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The morning in Konoha was quiet.
The kind of quiet that made the village feel almost like it was holding its breath. A gentle spring breeze brushed against the rooftops, carrying the scent of fresh leaves and blooming trees through the streets. The sun was just barely rising, casting a soft golden hue over the village.
Shops hadn't opened yet, the air was cool and crisp, just… peaceful.
Except for the sound of sandals slamming against pavement like a dying drum solo.
"Haa… haa… f-fuck…" a voice wheezed between labored breaths.
Cutting through that peace came a boy..barely a blur..stumbling as he ran through the village streets. His face was flushed red, soaked in sweat, and his white shirt clung to him like a second skin. Every step he took looked like it might be his last, his arms limp at his sides, and his legs trembling beneath him.
Each inhale sounded like he was breathing through a straw, and his vision swam as his soaked hair clung to his forehead.
But he didn't stop.
He wasn't running because he wanted to.
He was running because he had to.
Because in a world full of demi-gods and walking natural disasters…being weak wasn't just dangerous, it was a death sentence.
There were giant chakra nukes sealed inside children like ticking time bombs. And then they were Pedo snake freaks like Orochimaru experimenting on humans and giving kids hickies.
Also organizations like the Akatsuki hunting down jinchuriki's to bring the end of this world. Then there were monsters like Madara, Obito, and the kind of shinobi who could solo a village before breakfast.
And let's not forget Naruto and Sasuke..literal kids..who were already moving like future Hokage, throwing hands with Jonin-level threats by the time they hit puberty.
In that kind of world, there was no room for "average." And if this system wanted to give him a second chance? he was going to take it. No hesitation.
He was going to wring everything he could out of it.
After a few more minutes of running, he finally came to a stop at one of the quieter training grounds.
It was nothing fancy, just a wide open field with worn-out dirt patches in the center, circled by thick green trees on all sides. And a couple of old wooden dummies stood around.
His legs felt like jelly, barely holding him up before he dropped to the ground with a hard thud. Sweat clung to his skin, his black shirt sticking to his back.
Flat on his back, he stared up at the sky.
'Status screen...' he thought to himself, barely hanging on.
━─━─━─≪◈ STATS ◈≫─━─━─━
[NAME] ➤ Kuroshin Kagemura
[AGE] ➤ 13
[LEVEL] ➤ 1
◇───INFO───◇
[JOB] ➤ NONE
[TITLES] ➤ Courage Of The Weak...
[HP] ➤ 100/100
[CP] ➤ 750/800 (GENIN)
[FATIGUE] ➤ 60
[AVAILABLE ABILITY POINTS: 5 ]...
◇───STATS───◇
[STRENGTH] ➤ 11.5
[AGILITY] ➤ 6.5
[SENSE] ➤ 3.5
[HEALTH] ➤ 5.5
[INTELLIGENCE] ➤ 13
◇───SKILLS───◇
[BASIC TAIJUTSU TECHNIQUES] ➤Lv.1 (PASSIVE.) [ Basic Melee attacks inflicted on an opponent is increased by 3%. ]
[WIND AFFINITY] ➤ Lv.1 (PASSIVE.) [ Whenever a Wind Style jutsu is used, its power is increased by 10%.]
◇───JUTSU'S───◇
[TRANSFORMATION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.1 [ You are absolutely dogshit at this... ]
[BASIC CLONE JUTSU]➤ Lv.1 [ You are absolutely dogshit at this... ]
[SUBSTITUTION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.1 [ You are absolutely dogshit at this... ]
━─━─━─━─≪◆≫─━─━─━─━
"Still garbage… but at least it's something," he muttered, exhaling as he made his way over to a tree. He dropped down, back pressing against the rough bark, letting the shade cool him down. His eyes flicking back to the status screen floating in front of him.
It's been a couple days.
Seven days exactly since he woke up in this messed-up new life as Kuro, aka the walking definition of bottom-tier. And in that time, he'd done nothing but grind daily quests like his life depended on it.
Because, well… it did.
But he was used to this. He'd been in the army, after all. Back then, running ten miles with full gear, dodging gunfire, and sleeping on concrete was the standard. He had to push through the pain until his legs gave out, then crawl the rest of the way. Compared to that, this was nothing.
He finally finished his daily quest for the day. Without wasting time, he went straight to his stat menu and dumped two of those points into Strength. He needed it more than anything else right now. The way he was built, even a gust of wind looked like it could send him flying face-first into a tree.
He missed having a body that was built like a Greek god. Broad shoulders, sexy biceps, and those hard six pack abs. Now? He was short, skinny, and had all the muscle tone of a stick of bamboo.
"Damn, I miss being shredded…" he muttered under his breath, flexing his noodle arms.
And the last three points, he dumped them straight into Agility.
Because if he was weak right now..which he was..then speed is the only thing that's going to keep him alive. He wasn't planning to just tuck his tail and run from every fight like a bitch, but he wasn't about to be dumb about it either.
Back in his old life, when bullets started flying, he was the first one through the door. That didn't mean he wasn't smart enough to fall back when the odds were stacked against him.
'Gotta make sure my stats are balanced though...' he hummed as he looked over his points.
As soon as the points locked in, he felt it.
That rush.
Like a pulse of lightning dancing through his limbs, shooting from his chest, down to his legs, out through his fingertips. That subtle hum in his bones. It wasn't a huge change, but he felt it.
And god, it felt good.
Like the first deep breath after a long dive. Like scratching an itch you didn't know you had. It was addictive in the worst or best way possible. The kind of thing that made him want to grind out ten more quests just to feel that again.
His gaze dropped to the chakra affinity skill on the screen.
Luckily, that alone saved him time and more importantly, money. If it weren't for the system, he would've had to spend money..which he didn't have..on one of those chakra papers just to find out what element he had an affinity for. And even then, there was still the risk of spending weeks trying to learn a Jutsu he had no affinity in.
. . . .
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NOTICE!!
[ YOU'VE COMPLETED THE DAILY QUEST! ]
distrubting rewards...
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[ SELECT YOUR REWARD!! ]
CHOOSE A REWARD FROM THE LIST BELOW..
REWARD 1: STATUS RECOVERY
REWARD 2: ABILITY POINTS +3
REWARD 3: RANDOM LOOT BOX
. . . .
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"Accept… Status Recovery." he mumbled under his breath, barely moving his lips as he selected one of the quest rewards.
The change was instant.
Like flipping a switch, the heaviness in his limbs vanished. The tight burn in his chest faded away, and the ache crawling through his legs disappeared. He sat up, stretching a few times, everything felt light, recharged even.
But even with all that, he still felt weak.
But it was progress nonetheless.
'Open inventory…' he thought, and once again the familiar blue screen blinked into view.
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[INVENTORY ]
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[WATER CANTEEN 1x ] - Common..
[RUSTY KUNAI 1x ] - Common..
[RUSTY SHURIKEN 3x ]- Common..
[DUNGEON KEY 1x ] - Uncommon..
. . . .
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He leaned back on the tree bark, his eyes skimming the items. All of them were stuff he pulled from the loot box rewards after grinding the daily quests for a few days straight. Most of it was junk, honestly. One time he got a pencil. Another time, a pack of Band-Aids.
Or maybe it was just his luck…
Yeah, that was probably it. His luck had been absolute trash ever since he got here. Scratch that, his luck had always been shit.
'At this rate I'm gonna end up with a fucking first-aid kit before I get an actual weapon,' he thought, lips twitching slightly. The kunai and shuriken's didn't come as a reward from the loot box.
They were his..Kuro's.
Given out by the Academy during the first year for students who couldn't afford their own. Kuro was one of them. Still was. He never had the ryo to buy better ones, never had a reason to replace them either.
So, he was stuck with these.
Old. Worn. Chipped at the edges. But they were still usable. And for now, they'd have to do.
'If I can get a pencil… what about a phone?' It'd be nice. Even if the thing was a glorified paperweight with no signal and no internet it had no usage, but just having something familiar would be nice.
His eyes then dropped to the Dungeon Key.
He hadn't touched it since he got it. Not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know what he'd be walking into. He could be walking straight into a desert crawling with giant-ass centipedes, or some shady ass dungeon packed with hidden traps, or maybe even a whole shit ton of monsters waiting to jump him the second he went in.
He still barely qualified as "stronger than a toddler." in this kids body. If the dungeon was anything like the ones in Solo Leveling... yeah, no thanks. He didn't exactly feel like dying right after getting a second chance at life.
"…Not yet," he muttered under his breath, closing the screen.
There was time. He just had to be smart. Grind, and stack up ability points.
He also needed to train his chakra control.
Badly.
Chakra was everything in this world. It was power. And without it? You were just a civilian with fancy hand signs. If he wanted to survive..no, thrive, he needed powerful jutsu's. A whole arsenal of them.
Right now? He only knew three. And even that felt generous.
They were the bare minimum taught at the Academy. The Clone Jutsu, Transformation, and Substitution. The kind of stuff even five-year-olds were learning to pull off. Yet even now, he was barely managing it.
His clones looked like melting wax figures, his transformations flickered out after a few seconds, and don't even get started on his substitution, he was more likely to smack face-first into the log than actually switch places with it.
Well, that wasn't exactly him. He hadn't tried any of the jutsu's himself yet, but from Kuro's memories, that's what it was like. And even the system basically said his proficiency in the three jutsu's he knew was dogshit. No sugarcoating it. It was highlighted, like the system wanted to rub it in.
He tried to brush it off, act like it didn't matter. But for some reason… it pissed him off. Maybe because he was this Kuro kid now. And that meant if Kuro was dogshit... then so was he.
He ruffled through his hair, a bit frustrated. The longer he waited around, the more that "dogshit" rating echoed in his head. 'Since it's still the start of the day… might as well get some training done,' he thought, sighing his frustration away. 'I'll focus on chakra control or maybe try and level up those three jutsu's…'
He paused, then shook his head.
'Nah… working on my chakra controls is better. Those jutsu's are complete ass anyway.' Pushing himself off the tree, he dusted off his pants and stepped into the middle of the training ground. The dirt crunched under his feet, still a little damp from the morning dew.
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[ QUEST STARTED]
"THE GENIN IN TRAINING..." Quest has started.
Type:Chain Quest
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-QUEST INFO-
You are weak. And to become strong, you need power. But to get power... you need control. Level up your jutsu's to increase your chakra mastery. The more you train and use them, the more efficient and powerful they become.
..TASKS..
[LEVEL UP YOUR TRANSFORMATION JUTSU TO LEVEL 10]
[LEVEL UP YOUR BASIC CLONE JUTSU TO LEVEL 10]
[LEVEL UP YOUR SUBSTITUTION JUTSU TO LEVEL 10]
Time Limit: 1 MONTH.
CAUTION: FAILURE TO COMPLETE THE QUEST WILL RESULT IN YOUR HEART STOPPING.
_________________________
He blinked as the sudden system pop-up snapped into view. It wasn't the usual daily quest screen he was used to, this one looked different. Sleek, silver-blue, and bordered in a faint glow.
"…The hell is this?" he muttered, eyes scanning it carefully. This was the first real quest he'd gotten outside of the daily quests. 'So does that mean the rewards are better..?' he wondered, squinting at the screen. The system, being its usual unhelpful self, didn't bother answering.
Figures.
Still, it didn't take much brainpower to piece it together. 'So I just use the jutsu over and over, and they level up, right?' It made sense. That's how it worked in most games he'd played, skills got stronger the more you used them.
And since he had full access to Kuro's memories, he already knew the hand signs required to pull off the three jutsu's. So he wouldn't have to learn them from scratch. "Alright…" he muttered, stepping a bit away from the center. "Let's start with the Basic Clone Jutsu."
[Activating Basic Clone Jutsu Skill! ] Lv.1
The system prompt flashed for a brief second, then his hands moved on their own.
He barely had time to react before his fingers flew through the hand signs, quick and precise like he'd practiced this a hundred times. But that was the thing, he hadn't. Compared to Kuro's memories, his hand signs were sloppy, slower, messier, not even fully correct. He didn't even know how to perform the hand signs properly.
But he did it perfectly…
It was like muscle memory took over, wired into his body from something else. He could feel his chakra flowing through him, moving without his control. It was like watching yourself in third-person. You were still there, but not entirely in control.
It was just like those RPG games, where you tap a skill button and suddenly your character's out here pulling off some wild, high-level combo or spell, even though you barely did anything.
And just like that..poof.
A small cloud of smoke burst in front of him. When it cleared, he instantly regretted everything.
"...What the fuck?"
Standing there..or more like slumping..was a tragic version of himself. Pale as a ghost, bones nearly poking through his skin, with droopy sunken eyes and a completely blank stare. It wobbled a bit, then made a strange gurgling noise.
"ADWUUHH..."
The clone let out a wet groan before promptly dropping to its knees... and began shoveling dirt into its mouth.
"What the…" he muttered, frozen in place as he watched the clone flop onto its side and start dragging its ass across the training ground like a mangy dog.
It even made a noise.
A happy noise.
"Okay, nope..hell no." His face flushed with secondhand embarrassment, he quickly clasped his hands together and canceled the jutsu.
Poof.
The abomination vanished in a puff of smoke like it had never existed, and honestly? He wished it hadn't.
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[ NOTICE]
EXP GAINED!
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[ 150xp earned... ]
[BASIC CLONE JUTSU] Lv.1
150/1000 to level up this jutsu...
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'Well… at least I leveled up,' he thought, letting out a sigh. 'Alright, let's just move on to the other jutsu. Might as well see what kind of dumpster of shit I'm working with.' He cracked his knuckles and shook out his hands a bit, prepping himself a bit. Not that it helped.
The next jutsu was the Transformation Jutsu.
[Activating Transformation Jutsu Skill! ] Lv.1
His hands snapped into motion again, the system guiding him through the hand signs with the same strange out-of-body fluidity. His chakra surged once more and in the blink of an eye, a cloud of smoke enveloped him.
POOF!
Looking down at himself, he saw that, technically, the transformation had worked.
Technically.
But it was like trying to draw a lion with crayons and no reference photo. The proportions were wrong, his feet were still his feet, the face was lopsided like a Picasso painting, and to top it off, he was still wearing his dirty white shirt over what should've been a chunin uniform.
"...What the hell am I even supposed to be right now?" he muttered, poking at his elongated, crooked arm.
He canceled the jutsu immediately.
POOF!
Yeah, it was all starting to make sense now, why the academy barely passed him, why he didn't even get to try out for a Jonin squad, even why the Genin Corp dropped him straight into grunt missions and forgot he existed.
Kuro was the epitome of dog shit…he was worse than even dog shit, he was the doggiest of the shittest.
"...This is gonna be a long ass month..."
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