ShuraZero
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Chapter 5: Stats, Secrets, and the Weight of a Notebook
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 10:04:08 +0000 UTCThe afternoon sun began to set, painting the Konoha sky in shades of orange and purple. The tension of the confrontation had been replaced by a strange calm, the silence of two people who had crossed a threshold and weren't sure what to do in the new territory.
Naruto walked beside Hinata with his hands in his pockets, whistling an off-key tune. On the outside, he was the same as always. On the inside, his mind was a whirlwind.
Okay, okay, calm down. Think, he told himself, mentally replaying the events in his apartment. The light, the exhaustion, the letters and numbers that had danced before his eyes.
Her stats… they were insane. Dexterity and Agility had jumped to G-rank. That had to be good, right? G sounded way better than H or I. G for Great. Yeah, that made sense. And her Endurance had gone up. Was it H-135? Or H-153?
Naruto stopped walking, the tune cutting off abruptly.
A cold sweat, one that had nothing to do with physical exertion, ran down the back of his neck.
Wait a minute.
He searched his memory, trying to visualize the blue screen. Strength: H-110. He remembered that, or was it H-101? Dexterity: G-274. Agility: G-281. Magic… Magic? What was her Magic stat? Was it I-99? Or I-61? Dammit! He couldn’t remember!
And worse… what were his own stats? He remembered seeing them, but the details were a blur, drowned out by the euphoria of the moment.
He had obtained the tool to change the future, the key to monitoring progress, to planning, to strengthening his friends… and he hadn't taken a single note.
It was like being given the only map to a treasure and using it to blow your nose.
“Naruto-kun, is something wrong?”
Hinata’s voice pulled him from his spiral of panic. She had stopped a few steps ahead and was looking at him with concern. The new confidence she had shown against Ebisu had retreated, replaced by her usual, gentle worry for the well-being of others.
“Huh? No! Nothing! Everything’s perfect, believe it!” he let out a strangled laugh, scratching the back of his neck in a gesture of pure nervousness. “Just… thinking about how amazing you were today. Ha ha! Amazing.”
She blushed slightly but didn’t look away.
“I-it was thanks to you, Naruto-kun. The… the jutsu…”
“Yeah! The jutsu! About that…” Naruto swallowed hard. There was no way to avoid it. He had to say it. His reputation as a competent ninja—a reputation that was barely a couple of hours old—was about to be pulverized. He walked closer, putting on the most serious expression he could muster. “Hinata, I need you to listen to me very carefully.”
She nodded, her lavender eyes fixed on him, probably expecting some new revelation about the future or a secret mission.
“You remember… well, a little while ago. In my apartment. When… you know… I touched your back.”
Hinata’s blush deepened. She nodded again with an almost imperceptible movement.
“And you saw that I was seeing… things, right? The letters, the numbers? The status.”
“Y-yes. You seemed very focused.”
“I was! I was super focused!” he defended himself, waving his hands. “The problem isn’t focus. The problem is… uh… my memory. My short-term memory. It’s like a sieve. A sieve for… world-savingly super-important data.”
Confusion began to replace the shyness on Hinata’s face.
“What do you mean, Naruto-kun?”
Naruto covered his face with his hands, letting out a groan of pure frustration.
“I didn’t write it down!” he shouted, his voice muffled by his palms. “I didn’t write any of it down! Not your stats, not my stats, not the description of your skill! I have all this vital information about your power, the foundation of our entire plan to get stronger, and it’s all lost in my head like a single piece of seaweed in a giant bowl of ramen!”
He pulled his hands away from his face, looking at her with comical desperation.
“I don’t know if your Magic is I-61 or I-99, and that might not seem important now, but what if in the future we’re fighting some evil sorcerer and those 38 points of Magic are the difference between saving the world and all of us being turned into frogs! I don’t know!”
A complete silence fell between them. Naruto expected her to be angry, to feel insulted by his incompetence. Or worse, to think it was all an excuse…
But Hinata blinked. Once, twice. And then, her lips curved. It wasn’t the shy smile he knew, but a small, genuine smile of amusement that she quickly tried to hide behind her hand. Her shoulders trembled slightly.
She was laughing at him.
“Huh? Hey, it’s not funny!” Naruto protested, though relief was flooding him. “The fate of the shinobi world is hanging by a thread!”
“I-I’m sorry, Naruto-kun,” she said, her voice still holding a hint of laughter. “It’s just… you’re so… you.”
He deflated.
“Yeah, well. Being me is a problem sometimes. So…” He cleared his throat, the embarrassment returning in full force. “To fix my stupidity… I’m afraid… we’re going to have to do it again.”
The color returned to Hinata’s cheeks with the force of a sunset. The amusement evaporated.
“D-do it… again?” she whispered.
“Just so I can write it all down this time! I swear!” he said hurriedly. “I need a baseline. I need to know exactly where you are now so I can measure your growth later. It’s the most important part. Without data, we’re just guessing, and we can’t afford to guess.”
The seriousness in his voice cut through the awkwardness. She saw past his mistake. She saw the logic, the necessity. She saw the strategist hiding beneath the idiot.
Hinata took a deep breath, a gesture Naruto was starting to associate with her growing determination. She glanced toward his apartment, then back at his eyes.
“Okay, Naruto-kun. If it’s necessary… let’s do it again.”
The second time in the “Uzumaki Palace” was, if possible, even weirder than the first. The tower of ramen cups was still there, the milk carton still smelled like a crime, but the atmosphere had changed. The tension of the unknown had been replaced by the pure, concentrated awkwardness of repetition.
Naruto was prepared. On his cluttered table, he had cleared a small space where a new notebook and a freshly sharpened pencil rested. He looked like a scientist about to conduct the strangest experiment in history.
“Okay. All set,” he announced with a forced professionalism that fooled no one. “This won’t take long. Promise.”
Hinata stood in the center of the room and, with a slowness that felt like torture to Naruto, she turned around. Her hands, with a hesitation that hadn't been there the last time, rose to the zipper of her jacket.
Perhaps the first time had been easier because she didn’t know what to expect. Now, the memory of the ritual, of the contact, of the tingling on her back, made every movement deliberate and charged with meaning.
She took off her jacket, folded it carefully, and placed it on a chair. The mesh shirt she wore underneath hid nothing. With a trembling exhale, she lifted it up her back, just to the middle.
“I’m… ready,” she whispered to the air.
Naruto, pencil behind his ear and notebook in one hand, knelt behind her. He bit his thumb.
“Ow! Too hard!” he complained quietly. He brought the finger to his mouth, infused a drop of blood with chakra, and reached out. His heart was pounding, not from the proximity, but from the fear of messing up again.
Focus, you idiot. Write. Write like your life depends on it.
His finger touched her pale skin.
ZAP.
The blue interface flooded his vision, cold and familiar.
[COMPATIBLE SUBJECT: HINATA HYUGA] [DISPLAYING CURRENT STATUS. NO NEW EXCELIA DETECTED FOR UPDATE.]
“Perfect, no update, just showing data!” Naruto whispered to himself. His free hand moved frantically across the notebook.
HINATA HYUGA LEVEL: 1
“Level one, good, good…” he muttered as he wrote.
STRENGTH: H-110 ENDURANCE: H-135 DEXTERITY: G-274 AGILITY: G-281 MAGIC: I-99
“Ninety-nine! I knew it!” he exclaimed in a triumphant whisper, circling the number. “Take that, existential dread.”
He then moved on to the skills, writing every word with feverish care.
[DEVELOPMENT ABILITY] [NONE]
[MAGIC] [NONE]
[SKILLS] [HEART OF A LIONESS] [Burst-type Active Skill.] [Activates with the will to protect an ally.] [Temporarily increases all capabilities exceptionally. The effect is amplified in proportion to the importance of the target to be protected.]
“Done… done! I got it all!” Naruto panted, just as he felt the connection begin to fade. There was no violent pull like before, just a gentle dissipation.
He fell back, sitting on his heels and admiring his work: a notebook page filled with scribbles and numbers that held the key to their future.
“Y-you can… Naruto-kun,” Hinata said, her voice tense.
“Oh, right, sure! Finished!”
She quickly pulled her shirt down and turned around, her face a poem of embarrassment and relief. She found Naruto on the floor, not exhausted this time, but staring at the notebook with the expression of a kid who had just gotten the best toy in the world.
He looked up, a radiant, genuine smile on his face.
“Now we’re talking,” he said, getting to his feet and waving the notebook in the air. “Now the fun begins. Sit down, Hinata. I have to explain what all this means.”
They sat at the table, the notebook open between them like a sacred text. For Hinata, seeing her soul quantified on paper was a surreal experience.
“Alright, class is in session. ‘Advanced Naruto-logy for beginners,’” he began, pointing to the first line with his pencil. “Level 1. That’s easy. You’re a rookie. Like me. We’re starting from the bottom, but we’re gonna climb so fast the old man Hokage will need a telescope to see us.”
Hinata said nothing, simply nodding, fascinated.
“Now, the basic stats: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, and Magic. And most importantly: the letters. I, H, G… I guess after that comes F, E, D, C, B, A, and S. Like with missions. S-rank is the best of the best.”
He leaned over the paper, his enthusiasm contagious.
“Your Strength and Endurance are at H. Not bad for a start. Strength is what it sounds like: how hard you can hit. Endurance is how much you can take, both hits and exhaustion. It’s why you could keep moving without panting when you faced Ebisu.”
He pointed to the next two stats, the ones with the letter G.
“But this is where you shine right now, Hinata. Dexterity and Agility, G-274 and G-281. Those are super high numbers! Dexterity isn’t just being good with your hands; it’s the precision of your attacks, the speed of your hand seals, your aim with kunai. It’s fine control. Agility is your overall speed, your ability to dodge, to move across the battlefield. This is why Konohamaru couldn’t even touch you. You were moving like water.”
The explanation gave a framework to what she had felt. It hadn’t been a miracle. It had been… a stat.
“And Magic, I-99. This one’s interesting. I don’t think it means normal jutsu, which use chakra. The system seems to treat chakra as the base energy. ‘Magic’ must be something else, something you haven’t unlocked yet. But your score is high. Higher than mine, I’m sure.” He paused and laughed. “Though that’s not saying much.”
Finally, his finger rested on the last section, the one he had written with the most care.
“And now… the crown jewel: ‘Heart of a Lioness.’”
He read the description aloud, slowly, making sure she understood every word.
“‘Activates with the will to protect an ally. Temporarily increases all capabilities exceptionally. The effect is amplified in proportion to the importance of the target to be protected.’”
He looked up from the notebook and met her eyes directly. His expression was no longer that of a clown, but of someone who understood something profound.
“Hinata, this is what happened with Ebisu. When he insulted you, nothing happened. But when he called me ‘fox boy’ and told me to stay away, you moved to protect me. Your will to defend me… that’s what activated this skill. It was like a turbo boost. All your stats skyrocketed for a few seconds. That’s why your movements were so perfect, why your strike was so devastating. It wasn’t just you. It was you, empowered by your desire to protect me.”
The revelation hit her with full force. The anger she had felt, the protective instinct… it hadn't been a simple emotion; it had been the trigger for her power. The system didn't just measure her physical strength; it measured the strength of her heart. And her heart, in that moment, had roared for him.
“So… the more I want to protect someone…” she whispered.
“The stronger you’ll become in that moment,” Naruto finished. “It’s the perfect skill for you, Hinata. Your kindness, the thing your father calls a weakness, the system has turned it into your greatest weapon.”
They fell silent, the weight of that truth filling the small room.
Naruto closed the notebook with a sharp snap.
“But theory is useless without practice. We’ve seen the numbers, now let’s see what they do. Put your jacket on. We’re going to train.”
They found a remote training ground, one of the numbered ones that were rarely used because they lacked a scenic river or particularly interesting torture posts. It was perfect: isolated, quiet, surrounded by tall trees that would hide their activities from prying eyes.
“Alright, first test: Agility and Dexterity,” Naruto announced, pulling out a handful of practice kunai with blunted tips. “I throw, you dodge. Don’t use your Byakugan. I want to see your pure movement. Ready?”
Hinata nodded, taking a relaxed stance in the center of the clearing. It was no longer the rigid stance of the Gentle Fist, but something looser, more natural.
Naruto threw the first kunai, aiming for her center.
It was as if she didn’t move at all. A simple twist of her torso was enough for the metal to whiz past her.
He threw another, faster, aiming for her leg. She took a small sidestep, landing without a sound, already in position for the next.
He increased the speed, throwing three at once in a fan pattern. Hinata ducked, flowed backward, and leaned to the side in a fluid, continuous dance that left Naruto gaping. There wasn’t a single wasted movement. She was the personification of efficiency.
“Incredible!” he shouted, unable to contain himself. “It’s like the kunai are scared of you!”
He stopped throwing and she came to a halt, her breathing barely labored. A small, amazed smile was on her face.
“I… I don’t feel tired. It’s like my body knows exactly what to do before I do.”
“That’s your G-281 points of Agility talking!” Naruto laughed. “Now, a test of Strength.”
He pointed to a thick wooden post, scarred and splintered from years of abuse.
“Hit it. Not with the Gentle Fist, don’t try to attack the tenketsu. Just… a palm strike. Focus. Feel the strength inside you.”
Hinata approached the post. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Then, her eyes snapped open and she struck.
CRACK!
The sound wasn’t the typical dull thud. It was a sharp, violent crack. The wood splintered inward, creating a crater the size of her hand. The top of the post wobbled precariously.
Hinata pulled her hand back as if burned, staring at the damage with wide eyes.
“I… I did that…”
“Yeah, you did,” Naruto said, equally impressed. “That’s your H-110 Strength in action.”
Now it was his turn. He had to know what had changed in him. He stood in the center of the clearing and began to perform the basic taijutsu katas he had practiced a thousand times, always clumsily.
But now it was different.
His feet felt more planted on the ground. His balance, which had always been a problem, was solid. His strikes and blocks, while still not elegant, had a new sturdiness, a purpose. And most importantly, he wasn't out of breath after a couple of minutes. His Endurance was working.
“It’s working!” he yelled, stopping mid-motion, a huge grin on his face. “I can feel it! The ‘Precursor’s Guide’! When you get stronger, I do too! This is insane!”
Seeing his own improvement, feeling it in his bones, made it all the more real. He wasn't just empowering her; they were building something together. A synergy that no one else in the world could understand.
They spent the rest of the afternoon testing their limits. They practiced taijutsu, with Hinata correcting his form with a precision she hadn't possessed before. Naruto taught her how to walk on trees, and she got it on the second try; her chakra control, linked to her Dexterity, was nearly perfect.
When the last ray of sun disappeared behind the trees, they both collapsed onto the ground, sweaty, covered in dirt, and completely exhausted. But it was a good exhaustion—the kind that comes from a job well done.
“Wow,” Naruto panted, looking up at the stars beginning to appear. “We really are stronger.”
“Yes,” Hinata replied, her voice a satisfied whisper. She looked at her own hands, no longer as strange and unfamiliar tools, but as part of her. A new and powerful part.
Naruto propped himself up on his elbows. The notebook with his precious data lay beside him.
“This is just the beginning, Hinata,” he said, his voice filled with a restrained excitement. “This is just Level 1. Tomorrow, we’ll meet our Jōnin-sensei. We’ll start doing missions. You’ll gain experience, lots of it. And each time, we’ll turn it into real power.”
He turned to look at her, the seriousness of their mission shining in his blue eyes.
“Imagine what we’ll be able to do at Level 10. Or 20. No one will be able to stop us. We’ll protect everyone we care about. I promise you.”
Hinata looked back at him, and in the twilight gloom, she saw the boy she had always admired from a distance. But he wasn't at a distance anymore. He was beside her. And for the first time, she felt like she truly deserved to be there.
“Yes, Naruto-kun,” she said, with a firmness that made Naruto’s heart skip a beat.
There was no doubt. There was no shyness. Only a shared promise.
And in the stillness of the training ground, under the first stars, their strange and powerful alliance felt, for the first time, absolutely unbreakable.
