Naruto: Snow Cold

Early graduation.

This opens up a lot of opportunities for me, like gaining much more leeway—unless I end up with a lazy squad leader like Kakashi, which I doubt is even possible. I can earn money through missions, but most importantly...

Experience. Real combat experience.

But, this still has its cons. I'd have to face the real world outside and step out of my comfort zone, to do things that I don't like.

Killing. Even worse if at one point I have to kill civilians... or children.

The mere thought makes me want to hurl. I know this world is fucked up—I've seen it firsthand. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows like in the series, where Naruto had the luxury of talking down or sparing his enemies.

The real world didn't work that way. Here, it wasn't just about winning fights, getting stronger, or having more knowledge.

It was do or die.

Survival.

Survival that required you to make split second decisions—hesitate for a moment, and that was it. You're dead, good night. One single mistake, and your head would be rolling on the ground.

Fun, right?

Yeah, fuck this.

I could really just use the 'inventions' from my past life to make a living and live surrounded by riches, or maybe hotfoot it out of here into a peaceful island to live on.

What was preventing me from just doing this, though?

It's easy.

Boredom.

It's human nature for us to get bored at one point when we don't have anything to do. No new goals, no aspirations, nothing left to challenge you, and it really eats away at you.

I'd rather train and actually get stronger—strong enough to make a change in this blood-soaked world.

Might was everything, after all.

Either way, after the headache I had due to processing all this information faded away, I started making mental notes of everything else I've learnt so far to earn my spot in the graduation exam.

Physical abilities, my chakra control, sensory capabilities, Ninjutsu, etc.

Being able to withstand 350 KG after all those months, and 500 with Chakra Enhancement, I could reach a speed of around 30 meters per second. Once I took them off, I could reach a full 80 m/s while sprinting at top speed, and with chakra? I could manage 120 meters.

If I'm not wrong, this is around 12 times more than Usain Bolt's speed during his WR run. Shonen worlds were just that insane.

I've learned a new fighting style, too. It's called The Flowing Fist.

This is the one that Suzume knew, a defensive fighting style that relies on counters, feints, and using their momentum against your opponent. It's a perfect fit for my Frigid Compass, which allows me to sense their fighting intent at a much higher degree—especially now that my chakra field's radius has expanded to 450 meters and my passive range extends to 40 meters.

My chakra control was at the level where I could amplify four of my senses at once unconsciously: Touch, smell, sight and hearing. All due to fine precision, biological knowledge and knowing my own body. I can also amplify the potency of my voice chords and how relaxed they are, modifying their depth as I see fit.

Sticking more than 10 leaves at once, tree walking, walking on water like some budget Jesus Christ, Chakra Threads, empowering my muscles, Chakra Flow coating on both my body and objects to strengthen their resistance and power.

Chakra Flow had been advanced quite a lot, too. I'd say this is the only technique purely meant for... killing, in my arsenal. I only needed to coat the tanto by expelling chakra from the tenketsu in my hand, and align it with the edge of the blade while strengthening every single other aspect.

I feel like, any time soon, I'll start using ranged slashing attacks because of the swing force and the chakra involved. With a single swing, I could literally give a tree the 50% off discount treatment!

As for Ninjutsu, I believe I have a pretty good chance of passing the graduation exam. I'm confident.

I'm not going to use something like the basic E-Ranked wind jutsus I have. They're useful, but only in very specific situations, like assisting me in Shurikenjutsu.

Gale Palm is useful in close range, kind of like a very watered down Impact Dial from One Piece, except it uses wind chakra instead of absorbed force, and you don't get the backlash either. It'll probably be my go-to jutsu, until I find a way to use something similar to the Great Breakthrough jutsu with my palms without hand seals.

With the Body Flicker, I could cover 400 meters at once with each use, and it consumed 0.5% of my chakra. Then, for the other jutsus that I'd use during the Ninjutsu portion of the exam, would purely be C-Ranked ones, along with the Shadow Clone, which is a B-Rank.

Water Prison, Starch Syrup Binding Rope, Water Clone, Great Breakthrough. All of those were useful and more than enough to pass the exam.

Of course, I'd also make use of the basic three academy jutsu, which are essential for sneaking around in missions and having a bullshit option to dodge attacks. Although, I'm pretty sure the Substitution jutsu becomes obsolete in areas with high chakra concentrations, or if people can sense the flicker traveling, or even predict where you'll switch to.

The Clone technique is the most basic form of genjutsu that I have, and pretty much the only one. Transformation would be most helpful in intel-gathering missions, even though I still haven't learned to change my chakra signature or smell. That's just because I hadn't focused on it much, however.

Being able to transform into anyone, down to the last visual detail, was enough to deceive any civilian or less-than-average ninja, like a Genin or below.

All in all, I have a very good chance of passing the graduation exam, but...

There's one thing I want to do. One thing that I've been planning to do, even though it was completely unrelated to combat or any of the skills I've been working on.

I wanted to put on a show with the guitar.

Yeah, is that so bad? I want to be known for something that isn't just about murderizing people. I want to make friends, have people remember me for something unique to me, and only me.

Besides, it's probably allowed as long as I use chakra in some way. Maybe it can be seen as 'useful', like lifting the spirits of people or raising morale. Hell, perhaps I can manage something like Tayuya's genjutsu in the future, except with the guitar instead of a flute.

But I don't want that. What I desire is to play my heart out, and blow everyone away with my music.

I exist. I fucking exist, god damn it!

I wish for them to see me, to hear me, to remember me—not just as another soldier tool or whatever ready to die for the village, but as me.

If I somehow died in any of these missions, they'd at least remember something about me.

Not like I'd allow it to happen, but there's always a chance.

...Did I just set off another red flag?

Lord, screw it all. How many weeks have I practiced that song with Sora already? It's gotta be at least a month by now. It was a song with 193 beats per minute, and I had to sing while playing, which made it harder.

Manageable, though. I could concentrate on more than two things at once by now, thanks to experience and certain techniques.

'I'll leave that to future me to handle.' I thought while sighing. These days, I've been letting my mind just wander around, every single walk I take. Maybe it's the pressure, allowing my emotions take over for a while, or simply not rushing through every place by flickering around.

Either way, I've got around two more months before this supposed test. As far as I know, it should consist of two parts: A written exam, and a practical exam.

Theory would kick my ass if I wasn't using clones to study the entire time. Stuff like history and politics was almost too boring for me to pay attention, but it was crucial information for both the exam and the outside world, when I finally travel across the continent.

I've said this before, but I'd really like to visit Kirigakure and figure out what the Yuki clan is doing. No, more importantly, their jutsus. To my knowledge, it must've been wiped out by now, leaving only Haku alive.

I am simply an anomaly that isn't supposed to be here, aren't I?

Ehh... Who cares?

All I know is that one day, all of this effort will pay off.

...I'm sure of it.