A flurry of thoughts raced through Seimei's mind, but after a moment of reflection, he pushed them aside. It was too early to think about refining the Fuushin Sakusou: Keiyaku Shunshin no In (Heart-Sealing Soul Lock: Contract Instant Teleportation Seal).
For now, he needed to focus on mastering it completely.
It was worth noting that this technique was quite complex, involving a lot of elements, which made practicing it rather cumbersome and chakra-intensive.
Based on the past two days' experience, every point of proficiency required a whopping 200 chakra points.
Over those two days, he'd poured the entire 200,000 chakra points originally allocated for developing this seal into practicing it, yet he only gained 1,000 proficiency points per day.
As a result, its proficiency was still only at Lv4 (200/2000).
At this rate, reaching Lv9 (0/0) would take at least three months.
No doubt, that was a considerable amount of time.
Fortunately, in about a month, his Raiton: Raikiri would hit Lv10 (0/0), the pinnacle of mastery.
When that happened, the 936,000 chakra points freed up could be funneled into practicing this seal.
That would boost his daily proficiency gains from 1,000 to 5,680—an increase of over five times.
At that pace, he'd need just a month and a half to max out the Fuushin Sakusou: Keiyaku Shunshin no In.
Compared to the original three-month estimate, that cut the time in half—a pretty solid outcome.
Seimei nodded to himself, then shifted his focus to Katon: Shuen Geki (Fire Release: Flame Convergence Strike).
Over the past period, his gains hadn't been limited to mastering Doton: Kajugan no Jutsu (Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Technique) and Doton: Keijugan no Jutsu (Earth Release: Lightened Rock Technique), or successfully developing the Fuushin Sakusou: Keiyaku Shunshin no In.
Other skills had seen significant progress too, especially Katon: Shuen Geki.
After more than ten days of practice, its proficiency had surpassed Lv9 (35,000/100,000), with the progress bar already over a third full.
At this rate, it would take just over twenty days to reach the tipping point for advancement.
Once he broke through that threshold and perfected the technique, pushing it to Lv10 (0/0), his understanding and control of Fire Release chakra nature transformation would hit the expected benchmark.
This would bring him one step closer to his goal of combining the nature transformations of all seven chakra attributes to master the power of Kekkai Moura (Bloodline Encompassing).
Of course, the past ten days hadn't been all good news.
As he'd anticipated, just two days after that mission, he faced questioning from the village's higher-ups.
But, having prepared for this, he managed to brush it off.
Or rather, it was less that he brushed it off and more that the village lacked evidence, so they had to let it slide for now.
This, however, led to a problem: the village leadership's trust in him plummeted, especially among the older generation like Sarutobi Hiruzen, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado, who were the most vocal about it.
After some back-and-forth, his assignment to oversee the front lines was canceled, and the village decided to send someone else to take over.
Today was the day he'd hand over his duties to the replacement.
By his calculations, his shadow clone had likely already completed the handover.
Right now, it was probably heading back with the next batch of Konoha shinobi rotating back to the village for rest.
Once he returned, he was under orders not to leave without permission.
For anyone else, such an order might spark resentment or unease.
But Seimei? He couldn't be happier to have "nothing to do."
With his Ten no Go (Heaven's Protection), he could leave the village whenever he wanted, undetected and unstoppable.
So, this so-called ban? It was practically meaningless to him.
If anything, it saved him a lot of effort.
Even just leaving a shadow clone to handle frontline duties took a fair amount of mental energy.
And over time, the fatigue accumulated by the clone would return to his main body when the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was dispelled.
Once or twice, it might not matter, but in the long run, it would inevitably affect his training efficiency.
So, Seimei was more than happy to accept the village's orders.
The downside, though, was that his plan to rack up merits and exchange them for the Reika no Jutsu (Spirit Transformation Technique) from the village would have to be put on hold.
After mulling it over, Seimei sighed softly. "Oh well, everything has its pros and cons. I can't hog all the good stuff. The Reika no Jutsu can wait—I'll take it slow."
With that, he packed up, stood from the boulder, and in a few flashes, appeared inside the wooden cabin.
The moment he saw the bed, he collapsed onto it and drifted off.
Because he constantly split off numerous shadow clones for training, the mental strain on Seimei was immense. Every day at noon, he'd carve out a short nap to recharge.
Today was no exception.
But just when he thought today would be like any other, he'd barely lain down when his eyes snapped open.
At the same moment, a memory flooded his mind.
Seimei was all too familiar with this sensation—it was the memory of a shadow clone returning to him along with its chakra when it dispelled.
The only shadow clone he had out there was the one overseeing the front lines, now on its way back.
In other words, it had dispelled while heading back to the village.
But why would it suddenly dispel out of nowhere?
Was it attacked?
The thought jolted Seimei fully awake.
He quickly closed his eyes, diving into the memories in his mind.
Time ticked by.
Seimei's expression grew grimmer, and the air in the cabin seemed to compress, turning thick and heavy.
If anyone stepped inside right now, the aura radiating from him would crush them, leaving them gasping for air.
After a long while, Seimei finally opened his eyes.
But the oppressive atmosphere in the cabin didn't ease one bit.
If anything, as his eyes opened, the murderous intent radiating from him only intensified.
Inhale… exhale…
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Seimei forced himself to calm down.
Gradually, his aura subsided.
He reviewed the information from the memory.
At first, he'd thought the clone's dispelling might've been due to an assassination arranged by the village elders like Sarutobi Hiruzen, with whom he had some friction.
But that wasn't the case. An ambush had indeed happened, and the clone had dispelled because of it. The key, however, was that it wasn't Hiruzen or the others behind it—it was Uchiha Obito.
Yes, that "old friend" he hadn't seen in a while.
Obito had appeared out of nowhere, and the clone couldn't react in time. It was pulled into the Kamui dimension.
After trying and failing to break out of the sealed space with Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), the clone decisively chose to self-destruct.
That was why Seimei had woken so abruptly.
(Chapter End)