Chapter 25.1- Gamer of the Desert

When I woke up the next morning, it was to the notification that the system calibration had finished. Turns out there had been multiple notifications while I was asleep about the game changing a few things it was changing already so the first notification had become obsolete. Apparently, a system administrator or something had gotten involved in the matter.

If I was a more patient man, I’d have spent my time looking through the changes that were made and trying to parse them to understand what had happened. Instead, I just called up my stat sheet to look through everything at once, and oh was it interesting.

Name; Gaara of the Desert

Age; Twelve

Level; 13

Title; Kazekage of Sunagakure

Chakra Capacity; 4,500/6,000 (Regeneration; 250 cp per minute)

Ichibi Chakra Capacity; 45,000/45,000 (Regeneration; 750 cp per minute)

Strength; 21

Dexterity; 57

Endurance; 61

Intelligence; 75

Durability; 26

Stat Points; 34

Skills;

Gamer’s Mind Mark Two- ON

Taijutsu; 51

Ninjutsu; 82

Genjutsu; 2

Fuinjutsu; 47

Medical Ninjutsu; 63

Sand Control; 75

Pain tolerance; 28

Meditation; 76

Shape manipulation; 67

Chakra Sensing; 10

Chakra affinities;

Wind; 49

Earth; 42

Fire; 48

I watched the sheet with a scowl building across my face. Pretty much all my stats had seen a notable downgrade. What kind of nerf was this? It wasn’t till I read through the notifications again that I realised that this wasn’t a nerf at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was a buff. My power level was the same, but the numbers had changed. That meant my limits were being shifted. The game claimed that it was being shifted to the level of Madara Uchiha or something, so that was some serious scaling.

And even when I hit that limit, I still had ideas for how to improve my powers. Beyond that, there was something else that caught my eye in the stat sheet. I still laid in bed in my old room in my old apartment, so I had the freedom to experiment.  I stared right at my index finger for my right hand and watched it shift, becoming a yellow, earth coloured. I focused on it and changed the shape, thinning out the sand that had once been my finger, and sending it floating across the room before I returned it to its original position on my hand and watched it return to flesh and blood.

Fuck. That was every bit as cool as I expected it to be. It made all the worries I had. The inner fears that I hid even from myself to fade away. I’d beaten Orochimaru by luck. It was a fluke. I was S-rank, but barely. Nowhere near the level of any of the Kage fuckers floating around. But now? I’d basically become unkillable. With this kind of power, I’d gone from bottom barrel scum to hanging with the truly scary big guys. The fact that my effective chakra capacity had gone down by a fuckton didn’t even bother me as much as it could have.

From what I understood, 3000 chakra points was more than enough to carry out all the jutsu I needed to. All I had to do was be more careful about how I spent the chakra that had become my own. A quarter of it was already gone in maintaining a clone that I needed to perform special duties at the capital. That was non-negotiable.

Speaking of the capital, the first bit of aid was due to arrive today, and I needed to be ready to receive it whenever the time was necessary. It wouldn’t do for me to not be there to take the credit for what I had done. I walked out of the room after taking a shower and freshening up. My home had enjoyed amenities beyond the pale for the average home in Suna, and luckily, the place I was moving to would enjoy similar amenities. I couldn’t end up moving into the Kage mansion last night. By the time I’d finished with Chiyo, it was well into the morning, and I was happy to take the excuse to procrastinate the awkward meeting.

I was also going to be doing that this morning as I walked towards the office to begin my day instead of the mansion like I’d told myself I would. When I was greeted by the secretary, she met me with some robes and hat in her outstretched hands. I accepted them with a smile. The Kage gear had to be resized to fit me but Suna tailors worked quickly. Very quickly. I put it on and smiled at her, slightly disheartened when she seemed to cringe backwards a bit. She’d been my father’s staff, and clearly not one of those ready to deal with me on a daily basis.

If I was Naruto or pretty much any other anime protagonist, I would have resolved myself to changing her mind. I wasn’t them though. I was more pragmatic. In my position, I needed a secretary I could trust to have my back fully and completely. She wouldn’t be able to fulfil that role. Not now. Maybe not ever. Still, I maintained my smile till I walked into the office and made a gesture with my hands calling down the anbu agents hidden around the office.

My orders were simple. We needed information so I had them liaise with others who would liaise with our agents in all the other villages I needed to know which villages would be mobilising and which ones would be staying put.

If war would come, we would need to be ready. And I ended things by asking for a map of Ta no Kuni. War against Otogakure was still months away but I had to make myself as conversant as I could with much of the geography. My meeting with the academy head was set for a few minutes for now so we could follow up on the changes being made to the curriculum.

A/N; Let’s go. I’m trying to get back in the groove of things