Time flew like a white horse passing through a gap, and in the blink of an eye, five days had gone by.
It was now early June.
That afternoon, on Moon Island's southwest side, a thousand meters below the ocean's surface, Seimei paused his movements to assess his body.
Just as he'd expected, after successfully developing Body Extreme, it took only five days for his physique to reach the cusp of transformation.
At this point, an invisible barrier was holding him back, preventing further physical growth.
In other words, he'd hit his current limit.
It's time to break through this barrier!
With that thought, Seimei murmured to himself and used Earth Release: Ultra-Lightened Rock Technique to reduce his body's density, swiftly swimming upward.
In just ten breaths, he reached his marked location.
Then, he immediately used Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport to an open area in the center of Moon Island.
Dispelling the Ultra-Lightened Rock Technique and Lightning Release Chakra Mode, Seimei took a deep breath, letting his lungs work normally again.
Next, he conjured a burst of Fire Release chakra to evaporate the water clinging to his body.
Once he was dry and comfortable, he glanced at the shadow clones training across the island, and with a thought, dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Instantly, all the clones disintegrated.
A flood of training experiences and memories surged into his mind.
As usual, Seimei spent about fifteen minutes absorbing and processing the clones' training insights.
For the Body Extreme experience, he personally performed the technique a dozen times to fully convert it into proficiency.
By the time he finished, nearly half an hour had passed.
Now, it was time to push his body to break through.
With that in mind, Seimei opened his ninja pouch and pulled out a few enhanced soldier pills, popping them into his mouth.
Crunch, crunch.
He chewed them carefully and swallowed.
Soon, the energy he'd expended was fully replenished, and his condition was restored to its peak.
Everything was ready. Seimei wasted no time and activated Human Defense, channeling its power into himself to guide the upcoming transformation.
Then, he used Palm Sage Technique to create a dense mass of Yang Release chakra.
He infused it into his body, guiding it with his mental focus along his chakra network, letting it spread throughout.
It seeped into every cell.
In that moment, Human Defense acted like a steering wheel, while the Yang Release chakra served as the engine's fuel, driving his body toward evolution.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Thanks to his Sharingan having evolved into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he no longer risked blindness.
So, when using Human Defense now, he didn't need to pause setiap few seconds or minutes to rest.
All he had to focus on was keeping the Yang Release chakra flowing.
And chakra? That was something he had in abundance.
The breakthrough process went smoothly, with remarkable efficiency.
Still, with a physique stat of 26, even with his high efficiency, it took nearly an hour to complete the breakthrough.
Crack!
A sound like something shattering rang in Seimei's ears.
In the next moment, the invisible barrier holding back his body's growth broke.
A warm current surged within him, splitting into countless streams that flowed along his chakra network, spreading through his entire body. It felt so good he closed his eyes in comfort.
Faintly, he could sense every cell in his body cheering, transforming bit by bit.
Seimei knew he'd succeeded.
But to fully complete the transformation, he needed a bit more time.
Realizing this, he deactivated Human Defense, letting his mind relax completely, allowing the warm currents to flow freely and facilitate the transformation.
Time passed steadily, and Seimei felt as if he were standing in a higher dimension, observing his body's changes with calm detachment, waiting for the transformation to finish.
About half an hour later, the warm currents faded, and the transformation was complete. Seimei came back to himself.
At that moment, his body felt as if it had shed a heavy suit of armor, becoming much lighter.
The oppressive weight on his mind, caused by his spirit overpowering his physique, had also lessened significantly.
Seimei knew this was because his body and mind had regained some balance.
"Panel!"
With a thought, he opened his proficiency panel.
A familiar translucent light blue screen appeared:
---
Name: Uchiha Seimei
Age: 14
Physique: 26 → 27
Spirit: 29
Chakra: 352,000 (1,052,244 → 1,210,644)
Bloodline:
- Sharingan · Eternal Mangekyo (13,192/100,000) → (15,192/100,000)
- Byakugan (1/10,000) → (872/10,000)
- Wood Release (2,100/5,000) → (3,500/5,000)
- Lava Release (415/1,000) → (920/1,000)
- Ice Release (122/1,000) → (670/1,000)
Skills:
- Chakra Refinement Technique: Lv7 (780/20,000) → Lv7 (1,308/20,000)
- Wood Clone Technique: Lv5 (4,500/5,000) → Lv7 (1,500/20,000)
- Body Extreme: Lv1 (1/200) → Lv6 (6,300/10,000)
- Chakra Control: Lv8 (4,920/50,000) → Lv8 (5,100/50,000)
Perfect Skills: [None listed]
---
As expected, with his body's transformation, his Physique stat had increased by one point.
This reduced the gap between his Physique and Spirit stats from three points to two.
That one-point reduction restored a bit more balance between the two.
With this balance, he wouldn't have to worry about physical imbalance for a while.
And as a result, his mental state, which had been deteriorating due to the imbalance, would gradually recover.
This would slightly boost his training efficiency.
But that didn't mean he was in the clear.
For one thing, even with his Physique stat now at 27, it was still two points behind his Spirit stat of 29.
If his Spirit stat increased even slightly, the consequences would be worse than before.
After all, the higher the base stats, the larger the gap each point represented.
The difference between 26 and 29 was significant, but the gap between 27 and 30, though still three points, was far greater.
So, he couldn't afford to slack off.
He needed to keep pushing to close the gap between his Physique and Spirit stats.
Only then could he maintain better balance and unlock more potential.
Speaking of potential, Seimei closed his eyes to test the changes brought by this Physique stat increase.
First, his theoretical chakra ceiling.
Focusing his mind, he fully activated the Chakra Refinement Technique to tap into his potential.
This took half an hour.
When he opened his eyes again, Seimei compared the before and after.
He concluded that this Physique increase had boosted his theoretical chakra ceiling by about 900,000 points.
It might seem small compared to the 1.6 million-point increase from his last Spirit stat boost (from 28 to 29).
But that Spirit boost was far more significant than this Physique increase from 26 to 27.
Compared to the 700,000-point increase from his previous Physique boost (25 to 26), this was a notable improvement.
That previous boost had perfectly balanced his 26 Physique with his 26 Spirit, naturally unlocking more potential.
This time's larger increase spoke for itself.
Seimei was very satisfied.
With this 900,000-point boost, his theoretical chakra ceiling officially broke past 10 million, reaching 10.5 million points.
If he could fully tap into that potential…
Tch, tch.
Seimei didn't even dare to imagine it.
His current chakra ceiling was just over 1.2 million points—barely a ninth of his theoretical maximum. It was hard to fathom.
At the very least, pinning down the Nine-Tails single-handedly shouldn't be an issue.
Wait…
He could probably already do that.
Taking it a step further, he might not even need ninjutsu—just raw chakra output could easily overpower the Nine-Tails.
Slurp.
Seimei wiped the drool from his mouth, reining in his wandering thoughts, and moved on to test his chakra recovery rate.
Both Spirit and Physique stat increases most significantly affected the theoretical chakra ceiling and recovery rate.
With the ceiling tested, it was time for recovery.
As usual, he paused the Chakra Refinement Technique, staring intently at the proficiency panel to track chakra changes.
Time passed steadily.
After about ten minutes, he stopped.
His panel showed a chakra increase of 46,528 points.
Ten minutes equaled 46,528 points. An hour would be 279,168 points. Over 24 hours, that's 6,700,000 points.
In other words, with his body's natural recovery, assuming full energy, he could restore 6.7 million chakra points daily.
Before today, that number was 5.7 million.
This Physique boost had increased his chakra recovery rate by 1 million points.
No doubt, this was a massive leap.
For comparison, his last Physique boost (25 to 26), with the added balance of matching Spirit stats, had only increased recovery by 800,000 points.
This time's 1-million-point jump was staggering.
The reason was simple: as his Physique stat neared his Spirit stat, the potential suppressed by their previous imbalance was gradually unleashed.
This led to a far greater boost than expected.
And this was only a partial release. If his Physique and Spirit stats fully balanced, the gains would be even greater.
This transformation didn't just boost his theoretical chakra ceiling and recovery rate—it also advanced his various Kekkei Genkai.
His Sharingan's evolution progress increased by 500 points. While less than the 700 from his last transformation or the 1,000 from the one before, it was still solid.
Those 500 points not only made up for the progress lost from cutting back on Reflection Heart Technique to practice Wood Clone Technique but even pushed him ahead.
Next, his Byakugan.
Its evolution progress, though less than the 800 points from his last transformation, still jumped by 600 points.
His Byakugan progress had nearly stalled due to pausing its nurturing.
But with this 600-point boost, it shot to nearly a tenth of the way, reaching (872/10,000).
Seimei was thrilled.
His Body Extreme proficiency was now at Lv6 (6,300/10,000). Based on its framework, the max level was Lv7.
In just over a day, it could reach perfection.
Then, he could optimize the technique while using it to further evolve his Byakugan.
Those 600 points saved him a ton of time.
But if it was just his Sharingan and Byakugan progressing, Seimei wouldn't be that excited.
After all, he had reliable methods to advance both, and they wouldn't trigger another physical transformation to balance his body and mind anytime soon.
The real kicker was that his Wood Release, Lava Release, and Ice Release had also evolved.
Ice Release saw the biggest jump.
Its evolution progress surged by 450 points. Combined with the natural progress over the past twenty-plus days, it crossed the halfway mark, reaching (670/1,000).
Lava Release was next.
It gained 400 points, and with prior progress and the past twenty-plus days' natural growth, it hit (920/1,000)—just a step away from advancing.
Finally, Wood Release had the smallest gain at 300 points, but it still reached (3,500/5,000).
Overall, none of them were far from advancing.
And once these three Kekkei Genkai leveled up, even if they didn't trigger another transformation outright, they'd significantly shorten the time needed.
This would let his Physique stat climb faster, bringing his body and mind back into balance sooner.