After bidding farewell to Kaito and poking Sasuke's forehead in his room, Itachi left alone to attend the clan meeting.
However, the guy stood stupidly in the courtyard for a full ten minutes on his way out.
Kaito had no idea what he was doing—maybe admiring his own handiwork.
Once Itachi had been gone for a while, Kaito didn't head out immediately. Instead, he dove straight into the sea of flowers in the yard, planning to test the sunflowers' effects during the day.
Going outside directly might attract surveillance from ANBU, especially today when the Uchiha clan was holding a major assembly.
Slipping into the flower field, he found a random corner and released his "Left and Right Guardians."
Thanks to last night's brutal "survival of the fittest" treatment, the two were now too terrified to make a sound, trembling uncontrollably.
This level of obedience satisfied Kaito quite a bit.
He reached out, snapped two sunflowers in front of him, then crushed and tore their blossoms before tossing them to the ground and stomping on them.
A clear warning to his "Left and Right Guardians."
"Stay quiet later, got it?"
"If you've got any abilities, use them now. If you start screaming again, your fate will be just like theirs."
He pointed at the two trampled sunflowers on the ground, then gave his "guardians" a threatening glare.
As if saying…
See? This is what happens to disobedient sunflowers.
The sunflowers trembled violently, petals falling off from sheer terror.
They didn't dare speak, only nodding frantically, convinced that this human was even scarier than the zombies in the backyard.
Satisfied that the two wouldn't cause any more trouble, Kaito casually sat cross-legged in a corner of the flower field.
Closing his eyes, he focused on refining his chakra.
Honestly, if not for the lack of a proper cultivation manual, he would've already found a way to break through to the Qi Refining stage and unlock the system's beginner's gift pack.
But alas…
He was stuck right at the threshold of Qi Refining from the very start.
All he could hope for now was to encounter another cultivation-related mission later.
He swore he wouldn't complain about the system being abstract!
For now, his hopes for gaining strength still rested on chakra training.
Blue chakra gathered in his abdomen, flowing through his limbs and coursing along hundreds of meridians throughout his body.
The refinement speed was incredibly fast—previously, it would've taken him at least ten minutes just to get his chakra moving, let alone circulating it through his entire body.
But now, the refinement speed had increased by seventy percent!
Kaito was inwardly shocked.
Sensing the changes in his body clearly, he stopped refining chakra.
Even after stopping, the refinement speed remained fifty percent faster than before.
Which meant…As long as he didn't release any large-scale Ninjutsu at once, his current Chakra combined with the recovery abilities of the "Left and Right Guardians" was enough to sustain him in prolonged battles.
The downside though...
This ability could only be used during the day.
Still, the rewards from this mission were quite decent. Aside from these two somewhat abstract sunflowers, it had resolved his current predicament of insufficient "mana."
Thinking this, Kaito formed hand seals and activated the Shadow Clone Technique.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of explosions echoed as ten shadow clones appeared beside him.
These were shadow clones created under extreme conditions.
When his father had taught him this technique, he had repeatedly warned him not to do this. If too much Chakra was consumed at once, it could endanger his life.
Even if it didn't threaten his life, the exhaustion and mental strain the original body would suffer after canceling the technique would be unbearable for most people.
But now...
After creating ten clones, his Chakra reserves, bolstered by the sunflowers, fully recovered to peak condition in less than a minute.
He... could even continue using the Shadow Clone Technique.
Of course, Kaito chose not to push it.
After dismissing the shadow clones, he flicked the sunflowers on his shoulders with his fingers.
"Can you guys spit anything out?"
The two sunflowers tilted their heads at each other, swayed side to side a few times, then promptly spat a faceful of sunflower seeds at Kaito.
The seeds rained down on his face like a dense shower. Judging by the scattered seeds on the ground...
If he took them back to roast, he wouldn't need to take any snacks from Sasuke today.
Strangely achieving "seed freedom," Kaito felt not the slightest bit of joy at this moment.
Veins bulged on his forehead as he grabbed one of the sunflowers by the neck and growled in a low voice.
"Stop!!"
"I don't want to eat these right now!"
Taking a deep breath, Kaito suppressed the urge to tear the two troublemakers off and spoke patiently.
"Give me something special!"
"Don't tell me... all you can do is spit these things!"
Hearing this, the sunflowers seemed to understand the foolish human's request. They bobbed their heads up and down, and suddenly emitted a blinding light.
At that moment.
Standing in place, Kaito felt as if he had seen the sun—or perhaps it was like the time in his past life when a teammate had thrown a flashbang in his face during a game.
Blinded by the light, he also felt an overwhelming urge to punch someone.
Just you wait—I'll pluck all your petals!
After about three seconds, the light gradually faded.
When his vision cleared, he noticed two golden orbs at his feet.
This immediately quelled his earlier intention to discipline the "Left and Right Guardians."
On second thought...
That blinding light could actually be a useful combat tactic.
At least it could blind enemies.
Hmm... not bad!
Kaito convinced himself internally, then crouched down to examine the orbs at his feet.
After three minutes of careful observation, aside from finding them somewhat miraculous, he couldn't discern anything particularly special about them.
Pointing at the orbs, Kaito tilted his head and asked the two troublemakers.
"What are these for?"
The sunflowers stared at the orbs, pondered for a long time, then nodded in unison.
"Edible! Hic... the kids next door are drooling over them."
"Oh man, the flavor~ absolutely authentic!"
Kaito: ...
The "Left and Right Guardians" words plunged the scene into silence, and their gazes at the human grew increasingly guilty.Fearing that the other party might get angry and eat them on the spot.
Kaito stared at the glowing orbs for a long time, his killing intent barely contained and leaking out uncontrollably.
His heart was in turmoil, worried that he might lose control and kill these two idiots in a fit of rage. He kept repeating to himself inwardly:
Calm down… calm down…
These flowers are still useful… can't kill them… can't kill them!
After spending several minutes to steady his emotions, he finally reached out with his right hand and grabbed one of the glowing orbs, then proceeded to bring it to his mouth with the thought that it was "edible."
However, before it reached his mouth, the orb dissolved into tiny specks of light and merged into his body.
Instantly, Kaito felt the cells in his body become more active.
Yang energy?
Or a healing effect?
Closing his eyes to sense the changes within, his expression gradually softened.
Glancing at the remaining orb, he pulled out a kunai from his ninja pouch and lightly made a cut on his arm.
As blood seeped from the wound, Kaito repeated the previous action.
After the light dissolved into specks, the wound on his arm healed completely.
The result was exactly as he had expected.
"Seems like it's related to healing," Kaito murmured, a hint of joy appearing between his brows. He turned and headed back inside, intending to share the good news with his dear younger brother.
"My adorable little brother."
"Come here for a second."
....