Half a month later, in a desolate forest on the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Rivers.
Sen pulled a short blade from a Sand Ninja's chest and flicked the blood off it.
He checked his rewards. The first two both offered +1 to his physique, so he ultimately chose [Basic Puppet Technique].
After confirming that the entire reconnaissance squad had been wiped out, he brought up his status panel:
[Name: Uchiha Sen] [Age: 11] [Physique: 287] [Mental Power: 197] [Chakra: 312] [Kekkei Genkai: Three Tomoe Sharingan, Uzumaki Physique] [Ninjutsu: ...] [Other: ... Hatake clan Sword Style: A sword style that evolved from the samurai of the Warring States period. Though it was now used only with short blades, its moves still retained the samurai's sweeping, powerful strokes. Sunagakure Toxin Mastery: Sunagakure was not only short on supplies; even its wild animals had evolved the habit of using poison as a weapon to improve their chances of catching prey. Over time, Sunagakure's shinobi had also become experts in poisons. Basic Puppet Technique: By turning chakra into Chakra Threads, the user can manipulate puppets to attack enemies in inhuman ways. What was once a simple puppet show had, through the war, been twisted into a weapon for killing.]
Lately, aside from gaining the decent sword style [Hatake clan Sword Style], all he had gotten were increases to his basic stats—not bad, but nothing to write home about.
"Sen, that's the last of them. Let's head back." Minato came over. After confirming the final enemy was dead, he continued, "Sunagakure has been sending fewer and fewer scouts lately. Looks like they're planning to abandon this area."
Sen nodded. "The bridge is gone, after all. They'd have to take a huge detour to get here. Come on,