Chapter 58 - My SI Stash #58 - Yoru - Gamer Between Dimensions by jordanvn (Naruto) (2/2)

One of the kids took a look at me and snickered. I think I'll refer to him as brat 1. ”Emi why do you even bother with him? He never plays with anyone! If anything he should be the enemy ninja!”

”He's always by himself and doesn't talk to anyone.” This was brat 2

And the now dubbed brat 3 decided to speak up, ”and he's kinda weird…”

”Plus he'll learn the game faster by being the enemy ninja. We're doing him a favor!” Ahh, justifying your actions by claiming you are helping the supposed 'victim'. I didn't know they started out so young. This one will be dubbed annoying brat 4

My adorable and dependable Emi crosses her arms and leveled her harshest glare which looked more cute than frightening. ”If you guys keep being mean to Yoru then I'm not playing!” She finished her statement with a cute head turn.

”It's alright Emi.” I stated while patting her head. I just couldn't help myself.

”But-”

”No 'buts' I promised I would play with you today so I don't mind playing the villain.” This was as good an excuse as any to get some form of exercise in.

Emi still didn't look convinced but she acquiesced for now still with a pout on her face. She looked so cute that I couldn't help but lightly pinch her cheeks.

”stop treating me like a little kid!”

”But you are a little kid.” Well, she was shorter than me so she was 'little' in the literal sense.

”I'm older than you!”

”And I'm taller than you so that makes me the 'big brother'. Heh, get it? Cause I'm physically bigger.” It was such a horrendous joke that I wanted to stab my brain for coming up with it, but I supposed it would work well enough on little children if Emi's smile meant something. For all her complaining she wasn't really making an effort to stop me from pinching her cheeks.

”Alright enough already let's play!” The peanut gallery seemed to be irritated that we were having our own little moment so Brat 1 decided to make his presence known even if no one cared for it.

I rolled my eyes before regrettably retracting my hand.

”Fine then, but at the very least tell me how to play this game.”

”It's simple, we're gonna hide and as the enemy ninja, you have to catch us. Good luck with that though.” He looked especially smug while I just looked confused.

”...isn't that just hide and seek?”

”What's hide and seek? We're playing Ninja!” He was looking at me as if I was some sort of idiot for not even knowing what this game was.

”...”

Quest Alert!

Ninja Hide-and-Seek?

Since you are essentially an outcast, you have been made to be 'it' in this game of dubious similarity to hide and seek. Find the brats who have put you up to this and make them regret making you 'it'.

Rewards: 50 XP. +1 Stat Point per person found

Failure: You will feel pathetic for letting children get the better of you.

Do You Accept?

Y/N

I decided that arguing with him wasn't really doing my mental health any favors (again why do I even remember what hide and seek is?) so I waved them off and selected Y. I closed my eyes to allow them to run wherever and opened them to discover that they had disappeared to who knew where. To be honest, if I found Emi first I'd have probably just left the rest of them hanging, but since there was a quest I sort of had to actually try and find them. Now that I was alone, however, I decided it was time to create some skills that would help me down the line and in this game.

First I needed to get a feel for my chakra, so with closed eyes, I took a deep breath and laid down on the ground. I focused on the center of my body trying to feel for the energy hidden in my body. My focus never wavered and I finally managed to feel some sort of warmth in my navel area, where the chakra center was located. I tried to pull at the warmth any which way, but it managed to slip out of my grasp. I took a deep breath mentally psyching myself up and with greater concentration, I focused on that warmth in my navel area again. 'Breathe in, breathe out' I repeated that mantra in my head and focused only on myself, disregarding the world around me.

Ping!

You have created a new skill 'Meditation'

Meditation (Active) Lvl 1 [48.67%].

Meditation is a skill created through continuous inner focus. Meditation helps to sharpen focus and order thoughts, and it increases clarity of mind and awareness of the body.

Passively increase INT by 2%.

Passively increase WIS by 2%.

HP and CP regeneration increase by 10% when active.

(NOTE: Cannot be activated during combat. At higher levels, you are able to better sit still and the rate of HP and CP regeneration increases.)

Now that I had a feel for what it was like to manipulate my Chaka ever so slightly, I focused now on trying to spread that feeling to the rest of my body. It was noticeably harder, yet it didn't take me too long to manage and I finally managed to grasp it. I'm sure that Gamer's Body played a role in my ability to quickly grasp and manipulate my chakra due to its ability to allow me to learn skills faster. I was still trying to figure out how that worked though.

”Now time for the greater test.” I grimaced as I focused this warm feeling trying to spread it outwards around me. I imagined a 'dome' of chakra around me for of like a 'domain' where I would be able to sense people and living things-at least that was the general idea. It was significantly harder than expected and I quickly realized that while it was a feasible idea, it wasn't necessarily the best or most cost effective since it's range probably wouldn't be too great anyway. Plus I could feel that I wouldn't make fast headway on this technique because it was hard to get chakra to leave my skin without dissipating, let alone form a 'dome' that was large enough to be useful.

I put that idea in the backburner for when I had more chakra and control and instead tried a different approach. Instead of imagining a 'dome' I imagined a 'pulse' that would give me feedback like a sonar or a bat's echolocation. I gathered a small amount of chakra and forced it out of my skin in a 'pulse' that was connected to me. It easy to accomplish since it didn't require so much chakra or control and the results were amazing.

Ping!

You have created a new skill 'Chakra Sonar'

Chakra Sonar (Passive/Active) LV 10 [5.45%] CP: 5 per pulse

Chakra Sonar allows the user to pulse their chakra in set intervals. It is useful for detecting living being with chakra and for scouting and it effectively makes the user a 'sensor'. It is possible for this skill to evolve. The skill can be passively activated to occur at the user's set interval. The range of the skill increases 10 meters per level.

DEFAULT SETTING: (1 pulse every 5 seconds)

MAXIMUM RANGE: (100 meters)

This was a very useful skill to own and the fact that it could evolve and become even better was a bonus that I had not foreseen. Nevertheless, I decided that now was as good a time as any to put this skill to good use...and play some hide-and-seek. I adjusted the pulse rate to every 30 seconds and closed the window only I could see.

I finally stood up, shaking my legs to get rid of all the cramping, before I ran deeper into the wooded area with my chakra constantly pulsing. I had to set it to 30 seconds because my chakra control was currently a_s_s and at the same time I didn't have much chakra to work with. I would be using 5 times as much chakra, due to my control rate of 20%, in order to produce the same result is I had 100% control. If I had left the skill on its usual default passive state, I would have run out of chakra in 40 seconds...let that sink in.

I was cut out of my minute-long musing after I felt a life signature on my feedback loop and quickly approached the source. Since I wasn't being too subtle, I wasn't surprised when I heard a ”-EEP” and a scuttling of footsteps away from my direction. I picked up the pace of my footsteps and ran towards the sound of breathing and rustling leaves before I caught up with my target. I wrapped up my vict-target in my arms before hauling her up.

”I found you Emi.”

”Okay okay, Yoru put me down! I surrender!” She turned around and gave me the most adorable glare she could before I acquiesced.

I simply shrugged in a 'what can you do?' expression patting her head, ”It's alright Emi, it's just a game after all.”

The little girl in question turned her head in a huff, ”Fine but you better quickly find the others so that we can play again!”

I rolled my eyes, ”Fine but you have to keep up.” I could hear her growl in frustration as I ran ahead of her. I sent out another pulse of chakra and picked up a couple signatures in the vicinity. I slowed down and stood a good distance away from them before I noticed Emi coming up behind me.

She shot me a baleful look, ”YORU_”

I slammed her mouth shut with my hands and gave her the universal hush sign. ”There are a couple of them around here. I don't want to scare them away so I have to do this quietly.”

Looking rightfully skeptical as she couldn't sense them as I did, she replied with a more level tone, ”How do you know that?”

”Because I'm that good. Now sit still and watch me work.” With that, I left the huffing little girl and snuck around the forested area. I used whatever pitiful knowledge of stealth that I could recall and tried to make sure I didn't make a cliche mistake of stepping on a branch or something. I send out another pulse to make sure that they were still in the same place and tiptoed around the trees while keeping my head low.

Ping!

You have created a new skill 'Stealth'

Stealth (Active: ON) lvl 5 [23.45%]

Stealth is the fundamental skill that all ninjas learn to become, well better ninjas. Having good enough stealth allows you to more easily infiltrate enemy lines, assassinate priority targets, and spy. This skill is subconsciously activated when you need to go into stealth mode. It grants you increase stealth where your every movement is subconsciously inconspicuous, making it more difficult to notice your presence and find you.

Stealth infiltration, avoidance, and concealment ability are at 5%.

For stronger opponents, -2% for each level they surpass you by

With the presence of this skill, I felt my body correct itself in order to better utilize my surrounding and decrease the amount of noise I made. My breath grew quieter, and my head lowered even more and I snuck up on one of the unsuspecting kids. When I got right behind him, I quickly slammed my hand on his mouth to stop him from screaming and used my other hand to stop him from struggling as much.

”Quiet down, I don't want to alarm the other one.” I could feel him squirm less as he heard the sound of my voice no doubt recognizing me. He turned an annoyed glare my way yet had a face of begrudging respect which was when I noticed that this was brat #1. I told him where I left Emi and went on to confront my other prey.

Quest Completed!

Ninja Hide-and-Seek?

Rewards: 50 XP. +5 Stat Points

It had been relatively easy to find the remainder of the kids and they forced me to play a few more times since I was so good at being the enemy. It was a good enough excuse to practice my Meditation, Sonar, and Stealth skills and it had been a while since I had played hide-and-seek...at least I think it had cause I couldn't honestly remember. Nevertheless, I played along; unfortunately the quest didn't reward me for the extra times I played so I had to be satisfied with the increase in my skills.

Gamer's Body (Passive) Lvl 10:

10% increase to HP, and CP regeneration rate

Meditation (Active) Lvl 5 [48.67%].

Meditation is a skill created through continuous inner focus. Meditation helps to sharpen focus and order thoughts, and it increases clarity of mind and awareness of the body.

Passively increase INT by 10%.

Passively increase WIS by 10%.

HP, and CP regeneration increase by 50% when active.

(NOTE: Cannot be activated during combat. At higher levels, you are able to better sit still and the rate of HP and CP regeneration increases.)

Chakra Sonar (Passive/Active) LV 18 [5.45%] CP: 5 per pulse

DEFAULT SETTING: (1 pulse every 5 seconds)

MAXIMUM RANGE: (180 meters)

Stealth (Active: OFF) lvl 10 [23.45%]

Stealth infiltration, avoidance, and concealment ability are at 10%.

For stronger opponents, -2% for each level they surpass you by

All the running around really helped level up my Gamer's Body skill which was really going to help me down the line. We were now following the pathway back to the entrance of the park where the matron was most likely waiting for us and the other children.

”_and you were like an actual ninja! I couldn't even see you until you got me. How did you do it Yoru?!”

”...Practice” Was my short reply. Apparently, I was some sort of badass to these kids now that I had displayed my dominance in hide-and-seek (I refuse to acknowledge it as anything else). Apparently getting the drop on them like a ninja everytime we played convinced them I was cool_not that they were wrong though. If it wasn't for the fact that they were so young and had almost no awareness of their surroundings, I don't think that I could have been able to sneak up on them as often as I did. They made amazing practice dummies for the skill though so I wasn't complaining.

”_hey! Do you think you could teach me?!”

”...maybe.”

Brat two spoke up at this, ”man that's no fair, you're always so nice to Emi.”

”That's probably because she's nice to me and it also helps that she is adorable.” I stayed with a blank face. The girl in question squirmed under the attention and looked on with a bashful face.

”WE'RE SORRY!” All the brats chorused together.

I quirked a brow at them and looked on in interest. With a chortle, I waved my hand back, ”yeah yeah I forgive you, now let's hurry up and get to where the Matron is waiting for us.” Since they looked so remorseful I decided to not refer to them as brats but instead as kids.

”So will you teach us now?!”

”Ahh wait me first!”

”HEY, I ASKED BEFORE YOU BOTH!”

I ignored whatever else was going on behind me and continued moving. Eventually, we came back to the area where the Matron had been waiting for us and made our way back to the Orphanage.

I took a shower as I thought about my day. After coming home from the Orphanage, we all ate lunch and I helped clean up the plates again since I didn't really have anything better to do. Being a 4 year old allowed me a lot of free time as I didn't have any responsibilities to worry about for a while.

There really want much I could do during the day, however, I planned to make of my night. I was pretty sure that Gamer's Mind allowed me to survive without any sleep so I needed to take advantage of that and work on my skills and at the same time try to create new ones.

I turned off the warm water and dried myself off before putting on my snuggly 1-piece pajama...bite me. With that went over to my room and into my bed where I kept a small stack of leaves.

I picked them up during my time at the park after thinking about what skills I could practice indoors and it dawned on me how suitable this skill was to practice indoors plus, it wasn't hard to sneak some leaves in either.

I looked at the leaf in my hand and immediately placed it on my forehead before closing my eyes and feeling around for my chakra once more. I had already gotten a feel for my chakra this afternoon allowing me to more easily direct the flow into my forehead.

Ping!

Congratulations! You have created a new skill!

Leaf Concentration Practice (Passive) Lvl 1

The Leaf Concentration Technique is an introductory chakra control exercise taught to all academy students. This training method is done by placing a leaf over your forehead and directing your chakra onto the leaf, using it as a focal point. Every level, a new leaf can be added. This technique helps hone your concentration.

Increases CC by 1%

Uses: 15 CP per min

You have gained +1 ENGY!

Due to all the activities I had done throughout the day, my STR, VIT, DEX, and ENGY stat had increased by a bit. It wasn't much, but it was definitely something I welcomed. The fact that chakra control exercises could also help increase my ENGY was very helpful and provided me with a different approach to increasing my chakra.

'Status'

Name: Yorudan

Race: Human?

Level: Lvl 1 Next Level: 75/200

HP: 400/400 Regen: (4.4 per min)

CP: 400/400 Regen: (4.4 per min)

CC: 21%

STR: 6

VIT: 7

DEX: 6

INT: 12.1

WIS: 11

ENGY: 7

Points: 6

Ryo: 1000

I was very happy with the small increases I managed today as I had managed to double my CP and increase my other stats by a good margin for the little work I did. I looked back down at my leaf as I mentally did some calculations. Since my CC was at 21%, that meant that I would be using about 4.7 times more chakra for any given technique. The Leaf Concentration Technique used 15 CP per min which for me meant around 70 CP per min. Taking into account my regen rate of 4.4 CP per min and my 400 CP worth of chakra, my skill cost a total of around 65.6 CP per minute and I would be able to continuously use it for around 6 minutes before I suffered from chakra exhaustion.

Just to be safe I planned on stopping a little bit before that, in order to prevent myself from getting a case of chakra exhaustion. I knew that when the body had no chakra left, it would die and I wasn't sure if my version of Gamer's Body would protect me from dying when I had zero chakra left. It was best not to chance it.

With that, around 5.5 minutes passed going by the amount of chakra I had left. I made sure to check my status at regular intervals but even then I felt myself getting tired. It s_u_c_k_e_d how my crappy control caused me to get tired so quickly, so I took this time to practice my Meditation skill. I might as well be killing two birds with one stone while I had the time.

I felt myself lapse in a state of concentration and I could feel my chakra regenerating at a greater rate but to be honest, it wasn't a large increase by any stretch of the imagination. My current natural regen rate for my HP and CP was 4.4 per min. Actively meditating increased that rate to 6 per min, still, it was better than nothing. It took me a little less than an hour before I was able to regenerate my chakra and it was the longest hour I had ever experienced.

Seriously, it took me only 6 minutes to run out of chakra but 10x that amount of time to regenerate it to full capacity. The only upside to this crap was that I was leveling some skills, but who knew getting strong would be so tedious? The increase to Meditation's level somewhat lessened the time it took for me to regenerate my chakra, but it definitely was not enough.

With that, I took up my leaf and pressed it upon my forehead and went through another round of boredom. I distanced myself from the surroundings and instead focused on the internal of my body.

I felt the chakra sloshing in my core and flowing through my body. With greater concentration, I forced my chakra to flow upwards towards my head but met with resistance. My own life energy was resisting my pull and command as it sought to flow freely, but I couldn't have it. So I redouble my efforts and sank into a deep concentration to the point where I was able to my mind was crowded with the single thought of leveling up this skill.

I felt some sort of mental switch turn on and suddenly, I could feel my energy circulating in the direction I wanted it to go. I felt my skills improve rapidly and the feeling I was getting was exhilarating. I hardly noticed when my hand instinctively grabbed more leaves to stick on my head and I couldn't even feel the strain that focusing on multiple points on my head should have given me.

I was so deep in concentration that I barely noticed my chakra go critical and dig into the low double digits until my body's natural reaction of exhaustion overcame me. I was begrudgingly forced to exit my enhanced state of concentration, but no sooner did I notice a dull throbbing in my head and a slight dampness on my body.

I couldn't even describe that experience in words, but it was definitely novel. I felt like I was in my own world where the passage of time was meaningless and I could actually feel my skills improve quickly. Comparing this to before where I barely noticed any improvement in this when they leveled up. The only thing I was upset about was that this state barely lasted and yet I felt exhausted. What the hell was that!?

Congratulations for Achieving a state of 'Hyperfocus'

Hyperfocus (Active) Level 2 [64.57%]

Hyperfocus is a state achieved through the combination of 'Meditation' and another skill that is compatible. Compatible skills mainly include those that do not require any movement to use or execute. Hyperfocus drastically increases the rate at which those skills level up by increasing brain activity to an extreme. By focusing your all your brain activity on a singular skill, you essentially 'Meditate' with that skill in mind. The user burns through CP more when in this state due to the extremely rapid use of the compatible skill. Leveling of this skill will increase the amount of time you can spend in this state as well as increase the number of times you can use it per day.

USAGE: (1 per day)

DURATION (2.64 minutes)

Ping! Ping! Ping!

Congratulations! 'Leaf Concentration Practice' has leveled up by 3!

Congratulations! 'Meditation' has leveled up by 2!

Leaf Concentration Practice (Passive) Lvl 4 [23.43%]

The Leaf Concentration Technique is an introductory chakra control exercise taught to all academy students. This training method is done by placing a leaf over your forehead and directing your chakra onto the leaf, using it as a focal point. Every level, a new leaf can be added. This technique helps hone your concentration.

Increases CC by 4%

Uses: 15 CP per min

Meditation (Active) Lvl 7 [1.67%].

Passively increase INT by 14%.

Passively increase WIS by 14%.

HP and CP regeneration increase by 70% when active.

(NOTE: Cannot be activated during combat. At higher levels, you are able to better sit still and the rate of HP and CP regeneration increases.

I nodded in appreciation at the increases I made. In that one sitting of less than 3 minutes, I had increased my CC by an additional 3% and my Meditation skill by a couple levels. Even though I was completely drained as of now, my excitement barely wavered. I was only slightly upset about the limitations of the skill but the benefits all but made up for it. Furthermore, if I was reading this correctly, even if I was able to use this skill for a much longer period of time, it still would have burned through my chakra pool at the same rate, so I had to increase my ENGY in order to get the best out of this ability.

I deposited my thoughts to the back of my head as I focused on restoring my chakra. I didn't feel tired even though it was pretty late at night, which was a good sign that Gamer's Mind was effectively keeping me as an insomniac as long as I wanted to stay awake, yet without any of the negative repercussions.

My heart was still quite excited and I couldn't wait to practice that skill again tomorrow. I had no idea what the next day would throw my way, but as long as I was given time to grow strong and train, then I was sure that I would be able to tackle the obstacles in my way.

First thing's first, I would like to thank the guys who continued to favorite and follow me. Almost every day, my email alert would sound telling me that another person either favorited/followed me, my old story, or both and I really appreciate that.

Now then, sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out but I said I would do so around this time. For starters, I do plan to continue this for a while and I am heavily invested in this story as compared to my previous one, so hold me to that. Next, due to school and stuff, I haven't been able to stockpile the 20 chapters I wanted to, so, I'm going to release a chapter either 1-2 times a week, depending on whether I can complete a new chapter in that time frame, up until I complete the first arc of this fanfic (around 23 chapters, maybe a little more).

Last but not least I would appreciate some comments and I want to hear your thoughts on what I can do to improve my writing. Flames are not appreciated so don't write any…who am I kidding someone's going to flame me right after this first chapter, so if you are going to flame me at least give me some idea on how I can improve or what I did wrong. For example, if you're going to tell me to shoot/kill myself, give me a good reason as to why I should do that then maybe I'll consider it, probably…definitely not but you guys get the idea. Alright until next time.