A day later, Seimei was the first to imprint the "Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet Technique" onto his panel.
Since he had a complete training method, after investing a ton of chakra and using shadow clones to experiment and practice, Seimei naturally managed to pull it off without a hitch.
And just a day after that, he successfully grinded it up to the beginner level—aka Level 1.
At this point, he also figured out how much it cost him to train this technique.
Among the different chakra natures, his control over Earth Release chakra was the weakest. Naturally, practicing a technique of this nature took a bit more effort—and chakra—than the others.
From his tests, at this stage, raising the proficiency of the "Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet Technique" by one point burned through 120 chakra points.
For techniques of other natures, with a solid training method, it'd only take about 100 points tops.
Still, 120 points? He could live with that.
Based on the 150,000 chakra points he was throwing at it daily, he calculated he could rack up about 1,250 proficiency points per day with this technique.
At that rate, it'd take him roughly half a month to hit the upper limit for a B-rank ninjutsu—Level 7 (0/0)!
And that wasn't all—he had three other techniques in the works too.
Originally, he thought "Lightning Release: Raikiri" would be the first one he'd crack.
After all, his control over Lightning Release chakra wasn't half bad.
Plus, with the foundation laid by "Lightning Release: Thunder Sword," along with the training insights from Kakashi and Sasuke tucked away in his memory, he figured it'd come together pretty quick.
But nope—he'd underestimated just how much chakra control this technique demanded.
Sure, his "Chakra Control" skill was at Level 7, but when it came to Lightning Release chakra specifically, he was still a little shaky.
So, despite all those advantages, he couldn't quite nail it down.
On the flip side, "Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Technique" and "Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique" ended up getting imprinted on his panel first, thanks to the research notes from Tobirama Senju.
And just as he'd suspected, while both were classified as B-rank ninjutsu, their complexity was on a whole other level compared to your average B-rank stuff.
They were kind of like that secret Cloud Village taijutsu he'd picked up before—"Lightning Release Chakra Mode." Training them sucked up chakra like crazy.
Right now, they hadn't even reached beginner status yet, so the chakra cost per proficiency point wasn't set in stone.
But based on his experience with other skills, Seimei could ballpark it: once they hit beginner level, each proficiency point would probably cost around 150 chakra points.
That's about on par with the cost of an average A-rank ninjutsu.
So yeah, they were a pain to train.
Good thing he had his proficiency panel—pour in chakra, put in the work, and he'd see results.
For anyone else, the time and energy required would be at least triple his—and even then, there's no guarantee they'd get anywhere.
"Man, this panel really is the MVP forever!"
Muttering to himself, Seimei quickly started thinking about how to divvy up his chakra next.
Up until now, he'd dumped a full 150,000 chakra points into this "quality over quantity" approach.
With these two techniques now imprinted on his panel, the question was: should he split that chakra evenly between them and grind both at once?
If he went that route, each technique would get 75,000 chakra points per day.
At 150 chakra per proficiency point, that's 500 points per day per technique.
That pace would take over 37 days to max them out at Level 7 (0/0).
No doubt about it—that was way too slow.
But if he focused all that chakra on just one technique, he could max it out in about 18 days.
Plus, that'd give him a deeper understanding of Earth Release chakra nature transformation along the way.
With that as a reference, grinding the second technique would definitely go faster.
Not by a ton, though.
After a quick mental estimate, he figured going this route would only save him maybe two or three days tops.
That's so little that if he trained both techniques together and cross-referenced them, a single spark of inspiration could easily close the gap.
In the end, it might even be quicker to train them side by side.
"Ugh, why hasn't Old Purple checked in yet?"
The thought slipped out as Seimei grumbled under his breath.
If he could get his hands on the Four-Tails right now, with its chakra supply, he wouldn't have to stress over this stuff.
Forget just these few techniques—he could even kickstart the development of the cursed seal jutsu he'd shelved earlier due to chakra shortages.
Thinking it over, Seimei checked the status of his Flying Thunder God seals scattered across the Land of Earth. None of them had been tampered with or triggered.
That meant Old Purple still hadn't shown up.
It'd been almost 20 days since he'd set up his big web, and a tiny knot of anxiety was starting to form in his chest.
The longer this dragged on, the higher the chance his setup would get exposed.
And if the Hidden Rock Village found out that every major city in the Land of Earth had someone secretly sniffing around for Old Purple, they'd be on high alert.
Forget catching the Four-Tails—if they traced it back to him, he'd be lucky to get out unscathed.
Seimei wasn't naive enough to think his plan was flawless.
Sure, memories wiped by the Mangekyo Sharingan were tough to recover—but "tough" didn't mean "impossible."
The ninja world was full of wild secret techniques. The Yamanaka clan could even dig into a dead person's memories. Who's to say the Rock Village didn't have some trick up their sleeve to restore those memories?
And if they did, intel about him would spill out like water.
Yeah, he'd used the Transformation Technique during the operation, but if the Rock Village analyzed his methods and the skills he'd pulled off, cross-referencing it with people in the ninja world capable of such feats, pinning him down wouldn't be hard.
Even if they couldn't recover the memories, if they got suspicious and investigated, they'd probably notice something off about those people.
They might not spot the Flying Thunder God seals, but the "Heart Lock Seal"—something straight from their own village? They'd catch that for sure.
Seimei never underestimated the resources or resolve of a major ninja village.
When that happened, even without hard proof, he'd definitely end up on their hit list.
With his current strength, he wasn't too worried about being targeted—but the real problem was if the Rock Village played dirty and leaked what he'd done.
Controlling that many civilians at once? He couldn't even imagine the fallout if that got out.
At that point, even the Leaf Village might not have a place for him.
Nobody wants to think about themselves or their loved ones unknowingly turning into someone else's puppet, their lives dangling in another's hands.
A flurry of thoughts raced through his mind. Seimei shook his head hard, tossing the clutter aside. He'd already made his move—no point in regretting it now.
It was a race: either his setup got busted first, or he'd nab the Four-Tails and clean up the mess before anyone noticed.
For now, though…
He turned his attention back to figuring out what to do with those 150,000 chakra points.
This time, he didn't overthink it—he made up his mind fast: train both techniques together!
Compared to the tiny time savings of grinding them one by one, he cared more about how they could play off each other.
One increases an object's density, the other lowers it—what a perfect pair!
Training them side by side would seriously boost his grasp of Earth chakra nature transformation.
And like he'd just thought, if he trained them together and hit a burst of inspiration, a big proficiency spike could easily make up for that small time difference.
So, no need to split them up!