Celestial Path Chapter 7 (Patreon)

Waking up the next day, I awoke to the sounds of birds ringing out through Konoha's lovely seemingly eternally hot as fuck summer days.

So with a groan of annoyance at waking up especially early, I got up, and headed over to the Ninja Academy to get ready for the following day. 

As I needed to learn what the hell I needed to do to get ready for Class 1-A.

I quickly talked to the secretaries and handed over the paperwork for my class change and she helpfully pointed out where I needed to go. And not long afterwards I was heading over to the staff lounge to talk to my new teacher.

Knocking on the door, I opened it up and seeing the ninja and kunonchi within giving me an odd look I quickly asked. "I got transferred to Class 1-A, can I speak to or get pointed towards the teacher of the class?" 

One of them chuckled and said. "Oi Iruka, you got a new kid. Go on ahead."

I looked over and I saw Iruka Umino who was eating breakfast send me a cheery wave and after he swallowed he said. "Go ahead and find the classroom, I will be there in a couple of minutes to give you a rundown on what you need to know. I was already told about your transfer."

Nodding I bowed my head, and then retreated from the staff lounge with the door closing shut while I quickly made my way over to the room for Class 1-A while I had a thought hit me with an hint of amusement. 

'Kaori's sister... First of all, I don't think I even got her name. But I wonder how she is going to react to hearing me leaving the class. Will she be happier with one less stronger challenger to face to reach the top of her class?' I wondered.

As Gubbo was able to smash into her with enough force to make sure she couldn't do any too-fancy martial arts with his heft.

But him using his girth to pin people down wasn't going to work well when people start to use practice kunai... Or hell he fights that youkai-blooded girl who tore me up a good bit.

Either way, my thoughts didn't have time to wander too far off as a couple of minutes later the door to the classroom opened up and Iruka Umino stepped into the room. "Hello, Akari right?" He asked with a friendly smile and I nodded.

The younger chunin walked over towards me and he took the seat in the booth next to me with him sitting sideways as he began to speak. "Alright, so we got a good half an hour or something before people start to come in. Let me tell you what changes you can expect and what you will need to change yourself."

Iruka took a deep breath and carefully spoke. "Class A, regardless of the year is the class of assured potential to be invested in. Class A is the class in which you yourself will be pressured with the best resources, and training given to you while making sure to instill the values of the Hidden Leaf Village." 

'Making sure to hop me up on that propaganda juice basically.' I thought with some annoyance before Iruka continued. "Within this class, everyone within the class is that of a genius, a demi-god, youkai blooded, or even clan heirs... So it would be very wise to be respectful to your classmates, as you don't want to be cursed by a demi-gods divine parent for dying their inherited hair color do you"

My mind went blank at that and I saw the haunted look in Iruka's eyes and I realized that, such a thing must have happened. And as Iruka brushed a hand across his face he continued.

"This class is going to be accelerated, its not going to focus as much on Konoha's history and regional conflicts as most students have already been in the academy being part of clans or having the allowance to join the clan students with their own gifts. So you will need to do your own research on the literary subjects if you wish to match your classmates."

I nodded in understanding. "Alright, so how is your chakra manipulation? Have you... Done any actual lessons or learned any jutsu before?" He asked curiously.

After a moment, I nodded and held out a hand and said. "Yeah. Hajime taught us how to activate our chakra, and then from there. I was told the basic methods of elemental training which lead to me being added to this class."

As I was speaking, I decided to show off and Iruka's face twitched as each of the five elements of Naruto formed above my hand with tiny weak sparks going off my thumb... As fucking about with lightning still, hurt without knowing how to properly use it in a jutsu!

Iruka gave a tight smile as he said. "Huh... Figuring out the sealess small manifestation of the elements in a single day. Yeah, that would get you moved up to this class."

I tilted my head to the side before I shook my hand clear of the five elements I conjured and then I placed my hand on the table and said. "Huh? No, I got transferred because I unlocked the Mokuton and I can fly." 

And I will never forget Iruka's 'Pikachu!' face when the wood of the desk followed my will and formed a thumbs up within the wood before I pulled the wooden thumbs statue off the table and handed it over to the dumbfounded Chunin.

There was a moment of silence before Iruka swallowed and said. "Mokuton... I see, yes that would certainly do it. Well Akari, you will probably fit in just fine. Also, uhm yeah go over to that cabinet over there, I went through the liberty of packing your gear for today." 

I blinked at hearing his words and I asked curiously. "Gear? What gear? Do we have swimming class or something today?" 

And it was only now that Iruka gave a smile that promised only pain and suffering from me as he said. "It can turn into swimming practice if you want... But no, go ahead and grab your stuff and look through it to see what's all is in there. I need to go put you down in my notes as I got thirty of you teens to look after."

After Iruka left, I quickly went over to the school locker-like cabinet and got the package he mentioned and I quickly moved back to my seat with a frown as I registered how heavy the large bag was.

But as I went to unzip the bag... I felt the Celestia Grimoire shudder before it lashed out lightning quick and yanked down a weak perk star towards myself.

[Mental Endurance] [Your mind is strong and enduring capable of enduring 20 times the mental fatigue of a normal person and more importantly having a natural mind capable of fending of and resisting outside influence, even passive effects that erode the mind would have to be strong enough to lobotomize a normally strong-minded person within seconds to have any effect on you over days and even then your mental recovery is something surprising allowing you to go from seriously mental damaged to peak mentality within 24 hours. This is a powerful resistance, not immunity.]

'Well, now I am doubly immune to genjutsu. And now I can probably resist mental curses or whatever.' I mused before shaking my head and going back to checking the bag only to tilt my head to the side in confusion.

A waterproof blanket, firestarters, a half dozen compressed nutrient bars, what looked like a flare? 

'Am I going camping or something?' I wondered in some exasperation but my thoughts were cut off as the door to the classroom opened up and someone came in.

I looked over towards the door, and I saw someone I actually recognized. Shikamaru Nara, the lazy teen whose favorite catchphrase was calling people and situations troublesome.

And as he met my eyes he raised an eyebrow at realizing I was new and he just gave me the standard man's greeting of a jerk of the head upwards in greeting.

Matching his movement, he acknowledged my greeting and the young man simply went down one of the back row seats... And then he promptly sat down and buried his face into his arms to take a nap or something to that effect.

So with Shikamaru trying to just sleep and class not coming about for the next hour... I decided to work on something of interest.

'Chakra Strings... Chakra Strings are stupidly powerful when you consider how intricate they can be, not to mention the fact that I could manipulate chakra reactive constructs or objects with them.' I thought as I used that learning perk to figure out the core of chakra strings.

I obviously didn't have the centuries of inherited knowledge Chakra Strings had from Suna, but I had my imagination, and so I started at the simplest point. First, I held my thumb and pointer finger together as I concentrated the chakra between them.

And like a strand of snot or slime, I concentrated the chakra between the two appendages until I could form a solid link between my thumb and pointer finger.

From there... I just refined how the chakra string felt. Strengthening the string, putting more chakra into it, and feeling how it connected to each of my fingers on the tenketsu at the tips of each finger.

"Now the hard part," I muttered as I broke the link between the fingers making the small string of chakra flow out into the air slightly by a couple of inches... And then I grimaced as I felt the string breaking apart without an endpoint tether on the end of the string.

So I kept at it until I mentally cursed again as the door to the classroom slid open again and I looked over and my brain froze in a beat at the sight before me.

It was the most... Beautiful woman, I had ever seen in both of my lives.

Long glossy black hair that went down her back down to her very ankles done up in a loose pony tail that allowed much of the hair to flow freely beyond keeping the hair out of her eyes. Her body was clad in a modestly tight kimono-like dress that was sleeveless but covered up her legs but the dress clung to her well-developed body.

And I made the mistake of looking into her face.

My mind froze for but a moment until I felt something sliding over my brain it felt like, as I met the most perfect gently puckered lips, fragile pale skin, and a set of wine red softly glowing eyes.

"Oh? A new young man has joined the class?" The woman spoke with a soft smokey voice and I swallowed as I could feel in my very hindbrain as something... Was very fucking off with her.

Just like that youkai girl from my previous class who had super nails that could actually cut through the edges of a fucking kunai itself. She set off all the warning bells.

"Yes, I just joined today. My name is Akari." I said simply in greeting with the older teenager who... Wasn't human. I denied with every single fiber of my being her humanity.

She just tilted her head to the side and whispered. "You... Ufufu, I see now. I wonder what-"

A tired voice spoke out with annoyance. "I am trying to sleep before the trip, quiet down."

I looked over at Shikamaru but he wasn't looked at me, his dark eyes were latched onto the now pouting young woman who looked at Shikamaru and said. "Well you are boring... How do you plan to make friends beyond your clan friends you were born with, if you won't speak with new people?" 

And without a moment of hesitation, Shikamaru said bluntly. "The daughter of a Youkai who mated with a daughter Izanami... Your passive Charm, won't work on anyone with half a brain."

I tilted my head to the side as I tried to figure out the lineage on that one... Did that make her a demigod or just a legacy but thankfully... All to thankfully, even as her eyes slid back to mine, I felt the Black Knife in my jacket warming up ever so slightly.

But then the door of the classroom slammed open violently with a harsh clattering noise. And my eyes snapped over and I blinked as I saw a blond-haired girl panting as she all but shouted. "I got here early! Now I can setup..." 

She looked around and as I took in her appearance I very quickly realized it was Naruko with her modestly curvy form filling out the jacket and pants she was wearing. But at seeing the three of us already here she pouted and cursed. "Dammit, now I cannot set up a prank to get at Iruka!"

Then as she looked at the woman with an upturn to her lips, I saw her smile at seeing Shikamaru and then her eyes met mine...

And then she pointed at me and shouted. "Oi you are the new guy with wood release!"