29 Time Skip No Jutsu

The Sunagakure Genin Corps was one of the most organized organization in the world of shinobi. Unlike Konoha, it allowed its shinobi to undertake missions suited for their teams, rather than 'shielding' them from war. 

While it might feel a bit wrong at first to put kids into armies, it actually prepared them for the rough world that was waiting for them. Although genins from the Sungakure Genin Corps did not have access to many ressources, its division in different 'platoon' allowed it to have some structure. Each team would be assigned to a platoon leader, a jonin like Taki.

However, every shinobi would belong to one of the three brigades: The Wind Fan Division, the Swordsmanship Brigade and the Puppet Brigade. During your training, you could use any ressource offered by the division. The puppet brigade possessed a workshop of its own, containing many puppet designs left behind older generations. Even though puppeteers would not use it since its secrets had potentially been leaked to other villages who encountered them before, each generation of puppeteer filled the library even more, leading to huge progress in the field. In the workshop, tools had become increasingly more refined over the years too, and ever since the brigade was formed, you only had to pay for the materials, which drastically brought the cost of creating a puppet down, although the upgrades remained very costly.

The wind fan division was located at the centre of the village, and there were various facilities to help them perfect their ninjutsu as well as chakra control. There would also be many chunin passing down their enlightenments since it was the most popular division as well.

The swordsmanship brigade offered access to the 'Sungakure Barracks', where various kenjutsu specialists would come and spar on a daily basis. There, huge sculptures of the Sunagakure Wind Swordsmanship Art were stored, depicting the 21 forms of the swordsmanship art. They had been created during the 2nd World Shinobi War and left untouched, teaching many generations of shinobi how to use and perfect their swordsmanship. Similarly to the puppet brigade, they also evolved to some extent, putting an emphasis on weight training to build their physique instead of just sparring all day long like they did in the past.

The Sungakure village was not very strong in terms of pure military, far behind Kumo or Konoha. In fact, it might even be the weakest village out of the 5 major villages due to its economy. However, it also happened to have one of the strongest military structure in terms of organization and logistics. 

What did this mean?

This meant that as long as peace remained, Sunagakure would become stronger as it would solve its economic crisis. With more resources, more chunin and jonin would rise, and the more missions they would be able to complete, leading to increasingly more resources. It was a virtuous circle.

Small actions could lead to huge changes. The higher the rank of the mission, the bigger the influence Kaito had on Sungakure, and by extension, on the world. In order to prepare for what was to come, improving the village's economy and his personal strength were of paramount importance.

And what's better than clearing as many missions as possible to accomplish that?

Now that his team's gear was in pristine conditions, Kaito decided to head towards a territory he was starting to know very well: the Land of River frontiers. Without their outpost, Tanigakure shinobi would no longer have as much presence as they once did, meaning that many missions would appear. 

A mission caught Kaito's eyes

[Mission: Infiltrate Bandit Hideout (D-rank) [Chain Quest]

Description: Notorious bandits, known as the Sand Serpents, have established a hideout near the border between the Lands of Wind and Rivers. Your team, Team n° 146, hailing from Sunagakure, must infiltrate their hideout, gather crucial information about their operations, and report back to Sunagakure. Avoid direct confrontation if possible

Rewards: 500 EXP, 10,000 Ryô, Increased Reputation with Sunagakure Village]

After a week of infiltration, team 146 discovered that the Sand Serpents were actually missing nins from Iwagakure, a group of three old genins, who decided to take in hundreds of villagers who had been looted in various wars. Using hope of luxury goods to lure them in, it was very difficult to break free from their influence once you joined, which explained the size of the Sand Serpents. They were especially cruel and left no witnesses, which was the main reason why they went by unnoticed for so long. 

Ironically, the messenger team that they reported to was Kohaku's team, team 142. Tomoko's death left a hole in their party, and he was replaced by another puppeteer, Ryu, who was a Lv. 14 puppeteer, a few years older than them, whose team was gravely injured in the last operation. Although his presence in team 142 was temporary, he raised their team's strength by adding his experience and allowing them to take more dangerous missions than before.

As it was a chain quest, they received a second mission. Judging from the size of the group, the mission was elevated at the C-rank, so it was pretty significant. It was team 146's fourteenth C-rank missions, and each one of them were very rewarding compared to the 

[Mission: Infiltrate Bandit Hideout II (C-rank) [Chain Quest]

Description: Notorious bandits, known as the Sand Serpents, have established a hideout near the border between the Lands of Wind and Rivers. Your team, Team n° 146, hailing from Sunagakure, has successfully integrated their ranks. You are to participate in looting activities and rise through their ranks, while alerting any raid directed at a village from the land of winds

Rewards: 3 000 EXP, 100,000 Ryô, Increased Reputation with Sunagakure Village

Unique rewards upon completion of the chain quest: (?)]

After staying for one more month among the ranks of the Sand Serpents, team 146 climbed the ranks among the Sand Serpents without ever revealing the fact that they could use chakra, and instead relying on their taijutsu skills. Compared to regular humans and using transformation jutsu, no one noticed anything, and mistook them for experienced mercenaries.

Eiji was the one who shined the brightest, learning the Sand Serpent swordsmanship which was oddly similar to the swordsmanship used by a group of desert bandits they had encountered years ago. As a Kenjutsu specialist, Eiji completely mastered it and even used insights to fix its flaws. While it could not compare to the Sungakure Desert Kenjutsu he had been taught at the Barracks, it was enough to reach the 'Bandit Captain' position, which only 3 individuals held.

As for Kaito, he reached the vice captain position, while Aki rose to the 'lieutenant' position. 

The organization and rules set in place by the Sand Serpents explained why they managed to rise to such a huge size for a bandit group. Regular genins would not be able to break through their headquarters either, should they be able to find it. Even Kaito and his team only managed to find it by rising through the ranks slowly over a month. 

Many times, during looting, Kaito would receive the following notifications. 

[Sunagakure Taijutsu (E) proficiency has risen slightly...]

[Sunagakure Taijutsu (E) proficiency has risen slightly...]

With regular contact with Kohaku, whose team was stationned pretty close to the headquarters, team 146 managed to relay the information about raids to the villages in advance. Since the sand serpents were located in the border between the land of rivers and land of wind, the only raids that worked were those that took place in the land of rivers. The main goal of team 142 and 146 was to actually deal damage to the Tanigakure's economy. Eventually, the sand serpents gave up on the villages from the land of wind, and turned their attention to the villages from the land of rivers. With the loss of their outpost, their presence was greatly reduced.

Eventually, the Sand Serpent relocated to the lands of rivers, and this marked the success of the chain quest.

[Unique Reward: Sunagakure economy has risen by 0.3 point, Tanigakure economy has decreased by 0.5 point. The land of wind's attractiveness has increased by 1 point...]

[You have received 3000 EXP, 100,000 Ryô, 20 points of reputation with the Sungakure Genin Corps, 10 points of reputation with Taki]

With this 2-months-long mission, Kaito managed to reach level 23, but perhaps the one who grew the most was Eiji. The young boy really matured as he became more proficient at killing and reached level 20, gaining two whole levels on a single mission. However, Aki did not level up, remaining level 15, which was the same level as she had upon completing the Desert Wind Swan Operation back then. 

The gap between Aki and the rest of the team was only getting wider, but it was only natural since ninjutsu specialist's strength was related to their chakra reserves. Unless someone came from a clan or possessed a system like Kaito, only her training and life and death battles could help her awaken her potential.