The beginning of a new shinobi's career is rather boring and monotonous.
D rank missions. Day after day. Without an end in sight.
At least that's what it felt.
While it was up to the jonin in charge to decide when a team was ready to move up in the world, it generally only happened at the very least, one month into their careers.
This was purportedly to build up cohesion and train teamwork between the graduates before they saw any actual combat.
But to Shiki who had no desire to explore the outside world just yet, this arrangement worked just fine.
In fact, his general mood and way of acting baffled his teammates, his sensei included.
You see, in the interstice period of his previous life where he had to stay in bed most of the day but his body still worked well enough, Shiki had become an avid gamer and while he lost the ability to do even that later on, some ingrained habits seemed to have lingered in his soul.
And now, they were manifesting.
The dreaded completionist tendencies.
D rank missions were useless to him, they provided no meaningful experience, the reward money was a mere pittance compared to the "pocket money" Mito gave him and they were generally very boring.
The type of task no gamer liked to do.
But that annoying progress bar that would not fill up entirely if those boring missions were not completed, it was enough to incite the most seasoned gamers into action.
Shiki's goal was simple enough, the achievement of having the most completed D rank missions in Konoha's history, that was the achievement he was hunting.
After that, he would just complete enough to get a nice and even number before moving on to the next rank.
But with many lower ranked shinobi relying on these types of D rank missions to make a living and thus completing many over the course of their life, it was hard to beat some records.
Thankfully, even genin moved on to C rank missions and made them the staple of their careers as soon as possible.
Even then, Shiki discovered that the current record for D rank missions was 467 by an already retired old shinobi.
That day, the D Rank Demon was born, mercilessly hunting all D rank missions until the promised number of 500 decorated his shinobi record.
Thus did Shiki's team watch in pure disbelief as, besides the boring missions they had to get through as a team, he used shadow clones, a high level jutsu, to rapidly complete countless menial task missions.
At the cost of near exhaustion since having even just a few clones doing labor all day turned really painful when it came time to dispel them.
Inori had tried to dissuade him multiple times but the obedient and polite Shiki had turned defiant and refused to listen.
The blonde jonin even reported it to the Hokage who asked Tsunade for help but no one could dissuade the boy.
*
"Honestly old man, I don't think that kid will really listen to anyone other than obaa-sama." Tsunade shrugged.
"And what did Mito-sama say about this?" Hiruzen asked his student.
He had asked her to broach the subject with the Uzumaki matriarch since she obviously could not get the boy to listen, herself.
"Leave him be." The Senju princess replied.
The Third Hokage looked at her with disbelief.
Tsunade could only shrug again while looking at her sensei.
"Don't look at me, I have no idea what's going on either." She helplessly said.
As for what is going on, Shiki had already discussed it with Mito and thus the two of them were already aligned.
With the boy's skill and chakra levels, a few shadow clones would not leave him at the brink of exhaustion, other than fulfilling his gamer compulsions, his actions served as a cover for something else, something which he had obviously discussed with his mistress beforehand.
*
"So let me get this straight." Mito regarded her young ward with a strange look on her face.
"You are going to need to have shadow clones of yours spread throughout the village for a secret project of yours and thus came up with a way to disguise this endeavour . . ." The redhead started.
"Huh uh." Shiki nodded.
"And this camouflage is to use those clones to complete D rank missions at breakneck speed like a total maniac." The Uzumaki matriarch was now twitching with the urge to shout about how ridiculous the situation was.
But the white haired boy just nodded as to him, it all made perfect sense.
"Which was something you wanted to do anyway so it is just two birds with one stone . . . Or so you say . . ." Mito really didn't even know where to start complaining from.
Alas, Shiki just continued to nod because his mistress seemed to have a perfect understanding of the situation.
Not wanting to ask about his so-called secret project, the boy had called it secret for a reason and the Uzumaki matriarch knew enough about her ward to understand he was working on something, though part of her was afraid to ask what nonsense he was cooking up . . .
Mito decided to inquire about the other half of Shiki's plan.
"Might I ask why, do you want to complete so many D rank missions? Do I even want to know?"
"Well, I wanted to hold the record for the number of completed missions of each rank which is four hundred and something but I like neat numbers so I'm aiming for an even five hundred." Shiki explained.
'But why!?' Mito wanted to scream.
'And he says it like it makes perfect sense and there is nothing strange to consider at all.' The redhead gave up.
"Alright. Do whatever you want." She gave the go ahead.
"Thank you Mito-sama!" With a bright, soul warming smile, Shiki gave his gratitude with a bow and went off.
Thus was the matter settled and Mito could no longer be enlisted to dissuade him.
*
The real matter of interest however, was the boy's secret project, one Shiki had been looking for a non suspicious way of completing ever since he developed his Enlightened Mind's Eye.
A sensory jutsu with wide range, that allowed him to project his senses, stealthily through any barrier, the preparation time required to activate and deactivate were its only flaws.
Konoha was much larger than the anime made it feel, Shiki could not cover it all from one position, not even close.
So he had to move about and spend a generous amount of time in a meditative state while using his Enlightened Mind's Eye which his clones were now doing in intervals between D rank missions.
Clan compounds where hidden jutsu are practiced behind closed doors?
Well, the doors aren't so closed now. Not for a certain white haired boy.
Secret Root bases in the village?
Not so secret anymore.
Hidden labs filled with sick experiments?
They were not as hidden as would seem.
As time passed, Shiki would begin cataloguing every secret in the village, from labs, bases and passages to actual information and every Konoha jutsu.
Enlightened Mind's Eye could see chakra movements in detail, its ability to analyze jutsu or simply an individual and their chakra was leagues beyond any visual jutsu.
Countless times Shiki lamented it could not be used while he was active, otherwise it would truly be the most perfect form of perception in the current shinobi world, before certain Otsutsuki shinjutsu started getting added to the mix.
For the time being, Shiki had no plans on trying to learn any of the jutsu he "acquired", the more the original body trained with Inori, the more fearful the boy grew of her sensory capability.
If he started learning other jutsu in Konoha, jutsu with which she was familiar with, the blonde jonin would literally feel it on him.
To profit from his ill gotten gains, Shiki first needed an extended period away from his sensei when he could train the stolen jutsu and personalize them to fit his style until their "feeling" was changed from the original.
After that, even if there were similarities, he could say he just took inspiration from said jutsu and then blame his genius for how he figured out how to mimic portions of hidden jutsu from the village clans.
As for hiding his monstrous talent, it was becoming increasingly difficult in front of the omniscient seeming sensei of his.
But it was after the customary adjusting period of one month that things really got shaken up for the first time since the formation of Team 6.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -