{Training Ground 7, Konohagakure}
{1 Year before the start of canon}
{3rd Person POV}
...
"...You fail"
The words jabbed at his heart as he looked at his supposed Sensei, Ren tried not to let his thoughts roam as he tried to keep a calm facade, the girls dig it okay...maybe?
Ren has never been a downer, he fought his way through the orphanage and managed to graduate, but the simple brutal response to a failed test was a lot harsher to him than he thought he deserved.
But then again he had every right to deny him, Ren looked at the Silver-haired Jounin before he vanished in a blur of speed. What was he supposed to do now, go join the Reserve Force? No that won't cut it, he would just be run ragged and end up being a somewhat mediocre chunin at best.
Go back to the academy and wait another year? That sounded more ridiculous, to go back and mingle with those clan brats...
"What now?" Ren looked at his teammate who was stuck to the pole, Genji wasn't the worst out of his class, and neither was Tora but then again, they weren't geniuses either.
In Konoha, if you weren't a genius or a clan shinobi, you were a chunin.
Ren chuckled bitterly at the thought before he took out a kunai and cut the bindings, since he had already eaten lunch/trap there was no point in sticking around. What good would even come from talking among themselves, they were not that different in that regard.
Ren was the first one to move, he slowly crossed the distance to the entrance of training ground 7, crossed the fence, and walked out. Now if someone had told him that walking out of the training ground would make a light bulb flash before his eyes then he would have hesitated some more. Well, it's not like he had a choice he had to go out at some point no?
Still the blue floating box? No, it was too thin to be a box, it was more like the blackboard that he had in his classroom. The thought of going back to that classroom was depressing but the floating thing took precedence.
"Kai!" Ren shouted as he focused his chakra and release some of it with a burst, the tiger seal helped, but not enough to dismiss the box.
Blackboard, whatever...
Ren took out a kunai from his weapons pouch and held it in his right hand, he hesitated and for a moment he calculated how much this is going to cost him before he plunged the kunai into his forearm.
"Son of a..." he suppressed a string of curse words as the box still didn't leave his vision. He was a shinobi after all now that all the impulsive actions had been done as decreed by his training till now, he was left with the last option, to indulge and see where the trap led him.
'Who's spending all this effort to trap me anyway...'
[UNIQUE STORY QUEST ALERT!]
[The Road less traveled by!]
[You failed the true Genin exam, with no way to know what lies in your future, you are left with two choices in front of you.]
[1. Go back to the Konoha Academy for another year]
[2. Join the reserve force and thrive under the radar.]
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Ren read the words once, then he reread it again.
'What kind of sick prank is this mocking me when I'm down.'
Ren bristled a bit at the audacity of his adversary before he reread the passage again... it's not like he had much of a choice, the whole thing was taking up most of his vision anyway. He looked at the two options and they seemed like a button, at least they appeared to be that way, he extended his hand and clicked the 1st option.
'Wait what?'
Ren felt himself click the 1st option before the window disappeared and his vision went black for a second. He stumbled a little as he jerked back in surprise before everything returned to normal slowly, Ren walked towards the side of the road and grabbed a tree in case it happened again.
...
...
After waiting for about 30 seconds and no new thing blocking his vision, Ren turned to look at the new issue he had created, his arm was bleeding. He stored the kunai that he held in his hands and pulled out a scroll of bandage tape from his pockets, he wrapped it around his hands and started walking back.
His footsteps were light but nothing happened until he was almost back into the commercial district. The same thing happened again, a blue glowing box appeared in his vision forcing him to halt.
'...now what'
Having experienced something similar just minutes ago, Ren decided the best option was to read as he went toward the hospital.
[Tutorial Quest Generated]
[Tutorial I]
[Follow along the instructions to know more about this new power of yours, is it more than just an ability to know things, or see people's names hovering over their heads.]
[Think the words, 'Status']
[Rewards:]
[EXP +20]
As soon as Ren finished reading the words 'status' the window in front of him shrunk to the middle and then disappeared, before a new bigger, better? block appeared in its place.
...
[Status Window]
[Name: Ren ]
[Title: Academy Student]
[Level: 5 Next Level: 370/500]
[Chakra: 90/90]
[STR: 9]
[VIT: 11]
[END: 10]
[DEX: 16]
[INT: 15]
[CHA: 9]
[Control: 26%]
[Specialization: N/A]
[Special Perks:]
[Gamer: Allows you to view and live your life as though it were a video game.]
[Civilian born: +50% EXP to [Chakra Control Skills], +10% EXP.]
[Perks/Buffs:]
[Smaller Chakra Reserves: +25% EXP and Effectiveness towards [Chakra Control Skills]]
Titles:
[Academy Student: +10% additional EXP gains towards quests and enemies slain (only for character level up)]
Attribute Points: 20
...
Ren blinked
And again
'I know I'm not an idiot, so what the fuck is this, this, this is atrocious.'
Ren complained in his mind about the smaller chakra reserves, what does this thing mean when it says smaller chakra reserves, he could do the Kawarimi no Jutsu, 5 times in a row.
While Ren was complaining the block blinked out again and was replaced with another block.
[Quest Cleared]
[+20 EXP {Collect}]
This time the window was much shorter, and Ren liked this one.
'Let's keep it like this till I get to the hospital.'
Ren was having a bad day already, the annoying blue things were not going away, and his face turned into a brief look of horror when he realized that they were everywhere.
Everywhere he looked the blue block was floating above everyone's head.
[Takeshi Kenji lv-3]
[Anzai Daisuke lv-5]
[Okane Mariko lv-2]
...