Grind is My Ninja Way

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With bursts of chakra smoke clearing, five hundred shadow clones popped into existence on the field.

Looking at his army of clones, Seimei directed three hundred of them to keep working on developing Dust Release. Then he picked out another hundred to practice the "Triad Seal Technique."

Speaking of which, his Triad Seal Technique wasn't just barely at Level 6 anymore. Its proficiency had already climbed to Level 6 (6250/10,000), meaning he was nearly two-thirds of the way to hitting Level 7.

At his current pace, it'd take no more than three days to break through to Level 7.

And this was after he'd scaled back the number of shadow clones practicing the technique from a hundred fifty to a hundred, ever since it hit Level 5.

Otherwise, he might've already grinded it to Level 7 days ago.

One thing was certain: once the technique reached Level 7, it'd undergo a qualitative leap. The amount of natural energy it could store would skyrocket.

That would make it way easier for him to use the technique as a conduit for natural energy.

But that was probably the limit of its potential. Breaking past that would likely take a ton more effort.

And honestly, Seimei wasn't sure he'd bother.

Why? Even if he pushed the technique further, it'd just store more natural energy. At best, it might reach a point where the seal could stay stable without his own natural energy being involved.

But that perk was kinda meh.

As long as Level 7 gave him enough stored natural energy to max out his "Natural Energy Perception" and "Natural Energy Control" skills—paving the way for mastering Sage Mode—he wouldn't sweat pushing the Triad Seal Technique any further.

With those thoughts swirling in his head, Seimei shook them off and refocused.

With a flicker of intent, he split the remaining hundred shadow clones into two groups. Fifty of them spread out across Moon Island to absorb natural energy.

The rest? He sealed them into a scroll.

Then, Seimei's hands flashed through seals, and he unleashed the "Wood Clone Technique."

His shoulder twitched, and a figure sprang out, taking on his exact appearance in front of him.

Seimei casually handed the scroll to his wood clone and said, "Take them over there."

"Got it!"

The wood clone nodded.

Then, in a flash, it used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport to the primal forest in the northeastern part of the Land of Fire.

Yup, this time the wood clone didn't fly—it burned a chunk of chakra to teleport instead.

And it wasn't just this time. Ever since his Triad Seal Technique hit Level 6 a few days ago, allowing him to store a million points of natural energy, Seimei had ditched flying. He was all about quick spatial jumps to save time.

Why? Simple. Time was precious.

Flying to the Land of Fire, even to the closer northeastern part, took a while.

For someone who had to recall his shadow clones every hour, that was time he couldn't afford to waste.

So, he'd rather burn extra chakra to cut down on travel time, letting his clones soak up more natural energy.

And that's how things were now.

As the wood clone vanished, Seimei waited patiently.

Soon, a wave of chakra, laced with a fragment of memory, flowed back into his body.

That memory belonged to none other than the wood clone.

Seimei closed his eyes, sifting through the memories to confirm that the fifty shadow clones were already at work in the forest. Satisfied, he teleported to the inside of a volcano to start his own training.

Right now, he only had a little over 50,000 points of natural energy in his body—not enough for long-term training of the "Body Extreme" technique.

So, he didn't touch that natural energy. Instead, he burned regular chakra to train the Body Extreme the usual way.

Time ticked by, second by second.

An hour later, Seimei stopped training. With a thought, he locked onto the Flying Thunder God mark in the central clearing of Moon Island and activated the technique.

Poof! He vanished.

---

Meanwhile, in the central clearing of Moon Island...

Seimei's figure appeared out of nowhere.

As usual, he took a moment to let his body adjust.

Then, he immediately released the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

In an instant, all five hundred shadow clones—both those on and off the island, including the fifty absorbing natural energy in the Land of Fire's forest—dissolved into nothing.

A flood of memories poured into his mind.

Along with them came the clones' chakra and a massive haul of natural energy.

The regular chakra? Seimei barely had to think about it. His chakra pathways absorbed it effortlessly, and any overflow got sucked up by the "All-Encompassing Seal" at his brow.

He'd done this so many times it was second nature—his body handled it on autopilot.

The natural energy, though, required his full focus to guide.

And just as he'd expected, the hundred clones that had been absorbing natural energy for the past hour had pulled in way more than 50,000 points.

In fact, they'd blown past the 300,000-point benchmark, hitting around 350,000 points.

Good thing his "Natural Energy Control" had hit Level 7, undergoing a qualitative leap. It jumped from controlling 50,000 points at Level 6 to 500,000 points now.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared recall so many clones at once.

After funneling all 350,000 points of natural energy into the seal space created by the Triad Seal Technique, Seimei started processing the flood of memories in his head.

Time ticked by.

This time, it took nearly twenty minutes to fully digest the memories and convert the training experience into skill proficiency.

Opening his status panel and seeing the newly added proficiency points, Seimei nodded in satisfaction.

Then, he repeated the process, casting the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique again to summon five hundred shadow clones.

Three hundred went back to developing Dust Release, a hundred kept grinding the Triad Seal Technique, and the last hundred were split into two groups again.

But this time, he didn't split them evenly. Thirty stayed on Moon Island, while seventy were sent to the Land of Fire.

Why the change? Simple.

Since hitting Level 7, his shadow clones were absorbing natural energy way faster. Back when fifty clones were on Moon Island, they could still keep things balanced.

But now? The island couldn't support that many clones anymore.

So, he had to send more to the Land of Fire.

The forest there was vast enough that even an extra twenty clones wouldn't cause any issues.

After a short wait for the wood clone to dispel itself, Seimei teleported back to the volcano's interior to resume training the Body Extreme.

With plenty of natural energy now, he wasn't about to use regular chakra anymore.

It took a bit, but he converted the over 400,000 points of natural energy stored in his abdominal seal into Sage Chakra.

Then, he channeled that chakra into his pathways.

With Level 7 "Natural Energy Control" and Level 8 "Chakra Control," Seimei kept the Sage Chakra perfectly in check.

Once he was sure it wouldn't spiral out of control, he dove into training the Body Extreme.

For a while now, due to a lack of natural energy, he'd occasionally used Sage Chakra to enhance his body, but he always had to stop at critical moments.

Now, training the Body Extreme entirely with Sage Chakra, Seimei felt every cell in his body practically singing.

Every second, he could clearly feel himself getting stronger.

He even had a fleeting sense that his body was on the verge of a transformation.

But alas, that was just an illusion from the sudden spike in his evolution speed.

Once he got used to this kind of enhancement, he'd be able to gauge his progress more accurately.

Pushing stray thoughts aside, Seimei focused fully on training the Body Extreme.

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