Naruto spent the rest of morning and into the early afternoon just making explosive tags. The slot in his hip pouch allowed him to hold up to fifty so he made damned sure he had fifty on him, those tags would have come in extremely handy against Jorogumo and he'd be damned if he was ever caught without them again. He'd even gained a couple levels in [Fuinjutsu] for his troubles.
Anyway, with that work done it was time to seek out his friends Shikamaru and Chouji, he had some training to do and they were going to help.
Naruto actually had to search for Shikamaru for a change, he was neither at home or any of his favorite cloud watching spots. So it was much to Naruto's surprise to find him at the KSA obstacle course with Chouji.
"Yo, I've been looking all over for you guys," shouted Naruto, running to join his compatriots.
"Yeah, well, I had some time to think after passing the test yesterday," started Shikamaru. "My techniques are great for support, always have been. The problem is I'm usually a sitting duck until I can catch someone. I decided that I'm going to focus on my dexterity for a while, see how it goes."
"Wow, you're not being lazy," said Naruto in surprise. "What about you Chouji?"
"Well, Shikamaru came to me this morning and talked to me about what I'll probably be doing on any team I join. If he's right and him, Ino and I end up on a team together that means I'm going to have to be the one taking most of the hits to protect them while they use their jutsu. So I need to get tougher and stronger. He's had me running laps all morning and when my legs get tired he has me doing push-ups and sit-ups. I'm so hungry now, I think I might be starving to death already," explained the obviously exhausted young man.
"Wow again. That's awesome guys," said Naruto.
"What about you? Where have you been all day?" asked Shikamaru. "I thought you would have been here early this morning.
"Well, some stuff happened last night and I had to go see the old man this morning after I took my registration picture."
"Did you tell him?" asked Shikamaru, earning a curious look from Chouji.
"Yeah, I did, kind of had to after last night."
"How'd he take it?"
"Take what?" asked Chouji, finally having enough. "What are you guys talking about? I know there's some big secret between you guys but it's really not cool to talk around it like that in front of me."
"You're right, Chouji, sorry," said Shikamaru.
"You're right," Naruto mimicked. "I have I guess a bunch of secrets, some of them I learned last night but there is one I told Shikamaru about a while ago and he's been helping me figure it out. And you're my friend too so I guess I should tell you about it too but it's pretty unbelievable."
"Really?" asked Shikamaru and Chouji at the same time but for entirely different reasons.
"Really," said Naruto. He then proceeded to lay it for Chouji, the whole gamer thing and everything that went along with it.
"Wow," said Chouji when he finished. "I mean wow. Is this all true?"
"Near as I can tell," said Shikamaru.
"So is it a bloodline or something?" asked Chouji.
"Something else, I told the Hokage about it last night and he said it's definitely not an Uzumaki bloodline trait. He's never heard of anything like it before."
"So does that mean you can create a gaming party and stuff?" asked Chouji.
Naruto was surprised by the question. "I . . . I have no idea."
"Troublesome, Naruto, your ability is totally troublesome," groused Shikamaru. "Why don't you give it a try?"
"Party?" asked Naruto aloud but nothing happened. "Form Party? Create Party?"
"Try Team," suggested Chouji.
"Team? Form Team . . ."
You have formed a 'Team'.
"Hey, that worked," said Naruto. "Invite Akimichi Chouji."
"Whoa, that is weird," gasped Chouji.
Naruto grinned. "Invite Nara Shikamaru."
"Troublesome," said Shikamaru, moving his hand to tap the 'Accept Invite' button hovering in the air above him.
Chouji seeing Shikamaru move did the same and tapped the 'Accept Invite' with his hand.
"So what do you guys see?" asked Naruto, eager for some feedback.
"Uzumaki Naruto," read Chouji, squinting his eyes at the air above Naruto's head. "The Gamer. Lv 15."
"Yes, it works, try saying status," encouraged Naruto.
"Status," said Chouji, not sure what he'd get. The large orange window popping up in front of his face was not what he expected.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru seemed to be wordlessly flying through the various information pages, something he'd seen Naruto do several times but at least now he knew what to expect.
"This is so cool," whispered Chouji.
"This is troublesome," said Shikamaru, but a small grin made its way onto his face anyway.
Naruto couldn't help laughing like a loon, he was so excited about the whole thing. Finally his friends could see what he was living with.
"So, Naruto," began Shikamaru. "Level 15 huh? When did that happen? Because I swear you told me you were at level 12 going into the test yesterday."
"Oh man, you would not believe the shit that went down last night," said Naruto, only too excited to tell the guys everything he'd learned minus a few key details such as him being . . . containing the Kyuubi.
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