I woke up closer to noon. After rubbing my eyes and completing my morning routine, I was about to dive back into sorting through the system's abilities and features, but my stomach loudly reminded me of its existence. Right, I hadn't eaten since yesterday—too absorbed in processing all the info that had dumped on me. A quick check of my food supplies revealed their complete absence as a concept. I had to drop everything, grab the allowance and moving funds I'd been given, and go solve the problem of no provisions, while also picking up some household essentials.
The weather was gorgeous: sunny but not too hot, with clouds drifting in the sky, green grass, and birds singing. Pure idyll. But the whole lovely scene was ruined by people. They stared at me like I was a public enemy, itching to mess with me or throw insults. I haven't done anything bad to anyone yet—okay, maybe to a few, but that's totally unproven, so it doesn't count. Honestly, with this attitude, they're going to make "yet" the operative word. Sure, I'm planning to wipe out the locals eventually, but I'm not some maniac—I won't kill absolutely everyone. I still need to build a harem, so I'll be selective, only taking out the worst offenders. And there are surprisingly a lot of those.
I swear, the locals must completely lack a survival instinct—or a brain. How else do you explain their behavior? How can they not grasp something so simple: kids grow up. Sure, you can kick around the little demon brat now, but it won't be long before he grows into a big, strong demon. Then what? And how does every damn dog in the village know my face? I didn't see any posters with my mug and the caption "Nine-Tails Inside" plastered on every corner.
I've got a bad feeling about this. The information leak to the masses feels too selective. Every mutt knows I'm the Fox's vessel, but no one seems to know I'm the son of the village hero. Convenient, isn't it?
On my way to the nearest café, I managed to get four kicks, six smacks to the head, and I lost count of how many times I was shoved—all under the hateful, contemptuous glares of the villagers. I'm starting to respect the local mentalists. How many triggers, and what kind, did they have to plant in Naruto's head to keep him from unleashing the Fox on his first stroll through the village like this? Instead, he wanted their respect and recognition, even risking his life for them.
But I don't think it was just triggers. There's some subtle psychological manipulation at play, tying him to specific people. The saying "take everything away from a person, then give it back, and they'll be grateful" works 100% here. If no one knew he had a demon inside, and they treated him like a regular orphan, most villagers wouldn't even notice him.
I didn't manage to get any food—every diner and café kicked me out. My brilliant idea to buy groceries and cook for myself flopped too. In every shop and stall, they either refused to sell to me or jacked up the prices several times while slipping me obviously spoiled goods. The only store that didn't pull that crap belonged to the Sarutobi clan, and that's only because it was set up like our supermarkets, with fixed prices on every item. But their selection was limited: sacks of rice, instant noodles, milk in cartons, canned goods, spices—no vegetables or meat. They didn't kick me out or overcharge me here; they just shortchanged me. Protesting got me nowhere, but they cursed me out impressively. I learned a lot about myself and added a few very creative expressions to my already sizable vocabulary.
Buying household items and other essentials went about the same way. By the end of the day, I started thinking about visiting a stationery store to get a blank scroll or notebook. My memory's good, but not perfect, and just today, I added 37 people to my blacklist. At this rate, I might forget someone, and that won't do. I'll have to splurge on that too.
— Ugh, where can I get a free notebook? — The heavens stayed silent, but the system unexpectedly replied.
Request received.
Processing request…
Param-pam-pam.
You've gained the skill: Virtual Freebie Notebook for Recording Enemies' Names.
Oh, awesome! And I was complaining about the system? It's a great system! Sure, it glitches sometimes, but we'll manage—especially with free stuff like this. Weird, though, that I didn't get any quests today. Like, "Get some food and earn 100,000 experience." Shame there's none of that, but this isn't bad either. Maybe I haven't fully figured out the settings yet.
Well, the system took my request too literally. I can only record enemies' names in this notebook—nothing else. Since I don't know most of their names, and I can't add any extra details to the ones I do know, the usefulness of this notebook is highly questionable.
I dragged myself home, started boiling some instant noodles, and began tallying my remaining funds. The results were seriously depressing: almost nothing left of my moving funds, and I didn't even buy everything I needed. The allowance meant to last me two weeks was entirely spent on food—and it won't even last two weeks. All I bought was a small two-kilo sack of rice, two dozen eggs, a liter of milk, and fifteen packs of instant noodles.
The noodles, by the way, weren't half bad. But eating them three times a day, seven days a week, for eight years? That's overkill. I bet Naruto ate nothing but noodles not because he loved them, but because he had no choice. Facing the same problem, he probably spent his entire allowance on noodles—the cheapest, most filling, and longest-lasting option—and then just got used to it.
I've got a feeling that if I don't find a way to get proper food, I'll have to switch to that diet too. After finishing my meal, I started exploring the system.
— Status. — A window appeared before my eyes.
Status
Name: Naruto Uzumaki
Race: Unknown Malevolent Entity
Level: 4 (Experience: 400/1600)
Class: Shinobi Larva
Subclass: — (Unlocks at level 100)
HP: 650 / 5.22 per min.
CP: 780 / 6.2 per min.
Bijuu CP: 1,000,000 (Locked)
MP: Locked.
Attributes:
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 2
Speed: 1
Stamina: 6
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 12
Intuition: 5
Spirit Strength: 25
Willpower: 12
Charisma: 2
Control: -150
Chakra: 4
Luck: 1
Body Structure
Free Attribute Points: 20
Free Skill Points: 2
Additional Attributes:
Elemental Affinities:
Fire: 0.8%
Wind: 1.3%
Lightning: 0.01%
Earth: 0.01%
Water: 0.01%
Life: 0.05%
Death: 1.1%
Light: 0.001%
Darkness: 0.95%
Order: Locked
Chaos: 0.67%
Achievements: "Little Stinker," "Fumitox."
Active Skills: "Dark Lord's Sinister Laugh" Level MAX, "Mad Vivisector Scientist's Laugh" Level MAX, "Shinigami's Visage," "Killing Intent" Level 1, Meditation Level 1.
Passive Skills: Player's Body, Player's Mind, Regeneration.
Traits: Player, Jinchuriki, Demon, Uzumaki Blood.
"Jinchuriki":
The Nine-Tailed Fox is sealed within your body.
Effects: Chakra Control -100. Reputation with the faction "Konohagakure Residents" -3000.
Stamina +3. Strength +2. HP +200. Chakra Pool +500. Chakra Regeneration x2, HP Regeneration x2.
"Demon":
You're considered the embodiment of the Fox demon and called as such. They say, "Name a ship, and so it shall sail," and not without reason.
Effects:
-2000 reputation with the faction "Konohagakure Residents."
Neutral relations with denizens of the dark planes (they consider you one of their own).
"Uzumaki Blood":
You're a half-Uzumaki.
Effects: Stamina +2, HP +150, Chakra Pool +200, +50 HP per level, +2 Chakra per level. Chakra Control -50. Affinity for sealing techniques.
Reputation:
Faction "Konohagakure Residents": -5000 (Strong Hatred)
Aburame Clan Faction: -1000
Personal:
Hiruzen Sarutobi: -500 (Distrust)
Danzo Shimura: 500 (Interest)
Inoichi Yamanaka: -2000
Orochimaru: 100
What the heck is this—ugh, I mean, this race? I'm a human, damn it! The system's glitching again.
— Hey, system, I'm a human, not some Unknown Malevolent Entity. I don't agree—set a proper race!
Your body contains the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, your mind hosts a colony of Xenomorph cockroaches, and you're a spirit from another world who devoured the soul of an innocent infant, recognized as one of their own by denizens of the dark planes. Still insisting you're human?
— *#$@%! May Lina Inverse be my mother-in-law! — Can't argue with that. With tenants like these and my origins, I don't exactly qualify as human. But why do demons think I'm one of them? Maybe because of the Fox, or because I devoured Naruto's soul. And how the hell did I manage that without noticing? No clue.
Oh well, race isn't the main thing. Unknown Malevolent Entity—could be worse, I guess. Let's keep looking. Level 4—that's pretty good. And what's this? Shinobi Larva? Come on, what kind of nonsense is this? Why not a pupa that turns into a butterfly, or even a caterpillar at the very least? Why a larva? I feel like a maggot in a pile of crap. Better not ask, or it'll probably explain.
Intelligence +1.
This boost isn't exactly thrilling. I should be happy I got smarter, but I feel like an idiot instead. Fine, let's move on. Hmm, this is clear. Oh, where'd MP come from? I've got chakra, and it's locked, just like the Bijuu chakra. What does that mean? If it's locked, there's a way to unlock it. That'd be awesome. On top of cool techniques, I'd be slinging spells too—I'd be insanely badass. Now, how to unlock it? We'll figure it out.
Let's see, attributes. All clear here. Control's in the negative, as expected. Luck's at 1—low, but not fatal, I hope. Whoa, Body Structure? What's that? Oh, I get it—an appearance editor. It adjusts your looks using points, changes are gradual, not instant. The more drastic the change, the more time and points it takes. But the possibilities are huge: from changing hair color to growing extra limbs and organs.
I'll deal with that later too. Let's hold onto the attribute and skill points for now. Elemental affinities—nice, there's a lot here. I thought it'd just be the five main ones, but I've got affinity with everything except Order, even if it's tiny.
Next up, achievements. I wish I'd never seen them. Skills—I already know those. Traits. Let's take a look. Well, now I get where the demon relations come from.
All that's left is to check out the forum, shop, and auction. But I'll save that for tomorrow