The next day.
Early morning.
Seimei woke up bright and early.
After freshening up, he downed several enhanced soldier pills to fill his stomach. Then, he formed hand signs and cast the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
This time, though, he didn't create five hundred shadow clones—he went for six hundred.
As planned the previous night, he was testing how many shadow clones he could handle after his Mental attribute increased by two points.
Six hundred shadow clones were just the starting point.
Based on past experience, this test would take about one or two days.
And sure enough, it did.
The following night, in the primeval forest of the northeastern Land of Fire, Seimei finished his final use of the Reflecting Heart Technique. With a thought, he dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Instantly, all the shadow clones in the nearby forest dissolved into nothing.
A flood of memories poured into his mind.
Gritting his teeth against the discomfort, Seimei sorted and stored the returning chakra and natural energy. Only then did he begin processing the memories.
Fifteen minutes later, he'd fully digested them, converting the training experience into proficiency for the relevant skills.
Opening his eyes, Seimei checked his status panel to review the proficiency changes for his skills over the past two days. Then, factoring in the chakra consumed and his mental state, he figured out how many shadow clones he should maintain for training going forward.
His conclusion? Eight hundred!
Yup, eight hundred shadow clones.
His calculations showed that training with eight hundred shadow clones at once was the most cost-effective choice. It wouldn't overwhelm him and would maximize the potential of his 32-point Mental attribute's enhanced mental strength.
As for how to distribute the extra three hundred shadow clones?
Seimei already had a plan.
He'd split them evenly into three groups. One hundred would join the team absorbing natural energy to provide him with even more of it. Another hundred would bolster the group developing Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique and Dust Release: Boundary Stripping Technique to speed up their progress. The final hundred would focus on practicing the Three Elements Sealing Technique.
With the extra shadow clones gathering natural energy, his daily accumulation of it would increase. Adding more clones to train the Three Elements Sealing Technique would naturally speed up its leveling, ultimately creating a sealing space capable of storing even more natural energy.
Of course, increasing the number of shadow clones wasn't without cost.
The most obvious was the spike in chakra consumption.
The hundred clones absorbing natural energy weren't a big deal—their chakra was mostly used to manage the absorbed energy, so losses were minimal. Their chakra cost only rose from 500,000 to 700,000 points, a modest increase of 200,000.
But the Three Elements Sealing Technique and the development of the two Dust Release techniques? Their chakra costs shot up with the additional hundred clones each.
The Three Elements Sealing Technique's chakra consumption doubled, jumping from 1 million to 2 million points.
The development of Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique and Dust Release: Boundary Stripping Technique went from 3 million to 4.5 million points.
All told, the three hundred extra shadow clones added 2.7 million points (200,000 + 1,000,000 + 1,500,000) to his chakra consumption.
Meanwhile, his Mental attribute's jump from 30 to 32 points had only increased his chakra by 2.8 million points (1,300,000 + 1,500,000).
In other words, after this trade-off, he was left with just 100,000 points of surplus chakra daily.
This result startled Seimei, and he muttered to himself, "That was close!"
Thankfully, his Mental attribute boost had come just in time, or he'd have had to dip into his chakra reserves.
Then again, if his mental strength hadn't increased, he wouldn't have been able to handle more shadow clones in the first place.
Everything balanced out in the end.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Seimei closed the panel. With a flicker of intent, he locked onto Moon Island's location and used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport there.
Back on Moon Island, he didn't waste time. After a quick wash, he returned to his wooden cabin and rested.
The night passed quietly.
The next day, before dawn, Seimei was already up.
With the shadow clone assignments sorted, it was time to dive into training full throttle.
And so, a week flew by in a blur of intense training.
During that time, he returned to the village for a day of rest.
The village was as peaceful as ever, as if the chaos from two months ago had never happened.
But Seimei knew this was just a facade.
The increase in mission volume and the shift in mission priorities tipped him off to the undercurrents stirring beneath the calm. The border tensions between Konoha and the Cloud Village seemed to be heating up.
Drawing on memories from his past life, Seimei had reason to suspect this was the Cloud Village's radical faction making a last-ditch effort.
Why? Simple. The ninja world's current trend was toward peace, and as time passed, that trend would only grow stronger. No matter how warlike the Cloud Village was, they couldn't fight the tide.
So, a peace treaty with Konoha was inevitable.
But how could the Cloud's radicals accept that?
Seimei hadn't forgotten: in another timeline, even when the Cloud's peace delegation was already in Konoha, ready to sign a treaty, their radicals still tried to sabotage it by kidnapping the Hyuga clan's heiress.
If they were bold enough for that, stirring up border tensions now was nothing.
Still, Seimei believed this was temporary.
Peace might come sooner than he expected.
After all, the radicals only resorted to such measures when they felt pressured. But this Konoha hadn't lost many jonin in the Nine-Tails incident, and Minato Namikaze, a key figure, was still alive.
As a result, the Cloud's stance would likely be more subdued than in his memories.
That's why Seimei thought peace might arrive faster than anticipated.
But none of this concerned him much.
Right now, he was more focused on when his body would undergo its next transformation.
After days of intensive training and testing, he'd estimated the next milestone: late April—three months from now.
At first glance, this seemed similar to the time it took for his last transformation. But it wasn't the same.
For one, his last transformation hadn't actually taken a full three months. More importantly, his current efficiency in strengthening his body far surpassed before.
So, even if the timeframe was similar, the enhancements he'd achieve this time would outstrip the last.
You couldn't measure it purely by time.