Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

CHAPTER 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor The Gamer. I own nothing, really.

Chapter 2

I'm so lucky I found another orphan to follow instead of Naruto. My original plan to follow the orange clad kid back to the building had been too naïve. I had forgotten about the Jinchuriki's tendency to prank. Which was a stupid mistake for anyone remotely aware of the series. If I had gone through with my plan to follow him not only would I have been dragged all around the village but I would have most probably lost him at some point during one of his escapes.

As it was, I was fortunate enough to hear a pair of orphans talking about going back to the building and so I followed them from a distance. This had the advantage of earning me a new skill that would be dead useful in my shinobi career.

[Stealth (Active) – Lvl 1

Hides your presence according to the level of the skill and the awareness level of others.

Consumption 10 Energy Points per second.]

If I could get it to a higher level that is, because, as it was, it wouldn't be useful for shit. Ten seconds wasn't nearly long enough and level 1 sure as hell wouldn't hide from anything. So, I would have to grind the shit out of that skill. The problem was that, I came to realize as I spent my Energy Points in Stealth while following my unaware guides, EP's regeneration rate was complete shit.

It was official, the Game hated my guts.

The silver lining of all this was that Energy Points didn't seem to equal my stamina. I had spent them until I only had 10 left and I didn't feel any different. A little while later when I regenerated 2 more points, I spent 10 more with Stealth and I still didn't feel anything. Conclusion? Energy Points were a source for skills that didn't affect me in the slightest. It was a relief really.

Once I was inside the apartment, which was exactly as Naruto's was in the show with one kitchen/dining room, one bathroom and one bedroom, I had taken some time to see what the rate of regeneration was. The result after doing some math was roughly 2 Points every 10 minutes. Which was shit, let me tell you. I prayed to every god I was aware of, fictional or not, that it at least was 2% and not just flat 2, because that would be too much for my poor heart.

That deduction made sense though, as after some math I came to the conclusion that my Energy Points would regenerate completely after roughly 8 hours if it was 2%. That was a reasonable enough time to recover energy if I was exhausted. It sucked, but it was reasonable. I just needed to find a way to increase the regeneration, the total amount or decrease the consumption, or, hopefully, do all that at the same time.

Once I was done crying, almost literally, over the stupidly nerfed Game, I started cooking something to eat. Not eating lunch had been killing me all day. Fortunately for me, there was some food in the fridge for me to whip something edible up. I would have to buy something soon though. I received another possibly useful skill after this.

[Cooking – Lvl 1

Improves the quality of cooked goods by 10%.]

It wasn't much, but I held hope that I would be able to get something out of it in the long run. If I got some Energy Points with a meal, that would make me pretty happy at this point. I wasn't enough of a dreamer to wish for Stat Points after receiving disappointment after disappointment. I had come to expect the Game to dash my hopes. 'Have I jinxed it? Fuck.'