Four days had passed in the blink of an eye.
Before he knew it, January 5th had arrived.
And this day just so happened to be Seimei's birthday.
Even Seimei couldn't escape the pull of tradition. On this day, he didn't train as usual. Instead, he burned through a ton of chakra, using the Flying Thunder God Technique and his flight ninjutsu to travel across the Land of Fire.
The New Year had just passed, and the festive spirit still lingered. Plus, this was the first New Year since the Third Great Ninja War, so the towns and villages were buzzing with energy.
Seimei wandered through cities and villages like an ordinary person, soaking in the unique customs and cultures of each place.
Whenever he stumbled upon something interesting or fun, he'd stop to take it in.
In those moments, his heart felt lighter than ever before.
---
That night, he returned to Moon Island and lay on the roof of his wooden cabin, staring up at the twinkling stars, lost in thought.
Without realizing it, more than four years had passed since he arrived in this world.
And those four years? They'd been packed with experiences that dwarfed the twenty-plus years of his previous life.
In that time, he'd gained power most people could only dream of in a lifetime. From a nobody drifting in the chaos of war, he'd become a shadowy figure who could sway the fate of the ninja world.
The past four years had been grueling. Aside from the occasional break to recharge, he hadn't had a single day to just kick back.
But it was all worth it. His achievements proved his hard work hadn't been for nothing.
He could feel the chakra surging through his meridians. Clenching his fist, a wave of strength washed over him.
In this world where power was everything, he felt an unprecedented sense of security.
With his current strength, not even Konoha could hold a candle to him. Across the entire ninja world, only a handful of people could stand toe-to-toe with him.
Right now, he was as close to absolute freedom as you could get.
But Seimei didn't let it go to his head.
He never forgot the goal he'd set for himself: to transcend this world and witness a greater reality beyond it.
For now, he could dominate in the realm of "humans," but when it came to the realm of "gods," he was still falling short.
This wasn't the time to slack off.
With that thought, Seimei snapped out of his reverie.
He rolled off the roof, landed smoothly, and pushed open the door to his cabin to rest.
He needed to recharge for tomorrow's training.
Soon, soft snores echoed from the cabin.
Seimei had drifted off to sleep.
The night passed quietly.
---
The Next Day
Morning came.
Seimei woke early, washed up, and downed a few enhanced soldier pills to fill his stomach before diving into another round of training.
Three days of intense training later, on the morning of the fourth day, his Three Elements Sealing Technique hit the mark he'd been aiming for. It leveled up from lv7 (1/20,000) to lv8 (1/50,000), just as he'd predicted!
And in that moment, the natural energy he couldn't contain finally had somewhere to go.
Through follow-up tests, Seimei confirmed that the lv8 Three Elements Sealing Technique could now store twice as much natural energy as before—jumping from five million points to a whopping ten million.
Sure, that storage capacity didn't match the massive space created by his All-Encompassing Seal at his forehead, which held regular chakra. But for now, ten million points was more than enough.
After all, natural energy wasn't as easy to come by as regular chakra. Aside from what he used for training, he didn't have much left to stockpile daily.
So, ten million points would do just fine for the time being.
With that in mind, Seimei decided to scale back the number of shadow clones working on improving the Three Elements Sealing Technique to one hundred.
The other hundred clones he'd temporarily pulled in for the task were reassigned to their original jobs: developing Dust Release: Original World Stripping Technique and Dust Release: Boundary Stripping Technique.
One thing worth noting, though—even at lv8, the Three Elements Sealing Technique still couldn't achieve his original vision of maintaining stability using only external natural energy without internal energy input.
For now, he still had to dedicate ten percent of his natural energy to an internal-external cycle to keep the seal stable.
Seimei figured it'd probably take reaching lv9—and another qualitative leap—for the technique to hit his original goal.
But that would take a while, so he pushed the thought aside for now.
---
Back on Moon Island, after testing the upgraded Three Elements Sealing Technique and its new capabilities, Seimei didn't waste any time. He jumped right into the next round of training.
Today wasn't just the day his Three Elements Sealing Technique leveled up. Based on his earlier estimates, it was also the day his body would hit the critical point for transformation.
He could already feel it—a faint, invisible barrier holding him back.
Seimei estimated that, at the earliest, this afternoon, or at the latest, tomorrow morning, his body would reach that critical point for transformation.
When that happened, he'd be ready to break through the bottleneck.
With that in mind, Seimei formed hand signs and unleashed Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
Clouds of chakra smoke dissipated, and five hundred shadow clones appeared.
Following his plan, he assigned two hundred clones to continue absorbing natural energy, reducing the number working on the Three Elements Sealing Technique to one hundred. The remaining two hundred were tasked with developing the Dust Release: Original World Stripping Technique and Dust Release: Boundary Stripping Technique.
Once everything was set, the clones scattered, and Seimei teleported to the volcano beneath Moon Island to begin training in the Extreme Body Technique.
---
The sun set, and the moon rose.
Night had fallen.
Inside the volcano, Seimei finished another round of Extreme Body Technique training. But this time, he could tell his body wasn't getting much stronger.
It was like an invisible wall was blocking his progress.
Seimei knew this wasn't his imagination. This was his limit.
To keep growing, he'd have to shatter that barrier.
But when he checked the time, it was already late.
Based on his past breakthroughs, the process would take at least a few hours.
And this time, breaking through the 30-point barrier would likely take even longer.
So, after some thought, Seimei decided to tackle the breakthrough tomorrow.
For now, he'd get some rest to build up his energy for the big day.
With that, he activated Flying Thunder God Technique and teleported back to Moon Island.
Standing there for a moment to fully recover, he then released the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
In an instant, every shadow clone—on the island and beyond—dissolved.
A flood of memories poured into Seimei's mind, along with hundreds of thousands of points of natural energy returning to his body.
Focusing, Seimei channeled all that natural energy into the space created by the Three Elements Sealing Technique in his abdomen, saving it for tomorrow.
Then he closed his eyes, carefully sifting through the memories in his mind, absorbing the training experience and converting it bit by bit into skill proficiency.
Time ticked by.
A quarter of an hour later, Seimei opened his eyes.
He'd finished processing the memories.
Without lingering outside, he quickly washed up, ate a few enhanced soldier pills, and headed back to his cabin to rest.
The night passed quietly.