Bum-bum-bum-Bum!

Level Up!

Level 10.

Well, my furlough passed quickly enough. I put a grand total of 16 points into Ninjutsu, bringing it up to 55, since I've realized that every single check was a multiple of five. A grand total of 18 points into Melee Weapons, bringing it up to 35 in preparation for the Ninja perk. 10 points into Fuinjutsu at level 9 and 2 points into it at level 10, bringing it up to 52.

I also took Chakra Seals, which allow me to make seals without ink and use them without blood. It's broken, as far as I'm concerned.

I've stopped keeping track of all the jutsu I've invented. Enough for 6250 EXP points. This just shows something that frankly baffles my mind: I can do almost whatever the heck I want as far as jutsu is concerned. My only limit is skills, and that's not much of a limit.

I acquired some explosive notes and storage scrolls over the past two weeks and managed to reverse engineer them to make my own. Turns out that explosive notes only work by, and it's hurting my brain to think of it like this, but they work by sealing explosions for later use. Specifically, a C-rank suicide technique, into the seal. I guess it makes sense considering what I know now, but it's dashed my hopes and dreams.

So on the plus side, I know the jutsu and figured out how to make a better one. Also, the ability to make my own storage scrolls is rapidly turning out to be priceless, since as long as I have the storage scroll on my person, the scroll and the items inside count as being in my inventory, and can be accessed through my black book.

However, my dreams of 'seals as reality warping computers' have nearly come to a screeching halt and so, I'm going to have to rethink my 'chakra missiles' from the ground up. I'm mostly just trying to bring a bit of my childhood..well, the first one.. to the game.

Replicating Isaac's Greater Missile Storm is something of a pet project. I'm starting to think I can use the Rasengan as the basis for the missiles, but I need to make them seek out their targets. Maybe an overlay of chakra over the ball that propels it forward? I still need to figure out how the chakra manages to hold its shape without hand seals telling it to do so. That's the biggest innovation about that ball of power, really.

But as far as triumphs of my childhood are concerned, I can do Sith Lightning now. Because Star Wars.

I don't need any other reason.

Still trying to figure out how to turn it into Force Storm but when I do, I think it'll be worth it.

I haven't seen either of my teammates over the past few weeks, but then I haven't really been looking for them either. I think Hisako might be over my sucker punch to the team-building exercise two weeks ago, but maybe that's just me hoping. I have no clue what Nichiren's doing.

Today we were supposed to meet up again in the morning at training ground 1, as opposed to number 3 which I think may be so Kakashi-sensei can be late like he normally is. I can respect that, since judging people's quirks is the last thing that I, of all people, should be doing.

I was leaning against one of the training posts, still going over my options in the perk-list in my notebook. The breeze was fairly pleasant against my face and I saw the grass shift around me in the wind. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it otherwise seemed..peaceful.

This meant that I was bored, sadly. To wait, or not to wait? I..I guess I'm not waiting, as Hisako just entered the training ground.

Her head was hanging, her face looking downcast. Her long black hair was tied up in its usual ponytail, with a pair of locks framing the sides of her face. I could see from the insides of her dark jacket that she was loaded up on senbon and shuriken. She wore boots that went up to her shins, but they were un-armored.

..wait, I didn't know she could use senbon. Huh. Someone has been training. I approve.

Hisako looked up at me as she approached and offered a half-hearted smile and wave as greeting.

I waved back with a smile of my own.

We sat there for a couple awkward moments, before I went back to my book. Huh, Unstoppable is a thing? Oh, but it's a level 50 perk. A chance to avoid all damage from an attack that scales-

Hisako sighed and sat down to my left.

-with luck. Really cool, but I'd need to sacrifice Will of Fire for that. It'd be pretty awesome if I could conceivably go into fight by myself with no teammates, but going into as many fights with teammates as I can will ensure that I'm there to keep everyone alive with our enemies dead.

"So," Hisako paused. "Daisuke."

"What?" I looked at her quizzically.

Hisako looked at me back, taking a breath before continuing. "You have a right to be angry."

She lost me.

"And I'm sorry about trying to hit you," Hisako let out the breath she was holding. "For not..respecting..that you don't want to talk about what happened back at the house."

Oh, That. Right. Should I be mad at that? I should not be mad at that. She didn't actually hit me for one, and I was the one who tanked the group-bonding exercise. That and the house part was technically my fault since that Root Agent was targeting me specifically.

..though I do have reservations about the 'Root and Danzo evulz' being the entire explanation, to be perfectly honest. I'm betting on human error also playing a factor..

"So..I just..yeah," Hisako finished lamely, turning on the ground to not face me. "..I'm sorry."

I blinked and went back to my book. Then I closed it and stuck it in my back pocket. "I'm not mad."

"Yes you are," Hisako frowned, looking back at me. "I can hear it in your voice, Daisuke. It's called a tone of voice."

"I think you're confusing angry for confused," I replied, getting a little irate for real. Stupid 4 Charisma. It's still better than 1 but I still have terrible issues with my social skills. It makes me feel that the Henge only increases my appearance some days.

"Well, I don't think so," Hisako's increasing frustration pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I'm sorry you feel that way," I shrugged, pulling my book out with a plan in case she tried to hit me again.

"I-You-Grrr.." Her frustration started to spike and..she stood up and walked away, kicking a training post on the way before sitting behind it. Then she groaned in irritation with a twinge of regret.

Well, that was weird. Smoother than I hoped, though. Any other perks I could find a use for. Ninja, I'm actually wondering about. On the one hand, it'll help my Taijutsu a lot. On the other hand, it needs melee weapons as a requirement. I'm literally never going to use melee weapons, meaning I'm dumping 80 some-odd skill points into a skill I'll never otherwise use except for some specific situations.

So maybe there's a better perk I can use? I..ugh..I need to fix things up with Hisako. My gut's not going to stop bothering me until I do.

So let's be careful with my voice modulation here. "So..I'm really not mad, Hisako."

"You don't need to lie to make me feel better," Hisako called back from behind her stump. "I know I screwed up."

"That doesn't mean I'm mad," I replied with a frown. "You didn't hit me, I tanked a team-bonding moment..seriously. All is forgiven, if that's what you want to hear."

"It's not about what I want to hear," Hisako argued back. "It's about making things right for a teammate I disrespected."

C'mon, let's try to use my speech skill here.. "I don't feel disrespected, though. Really. Nichiren, Kakashi-sensei and yourself were all having a really healthy group-therapy session. One that I opted out of in a really bad way. Emotions were high and I recognize that. I don't fault you for any of that. I might've wanted to hit me in your shoes."

Hisako was quiet. Until she offered a single, barked-out laugh. "I swear, even when you're saying the right things, it sounds forced."

Is that her anger talking or my crappy charisma talking? "Sorry."

"Ah no," Hisako sounded startled. "That's not what I meant. I'm trying to apologize to you."

"Apology accepted?" I said, wanting this to be over and for us to be friends again already.

Hisako sighed, sounding a little miserable. "Just forget it."

Oh, great. This was going to haunt me for the next few days, I could tell. It's times like this that I think I really screwed up going for a natural 1 charisma. This just makes me ache more for Almost Perfect, which is tens of thousands of EXP away for me. There's only so much jutsu I can pull out of my rear before I run out of ideas. Or into problems.

Nichiren came into view a few minutes later. His own black hair was cut short and his glasses were thick and square. He seemed hunched over and nervous, more so than usual. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his baggy pants. The kunai holster on his leg was filled, obviously, and he carried some slightly worn storage scrolls on the back of his belt.

Huh, seems like he's been training more too. Nice. Also, I just noticed that I'm the only one on my team with brown hair. Odd, because brown hair was one of the most common in my old life. Now I'm the only one I know with it out of the people I know.

..the things you notice with bigger perception score.

I like it, actually.

"Hey, Hisako. Daisuke," Nichiren waved to each of us in turn.

"Hey Nichiren," Hisako replied.

"Hello," I said in return.

Nichiren swallowed. "So..my mom wanted to invite you guys over for dinner tonight. Do you guys have any plans? She said she'd love to have the both of you. She even invited Sensei."

"Sure, I can come," Hisako agreed immediately.

"I..don't know," I confessed with a shrug.

"Oh. You have plans?" Nichiren asked.

"No, I just seriously doubt I'm the type of person you'd invite over for dinner," I answered truthfully. "I have no idea what table manners are involved, how to act and even if I did, it'd probably look forced or something."

Hisako made a noise of discomfort. I craned my neck to see if she was okay. She looked fine.

"My mom knows you have trouble talking to people," Nichiren said. Then he looked mortified at having let that slip. "I mean, she knows you're an amazing shinobi and how you helped save our lives so I thought it'd be fair to let her know that you have..difficulty socializing. She said she wants to have you over anyway."

I blinked. Once. Twice.

"You know, if you don't want me around you can just say so," I said with a frown. "I know I scare you half to death, no need to suffer on my account."

"No, no! That's not it," Nichiren started to back pedal. "I-I just didn't know how you'd react to an..invitation from someone that you've never met before. I wasn't sure if you'd say yes since you don't really act like a normal person."

Hisako hissed in alarm and a little bit of anger. Nichiren's eyes went wide as he inserted his foot into his mouth with all the force of a train.

For my part, I simply snorted and went back to my book. "Ain't that the truth."

Everything simple fell into an awkward silence. I could have sworn I felt the inklings of Killing Intent coming from Hisako aimed at Nichiren for his slip-up. Poor guy. I wish I knew how I could stop scaring the heck out of him. Or at very least help him man-up and not let me get to him so bad.

After about a half an hour, Nichiren impressed me by coming back around for a second try. "Sorry, Daisuke. I didn't mean to offend you."

"It's okay," I replied, looking at him.

"I am sorry and I wasn't kidding about my Mom wanting you over for dinner," Nichiren continued. "Could you..think the offer over, at least?"

"I think it'd be good to have you there," Hisako added, still behind the training post. "She invited the whole team, you know."

I guess it'll give me enough time to think about how to let them down gently before the time comes and I act like a slobbering caveman in a glass house. "I'll think about it."

"Thank you," Nichiren actually sounded relieved.

Huh. I misread that situation entirely. Whoops. "Sorry for being harsh, earlier."

Nichiren looked taken aback. "It's okay, Daisuke-san. I kn-uh, yeah. It's okay."

Nice save.

Things went back to a decidedly more comfortable silence. Hisako sounded like she was sharpening her kunai. Nichiren was actually painting a seal..what looked like an explosive tag.

"Careful you don't blow yourself up," I said to Nichiren.

"I know," Nichiren said, stopping what he was doing to look at me. "Kakashi-sensei was very thorough when explaining how to make these."

"Kakashi-sensei taught you how to make explosive tags?" Hisako sounded a little hurt. "When do I get to learn how to make these?"

"I think soon," Nichiren replied. "Yesterday, he said I've caught up on everything I missed in the academy plus a little."

"That's awesome," Hisako replied. "So does that mean I get some personal, super awesome training soon, or do I have to wait in line behind Daisuke?"

"I can just pull jutsu out of the air," I said in affront to that. "I don't think I need special attention any time soon." Or ever.

"Right," Hisako actually sounded annoyed at that, which didn't make sense to me.

Eventually, our sensei actually showed up, one hand in pocket, his face deeply engrossed in his erotica. Like usual, I felt a spike of irritation at the sight of the book. All the changes I've gone through and I'm still a horrible prude.

"Ah, my lovely little Genin," Kakashi eye-smiled, closing his book. "How was your furlough?"

"Pretty good, actually," I responded with a nod. "No real complaints."

Kakashi looked at me like I grew a second head for some reason. He only stopped when I think he understood that I was actually me. Weird. Maybe it's about the lack of missions?

"I got some good training in," Hisako stood up, shrugging her shoulders. "It was nice to get a break, though."

"It was great, Kakashi-sensei," Nichiren smiled. "Thanks for training me through it anyway."

"It was nothing," Kakashi eye-smiled. "I'm just happy to see how far you've come."

"So when's my super special training," Hisako asked with an expectant look.

"Probably soon," Kakashi said. Then he sighed, looking at Hisako and myself. "I'm sorry if it feels like I've been neglecting the two of you. Training up Nichiren's been taking up most of my time."

"It's fine," Hisako said, waving off his concerns. "I'm just ready to learn something new is all."

"Well you'll get that today," Kakashi straightened out. "You know the tree-walking technique already, right?"

"Yup!" Hisako looked really happy.

"So today, I'm going to teach you the water-walking technique," Kakashi looked indifferent. "There's a pond out in the back of the training course. And before I forget.."

Kakashi turned to Nichiren as Hisako bolted for the aforementioned pond. "Nichiren, do you know the tree-walking technique?"

"No Sensei," Nichiren replied with an embarrassed smile. "Am I supposed too?"

"No, that's usually a technique reserved for Jounin to teach their Genin," Kakashi explained. "Hisako already learned it from her parents and Daisuke's.."

"I'm me," I supplied.

"Yes," Kakashi sounded a little exasperated. "You're you. Which is why you're going to be teaching Nichiren the tree-walking technique while I'm helping Hisako."

"What."

"Don't 'what' me," Kakashi sounded unusually tired. "With the way you pull jutsu out of the air, I'd have thought that you'd have a very in-depth understanding of how the Jutsus work. Am I wrong?"

"..not really," I muttered to myself. "I do know jutsu pretty well, yes."

"Well then you shouldn't have any trouble at all," Kakashi eye smiled and I got the distinct impression that he may have been trolling me. Or worse; trying to train me. "Have fun, you two!"

He disappeared in a flurry of leaves and I saw him materialize over by the thicket that housed the pond, already giving Hisako the specialized instruction she craved.

I looked at Nichiren, who was looking at me with a mix of apprehension and maybe a little acceptance. "So, how do I do the technique?"

"It's actually pretty simple," I said, gesturing to the nearest tree and we started walking. "You send chakra through your limb of choice and anchor it to the surface you want to stick to. In the case of Konoha, a tree."

We arrived at the base of the tree. I was looking up at it and it seemed reasonably high. But I didn't want high right now.

"So how do I actually do that?" Nichiren asked, adjusting his glasses.

I explaining that from scratch doesn't seem like it would help..Oh, what's a good example..uh..oh. Yeah. "Remember the leaf-sticking exercise they had us all do in the academy?"

"You mean the one where you made the leaf dance across your arm for your own amusement?" Nichiren asked in turn.

"Oh yeah, I remember that," I reminisced, lost in a memory or two. "Anyway, that's what you want to do. Just scaled up."

"Wait, really?" Nichiren asked with a frown. "That's all there is to it?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, basically."

"I can do that," Nichiren smiled, putting a foot on the trunk. "Okay, now what?"

"Test the grip by trying to lift yourself up?" I offered, scratching the side of my head. "Gently, though. No jumping."

Nichiren nodded and his brow knitted together in concentration. The muscles in his leg tightened and..his leg slid right off the bark.

"Not enough chakra," I said.

"Okay," Nichiren pursed his lips into a thin line and stuck is leg on the trunk again. After a few seconds, he tried to lift himself up again and this time actually succeeded in sticking to the trunk. With a nervous laugh, Nichiren slowly brought his other leg up to the tree and fell from the trunk. I caught him before he landed on the dirt and stood him back up.

"You alright?" I asked, letting him go.

"Yeah," Nichiren nodded. "I'm fine."

"Good," I nodded. "Try again."

Nichiren nodded and took a deep breath, sticking his foot on the trunk.

This process repeated itself for several minutes. He would put his foot on, lift his foot other foot up, would almost get said foot on the trunk, or succeed in getting it on the trunk, only to slide off. I tried my best to remain quiet to avoid venting my frustration and making him feel bad. I mean, I am the adult here. Even if I don't look it.

Eventually, after I caught him, he just glared at the tree. "What am I doing wrong?"

I shrugged. "If you keep slipping off, that's a sign you aren't putting enough chakra into it."

"I'm not putting enough chakra into it?" Nichiren looked flabbergasted.

"Well, you can stick just fine until you start thinking about something else," I was partially thinking to myself here. "So you're probably just forgetting to pump chakra through the foot that's sticking while you're trying to do something else. You need a constant flow of chakra to stick, after all."

Nichiren blinked, frowned and nodded. He stuck one foot on the tree, and with his face screwed up in concentration, managed to stick the other one on the trunk.

The speech skill was a fantastic investment.

"I did it!" Nichiren threw both hands into the air then stopped himself from dropping onto the ground.

"That's awesome," I nodded in approval. "Now, can you walk up the tree?"

"..up the tree?" Nichiren sounded worried again.

"You can't say you've learned tree-walking until you can walk up the tree," I informed him, walking up the tree casually to demonstrate. "Just keep doing what you're doing and practice from there."

You know, this makes me wonder. From what I remember of the anime, the only person to get tree walking right off the bat was Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke both needed to do a parkour run up their trees during Wave Arc, if I recall. Was that kind of training more effective than what I'm doing? Does the fact that Nichiren's doing this rather successfully mean I'm a better teacher? Doubt it. It probably means that Nichiren's control is actually really good.

He still hasn't moved though. Maybe I should've had him do the parkour-run instead?

I slid down next to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Nichiren answered. "Just..psyching myself up."

He's scared of something. Is he afraid of heights? I was afraid of heights in my old life. So I can understand that completely. "I'll head back down to catch you when you fall."

"Uh.." Nichiren stopped. Was that not it? "Thanks, I might need thaaaaa-"

I got down there first and caught him.

"Thanks."

"Not a problem."

Nichiren stood up.

"Maybe we should change tactics here," I replied. "You think you can run up this tree?"

"Run up it?" Nichiren squawked, looking up the tree. "No."

You know, I'd thought that running up it would be harder to do; much more strenuous, difficult and probably better for training chakra control. Probably why Kakashi had Naruto and Sasuke do that the first time around. But..wait, Kakashi didn't do that. He simply taught them the jutsu and Naruto and Sasuke made it a competition. That's right. I think.

You know, the only thing that's stopped me from writing down what I remember is the fact that I live in a village of spies and that I'd have to burn anything I wrote when I was done. Writing the future would get me in trouble and writing in English would raise eyebrows at my non-existent cryptography training and would get me in the same kind of trouble. Actually, worse.

"It was just an idea," I shrugged. "I mean, you'd only have to have chakra in your foot as long as you were stepping off and it would accustom you to moving around while using the jutsu faster."

"Maybe," Nichiren allowed. "But I'd rather just be able to stick and learn to move first."

I shrugged. I actually would prefer that method myself if I were him. "Alright, go ahead."

It took a while. Nichiren would make a step or two, before falling off. I caught him every time-

--3 HP-

-sometimes at my own expense, but eventually, as the sun rose to high noon, he got it. He started walking around the tree trunk, cheering louder with each passing step. I was pretty grateful I was able to circumvent my low Charisma by not saying a lot and letting him teach himself for the majority of this.

I munched on a candy-bar to bring back my lost health. "Nice work up there!"

"So, how's the tree walking jutsu?" Kakashi appeared right next to me.

"Nichiren's great," I replied, swallowing my candy. "His chakra control is pretty good."

"Well," Kakashi eye-smiled at me. "I'm pleasantly surprised by this turn of events."

I shrugged. "I didn't have to say much, which is probably for the best. I just gave him an example and he taught himself."

"He is fairly intelligent," Kakashi nodded. "So, are you going to dinner with the Nakamura's?"

"I was thinking not," I replied, a cold shiver going down my spine. "Again, I work best when I don't have to say much."

"Well we might want to start working on that," Kakashi eye smiled. "I think you should come with us."

"Why?" I asked with a deep frown. "I don't see why this is something I need to work on."

"Because as a shinobi, you might be hired to escort someone like a merchant or even the Diamyo," Kakashi answered, becoming much more serious. "We can't have a shinobi as socially inept as you messing things up for clients."

"So I just won't take any escort missions," I shrugged. No love lost there, really. Escort missions were the worst and it didn't matter what game it was. Reverse escort missions, naturally, were the best thing ever. Nearly every mission involving Liberty Prime was a reverse escort mission. They were glorious. "I don't see the big deal."

"Okay," Kakashi started switching tactics in his head, I can tell. "But you're also going to be a future clan leader with your bloodline. You don't want to mess up your posterities chances because you never trained to be a better diplomat, right?"

He had me. I knew it and I think he knew it. But I wasn't going to go down without a fight. "The Aburame's seem to be doing fine."

"They are also a fully established and respected clan," Kakashi replied. I could hear him getting exasperated. "You, by yourself, are not."

I didn't want to go. Nichiren was scared of me and I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of his folks. I mostly tried to avoid socializing for a reason, after all. And I respected what Kakashi was trying to do. The question was if I was really willing to humor him and my team and spend a few hours trying to pointlessly increase my social skills. Especially since I can be inventing jutsu or looking for skill-checks to pass to increase my level and actually improve my social skills with my scaling Charisma.

..my life is really weird right now.

"Think of it this way," Kakashi said. "You'll be showing support for your teammate."

Why did I hear a bit of doubt in his voice? Whatever. "Fine, I'll go."

"You will?" Kakashi blinked in disbelief. Then he eye-smiled. "That's good to hear! I look forward to seeing you there."

I made sure to buy new clothes. Biggest charisma bonus I could find, which was +4. So, I was currently rocking an 8 charisma with no armor, with my belt sticking around my waist like the irremovable pip-boys of yore. I considered bringing them with me on missions, but whether changing into them manually or fishing through my book, switching would take time.

The new suit should, at least, make this dinner bearable for all involved. Hisako, Nichiren, Kakashi, Nichiren's parents. I'll admit that I only brought it along because..well, it might be fun to actually make a good first impression and have a couple people like me without being compelled to spend time with me. Even if they will just go back to ignoring me once I revert back to my armor. I was still mad about being strongly encouraged to come.

It was a simple set with a black tunic and grey pants. I seriously doubted this was a black-tie occasion, so the kimono was out. I was kind of proud of myself for figuring that out, but I figured that mostly came from my knowledge from before.

I, of course, was early. I wasn't expected until 8:00 so I got here at 7:30. Punctuality is one of the things I'm an absolute stickler for and I guess it helps counter balance Kakashi-sensei's lateness. Or it simply causes my temper to come to a boil.

Much like coming to this dinner. I mean, I may be humoring my team here, but that doesn't mean I like it. Actually, I really should keep quiet during this dinner. Things like raging frustration came out really strongly in my voice and mannerisms in my old life, and I can only assume it's going to be worse now.

And like clockwork, Hisako showed up about twenty minutes later. She was dressed how she always dressed, since her outfit was acceptable by civilian standards, as opposed to my 'armored and ready for battle' look.

"Hey Hisako," I waved at her, putting on my best smile to avoid showing how much I didn't want to be here.

She looked at me in disbelief. "Daisuke? Is that you?"

"Afraid so," I replied with a nod. "Kakashi-sensei roped me into coming, so here I am."

"Wow," She tilted her head to get a better look at me. "I barely recognized you."

Bonus charisma can do that. "Must be the outfit."

"Yeah," Hisako then frowned. "Okay, so what'd you do?"

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"You don't just look good, you sound good," Hisako frowned, giving me a once-over. "Like you're socially competent. What gives?"

Ooh. That's right, inexplicable rises in competence gets eyeballed. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered with the suit. "Oh, uh...I can be socially competent. It's just difficult. Very, very difficult."

It's better than the actual explanation; that I'm only competent when I'm wearing expensive clothing.

"Oh-kay," Hisako frowned. "How is it difficult?"

Crap. "It's like a super-charged Henge. I use the Henge to make me not look like a statue and give the appearance of not being a quirky, social mess. This one just goes several steps further. I just can't maintain it all the time."

Hisako smirked, but I could feel just a twinge of annoyance in her words, "Well, it makes sense that you pull a jutsu out of nowhere to solve your problem."

Thank you, 8 Charisma. Seriously, if this is what I have to look forward to when I have an actually high charisma, then Almost Perfect can't come soon enough. You know, it just occurred to me that she may be slightly over appreciative of my ability to invent jutsu.

As in downright envious.

It would make sense, considering what I know of her.

..I'm digging the high charisma. -->>

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