The next day.
Seimei woke up early.
After a quick wash and scarfing down a few enhanced soldier pills to fill his stomach, he dove right into training.
This time, he didn't summon 800 shadow clones to assist like before. Instead, he went with 700. Of those, 300 were tasked with absorbing natural energy, same as always, while he cut the number working on developing his kekkei tōta down to 400.
Watching the clones scatter to their tasks, Seimei didn't waste any time. He got himself ready, then teleported to the volcano beneath Moon Island to train in the Way of the Body.
An hour passed in a flash.
Seimei returned to Moon Island, letting his body recover naturally before dispelling the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. He checked on the progress of his clones, especially the 400 working on the kekkei tōta.
But, maybe because the training session was too short or the kekkei tōta was just that tough to crack, an hour's work didn't yield any noticeable results.
With a sigh, Seimei went back to the same setup and started another round of training.
Six rounds later, by noon, he finally had something solid to show for it. This new allocation of clones was, in fact, slightly boosting his progress on the kekkei tōta.
It confirmed he was on the right track.
In other words, if he kept tweaking things in this direction, he'd likely find the sweet spot for maximum efficiency.
A small smile crept onto Seimei's face at the thought.
But it didn't last long.
The morning's results made it clear that finding this balance wasn't going to happen overnight. It might take a long time to experiment and get it right.
Heck, as his experience with the kekkei tōta grew, this whole "finding the perfect balance" thing could end up being a never-ending task.
Still, during all this, he could keep racking up experience points. It was just a matter of how much.
So, Seimei wasn't too stressed about it.
Clearing his mind, he popped a few more enhanced soldier pills to replenish his energy and kicked off another round of training.
---
Time flew by like a galloping horse. Before he knew it, a week had passed.
It was now late July, and the moment Seimei had been anticipating—his body's transformation—was getting closer. He could feel it: the invisible barrier holding back his physical growth was becoming clearer by the day.
He figured he had about one more week before he could try breaking through that limit and trigger the transformation.
But that was for later.
Right now, he was more focused on two things: developing his kekkei tōta and keeping tabs on the peace talks between the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Leaf Villages.
The first was about managing his chakra distribution and fine-tuning his training plan.
The second would give him a sense of the ninja world's stability in the near future, so he could prepare accordingly.
As expected, finding the perfect balance for developing the kekkei tōta was no easy feat.
After a whole week, he'd only narrowed it down to a rough range: efficiency peaked when he used between 200 and 250 shadow clones at once.
Anything more specific? Well, the kekkei tōta was so complex, and the experience gained per session so minimal, that he couldn't pin it down yet.
But Seimei wasn't about to waste time and energy obsessing over it.
The balance point wasn't set in stone anyway.
Once he got more experience with the kekkei tōta, he could always revisit and tweak it again.
For now, he'd stick with 200 shadow clones for training.
One upside? Cutting back on the number of clones for the kekkei tōta meant he was using less chakra. Now, he only needed to pour 2 million chakra points into it daily to keep things running.
That bumped his daily leftover chakra from 320,000 to 1.32 million points.
It wasn't a ton, but crossing the million-point mark meant he could start banking some chakra.
Shifting his focus, Seimei turned his thoughts to the peace talks between the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Leaf.
From the latest intel, both sides had agreed on a basic framework and were hammering out the finer details.
At this pace, it wouldn't be long before they signed a peace treaty.
As for that incident where the Cloud delegation tried to kidnap the Hyuga clan's heiress, only to get taken out? Seimei hadn't heard anything about the Leaf paying a price for it.
Nor had he heard the Cloud Village pressing the issue further.
It seemed both sides wanted to sweep it under the rug.
Still, Seimei figured the Leaf had probably made some under-the-table deals with the Cloud—or even paid a price—to smooth things over. Otherwise, even with Minato's firm stance and the Leaf being in the right, the Cloud wouldn't have backed off so easily.
After all, the Fourth Raikage, A, wasn't exactly the type to roll over.
What exactly they traded? That wasn't something a regular jonin like Seimei would be privy to.
At least, not yet.
But in the future? No secret stays buried forever, especially when more than one person knows it.
All he had to do was wait, and the intel would come eventually.
Truth be told, Seimei wasn't too invested in it.
Whatever deal they struck, it probably wouldn't affect him much.
What he did know was that, after this, the ninja world would likely enjoy a long stretch of peace.
Which meant he could train in peace for a while.
With that in mind, Seimei didn't waste another second. He steeled himself, cast Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, summoned 500 clones, and kicked off another round of training.
---
Time marched on, relentless as ever.
Another week passed, bringing the end of July.
Just as Seimei had predicted, his body—after a week of intense training—had reached the tipping point for transformation.
Inside the volcano.
Seimei finished another round of Way of the Body training, but he didn't feel much progress.
Instead of being frustrated, a faint smile spread across his face.
Flying Thunder God Jutsu~
With a thought, he activated the technique, teleporting back to Moon Island.
Feeling the cool night breeze and gazing at the ocean, shimmering mysteriously under the moonlight, Seimei took a deep breath.
After a moment, he let it out slowly.
In that moment, he felt his spirit lift, his whole body lighter.
But he wasn't about to guide his body through the transformation right then and there.
From past experience, a breakthrough like this wasn't something he could wrap up in an hour or two.
And it was getting late. Seimei wasn't sure he could stay focused long enough.
So, he decided to wait until tomorrow—no need to rush.
With that, he dismissed the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, recalling all his clones.
Once he'd fully absorbed their training experiences and memories, he headed back to his wooden cabin and turned in early.
---