In the blink of an eye, several hours passed.
Night had long fallen.
But the surroundings weren't all that dark. A bright moon hung high overhead, casting its glow across the entire island.
At the center of the island, atop a massive boulder, Seimei paused his practice of Shōsen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique) and Hito no Miya (Human Sanctuary). He looked out toward the pristine white beach in the distance and the shimmering sea under the moonlight.
He could see a number of shadow clones still training out there.
But it was about time to wrap things up.
With a thought, Seimei dispelled his Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique).
In an instant, every shadow clone—on the island and beyond—dissolved, turning into clouds of chakra that carried an hour's worth of training experience and memories, flooding back into Seimei.
Bracing himself, Seimei closed his eyes and sifted through the memories.
Time ticked by, second by second.
About fifteen minutes later, he opened his eyes again.
By then, he'd fully absorbed and processed all the training experience from the clones, converting it into proficiency for the corresponding skills.
Seimei pulled up his status panel, comparing the proficiency gained from the last hour of training. After some thought, he already had new ideas for how to group his shadow clones for the next round.
But it was late. That'd have to wait until tomorrow.
With that in mind, he opened his ninja pouch, pulled out a few enhanced soldier pills, and popped them into his mouth. He chewed them a couple of times before swallowing them whole.
Feeling his stamina gradually return, Seimei rested for a bit before diving into the final training task of the day—nurturing his Byakugan!
With a thought, he activated the Senra Banshō Fūjin (All-Creation Sealing Exhaustion) at his brow, linking it to his Byakugan.
Then, he drew chakra from the pocket dimension in his brow, compressing it a second time through the seal to form a higher-energy state before channeling it into his Byakugan.
A familiar tingling sensation washed over him, and Seimei closed his eyes, savoring the comfort.
Splitting his focus, he maintained a steady chakra supply while carefully observing the Byakugan's evolution process.
Just like that, two hours flew by.
A swelling sensation pulsed from his Byakugan, and Seimei instantly knew it had reached its limit.
He promptly stopped the chakra infusion and resealed the Byakugan.
After that, he opened his panel, glanced at it, and nodded in satisfaction when he saw the evolution progress had increased by another ten points.
Closing the panel, Seimei let out a yawn. Wasting no more time, he quickly freshened up and headed back to the wooden cabin to rest.
The night passed without a word.
---
The next day.
Training continued.
That day, Seimei kept tweaking the shadow clone groupings, aiming for maximum efficiency and minimal waste.
Normally, this process would take about a day.
But this time was different.
Not only was he increasing chakra allocation for three skills, but he was also diverting some focus to developing a new ninjutsu. With so many changes, a single day just wasn't enough.
Luckily, Seimei wasn't in a rush. Once he'd set the general direction, even if the training efficiency wasn't perfect and there was a bit of waste, it wouldn't be too bad.
So, he stuck to his routine of recalling shadow clones every hour, training as usual while gradually fine-tuning the groupings.
This tweaking took three days.
---
Three days later.
Morning.
When Seimei dispelled Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu again and absorbed the past hour's training experience from his clones, he finally confirmed it: his training efficiency was at its peak, and chakra waste was at its lowest.
How did he know?
Simple. In the last hour, despite using the same amount of chakra, the proficiency gains for his skills had stopped increasing. In fact, some had even dipped slightly.
That was enough to tell him the previous grouping was the optimal one.
Recalling that setup, Seimei opened his ninja pouch, downed a few soldier pills to restore his stamina, and started a new round of training with the same grouping.
From now on, unless something major changed, he'd stick to this setup.
As for changes?
The most likely shift in his training would come from developing an advanced version of Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa (Wind Release: Wings of Wind).
At that point, he'd need to reallocate time and energy.
But here's the thing: yesterday afternoon, he'd already succeeded in developing that technique. The current grouping was the result of that reallocation.
That's right—just two days, and he'd built on Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa to create an advanced ninjutsu with the potential to reach A-rank.
Seimei was thrilled, but it also felt like a no-brainer.
As he'd said before, Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa was something he'd developed from scratch, bit by bit.
Its creation process, the knowledge behind it—none of it held any secrets for him.
So, pulling it off smoothly? Totally expected. Doing it quickly? Also expected.
Plus, because of this, once the technique was complete, it worked like Suiton: Daibaku Suishōha (Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave) did for Suiton: Baku Suishōha (Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave). The proficiency carried over directly from the perfected Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa.
In other words, it started building from Level 7 (1/20,000).
Sure, getting to Level 7 from scratch wouldn't have taken much proficiency, but saving even a little was always nice.
Also, since he was already used to the name Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa, he didn't bother giving the advanced version a new one.
So, on his panel, it was still listed as Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa, just with its proficiency unlocked again.
That meant its chakra consumption needed retesting.
And that step? Already done.
After testing yesterday afternoon and this morning, Seimei had a clear picture of how much chakra it took to practice this technique.
Maybe because he had Fūton: Kaze no Tsubasa as a foundation, or maybe because his Chakra Control level was high enough now.
Either way, practicing this technique used way less chakra than other A-rank ninjutsu. Each point of proficiency only cost about 100 chakra.
Seimei had redirected the 286,000 chakra points he'd allocated daily for developing this technique into practicing it.
That meant he was racking up 2,860 proficiency points per day.
At that rate, it'd take just a week to hit Level 8, and a little over a month and a half to reach the perfected Level 9 (0/0).
Twenty-something days total. A bit long, but Seimei could live with it.
Back to training. Seimei quickly organized the shadow clones below and kicked off the next round.
Just like that, the day zipped by, and it was time for a break.
Nothing major happened during this rest period. Namikaze Minato didn't seem ready to pull the trigger yet, and Konoha was still buzzing with chaos.
Seimei, as usual, didn't pay it much mind.
He rested in the village for a day, then headed back to the island to dive into another round of intense training.
(Chapter End)