"Tsk, talk about reckless!"
Sorting through the memories in his head, Seimei couldn't help but click his tongue.
With the way Orochimaru was acting, Seimei figured it wouldn't take more than a few months before the guy had to ditch the village and go rogue.
But still…
"Why's he in such a rush?"
Seimei's brows knitted slightly.
From what he knew about Orochimaru, even without Danzo's backing, the guy shouldn't be this unhinged.
After all, making moves this often just upped the odds of getting caught. It left more trails, more evidence—practically begging the higher-ups in Konoha to come down on him. There was no upside.
Unless…
"He's desperate for a ton of test subjects right now!"
The thought popped into Seimei's mind.
If that was the case…
"What kind of experiment would push him this far and need that many bodies?"
Seimei mulled it over, quickly running through all the techniques he knew Orochimaru had up his sleeve.
It didn't take long to zero in on the answer—Edo Tensei!
Yeah, the S-rank forbidden jutsu—Edo Tensei!
Other than this life-and-death-defying technique, Seimei couldn't think of anything else that'd require so many test subjects.
But hold on—around this point in time, hadn't Orochimaru not gotten his hands on Edo Tensei yet?
Well…
Not necessarily!
His very existence had already thrown the world's timeline off course.
Plus, with someone as big as Danzo taken out by Seimei himself, it wasn't a stretch to think Orochimaru might've gotten antsy and started sniffing around the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju's old stash earlier than expected.
"Yeah, that's gotta be it!"
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
And that made him a little warier of Orochimaru.
After all, with the tricks Seimei had up his sleeve right now, only the "Senrō Banshō Seal" might have a shot at countering Edo Tensei bodies. None of his other moves could actually "kill" them.
Even if Orochimaru had just barely figured out the jutsu and hadn't perfected it yet, that didn't change much.
Still, Seimei wasn't exactly sweating it.
Between the invincible defense of his "Ama no Mi" and his own raw strength, he could handle those undead puppets head-on.
No point in stressing over it too much.
So, with that, Seimei shoved the thought to the back of his mind.
Right then, a loud "grrrgle" rumbled from his stomach.
Seimei pressed a hand to his belly, suddenly realizing he hadn't eaten since last night!
You know what they say—nothing's more important than food!
Without a second thought, he hopped up, rolled off the bed, and started washing up.
A few minutes later, he was done. He grabbed his Leaf Village headband, tied it on, then snatched his ninja pouch and strapped it to his waist.
Once everything was set, he bolted out the door, making a beeline for Konoha's famous food street.
When he got there, the morning rush had already died down, but the place was still buzzing with people.
Seimei ducked into a familiar shop and went to town, stuffing his face like there was no tomorrow.
It took a solid hour before he finally leaned back, full and satisfied, and left the place.
Stepping outside, he patted his stomach with a contented grin.
He wandered around the area for a bit longer before finally leaving the food street behind.
At a fork in the road, Seimei paused, thought it over, and decided against heading home. Instead, he picked up the pace and headed straight for a quieter training ground on the village outskirts.
Sure, home was peaceful, but it felt a little cramped. Out here was way more comfortable.
And what was he up to?
Simple—picking up last night's unfinished test.
Today was supposed to be a chill day, but he couldn't just sit around doing nothing.
Once he wrapped up the test, he also wanted to mull over how to divvy up the chakra he'd saved now that skills like the "Transcription Seal" had maxed out.
So, lost in his random thoughts, Seimei kept walking toward his destination.
The farther he got from the village center, the fewer people he saw.
By the time there wasn't a soul in sight, he'd pretty much arrived—Training Ground 78!
Unlike Training Ground 44, the "Forest of Death" often used for big Chunin Exam events, Number 78 was basically half-abandoned.
It was a rocky, uneven plain, kinda like the spot where Kakashi trained Sasuke before the Chunin Exams in the future.
Seimei glanced around, saw no one, and plopped down on a random spot.
To test the limits of his evolved Byakugan, he'd need to stockpile a decent chunk of chakra first.
From last evening until now, he'd built up a few hundred thousand points in the space between his brows, but it still wasn't enough.
Closing his eyes, Seimei started actively pulling physical energy from the billions of cells in his body, blending it with his mental energy to churn out chakra bit by bit.
Then, through the "Senrō Banshō Seal," he funneled it into the storage space at his brow.
Pushing himself this hard quickly drained him. The food he'd just eaten got digested in no time, and hunger hit him again.
No hesitation—Seimei dug into his pouch, pulled out some enhanced soldier pills he'd just bought, popped them in his mouth, chewed a couple times, and swallowed.
Instantly, a surge of energy bloomed from his stomach, rushing to his limbs and filling the gap left by refining chakra.
Time ticked by.
Every so often, he'd down a few more soldier pills.
In less than two hours, he'd squeezed his body to the limit, refining as much chakra as he'd normally recover in a full day.
Finally, Seimei opened his eyes.
Feeling the over two million points of chakra in the space between his brows, he gave a satisfied nod.
"Phew…"
He let out a soft breath.
After a quick breather, he got to work on the test.
First, he tapped into the "Senrō Banshō Seal" at his brow, linking it up with the Byakugan.
Then, he pulled chakra from the storage space, letting the seal compress it a second time into a higher-energy state before pouring it into the Byakugan.
That familiar tingling sensation hit again.
Seimei forced himself to focus, splitting his attention. One part tracked the Byakugan's changes, while the other kept the chakra flowing from the storage space into the eye.
About two hours later, a faint swelling pulsed from the Byakugan. His mind snapped to it, and when he realized it wasn't absorbing anymore, he cut off the chakra flow.
Probing the storage space with his mental energy, Seimei tallied up how much he'd used over the last two hours.
Call it coincidence or spot-on guessing—his Byakugan had burned through exactly two million points.
But that was the best-case scenario.
Two million chakra points. Based on yesterday's test, every 200,000 points got him one evolution point. So, two million meant ten points.
The pace was the same as before.
At that rate, hitting 5,000 evolution points would take just 500 days.
Of course, that all hinged on him coughing up this much chakra daily.
But…
Seimei glanced at the nearly empty storage space between his brows and couldn't help but feel that scraping together that much chakra every day might be a tall order.