I think we should focus on getting alertness leveled up or highest as possible.
Why? If our MARS payload are already really good, it won't do us much good if we can't use it before an S-ranker kill us.
Think of it like IRL tank combat. Generally, the first one that got a shot off(and hit) kill opposing tank. It doesn't matter how powerful their cannon is if enemy tank can spot you and hit you before you could use your more powerful cannon.
The
battle with Neck-nin would have gone very differently if the team were able to unleash their entire MARS payload arsenal.
With that in mind: I would like to propose a series of research projects into boosting our alertness.
Chakdar v3.0 - Pretty simple iteration. Gives us further range, with slight tuning to detect elemental chakra. This should gives us a further zone, which means we can detect opponents from zone 2.
Chakdar v4.0 or Networked Chakdar - Basically combine and network chakdar to each other, allowing greater extended range. I am not sure if it will improves alertness, or just give everyone increased detection range based on how far apart they are.
Now, we might consider evolving chakdar further, or go with a different sensory mode. The biggest weakness of chakdar is its inability to detect jutsu casting or RW. Chakdar works by detecting emission. So we need another method of detecting these things, or detect the ninja who might throw jutsu or RW at us.
We might want to research a motion tracker radar, which detects objects in motion. Not sure how it works. Maybe sending radar or sensing difference object's position? Either way, it will hopefully help us detect a kunai flying without the need to use our vision, or detect enemy ninja movement.
Another path we might take is active chakdar. Currently, chakdar doesn't work like radar do, but we could maybe replicate its effect, by making chakdar sends out chakra emission wave and receiving it back.
There are a bunch of other seals we could research: thermal vision, echolocation, light amplification(night vision) seal, and so forth.
There's even the concept of sensor fusion, which will hopefully allows us more warning.
