The moon set, and the sun rose.
In the blink of an eye, it was the next day.
Just like his usual rest days, Seimei spent this one nurturing his Byakugan while wandering around aimlessly to unwind. Of course, he also took some time to stock up on supplies for his next training session.
The most important item on his list? Soldier pills—the perfect meal replacement.
To keep his nutrition on point while minimizing how much he had to eat, Seimei stuck to buying from one specific shop.
It was a store run by the Nara clan, specializing in secret medicines for ninja training. They sold an enhanced version of soldier pills—pricier than the norm, but damn effective. After trying them once, Seimei never bothered shopping anywhere else.
That afternoon, he stepped into the shop again.
The moment the shopkeeper spotted him, his eyes lit up. He hustled over in two quick strides, beaming as he asked, "Same as usual?"
"Yeah."
Seimei kept his cool, deadpan expression and gave a curt nod.
The shopkeeper didn't bat an eye at the attitude—he was used to it. He darted to the back and hauled out a small box, about 20 centimeters long, 15 centimeters wide, and no taller than a hand's width.
Seimei took it and popped it open slowly.
Inside were a thousand neatly packed enhanced soldier pills, each the size of a pinky finger.
Ignoring the shopkeeper's eager sales pitch, Seimei inspected the pills carefully. Once he was sure there were no issues, he snapped the lid shut.
Then, with crisp efficiency, he pulled out his wallet, fished out a check, and handed it over.
The shopkeeper took it with both hands, gave it a thorough once-over to confirm it was legit, and nodded with a satisfied grin. "Come back anytime!"
"Mm."
Seimei, as tight-lipped as ever, just grunted in response.
With that, he turned and left the shop.
A few quick flashes later, he vanished into the crowd.
Outside, the shopkeeper watched him go. That slick, salesman smile faded from his face, replaced by a thoughtful look.
Seimei knew full well that buying this many soldier pills from an outsider—and doing it every ten days—would raise some eyebrows. Especially since this guy was a Nara clan ninja, famous for their sharp minds. With even the tiniest scrap of info, they might piece something together.
But honestly? He didn't care.
As long as his strength kept climbing fast enough, it didn't matter if people figured something out or tried scheming against him—it'd all be pointless.
So, all he needed to do was make sure the goods were solid and wouldn't mess with his training. Everything else?
Not worth a damn.
After leaving the shop, Seimei ducked into an empty corner. He pulled a sealing scroll from his ninja pouch, cast the "Sealing Array Technique," and stashed the box inside.
With that done, he started wandering the village again.
But if you paid close attention, you'd notice him pausing every now and then, his hand casually brushing over some random, unnoticed spot.
And just like that, a Flying Thunder God mark took shape.
Yup—Flying Thunder God marks.
Ever since he'd maxed out his "Flying Thunder God Technique," he'd been sneaking around during rest days, leaving these marks all over the village. That way, if push came to shove, he could zip to any corner of the place in an instant.
He kept at it on the down-low for over an hour. Once he figured it was about time, he found a quiet spot and started nurturing his Byakugan.
Two hours later, dusk rolled in.
Byakugan nurturing done.
Seimei opened his eyes and checked the chakra left in the alternate space at his forehead. Not too much, not too little—about 3 million points.
That was the 1.4 million he'd saved from his last rest day, plus another 1.4 million from this one, topped off with whatever he'd freed up from maxing out skills like "Earth Release: Black Rain" in between.
He was saving this stash for the next big push—getting "Fire Release: Flame Strike" to Level 9.
Back when it hit Level 8, it took 600 or 700 chakra points just to nudge the proficiency up by one. With this stockpile, he could probably squeeze out over 4,000 points. Even if the difficulty spiked this time, he'd still clear at least 3,000.
That'd be enough to patch up "Flame Strike"'s flaws and push it to Level 9.
Thoughts raced through his head as he mulled it over for a bit. Then he shook it off—no point overthinking now.
With a quick leap, he dropped from the tree branch and headed toward the Uchiha clan's district, striding fast under the setting sun.
---
The next day.
Morning.
Seimei went through his usual routine—washed up, cast "Shadow Clone Technique" to leave a clone behind, and then ditched the village.
Back on that familiar island, he kicked off another round of hardcore training.
Three days later, "Fire Release: Thousand Swallow Dance" was the first to level up, jumping from Level 6 (8350/1000) to a perfect Level 7 (0/0).
What used to be a kinda meh technique suddenly got a bit more bite.
Seimei raised a hand, flashed through the seals in an instant, and summoned a swarm of Fire Release chakra in the air. It morphed into palm-sized, lifelike fire swallows.
With a flick of his control, they swooped toward the forest ahead.
The next second, they crashed into the trees—setting them ablaze and blasting fist-sized scorch pits into the wood.
Clearly, each swallow packed a punch beyond your average D-rank ninjutsu.
With their numbers, they could actually pose a threat to low- or mid-tier ninja.
That's what Seimei meant by "a bit more useful."
After a quick test, he dropped his hand.
Then he started thinking about what to do with the 50,000 chakra points freed up from maxing it out.
His eyes skimmed over a few skills on his panel. He didn't waffle for long—decision made. All 50,000 points went straight to "Lightning Release: Raikiri."
That bumped his daily chakra investment in it from 136,000 to 186,000.
And the proficiency gains? They'd jump from 680 a day to 930.
At that pace, it'd hit Level 5 by the day after tomorrow at the latest. The time to reach Levels 7 and 9 would shrink by about a quarter too.
Seimei couldn't help but feel a little pumped.
So, he dove back into training even harder.
He figured this round would just cruise by like that—until five days later.
Eight days into this training cycle.
Midday.
While Seimei was powering up with "Lightning Release Chakra Mode," a weird feeling suddenly hit him out of nowhere.
At first, he wasn't sure what it was.
But then it clicked—that sensation wasn't random. It was one of his Flying Thunder God marks getting tripped.
And the location? Right smack in the Land of Earth.
That got him hyped.
The Four-Tails he'd been obsessing over was over there, after all.
No hesitation—he stopped training on the spot, canceled "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique," and recalled all his clones.
Too rushed to sift through their training memories and experience, he gave his chakra a quick check—350,000 points. About 70% of his peak.
But that was just the stuff flowing through his system. In the alternate space at his forehead, he still had over 2 million points.
There used to be more, though.
Two days back, "Fire Release: Flame Strike" hit the top of Level 8 and entered its "breakthrough" phase. That chewed through a million points, leaving him with the 2 million he had now.
No biggie, though—2.35 million total chakra was more than enough to deal with Old Purple.
And if, by some one-in-a-million fluke, that wasn't enough? He still had the Seven-Tails as his "portable charger." Worst case, he'd lean on it to squeeze out some emergency chakra.
That'd work too!
So…
"Time to roll!"
Muttering to himself, Seimei did a final gear check.
Everything looked good. Following that faint connection, he locked onto the activated Flying Thunder God mark and cast "Flying Thunder God Technique."
Whoosh~
Silently, he vanished from the spot.