Reborn in the Shinobi World with an Arceus Inside

With a little trickery, Kaito sent Jiraiya on his way.

He sat alone on his bed and began to debrief himself on the day's battle.

"First, Extreme Speed."

As the technique that currently guaranteed him the first move, its main drawbacks were its high energy consumption and the difficulty in controlling turns and sudden stops. It still needed refinement. For example, he could learn to control his speed by increasing or decreasing the energy consumed, allowing for more fluid and responsive movements.

During the fight with Jiraiya, he had briefly used his own body to withstand a Fire Release jutsu. The result was as he expected: the damage was indeed greatly reduced.

'Is it because I've absorbed a lot of energy from the Flame Plate? If I learn all the Fire-type skills, will I become immune to Fire Release damage?'

It was an exciting discovery.

Next, Kaito's memory turned to his battle with Tsunade.

After a moment of appreciating Big Sis Tsunade's heroic and valiant figure, he felt some dissatisfaction with his own performance.

'I still don't use my Fighting-type skills enough. They're not proficient enough to be integrated into my every move.'

Compared to energy-based techniques like Ice and Fire Release or burst-type skills like Extreme Speed, many Fighting-type skills consumed far less energy and could be sustained for much longer. The exception was Bulk Up, which used energy to strengthen his muscles. Prolonged use not only continuously consumed energy but also placed a heavy burden on his body. After deactivating Bulk Up today, many of his muscle fibers had torn. It was a good thing Kaito knew healing techniques and had a strong constitution to begin with. Otherwise, it would be like opening the Eight Inner Gates—one use, and he'd be bedridden.

'That's right. With my constitution, I should be able to handle the Eight Inner Gates, right? Should I find a chance to learn it? It's not like having an extra skill hurts.'

But that wasn't a priority. He'd think about it if he ever happened to pass by Konoha.

"Finally, the fight with Orochimaru." As he thought about it, Kaito's expression couldn't help but darken. 'I didn't expect my weakness to be discovered so quickly.'

He lacked sensory skills.

A ninja could hide with a simple clone and toy with him. He could only force them out with large-scale damage techniques, which was too clumsy. Moreover, assassination was what ninja excelled at. It would be very difficult to deal with being targeted without any sensory abilities.

"The top priority right now is to learn a skill with that capability as soon as possible."

He already had a target in mind: the special Fighting-type move—Aura Sphere!

Aura Sphere was an attack that could only be unleashed by using one's own Aura. The key wasn't the sphere itself, but the Aura. Aura was one of the three special powers that humans in the Pokémon world could master. In essence, it was a form of spiritual energy with many abilities, such as condensing Aura Spheres for attack, creating defensive barriers, telepathy, scouting the environment, and sensing the Aura of others. Everyone possessed Aura within them, but only a select few could master this power. They were known as "Aura Guardians."

Kaito felt that as Arceus's jinchuriki, he should be one of these chosen few. If he could learn to control Aura, he could patch up his weakness, and his strength would surely rise to another level.

Unfortunately, despite his long efforts, he had not yet been able to grasp the basics.

'Is my learning method wrong? Maybe I should ask Jiraiya tomorrow? The Sage Mode he learned also seems to greatly enhance sensory abilities; they might have similar principles. Right, it's decided!'

His debrief complete, Kaito closed his eyes and continued to work on mastering the Fighting-type plate.

The night passed without any surprises.

The next morning, as soon as Kaito woke up, he changed into casual clothes and went to find Jiraiya, who was sleeping in the same bed as Yamabiko Yuto. To his surprise, Jiraiya was already awake and had begun his training.

"What's with that look? I've been getting up early to train every day for over ten years now. It's a habit," Jiraiya said, displeased.

"Is that so?" Kaito's expression flickered, and he asked casually, "Does just sitting there count as training?"

"Of course, it does! Maintaining a state of selflessness and becoming one with nature is very difficult," Jiraiya said with a deep sigh. "Back in the day, it took me a very long time just to get the hang of it."

"Hmm, sounds impressive. But for now, let's go eat breakfast. After breakfast, I'll show you around the sanctuary and see how the villagers are living."

"Alright!"

After breakfast, Jiraiya transformed to look like Yamabiko Yuto and followed Kaito on a tour of the entire village.

The streets were filled with people whose faces were brimming with smiles. They worked hard without a single complaint, their eyes filled with the light of hope.

As he took it all in, Jiraiya was shocked.

"Why? Why don't they seem like they're living in the middle of a war? Instead..."

Instead, it was as if they were living in the peaceful Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"I only gave them the hope to live," Kaito said, pointing at the busy villagers. "Humans are the greediest of creatures, but also the easiest to satisfy. If you give a person who can't even guarantee their own life a tiny bit of hope, they will hold onto it tightly and not dare to wish for more."

"Therefore, after suffering the pain of war, people will yearn for the arrival of peace."

Jiraiya frowned. "Is this your method for achieving peace?"

"No." Kaito shook his head. "Humans have short memories. Twenty years of this kind of peace is enough for them to forget the pain of war. Greed then pushes them to take things from others. And so, war breaks out again."

"So you're saying that peace can't truly be permanent?"

"Permanent peace is very, very difficult. But a peace that lasts for hundreds or even thousands of years is still possible."

They returned to the third floor of the tower, gazing at the distant scenery and continuing their discussion about peace.

"A few hundred years of peace would already be great. Do you know how to achieve it?" Jiraiya asked eagerly.

"The first method is to ensure that every country possesses terrifyingly destructive weapons, so they wouldn't dare to lightly start a war."

"Isn't that...?"

"That's right. This is the method adopted by the First Hokage of Konoha, Hashirama Senju. He distributed the nine Tailed Beasts among the nations to achieve a balance of power. Unfortunately, the biggest problem with this method is that the so-called Tailed Beasts are not enough to destroy everything. The disasters they bring upon the nations cannot extinguish human greed. Instead, they have become tools of war."

"..." Jiraiya was silent.

"Actually, if the First Hokage had gathered the power of all the Tailed Beasts back then, he could have easily crushed the other four great nations and unified the ninja world. This relates to the second method I've come up with to achieve peace: to eliminate the concept of nations and make everyone a member of a single community of shared destiny."

Kaito narrowed his eyes. "If there were only one country in the ninja world, only one hidden village, would wars still break out as frequently as they do now?"

"Indeed..." Jiraiya felt himself being convinced. "If everyone were a citizen of the Land of Fire, there would be no reason to fight over resources. But that would be very, very difficult."

To get the various Kage and Daimyo to willingly give up their countries and merge into one was probably an impossible task.

"That's why we're standing here, working hard to achieve peace, isn't it?"