Chapter 18: Half a Month in Haste
"Seimei, what are you doing?"
Just as Seimei was wondering if he could grind his chakra control up to the beginner level before today's mission report, Ryoji 's voice suddenly came from the side.
He stared at Seimei's feet with a shocked expression and said, "Why are you standing on the water?"
Seimei looked down and realized that the water here was quite clear, making it easy to see his feet hovering above the surface.
He didn't try to hide anything and simply explained that he was training his chakra control.
"What's the use of that?"
After listening to Seimei's explanation, Ryoji asked in confusion.
Before Seimei could reply, Furukawa spoke up, "It's useful—very useful, in fact."
As he spoke, he walked over from a distance.
"Sensei!" ×3
The three students immediately greeted him.
"Hmm."
Furukawa nodded and glanced at Seimei's feet before continuing, "Mastering this technique will help you save chakra when learning or performing ninjutsu. It will also allow you to maintain your stamina longer during battles."
"Can we learn it too?"
Ryoji asked with anticipation.
Furukawa thought for a moment and finally said, "Originally, I didn't intend to teach you this so early, but since Seimei has already started practicing, you two can join in as well."
In truth, he had noticed Seimei's private training long ago.
He just wanted to see how far Seimei could get without guidance.
And the result proved that even if Seimei wasn't a top-tier genius, he still surpassed the vast majority of people.
To raise his chakra control to this level in just a few hours was something ordinary people couldn't achieve.
Even more so, Seimei hadn't followed the optimal training method—starting with tree climbing before progressing to water walking.
If Furukawa had guided him from the beginning, the progress might have been even faster.
That, however, was Furukawa's personal view.
As far as Seimei was concerned, he didn't need to follow a step-by-step process.
With the proficiency panel, he just needed to channel chakra to the soles of his feet and maintain it for a while to gain proficiency.
As proficiency accumulated, his control naturally improved.
So there was no real need to start with tree climbing, as it wouldn't significantly accelerate his rate of proficiency gain.
"Sensei, does that mean we can start water-walking training too?"
Ryoji shouted excitedly from the side.
"No."
Furukawa immediately shut him down.
"Why not?"
Ryoji asked, puzzled. "Isn't that what Seimei is doing?"
'Because he's a genius,' Furukawa wanted to say, but he couldn't, as it would dampen their motivation.
So he said tactfully, "Everyone's situation is different. Seimei can start from water walking—you two can't."
"Then how should we train?"
Ryoji asked.
"Tree climbing," Furukawa replied.
"Tree climbing?" ×2
Ryoji and Mizutani Shizuko exclaimed together.
"That's right."
Furukawa nodded, then said to Seimei, "You keep practicing here."
"Okay."
Seimei acknowledged with a nod.
"You two, come with me."
Furukawa led Ryoji and Shizuko toward the nearby forest.
What followed was a 'familiar' routine—gather chakra, sprint, climb the tree, fall, then repeat.
Perhaps because Seimei had set an example, both Ryoji and Shizuko trained with extra determination.
Despite his usually carefree demeanor, Ryoji 1wwas actually very competitive.
Though he didn't voice any discontent about Furukawa's differential treatment, he was determined to prove himself, so he trained even harder.
Shizuko, too, though quiet and seemingly indecisive, had a strong will once she committed to something.
It was clear that neither of Seimei's teammates were mediocre.
But thinking about it, that made sense.
If they hadn't had at least some strengths, how could they have been assigned to the same team and received guidance from a real jōnin?
Even so, Seimei had never heard of either of them in his previous life.
Chances were, they died in the Third Great Ninja War or some later mission.
This alone showed just how brutal the ninja world could be—and how dangerous the path of a shinobi truly was.
Whenever Seimei thought about it, he dared not relax.
He could only seize every moment to improve himself and prepare for what lay ahead.
Time passed like a fleeting horse's shadow.
In the blink of an eye, another half month had gone by.
It was now early November.
Uchiha clan compound.
Seimei's home.
Late at night, after completing the final round of his training, Seimei opened his panel with exhausted focus.
[Name: Uchiha Seimei
Age: 10
Constitution: 6
Spirit: 7
Chakra: 16 (910 → 1546)
Bloodline: Sharingan · Not Awakened (58/100 → 71/100)
Skills:
Chakra Refinement Technique: lv2 (81/500 → 240/500)
Clone Technique: lv2 (1/500 → 140/500)
Transformation Technique: lv2 (1/500 → 130/500)
Substitution Technique: lv2 (1/500 → 110/500)
Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique: lv1 (1/200 → 16/200)
Heart Reflection Technique: lv1 (77/200 → lv2 1/500)
Basic Taijutsu: lv2 (1/500 → 150/500)
Ninja Tool Throwing: lv2 (120/500 → 260/500)
*Chakra Control: lv0 (61/100) → lv2 (350/500)]
Over the past half month, everything had proceeded in an orderly fashion.
During the day, he followed the team on low-level, menial tasks. At night, he seized every moment to train alone.
At first, the missions did impact his training.
But as his "Chakra Control" continued to level up, the influence became less and less.
From lv0 to lv1, his chakra cost when using ninjutsu dropped by 5%.
From lv1 to lv2, it rose to 10%.
Now, with proficiency at lv2 (350/500), the chakra saving had reached 13.5%.
In other words, he could now cast the same ninjutsu while saving nearly fifteen percent of the chakra he once used.
Clearly, that wasn't a trivial number.
With additional time squeezed in on non-mission days, he had only been delayed by a day or two from his original schedule in getting "Heart Reflection Technique" to lv2.
As expected, his Sharingan awakening progress also increased by thirteen points, rising from (58/100) to (71/100).
The only unfortunate part was that upon reaching lv2, "Heart Reflection Technique" didn't reduce the chakra cost per cast—it only improved the seal formation speed.
That made little difference to him.
Fortunately, as the technique upgraded, the previously slowing Sharingan awakening rate returned to its original pace.
At present, every ten points of proficiency in the technique still advanced his Sharingan progress by one point.
Now it was just a matter of how long that pace could be maintained.
As for awakening it in one go?
Seimei had never entertained the thought.
If it were that simple, someone in the Uchiha clan would have already used this method to awaken their Sharingan.
Seimei estimated that he would have to grind "Heart Reflection Technique" to at least lv3 to stand a real chance.
But for him, that wasn't a daunting task.
Aside from "Heart Reflection Technique" and Sharingan awakening, his other skills had also improved over the past half month.
This was largely thanks to Furukawa's training.
Unfortunately, due to chakra limitations, his overall growth rate had been average.
Skills with low chakra consumption like the Three Basic Techniques, "Basic Taijutsu," and "Ninja Tool Throwing" all increased by over a hundred proficiency points.
"Chakra Control," in particular, had soared by two full levels due to being trainable at all times, reaching lv2 (350/500).
It had now become his highest-level skill across the board.
On the other hand, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique"—which required at least 100 chakra per use—was rarely practiced, so its proficiency only increased by a little over ten points.
There was also one major development: his chakra capacity had increased from 910 to 1546.
This was roughly equivalent to the mid-level standard of a civilian chūnin.
It just went to show that the gap between individuals could be wider than that between man and beast.
People often said Kakashi had low chakra, yet even while sustaining his Sharingan, he could still use Lightning Blade and Kamui multiple times.
Both were S-rank ninjutsu and ocular techniques.
That didn't even include battle-use B-rank techniques like Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall or Lightning Style: Shadow Clone.
If all were counted, by panel estimates, Kakashi's chakra likely exceeded 10,000 points.
So really, being chakra-deficient was always a relative term.
Many jōnin probably didn't even reach Kakashi's level.
Which meant Seimei still had a long way to go.
(End of Chapter)
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