Three and a half hours later, it was mid-afternoon.
After finishing another round of training, Seimei teleported out from the volcano's interior. He absorbed and processed the experiences and memories of his shadow clones from the past hour. Instead of heading back into the volcano to strengthen his body, he decided to switch things up. His main body began practicing the "Heart Reflection Technique" to push his Sharingan toward evolution.
He'd already hit his planned physical training quota for the day. It was time to focus on a different skill.
Two hours later, he wrapped up the Heart Reflection Technique training. Next, Seimei shifted to practicing the "Wood Clone Technique."
It's worth mentioning that after four and a half days of practice, his Wood Clone Technique was getting close to reaching level 8. At his current pace, he estimated it'd take just one and a half more days to break through.
Once it hit level 8, the wood clones he created would be able to hold way more chakra. That meant he wouldn't need to split off as many clones to store the chakra he accumulated daily. With that hope in mind, Seimei dove into the training, repeating the process over and over.
He kept at it until night fell. Then, he moved on to practicing "Body Extreme," which took another two hours.
By now, it was late at night. Seimei had finally completed all his training for the day. Without wasting a moment, he returned to his wooden cabin and settled in to rest.
---
The next day, training continued as usual. Before he knew it, another day had passed.
In the blink of an eye, it was the fourth day of this intense training cycle. Just as he'd predicted, that evening, after only a short practice session, his Wood Clone Technique successfully leveled up.
On an open field in the center of Moon Island, Seimei suddenly stopped what he was doing. With a thought, he dispelled the Wood Clone Technique, causing the clone in front of him to disintegrate.
He closed his eyes, focusing on the new insights flooding his mind—the feedback from the technique's advancement. Time ticked by, minute by minute. After about ten minutes, Seimei opened his eyes again, a sharp glint flashing in them.
Raising his hands, he formed the "Tiger" seal and cast the Wood Clone Technique. In an instant, a wooden clone split off from behind him, landing on the ground and transforming into an exact replica of himself.
It was clear that after reaching level 8, casting the Wood Clone Technique was noticeably faster. Not only that, but when Seimei sensed the clone's state, he could tell it was much more stable. This meant it could take more damage and dish out stronger attacks.
But for Seimei, those weren't the key benefits right now. He wasn't looking to send his wood clones out to conquer the world. What mattered most was their increased chakra capacity.
Stepping forward, Seimei stood in front of the clone and formed another hand sign, casting "All-Encompassing Seal." A dense pattern of sealing formulas appeared, quickly converging at the clone's forehead into a mark resembling a Bagua symbol.
Probing it with his mental energy, Seimei could sense that the dimensional space he'd created within the clone was much larger now. In theory, it could store significantly more chakra.
But theories needed testing. Conveniently, after a few days, the dimensional space in his own forehead was nearly full of chakra—perfect timing to transfer some out.
With that in mind, Seimei placed a hand on the clone's shoulder. In the next moment, he began pulling massive amounts of chakra from his forehead's dimensional space and transferring it to the clone.
It started with one million units, then quickly hit five million, then ten million. Eventually, it surpassed the previous limit of twenty million, reaching a whopping thirty million units. Even then, the clone's dimensional space wasn't full—it could probably squeeze in another two or three million if pushed.
But Seimei didn't want to push it to the absolute limit. He stopped there, pulling his hand back. Checking his own dimensional space again, he saw that most of the chakra was gone. For some reason—maybe it was just his imagination—he felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted.
After a thorough check to make sure nothing was off, Seimei shook his head and pushed the thought aside. He observed the wood clone for a bit longer, confirming it was stable, then sent it to wait at the cabin.
Thinking about the cabin reminded him of something else: should he replace the wood clones stored there? Over the past twenty-plus days, he'd created three clones, each holding twenty million units of chakra—about two-thirds of what this new clone could handle.
If he swapped them out, he could reduce the number to two clones, which would save some effort down the line. But after thinking it over, he decided against it. Those clones could still hold up for a while, and replacing them now would just waste a ton of chakra. Better to wait until they couldn't handle the load anymore. It wasn't a big hassle yet anyway.
With that decision made, Seimei turned his focus back to practicing the Wood Clone Technique. Sure, it had hit level 8, but its max potential was level 9, equivalent to an A-rank ninjutsu. There was still work to be done.
Two more hours flew by, and night had fully settled in. Seimei finished his planned practice for the Wood Clone Technique. Checking his status panel, he saw the technique had gained over three hundred proficiency points since hitting level 8. Satisfied, he nodded.
He popped a few enhanced soldier pills to recover his energy, then moved on to his final daily routine: Body Extreme training. That took another two hours.
When he felt his body hit its limit, he stopped. Opening his status panel again, he noticed the evolution progress for his Byakugan had gone up by twenty points.
"Not bad," he muttered to himself, closing the panel.
With a few quick uses of the Body Flicker Technique, he returned to the cabin and settled in for the night. Soon, faint snores echoed from inside.
---
Meanwhile, in the Hidden Stone Village, a wood clone that had been lying low for days finally sprang into action.
Emerging from an abandoned underground lab he'd been using as a hideout, the clone began moving through the village. He carefully avoided patrol teams while using the "Soul-Locking Contract Seal" to sense the locations of his hidden agents, looking for chances to read their memories and gather intel on recent events in the village.
His main focus was on how the Hidden Stone Village had reacted to his main body's actions. He'd expected things to play out more or less as he'd predicted. But to his surprise, this "investigation" led to a shocking discovery.
Not wasting any time, the wood clone hurried back to the underground hideout. After some thought, he dispelled the Wood Clone Technique, instantly syncing his memories with his main body.