The training session ended without ceremony. The eldest remained in the yard with their father, reviewing blade transitions and stance alignment. The second and third drifted toward the far post, still arguing about foot placement. Roen was dismissed with a brief nod.
He returned to his room at a normal pace. Nothing in the house was misplaced. Weapons were stored in exact alignment. Footwear arranged neatly near the entrance. The order was not decorative; it was habitual.
He knelt and closed his eyes.
The system appeared quietly.
PRIMARY DIRECTIVE INITIALISED
Host survival probability unstable.
Baseline synchronisation required.
A second panel formed.
Mission: Establish Chakra Sensory Baseline
Objective: Detect and differentiate internal chakra flow without hand seals.
Time Limit: 72 hours
Reward: Minor Control Stabilisation
There was no sound. No dramatic pulse.
Roen remained seated and focused inward.
He had felt chakra earlier that morning, but only vaguely a warmth beneath the skin, a current without structure. Now he attempted to isolate it.
At first, he sensed nothing distinct. Only breath and the dull ache in his legs from training. He adjusted his breathing and waited.
Gradually, a faint current became noticeable along his forearms. It was inconsistent, fading when he focused too aggressively and returning when he relaxed.
He stopped trying to manipulate it and instead observed it.
The sensation steadied.
It did not grow stronger, but it became easier to recognise. The difference between muscle tension and chakra flow clarified slightly in his awareness.
A notification appeared in the corner of his vision.
Progress: 5%
Roen opened his eyes and exhaled slowly.
Outside, the sound of sparring continued. Steel met steel in controlled intervals.
He looked down at his hands.
This was not explosive growth. There was no surge of power.
It was adjustment.
And adjustment, in this house, meant survival.
Roen lay on his back staring at the ceiling beams, the faint afternoon light tracing narrow lines across the wood. The house was quieter now. His brothers were still outside, and his father's voice carried occasionally through the open space of the yard.
He focused inward and summoned the panel.
Roen Shinra — Age 5
Integrity: 100%
Checkpoints: 0 / 4
VIT — Physical durability and recovery
CHK — Total chakra reserves
CTL — Chakra control and efficiency
COG — Cognitive processing and reaction speed
ADP — Adaptability and growth rate modifier
VIT: 4.2
CHK: 6.0
CTL: 3.4
COG: 7.0
ADP: 12.0
He studied each definition carefully.
Vitality determined how much strain his body could withstand. That explained the trembling during stance drills. At 4.2, he was a child. There was no illusion about that.
Chakra reserves at 6.0 were slightly higher than his physical durability. That aligned with what he had felt earlier there was energy present, but he lacked the ability to direct it properly. Capacity without control was waste.
Control at 3.4 was his immediate weakness. Every movement wasted chakra. Every attempt to focus dispersed too quickly. That stat would determine how efficiently everything else scaled.
Cognition at 7.0 made sense. He could process patterns faster than his body could execute them. During training, he had noticed shoulder tension before impact and subtle angle changes in footwork. His mind outpaced his physique.
Adaptability at 12.0 remained the anomaly. The system defined it as a growth rate modifier. It did not increase strength directly. It altered how quickly other values responded to stimulus. That meant long-term acceleration, not immediate power.
He shifted his focus toward scaling.
He needed a working model.
In his previous life, power scaling debates had been chaotic and inconsistent, but there were common threads. The gap between academy students and chunin was not minor; it was exponential. Skill compounded over time.
If his total effective value combining the five stats loosely sat around the low twenties, then a typical academy student likely ranged between twenty and forty depending on talent.
A new genin would need to be significantly higher. Perhaps fifty to eighty total across categories.
A competent chunin would cross one hundred in combined effective output.
The eldest brother, judging by physical pressure alone, likely exceeded one hundred and fifty in combined metrics, possibly approaching two hundred in practical combat value.
These were approximations. He lacked data. But the ratios mattered more than exact numbers.
The father was harder to measure. During sparring, the density behind each strike suggested control far beyond simple chakra flow. Even without fully activating whatever technique he possessed, the difference in presence was obvious. If Roen's vitality was four, the father's might be several multiples higher. Control likely far beyond that.
Roen adjusted his internal model accordingly:
Academy baseline: 20–40
Genin baseline: 50–80
Chunin baseline: 100+
High Chunin / near Special Jōnin: 150–200
Father: unknown, but significantly beyond
Seventy percent confidence at best.
Enough to prioritise.
Control needed to rise first. Increasing reserves without precision would only amplify inefficiency. Vitality would grow through structured training. Cognition was stable for now. Adaptability would influence the rate of all increases, but it could not be trained directly at least not yet.
He dismissed the panel.
The system did not offer comparative charts or external benchmarks. That was deliberate. It forced inference rather than dependence.
For now, the objective was simple.
Increase control until waste became negligible.
Then expand capacity.
Everything else would follow.