Shinobi:The RPG

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This was clearly a report form. Lines for where my name was to go, where the name of the mission and a large box where we were meant to describe what happened. Kakashi was going through an explanation about each part of the sheet I only partially paid attention too.

When he finished, my hand went up.

"Yes, Daisuke?" Kakashi asked me.

"Where it asks for a mission report, does that include what we saw in the cells?" I asked with a frown.

"Not necessarily," Kakashi answered with a shrug. "You could just put that you were trapped in a hell viewing jutsu. But if any of you need someone to talk too, you can always rely on your team. Me especially."

Oh. Whew. Okay, I was really paranoid there for a second that I would have to come up with a story that didn't involve Vertibirds or Liberty Prime but was true enough to not set off anyone's lie detection senses.

But that raised other questions. Is there no psychological care in Konoha? Probably not, now that I think about it. The various quirks and stuff that arise in everyone's personality imply a 'take care of it yourself' approach. And given how much death they see and the mere presence of Genjutsu, that kind of care might not be feasibly possible, what with ninja's sheer paranoid mistrust of someone like that and the kind of target a therapist would be painting on their back.

Seriously, you want to break a shinobi? Kidnap his therapist.

That was just disheartening, though. There had to be something that could be done…heck, maybe that could be my shtick later in life when I'm maximum level, bored and impossible to kill. That'd be really cool actually.

I wouldn't be at Naruto's level of therapy no jutsu, but the more practitioners on the side of good, the better, right?

I just realized everyone was really quiet.

Kakashi was waiting for one of us to break the silence, burst the dam and get everyone talking. I could see it easily. As much as I like getting the first word in, I didn't want to say anything right now. But-

"I got transported to an entrance to a maze," Hisako started, not looking at any of us. "I…saw my parents get dragged in there by something, I don't remember what it was, and it…was my job to rescue them."

Ooh. She got plopped in a survival horror game. Yikes. It was times like this that I remembered that my teammates were kids. Twelve year olds. Child soldiers. I was an adult...even if I didn't look like it. My job to protect them just took on another dimension.

I already feel terrible.

"The maze was filled with…monsters," Hisako gulped and…yeah, she had tears rolling down her cheeks. "They were like walking corpses…stabbing them or slicing them didn't do anything since they were already dead and I didn't know anything else."

She devolved into sobs. Kakashi was there in a second, comforting and reassuring her.

"I can't just pull jutsu out of nowhere," She said in between heaves. "I'm not D-a genius. I can't pull jutsu from nowhere."

I am a massive $#%#$. An unforgivably lazy $#@% that nearly got these kids killed.

She eventually settled down, wiping tears away on her arm.

Nichiren decided to start. "I found myself in a ruined Konoha. It was in complete shambles and everyone was just fending for themselves. I got assigned to…requisition supplies."

He was holding tears back too. My hearts breaking for my team.

"I went into a ruined store and there, huddling behind the counters were my parents," Nichiren said, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "I…was being asked to steal from my parents for the good of the village."

Ooh. He was really feeling this divide between the village and his family, wasn't he?

"I couldn't do it," He said, blanching something awesome. "I fought against the team I was with to protect my mom and dad. I…failed. I couldn't protect my precious people."

There were those words again.

"They were executed for treason," Nichiren was starting to lose it. "I was next, and then…"

He lost it. Hisako took his hand. Kakashi wrapped an arm around his shoulders and this time-

-Perception Check Success: 8/8-

-I could hear what was being said.

"Nichiren," Kakashi intoned. "I know you've been under a lot of pressure from both sides…but those who abandon their precious people for the mission are worse than trash. If that had happened…you would have done the right thing and I would've been right beside you."

Nichiren took a breath. "R-really?"

"Really," Kakashi eye-smiled.

In another life, I would've rolled my eyes at how touchy-feely this all was.

To that I say; shut up other me. You don't know anything.

Naturally, they turned toward me. I…suppose sharing would be the appropriate thing to do. But I'm a terrible liar and my speech is still not high enough for me to feel comfortable lying about it. It wouldn't help me anyway if I did lie about it.

The thought to come clean arrived and was viciously strangled upon birth. So…I just finished my report in as bare terms as I could conceivably do so and stood up.

"I'm sorry," I said to my team as I handed Kakashi my report. "But I don't feel like talking about what happened right now."

"Daisuke…" Nichiren looked worried.

"This isn't the time to be anti-social!" Hisako snapped, her voice still hoarse from her cry. "You can't just crawl into your shell again! Not after what we went through!"

"Sorry," I replied with a shrug. "But I like my shell."

The thing about having such a high Taijutsu skill was that attacks from people with an obviously lower skill from you were painfully telegraphed. Hisako, of course, like all good women from anime, wanted to punch me for being stupid. I probably deserved it, to boot. But alas, I didn't feel like losing a tooth.

So, I caught the punch and threw her onto the ground as gently as I could have managed. With that, I started to walk away.

"Daisuke," Kakashi said, and I turned. I saw that he had Hisako, who had gotten up for another attack, by the shoulder. "When you're ready to talk, we'll all be here. Alright?"

"Sure," I said, with a bow. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

---

First things first, check the library.

I headed over there first, marching through the academy doors. I checked the academy level, and found that there were no new books. Considering that books were much harder to produce than in my old world, I wasn't that surprised.

Marching up the stairs to the level reserved for Genin was a different story. The shelves were lined with books and scrolls and a pre-eminent examination revealed what were likely skill books, as well as some very interesting scrolls filled with jutsu.

I showed my ID card to the Chunin on duty, a bored shinobi who I didn't recognize, or care to learn about…maybe later.

Of skill books, there were 5. 4 of them were for Chakra Control. I face palmed with each one, each louder than the last, until I finally got a shush. The last one was for Sneak, bringing it up to 18.

The real treasures, of course were the jutsu. The first one was Demonic Illusion: Hellviewing Technique, which was a chakra control requirement of 20 and a Genjutsu requirement of 15.

I barely held in my manic, dark and angry laughter, biting my knuckle to avoid getting thrown out of the library. Out of all the techniques I could've learned, it had to be this one.

+150 EXP.

1,920 EXP until I level.

The shelves held surprisingly few secrets. Most of the good jutsu, like fireballs or electrical jutsu were either in the C-rank section further up the stairs, or the property of other villages, and thus were either simply not available, even higher than C-rank, or locked away in the Uchiha compound.

…would I really risk raiding the Uchiha compound for a fireball? A place probably watched like a hawk by Anbu, guarded by ancient defenses and probably pilfered clean by enterprising shinobi that were given a happy fun-time tour of T&I for their lack of respect?

Probably. Would need a higher Sneak skill though.

I haven't even seen Sasuke yet. But maybe that's for the best.

The next jutsu that I did find, though? Shunshin.

+150 EXP.

1770 EXP.

YES. This will come in handy, I didn't even have to do the minor amount of work to figure it out for myself!

…

Suddenly, this seems much less okay than before.

Whatever, this just means I need to come up with some of the better jutsu for myself.

This talk of jutsu brings to mind elemental chakra.

What was the test for it, some chakra-sensitive paper that you funneled chakra into? I wonder what it'll do when I funnel chakra into it. Find my element? Is that something I can decide or something decided by the RNG? Maybe I don't have an element.

I had this amusing image of the paper simply sitting in my hand, doing nothing but in its mind asking in horror exactly what I was. This turned less amusing when I figured that Kakashi or someone else might be watching and questions might be asked.

So, that made my next objective clear.

Get some chakra-paper and get my affinity tested. Figure out contingencies if something bizarre happens. Obtain some drugs and alcohol and break my double-lifetime prohibition on both of these things for the additional charisma to lie since my life would literally depend on it.

I hope that won't be necessary, though.

I thanked the librarian on my way out and headed into market. Using my newfound Shunshin, I was off like a rocket, flying over rooftops with a loud whoop at the top of my lungs. I momentarily got distracted by what I was supposed to do, but since I knew I could soften my landings now, I landed without a fuss.

Sadly, I knew that seeing things while using the Shunshin wasn't really possible until I slowed down. Wasn't the Sharingan required for that? It was. I hope that my stats getting more powerful as I level will eventually be a good substitute.

But in any case, I needed to focus.

Using Shunshin judiciously, I was able to visit stores meant for shinobi fairly quickly, until at last I found a store that possessed chakra paper. Having cashed in the A-rank mission vouchers earlier, I had more than enough to buy this priceless commodity.

The sheet I purchased was about the size of a regular sheet of paper, but I knew upon contact that it was different. It seemed to want suck chakra into it, grasping at the thin wisps that danced their way from my fingers.

But I needed to be smart about this.

I stowed it away and headed home, using a Shunshin to leap more than half-way there in a single bound. I ran up the apartment building, said hi to the landlord on my way, and closed my apartment door behind me.

First things first, I don't need to use all of my paper at once. Small dent in my wallet or no, it was expensive. I used a shuriken to cut it into evenly spaced strips for storage. I grasped one between my index finger and thumb and, to its delight, I channeled my chakra into it.

The world around me grayed out as the paper started to glow. A green window appeared.

Choose an Element it said, with a menu for lightning, fire, wind, earth and water below it.

Ah, well. That's convenient. Absurdly broken to boot.

My first instinct was to pick Fire. But I held off on it, as I needed to think about it. This was a decision that was both remarkably large and significantly more forgiving than my SPECIAL allocation. I needed something that I could picture myself using in more ways than one, was easily taken advantage of and I would be happy with.

Well, I had Kakashi as a sensei, so anything was probably easily taken advantage of. As for happy with, the decision really came down to fire and lightning. I loved both of those quite a bit. As for its usage, that was harder. Fire meant smoke screens, explosions, burning things and jet engines, in theory. Lightning meant freaking lightning, absurdly high temperature, shockwave inducing death rays from the heavens above. It also meant magnetism, paralysis to the point of instant death in some cases, and all of this applicable though touch, making it the deadliest static electricity imaginable.

And even if I choose one or the other, it's not like jutsu from one is locked from me forever. Just penalized until the appropriate perks.

What to decide.

There's also the various combinations to consider. Combine fire with, say, air and I can create firestorms. Combine lightning with water, and I wouldn't be surprised if I could create weaponized storm clouds.

Well…how to decide.

Fire, for all its explosions, also tends to burn things, which is a long, drawn out way to kill someone that's…frankly, inhumane. Some people might deserve it, but lightning would kill faster and be less risky, I think.

So, I picked lightning.

The world went back to normal, and the paper in my fingers crumpled.

+1000 EXP.

Wow.

Wow.

Really?

770 EXP until I level.

That makes me feel good. Really, really good. Let's go see if I can earn level 8 by figuring out some jutsu.

With that, I leapt out the window with a Shunshin, getting better at orienting myself at landing as I got used to it, and zoomed all the way to training ground 7.

It was just a basic training ground. A few targets and sparring dummies strewn about.

First jutsu I wanted to test? Well, I actually wanted to try a fire jutsu, just to see how much the penalty was for not having the Fire element. I don't think I know enough to reverse engineer Sasuke's famous fireballs, but I had another idea.

A smoke screen.

See, when you spend too much chakra on a jutsu, you get a smoke-screen. However, this smoke rarely, if ever, lasts long enough to make a difference and doesn't cause much lung damage. I want a beefed up version. One that obscures vision for at least an hour and burns my enemies' lungs…while not burning my own lungs.

So…let's see…tiger, snake, rat…

I brought up the chakra through my lungs while I took a deep breath and…let loose a deep breath.

Chakra Control Check Success: 100/15.

Ninjutsu Check Success: 30/20.

+150 EXP.

The field in front of me was obscured by black smoke that was alight by glowing embers and sparks in the cloud. The heat from it washed over my face and I could tell that this would have been insanely problematic to anyone who walked through it. I smirked and cancelled the jutsu. The smoke rapidly faded and where it was, the grass was smoldering and partially burned.

…yeah. That'll do it. Walking through that without some form of protection could be lethal, or at least permanently debilitating. I'll name this Burning Smokescreen.

Next up, the main event. Lightning jutsu. Deadly static electricity. Grab them to taze them. As if my Taijutsu needs to be any deadlier…good to have options, I suppose. Let's see…ox, dragon, bird…

My hands cackled with electrical power, the currents arcing between my fingers with the oddest tickling sensation.

Chakra Control Check Success: 100/15.

Ninjutsu Check Success: 30/5.

+150 EXP.

Barely felt or saw a drain, as opposed to the smoke, which took out almost half. It's not even that difficult, though. Next, let's try extending it through my chakra strings. Shouldn't be difficult, right?

I stuck a kunai down in the ground and attached a chakra-string to the ring at the end. I added a boar in the middle and a monkey at the end and lightning was traveling through my chakra strings. Nice! I'll name that one Chakra Taser. Simple and effective.

Okay, let's see if I can do something like a thunder-clap. Something to deafen foes in an area. Channel chakra into my palms…dragon, monkey, bird…

I brought my hands into a clap and…

Chakra Control Check Success: 100/25.

Ninjutsu Check Success: 30/25.

+150 EXP.

It was like an explosion went off in my palms, it was so loud. It was even accompanied by electrical discharge, which was awesome. I stood there, frozen, waiting for someone to come investigate the noise. No one did, so I guess that jutsu practice was common. Or that I was already being watched since I got here. That wasn't a pleasant thought, but it's not like I'd be able to avoid being watched if that was the case.

Thunderclap. The name was quick and simple.

320 EXP until level 8.

I needed three more jutsu and it didn't matter what they were, really. I could try a more traditional lightning attack, but I can already tell that I might not have the skill level to figure it out. I mean, Iruka's dolphin jutsu was beyond me, so some of the more fun jutsu was locked behind skill, if I had to guess.

So, maybe an Earth jutsu? Let's try throwing some of the rocks around. Ox, Rat, Monkey…

Chakra Control Check Success: 100/20.

Ninjutsu Check Success: 30/25.

+150 EXP.

Four rocks picked up and flew toward a target, most missing, but one hitting dead center. Wow, my bar went to below half like with the smoke screen. That won't be something I'm using for a while. If ever. An option, I guess. Stone Shot? Is that a name? I'll just call it that until I come up with a better one. If ever.

…alright, whatever. Let's try a wind technique, just to see what it does. A simple gust should do. So…bird, dragon, horse…

Chakra Control Check Success: 100/25.

Ninjutsu Check Failure: 30/35.

My chakra went near empty and I felt only the slightest of gusts trace itself across my outstretched hands. Gust of Wind? Get all Pokemon? I'll call it Gust of Wind.

+150 EXP.

20 EXP. One more jutsu.

…let's try another ranged lightning attack.

This one would be more like a closed net of electrical discharge, clumped together to seek a target to shock the crap out of. Simple. Probably above me, but as the last Wind Jutsu shown me, that doesn't matter in the slightest. So…here we go. Bird, Dragon, Horse…

Chakra Control Check Success: 100/30.

Ninjutsu Check Success: 30/30.

+150 EXP.

It was like making a ball out of chakra strings that had beautiful electric currents rushing through them. I was entranced by it, my wide eyes taking in every detail. I threw it at the target, and it hit square in the center, leaving it a blackened, scorched cinder.

Yes.

Yesyesyes.

Oh my yes!

Dum-dum-dum-Dum!

Level Up!

I had a plan to how I was going to allocate my skill points. This plan let me use most of my new toys much more effectively right now, actually. I sunk 10 points into Fuinjutsu and Ninjutsu, bringing them up to 40 and 39 respectively. The remaining 3 going straight to Speech, making it 33.

The perk I planned was Taijutsu Enthusiast, increasing the damage and magnitude of my Taijutsu by 10%. I took it.

Whew.

This level took like no time at all. I haven't even touched seals yet. Getting more powerful shouldn't take much longer at all.

…I won't let those kids…my team…my friends, die on my watch. I swear it.