Ninja Gamer

Chapter 7: War in a Forest

I sighed as I walked down the streets of Konohagakure, a new day had dawned and I was ready to start making progress in training.

The session with Fuyuko-sensei yesterday had gone fairly well in my own opinion, and hers as well from what I gathered. It had been emotionally draining, going over the two close calls I had with death during the battle for Tensei Bridge, re-experiencing the anger that I felt when I had fought the Jonin Nana, the grim realization when I was overwhelmed by the Chunin Shiki.

She had assured me that those feelings were completely normal and common, especially for Shinobi who never know what would happen next, and each mission could honestly be our last, whether it was from bad luck, accident, or our enemy was just plain better than us.

The rest of the meeting had been talking about the fact that I was experiencing a war before I was even a teen, I was pretty sure she was trying to probe me to see if I was harbouring resentments against Konoha for being forced to fight before I even hit the double digits for my age. I wasn't, for your information.

Following the meeting I had pretty much went straight home, only stopping to pick up a meal at a local restaurant. Our fridge was empty because none of us knew when we were going to be returning and at the moment we only had canned goods that would last through an apocalypse... and let's just say that I would rather eat field rations before eating those. Seriously, field rations don't quite taste like ass, but it's a fairly close approximation.

After eating I had spent some time levelling up my chakra control skills [Tree Walking] and [Water Walking] before calling it quits and headed for bed, sleeping like a complete rock.

Now I was on my way back to Suguro's to pick up my new jacket, unfortunately, my usual combat outfit had been pretty much damaged beyond repair during my fight with Nana, leaving me with little in terms of defensive options. But I was a kunoichi, I wasn't supposed to sit and take enemy attacks like some kind of samurai, I'm supposed to dodge them!

Eh, besides I found a nifty little seal not too long ago that would allow me to increase the defensive abilities of cloth based objects, it wouldn't quite be as strong as say Iron, but apparently it could make something like a cotton weaved shirt as strong as Kevlar. And considering that most shinobi outfits are made out of tougher materials I think I would be able to get away without wearing armor.

"Good morning!" I called out as I entered the shop, getting the attention of Suguro.

"Ah, welcome back, Yuriko-chan!" He called out cheerfully. "Here to pick up your order, then? One sec, Hanae! Yuriko is here for her custom order!"

"Coming!" A feminine voice called out before a red haired, blue eyed woman appeared from behind the large shopkeeper. Everything Suguro was physically, his daughter wasn't, apparently, not even a foot taller than me the teen woman was soft curves and tiny, especially when compared to the giant that was her father. "Yes, I got your jacket right here," she confirmed, smiling widely at me as she handed the jacket over to me, the Uchiha clan symbol emblazoned on it.

Grinning I accepted the jacket and immediately threw it on over the sleeveless black shirt I was wearing, testing out its fit. "Thanks a lot," I said gratefully, adjusting the collar a bit. "It's good work."

Looking up from my jacket I met the scrutinizing gaze of Hanae. "W-what?" I questioned nervously as her eyes bored into me.

"That skirt does not work with that jacket," she told me after several moments of nervous silence, her father groaning as he slid his face into the palm of his hand, muttering something that sounded like 'here we go again'. "The undershirt works, but blue and red? They just clash in a terrible way."