Bad decisions

"Wake up!"

I will end this child. I don't care that I'll get thrown out of Konoha, he has woken me up one too many times now... also known as twice. As I was promising myself to kill a child internally, externally, I was getting up. Now if someone had asked me at that moment why I got up, I'm not sure whether I would say, to kill a child, or, to get to the academy. Thankfully, no one asked and I made my way to the academy.

When I got to class it was mostly just boring and redundant subjects like math, but for babies, Japanese, but for babies, or science, but for babies, it was almost as if this school was meant for eight-year-olds or something. Then there was the daily physical part that was meant to teach us all the essential ninja skills. Right now it was little more than physical preparation, it was pretty fun. For the rest. With my stats? Yeah, I was absolutely horrible, but I got better.´Geography, politics, and history were far more interesting, we mostly learned Konoha history in this class, which made sense since it was the first class, but it was pretty interesting learning about how the Senju, Uchichia, and a lot of other, smaller, clans came together to form the village.

I heard the bell ring and Iruka-sensei let us leave class, which meant only one thing. Now it was time to confront the very thing I dreaded the most, the thing I had for all my time in life, or yesterday, if you want to be boring, the thing some may even call fear itself. Children. But who to talk to first? I don't know… eh, I'll just go out and see who I run into.

Five minutes later and I am just walking around aimlessly. Seriously! Whenever I get close to anyone they just whisper to each other and scamper off! Whatever I don't need, I'll be my own friend! Wait, no, that's a little too sad even for me. But how do I find a friend? With Everyone avoiding me I can't find anyone. Hmm. aha! There's Naruto sitting on the swing, looking down! He probably won't even notice me since he's too busy being sad because everyone hates him for some reason, and even if he does, he's sitting so he can't escape as easily as everyone else. The perfect prey, I mean target, I mean friend, yeah, friend. That's the word I'm looking for.

"Naruto, right?" I start off with an easy smile.

"Hm? Oh! Uh, yeah, that's me, wh-" he says with a confused look on his face, probably not expecting someone to willingly come to talk to him. But as soon as I get confirmation that he is who I thought he was, I interrupt him.

"Well Naruto, you clearly have no friends" I start, and he looks very much like a kicked puppy

"but don't worry, because I, the great Anno, who has already made academy history-" I continue.

but apparently, now it's his turn to interrupt. "Wasn't that for being the worst, like, ever?"

"Yes, it was, but History is history, and does it really matter if you're known for being the worst? At least I'm known. But! That is irrelevant right now, the most important thing is what I was telling you about, for you see, I shall teach you how to make friends, comrades and even buddies"

"There's a difference?"

"Of course there is. Anyways, I will teach you all of that, for the low, low price of you taking me to eat ramen once a week. How about it?" I tell him, all the while panning my arm out in front of me, in an attempt to show him the endless horizons of friendship I can help him reach.

"Uh, thanks, but I'm not sure I want to learn about talking with people from, well, you," he said while looking very awkward

"What? Why don't you want to learn the intricacies of friendship and social interactions from me? I'm a great conversationalist!" I reply, feeling a little outraged that, for some reason, I, specifically me, am not good enough for him.

"Sorry! I wasn't trying to insult you or anything! Believe It! It's just that I'm not sure I wanna learn from someone everyone knows is a weirdo!" he yells out, apologetically in the first part, but then getting progressively more irritated as the sentence went on.

"Me! A weirdo! That is outrageous! I haven't even spoken to anyone yet! All I've been doing is sit quietly in my corner, okay, maybe I've been staring at people a bit, but there's a good reason for that, really, and sure, did I chase people around for a while today, yes, but… you know? I think I'm starting to see it" I started, filled with outrage which quickly went away in favor of a more, ponderous, expression.

"So you can see why I don't want to learn to talk to people from you now" naruto spoke, hope in his voice.

"Oh absolutely. However! You, sadly, no longer have a choice in the matter, I am now your teacher and there is nothing you can do about it. So congratulations! Lesson one, always accept when people ask if you would like to go eat something together" I say, as I keep my hold on his shoulder and lead him to the Hokage tower, where I'm pretty sure a certain ramen shop is. "For example, Naruto, do you want to go grab a bowl of ramen with me?"

"Ramen? Sure!" he says with a face splitting grin

"See? You haven't even paid for my first meal and already you have a new friend. Aren't I a great teacher?" I say while exuding a false arrogance with every word

"Yeah, friends" I hear Naruto mumble to himself behind me

We just arrived and boy does this place smell exquisite, never, in all my vague memories or one and a half days of life, have I ever smelled anything this good.

"Ah! Naruto! Here to see me and Ayame or just for the ramen?" a friendly middle-aged man called out to us as soon as we entered while a girl who just came out from the back also called hello to Naruto.

"Both! And I brought my new friend over this time too!" Naruto called out excitedly, which only got stronger when he said the word, friend.

"Hello, a pleasure to meet you two, I assume you're Ayame, but I never caught your name?" I greet with a smile, first nodding to Ayame and then looking questioningly at the middle-aged man.

"'Names Teuchi and a friend of naruto is a friend of ours, right Ayame?" he talked to me while Naruto had already walked to the table, Teuchi quickly walked over too, in what I can only assume is fear of naruto eating the table while he was waiting.

Ayame then came over and spoke to me with an older sister glare "dad's right, Naruto really is important to us, so if this is some mean prank where you ignore him tomorrow… well, it better not be" she said while narrowing her eyes further.

"Of course not. Besides, I've already secured a deal where he pays for my food here once a week, ending it now would just be stupid" I scoffed

"YOU WHAT! Are you extorting him or something!" she said, voice laced thickly with anger.

"No, of course not. If anything, I'm an escort. Oh was that Naruto calling for me? I think I'll go, good talk, goodbye" I hurriedly said in the face of her anger and ran away.

Naruto and I have just finished our meal, it was honestly a great time, the food was good, Naruto is actually fun to be around and Teuchi was fun. Ayame too, once she figured out I was only joking earlier. Well, she thinks I was joking, but as it turns out Naruto and his friends don't have to pay, so she'll never know. And isn't that what's most important? And, I've made a decision.

"Teuchi" I call out in the quiet after the meal, they all turn towards me, waiting for me to continue.

"I Have made a choice, the choice to pursue the art of ramen wherever that path will lead me until finally, I catch up with you. And when the true battle begins, the battle to see who is the superior chef, minstrels will tell tales of our conflicts, kitchens everywhere will shake from the sound of our preparations, chefs will flock to see us a battle and when I win I shall take the crown of the ramen king from you. I will be the new mountain standing in the path of aspiring ramen chefs and bear on your legacy" I declared, a sweeping declaration that demanded respect from anyone who truly knows the value of ramen, whether as a consumer or cook. Naruto looked at us with awe, Teuchi scoffing at me like I was an idiotic kid, but still having burgeoning respect in his eyes, and Ayame, looking at the three of us like we were idiots, yet I was certain that deep, deep down she was a jealous she could not comprehend ramen on the level we could.

"morons" a quiet murmur could be heard.

very deep down.

"Try your best," Teuchi said with a confident smirk.

[Quest created!]

[Quest: one ramen, to rule them all.

You have challenged the person with the highest level in the chef skill in the world, for the title of ramen king, his specialty! While some may consider this as a fool's quest, you are convinced that as long as you keep trying, you will eventually succeed.

Rewards:

Grand exp boon

Title: [king of the kitchen]

?

?

?]

Huh… that's... neat? I mean, a grand exp boon seems like a lot, but I have no actual standard of measurement.

After a fun afternoon full of banter and good food, Naruto and I left and went our separate ways, now only one thought rang in my mind. What now? I pulled up my status screen to see what needed the most work.

[status:

Name: Anno

Age: 8

Level: 4

Health pool:170/170

Chakra pool: 330/330

Stats:

Constitution: 4

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 5

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 15

Points: 15]

Oh, would you look at that! Seems that stats can increase naturally, Hmm, I have a good amount of stat points, but what to do with them? No idea. I guess I should wait, at least for a bit until I have a more clear image of what to do. I could of course use them to bring up my physical stats, but when they are this low they have to be easier to increase… or I could try to, shall we say, specializing, a bit already, you know, to get ahead of the curve and such, after all, I already know that I'm gonna go for a ninjutsu build, so what's the harm?

Having successfully convinced myself, I quickly got my wisdom to equal my intelligence and then distributed it evenly from there since I didn't know which was better. after getting both to 24 and my chakra to 480 I Feel good about my decision, yet at the same time, I feel a nagging sensation of creeping dread. I quickly started on the way to the academy in order to start bringing up my physical stats, it was only late afternoon after all so I had plenty of time to even out a bit.

Standing in the outdoor area of the academy I decided to warm up using what was essentially a large playground from the old world meant for climbing. except that the difficulty was cranked up to eleven. I've been futilely trying for a while at climbing even the easiest of the obstacles and I am severely confused. Why am I worse than I was earlier in the day? I guess there is not a lot to do about it but keep trying, but it's weird. I can understand not improving, but how did I get worse? Doesn't matter. My stats are my biggest weak spot right now, and I need to do something, so I just have to work hard.

It's Friday now and my days have followed a pretty stable routine to this point. I generally start my days with a start and thoughts of child murder then go to the academy. After the academy, I hang out at Ichiraku's with Naruto while learning the art of ramen. To be honest with myself, I'm by no means great, in fact, I'm extremely subpar, which Naruto ever so helpfully points out given any opportunity while reminding me of my challenge, I'm just so damn clumsy! It's honestly ridiculous. I forcefully jerk myself out of reminiscing about the week, and force myself to think about the more… annoying… and worrying, part of the week. The fact that even though my dexterity, and all my stats for that matter, keep climbing, I feel no difference in my physical prowess, actually, I sometimes get worse. It's strange, really, because while I can't feel anything with my physical stats, I can feel my mental stats growing, allowing me to think faster and notice more things passively. Which is how I know that something is clearly wrong. It just wouldn't make sense for only some of the stats to work probably, especially the mental ones, which I have to assume is more complicated than the physical kind. At first, I just thought it was my new body, but while that makes sense to a point, I should still be improving.

"Ugghhh!" I fall back on my bed with an irritated groan. The worst part is that it is just at the tip of my tongue, yet just out of reach

"Ugh, you know what, me? I'll just do something else, and mull it over for a bit" I get up from the bed having made a somewhat plan but get interrupted by a notification.

[congratulations! You have gained 1 point in wisdom!]

Suddenly, the nagging worry and dread in the back of my mind come crashing into me as I remember something from my very first day in this world.

"System, can you show debuffs?" I ask through a suddenly very dry throat, out loud, even though I usually could do it mentally, the panic in my mind kept me from focusing properly.

[you have 6 stat imbalance debuffs! Would you like to view them?]

"Huh… guess I was right," I say, with a blank look on my face.