard interrogation according to the level of information."

Hiruzen let the words sink in but it seem that Inoichi and Mari had thoroughly trained their subordinated. He pulled the pipe and let out a small smile on his face. "You will be working to share the burden with me."

Hiruzen looked at Mariko, signaling her, then at the six, "Mariko will be taking you through the process."

"Please," Mariko signaled them to the newly made room, where there was a heap of paperwork.

After the six walked out, Hiruzen looked at the two with a small smile on his face. "What's the status with them?"

Inoichi and Mari looked confused before Hiruzen coughed, "With Toga and others."

Mari made an 'Oh,' then made a casual remark. "When you ask that with a smile, it doesn't-"

Inoichi elbowed Mari and reported, "One round has ended and we are taking them to the top floor." 

"Good, continue." Hiruzen waved his hand. "Finish it as fast as you can."

Mariko opened the door and looked at Mari and Inoichi then at Hiruzen. "Hokage-sama, Umino Iruka from the academy is here for you." 

"Let him in," Hiruzen nodded.

Mari and Inoichi bowed before leaving the room. Mari glared at Inoichi on the way out. "Elbow me once again, and I will tell your wife."

Inoichi raised his hand and laughed weakly before disappearing.

Iruka stood in front of the desk and respectively bowed towards the Hokage. 

Hiruzen signaled Iruka to sit and started "Iruka, how have you been?" 

"I have been well Hokage-sama." Iruka replied with some confusion. 

"Then today's matter… is about Naruto and the academy." Hiruzen said as he exhaled a puff of smoke. 

"The progress he has made these few days is truly-" 

Hiruzen took out a few of the scrolls and placed them on the table. "We have a problem and you should have known about it."

"I…"

"Three years ago, when I talked to you about Naruto, I remember saying he was similar to you, but the things have changed."

Taking out folders, Hiruzen started. "We will talk about sabotaging, harming, punishing without reason and things of inequality."

"Hai, Hokage-sama,"

Wearing the fancy glasses, Hiruzen said, "Let's talk about the most recent episode of Naruto completing in the throwing course, the defective kunai and shuriken set."

The old and young continued their talk until late. 

Raito was in his backyard throwing shuriken and kunai repeatedly. 

Throw. Rest. Retrieve. Repeat.

A perfect cycle for grinding the skills. In the midst of grinding, Raito gained a new skill, '[Throw]'. Though not much of a skill, '[Throw'] increased the accuracy and speed of the throwing action per level. 

If he could, he would have maxed their levels. It was not that he did not want to, but it was nearly impossible to achieve it immediately. 

Back after eating lunch, Raito quickly created an instant dungeon to farm some more experience but what he did not expect was that he would only get 50 experience points per zombie. To see the bar filling so slowly, Raito sighed.

Not only because of the experience points but also the bigger zombie. While the bigger zombie would give him lots of experience points, money and probably the skills, he did not have enough power to quickly kill the zombie. 

Raito exited the dungeon and started training his techniques. Firstly, which required chakra like [Clone], [Replacement], and [Transformation]. 

Moving towards the techniques which required little or no chakra like [Observe], [Kenjutsu], [Running], [Reading] and [Calligraphy]. 

The endless cycle of practicing different skills and techniques was quite a show for a strict teacher with no concept of rest, fatigue or hunger. 

If a normal student did it, he or she would already collapse from the accumulated fatigue, but it was made possible for Raito because of his '[Gamer's mind]' and '[Gamer's body]'. 

After working out, the accumulated fatigue would disappear within 10 to 15 minutes and when it came to the things regarding brain-work, it would be even easier because there would simply be no lagging or tiredness; it was like human turned machine. 

"I really feel something is wrong here." Kakashi thought aloud. 

"Mm, I too feel something is wrong with him. He is training… extra hard and his recovery…. I mean he is supposed to get bored; he always gets bored." Mari hummed and hammed.

"Mari-san, how long have you been watching him?" Kakashi asked cautiously. 

"We have been watching him for quite a long time, Kakashi." Mari answered with a bit of tone. 

"His sword handling has also become much more refined, senpai." The purple-haired ANBU nodded.

"CAT, you are also one of his trainers, huh? I don't think it was written on the data sheet about him having teachers." Kakashi probed.

"There is nothing about this on the paper… or anywhere." Mari intervened and looked at Kakashi.

Processing the new information Kakashi again asked, "Are there any more people teaching him?" 

"Yes, a few people like Inoichi and Anko." After pausing for a bit, the CAT added, "Senpai, take care of him, please." With that, the CAT ANBU left the scene. 

Still looking at Raito, Mari added, "Kakashi, after Naruto joined the house, Raito has been getting strong, faster and also, strange occurrences have been reported in these last weeks." 

"True, but all of those occurrences have been thoroughly investigated and all of his behavior seems to be normal," Kakashi answered. 

"I know he is real but, I… I don't want him to grow fast. It is just not fair…"

"Fair, huh?" Kakashi shook his head and left the area. 

A grayish-white-clothed man appeared behind Mari and said, "We have information on him, ma'am,"

Turning around, Mari reverted to being a boss before leaving the area. 

Raito-Naruto house backyard 

"Seems like they are finally gone." Shaking his head, Raito stopped throwing. He looked at the sky with a small smile on his face and said. "I will enjoy it today." 

Uchiha District, Lakeside 

A black-haired boy, wearing blue high collar jacket, was practicing his Taijutsu. It looked like he was already wasted; he would fall, but after some rest, he would get up and then would again start his routine again. 

After all the training, Sasuke was lying on the grass and panting. The dirt on his body and the clothes soaked with sweat proved how hard he was training. Covering his face, he gritted his teeth and said. "I will definitely kill you, you bastard." 

Somewhere in the land of water 

A tall man with bluish skin color and a large sword on his shoulder wearing a black cloak with red cloud was walking in front with his partner behind him. 

"This place really brings back memories. Want to meet a few of those friends of mine, huh, Itachi?" The blue-skinned man asked with a big smile.

Itachi sighed then said, "Kisame, we don't really have time. The client is waiting."

After a long pause, Kisame replied, "Well, they are not going to go anywhere, so it really doesn't matter." 

Itachi also looked towards the leaf village then continued moving forward. 

Konoha, Northwestern Hills 

A yellow-haired boy was panting and coughing.

"So close. Just a few more second, just a few more." Naruto clicked on the reset button.

Taking a deep breath, he again made a starting position, "I can do it. I just have to be a bit faster than just now." 

Konoha, Hyūga Compound 

Hinata was thrown back after a palm landed on her abdomen. Her face was covered by dirt from the repeated beatdown. Again, forming a stance, she weakly prepared for the spar. 

Sighing lightly, the boy in front of her with long hair and a white cloth covering his forehead said, "Hinata-sama, I admit you have been doing better for past few days, but you are still weak. Even if you practice hard, you will never win against me in a fight. I will always win, it may be today, tomorrow, or any day in future; the result will always be the same. Weaker people will always be weak; the difference in the gap between us will continue to grow." 

Then, without saying any further, the boy with long hair dashed forward and hit with palm on the chest, making her stumble back. 

Hinata was so much in pain, tears coming out from her eyes, but remembering her friends and her special yellow-haired boy, she weakly stood up and again positioned herself. 'Everyone is getting stronger. Naruto-kun, please wait for me.'

The boy opposite looking the girl in front of him sighed then again continued to spar, which was clearly one-sided. 

The elders in the room, with their Byakugan activated, looked at the scene. Some sighed, some shook their head, and some had a faint hint of a smile on their face. 

"She is really… unsuitable. We should focus more on the younger one." Some voiced their opinion. 

The room suddenly became silent. Looking at each other, the group of elders found that everyone had the same idea. 

"Let's wait until the younger one get the Chūnin title." The man sitting at the head seat said without a speck of emotion.

One of the men knocked on the table and said. "Hiashi, you cannot just postpone this decision. If you are unable, then we will make the decision ourselves." 

With that said, the group of elders left the room. Some bowed, while others walked out angrily. 

After everyone left the room, Hiashi activated some seals then, grabbing his head, he sighed, "Hitomi, what should I do?" 

Evening, Uchiha district, Lakeside 

Uchiha Sasuke was resting, deep in thought. 

Wind whistling, a kunai was thrown towards him. Snapping his eye open, Sasuke pushed off the ground, dodging the kunai, then he headed straight towards the area from where the kunai came from. 

He saw a figure running into the woods. Not thinking about anything else, Sasuke chased the figure but suddenly, he was thrown upside down with his left leg trapped by rope. 

Letting out a 'Hmph', Sasuke flexed his body and cut the rope with his kunai. Luckily, he was fast enough, otherwise…

Sasuke felt relieved as he saw three to four kunai struck at the trunk of the tree where he was earlier. 

"Come out." Sasuke shouted, his eyes vigilant.

"Well, looks like you are getting better at this. But-" The black-clothed figure tried to talk but was stopped by the thrown kunai, which caused him to back off. 

Sasuke followed the figure but after several steps, he suddenly fell into the pit. 

"But it looks like you are still the same rash type." The figure laughed, looking at Sasuke. 

"Coward," Sasuke spat the words as grabbed the rope given by the black-robed figure. 

"Instead of these stupid tricks, you should have faced me head-on, Raito," Sasuke walked out of the pit. 

"Haha, we are 'going to be ninja', you know." 

"Why would I do that? Where's the fun in that? In addition, miss the surprised look on your face? No way." 

"Hmph, come let's start." Sasuke got into his clan's 'Interceptor Style'. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, buddy. What's the hurry?" Raito pushed his hand forward and back-peddled. 

Without saying anything, Sasuke charged forward and threw a punch straight at Raito's face. Leaning his body back, Raito caught the punch, drew Sasuke in and threw a back flip kick. 

Moving his body slightly, Sasuke dodged the kick, then again chased Raito. 

Stopping himself, Raito also dashed forward and threw the punch hitting Sasuke's chest. 

Catching the punch, Sasuke kicked Raito's flanks. 

Feeling the pain, Raito caught Sasuke's shirt and pulled him forward then used clothesline, knocking Sasuke down. 

As Raito was going to continue punching Sasuke. Sasuke kicked Raito on the stomach. 

The two of them continued fighting back and forth using Taijutsu only. Well, it would have ended much faster if Raito used '[Chakra Sense]'. 

By the end of the fight, both of them were down, bruised and bloodied, panting heavily and lying on the ground. 

"Damn, you are still so much stronger." 

"You are not bad at all." 

"Just 'not bad'? Well, I think it is some kind of compliment coming out of your mouth." Raito rolled his eyes and tried sitting. 

"Your Taijutsu is not bad, but why are the teachers pairing you with Sakura and Ino and the other weakling in the academy?" Sasuke asked.

Hearing that, Raito's face suddenly turned black as he got up angrily and said, "Let's go and get us patched up. I know there is going to be your favorite medic on the duty tonight." 

"Shut up!!" Sasuke roared but what was that blush?

Two of them were treated at the hospital, and of course, Sasuke got extra attention; being the last of Uchiha clan and all. 

"It's really not fair, those nice medic girls always flocking towards you." Raito complained. 

Sasuke just gave a small smile to the complaints. 

Both of them were heading towards the Ichiraku's Ramen Shop. 

After entering the shop, they saw a grumping Naruto in a seat. 

"Teuchi-san, Ayame-san, specials for me tonight and doubles please." Raito shouted and sat on the seat.

"Extra-large pork ramen for me please." Sasuke requested with his stupidly polite words.

"Raito-kun, Sasuke-kun, it's good to see you both here tonight." Ayame nodded, writing down the orders in the register.

"Raito, you finally came. I was really starting to think you were not going to come tonight." Naruto said, quickly ordering his ten bowls of miso, pork, and chicken. 

"Oh, and there is Sasuke-teme too." Naruto waved and looked towards the counter. 

"Dobe." Sasuke replied, his words as rare as blue moon to Naruto.

Looking at both of them, Raito sighed. Sitting in the middle of the two greatest personalities was such a pain. 'I somewhat understand you, Shika.'

There was not much talk and the three of them happily ate their meals politely or so it looked like. 

There were small wars; like who was going to finish fast, choking in between, then drinking water and then choking again.

'I wanna go home.' A tick mark appeared on Raito's face. 

Bidding farewell to Sasuke, Raito and Naruto went home, and both of them practiced their own things.

Outside 

"Senpai, it looks like it's my lucky day I keep on meeting you all the times." CAT ANBU stopped on her tracks and looked at Kakashi.

"Say CAT, who are you really looking after?" Kakashi asked.

"I am afraid I cannot answer your question? But don't you already have the answer, senpai?" CAT ANBU asked with a smile that couldn't be seen with the mask blocking the view.

"Looks like I will have my hands full for quite some time." Sighing, Kakashi turned the page of the orange-colored book. 

"It's not for kids." Raising his lone eye, he looked at the masked ANBU, stood up straight, clapped the book shut, and then disappeared using body flicker.

The CAT ANBU looked at the space, where Kakashi disappeared then shook her head and went for her rounds.