Chakra Control

The next few days passed pretty rapidly. Other than the occasional wild beast attacking the caravans, the journey was progressing without mishap. After Kaito's display of strength against the sand drifters, Mr. Hiroshi and the other merchants' opinion of him skyrocketed, to the point that they would often be offered luxurious meals from fresh and rare ingredients, treats that they could not afford in Sunagakure.

[You have ingested nutritious food...Strength is expected to increase slightly...]

[You have ingested nutritious food...Agility is expected to increase slightly...]

[You have ingested nutritious food...Vitality is expected to increase slightly...]

[You have ingested nutritious food...Chakra is expected to increase slightly...]

One of those meals was especially nutritious. It was called [Smoked Rashka Meat], a delicacy that came from a beast known for its generous reserves of chakra. It was traditionally used by Sunagakure Chunin and Jonin in long-term missions as it was rumored to restore chakra rapidly, although the meat was quickly replaced by pills instead as it was easier to transport, not needing the use of fuinjutsu (art of sealing).

Who would have thought that these ingredients could increase stats?

Naturally, once Kaito got a taste of it, he started to curry more favours from the merchants for the sake of acquiring this food. Not only did it taste good, it increased his strength too.

"Why are you seeking strength so much?", Aki asked him, seeing him devour the food like a starved wolf who had not eaten for days

"Because we will die if I don't grow stronger...You should do the same", Kaito said, very seriously

Eiji nodded: "Kaito is right, you know? We are one of the only teams which hasn't suffered serious casualties since our graduation. You might say it is a miracle. It's not like we were luckier than other teams at the borders. We encountered Iwagakure shinobi on a monthly basis, but we survived because we were stronger"

Hearing Eiji on his wave length, Kaito high fived him. If it were a novel, Eiji would most definitely be the shônen character. With unwavering determination and sheer dumbness, he was a reliable teammates. Well, perhaps the only disturbing flaw he had was his deep-rooted hatred of shinobi who were not from Sunagakure. He would be capable of torture for sheer pleasure, if Kaito had not stopped him early on.

Still, sometimes, Kaito would feel a bit sad. Many of his acquaintances would die over the years. After he stole the blueprints of the [Dual Arms Puppet] and the [Shuriken Thrower] from his father, he sought improvements among seniors, and received pointers that made him as strong as today.

However, many of those seniors were now crippled, or worse still, dead. This was a side of the Naruto world that you didn't get to see in the series. The constant war was not just a fuel to grow stronger. It was also digging graves of thousands of shinobi who had families, friends and dreams. And the worse in all that was that most of these wars were just born out of history. The cycle would just repeat again and again, generations after generations, only contributing to further enhance this vicious cycle.

In the grand scheme of things, Kaito knew that he was nothing but a small ant. Seeking to change things only worked when you were strong enough to do so. Unlike some 'gifted individuals' who possessed plot armour or one of the most powerful demon in their belly, he was just a puppeteer from one of the weakest hidden village in the world.

But even an ant could be dangerous, provided that it was hardworking.

In his hands, grains of sands were meticulously forming shapes. Shurikens, kunai, miniature puppets. This was a hard exercise. At first, he was only able to form balls of sands with his chakara. But now?

Even if his system only depicted his global strength, he knew that his chakra control was growing at an unprecedented rate. That's also why he was able to use two puppets at a time, unlike most genins and even chunins who only used one at a time.

He was an ant.

And he embraced his weakness.

Since he did not have extraordinary reserves of chakra, it provided him with an interesting perk, and advantage he had over the geniuses of this world: chakra control.

[Chakra control has risen slightly...]

[You have earned 20 EXP...]

Well, of course, training was not very efficient at making him level up. But there was no small gain in the grand grinding goal he had set himself...