Chapter 5: The Spar... finally. Oh, and a S-rank skill
The two of us started with an explosive push, meeting at almost the centre. He started with a punch, which I managed to avoid by tilting slightly and countered with a jab. He leaned back to avoid it, exposing his abdomen, and I attempted to punch him. Showing his reflexes, he manged to barely avoid it, and the two of use landed finally.
Immediately he crouched slightly and went for an uppercut. I stepped back and went for a kick to his face. He threw himself back as well, and for a moment, no one moved. Then everything resumed again, on a faster pace. He started attacking with a combination and I countered him every time, not going for the offensive so soon.
He concentrated mostly on jabs and punches with a good few kicks mixed in. I was more along the lines of slipping beside his attacks and countering with a little something to disbalance him. However, when I got the opening, I went for a kick, or an uppercut or anything that suited the best. I slowly felt more at ease during the fight.
The taijutsu poses were flowing from one to another much more smoothly, and I was getting used to his fighting style. I incorporated gymnastics to dodge and attacked at opportune moments. A few second into the fight and both of us had connected a couple of times. When, almost half a minute later, his confident smirk disappeared due to me not having lost already, I slowly pushed to attack.
An uppercut, followed by a jab. A kick. Feint to the right, a chop on his left shoulder. A sweep. He almost stumbled, time to push. Another kick, almost hitting his face, making him lean back. A sharp punch to his solar plexus and then a full force kick to his chest. The kick didn't connect.
The sheer ferocity of the attacks had left him surprised, and he had thus forgotten to concentrate on the surroundings. In an attempt to dodge the kick, he had fallen off. My leg was still in the air, and my body ached after a few minutes of combat. My leg shook, and I stumbled and fell. Naruto caught me.
"That was amazing. How did you do that? And the final kick? I felt the wind till where I was standing," he quickly babbled, and I gave him a smile. Leaning on his shoulder for support, I looked back at Sasuke. He was staring at me… in awe? I wasn't sure what happened, but his reaction couldn't have been that. I tried to look past it, and detected some anger and disbelief, and relaxed. Yes, that was the reaction Sasuke should have given.
Iruka sensei patted my head and then told me to rest on the bench while my body recovered from my first combat experience.
I did not realize when I fell asleep. But when I saw a man wearing a hat that covered his face, in typical samurai armour, I stopped moving and tried my best to go unnoticeable. A few seconds later, I felt shivers on the back of my neck, and then, a katana stabbed through my heart.
I woke up with a start. Naruto and Sasuke were fighting each other to a standstill. It was good, seeing them fight. Naruto adapted to Sasuke's style, but instead of what happened with Kiba, Sasuke did the same. Looking at the time, it was approximately half an hour after it, and this was the last fight. My body's aching slowly subsided and my heartrate went down. I opened my notifications.
Killer Intent LVL3 (E-rank) and Active Combat LVL2 (D-rank). After that, there was another thing, from around 25 minutes. I almost shouted out loud. Fragmented Soul (S-rank). What the f---? S-rank? No way! The notification timing put it around a few minutes before I woke up. Maybe whatever the samurai guy did. There seemed to be no description to the skill though.
Finally, almost half a minute later, both fell of the stage together. They tied.
But that wasn't something to worry about. I was feeling hungry, so I went with the rest to the class and started eating lunch while checking my stats.
Name- Shido Kuro
Level- 1 (95/100)
HP (CON*10)- 150/150
CP (INT*10)- 231/154(231)
HP Regen- 9/minute
CP Regen- 6/minute
Age- 4 years, 6 month and 27 days.
STR- 13
DEX- 13
CON- 15
INT- 14(15.4)
WIS- 11
CHR- 11
Free Points- 0
Skills
Boosted Intelligence LVL 7 (D-rank)
Regeneration LVL 8 (C-rank)
Basic Close-Range Combat LVL 6 (E-rank)
Basic Weapon Mastery LVL 4 (D-rank)
Increased Chakra LVL 1 (C-rank)
Chakra Control LVL 1 (D-rank)
Boosted Growth LVL 1 (F-rank)
Enhanced Senses LVL 5 (D-rank)
Meditation LVL 6 (F-rank)
Basic Taijutsu LVL 6 (E-rank)
Cooking LVL 7 (F-rank)
Kunai Mastery LVL 4 (E-rank)
Chakra Sensing LVL 2 (F-rank)
Killer Intent LVL3 (E-rank)
Active Combat LVL2 (D-rank)
Fragmented Soul (S-rank)
Jutsu-
· Transformation Technique LVL 8
· Switching Technique LVL 2
· Clone Technique LVL 3
· Shadow Clone Technique LVL 3
The growth was adequate, considering that I had basically attended less than a sixth of my total Academy years, but I couldn't slack off. With people like Naruto and Sasuke actively aiming for me in the Taijutsu spars (they both and mentioned that they'll take my spot), I had to get better faster. With my available funds, I had ordered a pair of weights similar to Rock Lee and Might Guy's, easily adjustable to increase weights without being too burdensome. They would help a lot, from what I had seen.
In the next few days, the weights arrived, bringing with them another suspicion. It appeared the Hokage had finally noticed the company. Of course, it performed as expected. Probably. We couldn't be sure, but all things considered, it appeared as though we still had his interest, but we had successfully convinced him of our loyalty to Konoha as well.
Though contributing right now in small amount, at the rate at which it was growing, it would bring a lot of revenue for Konoha. The company gave a 6% tax to the Hokage, after removing the salary of workers, and since no one had a salary, whatever we earned, 6% of that went to the village. It also was great that our numbers doubled every few days, with the number of clones increasing, I was thinking of separating a small unit to invest in other matters.
Maybe a Progenitor Clone who would create copies, let them read books and then they would dispel. Then the next copy, so on and so forth. There was also the information network idea, though it would have to run parallel to the company, providing us with the necessary cover for it.
The next month flicked by quickly. The results of the spars remained the same, since I hadn't fought Sasuke or Naruto after the first fight, but they were growing. The company was making decent profit, and it seemed to be getting a slightly higher number of civilians that knew ninjas personally, but the date wasn't good enough to say for certain. The weight certainly increased my abilities; however, my stats did not increase. Observing all that, I believed I had reached some sort of bottleneck, but since I was getting stronger and faster, I didn't give it much thought.
On the other hand, I still didn't exactly know what my S-rank skill did, but I had found out a tit-bit. When I had found a katana somewhat similar to the one I had seen in my dream, I had somehow managed to swing it with some basic skill behind it, as if I wasn't learning it, but re-learning it. But, since I wasn't currently tall or old (physically and legally) enough to wield it, I hadn't been able to obtain one. Also, Iruka-sensei had mentioned that it would be an option in our next year electives, so maybe. We'll see.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Asterius_Daemon
Asterius_Daemon Sorry 'bout not uploading for so long. I had been super buys, and probably will be for the next xouple of months. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload. *pained smile*
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