'Alright then, finally got a handle on the new and improved Art of the Dragon Blood. Now I just have to figure out how to activate the advanced versions, should be easy enough with the foundation all figured out.' The boy thought to himself.
As it turned out . . . Shiki was wrong.
To summarize, each enhanced version of the advanced arts had a major drawback.
Art of the Dragon's Scale raised his toughness and damage resistance much higher with the addition of chakra but it made the boy's body overly stiff if the output was raised too high.
Even if only activated at a lower intensity, it still somewhat interfered with his movements, making him noticeably slower.
Art of the Dragon's Life performed like Hasirama regeneration when combined with void chakra but Shiki could feel his body progressively shut down as he raised the output.
More specifically, his body activation levels dropped, resulting in lowering physical abilities, explosiveness, reaction speed and even cognitive capabilities.
If this mode was activated at a sufficiently high intensity, Shiki would automatically enter a hibernation-like state until he was fully recovered, completely unconscious and unaware.
Finally, Art of the Dragon's Force drastically raised the boy's physical abilities and made his explosiveness with chakra much greater but too high of an intensity began damaging his body from overstimulation.
The worst part was that the unenhanced versions could no longer be used properly as his body had chakra now and that could not be avoided.
Shiki figured his only option was to go about developing these modes slowly as time went on and thus focused on putting the final touches on the enhanced foundation Art of the Dragon Blood, renaming it to Nirvana Art: Dragon Heart.
Even as a simple base, it gave a pretty good overall boost to the boy's abilities while active so it was a decent enough result for the time being.
Just this single art ate a lot of Shiki's downtime but other than his miscellaneous projects which were done fairly easily, there was a second Nirvana Art that was developed before his break from the field came to an end.
He called it, Nirvana Art: Elemental.
It was still in its infancy but the boy believed it showed great promise.
This art was Shiki's way of addressing his low elemental affinities, enabling him to train them up faster while enhancing both the power of his elemental jutsu and his own body.
The idea to create this art came from integrating his normal nature transformation training which he read on a scroll left behind by the Second Hokage Tobirama with not only his innate Hollow characteristics but also the principles of elemental ninjutsu that act upon one's body.
Shiki had acquired the rare Earth Release: Earth Spear from a scroll in Dogan's shinobi pouch which he took after defeating him.
He had also taken the opportunity to grab Zee's pouch when he took her out which contained a training method and jutsu called Lightning Release: Activation, used by the Raikage lineage to train their bodies for their signature Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
It was unfortunate that he lacked the jutsu itself but the training had plenty of benefits in and of itself, helping to increase physical abilities, reaction speed, tolerance to pain and stimulation, specially from electricity and even being usable in battle to amplify the user's body.
The Nirvana Art: Elemental was split into three stages or levels of mastery.
The first enhanced the user's body with elemental chakra and amplified their affinity with infused nature transformations and thus the power and efficiency of the respective elemental jutsu while the following two stages, although already planned, had yet to be developed.
More or less, this was the sum of Shiki's mini training arc, two new Nirvana Arts, foundational ones with lots of potential, a few adjustments and improvements to previous Nirvana Arts, and a few side projects which were much more easily handled.
Before, the boy began taking the necessary steps to return to active duty however, he had another spar with his mistress on the agenda, a private one this time.
Moving towards the sparring grounds with purpose, Shiki took one last look at his envisioned status sheet, a most convenient ability that served only to track his progress but was invaluable for just that.
*
Ryumon Shiki
Traits
Trikaya
Titles
None
Rank
Genin
Stats
Strength: C>B Rank
Agility: B>A Rank
Endurance: C>B Rank
Chakra Capacity: B>A Rank
Chakra Potency: B>S Rank
Chakra Control: (90%>99%)
Hand Seal Mastery: (20%)
Affinities
Lightning Affinity: (37%>48%)
Wind Affinity: (29%>36%)
Fire Affinity: (45%>54%)
Water Affinity: (10%>21%>)
Earth Affinity: (45%>57%)
Yin Affinity: (53%>69%)
Yang Affinity: (51%>66%)
Nature Affinity: (11%)
Taijutsu
General Mastery: (30%>50%)
Shukuchi: (50%)
Iron Body: (50%)
Dragon Gate Style: (12%)
-Hidden Dragon Kata: (60%)
Ninjutsu
General Mastery: (27%>30%)
Body Flicker: (60%>70%)
-Flicker Flash: (40%>60%)
-Flicker Phantom: (20%)
Substitution Jutsu: (60%)
-Shadow Substitution Jutsu: (30%)
Clone Jutsu: (100%)
Temporary Paralysis Jutsu: (100%)
Shadow Clone Jutsu: (50%)
Transformation Jutsu: (50%)
Hiding in Surface Jutsu: (30%)
Transparent Escape Jutsu: (30%)
Rasengan: (50%)
-Compression Rasengan: (30%)
Chakra Cutter: (50%)
Area Scanning: (90%)
Fire Release: (10%)
-Fire Release: Flamethrower: (50%)
Wind Release: (10%)
-Wind Release: Breakthrough: (50%)
Lightning Release: (10%)
-Lightning Release: Elekiter: (50%)
Earth Release: (10%)
-Earth Release: Practice Brick: (50%)
Water Release: (10%)
-Water Release: Hiding in Mist: (50%)
Yin Release: (20%)
-Chakra Camouflage: (30%)
Yang Release: (10%)
-Medical Jutsu: First Aid: (20%)
Genjutsu
General Mastery: (10%)
Genjutsu: Release: (30%)
Bukijutsu
General Mastery: (30%)
Shadow Shuriken Jutsu: (100%)
Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu: (20%)
Prepared Needle Shot: (50%)
Hidden Hand Jutsu: (10%)
Fuinjutsu
General Mastery: (41%)
Linked Sealing Technique: (30%)
Whirlpool Sealing Style: (33%)
Explosive Seal: (90%)
Storage Seal: (50%)
Jutsu Transcription Seal: (30%)
Dragon Gate Sealing Style: (2%>3%)
Assault Storage Seal: (20%>30%)
Senjutsu
General Mastery: (0%)
Hidden Jutsu
Nirvana Art: Three Bodies Breathing Method: (40%>50%)
Nirvana Art: Kukyo: (10%>41%)
Nirvana Art: Enlightened Mind's Eye: (100%)
Nirvana Art: Dragon Heart (20%)
Nirvana Art: Elemental (1%)
Kekkei Genkai
None
*
This majority of the changes came from the Awakening of the boy's Ryumon lineage, his training merely stabilized the values afterwards, the notable exceptions being the upgrade to his Assault Storage Seal and his new Flicker Phantom.
The latter was a modified Flicker Flash Shiki developed between the more important Nirvana Arts in order to maximize his Shukuchi movement technique which appeared on the Taijutsu section.
Other new entries there were the Iron Body, a technique for hardening the muscles in preparation for receiving an attack or to increase the power of the user's own strikes and the Dragon Gate Style, the standard taijutsu style of the Ryumon clan.
There were five Kata or Forms but Shiki could only use one at the moment, the Hidden Dragon Kata which was the source of his unorthodox, hard to follow, block and dodge attacks.
The two sections most affected by the boy's awakening however, were perhaps Stats and Affinities.
The latter saw a significant jump in all elemental affinities but the Yin and Yang affinities received the greatest boost, especially considering they were significantly high already.
But the most notable aspect was the emergence of a new Nature Affinity, demarking Shiki's compatibility with nature energy.
Additionally, all of his raw stats got a single rank bump up, his Chakra Potency specifically getting two, marking a significant increase in base power.
As for the changes in his Chakra Control, they came about as a result of Kukyo becoming a passive ability, giving the boy a massive permanent boost to precision and ease of control regarding not only chakra but also all bodily functions.
The last change in the panel was in the Hidden Jutsu section which showed the results of his awakening and adjustment and development of Nirvana Arts.
With the mathematical proof of his growth in mind, Shiki arrived at the sparring grounds raring to put his new abilities to the test.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -