Chapter 4: A Rough Beginning
Naruto groaned as she laid her head down on the cold table. The study book in her hand tumbling from her hand onto the wooden table. It had been a week since she had arrived in this house, and yet she hadn't left since. Other than the basic hygienic things like brushing her teeth and shower she had only studied and gone through the dungeon.
She had been glad that the Hokage had stocked the fridge and pantry of the house, but that's when she realized she didn't actually know how to cook. Luckily, she had found a cookbook in the pantry, probably left by the Hokage who knew she wouldn't have the ability to cook, and had made many recipes using the book. The system also helped, by calculating nutritional value and telling her which recipes to create and consume for optimal growth. This had also prevented Naruto from just making homemade ramen every day, as the system quickly warned her that this would not provide enough nutrients, and limit her growth.
Thinking back to the first time she used the bathroom, Naruto had been caught off guard when she had seen herself in the mirror. She had looked similar, and yet completely different from the last time she had seen herself. Her signature whisker marks had completely disappeared from her face, leaving round unblemished cheeks that just screamed 'pinch me.' Her previously lean face was now more filled out, and her tanned complexion had become a pale white that seemed to make her look sick, even if she felt stronger than ever before. Her prior shoulder-length, sunny blonde hair was now down to her waist. Naruto smiled at this because the Matron of the orphanage had never let her grow her hair out before even though Naruto had always wanted long hair. Her eyes, which were once a sky blue color, were now reminiscent to that of a pair of gorgeous sapphires that seemed to glow with an eery blue light. Naruto felt the room temperature drop just staring into the mirror.
She immediately asked the system what had happened, which it only gave an ambiguous reply. Saying that it had enhanced the host's body to the optimal weight and that the whiskers marks had been removed because they were the cause of something that 'hindered her growth.' She asked more about that, but the system told her that this knowledge was not useful right now, and would only hurt her more than help. She also asked about her eyes and was only told that it was one of the benefits of her 'bloodline,' and that she had many more powers that she would be capable of wielding later.
As Naruto had looked at herself in the mirror again, it had almost seemed like she was looking at a beautiful porcelain doll, but before she could continue this train of thought, the system told her that she was 'like a toad compared to those top cultivators of the deity worlds.' This immediately irked her, and she had refused to speak to the system for the rest of the day after that incident.
Back in the present, Naruto was reading the last of the books she had been assigned by the Hokage. She had long discovered that earning 10GP was a lot harder than she had previously thought. When she had killed the goblin and gone to explore more of the cavern, she had been ambushed by a group of goblins, because they almost always moved in a pack. She had held on for as long as she could, luckily killing one of them, before succumbing under their combined force.
This death lead to the discovery that making an avatar actually used most of her chakra, meaning that she couldn't just constantly keep sending avatars into the dungeon until she was much stronger. That meant she had to wait for her chakra to fill back up to full before she could send another avatar into the dungeon. And with this debilitating limit, she could only send an average of around three avatars into the dungeon a day.
And while three a day sounds like a lot, and considering she only needed 10GP, she thought she would have had it in three days maximum. But Naruto found out the dungeon created by the system was much crueler than that. She constantly died to traps planted by goblins, ambushes set up in the dark corridors of the dungeon, stronger goblins that could sniff her out, catch up, and overpower her easily, and many other factors. The fact that she could only take around two worker goblins bare-handed at the same time made killing anything practically impossible, as most goblins moved around in groups of at least ten or more.
But with each attempt and subsequent death, Naruto rapidly grew. She learned to soften her footsteps, to always check for traps, and to lure enemies away from groups. She learned to quickly identify weaknesses, and how to get in and out while quickly killing an enemy undetected. She slowly became stronger, while not physically, and quickly matured under the immense pressure of the dungeon.
Naruto closed the final study book and set it down lightly on the table. She leaned back in her chair, stretching her joints and hearing them pop as she lets out a relieved sigh. She had finally finished off the work to enter the academy, and sighed lightly as that burden was lifted off her shoulder.
She held out her arm, as the device quickly materialized into her hand, she looked down at the screen that currently displayed her inventory. The number of GP she had acquired was up to 9GP and had been stuck there for the last couple of attempts. As she had been ambushed by a hobgoblin the last attempt. And the one before that she had been caught off guard by a passing group of worker goblins while fighting a worker goblin that had wandered off from its group.
The item slots in the inventory were empty, though, as the club she had looted from her first kill had shattered under the blow of a soldier goblin when she had tried to block the strike of its rusty sword. The low-quality wood had quickly buckled under the metal and lead to Naruto being killed right after.
She tapped the play button at the bottom of the screen, the bright display switching to that of a dark corridor that she had become so accustomed to in these last few days. Tapping link, she felt the odd sensation of her consciousness being split, something she had experienced a multitude of times now, and she was once again in the dark corridor of the dungeon.
Wasting no time, Naruto quickly ran forwards, her footsteps muffled and barely making any noise against the cold stone floor. The eery lights that had once terrified her now didn't even make her pause. Suddenly, the sound of feet padding against the floor echoed through the cavern. Naruto quickly hid behind one of the stone walls, listening closely as the footsteps approached her position slowly.
Waiting with bated breaths, the footsteps were finally on top of her position. Naruto watched from the shadows as a small horde of worker goblins passed her position. She silently observed them, taking in every movement of their disformed bodies, and every twitch of their nauseating faces.
She suddenly noticed one of them that was small, even smaller than her. Something unnatural even for worker goblins. As they were the runts of their kind, meaning a goblin even weaker than they were is just usually killed once they were born.
Seeing this as her chance to get an easy kill, she waited anxiously as the group finally passed her position. The smaller one struggling far behind the group. Realizing this was her chance, Naruto nimbly ran towards the tiny goblin, her hands already in the position to swiftly snap its neck and escape unnoticed. The small goblin must have sensed her killing intent though, as it turned around to see her already in position and about to kill it. Its small red eyes filled in terror as it realized these were its last moments alive. Naruto had always been confused about how the creatures showed emotions such as this, as they were merely made of energy. But the system had explained long ago how these monsters were made to completely imitate goblins, and not just be constructs that resembled them.
However, as she was about to commit this action. The survival instincts in her head rang in alarm as she heard the whistling of air being cut right behind her. With no hesitation, Naruto agilely rolled out of the way, as she watched the small goblin that she had marked as her pray be completely sliced in half, not even having a chance to scream in pain. The giant sword left a shallow cut on the hard stone floor, as Naruto immediately recognized the sword that had been used to decimate the monster.
'A soldier goblin! But what's it doing near a group of worker goblins?' Naruto thought in shock, as she swiftly rolled backward, avoiding a horizontal slice meant to bisect her. Turning around, she saw the rest of the worker goblins quickly surround her position, leaving her no means of escape. And what happened finally clicked in her head. 'The small one was a trap! To think these beasts would even sacrifice one of their own and have zero remorse in murdering it just to drag out an enemy. How ruthless!' Naruto reasoned as she grit her teeth in anger. Observing her surroundings and looking for an escape, she couldn't find any. She had been completely trapped and had no way to escape.
She finally focused on the giant sword-wielding soldier goblin. These goblin were much different from the worker goblins, as they were armed with leather armor made from the animals they hunted. They also had giant swords made from sharpened rocks and sturdy sticks. Alongside that, the limbs of these goblins were no longer thin and fragile, but instead muscular. But these goblins had one weak spot that Naruto knew she could exploit, they had very little hand-eye coordination. Making their reactions and movements very clumsy. Of course, this usually didn't matter as they used their superior strength and speed to overpower their enemies, but Naruto knew that exploiting this will be her only way to potentially take it down and escape.
Naruto hastily ran towards the beast, sliding under its enormous sword as it cut the air above her in another clumsy swing, and aimined at the goblins legs. But as she was about to make the behemoth of a goblin topple under its own weight, she was suddenly pierced through the stomach of her avatar by a large wooden pike.
Even though it didn't hurt much, she could still feel the chakra that made up her avatar being rapidly consuming as it patched up the hole in her stomach around the weapon. She resolutely decided to rip the wooden pike out of her stomach, making her chakra once again leak out in large quantities. It swiftly healed the gaping hole, but Naruto could feel that she had already lost a little more than a quarter of the chakra in her avatar.
Naruto looked at the soldier goblin with sharp eyes, her small hands clutching the wooden pike tightly. The monsters surrounding her also observed her with a bit of caution. But the soldier goblin still had a cocky grin spread across its nasty face, realizing how much of an advantage it had, both in numbers and brute strength.
They faced each other in this silent standoff for a couple seconds, before the soldier goblin suddenly raised its head and let out a horrendous growl, that Naruto recognized to be some kind of signal. She watched as the circle of goblins slowly approached her position, ensnaring her in a small circle, while the soldier goblin backed off and watched with an evil grin on its face.
Naruto didn't panic, but instead ran at the only unarmed worker goblin in the group, that being the one who had previously used its weapon to spear her through the stomach. Sprinting at the monster, its hands raised up in a defensive position to try and block Naruto from exiting the trap. But instead of trying to barrel past the beast, she slid towards it, keeping herself low to the ground and building momentum.
When Naruto was directly under the goblin, she swiftly switched into a crouching position with her pike clutched tightly in her hands. She used all the extra force to blast herself upwards, her spear tearing through the goblins skull on the way up and killing it instantly.
[Tier-Five Mortal Monster 'Worker Goblin' has been slain. Collecting 1GP. Obtained 1 High-Quality Wooden Pike.] Naruto heard the systems voice say, as she witnessed the corpse of the goblin fade into a mirage of colorful lights. She had a predatory grin on her face, before looking back at the horde of goblins that were looking at the scene with terror in their eyes.
Naruto's icy blue eyes shone with killing intent, as she quickly capatilized on the primal fear these monsters felt. The were frozen to the spot as she ran towards the paralyzed goblins with her wooden pike in hand, massacarring the brainless creatures as the systems emotionless voice counted each and every kill.
As she pierced through another goblins skull with her weapon, a pleasant smill appeared on her face. One that seemed to terrify the goblins even more. 'Who knew that a weapon could make this much of a difference!' She couldn't help but exclaim in her head. She watched as the rest of the small worker class goblins scrambled back into the gloomy hallways of the dungeon. Looking at her with dismay as they witness her mercilessly slaying their kind.
Naruto quickly opened her inventory, seeing that her low amount of 9GP previously had already increased to 17GP in just that short exchange due to her acquiring a weapon. Looking through to drops of the other goblins, it was merely useless things like low quality cloth underwear and some low quality wooden weapons.
Looking at the final opponent, Naruto saw the soldier goblin glaring at her with fury that spoke of its boundless hatred toward her. Naruto glared back at it, even though she was thankful to it for leading that many goblins to her, and allowing her to kill them and almost double her GP in a single encounter. But if the soldier goblin knew that its rage would probably reach the heavens.
Sprinting at it to try and catch the beast off guard, Naruto aimed her pike at the goblins knees, hoping to hinder its movements and allow for an easy takedown. But the soldier goblin hadn't been listlessly watching as she had fought off the horde of goblins prior to this, and had seen her sloppy fighting style of focusing on weak points.
Knowing this, the goblin merely watched as the aimed at its knee joint, before slightly shifting its leg so that Naruto's strike wouldn't hinder it at all, besides doing a bit of damage, while also leaving her in an opening for attack.
Naruto realized this a little to late, as her pike sunk into the tough skin of the soldier goblin, and the monsters stone sword was already aimed to smash her like an insect. Realizing that pulling out her pike to block was impossible, Naruto decisively willed one of the many low quality wooden tools into her hands from the inventory of the system. A small wooden axe had suddenly appeared in her hands, as she brought it up to avert some of the force that the impact would cause.
The stone sword mercilessly smashed through wooden axe. Splintering it and making it fade into a multitude of lights. But the weapon was sent off course a small bit in the impact due to this sudden interference. Leaving Naruto's avatar with a large gash across it's abdomen, instead of being sliced in two.
Naruto rolled across the floor painfully as the momentum of the hit sent her flying. She finally landed a couple yards away from the goblin, as she looked up to see it reaching for her pike that was still stuck in its thigh. Seeing this, she instantly came up with an idea, as she recklessly ran towards the goblin once again.
But the soldier goblin didn't even look at her, as it realized just how weak Naruto was without this weapon, planning to snap it and then easily dispose of her. The large goblin raised up the wooden pike, intending to snap it, when the item suddenly seemed to fade away. Like it was never there.
Naruto, on the other hand, had just unequipped the weapon and reequipped it. Causing it to be transferred back into her inventroy and then reappear in her hands. With the goblin distracted, her wooden pike snaked forwards with a strong thrust, piercing through the neck of the unaware soldier goblin. But since she was still very weak, the pike became stuck halfway through its neck instead of piercing through and instantly killing it like she had intended.
The goblin, blinded by the pain and violent anger that it was experience, quickly grasped onto the arm attached to the weapon that had inflicted the mortal wound upon it. The monster decided to bring up its heavy stone sword and swing it down heavily, chopping off the whole arm of the opponent who dared to hurt it this badly, while finally succumbing to the heavy injury on its throat.
Naruto lay on the cold dungeon floor, chakra leaking from both the gash in her chest and missing arm, filled with adrenaline and smiling happily as she systems monotone voice finally announced the creatures death. [Tier-Five Mortal Monster 'Soldier Goblin' has been slain. Collecting 3GP. Obtained 1 'Medium-Quality Leather Armor.] And as that message was finally heard, the last of the chakra in Naruto's avatar leaked out of her avatar as her conscious was finally switched back to that of her real body.
She excitedly sat in her living room, preparing to check out the piece of gear she had obtained from the soldier goblin, and also spend some of the GP she had accumulated. Naruto was also excited because she had killed something stronger than a worker goblin, even though she cheated by using the system to confuse it, she still considered this her win. But as she was about to go looking through her spoils of war, Naruto suddenly heard a knock at her door.
Naruto approached the front door and opened it to see the Hokage standing at the doorsteps. "What are you doing here?" She couldn't help but ask, as she hadn't really been expecting any company.
"Silly girl, didn't I tell you I would come check up on you. Besides, I have something important that I came here for today." The old man said, patting her head as she invited him in.
Hiruzen walked through the hallways, looking at the interior that had barely changed since the last time he was here, and the only signs of human occupation being the dining room and kitchen, that had many of the books he had left for her studies in the academy scattered across the table, along with dirty dishes occupying the sink that Naruto hadn't gotten to cleaning yet.
"Well it seems that you studied properly, have you been eating correctly?" The old man asked, in which Naruto nodded her head as she showed him the cooking book that had many tabs of the meals she had cooked, and her favorites marked with a couple colorful sticky notes. "Well, it's good to know that you have been living properly, but I need to get down to business. Tommorow, the major clans of Konoha are hosting an event so that all of their heirs can meet up and talk to each other, as most of them have been struggling to make friends with each other in the academy due to their busy schedules and pride. I want you to attend this, as it is important for your social growth and so that you may know some of your classmates, and possibly befriend them, before you finally enter academy." The Hokage explained. Naruto was stunned by this. She considered it a blessing, as she had never truly interacted with kids her age, and the only one she had interacted with in the past couple of years without a glare of hatred was the Hokage, who was a sixty-year old man and treated her more as a granddaughter than friend. But Naruto was still confused on the reason she was invited to this party.
"Can you tell me why I was invited, because I am just a clanless orphan who hasn't even entered ninja academy yet. Why would I be allowed into this gathering?" She asked the old man, who merely looked at her with eyes swimming in regret. The Hokage raised his hands to his mouth unconsciously, before realizing he hadn't brought his pipe with him.
The air surrounding Hiruen became serious as he sighed. "Naruto, the Uzumaki were a clan, though long extinct, and you are the last remaining member that has residence in Konoha. Though, I doubt there are many out there in the world either. And since they are still registered as a clan in Konoha, you can technically attend this meeting anyways. But that is not the main reason. It is because you have something that makes you important, something that I cannot tell you yet. Just like I cannot tell your who your parents are, because these pieces of information will put you in danger." Naruto hung her head downwards. She had been excited when she heard that she was part of a clan, that maybe she finally had a family, or would finally get information about them, only for this hope to be shot down instantly.
Abruptly, the Hokage cleared his throat, and Naruto looked up to see him looking at her with a tender gaze filled with grand-fatherly love. "Don't worry, Naruto, your parents loved you very much, and they wouldn't want you to be sad. So live proudly for them." He said, before waving goodybe and dissapearing just as quickly as he came.
Naruto sat and stared at the spot that the Hokage had just occupied, as she felt something wet drip down her cheek onto her hands. She lifted up a finger to her eye, feeling the warm tears that seemed to leak out unconsciously. 'Is this what having a family is like?' She couldn't help but think, her mind flashing back to that gaze he had that filled her stomach with a warm feeling, like her encounter with the ANBU agent from before. And with the fuzzy feeling still in her stomach, Naruto decided to finally use the GP to enhance her capabilities, while also preparing for the gathering of the Konoha Clans.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone