The Gamer: Naruto World - Chapter 71

Chapter 71 – Training Begins

“Raito! Wake up!” Early in the morning as sunlight entered the room through the windows, Raito heard Naruto’s annoying voice just outside the door. The banging caused the door to shake slightly, making Raito worry about the decreasing durability of the door.

“Shut it!” Raito waved his hand, covered with chakra, over the scroll, drying the ink then closed the scroll and shouted. Standing up with a sigh, Raito opened the door and looked at Naruto in irritation. “I’ll come.”

“Breakfast is ready,” With a stiff smile, Naruto turned around and hurried downstairs. “Let’s go.”

“Breakfast… you say.” Raito stretched his arms and stiff body as he walked downstairs. With his ‘[Chakra Sense]’, Raito already found a small crowd in the dining room, working together to make an early meal.

Mari, who was working on the soup and fish, saw Raito lazily descending the stairs. With a small smile she called Raito like a mother calling her child, “Raito, the food’s ready!”

Opening the rice cooker, Shun waved his hand, waving away the steam. Then he turned his head back and raised his hand with a big smile, “Yo! Morning.”

“Shun-nii,” Raito waved back and grabbed some stuff lying on his way.

Shun turned back and grabbed a rice scoop, then scooped the rice into a bowl, one after another.

“Ahh!” Anko shouted all of a sudden, throwing her hands up. “I want dango.”

“Anko,” Mari gave Anko a stern glare then sighed. “When you finish your work today, you can naturally go.”

“And when is that? Can’t I-”

“No,” Mari glared intensely. She didn’t even let Anko continue with her ideas.

Anko pouted and said no more. She quietly passed the bowl for Mari to pour the soup in.

“Hokage-sama is giving us too much work.” Anko grabbed the bowl back and passed the next one.

“Don’t complain,” Mari replied and looked at Shun from the side of her eyes then said. “Everyone has their hands full. At least, we got a break.”

Anko rolled her eyes, hearing Mari then turned towards Shun, “Shun, what about you? Don’t you need to be at the borders right now?”

“Me?” Shun tilted his head backward and looked at the ceiling, pausing for a bit,

After retracting his gaze, Shun answered with his eyes closed and a slight frown in his face, “If I take time to eat and everything, I can reach at the first checkpoint five minutes faster than my team.”

“Shun-nii, borders are so far away, how long would it take you to reach there?” Naruto looked at Shun with his twinkling eyes, which were filled with curiosity.

“It’s a secret, Naruto.” Shun laughed it off with a wink.

“Secrets,” Naruto pouted then asked in a hurry with a shine in his eyes, “It should be a super jutsu, right? Can you teach me?”

Shun shook his head then replied with a mischievous smile, “Maybe when you are older.”

Sitting on a chair, Naruto rolled his eyes then after a while a big smile appeared on his face as he announced, “Pervy sage told me that he is gonna teach me super strong jutsu today-”

Mari growled as she waved the ladle towards Naruto. “That’s Jiraiya-sama. Don’t call him ‘pervert’. Give him some respect, Naruto.”

“But he is a pervert.” Naruto retorted but didn’t dare to look directly at Mari. Instead, he whispered the remaining part, “He even peeped at the bathhouse yesterday.”

“He is right, you know,” Anko added which caused Mari to glare and Shun to chuckle.

“Mari-nee, don’t wave the ladle.” Raito hurried to the kitchen and looked at the scene. “You are dirtying the floor and the table.”

In her anger, Mari forgot about the soup on the ladle and when she waved her hand, the soup also fell off the ladle and dropped on the floor.

Pulling Naruto back, Raito wiped the table clean with a cloth. Then a water sphere covered the cloth, taking away the soup form the cloth.

The three a.d.u.l.ts in the room looked at one another and nodded slightly.

Shun walked towards the table with bowls of rice on his hand and cleared his throat, “Umm… Raito, I was going to train you but…”

“I know, you have to go to border patrol, right? I was also caught up in learning Fuinjutsu with those old men.” Separating the leftover water from the cloth, Raito threw the cloth to hang and dry.

“What about us?” Anko appeared in front of Raito, and Midori, who was coiled around Anko’s arm, rushed out of her sleeves and circled Raito’s neck. “You can come with me. I can train you on my snake style Taijutsu.” She pushed Raito back and made some punch and sweeps.

Anko disappeared from her spot and reached behind Raito making an S-trail. With her hand around Raito’s shoulder, she asked with a smile. “What do you say?”

Raito looked at Midori, who was around his neck, then towards Anko. He freed himself from Anko’s hold and walked towards the table. “I want to but not now.”

Walking towards the bowls, Raito added after a pause. “I am going to train on my own. I have the whole thing planned out for this month. I have some Ninjutsu, which I really need to work on, then it’s Taijutsu and there is also Fuinjutsu. I am so busy.”

“… I also need to get a couple of books from Jii-chan.” Raito added, breaking his fingers.

Mari closed the lid to the pot then took out a scroll from her pouch then threw it towards Raito in one swift motion.

Scroll in his hand, Raito quickly figured out that it was a storage scroll. He looked at Mari and directly questioned. “What’s in this?”

“There are some Fuinjutsu books from Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama,” Mari answered while taking out some protein. “Jiraiya-sama recommended… saying that you have enough experience to try new things and restricting someone as talented as you would be going against the benefit of Konoha.”

“… Okay.” Raito nodded and opened the scroll, revealing a storage seal. In the past two days Raito had seen Jiraiya and the Fuinjutsu team, prepare and apply the seal on Gaara. So, he already had some ideas about the line and numerical Fuinjutsu, and their conjunction with the character seal Fuinjutsu.

“Be sure to thank Jiraiya-sama,” Shun added in the end with a small smile.

“Hai~.” Raito opened the books and looked through a couple of pages before closing, not because of the lack of interest but because of the demoness, who was glaring at him.

Shun placed the dishes on the table then stood beside Mari and said. “Tell him about that. It should help him.”

After placing all the dishes on the table, Mari walked towards Raito then crouched down. Raito looked back to see Mari, who was smiling warmly towards him.

“Mari-nee,” Raito called out, felling strangely dangerous.

“Follow me later; I want you to do something, alright?” Her smile only grew brighter as he held Raito’s shoulder.

Feeling uncomfortable, Raito smiled back awkwardly then replied, “…O-Okay,”

“Anko-nee, I will keep Midori for the day. Is that alright?” Raito suddenly raised his head, turned towards Anko then asked.

“Sure, but…” Anko raised the chopsticks then looked at Mari.

“Not today,” Mari intervened and added, “We are doing something.”

Anko shrugged and pointed her thumbs towards Mari. “You heard her.”

“…”

Raito pouted then snapped his head sideways to look at the back door. “Someone’s here.”

After Raito finished saying, unhurried knocks came from the back door.

“Who’s this early?” Mari grumbled as she signaled Anko.

“We need one more chair.” Raito brought out a set of plates and bowl from the cupboard using the chakra threads then said. “It’s Jiraiya-sama. He is probably here to take Naruto to train.”

“Jiraiya-sama?” Anko shouted in excitement and quickened her pace.

Passing chakra, she opened the door to face Jiraiya who had reached out his hand towards the door.

“Jiraiya-sama,” Anko called out with a big smile on her face.

Jiraiya raised his brows and pulled back his hands then said with his brows raised. “Oh, someone was expecting me.”

“That smile,” Naruto whispered towards Raito. “It’s creepy.”

“Don’t,” Raito whispered. From the collar of Raito’s jacket, Midori came out and glared at Naruto then with a hiss, she went back.

“Early breakfast? Did I interrupt you guys?” Jiraiya stretched his neck and looked at the table filled with food. Turning to face Naruto, Jiraiya waved and said. “Naruto, meet me at the training ground seven. I’ll be there.”

Just as Naruto was going to shout, Mari placed the extra set of dishes down and called out, interrupting Naruto. “Jiraiya-sama, please come in.”

“Huh?” Jiraiya, who was about to turn around, paused and looked further. With his keen observation skills, Jiraiya saw a lot of things then he noticed the number of chairs and food set didn’t match the people inside the house.

“We made a bit too much. Would you like to join us?” Mari asked, drawing the chair, signaling for Jiraiya to come and sit.

After a slight pause, Jiraiya let out a laugh and walked in. Looking at Naruto, Jiraiya said, “Naruto, it’s your bad luck. I was thinking of taking you to get some ramen, this early morning but…”

“No way,” Naruto sat up with big eyes that looked like it was gonna pop out. “Ichiraku?”

“Yeah.” Jiraiya laughed louder seeing Naruto’s disappointed face.

“Ow man,” Naruto hung his head in disappointment.

Jiraiya jovially sat on the seat and took a look around. Months or years, had it been that he was in a family table, inside Konohagakure, eating a home-cooked meal. ���I lucked out.”

“Mari, Shun, Anko, and you kids… it’s nice being in the village.” Jiraiya looked at the people around the table then clapped his hands and whispered. “I am really grateful for the food, Kami-sama.”

Picking up the chopsticks, Jiraiya immediately felt the small engravings on it, “Hey, what’s this?”

Narrowing his eyes, Jiraiya saw his name etched on the chopsticks. “It’s my name…”

His eyes locked onto the characters etched on the bowl too. And although the characters were faint, Jiraiya could easily read his name on the bowl. Shifting his head a bit more, Jiraiya saw the same with Shun then Anko, then Mari. Everyone had their names engraved on the bowls. “Just who?”

“Chakra control exercise.” Feeling the blaming eyes on him, Raito quickly answered in short then started eating with his head down.

“Oi, oi, It’s not something a Genin is supposed to do.”

The corners of Raito’s lips rose, hearing what Jiraiya said then Raito added with a bit of smugness in his tone, “I have already completed the three volumes of chakra control exercise. This kind of chakra control is now as easy as waving hands for me.”

Jiraiya let go of the thought then looked at Naruto with the corner of his eyes and said, “I didn’t know that Genins nowadays could do this much-”

“Only Raito can do that. You cannot use him to compare others.” Naruto pouted and replied quickly, feeling the old pervert’s slide glances at him. Comparing with Raito was like seeking a death notice, unless you have full confidence, you shouldn’t do it.

“I have heard that even the best of the batch has only finished the second volume of chakra control but she is now in the medic division after failing the Genin test. Not adding in Hinata from Hyūga family, who probably has already mastered her clan’s sets of chakra control.” Mari added, sharing valuable intel with everyone on the table.

“That’s someone from Information division. You people have eyes and ears everywhere.” Jiraiya smiled and started eating. “Huh?”

“Not everywhere.” Mari shook her head and pulled out a cube of tofu from the soup. “If only we had…”

“From medic division, failing this year, it should be Sakura, right?” Raito voiced out his conclusion and looked towards Mari.

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto raised his voice a few pitches then clamped his mouth shut.

“I didn’t say that.” Mari shook her head then refused to share more.

“What’s this?” Jiraiya scrunched his brows and took another bite. “It’s too good. This rice grain is so plump and this fragrance… each mouthful feels so fulfilling.”

“How can this fish taste so good?”

“And these vegetables…”

After Jiraiya took one bite, he was hooked. He started devouring the food trying every possible combo. And when his bowls were empty, Jiraiya stretched out his bowl, smiled, and requested, “One more, please.”

“I have traveled to the many places but this… this meal is better than anything I ever had.” Jiraiya said, stretching his hand further in.

Mari smiled as she grabbed Jiraiya’s bowl then filled it with rice. “Everything here is homegrown. From fishes to vegetables to rice, everything was grown and breed by the kids here.”

Grabbing the rice bowl, Jiraiya asked with some suspicion. “Rice too?”

“Actually Raito did most of the things…” Naruto sounded a little dejected as he looked at the food in front of him but then he brightened up instantly as he added. “But I fed the fishes and watered the plants, every day.”

“Oh, hard work.” Jiraiya made an amazed face as he looked at Raito and Naruto then smiled. “That’s a nice trait to have.”

“Actually I used them for chakra control exercise… removing the husk, taking out seed and all.” Raito played with his food, a smile forming on his face.

Integrating the chakra in his everyday life gave Raito new ideas and chances to train his chakra more. So, why not benefit from different sides at the same time.

“Sensei, made us do that too… mixing training in daily life.” Jiraiya stirred the miso soup before picking a cube of tofu. “It was hella difficult… but worth it.”

Shun quickly ate his food, not leaving a single grain to waste. Even though he wanted to enjoy eating these delicacies, his comrades were waiting for him at the checkpoint.

“I’ve finished.” Shun clapped his hands in prayer then stood up. “Thank you for the food.”

“You seem like you are in a hurry, Shun.” Jiraiya eyed Shun and smiled.

Shun started checking his equipment and at the same time replied. “Being the fastest out there is just forcing myself to do more work.”

Jiraiya nodded then raised his chopsticks, “Be safe out there.”

Shun nodded then turned his head towards Naruto.

“Naruto,” Shun called grabbing Naruto’s attention. “Learn well from Jiraiya-sama.”

“I-”

Shun quickly turned towards Jiraiya and bowed his head, “Jiraiya-sama, please take care of him. Although he is stupid, he learns things fast.”

“Don’t worry. With me around, Naruto will learn a lot of things.” Jiraiya laughed and waved.

“Then I am relieved.” Shun smiled then turned his head to Raito.

Crouching, Shun grabbed Raito’s shoulder and locked eyes. With his bright eyes and confident tone, Shun spoke up, “Raito, I want you to focus on your training, okay? Leave the troublesome matters to the a.d.u.l.ts.”

“Mm.” Raito nodded his head then brought out a scroll. “Food for later.”

Shun grabbed the scroll and smiled, “Thank you.”

“Listen to Mari, okay? She will help you with your training.”

“But she is busy and-”

“Shhh.” Shun stopped Raito with his fingers to his lips. “Try it out first. I promise it will help you. If it doesn’t, you can do your own training afterward.”

“It’s time.” Shun stood up then turned towards Mari with a goofy smile and arms extended. “How about-”

“Go away,” Mari shouted punching towards Shun. But Shun easily dodged it and gave a peck before escaping.

“Oioi,” Jiraiya let out a laugh watching Shun run.

“Just marry already,” Anko grumbled while giving Mari side glances.

Raito finished his food but didn’t leave. Instead, he turned towards Jiraiya. Jiraiya also found looking towards him and made a small noise, asking Raito.

“Umm… I wanted to thank you for those Fuinjutsu books.” Raito gave Jiraiya a small bow and let out a small smile.

“Oh, those books.” Jiraiya nodded his head then pointed the chopsticks towards Raito, “You are really good for your age, kid. So, I hope you don’t waste those talents of yours.”

Being praised, Raito said, “Of course, I will continue learning Fuinjutsu. It is useful in so many situations. I once caught a large number of bandits in a paralyzing seal array.”

“Oh, you can also do larger scale Fuinjutsu, huh?” Jiraiya raised his brows in interest then asked, “Then how about coming with me? I can teach you many different kinds of seal and while at it I can also teach you-”

“I refuse!” Mari slammed on the tables and gave Jiraiya a death glare. Learning with Jiraiya will turn Raito like him and Mari definitely didn’t want it to happen.

“Mari-nee,” Raito called out in concern. You cannot give one of the legendary Sannin a death glare, okay?

“I mean- that Hokage-sama said…”

“I understand.” Jiraiya sighed and waved his hands, “It’s just like when the Third refused to teach me his invisibility cloak jutsu, that old pervert. That time I had to go through all the Ninjutsu scrolls in his library. Only after a month, I completed my first self-made jutsu, the camouflage jutsu.”

When Jiraiya said that, Mari’s eyes were spewing fire, giving Jiraiya an intense glare. But Jiraiya just ignored it and started talking about his own legend.

“I totally understand him. He wants the kid to learn on his own.” Jiraiya grinned and nodded his head. “Only by failing hundreds or thousands of times, you can succeed.”

“Didn’t you say Fuinjutsu was dangerous? So, why is Jii-chan letting you learn on your own.” Naruto played with his food and asked in dissatisfaction.

On Naruto’s question, everyone looked at one another with difficulties.

Raito let out a big smile and stood up with his plated then replied to Naruto, “Isn’t it because Jii-chan knows I am a super genius.”

“As if,” Naruto shouted then gobbled down his food in a hurry. Turning to Jiraiya, Naruto said, “Pervy sage, teach me a super jutsu today. You promised.”

“Kid, have some class.” Jiraiya felt his face twitching looking at Naruto, who was speaking with his mouth full. ‘What a waste.’

Sometime later, Naruto and Jiraiya left then Anko left with Midori, leaving Mari and Raito alone.

Standing by Mari’s side, Raito dutifully patted the plates and bowl dry before storing them in the cupboard. After finishing the last of the bowls, Raito threw the cloth on the handle then turned to face Mari.

With seriousness written all over his face, Raito called, “Mari-nee.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t ‘huh’ me. You were-”

“That!” Mari exaggerated her ‘remembering pose’ then pulled Raito’s hand, leading to the inner room with the big mirror. “Poison, traps, mechanism and now blacksmithing… I dabble in lots of things.”

“I know about them… you used some on me, remember.” Raito said with a deadpan face.

“That was training, you know, training.” Mari shook her head and added. “And I was just testing some stuff.”

“Uh-huh.” Raito just rolled his eyes.

“I spent some time working on this one.” Mari rushed down the stairs to the door at the end of the narrow pathway.

“Mari-nee-,” Raito tried to call out with helplessness written all over his face.

Halfway towards the narrow pathway, Mari stopped and turned sideways then she waved her hand covered with chakra.

The wall slid open to reveal a small passage, five or six steps long, and at the end of it was another sliding metallic door.

Mari casually walked in; dragging Raito at the same time then opened the door. Taking a look around, she whipped Raito in front and kicked him, pushing him inside.

“How do you like it?” Mari spread her hand and asked Raito.

Rubbing his back, Raito looked around in amazement and horror. The room was dome-shaped and was twice as big as the classroom back in the academy. With holes all over the walls of the dome, Raito immediately took a guarded stance. “Are there Senbon there?”

“I don’t like this place,” Raito said, hurriedly taking a few steps towards the door.

“You are not going anywhere.” Mari covered the door then placed her hand on the small back box beside the door.

“This is your training room.” Mari smug face scared Raito as his acute sense of danger indicator increased by several degrees.

“This thing here… controls everything in the room.” The mechanism had three parts; there was one chakra storage seal which was connected to the black box, which had a switch for rotating, and above it was an indicator, which showed ‘0’.

“Senbon will come shooting if that chakra storage tag is filled with chakra.” Raito used his ‘[Observe]’ skill and said, then took a deep breath in.

“Correct. Half correct, actually.” Mari gave Raito, thumbs up then started explaining the mechanism in detail. “There are five levels and you just need to rotate it to increase the difficulty. Then push chakra on the tag until the number lights up. Simple, right?”

A smile unknowingly appeared on Raito’s face as he dived in his imagination.

“We don’t want you dead so, the Senbon were replaced by blunted wooden arrows.”

“I am guessing Shun-nii asked for that replacement,” Raito said with his poker face. Mari’s principle in teaching was rather simple and dangerous one. ‘When one experiences pain, they learn faster.’

Mari gave an awkward cough then continued. “You don’t need to worry about those wooden arrows. These wooden arrows have seals on them which will recall them back to their holders.”

“Seal to recall the thrown weapons?” The light in Raito’s eye shone brightly as he appeared in front of Mari. “Mari-nee.”

“It’s all here. You can do whatever you want.” Mari pushed Raito then pointed at the center of the dome.

With a nod, Raito stood at the center and tensed his body, ready to react to everything.

Mari turned the indicator to ‘1’ and fed the seal enough chakra. After a couple of seconds, the number lit up and gave a short alarm. Not wasting even a second, Mari covered the box then left the room.

“And don’t use jutsus.”

The lights in the room dimmed down and Raito could hear the mechanism being activated.

Raito didn’t get to say anything as swishing sound passed by his right ear. He quickly turned his head to look at the arrow and felt his face twitching fiercely. The wooden arrow was coated with dark brown paint and complimenting it was the black floor and dark-colored walls.

“Hey!” Raito shouted in fear. Without [Chakra Sense] and [Fast Thinking], it was slightly above his capability.

“That was dangerous!” The next arrow was aimed directly at his groin, making him glare at the eyes behind the small glass on the door.

Dodging arrows, Raito made a mistake, leaving his back open as another arrow whistled towards Raito’s back. Noticing the arrow, Raito quickly crossed his legs and turned, dodging the arrow by a millimeter.

Just when Raito relaxed, two arrows came from the front; one towards his face and another towards his gut.

“Of course, I will…” Raito let out a small smile as he shifted the weight of his body towards his right leg then shifted.

Teet!

A loud alarm rung as the arrows disappeared one after another.

Raito looked in confusion and alert as the door to the room opened. As Mari walked in Raito raised his voice. “What happened?”

Mari shook his head and grabbed Raito by his shoulder then pushed him towards the center. “You crossed the circle.”

“What circle?” Raito looked down but only saw the black floor.

Mari smiled then crouched down. With her leaning down, she traced a thin line that was just a few shades lighter.

Raito’s face twitched as a growl escaped from deep within. “Mari-nee.”

“Let’s try this once again.” Mari hurriedly went back and closed the door.

Raito circled, determining the range of free movement. Although it wasn’t much, it was just enough to fill his stretched body.

“Feed chakra to the seal and get ready,” Mari instructed from the outside.

Raito looked at the seal tag then used chakra threads to feed it chakra.

“You are expending too much energy with your big movements. To be able to last longer than your opponent, you will have to use your energy more efficiently.”

“This training will make you stronger. Good luck.” With that said, Mari stopped talking and looked at Raito, who was dodging the arrows, with her sharp eyes.

Raito focused his eyes and ears to their maximum limit. The cl.i.c.k.i.n.g of mechanism just before the shootout, the lights, although dim, they surrounded the circle from above helped him see changes just before they landed the hit.

Raito calmly dodged the arrows one after another. Since there was a time difference between each shootout, Raito had plenty of time to change his focus and prepare for the next one. Listening to Mari’s advice, Raito moved, as little as possible for a clumsy beginner and dodged the arrows.

“I heard from Inoichi that you have a mental type jutsu that… maybe increase the things you perceive.”

“…Yeah, I do and it’s been quite helpful in fighting my opponents.”

“What opponents can a Genin like you have? Except for catching some petty thief and the occasional encounter with bandits, you don’t have much-”

“You know what I mean.” After dodging the arrows, Raito added. “Those monsters are good sparring partners. Every time there is something new.”

“So when are you taking me, your favorite, to that place?” Mari knocked on the door causing Raito to get hit by an arrow.

“Ow,” Kicking the arrow away, Raito gathered himself back and focused on other arrows.

“If you had asked like Anko-nee, I would have already taken you,” Raito replied.

“I was waiting for you to ask me. Don’t you know? A man should take the initiative.”

“Ow.” Another hit.

“Just how many are there?” Raito shouted in pain as another couple of arrows hit him.

“Take a guess,” Mari said playfully.

“A hundred or thousand?” Raito replied not sure of how many holes there were around this dome.

“Correct, congratulations.” Mari clapped loudly, which didn’t help at all.

“There are exactly a thousand holes, fitted with mechanisms, just for launching the arrows. This is just level one, which will give you about two or three seconds to adjust and prepare.”

“That’s tort*re,” Raito shouted with his veins bulging. Every time the arrow was launched; Raito had just a few seconds to prepare. If it wasn’t for everyday morning exercises and Kakashi, who helped him with his training, this level would be too difficult for him.

“Stop whining,” Mari shouted then continued observing. Her narrow eyes never left Raito��s body, his big movements, his small movements, and even his breathing.

“Damn,” Raito cursed and shifted his whole body weight then fell on the ground, crossing the small circle.

Teet

[After intense training, stat ‘DEX’ raised by 1.]

Opening his mouth, Raito took deep breaths in, feeling the heat all over his body.

“Open up,” Mari ordered as she threw a small round pill.

Raito didn’t question and ate the round pill. Although there wasn’t much taste, it provided all the nutrition needed by the body.

“That’s an improvised food pill. Here.” She threw a scroll towards Raito. “There are dozen of baskets full of it.”

“Take one every hour.”

Raito stood up holding the scroll and looked at Mari in confusion. “Why are you giving me this?”

Mari looked at him with a small devious smile on her face. With a few steps, Mari walked outside the door and turned a handle.

With a loud ‘clang’, a sealing formula appeared on the door; both inside and outside, locking the room.

“Mari-nee, what are you doing?” Raito frowned and walked towards the door.

“Until you finish your training, you are not allowed to come out.” From the small glass on the door, Raito could see Mari’s devious smug face.

“Mari-nee, open up.” Raito tried to open up the door but failed to do so.

“Brat, just complete the training and you can come out.” Mari crackled, looking like a maniac

“I need to pee.” Raito turned his head to the sides, looking for something.

Mari, who as behind the door laughing, felt her face twitching violently. She knocked on the door to get Raito’s attention and said. “Pull the ring that is just below the box.”

“…” Raito quickly found the ring that was attached to a string then pulled it. With a click, the floor on the opposite side revealed a rectangular area, which descended bit by bit leading to a white bathroom equipped with a shower and a toilet.

With turbulent emotions, Raito pulled the ring again which closed the small path.

“You really put a lot of effort into it.” Raito looked blankly at Mari, creeping her out.

“Am I really going to live here until I complete the training?” Raito grumbled then added, “What if I miss the Chūnin finals?”

“You won’t and there is a nice side to it.” Mari said mysteriously which perked Raito’s attention.

“What is it?” Raito asked with lazy curiosity.

“Well… it’s supposed to be a secret.”

Mari’s act made Raito calm heart churn. Turning around, he stood back in the circle.

“It’s a BB-Rank mission.”

“BB-Rank?” After thinking for a while, Raito shrugged his shoulder and said. “I have a few B ranks on me already.”

“It’s not a B-Rank, but BB-Rank,” Mari stressed, correcting Raito.

“I have never heard of that… BB-Rank.” Raito started stretching.

“Heh~ Believe it or not, it’s your choice.” Mari let out a big smile then tapped the glass. “If you complete it within ten days, you can naturally join on this mission.”

Raito froze for a second then he turned his head towards Mari. “I can join?”

“Only if you can complete this training.” Mari said with a mischievous smile.

Mari, who saw Raito’s reaction, smiled and left with final piece of advice. “And remember, no jutsus.”

Raito stood in a daze for a long time with a frown on his face before releasing a chakra thread. Feeding chakra to the seal, Raito started his training.

Alone in the underground, with only the sound of the arrows being launched, Raito increased his stats gradually.

(AN: Yup! This is all for dexterity guys.)

On the outskirts of the village, Sasuke sat on the ground, leaning his back on the boulder, looking at Kakashi, who looking at him with his lazy eye.

Breathing hard, Sasuke placed his hands on his knees and tried standing up.

Kakashi sighed as he placed a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder then turned around. Leaning onto the boulder beside Sasuke, Kakashi slid down and sat beside Sasuke.

“Sit down, it has only been three days since you have started training and you have already learned how to control your Sharingan properly. It doesn’t drain chakra as much as it used to in the beginning.”

“Un…” Sasuke sat back down and nodded. Unlike his early days with Sharingan, it now took less chakra to active and maintain the Sharingan. Along with that, Sasuke learned about various tricks in using Genjutsu and finally he copied some of the jutsus that Kakashi showed him.

Forcing himself to talk more, Kakashi continued. “And lucky you, you are primary lightning, which means you are the best candidate for learning my jutsu.”

“Your jutsu? That lightning hand, you showed me earlier?” Sasuke listened to anything Kakashi had to say, just because he was known to be one of the best in the village.

“It’s called Chidori. I created it in times of war. I was maybe twelve or thirteen at that time.” Kakashi dragged. “You have already copied it with your Sharingan. Now it’s all about training and using it again and again. Some theoretical knowledge regarding chakra nature and it should be possible for you.”

“What about Raito?” Sasuke asked all of a sudden

“What?” Kakashi looked sideways at Sasuke, who was trying not to look at him.

“Does he know it too? Chidori.” At last, Sasuke turned to face Kakashi and asked in a straight manner.

“… I haven’t taught him.” Kakashi answered after a short pause, thinking about his ever-surprising team.

With a small smile, Sasuke stood up then made a few hand seals. Extending his hand, lightning sparkled over his palm.

“…” Kakashi looked Sasuke with his lazy eyes and sighed.