Time ticked by, second by second.
About half an hour later, Seimei opened his eyes again.
In that moment, the invisible shackles that had been holding back his body's growth seemed to dissolve into thin air. His entire being felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted, leaving him with an indescribable sense of ease.
But that wasn't all.
Seimei closed his eyes, focusing on the Hashirama cells that had long been integrated into his body. Before, even though he had assimilated about ninety percent of them, there was still a faint sense of foreignness since they weren't fully part of him. Now, after his body's transformation, those cells had been completely absorbed. They had melded into his being, taking on his shape. Any trace of abnormality was gone.
On top of that, during this process, his physique—or rather, his genes—had undergone subtle changes.
Seimei raised his hand, gathering chakra as if he were about to try something.
But after a long attempt, nothing happened in his palm.
Seeing this, Seimei lowered his hand and sighed softly. "Tch, what a shame."
He had hoped that fully assimilating the Hashirama cells would grant him the power of Mokuton, giving him a head start on combining the seven chakra nature transformations to develop the Kekkei Moura. But, as it turned out, the breakthrough he'd hoped for didn't come.
Still, Seimei wasn't too disappointed.
When he chose the path of "assimilation," he had anticipated this outcome and mentally prepared for it.
Besides…
Seimei carefully sensed the water-nature and earth-nature chakra he had channeled into his palm. Deep down, he had a gut feeling that with just a bit more effort, he could fuse the two in no time and unlock the power of Mokuton.
In other words, this failure was just a minor delay. As long as he kept at it, he'd soon achieve his goal.
So, it wasn't that hard to accept.
Brushing off the setback, Seimei shifted his focus. With a thought, he opened his proficiency panel.
A familiar light blue screen appeared before him:
---
Name: Uchiha Seimei
Age: 13
Physique: 24 → 25
Spirit: 26
Chakra: 415,000 (541,236 → 611,892)
Bloodline:
- Sharingan · Eternal Mangekyo (120/100,000) → (1,183/100,000)
- Byakugan (659/5,000) → (1,665/5,000)
Skills:
- Chakra Refinement Technique: Lv6 (5,623/10,000) → Lv6 (6,727/10,000)
- Fūton: Wings of Wind: Lv7 (1/20,000) → Lv8 (41,250/50,000)
- Izanagi: Lv8 (6,250/50,000) → Lv8 (27,250/50,000)
- Izanami: Lv8 (6,250/50,000) → Lv8 (27,250/50,000)
- Chakra Control: Lv8 (450/50,000) → Lv8 (2,050/50,000)
Perfected Skills:
- Katon: Blazing Strike: Lv10 (0/0)
- Raiton: Raikiri: Lv10 (0/0)
- Doton: Ultra-Heavy Rock Technique: Lv9 (0/0)
- Doton: Ultra-Light Rock Technique: Lv9 (0/0)
- Seal of the Soul-Bound Contract: Instant Movement Mark: Lv9 (0/0)
---
His eyes locked onto the "Physique" stat, which had risen from 24 to 25.
But then, his brow furrowed.
By his calculations, after all the effort he put into fully assimilating the Hashirama cells, his Physique should've jumped by at least two points. Yet, it had only gone up by one.
That was hard to swallow.
Inhale… exhale…
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Seimei pushed down his doubts and began carefully examining his condition to figure out why.
After a while, his frown eased, and a spark of joy lit up his eyes.
Through his analysis, he'd uncovered the reason behind the meager one-point increase in Physique—it all came down to his choice to "assimilate."
If he hadn't taken this path and had simply fused the Hashirama cells, his Physique would likely have shot up by two or three points, maybe more. But that would've gone against his original intent.
From the start, his goal was to make himself the core, even if it meant giving up the chance to inherit Senju Hashirama's power.
And now? He'd succeeded. Fully assimilating the Hashirama cells had indeed altered his genes, but it hadn't forcefully merged the Senju bloodline into his. That's why his Physique hadn't spiked dramatically.
If that were the whole story, he'd just feel relieved, not happy.
The reason for his smile was that, while assimilating the Hashirama cells didn't boost his Physique further, it did enhance his potential.
Seimei was certain that if he used techniques to strengthen his body now, the same amount of chakra would yield greater results than before. In other words, his training efficiency had improved.
This meant he could boost his Physique faster, with less chakra, in less time.
He knew the difference between a single feast and a lifetime of plenty.
That's why he was so thrilled.
Plus, during his check, he calculated the theoretical chakra cap increase from this Physique boost. It was slightly less than the 800,000-point jump when his Physique went from 22 to 24—around 700,000 points this time.
So, from today, his theoretical chakra ceiling would rise from 3,150,000 to 3,850,000 points.
But whether it was 3,150,000 or 3,850,000, those numbers were still far out of reach for him. Even with his Chakra Refinement Technique running passively 24/7 to tap into his body's potential, his current chakra was only 611,892 points—less than a sixth of the way there.
At this rate, it'd take who-knows-how-long to fully unlock that potential.
So, he wasn't too hung up on the theoretical chakra cap. What he did care about was his chakra recovery speed.
With that in mind, Seimei paused the Chakra Refinement Technique's operation, closed his eyes, and waited for his body to naturally restore its chakra.
Based on past experience, his chakra recovery came from two sources. The first was the Chakra Refinement Technique. Early on, this made up the bulk of his recovery, but as his Physique and Spirit stats grew, its share shrank. Now, with the technique running 24/7 and no level-up, it had hit its daily recovery limit: 72,000 points (= 3,000 × 24).
The second source was his body's natural chakra recovery.
Before, this was 2,350,000 points, which, combined with the 72,000 from the Chakra Refinement Technique, totaled 2,422,000 points.
Now…
Seimei waited about ten minutes, then opened his eyes and checked the panel.
His chakra had increased by 19,444 points.
Ten minutes equaled 19,444 points. An hour would be 116,664 points. Over 24 hours, that's 2,800,000 points.
Compared to the previous 2,350,000, that's an extra 450,000 points.
This was the boost to his chakra recovery speed from the Physique increase.
Satisfied, Seimei nodded.
But those weren't the only changes.
Beyond the improved potential and faster chakra recovery, his body's transformation had also advanced the evolution of his Sharingan and Byakugan.
Perhaps because awakening the Rinnegan required the Senju bloodline as a catalyst, assimilating the Hashirama cells had boosted his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan's evolution by 1,000 points. Add in the passive progress from using Man's Control to strengthen his body, and its evolution had reached (1,183/100,000).
For Seimei, who still lacked a reliable way to boost its evolution, this was a significant leap. Even if he later perfected the Mind's Reflection Technique, 1,000 points would still be a big deal.
Then there was the Byakugan.
Its evolution had also jumped by an extra 500 points due to his body's transformation, saving him about a month and a half of effort.
But that wasn't the key point. The real game-changer was that this Physique boost had increased his body's resilience, including the Byakugan's capacity to handle chakra.
Seimei couldn't wait to test the extent of this improvement.
He closed his eyes, activated the Senrō Banshō Fūjin seal at his brow, and linked it to his Byakugan. Then, he began drawing chakra from the alternate space in his brow, compressing it through the seal and channeling it into the Byakugan.
A tingling sensation washed over him.
Steeling his focus, Seimei kept the chakra flowing steadily while closely monitoring the Byakugan's evolution.
Time ticked by.
Soon, two hours had passed.
Before, under full nurturing, his Byakugan could only handle two hours of chakra infusion, consuming 2,000,000 points for 10 proficiency points.
But now, that limit was clearly broken.
Two hours and ten minutes… fifteen minutes… twenty minutes…
After two and a half hours, Seimei finally felt the familiar swelling in his brow's Byakugan.
He knew this was the sign it had reached its limit.
To be sure, he kept channeling chakra, but the Byakugan could no longer absorb it.
It had truly hit its cap.
Suddenly, Seimei opened his eyes.
He immediately checked the chakra loss in his brow's alternate space and the Byakugan's evolution progress on the panel.
Two and a half hours had cost him 2,500,000 chakra points and gained him 12 evolution points—maybe a tad more, but not quite 13.
The improvement wasn't massive, but over time, it could save him about 20% of the effort. This meant his Byakugan could evolve to the next stage faster.
And that was what mattered most to him.
As for the extra 500,000 chakra spent?
First, the perfected Doton: Ultra-Heavy Rock Technique, Doton: Ultra-Light Rock Technique, and Seal of the Soul-Bound Contract: Instant Movement Mark had already saved him 2,200,000 points (= 700,000 + 700,000 + 800,000).
Plus, this Physique boost had given him an extra 450,000 points of freely usable chakra.
That was more than enough to cover the increased cost of nurturing the Byakugan, with plenty left over.
Seimei planned to split the remaining chakra into three parts. One portion would naturally go toward refining the Mind's Reflection Technique.
With the Hashirama cells fully assimilated, there were no more obstacles to advancing his Sharingan. It was time to level it up.
And for that, the Mind's Reflection Technique, tied directly to his bloodline, was the perfect tool.
He had already spent a chunk of chakra refining its theoretical framework. Moving forward, he planned to invest 1,000,000 points daily to push it further.
Seimei estimated it wouldn't take long to complete.
Once done, he'd redirect that chakra to accelerating his Sharingan's evolution.
Investing 1,000,000 points daily was a huge leap compared to his earlier use of the Mind's Reflection Technique for Sharingan evolution. Back when his Sharingan first became the Eternal Mangekyo, half a day of using the technique barely showed results. He was honestly worried 1,000,000 points might not even be enough!
He was almost certain that evolving his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan into the Rinnegan would burn through an obscene amount of chakra. Uchiha Madara's decades-long struggle to awaken the Rinnegan was proof of that.
Luckily, his chakra reserves were decent for now. If 1,000,000 points weren't enough, he could always pour in more.
Before that, though, he planned to use the remaining chakra to work on fusing various chakra nature transformations. This was a prerequisite for combining all seven transformations to master the Kekkei Moura.
No amount of chakra was too much for that goal.
Thoughts swirled in his mind. Seimei pondered for a bit, then refocused and looked at the panel.
Right now, the skills he needed to practice—besides Izanagi and Izanami—were just the advanced techniques for Fūton: Wings of Wind.
At his current pace, Fūton: Wings of Wind would hit Lv9 (0/0), the perfected state, in just three days.
When that happened, he'd free up another 286,000 points of usable chakra.
But those points likely wouldn't go toward developing the Kekkei Moura.
According to his estimates, Minato Namikaze would make his move in the next day or two. When the village fell into chaos, Seimei could seize the chance to acquire the Reika no Jutsu.
Once he got it, he'd need to dedicate those chakra points to training it—and maybe even set aside extra to speed up its growth.
For now, though, those were just plans. He didn't need to dwell on them yet.
With a final glance at the Chakra Control stat, boosted by the perfected Katon: Blazing Strike, Doton: Ultra-Heavy Rock Technique, Doton: Ultra-Light Rock Technique, and Seal of the Soul-Bound Contract: Instant Movement Mark, Seimei closed the panel.
(End of Chapter)