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It was a new day in the Hidden Leaf Village.
Birds chirped from the trees, fluttering between branches as if welcoming the start of a new day. The streets of Konoha were just beginning to stir, but out on the outskirts, far from the main hustle of the village, was a training ground.
Kuro leaned back against the rough bark of an old tree, resting in the shade with one leg stretched out, the other bent. In his hand, he held an intricate green key, flipping it between his fingers, letting the weight settle in his palm before flicking it again. His eyes weren't on anything in particular. He just stared out past the open field in front of him, lost in thought.
There were a total of seventy training grounds scattered around the edge of the village, each spaced out by dense trees that formed natural borders. Getting from one ground to the next took about three minutes on foot, with enough distance and foliage between them to block sound and sight. Most shinobi used the earlier-numbered grounds since it was easier to find, and usually better maintained.
But this training ground was dead last. Forgotten, almost. The grass here was a bit longer, the dummies were more worn, and the targets had been slashed at one too many times without anyone replacing them. No one came here unless they really wanted privacy… or just didn't want to be seen.
Which was exactly why Kuro liked it.
It gave him just enough privacy to do what he needed, without stressing over anyone spying on him. If someone happened to see him pull something out of thin air, it would definitely raise questions, and that was the last thing he wanted.
Kuro's eyes dropped to the small green key resting in his palm.
This was his reward for finishing the Genin-in-training quest after he defeated the Chuunin instructor. After he got home yesterday, he opened up his rewards and got another dungeon key.
While this was a big step in the right direction, Kuro wasn't in a rush to use the key. Not yet, at least.
The last dungeon was rough, and that was putting it lightly after he almost died. If things had gone even slightly wrong, he wouldn't be here holding this key. That first dungeon was E-rank, and even then, it pushed him to his absolute limit. But this one was a D-rank level dungeon. Which, in the system's weird logic, meant it was harder.
Stronger enemies, better rewards... and way higher chances of getting killed.
Sure, he had a teleportation stone as a backup, something he could use if everything went south. But he only had one stone, so If he blew it, there was no second chance. He'd either clear the dungeon or die trying.
And honestly? He wasn't looking to die anytime soon, after almost dying a couple days ago.
His current stats weren't cutting it. Not for something like this. If he stepped into that dungeon now, it'd be a suicide mission. So for now, the key stayed unused. He'd focus on grinding enough stat points first. There'd be time for dungeons later.
Kuro let out a small sigh and slipped the key back into his inventory.
His gaze drifted up to the sky, watching the clouds pass as his mind wandered back to the day before. That man's offer had been tempting, no doubt about it. But the moment he saw how many restrictions that came with the contract, he knew it wasn't for him. Even if he'd managed to change parts of the contract to better suit his needs, it still wouldn't have sat right.
He remembered the first time he signed a contract into the military. Back then, he was young, hotheaded, and reckless, just some kid looking to do something big. He thought joining up would make him a badass. And in a way, it did. But being stationed overseas ended up feeling more like being trapped. Days bled together. Most of the time, all he did was train, kill time with whatever shows he could find, and wait for the next mission order to come through.
It was the same routine, over and over again. Day in, day out. The years just blended together after a while.
And when annual leave came around, most soldiers went home to their families. But Kuro stayed at base. Not because he wanted to, but because he didn't have anyone to go back to. No family. No friends waiting outside the army life.
Most of his time had been spent in the army, so it wasn't like he had people on the outside to lean on. The army was all he had.
That was a mistake he wasn't going to repeat.
He didn't need another contract that boxed him in and made him rely on someone else to survive. He'd been through that already. Whatever those sponsors were offering, it was nothing compared to what the system gave him.
Rolling his shoulders, Kuro pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.
He had training to do.
First thing, he knocked out the daily quest. It didn't take long, just the usual stretches, a hundred sets of push-ups, sit-ups, and running around for a bit. He claimed the rewards, barely even glancing at them.
However he didn't stop there and kept going. Since the daily quests weren't much of a challenge anymore. He had to do more if he wanted to see better results. Just because the system didn't push him didn't mean he couldn't push himself.
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QUEST INFO-
Type: Daily Quest
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-GOALS COMPLETED-
Pushups [300/100]
Sit-ups [300/100]
Squats [300/100]
Run [30/10km]
. . . .
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Reaching into his inventory, Kuro pulled out a water canteen and took a few deep gulps. The cool liquid ran down his throat, easing the dryness. He wiped the water excess from his lips with the back of his hand, then tossed the canteen back into his inventory with a flick of his wrist.
With the physical part of his training out of the way, it was time to move on to skill training. That mostly meant repeating the same jutsu or skill over and over until something leveled up.
It wasn't fun at all, and to be honest, it was incredibly boring. Some skills didn't even level up after hours of spamming it. But when they finally did, it was worth it. A small boost in speed or power could be the difference between making it out alive, or not.
Stretching out his arms and legs, he rolled his shoulders as he loosened up again. His eyes wandered over to the river nearby, flowing along the edge of the training ground. It ran straight through the outskirts of the village and emptied into some lake way out in the distance.
Then out of nowhere, a light bulb went off in his head.
During the evaluation, that lady mentioned something about him having perfect chakra control. At the time, he didn't pay much attention to it. But now that he was thinking it through, it made a lot more sense.
The system directed chakra through his points like a pre-set grid, almost like how a computer routes power through a circuit board. It worked like an internal chakra router, automatically splitting and merging his chakra based on what was required.
He never really thought of it before, but the system automatically did everything for him. Normally, learning a Jutsu meant understanding how it worked, how much chakra was needed, where to channel it, how to shape and transform it. Which was something most ninja spent years perfecting.
He didn't know the theory behind it, not really. Yet when he focused on his chakra, it was like muscle memory kicking in. And it just did it without him really trying to.
'So what if I try using the water walking technique...?' he thought, eyes flicking toward the river.
Curious, he walked to the edge of the river while channeling chakra into his feet, he stepped forward. A steady stream of chakra flowed to the soles of his feet, and as he stepped forward, his foot hovered over the water's surface before pressing down on it. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
Lifting his other foot, he stepped fully onto the river.
"It worked…" he muttered, a little stunned. He wasn't expecting it to actually work. He'd always wanted to walk on water like Naruto… or Jesus, but now that dream has finally come true.
Confident, he walked a few more steps further in. But just as he started to relax, he felt his footing shift, one leg dipped under, then the next, and before he could catch himself, he dropped into the water with a splash.
The river wasn't deep, barely a meter at most. But the cold water was enough to make the hair on his skin stand up. "Fuck... just washed these too..." he sighed, standing up in the shallow water as his soaked clothes clung to his body. Water dripped off him like a leaky faucet, his shoes squishing with each step as he dragged himself back toward dry land.
Yeah, he had "perfect" chakra control, but that didn't mean much if you didn't know how to actually use it.
The system gave him an optimized chakra output, sure. It meant every bit of chakra used was exact, but that didn't magically give him the skill to control it. One could use the exact amount of chakra needed, but still mess everything up if they didn't know how to control it. Kuro stepped out of the water, soaked from head to toe. "I still need to learn how to use my chakra…" he muttered under his breath.
He was from another world, after all. Chakra wasn't something he grew up with. And while the original Kuro (this body's real owner), might've had some basic experience, he clearly didn't know how to properly control it either.
So really, it was like starting from zero.
Kuro let out a tired groan, brushing some wet strands of hair from his face. 'Guess I do need to work on my chakra control after all.' he sighed.
And so he spent the rest of his day training.
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Kuro stood on the bark of a tree, arms crossed, his eyes scanning the quiet training ground below. Perched sideways on the trunk, his chakra kept him stable as gravity tried to pull him down.
A few days had passed, and Kuro had already gotten down the water walking technique after just a few days of trying. Once that was out of the way, he shifted his focus to the Tree Walking technique. Compared to water walking, it was practically a breeze. It only took him a day to learn it. Since both techniques were built on the same principle, channeling and controlling chakra to the soles of the feet, once you learned one, the other came naturally.
Jumping down from the tree, Kuro landed his sandals pressing into the dirt as he released a breath of relief. He leaned his back against the tree's bark, arms crossing over his chest, and let his body relax for a moment.
"Status screen…" he muttered.
━─━─━─≪◈ STATS ◈≫─━─━─━
[NAME] ➤ Kuroshin Kagemura
[AGE] ➤ 13
[LEVEL] ➤ 17
◇───INFO───◇
[JOB] ➤ NONE
[TITLES] ➤ Courage Of The Weak...
[HP] ➤ 520/520
[CP] ➤ 1330/1330 (GENIN)
[FATIGUE] ➤ 5
[AVAILABLE ABILITY POINTS: 26 ]...
◇───STATS───◇
[STRENGTH] ➤ 42.5
[AGILITY] ➤ 48.5
[SENSE] ➤ 26.5
[HEALTH] ➤ 32.5
[INTELLIGENCE] ➤ 33
◇───SKILLS───◇
[BASIC TAIJUTSU TECHNIQUES] ➤Lv.10 (PASSIVE.) [ Basic Melee attacks inflicted on an opponent is increased by 27%. ]
[BASIC SHURIKENJUTSU TECHNIQUES]Lv.8 (Passive) [ When throwing small concealed weapons, damage inflicted is increased by 21%.]
[WIND AFFINITY] ➤ Lv.5 (PASSIVE.) [ Whenever a Wind Style jutsu is used, its power is increased by 50%.]
[BASIC KUNAI TECHNIQUES]Lv.12 (PASSIVE) [ Basic kunai attacks inflicted on an opponent are increased by 30%.]
◇───JUTSU'S───◇
[TRANSFORMATION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.12
[BASIC CLONE JUTSU] ➤ Lv.12
[SUBSTITUTION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.12
[VACUUM BLADE JUTSU] ➤Lv.5
[GALE PALM JUTSU] ➤Lv.5
━─━─━─━─≪◆≫─━─━─━─━
While trying to learn the Water Walking and Tree Walking techniques, Kuro also split his time grinding out his skills and jutsu. He wouldn't call himself a training freak or anything, but he did consider himself a bit of a grind junkie. Still, even he had to admit, training nonstop wasn't as easy as it sounded.
Constantly pushing himself every day wasn't just physically draining, it wore him down mentally too. Repeating the same techniques over and over again until they leveled up took more patience than strength, and after a while, it all started to feel like one torture session.
He groaned, "I need a break…" he muttered, dragging himself up from the tree bark with stiff limbs.
It felt like torture some days, but seeing his stats tick up made it worth it. A couple of weeks ago, most of his stats were stuck in the single digits, now he was hitting double digits across the board.
That meant he was less likely to die, which was the biggest win of all.
Still, he needed to take a break every once in a while. "Why couldn't I be reborn after the Fourth Shinobi World War…" he muttered under his breath, biting his bottom lip in frustration. With a flick of his hand, he dismissed the status screen and brushed himself off, heading home for the day. A break was long overdue.
It didn't take long to reach his apartment complex. As he stepped into the main lobby, the familiar scent of old wood and cheap cleaning products filled his nose. He made his way over to the wall of mailboxes, dialed his key in, and popped open the tiny metal door.
Inside sat a single white envelope with his name neatly printed on the front.
Grabbing the envelope from his mailbox, Kuro stared at it for a second before heading toward the stairs. "Who the hell builds a six-floor apartment without a damn elevator..." he muttered, walking up the flight steps.
By the time he hit the sixth floor, his body felt heavier than it should've. As he reached his room door, he fumbled for his key, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. The room greeted him with the same familiar mix of dust and old paint, he didn't even bother turning on the light before flopping face-first onto the bed.
Rolling onto his back, he tore it open with a lazy flick of his thumb and pulled out a single piece of paper.
His eyes looked over the words on the paper.
[.YOU HAVE QUALIFIED… YOU ARE NOW A HIGH LEVEL GENIN.]
. . . . .
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