Meeting Naruto

On my way home, I stopped by Ichiraku Ramen again.

"Hey Ayame, can I get some Miso Ramen?" I call out as I sit down.

"In a sec," Ayame says as she went to the back to grab a bowl. After a while, she came back and set the bowl down. "Oh, Hiro-kun. Welcome back."

"The Ramen here is the best I ever ate, there is no way I can stay away," I say exaggeratedly as I stir my ramen.

"It's nice to know you enjoy it," Ayame said with a smile

[Ayame relationship +5 for coming back and complementing the food.]

I swipe the message away while pretending to stir the ramen.

"Phew" I let out a satisfied sigh as I empty the bowl. "Another bowl please, this time I want to try some Pork Ramen."

"Be right there," Ayame says as she went to get someone else's order. Looking over at that someone else, I see a head full of blond hair with his face inside a giant bowl.

'When did Naruto get here?' I look over at the 3 bowls by his side. 'And how can he eat so many bowls of ramen. I know I'll definitely be full after just two.'

"Here you go." Ayame drops another bowl in front of me.

"Thanks for the food," I say as I stir the bowl.

When I'm halfway through my second bowl, I look over to see that Naruto is already got started on his 5th bowl.

As I finished, I hear Ayame says "That will be 450 Ryo."

I was wondering why the Pork Ramen was so expensive compared to the Miso but when I look up, I see that she was talking to Naruto.

He must have gotten a discount if 5 bowls cost less than 500 Ryo.

Naruto got out his frog wallet and start going through his coins. After looking through it for a few seconds he starts to panic, shifting through his wallet faster.

Ayame sighed, "Naruto if you don't have enough money, you should watch how much you eat. Come on, you'll have to help clean the dishes to pay off your meal again."

"Hehehe." Naruto laughs awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

"Here, I'll help you pay." I give Ayame 450 Ryo.

"Ah." Ayame sounded surprised. I wonder how Naruto is normally treated if she's is surprised by someone helping him.

"How much did mine cost?"

It took a few seconds for Ayame to break out of her surprised and answer. "Sorry, that will be 220 Ryo." She said blushing a little for messing up.

"Here you go, the ramen was delicious," I add another 220 Ryo to the bill.

[Ayame relationships +5 for helping Naruto]

As I was going to leave, Naruto interrupts me.

"Wait! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, what's your name?"

"Sen Hiroki, call me Hiro. See you around Naruto."

[Naruto relationship +20 for not being like other people and helping him out]

I left after introducing myself. If it was still at school, I'll stay and have a talk with him but I want to have after school as my training time. After walking for a while, I reached a training ground I saw yesterday. I didn't see anyone here yesterday or today so I decided to make this place my training ground.

The first thing I try to do is create a basic ball construct... it didn't work.

After a few failed attempts, I realize the problem. I don't know how to control my chakra. Since I can't do anything else, I figure I might as well do some chakra control exercises. I grab a handful of leaves and head home. I don't need a training ground for doing the first chakra control exercise.

After I got home, I sit down in my meditation pose and stick a leaf on my forehead. It's not that hard to make it stick to my forehead. If it is, then children wouldn't have been able to do it. The hard part is trying to make it stay on the forehead.

[Ding! Skill created

Leaf Concentration Exercise - By sticking and holding a leaf on the forehead, it helps improve chakra control as well as keep the mind from being distracted.]

I went to my skills page and click on the skill.

[Leaf Concentration Exercise(Active/Passive)

Lvl 1 - (Active) Able to stick 1 leaf. (Passive) Rank F chakra control

Lvl 2 - (Active) Stick up to 3 leaves. (Passive) Rank F+ chakra control

Lvl 3 - (Active) Stick up to 10 leaves. (Passive) Rank D- chakra control and help stay focus]

Lvl 3 already give me Genin rank chakra control? I guess improving chakra control won't be as hard as my other stats then. Also, the last level of this exercise is similar to the first level of Meditation. Maybe if I complete this exercise, it'll make reaching level 2 of Meditation easier and vice versa… Or I can do both at the same time. Meditating while focusing on the leaf instead of counting.

After a couple of tries, I was able to succeed. It's harder to do both at the same time but I was able to see myself visually improve. At first, I was only able to hold the leaf for a few seconds but after an hour of practicing, I'm able to do it for a minute or two.

When the sunset, a notification pops up.

[Ding, Skill Leaf Concentration Exercise leveled up

Lead Concentration Exercise Lvl 2]

'Nice! If I keep this up, I might be able to master this in a day or two. I wonder if other people can do it as quickly or if it's because of the Game that I can do it this fast.' I thought as I try to put two more leaves on my head. One of them falls off but I'm able to make two sticks.

'Now that I think about it. It only took team 7 a couple of days to learn Tree Walking so it's probably just that this exercise that is easy.' Since I already leveled the skill once, I decided to end the exercise there and do something else.

I gather chakra in my hand, lift it up, focus on trying to create, and say "ID Create." As soon as I did, I feel chakra start to leave my hand before disappearing into space. I thought it fail until

[Ding! Skill Created

ID Create - Create an Instant Dungeon to train or fight without affecting the real world.]

Seeing that I succeeded, I raise my hand into the air again and focus on destroying the ID I just created. A few seconds later the world around me shatters like glass revealing the real world outside.

[Ding! Skill Created

ID Escape - A skill to get out of an Instant Dungeon.]

I want to see what those skills do so I go to the skills page and click on them.

[ID Create(Active)

Lvl 1 - Create an empty ID

Lvl 2 - Create an ID with regular zombies

Lvl 3 - Create an ID with ninja animals

Lvl 4 - Create an ID with samurai zombies

Lvl 5 - Create a mix ID

Lvl 6 - Create an ID with ninja zombies

Lvl 7 - Create an ID with time dilation of 1:2

Lvl 8 - Create an ID that weakens enemies while boosting teammates. ID time dilation of 1:3

Lvl 9 - Create an ID that boosts recovery. ID time dilation of 1:5

Lvl 10 - Create an ID with multiple levels and monsters that get progressively stronger the higher level you go. ID time dilation of 1:10]

[ID Escape(Active)

Lvl 1 - Break out of a Level 1 ID

Lvl 2 - Break out of a Level 2 ID

…

Lvl 10 - Break out of a Level 10 ID]

After seeing that I can have a time dilation dungeon, I instantly went to work on ID Create and ID Escape. Too bad I can't spam the skills as it uses about 10% of my chakra each time. After every 8 or so ID Create and Escape, I have to sit down and meditate to recover chakra or risk chakra exhaustion.

A few hours of creating and destroying ID later, I found out that I still need sleep, unlike other Gamer. On the plus side, I managed to get ID Create and ID Escape to level 3. Meditation is still level 1, I guess it'll be harder to level it up than the other skills.

The next day, I got up, got ready for school, then do the leaf exercise again. Since I already know where the academy is, I don't need to go out early.

Around 20 minutes before school starts, I stopped the exercise and head out.

"Hiro?" I heard someone say as I was locking the door. I turned around to see Naruto carrying a few buckets of paint and a paintbrush.

"Naruto, what are you doing with all that paint?"

"W-What? This? I was just training by carrying some weight around, hahaha." Naruto said, trying and failing to lie like a kid that just been caught trying to do something bad, which he is. He's probably going to vandalize some house or the Hokage's Monument like he did at the start of the series.

"Uh-huh. Why don't you go put the paint away? I know you go to the academy. It's going to start soon."

"Eh? B-But…"

"No buts, Naruto. I heading there too so why don't you join me."

"Really?" he asks sounding a little excited.

"Yes, now hurry or I'll leave you behind."

"Yes! Wait here, I'll be right back," he says as he runs past two doors and enters the third one.

'I live in the same apartment complex as Naruto?' I walk over to the edge of the balcony and look around the building. Checking the apartment for a bit, I confirm that this is the apartment where Naruto lives in the anime. I didn't notice because I wasn't paying attention before. After waiting around for a while, Naruto came back out in his signature orange sweater.

[Naruto relationship +5 for hanging out with him]

What do you know, I'm already friends with Naruto. Weren't expecting it to be so easy.

"I'm done, let's go," Naruto said as he walks off in the opposite direction.

"Naruto, it's this way." I grab the back of his shirt and turn him around.

"Haha right." Naruto gives an awkward embarrassed laugh. "Say, Hiro. I didn't know you were living here. How come I never see you around before?"

"That's because I always leave early." I quickly make up some excuse. I left early yesterday but I don't know about the past that the Game created for me. All I know from the Game is that I'm the last survivor of the declining Sen clan and I'm currently in the program the Hiruzen created for Naruto.

I didn't talk much on the way to school. It's mostly because Naruto was talking nonstop most of the time so I just walk with him and listen. When we reach the academy, I make sure he gets to his class before I go to mine. If I don't, he might run off to do his own thing after I leave. I wonder how surprised Iruka will be to see Naruto arriving on time.