10 Less Than Two Years [Revised]
Nearly two years had passed since Hex was born. Since then, the Second Shinobi War was officially propelled into motion with Amegakure being the main battlefield between the participating villages. Remarkably, Dango's house was still standing.
After a month of waiting for Jiraiya, Dango made the conclusion that Jiraiya had practically forgotten about him. However, he did keep the slight hope that Jiraiya was just on a very, very busy mission.
In the month he was waiting, Dango looked and found a somewhat appropriate solution to his food shortage problem.
At first, Dango tried to beg for food using his childish charm, but alas, people were heartless. Then, Dango tried to go dumpster diving to get any spare scraps, but surprisingly, he found none.
Using [Intermediate Hiding], Dango was able to steal food with Hex by his side. However, he stopped when he saw how miserable people were about missing food. He didn't want to take away their chance to live.
Thankfully, he had an uncanny source of food; his tiny animal summons.
For the next two years, these critters were Dango's primary food source. He quickly obtained the [Basic Cooking] skill since he didn't like eating raw things.
=====
[Basic Cooking]
Description: Slightly boosts your proficiency in cooking. Sometimes, the food you cook will taste better than it looks.
To advance the skill, obtain genuine compliments about your cooking.
=====
Due to the diversity in animals, Dango had accidentally eaten several poisonous critters and was bitten by some of the venomous ones. Initially, Dango didn't realize that they had toxic traits until he got a related skill.
=====
[Basic Toxin Resistance]
Description: Slightly boosts your resistance to all forms of toxins. Able to identify toxic substances when ingested.
To advance the skill, come into contact with different sources of toxins.
=====
When Dango read the skill's description, he didn't think it was the most useful skill considering its additional effect wasn't that helpful until it was probably too late. Thankfully, due to [Empty Vessel]'s natural resistance, Dango had a decent resistance to the toxins.
Though, he was quite lucky to not summon a creature that had more potent toxins than his skills could handle.
Speaking of food, Dango discovered an interesting feature about himself.
He had never felt the desperate need to eat food every day to relieve his hunger. He could easily not eat anything for a week straight if he wanted to. He could even go longer if it weren't for it affecting his health.
The best way to describe it was that he never starved, he would only be a bit hungry. If you think about it, hunger was like a level below starvation. If he didn't eat anything, Dango would just be hungry. It never got to the point where it negatively influenced his mindset and decisions. It was something he attributed to [Black Heart] or [Orphan], though it was likely the former.
Asides from his health, Dango chose to eat every day solely for exercising. he remembered that it wouldn't be healthy or effective if he didn't. He wanted to exercise to increase his physical stats. It totally wasn't because he wanted abs or anything. Yup.
His stats had increased quite a bit despite exercising for only less than two years.
=====
[Vitality: 3] >> [Vitality: 6]
[Strength: 4] >> [Strength: 6]
[Agility: 3] >> [Agility: 5]
[Intelligence: 12]
=====
He still didn't know if his stats were actually good for his age, but he had high hopes they were. It was a shame that his intelligence hadn't increased during this time. Hopefully, there were still some libraries that were still standing in Amegakure that he could scavenge.
While he was exercising for his physical body, he was also practicing his control over cursed energy and chakra.
Since the war started, the rate he gained cursed energy increased by one more unit. Although it was just a point, it drastically increased the amount of CE he had.
[Cursed Energy: 1,593] >> [Cursed Energy: 4,245]
As for chakra, thanks to his exercise producing physical energy, it also increased quite a bit. There weren't any noticeable changes to his ability to manipulate it. His chakra was as lively and childish as ever.
[Chakra: 668] >> [Chakra: 923]
Dango learned many things about Hex since it was created.
It was a very gluttonous eater, as it ate three times a day, every day. Each meal consisted of at least five critters. Hex also preferred toads and snakes over the slimy slugs.
Every six months, Hex would start to shed. Each shedding would produce a new segment along with a pair of legs. In less than two years, Hex had shed thrice; having twelve legs and six segments in total. To compensate for the lengthy increase, a second pair of tiny insect wings sprouted from its back. In two months or so, Hex would shed for the fourth time and grow longer.
While Dango was struggling to live, he heard several interesting rumors and news about the war.
#1: A fearsome shinobi called Konoha's White Fang gaining widespread fame, an alias that Dango actually knew who it belonged to. It belonged to Kakashi's father, but he couldn't remember their real name. If he was still alive, then that meant Kakashi is a wee boy, likely the same age as Dango.
#2: Three shinobi were given the titled 'Sannin' by Hanzo the Salamander. Dango already knew about the circumstances but it drew his attention solely because it meant that the Akatsuki's founders were finally being taught ninjutsu.
#3: The Konoha's Jinchūriki had died, and there was now a new one. He didn't remember who was the one that died, but he knew who the new one was; Naruto's mother! Again, he didn't remember her name.
Those three were really the only ones that Dango paid attention to. Anything else was either forgotten or worthless to him.
Now, it was nearly time for Dango's innate cursed technique to manifest. Just thinking about it made him tremble with excitement. He wanted it to be cool like Nobara Kugisaki or Toge Inumaki's cursed techniques.
All he had to do was wait one more day for his fifth birthday!
=====
[Status]
Name: Dango Sumihara
Age: 5
Sorcerer Grade: None
Shinobi Rank: None
Cursed Coins: 30
Vitality: 5
Strength: 6
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 12
Cursed Energy: 4,245
Chakra: 668
Innate Cursed Technique: None
Jujutsu: None
Jutsus: [Summon: Random Tiny Toad], [Summon: Random Tiny Slug], [Summon: Random Tiny Snake]
Skills: [Black Heart], [Shattered Mind], [Empty Vessel], [Intermediate Climbing], [Intermediate Hiding], [Intermediate Searching]*, [Basic Gardening], [Orphan], [Basic Taming], [Basic Toxic Resistance], [Basic Cooking]
*Finally advanced thanks to playing hide and seek with Hex
=====
[Intermediate Searching]
Description: Moderately boosts your proficiency at searching. Your senses of sight and touch can identify important clues when searching for something. Any clues that might lead to you have become slightly unnoticeable.
To advance the skill, successfully search for an avian, an object lost to time, and an individual clearly stronger than you.
