Naruto: Paws and Whiskers

As Takeshi stepped out of the tent, the oppressive weight of rejection lifted from his chest. The fresh, crisp air of the camp wrapped around him like a soothing balm, brushing away the remnants of sadness from being unceremoniously kicked out. His red eyes sparkled mischievously as he stretched languidly, flicking his tail in defiance.

The air outside was so much better! 'If they don't want me then it's their loss! It's not every day someone gets the privilege of basking in my brilliance.! it's not like its a big deal anyways, I can use Flying Thunder God, I just need to wait for sometime before being able to use it openly...'

The notion made him puff up with pride. ''I've already earned my Special Jonin rank. Why should showing off my Flying Thunder God technique be a problem? Minato said I'm qualified, and who's going to argue with him? When I finally unveil it, the points I'll rake in from their anguish faces will be glorious!'

(E/N: for those wondering why doesn't he just immediately show that he can use it regardless, it's because of how much it will torment Minato, as he spent years to be able to learn theory behind it and use it. As well as many higher ranked ninja's who tried to learn it.

For others it'll set an expectation from them, as they will expect him to fail and Takeshi will break those expectations.

For higher ups as Takeshi's contribution are being used for this, which would be cheap prize for them to grand, as over the years dozens of Jonins have requested for Flying Thunder God Jutsu yet failed to even create Spatial marks.)

Having psyched himself up, Takeshi began wandering through the camp. The lively buzz of activity filled the air, with ninjas bustling about in orderly patterns. He sniffed disdainfully. 'So boring. No chaos, no action. What's a cat like me supposed to do here?'

He sat down, wrapping his tail neatly around his paws. A thought occurred to him. "Maybe I should find Naoki. He's always good for some entertainment." Gekko Naoki was one of his few trusted companions—a shinobi with whom Takeshi had racked up a substantial amount of contribution points during their last mission. But even the prospect of meeting Naoki didn't spark much enthusiasm. 

\'Ugh, forget it,' he muttered. His eyes flicked to the panel hovering before him, displaying his points: just shy of 10,000. 'Not enough for anything fancy, but maybe… just maybe…' A sly grin spread across his face as an idea struck him. 

"Gacha." 

The allure of testing his luck with the system's randomized rewards was too tempting to resist. "That auto-returning iron ball I got last time worked wonders with Flying Thunder God. If I could score a few more of those, I'd be unstoppable." His excitement surged, only to be tempered by a familiar bitterness. 

He thought of buying it... But this item was far too low grade to be found in the shop. It is not for sale and can only be obtained by Gacha. The damn system creators specially created garbage tier items for Gacha!

'Other than me who can use it with Flying Thunder God, who would want anyway?' Takeshi wondered.

He opened the Gacha panel and was immediately delighted when he saw the goods on it - more than 20 prizes, only one Transparent Escape Jutsu (Used by Hayate Gekko and Jiraiya) was worth some points, and the others were some not-so-high-end ninjutsu.

'Maybe I can make a lot of profit today! I'm idle anyway, so I might as well try Gacha to test my luck.' Takeshi looked around, then leaped onto a tree branch to begin his ritual.

With solemn reverence, Takeshi clasped his paws together, muttering prayers to Hagoromo, Kaguya, and any entity that might lend him some luck.

"Alright, Gacha gods, let's see what you've got for me today!" 

As the results began to pour in. Takeshi's hopeful expression slowly morphed into one of confusion, then disbelief. 

"I got Lucky!?', In addition to the same old but slightly different food, the more valuable ones were Luxury Cat Food and Water Release Water Clone jutsu.

In fact, he was really lucky, and these two alone were worth the price of one Gacha ticket. But while he wanted was more auto-returning iron balls, but what he got was... mouse puppet.

"A mouse puppet? Seriously?!" He groaned in frustration but couldn't help examining the little contraption more closely. The craftsmanship was surprisingly intricate. With a bit of chakra, the puppet transformed into a convincingly animated mouse.

A notification popped up on his system interface, explaining its features. The puppet could autonomously move using inbuilt transformation jutsu, making it an excellent decoy. 

Takeshi's frustration melted away as an idea dawned on him. 'Wait a second… if I mark it with Flying Thunder God, this could be a mobile teleportation coordinate. This might actually be better than the iron balls!'

His excitement reignited, Takeshi wasted no time marking the puppet with Flying Thunder God and injecting it with chakra. 'Alright, little guy, let's see what you can do.'

The moment the chakra flowed into the puppet, it sprang to life with startling speed. Before Takeshi could react, the tiny mouse bolted. 

Takeshi instinctively chased it, 'Damnit!' Takeshi yelled, launching into pursuit. The puppet darted around obstacles with uncanny agility, weaving through tents and narrowly avoiding startled shinobi. 

It started moving towards Commanders tent. Takeshi couldn't didn't want Jonin's within the tent to destroy the puppet.

Therefore, Takeshi tried to intercept it. The mouse puppet acting life-like turned around and ran away immediately when it saw the cat in front. 

The problem was that there was a Konoha ninja on the one side, and there was the tent on the other side, so...

"Oh no, you don't!" He leaped into action, bounding gracefully through the air and landing squarely on the rogue puppet, pinning it beneath his paw.

A tiny "squeak" escaped the toy as it struggled futilely. Takeshi let out a sigh of relief, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of the situation. 

'This thing has a mind of its own,' he muttered. While its speed and intelligence were impressive, its unpredictability made it a liability.

So he wondered, what was the use of this thing? It was just a toy. If he were a real cat, this toy would be quite interesting - for example, if it was given to a cat, that cat would definitely have a lot of fun, but if Takeshi played with it, it would definitely be also broken soon.

This was the nature of cats. 'No, in this case, maybe it is not the system that had a problem, but me?'

Takeshi was shocked when he thought of this, and suddenly understood why he felt that it was useless. His thinking was not the way of a normal cat, so he felt that this puppet given by the system were not to his taste.

'Forget it, no point thinking about it, let's put it away for now...' He put away the puppet, and noticed a nearby ninja staring at him in awe. The shinobi bowed deeply, his eyes shining with gratitude. 

"Uh… you're welcome?" Takeshi said awkwardly, unsure what heroic deed he had supposedly performed. 

'What did I do?' But the ninja meant well, so Takeshi nodded slightly, then raised his head and left, continuing his walk and looking at the other Gacha rewards.

The mouse puppet was a scam, but the luxury cat food and Water Release Water Clone Jutsu was real. This Gacha was a blend of good and bad. Although the water clone does not seem to be of much use, it is better than nothing.

Takeshi comforted himself and wondered what to do next. Then decided to visit Jiraiya, make up for the lost points, and strive to buy the special and unique jutsus and kekkei genkais that he likes as soon as possible.

Takeshi didn't know what Jiraiya is doing at the moment, if he is working, even Takeshi would feel embarrassed to disturb him.

All work related stuff had highest priority. Only when peace is restored can he return to his home in Konoha and stay at home.

Following the faint scent trail, Takeshi found Jiraiya by the riverbank. The older ninja sat cross-legged on the grass, scribbling furiously in a notebook. His perverted giggles echoed across the water...

'Why is he laughing perverted manner? There are only a few fish swimming in the river. Could it be that there are mermaids here...? It is making me curious!' Takeshi held his breath and sneaked forward carefully, wanting to get closer to find out. As he got closer, he saw Jiraiya holding a pen and paper in his hand.

'He is writing an hentai novel?' That's not right. Takeshi remembered that Minato once said that Jiraiya is still an upright writer, and all his works are full of positive energy, motivational, perseverance, persistence, hard work, etc.

Well, although it is not very popular. Basically, in the whole Konoha, the only ones who would give a thumbs up to Jiraiya for his good writing are Minato, Kushina, and Hiruzen.

After he got closer, he looked down from the tree. The words were a bit small, and they were crooked and sloppy.

Fortunately, Takeshi could understand them somewhat, and understood the meaning of the story by guessing.

The story is quite simple. It's about protagonist was relaxing by the river, then a beautiful woman came and started bathing, and then he hid behind the bushes to watch... Basically, this is what Jiraiya is currently imagining in his mind.

'So, is this the monumental moment of Jiraiya's life, where changed from a positivity author to a best-selling author?' Takeshi wondered.

But Takeshi couldn't himself from criticizing, for writing this perverted book instead of spreading positivity in the ninja world. That story is too boring anyway.

A devious grin spread across Takeshi's face. 'Time to guide this misguided author back to the path of righteousness… and maybe earn some points in the process. Hehe'

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