Hyuga Arin temporarily remained at the frontline base.
Even if he wanted to return to Konoha, approval from the village was required—and this was wartime.
During war, aside from a few special cases, leaving Konoha to go outside was actually easier than usual.
But returning to Konoha had become far stricter.
This was to prevent spies from sneaking in.
For Hyuga Arin to go back, he had to go through a long list of procedures.
He needed confirmation from Hiruko, and also an evaluation from Tsunade, who had once been the captain of his original squad. After all, Hyuga Arin hadn't been transferred to Hiruko's command from within the village—everything had to be reverified.
There was also the issue of his mission.
His espionage mission had originally been about indirectly gathering intelligence on Iwagakure and Sunagakure. By definition, it should have been an A-rank mission.
But now that the Land of Rain had declared war on all three great nations—and Hyuga Arin was directly involved—there was a chance it could be upgraded to an S-rank mission.
However, because of earlier misunderstandings that made the village believe it had been completed by some Uchiha, everything had to be discussed all over again.
Which meant the higher-ups would need to argue back and forth for quite some time.
After all, at the beginning, only Tsunade and the other two, plus Hiruko, knew the details of the mission. None of the four had reported it clearly to the higher-ups, so the village leadership didn't even know the mission existed.
For the time being, Hyuga Arin couldn't leave.
During this period, he was still under suspicion, and even his movements within the frontline camp were restricted.
"Should've killed a few more Amegakure ninjas before coming back," Hyuga Arin cursed inside his tent.
This tent was now his temporary residence.
It was a bit crude, but still larger than the rooms inside Amegakure's base.
Right now, he couldn't even go out and help Konoha kill enemies.
"But at least I finally have time to sort through my gains."
From the moment he followed Hanzo into the Amegakure civil war, he hadn't fought much—but he'd picked up benefits several times.
Especially later, when he killed Shōzō. That alone had given him fifty thousand experience points, plus the death of Terra.
This time, he'd gained over sixty thousand experience in total.
During this period, leveling up had cost him 7,500 experience, plus the 300-point expenditure from Fish Swimming in a Locked Room.
[Name: Hyuga Arin]
[Class: Hunter]
[Level: Lv.24 (0/8500)]
[Chakra/Nen: 240 / 1110 + 50 + 20]
[Experience Pool: 53,693]
He still had more than fifty thousand experience points left.
"That's enough to raise Bear Grappler to max level," Hyuga Arin thought for a moment before deciding to upgrade it.
Bear Grappler was currently his core combat skill—whether in sniper mode or close combat.
It occupied a central position in his fighting style.
Gritting his teeth, he dumped experience straight into Bear Grappler.
[Bear Grappler (Lv.7) EXP (0/6400) Trait (None)]
[Bear Grappler (Lv.8) EXP (0/12800) Trait (None)]
[Bear Grappler (Lv.9) EXP (0/25600) Trait (None)]
[Bear Grappler (Lv.10) EXP (MAX) Trait (Pending Selection)]
In one go, Hyuga Arin spent 44,800 experience points. His experience pool plummeted.
[Experience Pool: 8,894]
Looking at the number, Hyuga Arin felt his heart ache.
"Fifty thousand experience, gone just like that…"
He turned his attention to the traits unlocked at max level.
[Summon Bear: Summon a giant flame bear to assist in battle. The flame bear's attributes scale with your level.]
[Bear Form: Transform into a black-and-white bear, wield the power of the divine dragon, and become a kung fu master.]
[Bear Paw: Your palms grow soft pads capable of repelling everything.]
Hyuga Arin fell silent.
Completely silent.
After a long while—
"The first one is definitely Annie's ultimate from League of Legends, right?! This shouldn't be called Summon Bear—it should be called Tibbers' Rage!!"
"Fine, you copy Annie's ult, I won't complain. But what's with the second one? If I pick that, am I supposed to be called Po? You're giving me Kung Fu Panda? Black-and-white bear—so a panda, right?!"
"Okay, fine, pandas are technically bears. I'll let that slide. But system, come out here and explain this to me—what the hell does the third one have to do with bears?!"
"Isn't this the Paw-Paw Fruit?! Just because the user's name has 'bear' in it, that counts?! You don't play homophone jokes—you play bear jokes instead?!"
The references were way too obvious.
One trait from League of Legends.
One from Kung Fu Panda.
One from One Piece.
Hyuga Arin forcefully suppressed his urge to rant.
There was no need to guess what each trait did.
The first option, Summon Bear, actually suited him quite well…
Suddenly, Hyuga Arin froze, staring at the panel in front of him with a twitching mouth.
[Tibbers' Rage: …]
[Kung Fu Panda: …]
[Bartholomew Kuma: …]
"Wow. You're not even pretending anymore."
Hyuga Arin rolled his eyes. He seriously suspected the system panel itself had consciousness.
He glanced at Kung Fu Panda and immediately crossed it off.
He strongly suspected that trait would be an absolute chakra hog.
Based on Po's peak feats in the original work—dealing with yin and yang, even crossing realms—if Hyuga Arin used it, the result would probably be:
Hyuga Arin is finished.
It might last only a few seconds at most. If that happened, Bear Grappler would be completely useless.
The first option was actually pretty good. If Hyuga Arin chose the sniper combat route, Tibbers' Rage could guard him at close range.
But—
If Bear Grappler turned into Tibbers' Rage, how was he supposed to maintain his original power?
He wouldn't even be able to throw shuriken that far anymore.
In the end, Hyuga Arin's gaze locked onto the third option.
Just answer one question—
Is it a bear using the ability or not?
Yes.
Then there's no problem.
The Paw-Paw Fruit was an extremely powerful ability, both offensively and support-wise.
If he added kunai into the repelled air blasts, he could even create long-range sniping attacks.
It could also repel fatigue and pain, and even enable instant movement—achieving effects similar to
[Consumable: Again G-380].
The only downside was the chakra cost.
But for Hyuga Arin, that was still within acceptable limits.
"I choose option three—Bartholomew Kuma," Hyuga Arin decided without hesitation.
[Bear Grappler (Lv.10) EXP (MAX) Trait (Bartholomew Kuma)]
He slowly closed his eyes.
A massive amount of complex chakra circulation patterns flooded his mind.
After a long while, he opened his eyes and raised both hands. Chakra began flowing through his body in intricate pathways, finally converging in his arms.
Soft, pink pads grew on his palms.
"The consumption is a bit higher than normal Bear Grappler, but it's still manageable."
"However, repelling more complex things greatly increases chakra cost. Right now, I can only fire air blasts. Long-range teleportation and repelling bodily fatigue are still impossible."
His chakra simply wasn't enough.
To reach the level of Bartholomew Kuma in the original work, he'd need chakra reserves at least comparable to Kisame's.
"But—"
Hyuga Arin lightly slapped the ground.
A mass of air was compressed into a dense sphere.
Boom!
The ground was punched through, leaving behind a deep, needle-thin hole.
"As a sniper weapon, the power's more than sufficient," Hyuga Arin nodded.
"It can be linked with Shiranui-style tactics and shadow clones."
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