I woke up the next morning feeling absolutely incredible.
The lingering, mental exhaustion from the Tower of Trials was completely gone. The morning sun filtered through my apartment window, and for the first time in weeks, I didn't feel an overwhelming rush to drag myself to a training ground.
I was at a level capable of fighting and defeating a Jonin by myself. But, with my soldiers in my back pocket, I was currently in a state where I could tackle about 80 percent of the shinobi world with relative ease.
The only thing to do now is to test my newly acquired toy, I thought, pulling the black-and-gold [Monarch's Stasis Scroll] from my inventory, along with one of my various E-Rank Gate Keys.
I unrolled the parchment. It was blank, except for a complex, swirling seal in the center. I mentally selected four of my level 6 Normal Grade shadow soldiers and one of my newly acquired Ice Warriors—which was level 8—and they dissolved into black smoke and were absorbed into the parchment. I placed the Gate Key right in the center of the array.
"Activate," I muttered.
The key glowed blue and vanished.
[SYSTEM ALERT: MONARCH'S STASIS SCROLL ACTIVATED]
Deployed Forces: 5 Shadow Soldiers.
Target: E-Rank Gate (Goblin Den).
Status: Autonomous Infiltration Commenced.
I couldn't help but smirk. Having a way to make passive XP and income would do that to ya.
While I had the System open, I checked on my army's status. I had an active deployment of 79 soldiers now, and I needed to figure out how to make them stronger fast without just finding stronger bodies.
"System, how exactly do the soldiers level up?"
[SHADOW EVOLUTION MECHANICS]:
Level Cap: A Shadow Soldier maxes out at Level 10 for their current Grade. (Requires 20 individual kills to advance 1 Level).
Evolution Benchmarks: To evolve to a higher Grade, a soldier must reach Level 10 and meet the following total kill requirements:
Elite Knight Grade: 500 Kills. (Unlocks optional naming rights for stat boosts).
General Grade: 1,000 Kills. (Soldiers unlock speech).
Marshal Grade: 5,000 Kills. (Unlocks 'Sub-Commander' Authority: Can independently lead detachments and grant stat buffs to lower-grade soldiers).
Grand Marshal Grade: 10,000 Kills. (Unlocks 'Monarch's Vanguard': Soldier gains partial access to the Player's class skills).
A grind for me and a grind for them, I thought, my eyebrows shooting up. Wouldn't have it any other way. It's gonna be wild to hear their actual opinions on certain matters though.
"System, are there any other stat thresholds I'm close to achieving right now?" I asked.
[Upcoming Threshold: INT 330]:
Unlock: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu.
"Hold on," I said, leaning back on my bed. "Like from when I scanned the Scroll of Seals back when Mizuki betrayed the village? That was like months ago. Why didn't I get this when my INT hit 100? Or even 200?"
[NOTICE: SYSTEM TRANSLATION ERROR RESOLVED]:
Explanation: At the time of scanning, the Player's [INT] stat was significantly below the required threshold to process spatial and sealing formulas, as well as have the precise chakra control necessary to perform scanned skills. Furthermore, the System was actively upgrading and fine-tuning the jutsu to merge with the Shadow Monarch class.
Update: With the Player's [INT] now at 318, the translation is complete. New milestones have been calculated.
[UPCOMING SKILL THRESHOLDS]:
[INT 330]: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu: (System Modification: Cloned weapons will inflict a ticking [Bleed] or a moderate [Slow] debuff).
[INT 400]: Bringer of Darkness Jutsu
[INT 430]: Four Symbols Seal
[INT 500]: Flying Thunder God Jutsu (System Modification: Will merge with Shadow Exchange skill to create new sub skill)
[INT 550]: Impure World Reincarnation (System Modification: Will merge with Shadow Monarch class to bypass living sacrifice requirements).
I let out a laugh as I stared at the translucent blue screen. The Flying Thunder God and the Edo Tensei… when I hit 550 INT, I won't have to worry too much about anyone on the planet anymore. I wonder what these mergers will look like.
"System, find any items that will boost that stat from the store, and any quest or missions that can boost it too," I said.
[REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED: Scanning System Shop and Active Quests for INT-boosting parameters...]
I checked the time. I still had an hour before I needed to meet Team 7 for our D-Rank chores. I pulled out my new A-Rank Gate Key. The location coordinates pointed me towards the Forest of Death.
I've got time, I mused, slipping out the window. I might as well see where it is.
I didn't go too deep into the fenced-off forest. I just needed to find the anchor point for the Gate. I deployed a single shadow soldier into the brush, using [Remote Observation] to give me vision of the area.
Just as my shadow followed the essence of a shimmering blue trail, my danger sense violently flared.
A volley of projectiles hissed through the air, coming from my blind spot.
With my [DEX] at 257, they looked to be traveling at me slowly. I casually reached up with two fingers and plucked the lead projectile out of the air—a senbon needle dripping with purple poison. Using a flick of my wrist, I used the captured needle to casually bat the remaining three senbon into the dirt.
"Not bad, kid!" a familiar, manic voice yelled.
Anko launched herself from the canopy, diving straight at me with a kunai drawn. She opened up with a blistering flurry of Taijutsu strikes, aiming for my vitals with that sadistic grin plastered on her face.
I didn't even shift out of my relaxed posture.
I effortlessly sidestepped her opening thrust, parried a sweeping kick with the back of my hand, and ducked under a spinning backfist. I wasn't just blocking; I was guiding her momentum.
Anko's playful grin faltered. Her eyes widened slightly as she realized her strikes weren't just missing—they were being casually dismissed.
"I heard the rumors about what you did in Wave," Anko grunted, her demeanor shifting from playful to intense, predatory excitement. "I wanted to see if the little Genin actually grew some fangs."
She pushed herself, abandoning all restraint. She lunged forward with a surge of killing intent, driving her kunai directly toward my throat.
CLACK.
I caught her wrist in an open palm, stopping the blow completely dead in its tracks. The sheer difference in our strength was so vast that I didn't even slide back an inch.
"You've gotten slower, Anko-sensei," I smirked, twisting her wrist slightly and using her own momentum to spin her around.
Anko didn't miss a beat. She used the spin to her advantage, contorting mid-air to wrap her thighs around my extended arm in a brutal grapple, whipping a second kunai toward my eyes.
I dropped my center of gravity, ignoring her weight entirely, and casually deflected the blade with my forehead protector before tossing her backward. She landed gracefully, and immediately lunged back in. We traded a blistering sequence of high-speed strikes—parries, weaves, and open-palm deflections. She was fast, but to me, it felt like a casual warm-up.
In the brief scuffle, the collar of her trench coat slipped down, exposing her neck. Sitting right where her shoulder met her collarbone was a black, cursed seal composed of three tomoe.
Anko ripped her arm out of my grip and instantly pulled her collar up, her playful demeanor vanishing into ice-cold defensiveness.
"Watch it," she snapped, taking a step back.
"What's that? A tattoo?" I asked, dropping my stance. "That's not a normal seal. And the chakra coming off it's foul."
"Something way above your paygrade, brat," Anko warned.
Yea, it's definitely a sensitive topic for her, but maybe a little more poking to see how sensitive it is.
"It seems interesting," I said. "You gonna teach it to me?"
"No!" she snapped, her eyes narrowing. "Don't go poking around in the dark or you might not like what bites back."
Yea, she's throwing proverbs at me. She definitely doesn't want to talk about that shit, I mused.
"Alright, alright, my bad," I said, hands in a gesture for surrender.
Anko took a slow breath, letting the tension bleed out of her shoulders as she crossed her arms. Her sharp grin returned, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Well, aren't you full of surprises, brat. Keep growing at this rate and you might actually get your name out even more to the world."
Without another word, she flickered away into the trees, leaving me standing alone in the clearing.
Before I could even process the encounter, the System chimed.
[HIDDEN QUEST UNLOCKED: The Cursed Seal]:
Description: Anko Mitarashi is bound by a parasitic soul fragment belonging to Orochimaru of the Sannin.
Objective: Collect high-tier Gate materials to forge a [Soul Purge Elixir].
Conditions: Erase the soul fragment and neutralize the chakra drain, while retaining the seal's passive natural energy absorption.
Reward: Extreme Affection (Anko), +10 to all Stats, Unknown Skill.
Well, well, would you look at that, I thought, smirking at the prompt. I did want to find a way to permanently rid the world of that snake bastard, and now I might have the keys to do so.
After that, I headed to one of our usual convening locations—the bridge—to meet up with Team 7. I bumped into Sakura and Sasuke on the way there.
Sakura looked different. The naive, overbearing fangirl energy she usually radiated was completely gone, replaced by a quiet, lingering tension. When she looked at me, there was still a noticeable hesitation. She had watched me butcher an army in Wave after all, and she was clearly still trying to process the reality of what it meant to be a shinobi.
"Mornin'," I said casually.
"Good morning, Naruto," Sakura replied softly, actually offering a small, polite nod.
Sasuke just gave me a tight nod of his own, his dark eyes lingering on me as if he were trying to gauge the depth of a pool he couldn't see the bottom of.
As we walked through the village waiting for Kakashi to inevitably show up, I noticed something else entirely. The villagers weren't glaring at me.
With my [CHA] stat sitting at a massive 261, I was projecting an aura of heavy, subconscious authority. I watched a few civilian vendors look at me, their faces instinctively scrunching up as they prepared to scowl, but then their expressions contorted into confused, wary nods instead. They were suffering from severe cognitive dissonance. Their brains were telling them to hate the "demon brat," but my [Presence] was forcefully demanding their respect.
However, I didn't care about their feelings one way or the other, so their confusion fell on deaf ears.
Once Kakashi finally arrived with a terrible excuse about a black cat crossing his path, we were dispatched to do our standard D-Rank chores. While I was mindlessly painting a civilian's long wooden fence, I decided it was the perfect time to test out my new skill.
I activated [Shadow Conduit].
My vision immediately split, though it didn't give me a headache like I thought it might. In my right eye, I saw the wooden fence and my paintbrush. In my left eye, I saw the damp, torch-lit interior of the E-Rank Goblin Den.
It's like engaging in one of those VR systems.
The Ice Warrior swung its heavy frost-blade, freezing two goblins solid and shattering them, but three more dropped from the stalactites above, overwhelming its flank while the standard shadow infantry were busy holding the frontline.
Let's see how this works, I thought.
Without breaking my painting rhythm in the real world, I focused my chakra through the Conduit link.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu]
Inside the dungeon miles away, a massive sphere of superheated fire erupted directly out of the Ice Warrior's chest, instantly incinerating the three ambushing goblins into ash.
[-50 CP]
I severed the connection, a wide grin spreading across my face.
Casting a jutsu across spatial dimensions felt visceral, but it worked flawlessly. I glanced over to see Sasuke narrowing his eyes at me. He was clearly irritated, trying to figure out why I was smirking at a freshly painted fence. He knew I was hiding something, but he had absolutely no way of proving it.
By the time we finished delivering groceries, weeding gardens, and walking dogs, the System chimed again.
[NOTICE: 5x E-Rank Gates Cleared Autonomously.]
[REWARDS DISTRIBUTED]:
+25,000 Ryo
XP Gained
+7 Stat Points (Daily Quest Completion)
1x Monarch's Loot Box
I mentally cracked the Loot Box open as we walked toward the Hokage Tower.
[ITEM OBTAINED: Monarch's Vambraces (B-Rank)]
Effect: +15 DEX, +10 CON. Highly resistant to slashing damage and low-tier elemental jutsu.
Today just keeps getting better, huh? I mused, silently equipping the sleek, dark metal guards under my jacket.
"You requested us, Lord Hokage?" Kakashi asked, standing before Hiruzen's desk.
"I did," Hiruzen smiled around his pipe. "I have a special assignment for Team 7. It seems your reputation preceded you after your success in the Land of Waves. A client specifically requested your team for a bodyguard detail."
Sasuke smirked, his competitive drive visibly flaring up at the prospect of real combat. Sakura looked nervous, but I could tell she was also visibly excited to get out of the village again and prove she wasn't just dead weight.
"A specific request?" Sakura asked. "Who is the client?"
"A manager by the name of Sandayū Asama," Hiruzen answered, shuffling some mission papers on his desk.
I blinked. Sandayū Asama... why does that sound so familiar?
"And who is the VIP we'll be escorting?" Kakashi asked, his single visible eye narrowing slightly.
"An actress," Hiruzen replied. "Her name is Yukie Fujikaze. I believe she is quite famous for playing Princess Gale in the cinema."
My eyes widened slightly as the pieces clicked together instantly. Princess Gale?! From the Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow?! We weren't just doing a simple bodyguard mission for a movie star. We were walking straight into a high-tech coup involving Chakra Armor, a family coup d'état, and a hidden royal bloodline. It was the perfect playground to test out my new stats, and to open up more Gates around the world.
Kakashi turned around and handed us the mission dossier, and told us to go gather our things immediately.
Well, well, well. Now ain't this interesting, I thought, a sharp smirk pulling at my lips.
.
.
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I missed last week, so here's a double drop. Another chapter drops tomorrow. And as always thanks for reading.