Rain.
This was the first thing he felt. The scent of a storm in the sky, a thousand tiny impacts drumming against metal. Lights glowed from behind thick glasses of massive structures. In the North, he could see the smoke from the Foundry, one of the village's massive asset capable of being self-sustainable and support an isolationist policy. On the horizon, massive walls were towering the village itself.
This was Amegakure. A fortress of iron and rain.
A flood of foreign memories, instincts, and emotions—like a second heartbeat—pulsed in his mind.
Twelve years of life in this damp world. The cold pride of the Kagutsu clan, bounty hunters whose loyalty belonged to the most offering. The familiar, electric sense in his eyes awakening. It was his birthright, the Raikōgan, dormant.
The name 'Ryugo' fit him now, worn and comfortable.
[Status: Ryugo Kagutsu | Lv. 10 Genin (0 / 200)
Attributes (Scale 100):
Chakra Density: D (40) | Chakra Control: D (40) | Mind: D (10)
Agility: D (10) | Strength: D (10) | Stamina: D (10)
Perk: Lightning Specialist (+10% Proficiency in Raiton)
Skill Proficiencies(Scale 100):
Bloodline Release: Raikōgan I (C) (0) (Sealed)
Ninjutsu(Raiton): White Lion Storm Bite (C) (20), Lightning Clone (D) (40), Lightning Arc (D) (40), Lightning Snake Kunai (D) (40), Thunder Clap (D) (40),
Genjutsu: Genjutsu Reversal (D) (40)
Kenjutsu: Rain Swordsmanship (D) (40)
Taijutsu: Academy Rain Fist Style (E) (60)
Miscellaneous: Stealth (C) (60), Kunai Throwing (D) (50), Strategy (D) (40), Logistics (D) (10), Wilderness Survival (D) (10), Trading (D) (10), Eloquence (D) (10), History (E) (50), Flute (E) (15)]
His status panel was almost blank. After choosing his clan, a puppet had played his life, growing up in his stead yet keeping a resemblance of his personality. Greedy, full of ambition, and more importantly, disciplined.
Yet, in spite of all those effort, his status panel was laughable.
A level 10 genin at the age of 12, an age where some were already jonin. Some decent skills, especially in ninjutsu. However, the rest of his stats were laughable. Fortunately, the system was bound to give him an edge.
Not unique, as he remembered the 236 other players who would share the same battlefield as him, but an edge nonetheless. Even if one of them were to become an Uchiha, there was something about the system being fair. An intuition that he could not shake, the very same that made him worried about spilling its existence to native shinobi.
A sharp voice cut through the rain's white noise.
"Stop daydreaming, Ryugo. The briefing is over. Move out!"
[Quest Updated: First Blood]
[Objective: Survive your first official mission as a Genin of Amegakure.]
[Reward: 200 EXP, Unlocking Raikōgan (I)]
Ryugo turned.
His team.
A stern-faced Jōnin, his Amegakure forehead protector worn like a band over his slick grey hair—Mumei, no known clan, all business.
Two other Genin.
[Tetsu Waraiko - Lv. 8 Genin]
A young boy from the Waraiko clan, his face hidden behind a smooth, white mask painted with a single tear trailing from the eyehole down to a perpetually smiling red mouth.
[Ameruyi Takeda - Lv. 16 Genin]
A stern girl, her face hidden behind a veil dropping from her straw hat. Her hands were rough, remnants of long training sessions with the sword, but her movements were graceful. Obviously, she was the designated team leader. Member of a noble clan of Ame, top scorer in the academy...Compared to him and Tetsu, she was a genius.
"The target is a cell of River Country bandits", Mumei stated, his voice barely rising above the rain.
"They've been intercepting our low-priority supply caravans in the marshes to the south. Intelligence suggests three, possibly four, low-chakra individuals. They are not shinobi. But do not underestimate them. This is a test. If I see you unfit for the battlefield, you will go back to the academy and retake the tests"
"Hai", the three genin replied in unison.
Ryugo felt a cold, focused excitement.
This was no game menu.
This was real.
The pain from the system's integration was gone, replaced by the live wire of potential in his veins.
Behind his mask, he could sense his teammate Tetsu's anxiety. As a low-level genin with a useless kekkei gekkai that made others laugh when he cried, he had been bullied extensively in the academy. His only trait was his strong spirit, translating into decent genjutsu grades.
To his right, the Takeda kunoichi. Impassible, almost lacking emotion. Obviously, she had been training her hidden art extensively. She looked incapable of joy. Boring, even, he must say.
Ryugo did not comment their posture. It was his first fight too, and with the unlocking of his dojutsu on the line, he certainly was not planning on failing the tutorial quest.
They moved through the village, a descent through layers of society.
From the elevated walkways near the central tower into the lower industrial sectors where the roar of machinery competed with the rain.
Finally, they reached a giant watergate, a massive circular portal in the village's outer shell. With a groan of hydraulics, it slid open just enough for them to slip through, and the full, unfiltered force of the Land of Rain's storm greeted them.
The marsh was a world of grey-green water, skeletal trees, and sucking mud.
The rain here was colder.
Mumei led them in silence, a ghost guiding them accross ruins. Judging by the timeline, it should have been years since the first shinobi war, but the burnt villages had yet to be reconstructed. As for the fields? He could see some farmers, but their skinny frame made the economic situation of Amegakure obvious.
Ryugo's senses were on high alert.
His [Stealth (C)] seemed to guide his footsteps, finding purchase on rotten wood and solid mud without a sound.
Two hours in, Mumei raised a closed fist.
He pointed ahead to a makeshift camp nestled in some ruins. Three figures huddled around a sputtering fire, trying in vain to keep it alive.
"Positions", Mumei breathed