A bunch of thoughts flickered through Seimei's mind. He sat there spacing out for a bit before shaking it off, refocusing, and diving back into his training.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
In a flash, over a hundred shadow clones popped up without a sound.
He split them up like it was second nature, assigning groups to work on different skills, and got the ball rolling.
Another day passed in a blink.
Just as planned, his "Lightning Release: Thunderstrike Sword" broke through, jumping from Level 6 (9,100/10,000) to a perfect Level 7 (0/0).
Now, when he used it, he could summon a lightning sword in his palm that looked and felt like a real weapon.
Not only could it stick around for a while, but after cutting down an enemy, he could keep it going by feeding it more chakra.
This bumped up his control over lightning chakra's shape transformation by a solid chunk.
Plus, he had a gut feeling this jutsu would come in handy later when he tried cooking up something like "Lightning Release: Raikiri," which needs a ton of condensed lightning chakra.
Too bad he didn't have the spare chakra to mess around with that now—he'd have to wait until he nabbed the Four-Tails to give it a shot.
As for the chakra this jutsu saved him now that it was maxed out?
Like he'd planned, he funneled it straight into nurturing his Byakugan.
And that wasn't the only win that day. His "Fire Release: Condensed Flame Strike" also got a boost. With an investment of 306,000 chakra points, he patched up its current flaws, racked up the last 500 proficiency points, and pushed it past Level 7 to Level 8.
On the island, in front of a short hill, Seimei soaked in the insights flooding his mind.
A moment later, he opened his eyes.
He raised his hands, formed seals, and quickly channeled his chakra, converting it to fire release. It flowed out through the chakra points in his palms, gathering between his hands into a crimson fireball.
The thing wasn't big, but the heat it gave off? You couldn't ignore it.
Next thing you know, it was like the fireball cracked open. A bright flame shot out, blasting toward a spot ahead.
Shhhk!
The flame streaked out fast, turning into a fiery pillar that slammed dead-on into the hill.
Normally, an attack this fierce—especially fire release—would blow up on impact.
But nope, no explosion. Where the pillar hit, it left a straight, charred line. When it struck the hill, all it did was carve out a pitch-black pit.
With a thought, Seimei activated his Byakugan and checked out the hole.
After a bit, he pulled his gaze back and mumbled, "Fifteen meters, huh?"
Yep, that pit from "Condensed Flame Strike" was a full fifteen meters deep.
And that was with him standing a fair distance from the hill. Get closer, and it'd dig even deeper.
That's the kind of power this jutsu was packing now.
Beyond the raw strength, hitting Level 8 brought another perk.
He flicked his panel open with a thought and glanced at the proficiency and chakra stats for "Condensed Flame Strike."
Comparing it to before, the math was easy: practicing it now only cost him 200 chakra points per proficiency point.
Sure, that's still pricier than most jutsu, but compared to the 600 or 700 points it guzzled a few days ago, it was a steal.
Pretty much what he'd expected.
Still, he knew once it hit the top of Level 8, the cost would spike again—probably worse than Level 7.
But for now, he didn't have to sweat the proficiency grind slowing down.
How long would "now" last?
At 306,000 chakra points a day, he'd have at least a month before the difficulty really kicked in.
By then, he might've already snagged Old Man Onoki and the Four-Tails.
When that happened, he could just pour in more chakra to speed things up.
No point worrying about it ahead of time.
With that thought, he tested the upgraded "Condensed Flame Strike" a few more times, then hopped back to the big rock in the island's center to start the next round of training.
And just like that, the days ticked by.
---
Three days later, this training cycle hit the ten-day mark.
So, Seimei headed back to the Leaf Village, took a day to rest, and stockpiled 1.4 million chakra points while he was at it.
It should've been 3.4 million, but he hadn't stopped nurturing his Byakugan, so that's where the rest went.
Still, those 1.4 million points? He could sock them away as an emergency stash.
Why?
Simple: with "Chakra Scalpel" and "Thunderstrike Sword" hitting max level one after the other, plus him pausing his foresight research on "Reflection Technique," he was saving over 356,000 chakra points a day—up from 350,000.
That meant he didn't need to tap into that stash to cover his Byakugan nurturing anymore.
So, those extra 1.4 million points could just sit there, ready when he needed them.
With that reserve-kernel kernels, he kicked off his next training cycle.
Just one day in, his "Earth Release: Black Soil Rain" leveled up, hitting the B-rank jutsu cap at Level 7 (0/0)!
The next day, another earth jutsu—"Earth Release: Earth Vein Dragon"—followed suit, maxing out at Level 7 (0/0) too.
Then, on the fourth day of the cycle, "Lightning Release: Thunder Beast Performance" broke through, also capping at Level 7 (0/0).
By then, he was banking 230,000 extra chakra points a day (80,000 + 80,000 + 70,000).
But Seimei didn't rush to spend it—he just stored it all in his brow space for now.
Two days later, "Fire Release: Crimson Lotus Prison Flame" pulled off its own breakthrough, jumping from Level 8 to a perfect Level 9 (0/0).
This upgrade didn't just give him a slick combo of defense and offense—it also deepened his grasp of fire chakra's shape transformation.
Right then, he was dead sure: if he could max out "Condensed Flame Strike" and nail down fire chakra's nature transformation, he'd be on the cusp of fusing it with the other six attributes to unlock a Bloodline Network.
But that was for later. Right now, the big win was "Crimson Lotus Prison Flame" saving him another 400,000 chakra points daily.
That brought his spare chakra up to 630,000 points a day.