Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 24

Stalking someone was complicated. Doing so while also taking care of a garden was slightly harder. Doing both while also under the supervision of a Tokubetsu Jounin that couldn't find out of the first was... a pain in the ass, to say the least. However, I managed, somehow, or she didn't mention it. I liked to think that it was the first.

[Gardening has gone up a level.]

'I have enough to keep track of right now, Game,' I thought, withholding a grimace. I didn't like complaining about the system, but the timing was terrible sometimes.

"And that's that," Anko announced then, breaking me from my introspection and I stood up, with the last bits of weeds on my hands. And indeed, the garden looked better than ever. I was kind of proud, since it had been an absolute mess when we arrived. No wonder they handed a mission for this. "I gotta say though, it's the first time I've seen someone so enthusiastic about a D-rank mission," My sensei commented with a smirk. I shrugged.

"I have a garden at home, and I like taking care of it. It's relaxing," I explained, although I suspected that she knew at least the first part. That profile she had read was very thorough, it seemed.

"If you say so. Anyway, with the boring part out of the way and the physical and fighting training done, we can start with the part that you really want to do," She declared with a grin. One would think that the one excited was her instead of me. Not that she was wrong, since she was talking about starting my training with the three new jutsus.

As we made our way back to the training ground though, I let my mind wonder to other things. No need to get nervous or overexcited about the new techniques. Instead, I recalled the last week. Just like she had said, we had done one D-rank mission every day and left it at that, no matter if the mission was short or long.

I had yet to get any other scrolls from my mystery benefactor, but I wasn't too worried. They had proved to be somewhat reliable after the last few years. It probably only meant that I had to do several tasks before they gave me more. Which wasn't a problem, really, since I was still studying the one they had given me first.

It turns out that jutsu creation was hard. Shocking, I know. It involved a lot of study, analysis and estimation of everything, from chakra coils to hand seals passing through affinities and a lot of other things. There were three scrolls on the Introduction series alone. And then there were a specialized series for every type of Release.

'Hopefully, I'll get a skill for this, because otherwise I won't be creating anything anytime soon,' I thought to myself. Sometime through my musings, we had delivered the scroll confirming that I had indeed done the mission and arrived at the Forest of Death, our usual training grounds.

"And here we are," Anko announced unnecessarily as she spread her arms signaling the forest. It was like I was coming here for the first time. "Now, about those jutsus I told you about? It's time to properly try, so, what do you think?"

"I think I'm good," I nodded, confidently, mentally going over the three scrolls I had read over the last week.

"Really, all of them?" At my nod, she smirked. "Ok, wonder boy, if you think you got it, give Embers a try."

And right as she finished the sentence, my hands flew through the four seals of the jutsu. Right as I finished the last seal, the chakra that had concentrated in my lungs felt like it burned me without actually doing damage. Keeping my head as calm as possible, I shaped a circle with my thumb and index in front of my mouth and blew, mentally nudging the chakra out of me.

The fire ball wasn't that big. While Great Fireball was as big as an average room, and the Normal fireball was as big as a person, Embers was around the size of a torso... 'Maybe I should use other things to compare their size with,' I mused idly as I saw the flame fly through the air until it hit the tree I had been aiming for.