Konoha, Death Forest.
The sky above the death forest had turned dark with stars scattered all over it, but the forest itself was nothing like the beautiful twinkling sky; it reeked of blood and death, some candidates perishing in battles and some becoming the feed of dangerous beasts.
Isagi and his teammates rested on top of a tree with the tower clearly visible from where they were, resting now after a very tiring day, at least for Mei and Ryota as they had sustained a lot of injuries fighting Neji.
The distance from the entrance of the forest to the tower may just be 10 km, but due to poisonous plants and dangerous animals they couldn't just move forward at their top speed; they had to take every step forward carefully.
Isagi finally got some time to think and relax after gaining memories of his past life and unlocking his cheat, his eyes with an emotional look on the property panel which displayed his current abilities.
Overall Rating: Blue
Now that he had time to ponder, Isagi put some thought into how the system's rating made sense in context with the shinobi world.
When he unlocked his cheat, his overall rating was green and he was an average chunin at the time, then light-blue meaning he had advanced to an elite chunin or a special jonin, so the current blue most likely meant his current strength was now that of an average jonin.
In that context, light orange was surely an elite among the jonin and then orange signifying the strength of a Kage.
"Guess… it's a long road ahead." He said softly, but not a shred of fear on his face and only expectations at the upcoming future; for the weak and those with no hope this world was surely hell, but for those who knew with taking risks they could reach the summit, this world was nothing short of peak excitement.
Isagi felt the strength running in his body, a feeling which he never experienced in his previous life; this strength truly made him feel like he was alive and he loved this feeling.
"Hokage… ruling the world… nah… let's just get strong enough to live as I like…" At this quiet moment in the forest, Isagi easily found the true purpose of his life in this world; no lofty ambitions like being under the spotlight or being a ruler of the world, just to live on his own terms.
The rising sun announced the start of a new day, Mei and Ryota, who were resting on top of the trees, hit by the first rays, stirring them awake. Isagi was already up, as throughout the night they had taken turns guarding while the other two slept, this forest too dangerous for them to sleep peacefully.
"You guys are up, let's go then." Isagi, who had his eyes on the rising sun, noticed it the moment they woke up, the tower which was their destination not far from where they were now, and if nothing unexpected happened, they could make it there within a few hours.
Yes, it was just the second day, but unlike most of the others they had already gotten the scroll they needed, so they didn't need to waste any more time fighting and carefully, while avoiding ambushes, had arrived near the tower in a day, just a little bit to go.
"You can rest a bit too Isagi-Kun, we can take our time." Isagi had guarded through most of the night as unlike the other two he hadn't suffered any injuries in his fight, Mei concerned he might be tired after staying up through most of the night.
"I'm fine, come on hurry up, let's get over with this drill." Assured Isagi, shaking his head and jumping down from the tree.
Watching him jump down, Mei's eyes showed a complex look as after hesitating a little she parted her lips. "He seems to have changed a bit… like he is…"
"More confident, right?" Ryota completed her words, Mei after a second of thought nodding her head in agreement.
"If it wasn't for his familiar chakra I would have almost believed someone was impersonating him…" shared Ryota his thoughts, crossing his arms around his chest and then continuing. "That kid in green jumpsuit was no less strong than the Hyuga genin we fought, but he took him down without even us figuring out how."
"Maybe he trained really hard in the last month?" said Mei after thinking for a while. They were given a month's exemption from missions by their jonin instructor, letting them train for the chunin exam.
The three of them always had a habit of sparring with each other from time to time, last time they fought each other was more than a month ago, so to Mei maybe Isagi had improved by leaps and bounds within this time.
At her guess, Ryota didn't say anything further, and with a thoughtful look in his eyes jumped down from the tree, following Isagi who silently seemed to have taken the role of the leader, Mei with thoughts in her head too silently following.
Read chapters ahead on [email protected]/snape777