Rank D Dungeon (1)

Shinji sat on the edge of a roof of a particularly tall building in the village with his legs hanging freely as he watched the village gate. Throughout the past week, multiple teams from foreign villages were slowly arriving at Konoha, no doubt to participate in the chuunin exams which would be happening in a few days' time.

A week ago, Asuma had informed his team that they were going to be nominated for the chuunin exams much to Shinji's delight, even if it was a foregone conclusion really. Hinata was slightly more apprehensive, although the girl was content just following Shinji wherever he went. Shino, on the other hand, revealed no discernible emotion to the announcement, merely nodding in acknowledgement at that.

And as part of his preparations for the exams, Shinji decided to conduct some reconnaissance of his competitors. Using his [Observe] skill, Shinji was able to take note of the approximate level of strength from many of his competitors. Though he had a rough idea of who were the true stand outs that would appear in this exam, there was still a possibility of unexpected outcomes as a result of his existence.

The participants were largely from the surrounding shinobi villages, geographically located relatively closer to Konoha. And their levels generally ranged from 25 to 30 on average. There were, of course a couple underwhelming participants below that range, but not many were above level 30.

Shinji wouldn't claim to be an expert in inter-village politics, but he could make an educated guess that foreign villages wouldn't usually send their best and their brightest to chuunin exams hosted by villages that were not their close allies.

Already, he had seen a couple genin teams from Amegakure, Kusagakure and Takigakure who were all rather underwhelming. At this point in time, Amegakure should have already been taken over, with Hanzo being overthrown by Pein, or rather, Nagato. They would likely be wanting to keep a low profile. Even sending a couple genin to Konoha's chunin exams was likely just a form of camouflage for the Akatsuki.

There was no way they were going to send actual chuunin-level genins to take part in the exams so as to not attract attention. Because if these genin actually made it to the final stage of the exams, the leader of Ame, who the world knew of as being Hanzo, would be expected to be in attendance.

From what he knew of the exams, invitations were extended to every hidden village. Although, whether or not the invited would actually send their genin to participate was a different story that heavily depended on the political climate at that time.

Iwa, for instance, a long time and bitter enemy of Konoha would never deign to participate in any events hosted by Konoha and vice versa. They would likely be worried that Konoha might try to do something to their shinobi while they were in their village and Konoha similarly thought the same.

The same went for Kumo, which because of what was now known as the 'Hyuuga Affair' that occurred a couple years prior, had a sour relationship with Konoha. Not to mention their hidden village was simply so far away geographically that it would take weeks of travel just to arrive at Konoha. Being so far removed from their village was a safety issue, especially when they were deep in what could be considered 'enemy territory'.

Kiri, on the other hand, was undergoing a civil war. They were not in a position to be participating in something as frivolous as another village's chunin exams even if they wanted to.

Teams from the same village arrived together in a large group. Normally, silent alarms would have been triggered when Konoha patrols sighted so many foreign shinobi converging on the village all at once. Needless to say, those alarms were not triggered.

However, it would be foolish to assume Konoha's security were at all relaxed because of the upcoming chuunin exams. Rather, they were tightened precisely because of the sudden influx of foreign agents. The entire village was placed in heightened alert, with amplified patrols concentrated around the restricted areas within Konoha.

Shinji suddenly sat up straighter when a large group of Suna shinobi entered the village gates. There were slightly over thirty Suna shinobi of varying ranks. It looked like thirty of them were genin while the rest were their chaperones.

Of course only three of them caught Shinji's eye, with especially one of them of particular interest.

[Gaara Lv 45]

HP: 15200/15200

CP: 346000/346000

Gaara is a genin of Sunagakure and the youngest son of the Yondaime Kazekage. Because of his status as the jinchuuriki of the Ichibi Shukaku, he is widely feared as a monster by the villagers of Suna. Though he appears outwardly calm, Gaara is deeply unbalanced and, in certain situations, driven mad with bloodlust as a result of Shukaku's influence. He hates other people for existing, believing that so long as they are alive, they are a threat to his own existence. His purpose is therefore to kill anyone who is strong or whom he perceives as similar to himself, as only by killing them can he assert his own existence.

He has no opinion of you.

Gaara is stronger than you.

As expected, a jinchuuriki's HP and CP were simply off the charts, Shinji observed. However, compared to Naruto who was at the moment only level 32 and yet possessed a larger chakra capacity than Gaara. It only goes to show the difference in power between the nine tailed fox and the one tailed tanuki.

His CP was also constantly fluctuating, presumably due to the cost of maintaining his powerful defensive sand ninjutsu but is immediately regenerated from his natural chakra recovery. The other odd point was Gaara's comparatively low HP, which was unlike the overwhelming vitality of Kyuubi's jinchuuriki.

Shinji couldn't help but wonder how he would fare against Gaara in a battle. If it was in the context of the chuunin exam finals, where they were to fight in the middle of an arena under the watchful gaze of the entire audience, he would undoubtedly lose.

With his self-imposed restrictions on revealing his Sharingan to the world as well as the oddity of his Gamer's Body that was sure to catch the eye of the perceptive, Shinji would have to fall back on the rest of his arsenal, much of which lacked the explosive power necessary to penetrate Gaara's defenses. The highest ranked offensive ninjutsu in his repertoire consisted only of katon and futon B-ranked ninjutsu. The best solution to Gaara's ultimate defense he could think of was using his wind chakra and its sharp, penetrative nature.

In a situation where Shinji could fight Gaara away from prying eyes however, the results would be more uncertain. From what he could remember, the Uchiha clan's Sharingan was able to place tailed beasts under limited control with their ocular genjutsu. The details of which were either never explained or perhaps Shinji just couldn't remember, but it was a definite possibility.

It was also possible that he required the advanced form of the Sharingan, the Mangekyo, in order to control the Bijuu, but it wasn't exactly something he could test out.

Regardless, Shinji did not feel comfortable placing such a large amount of faith in an ability that was only a maybe. He much rather preferred relying on his own strength to overcome the monstrous challenges lying ahead of him. Throughout the months spent training and completing quests after graduating, his level and skills rose at a fast pace. But to Shinji, it was still slightly lacking, especially when he thought about who he might have to face during the exams.

And from his experience, there was only one sure fire way to greatly improve his strength in such a short amount of time. It was time to head back in to the Uchiha Natural Dungeon.

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The Rank D Uchiha Natural Dungeon was roughly similar to the previous two dungeons I cleared. Like before, the dungeon featured undead Uchiha clansmen. Only this time around, they were fully grown adults or late teenagers that I had to kill instead. Furthermore, unlike the shambling and stumbling clumsy zombies of the Rank F dungeon, these genin-level zombies were much more agile and strong.

They still lacked the critical element that would have landed me in danger fighting so many of these creatures in such a short time frame which was intelligence.

If the monsters in the dungeon had the mental capacity to team up and work together, my life might definitely have been in peril a couple times. Fortunately, they had no such notion of teamwork. Instead, they preferred only to aggressively attack me when I wandered into their zone of hostility.

The genin-level zombies had levels that ranged from 20 to 30, and their respective combat prowess increased according to their level. Luckily they did not have jutsu in their repertoire, preferring only to attack with their limbs and teeth. With the exception of zombies with levels in the late twenties who actually wielded weapons.

These weapons differed from zombie to zombie, examples included daggers, axes, and swords of various lengths.

Needless to say, the deadliness of the dungeon monsters had increased exponentially as compared to the previous dungeon which only featured undead academy students and clumsy genin. However, my strength had also increased exponentially since the last time I entered one of these dungeons.

Not only were my stats higher than before, the level of my skills, as well as my proficiency in utilizing them had also rocketed upwards. Constant training and sparring against Asuma, a full fledged jounin specializing in close quarters combat, had seen my combat ability similarly improving greatly since I graduated from the Shinobi Academy.

Against mindless zombies who could only rely on their genin-level physical strength and dulled reflexes, it was once against a slaughter.

Though the difficulty of the dungeon had increased, so too had it rewards. Putting aside the EXP gained from each the defeated zombies which was a substantial amount with each individual creature awarding more than one thousand EXP each, the monetary rewards were considerable as well.

Each Loot Orb dropped by the slain zombies held ample ryo, over a thousand each, as well as various miscellaneous items which often included the weapons they had been wielding. Which resulted in my inventory space being filled with rusty kunai, damaged swords or outright broken blades.

I still had my eyes set on the weapons displayed in the lady smith, Masako granny's, weapon shop. Those items may have an exorbitant price tag attached to them, but each one was more than worth its price. So saving up enough to purchase one of those if I ever found myself in the Land of Fire's Capital City was a definitely goal of mine.

One new stand out loot that only started dropping in this Rank D Dungeon were potions.

[Minor Health Potion – Grade: Uncommon]

A low quality concoction that is poorly made.

When consumed, recovers 500 HP instantly.

[Minor Chakra Potion – Grade: Uncommon]

A low quality concoction that is poorly made.

When consumed, recovers 500 CP instantly.

The drop rate of the potions were rather low. About 1 in 10 zombies were drop one of them. But once in awhile an Intermediate Potion would drop as well, which recovered 1500 HP/CP instead.

The health potions were distinctively bright red in colour, a staple sight of just about every fantasy RPG ever, whereas the contents within the chakra potions were light blue and slightly glowing. As interesting as it was to see liquid chakra sloshing around in a bottle, I had no clue as to its production methods. Otherwise, I would definitely have tried producing them on my own. Instant CP recovery sounded extremely useful in the right circumstances.

The true highlight of the dungeon, however, was the 'Boss' fight.

When I entered the Uchiha Clan Cemetery, where the dungeon Boss monster would usually reside, it was empty. That was baffling because I had scoured the entire Uchiha compound killing every single zombie before making my way to the cemetery – as was my usual habit of clearing these dungeons – yet I had not seen hide nor hair of anything that resembled a Boss monster.

Stepping in to the middle of the cemetery, however, was apparently the trigger of the Boss fight.

All at once, zombified arms broke through the dirt and grass of the cemetery as undead corpses burst out of the surface. There was one for every tombstone contained within the cemetery, and there were many tombstones in the graveyard. A cursory count told me that there were at least a hundred of these zombies around me.

I had stepped into a trap it seemed.

What's more, my [Observe] skill informed me that each one of them were level 30 Undead Uchiha Genin. Surrounded by over a hundred of them, I quickly judged that if I bullishly tried to fight against these odds, chances were I would lose and perish.

As a result, faced with imminent peril, I swiftly pulled up my status page and emptied my accumulated reserve of free stat points.

My stats instantly skyrocketed. With survivability as my key priority, I brought my VIT all the way up to 200 without hesitation nor regret. Similarly, something told me that I would require greater reserves of chakra as well as speed and manoeuvrability to survive this ordeal. Thus, I pulled up my INT to 200 as well. Although I did not have enough free stat points to do the same with my DEX, it still increased to a respectable 197 – just 3 stat points shy from 200.

Just like that, 154 free stat points was reduced to zero.