18 Qualitative change
A month passed in a flash.
Eiji and Aki recovered fairly quickly. After Kaito woke up, they were ready to go on and take new missions, even though they almost died in the previous ones. Their will, or recklessness, was quite praiseworthy.
However, the last mission had been a wake-up call for Kaito. He was not someone who underestimated the dangers of the shinobi world. Otherwise, he would not have survived until now. The number of times he almost died, however, could be counted on his left hand. Encountering stronger shinobi than onesef was not just bad luck, it was inevitable at some point. The reason why his party was spared from life casualties could be attributed to his versatility, and preparation before missions. Purchasing poisons, refining his puppets...They were all investments that served the purpose of completing the missions successfully and survive.
Both Aki and Eiji were aware of this, and often chipped in for puppet modification. It was not just charity, this was also in their interest, a they knew that Kaito was the pillar of their team. Without him, they would have long since died. Many classmates they had in the academy had already died off in missions in borders. Few managed to keep their team in the Sungakure Genin Corps free from casualties.
But Kaito's leadership managed to prevent that, even though they did not have particular good luck.
Although only a month passed, Kaito and his team underwent a qualitative change.
The first stemmed from his puppet itself. Using models from the Sunagakure library and tweaking it to fit his fighting style, Kaito managed to upgrade the shuriken puppet to C-rank, increasing its stats and skills.
[Shuriken Thrower Puppet n°46 Original - [C-rank]
HP: 150/150 → 250/250
Defense Power: 10 → 30
Skills: Shuriken Launch (fire rate: 10 → 14/s) (D), Giant Shuriken Launch (E), Paralysis gas blast (E), Katonjutsu Fire blast (C)
Ammunition: 800 Shuriken, 200 doses of Steel Tail Scorpion [D], 3 Paralysis gas Containers, 1 Giant Shuriken]
From the previous mission, Kaito realized how useful poison was against unprepared opponents. Without a proper medic and the correct antidote, a single wound could be fatal to a genin. That's why Kaito spent a significant amount of time learning the poison manufacturing skill. It was a good investment.
But perhaps the biggest improvement was the fact that in close range, he could use his [Katonjutsu Fire Blast] through his puppet. Although doing so increased the chakra consumption significantly, opponents would target his puppet thinking it is a ranged-attack one, only to be surprised and killed by its fire blast that dealt roughly 160 points of damage in close range, not taking into account burning ailment and the fear ailment that it brought.
[Name - Kaito | Level 20 Sunagakure Shinobi [5 160 / 6 800 EXP] | HP - 250 / 250
Title - Sunagakure Genin (+30% EXP and reputation from Sunagakure missions), Tanigakure Enemy (+10% EXP from Tanigakure enemies)
Attributes:
Strength - 13 → 17 (+5) | Agility - 16 → 18 (+4) | Vitality - 19 → 21 (+4) | Chakra - 31 → 32(+5)
Chakra control: [C-rank]
Perk - Puppeteer (Increased growth rate of puppet-related skills)
Skills: Puppet Creation Mastery (C), Puppet Control Mastery (C), Shuriken Mastery (E), Sunagakure Taijutsu (E), Kunai Mastery (E), Poison Manufacturing Mastery (E)
Jutsu: Mystic Palm Technique (C), Katonjutsu Fire Blast (C), Katonjutsu Fire Shuriken (E)
Items - Shuriken Thrower Puppet n°42 (C)
Equipment - Sunagakure Uniform (+4 all), Sunagakure headband (+1 Chakra), Bandit Ring (+1 Strength), Yellow-steel Blade (Increased sharpness)]
In comparison, both Eiji and Aki's improvements were not as significant.
[Eiji - Level 18 Sunagakure Genin]
[Aki - Level 14 Sunagakure Genin]
Although they managed to perfect a few of their skills, they did not have any major breakthrough. Aki managed to learn the D-rank [Futonjutsu Drilling Air Bullet], which increased her offensive power. However, the gap between Kaito and his teammates was growing. He needed them to level up, and while their progress was quite fast compared to other classmates, they were far from noble clan kids.
As for Eiji, his strength reached the whopping 30-points mark, which was definitely a huge asset for a kenjutsu specialist like him. It was definitely above-average for a genin.
He and his team were only 14 years old at this point. However, the chunin realm was still quite far from sight. To become chunins, they would need to reach level 25. Unfortunately, the EXP requirements grew significantly as he became stronger.
