Zzt-zzzt-crackle~
Lightning burst from his palm, wild and aimless. Some of it struck the ground, leaving scorched black craters. Some pierced through the air, releasing a faint, burnt stench. And some—well, some hit him directly, like a whip lashing across his flesh, leaving trails of charred marks on his body.
Feeling the stinging, burning pain from the wounds, Seimei frowned slightly and muttered to himself, "Man, I got careless!"
When his shadow clones were working on this technique earlier, they'd used the "Chakra Cloak" to shield themselves. That way, they could last a full hour without breaking apart from damage. But now, switching to his real body—where there's no risk of collapsing from injury—he'd totally forgotten that step.
At the end of the day, his "Lightning Release: Raikiri" had only just been imprinted onto his panel. Sure, it was a lot more stable than during the experimental phase, but it still wasn't at beginner level yet. So, yeah, he should've taken the proper precautions.
"No more slip-ups next time!" he mumbled under his breath.
Good thing this was just "Raikiri." Even if it went haywire, it'd only leave some surface scratches. If it were some trickier, more specialized ninjutsu, he might've landed himself in a bigger mess.
Lesson learned. After mentally scolding himself to stop goofing off, Seimei raised his hands again, forming seals. First, he cast "Chakra Cloak," wrapping himself in a faint cyan layer of chakra for protection. Then, he went for "Lightning Release: Raikiri" again.
What? You're wondering about the injuries he just got?
Sorry, those little scrapes were nothing. With a quick thought, Seimei channeled some chakra, gave his body's natural healing a tiny boost, and they were gone.
That alone gave a rough idea of his current "Raikiri"'s firepower.
Yeah, the damage came from the technique going out of control—not a focused attack—but you can still get the gist of its real killing potential from that.
Spoiler: it wasn't much.
Still, even though he had a hunch about its limits, Seimei wanted to test it for himself.
Zzzzt~~~
That shrill, thousand-birds-chirping sound rang out again as lightning flared in his palm. "Raikiri" sparked to life once more.
Not wanting it to fizzle out again, he didn't waste a second. He thrust his hand forward, slamming it into the big tree in front of him.
Instantly, a thick, charred-wood smell hit his nose.
Then came the rapid crackle-pop of electricity hitting the target.
A few breaths later, Seimei pulled his hand back.
The tree trunk now sported a shallow, slightly-larger-than-fist-sized black pit, surrounded by branching, lightning-scorched marks.
Compared to the piercing power of Kakashi's "Raikiri," his version was… well, let's just say it wasn't pretty.
But that made sense.
Right now, his "Raikiri" had barely been imprinted on the panel—it wasn't even at beginner level. No way it could handle a ton of chakra yet.
So, weak damage? Totally expected.
Still, Seimei knew this was just temporary.
With the magic of his proficiency panel and a bit of elbow grease, it wouldn't take long to level it up. Once he pumped in his massive chakra reserves, its killing power would outshine even Kakashi's—no question.
How fast that'd happen, though, depended on how much chakra it took to train "Raikiri."
With that in mind, Seimei replayed the whole casting process in his head, soaking up the experience. Then he raised his hands, formed the seals, and cast "Raikiri" again.
That familiar bird-chirping noise filled the air once more.
Zzt-zzt-zzt~
He slammed it into the tree trunk again.
A few breaths later, he pulled back.
Feeling out the sensations from that cast and absorbing the experience again, he repeated the process, firing off another "Raikiri."
Over and over, Seimei ran through it more than a dozen times, stopping only after his panel showed "Raikiri" had gained about a dozen proficiency points.
"Panel!"
With a thought, he pulled up his proficiency panel again.
His eyes flicked to the chakra section as he started calculating the cost from those casts.
Since his "Raikiri" wasn't at beginner level yet, the chakra cost per proficiency point wasn't totally consistent.
But after those dozen-plus tries, he had enough data to make a rough guess about what it'd take to train it going forward.
A moment later, he had his answer: once it hit beginner level, each proficiency point would probably cost around 200 chakra points.
In other words, with his current daily input of 136,000 chakra points, he could rack up 680 proficiency points per day.
At that rate, it'd take five days to hit Level 5—his first big leap.
Then, another 22 days to reach Level 7 for the second leap.
As for maxing it out at Level 9 (0/0)—the limit for an A-rank ninjutsu and its third leap—that'd take a whopping three or four months.
That kind of timeline? No way Seimei could stomach it.
But right now, he didn't have a fix. He'd just have to wait until he nabbed the Four-Tails to speed things up.
What about the chakra he'd free up once "Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet Technique" hit max level?
Sure, with its 150,000 daily chakra investment, it'd reach Level 7 (0/0) in less than half a month.
But don't forget—there were two other Earth Release techniques waiting in line for that spare chakra!
Plus, "Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Technique" and "Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique" were just the start. Once they maxed out, they could evolve into "Earth Release: Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique" and "Earth Release: Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique."
Those upgraded versions? Straight-up A-rank ninjutsu with a Level 9 cap. And since training Earth Release stuff already cost him more than other natures, there was no counting on that chakra anytime soon.
What about waiting for his body to evolve again, boosting his "Physique" stat and recovery rate for more usable chakra?
Well, first off, that'd still take him a little over three months. And even if he could evolve right now, the extra free chakra would have other uses.
Like what?
Simple—by then, he'd have fully integrated Hashirama's cells into his body.
That new chakra would go straight into refining "Reflection Technique" and covering its follow-up costs. No way he could spare any for "Raikiri."
So, his only real shot was hoping Old Purple showed up soon so he could snag the Four-Tails.
Otherwise, it'd just be a slow grind.
"Sigh~"
With a light huff, Seimei pushed the thoughts aside and refocused on his panel.
Looking it over, the past 20-ish days of training had actually paid off pretty well.
For one, his chakra cap had jumped by over 35,000 points, hitting an unprecedented 480,000—just shy of 500,000 by less than 20,000.
No doubt about it, that was a massive pool of chakra.
Sure, after unlocking the alternate space with "All-Encompassing Seal," his own chakra reserves didn't seem as critical anymore. As long as he stocked enough in there, he could tap into it whenever.
But that was just a shortcut—it could crap out on him someday.
So, boosting his own chakra as much as possible was still the smart move.
Luckily, as long as his "Chakra Refinement Technique" kept passively ticking, it'd keep digging into his body's potential and raising that cap.
No need to sweat it too much.
Beyond chakra, the other stuff worth noting was "Fire Release: Flame Strike" and "Chakra Control."
The former was already past the halfway mark. At his current pace, it'd take maybe 10 more days to hit the Level 8 bottleneck.
When that happened, he'd need to pour in more chakra to break through.
As for the latter…
Thanks to maxing out skills like "Lightning Release: Thunder Sword," "Chakra Scalpel," "Earth Release: Black Rain," "Earth Release: Earth Vein Dragon," "Lightning Release: Thunder Beast Performance," and "Fire Release: Crimson Lotus Prison Fire," his proficiency had climbed again. It was now at Level 7 (18,500/20,000)—just a hair away from Level 8.
Once it broke through, no question it'd give his control over all chakra natures a huge boost.
At that point, he might not need to grind multiple skills just to tweak the shape and nature of specific chakra types.
But that was all just a hunch for now—nothing solid.
Oh, and his "Fire Release: Thousand Swallow Dance" was about three days from maxing out too.
When it did, he'd free up 50,000 chakra points to play with.
Not a ton, but better than nothing, right?
All these thoughts flashed through his head. Seimei gave the panel one last glance before closing it.
With a few quick flickers, he hopped back onto that giant rock.
Glancing up at the sun on the horizon, it was still early. He hadn't finished today's training yet, so…
"Back to it!"
Muttering to himself, Seimei raised his hands again, formed the seals for "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique," and split off over a hundred clones to kick off another round of grinding.
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