Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor The Gamer. I own nothing, really.

Chapter 34

"Well, things are all over the place," Anko commented tired as the day the Exams were supposed to be held drew near. "The Chuunin Exams especially. They have been delayed for six months. They are all but changing the Exam's yearly date, actually, since this would affect next year's."

"That… ok?" I shrugged. I didn't much care for that change. Really, with the things I knew of the future, that was the least of my worries.

"Yeah, I get you," She nodded, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "It's a nightmare of paperwork but at least it's not my nightmare," We shared a relieved look before she straightened. "Still, this change affects you, kiddo. I can't say much, but the exam should be harder than they were supposed to be," I tensed up. With all the shit that went down in canon, it would get harder? "I can't tell you why, the higher ups are keeping it hush hush, but they've told all the sensei's to up the training, and there's only one reason for that."

"Ok, so, train harder, got it," I nodded before blinking as Anko flicked my forehead with a finger.

"None of that, mister," She chided. "You are already training yourself into the ground and from there finding a way to continue training. We'll continue as we have been doing so far. No, I want you to look for a hobby, something to do besides training when you are not with me."

"I mean, I have hobbies," I grumbled. "And I do them, but I don't see why I should train less if things are as you said."

"You are way out of any normal Genin's league, brat," Anko said, taking a deep breath in as if to contain her exasperation. "If you lose to someone in the exams, I'm sure no one will have any reason to think you are a weakling."

"I mean-"

"No, Eiji," She interrupted, her tone firm. "I'm your sensei. You will listen to me," My back straightened at that. She had never pulled her rank on me like that. She then deflated, almost looked defeated. "I'm worried about you, kiddo. You train too much, you worry too much. And that's no way of living your life."

"It's like there's nothing else to do with your life but to take care of us, and I may not be a Yamanaka but that's not a healthy mindset," Shika's words replayed in my mind and I grimaced.

I wanted to deny it, deny all their accusations. But they were right, I knew. I had accepted it… but I didn't know what to do. When I looked back at my sensei, she was staring back at me with a sad, pitying expression.

I hated it.

"I… I don't know what to do," I choked out, a bitter smile appearing on my face. 'So much for living life to the fullest, huh?' I thought self-deprecatingly.

"I'll give you a clue," Anko offered with a smile and I looked at her expectantly. "Ask that girlfriend of yours on a date, kiddo."

I'm sure people heard my facepalm from the other side of the village.

"Of course you would say that," I grumbled. "I don't have anyone that I like like that," I dismissed. And it was true. I had actually considered asking Hana on a date once or twice. But she was eighteen and I was freaking twelve pushing for thirteen. Maybe when I was her age it would be ok, but right that moment? There was just no way.

"Come on, kiddo, if you are worrying about your chances, don't. You are prime boyfriend material, or so I've heard," I let out a long drawn out groan at that. I knew that much already. I had been first place in the Academy and with plenty of margin. That had, eventually, gotten me a small group of girls that acted just like Sasuke's fangirls.

"I just… really don't know what to do," I admitted, my expression begging her to take this seriously.

"This isn't about what happened during the mission, is it?" She asked, and I tensed up. Flashes of grinning faces and blood shooting through my mind.

"No… I'm… I'm dealing with it… I don't think it's… affecting me, I guess," I mumbled, unsure. Because honestly, how was one to know for sure if you are traumatized by something or not? Sometimes the mind is really complicated, especially one's own.

"For what's worth, I think you are doing fine too. Still affected, but you are getting better," She commented and I gave her a small smile. "And, as for what to do in your free time… that's kind of unique for everyone. I like to go out at night and drink, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. It lets me unwind. Going into the Forest of Death also works. Dumb the animals may be, but they make for great punching bags."

"Why am I not surprised?" I asked as my smile turned wry.

"Point is, it needs to be something that isn't your job," Anko explained. "Even if you enjoy training, it becomes a chore if you only do that as a means of entertainment. I enjoy my job at the T&I," I shuddered in that part. "But I do other things too."

"I… see," I mumbled, my mind trying to come up with something other than training to entertain myself.

My first thought was Free Running. I had loved using the skill, moving through the village at high speeds and so… well, freely. It had been a nice feeling. I had also been doing so more for enjoyment than I had for the levels, which I guess was the point that Anko was trying to make here. Partially, at least.

Then, my brain supplied an image of my bedroom wall, where I had drawn the map of the village when I still used Drawing. It had been a nice project that had little to do with my ninja duties, even if the skill could come in handy at some point.

However, I had stopped using both skills after I maxed them, I realized with some bitterness. I didn't need to continue training them, really. My drawing could probably improve some more, and get the boosts of the skill to be even better, but that would have taken too long. And thus, I had deemed that a waste of time.

'Live life to the fullest indeed,' A part of my mind mocked.

And it was sad, that I could only think of two hobbies to pass my time that didn't directly involve my ninja career. And they still involved it indirectly. All those comments about me being a training maniac weren't so funny all of a sudden.

"Have some ideas?" Anko asked, her expression soft. A rare occurrence, that one, although I had been seeing a more personal side of her lately, I noticed.

"I think so," I nodded slowly. It was a start, at least. I could think some more later-

I froze.

In my mind, the picture of a lonely boy sitting on a bed surrounded by white walls flashed by. In the boys hands was a book, small as it was, being the only piece of color inside the room. The boy's eyes firmly locked on the pages, a small smile that would occasionally widen or turn sad.

A smile that quickly formed in my face. 'A vestige of my past life that I can bring to this one, I guess,' I thought to myself.

"Yeah, I think I have some ideas," I replied, a bit more confident this time.

[}-o-{]

After that, I went to some of my friends (Shino, Ino and Shika) and asked their opinion about my ideas for hobbies. The general consensus had been 'Yeah, sounds like fun.' The Yamanaka though, had added Gardening to my list and I had to agree that I quite enjoyed that. She made sure to give me some none poison applicable plants for my garden though, in order for me to put a little more distance between my hobbies and my job.

And thus, I found myself sitting on the roof of a particularly tall building. My eyes looked around, my feet dangled idly over the edge and a slight smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. 'It's a nice view from here,' I thought to myself, a corner of my mind chiding me for never stopping to just look at this beautiful place.

Taking another look around, I nodded and picked up the notebook I had set next to me. Moving to the side of the building that had the best view and settled myself. Opening the notebook on a blank page, I started drawing.

A part of me rebelled against the thought of doing something that was clearly not gonna help me against the probable future end of the world. But that was the part of me that everyone was worried about, and if I cared about anything other than surviving the future, it was about the people close to me. I would be damned if I affected them negatively.

Pausing on my drawing, I took a deep breath in and relaxed my now tense shoulders. 'I can't even relax properly,' I thought wryly, 'No wonder everyone was so concerned.'

In the end, I spent an hour or so just sitting there and drawing. At times, I was able to relax properly. Or at least I thought so. It was kind of a… freeing experience. It reminded me of other times, like when I visited the Inuzuka vet or things like that, which I guessed counted towards me relaxing. But this was something that I could do by myself, something that was mine alone. And that held weight, it seemed.

'I should see about getting a book or two on the way back,' I mused as I stood up and stretched my back from sitting there for so long. At the time, I didn't notice, but later one I would be told that for the rest of that day I walked around with a smile on my face.

[}-A Month Later-{]

[Basic Kenjutsu – Max

Increases the skill of the user when fighting with a sword according to skill level.]

[Intermediate Kenjutsu (Active) – Lvl 1

Increases the skill of the user when fighting with a sword according to skill level.

Active Effect – Increases the user's physical stats by 1.

Active Effect Consumption – 50 Energy Points per second.]

'Kenjutsu Master, here I come,' I thought to myself before I refocused on the book I had in my hands. Anko, Cat and I were taking a break from training. The two women were sitting somewhere away from me and I was sitting by myself, reading.

My sensei had actually looked surprised when I said that I had brought a book to read and not study. I was starting to slowly see why everyone had been concerned. And I was also really appreciating that they had made me do this, because all this time to just calm down had done wonders to my mind. I didn't think I would have recovered nearly as well as I did from my kills if I had just continued as I had been.

Granted, I still got flashes of that day every time I saw blood and I flinched away every time I had someone else use ninja wire on me. But I was slowly getting better. The first time it had happened I had frozen for a good few seconds, after all.

Back to the point though, I had also taken to spending more time with my friends and at the vet. It was a nice way to relax, in my opinion. And if I wasn't allowed to train as much, I really wanted to do that. It wasn't until I actually started doing that, that I realized we had started to distance ourselves from one another.

My best guess was that it started when we graduated. Since every team had different times when they did stuff and at the end of the day everyone just wanted to go home, we had started to spend less time with members of other teams. I had been especially worried about this and very grateful to Anko for having me have more time to myself, since I was in a 'team' by myself, it had affected me much more than the others. It was nice to be able to reconnect with everyone.

"Ok, breaks over," My sensei's voice pulled me from my thoughts and I frowned. Usually, we took much longer to rest than we had this time. My confusion was quickly put to rest with her next statement. "I want to know about your side projects, kiddo."

"They are… ok, I think," I answered unsure as I put my book aside and stood up. "I think they are… kinda ready, but I'm not completely sure. So, I've been re-checking them to make-"

"How long have you felt like they are ready?" She asked, interrupting me and I paused to blink.

"I mean, a week?" I said, taken aback.

"And have you found any problems?"

"No, but, I mean-"

"Let's test them, then," She nodded, and my eyes widened.

"What? But, you said yourself that this are difficult things to get rig-"

"You showed me your ideas, I even took them to our 'experts' and they said they were fine," Her fingers making the '' around experts. "Or, at least, they are fairly sure that if they fail, they won't cause any permanent damage."

"Fairly sure isn't very reassuring," I grumbled to myself.

"Eiji," She said softly, and my eyes found hers. She was giving me a smile, not a smirk, a smile. "I know you are nervous. But you've been studying this for a while. You've been working on this a lot too, I know. It'll be ok."

"Why the rush though?" I asked, for once showing my worry as I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away.

"If you want to use them on the Chuunin Exams, you have to start training with them now," She explained. "So, what'll it be? Do we start now or do you push it until after the Exams? I'm fairly sure that you can pass either way, so it's your choice. But if you won't use them there it would just delay your training if you spent time with that.

'That… makes sense,' I thought with a grimace. I still had no idea what had happened to the Chuunin Exams, but I was fairly sure that something big was going to happen. Even bigger than what my foreknowledge told me. And that was a worrying thought indeed. 'I need every edge I can get,' I nodded as I took a deep breath in.

Anko nodded back and Cat stood to the side slightly away from us, tilting her head slightly. I closed my eyes and went over both of the techniques that I could call my own. They weren't all that, really. After all, one was labeled as an E-rank and the other as a D-rank. But they were mine.

Opening my eyes, I calmly pulled out threads of ninja wire and wrapped them around my fingers. A sense of anticipation took over me because, despite my nervousness, I was really looking forward to this. It was one thing to know that I could (kinda) do magic. It was another altogether to know that I could have created magic of my own. It was almost like when I was about to use my first jutsu ever.

With the threads set, I looked forward and went through a quick succession of hand seals. A blue screen appeared in front of me, followed by another, but I pushed both aside as I focused on what I was doing. I felt my chakra flow through my arms and onto the wire, just like with Stunning Thread. Except, this time, it was slower, more controlled than the high speed electric technique.

Pulling my hands up, I led the chakra on the threads and they came alive. Each thread moved, like an octopus's limbs with a twitch of my right index finger, one of the wires moved forward at first quickly and then slowly until the tip was floating right in front of Anko's face. With another gesture from both hands, all wires wrapped on themselves, forming a sort of cord.

With a deep breath in and then a sigh, I undid the work and then let the wires fall lifelessly on my sides. A grin forming on my face.

"That went much better than I expected," I commented and Anko hummed.

"You certainly had more control than I expected you to have, that's for sure," She pointed out with a smirk. "Next one," And this time, instead of just standing there, she made a few quick hand seals and then spit out a poison cloud that quickly covered the entire clearing. 'Huh, Poison Resistance training on the side, I guess,' I thought as I went through the same hand seals as before.

Once I was in control of the wires again, I made them extend in all directions around me. With that done, I let them fall and went through a new series of seals. Once I was done, I groaned as a pain shot through my head as if someone had taken a kunai straight to my brain. I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes. 'Keep calm, just… feel,' I told myself in my mind.

The pain didn't go away, but I was able to push it aside enough to focus on what was important. The information I was receiving. Anko was now standing behind me. Cat was standing right where she had been before, apparently uncaring of the poison. And-

"Don't even try," I threatened, and the snake that had been slithering her way towards me froze right where it had been on my right. A second later, a smile almost split my face in half. Still, I sighed and let the jutsu go. Again, I pushed the new blue screen to the side with the others.

"Another success, it seems," Anko said as Cat used a wind jutsu to push the poison cloud away from us.

"It was… although the sensing really made a number on my brain," I groaned. "Gotta get used to it, I guess."

"Hm," She hummed, looking at me with an analytical eye. "Continue with your break. Maybe we can get some more practice afterwards. If that headache keeps up, we might have to give up on that jutsu."

I nodded before making my way to the tree I had been at previously and sitting against it. Picking up the book, I mentally pulled the screens from before so that they floated in front of the pages. It took an herculean effort not to grin like a lunatic.

The first screen was the most important though.

[Quest Complete: Create a functional Jutsu.

Reward:

+ Stage of Chakra Control

+ Perk: Jutsu Creator]

'This is the greatest thing ever!' I thought ecstatic, fighting to keep my emotions from my face. 'And here I was wondering how I would get more Chakra Control.'

[Chakra control: B+]

'Now I just need to find some other ways, two more and I'll be sitting in a pretty neat A,' I thought, somewhat giddily. 'And let's not forget about the Perk.'

[Jutsu Creator

Improves the rate at which personally created Jutsu level up by 30%.

Increases the efficiency of personally created Jutsu by 15%.

Improves the rate at which all Jutsu level up by 20%.

Increases the efficiency of all Jutsu by 10%.]

'... Game… I take back all the complaints I made when I arrived about you not being all that,' I thought in awe. Now, if that wasn't awesome, I didn't know what was. If I put enough effort into it, there was no way I wouldn't be able to max both Jutsu.

As for the jutsu themselves. I dismissed the screens telling me that I unlocked them, and instead pulled the fell descriptions.

[Living Thread Technique – Lvl 1

E-rank technique with which the user can control ninja wire at will.

Hand Seals – 4

Consumption – 10 Chakra Points every second.

+Creator Bonus:

Increases thread speed by 25%.

Increases thread maneuverability by 25%.]

'I get a creator bonus?' I wondered, my hands twitching as I yearned to use the techniques again. And those bonuses were nothing to scoff at. A 10% extra would have been nice. But a 25%? In speed and maneuverability? That was just plain awesome, as Naruto would say.

[Web Sense Technique – Lvl 1

D-rank technique with which the user can sense through a ninja wire that connects to them.

Hand Seals – 5

Range – 1 meter

Consumption – 20 Chakra Points every second.

+Creator Bonus:

Increases Range by 50%.]

'The bonus combined in just one thing, huh?' I noted this time, the initial surprise wearing off but certainly not the joy. This was great news from all places.

Also, the remaining training maniac in me was happy that my reduced training time wouldn't affect me too much with the previous perk. I tried not to listen too much to it though. I was very happy with my day, that was for sure.

[}-Two Months Later-{]

It was halfway through my training time until the Exams that something stood out from the routine I had now. It had been, despite the worrying prospect of the future, a rather peaceful time all things considered. I had been just training, slightly less than before, and relaxing, with my new hobbies of reading and free running until I found a good view to draw.

I had grown fond of my time alone for either activity. And I had also taken the habit of giving my finished drawing to my friends, which was also very nice. There was just something about how happy they were when I did it, and how fulfilling it felt to do something that had nothing to do with fighting and yet still felt worth it, despite the world we lived in.

It also helped that my friends had a bit more free time around that time. Since everyone had stopped doing C-ranks to focus on training for the exams. I still went to do things by myself, but I enjoyed time with my friends more, even if I was trying not to make that time all about them.

Furthermore, my training didn't suffer as much as I had feared. All my skills were growing at a steady rate, especially my Jutsu now that I had the Jutsu Creator Perk. My personal techniques were sure to be Maxed by the time the Exams came around. Electromagnetic Murder and Fireball… not so much, but if I managed to be done with Web Sense and Living Thread, then maybe I could spend some more time with those and get them ready.

Minor Mirage and Healing Palm were also all but guaranteed to be done by that time, even if they weren't such a priority. The former more than the latter, since it would expand my capacity for deception even further.

But all that, as I said before, was part of the routine. And what managed to break through that was something that I had been wondering about.

[Nuibari Mastery has gone up a level.]

[Nuibari Mastery – Lvl 10

Increases the skill of the user when fighting with Nuibari according to level.

Increases damage done with Nuibari by 50%.

Increases accuracy when throwing Nuibari by 50%.

Increases Chakra Flow effectiveness and efficiency by 50% when used on Nuibari.

Increases Physical Stats when using Nuibari by 10%.]

It had been a normal day of sparing against Cat, who I had been seeing a lot more lately. The higher ups most likely really wanted me to learn how to use it as effectively as possible. Not surprising, really. What had really surprised me was that I was even allowed to keep the sword and not give it to some Jounin or something. My best theory was that Konoha's leaders didn't want to insult Kiri's traditions, now that we were trying to gain their alliance.

Regardless of all that, what followed that level was the important part.

[New Title Acquired: Wielder of Nuibari]

'I mean...' I thought as I blinked, surprised and at the same time not. 'I thought it was weird that I didn't get anything when Zabuza said the sword was mine. Guess I wasn't skilled enough to count for that. With that said… Guess, I'll come back to this after training is over,' I thought, blocking one of Cat's slashes.

Eventually, I was free to look at the new title.

[Wielder of Nuibari

Increases stats when wielding Nuibari by 30%.]

'Simple and to the point,' I mused. 'Pretty nice for when Genin of Konoha or Shadow of the Shinobi don't work, or to use together with those,' was my first thought when looking at it. I was certainly happy with it, that much was true.

[}-Three Months Later-{]

"So, can you repeat why I'm meeting my team a week before the Exams?" I asked, irritation clear in my voice. And really, who could blame me? The Exams depended heavily in all the team doing at least moderately well, or so I remembered at least. Things like nobody failing the first part or the whole team was out and such. The only individual part was the third and the preliminaries.

"Well, we were honestly hoping that someone from your friends' teams would choose not to participate," Anko answered, clearly as annoyed as I was. "There were high chances of either the pink-head or the Hyuga to choose not to, actually."

Sakura and Hinata? I could see it. More Sakura than Hinata, really. If our shy friend was the same as she had been before she started hanging out with us, it would have been a given that she wouldn't do it. But now, with some help with her confidence? She totally would give it a shot.

Haruno though, hadn't had much of a chance to improve. She had joined at the very end, and that may have had a detrimental effect, actually. Hanging out with the group once we were all very much ahead of her might have taken a toll on her self-esteem. And with the group growing slightly divided after graduation, that didn't help her improve much.

Thus, I was glad that she had chosen to participate. It reassured me that at least the change hadn't affected her as much as I had feared. That was something, at least.

"So, who are they anyway?" I asked with a sigh.

"Well, I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise," Anko replied with a grin as I rolled my eyes. "The first one is a prodigy of his field. It just so happens that said field doesn't help much with this type of exams. That and he's had very bad luck with his teams."

"Let's hope it's actually that and he's not just bad with pressure," I commented idly.

"Shouldn't be, doing what he does," My sensei reassured. "The other one… isn't much of a team player, I'll admit," Now, that wasn't reassuring at all. "His ability doesn't help with that, but he should be able to pull his weight. And with you and the other one? It's more than enough for it not to matter."

"Right, it isn't like I've been training my ass off to do extra well in this Exam or anything," I quipped, receiving a smack on the back of my head.

"Kiddo, even with the added difficulty, you should be able to pass this exam with two first year Academy Students as your team, honestly."

I grinned at that. It was probably true. My smile vanished quickly though, because I knew things that nobody else did. Primarily, that Orochimaru had his ugly fingers all over these Exams, and that spelt trouble for everyone involved. Let alone Gaara.

As cool as the future Kazekage was, he was also a homicidal bastard at the start. And with the butterflies that I had set free during my time here? I couldn't put my hopes in a change of heart or a talk-no-jutsu.

That wasn't even taking into account this mysterious added difficulty that I had never gotten details on.

"So, are they gonna come today?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Because we had been sitting at the training grounds where I was supposed to meet my teammates for around fifteen minutes, and my confidence in these guys became smaller by the minute. Couldn't they be on time at least?

"Sorry for the delay," A voice said from the side and I turned my head to look at the new arrivals.

'You've got to be kidding me,' I thought in disbelief.

"So, you are Eiji Satou?" The one walking slightly in front asked with a smile. "We are your teammates for the Chuunin Exams. That's Yoroi Akadou," He introduced signaling the teenager walking behind him before extending a hand towards me "And I'm Kabuto Yakushi. Pleased to meet you."

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

So, I didn't quite get to the first stage of the Chuunin Exams. It seems that I just don't learn that chapters won't ever go as I expect them to go. Hell, this chapter's content was (in my head) supposed to be around 2k words. And it ended up being almost 5. Hell, I wanted to show Eiji's training results in this chapter, but all I got to do was an overview of his training. The free time thing came out of nowhere and completely took over the chapter. I also really didn't want to spend two chapters in just preparations for the Exams. I think that would have felt like I was just dragging my feet to get there.

Anyway. Is it mean of me to leave it in a cliffhanger like that? Yes. Do I do it on purpose? A bit, not gonna lie. Do I regret it? Not really. I myself don't have much of a problem with cliffhangers, so long as I don't have to wait who knows how long to get to see what follows. And since I update weekly, I don't feel too bad about writing them myself.

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Random Question: Did you see those teammates coming?

See you.