Chapter 13

Akira stood in front of the newly captured prisoners, counting a total of ten people.

It was merely a week before they attacked, passed from attacking the lonely hunters to the whole village.

The bandits were more greedy than expected they didn't just plan to loot the villagers but also plan to become the biggest group of bandits in the surrounding mountains.

All of that is thanks to the non-existence of the hidden rain village.

The shadow-level ninja Hanzo, the demigod in charge of this, stays weirdly silent.

From the news that the shadow clone picked from goings around, the tension between all five hidden villages are rising.

From her experience, the third great ninja war may happen.

Akira stood silent as war images of the second ninja war surfaced in her mind, the saying that even an elite ninja may die was not a joke.

A tremendous pressure surfaced on her as she understood that even if she truly master the art of infinite potential, she may not reach a safe amount of strength.

Truth be told she may even run out of supplies before that.

However, this gives her an opportunity. Since war is coming, then the hidden leaf village will not focus on hunting her down.

This gives a leeway for her future actions.

But for now, Akira began another round of experiments. This time, the test subjects had a huge chance of dying.

It may be because of all the past experiments, but now she feels a great improvement in her medical art. Just the chakra scalpel techniques that she used in the past appear to be full of flaws and lack of chakra control.

Coming back from her distracting thoughts, Akira gave the prisoner a routine inspection before casting the art of infinite potential on the man, but this time, she used it on all the body muscles,

meaning that all the muscles in his body are forcefully evolving.

However, unlike in the past, the degree of evolution that all the muscles are receiving is different, some fragile ones such as those in the colonial vertebra, are nearing their limits but the arm, chest, and legs, are not so much, there is barely something called progress.

The man is howling from all the pain and his struggle is immense, it continued for more than two minutes, which was a lot more time compared to her first attempt, Three minutes in and his heartbeat is accelerating like that of a newborn baby, his skin is red and his strength has augmented considerably making him tear two of the roops she used her strength to hold him down, four minutes in, a trace of purple propagated around him, apparent muscles failure, his expression is twitching and lastly severe bleeding from the seven orifices before he stopped all movement, he was dead.

Akira registered the fact that she had her first murder in the name of a personal game, but, unlike in the past when she can afford to ponder on things, war was coming and all her feeling surprisingly lasted only a moment. But her greatest surprise is her thirst for more.

Akira stood there, her eyes fixed on the lifeless body of the man before her. The taste of power had ignited a primal thirst within her, one that she hadn't fully experienced until now. It was a disturbing revelation, yet strangely exhilarating.

War loomed on the horizon, and Akira knew that strength would be the key to survival. The image of the second ninja war resurfaced in her mind, reminding her of the brutal realities of conflict. The thought of being caught unprepared, of becoming a casualty in the chaos, fueled her thirst for more power.

She had always been driven by a hunger to surpass her limits, to push the boundaries of her abilities. But now, with the looming threat of war, that drive had intensified to a new level. Akira understood that she needed every advantage she could get if she were to navigate the treacherous path ahead.

The experimentation she had just conducted, the forceful evolution of the man's muscles, had yielded both success and failure. Some muscles had responded well, exhibiting progress and increased strength, while others had reached their limits and failed. It was a reminder that there were risks involved, that pushing the boundaries of her abilities could have deadly consequences.

Yet, despite the risks, Akira couldn't help but feel a twisted sense of excitement. The taste of power, the rush of witnessing her own abilities grow, had stirred something primal within her. The thirst for more was not merely driven by a desire for self-preservation, but also by a fascination with her own potential.

She realized that her newfound thirst for power was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it provided her with the drive to continue pushing her limits and refining her abilities. On the other hand, it carried the risk of becoming consumed by her own ambition, of losing sight of her humanity in the pursuit of power.

Nevertheless, Akira accepted that the path she had chosen was a dangerous one. She knew that she couldn't afford to hesitate or be complacent. The war was approaching, and she had to be ready. The thirst for more would drive her forward, pushing her to explore new depths of her abilities and to seek out whatever means necessary to survive and thrive in the face of impending conflict.