The sun rose and set again.
In the blink of an eye, two more days had passed.
After half a month of practice, one of the two sealing techniques he knew—Guardian Seal—had finally reached perfection.
Seimei opened his eyes, reflecting on the enlightenment that had just emerged in his mind. He felt his understanding of sealing techniques deepen significantly.
He glanced at his panel, unsurprised to see that his Guardian Seal had advanced from LV6 (3250/10000) to LV7 (0/0).
Closing the panel, Seimei untied the Konoha forehead protector strapped to his head. Using the reflective surface of the protector, he observed the "§" symbol on his brow. Raising his hand, he silently chanted, "Release!"
In the next instant, the "§" symbol disappeared, replaced by what appeared to be a naturally grown eye.
Seimei tried to close the eye.
Initially, its eyelids on both sides managed to close.
But before long, it involuntarily reopened.
Seeing this, Seimei murmured, "As expected, no matter how perfect it seems, it's not original—there are always flaws."
Indeed, the eye at his brow was similar to how Kakashi transplanted Obito's Sharingan—it could not be closed.
The only advantage Seimei had was that although the eye couldn't close, it did not continuously exhibit the power of the Byakugan.
This spared him from expending large amounts of chakra to sustain it.
Even so, it was still somewhat inconvenient.
Fortunately, this situation wouldn't last much longer.
After his last Constitution upgrade, his Byakugan awakening level had reached (70/100).
Seimei estimated that with one more upgrade to both his Mental and Constitution attributes, his Byakugan would fully awaken and perfectly integrate into his body.
By then, the issue of it being unable to close would no longer exist.
That said, the Guardian Seal was still necessary.
After all, it was an eye. If someone deliberately investigated, they could still detect its abnormality.
This was why he had never given up practicing the Guardian Seal.
Today, his hard work had finally paid off.
With a single thought, Seimei raised his hand to form a seal.
Immediately, intricate black patterns emerged on the upper half of his face, centered around the Byakugan on his brow.
These patterns were none other than the Guardian Seal technique.
With a low shout of "Seal!", the intricate patterns quickly retracted, ultimately vanishing into the Byakugan itself.
The next moment, his Byakugan disappeared, replaced by a vertical scar on his brow.
Compared to the previous "§" symbol, this scar was far less noticeable. Without close scrutiny, no one would notice anything unusual.
Although this subtle change had little practical significance for Seimei, a more concealed appearance was better than something overly conspicuous, wasn't it?
Moreover, the changes weren't just superficial. Now that his Guardian Seal had reached LV7 (0/0)—the realm of perfection—its effects had improved considerably.
At the very least, Seimei could now ensure that without unsealing it, no one would be able to detect the existence of the Byakugan.
With these thoughts flashing through his mind, Seimei set them aside for now.
He began contemplating how to allocate the 45,000 chakra points saved by perfecting the Guardian Seal.
Initially, his plan was to distribute the chakra evenly among Lightning Style: Thunder Sword, Lightning Style: Thunder Snake, and Lightning Style: Thunder Prison.
However, after reconsidering, he decided to revise his plan: he would temporarily set aside Thunder Sword and prioritize Thunder Snake and Thunder Prison.
There were two reasons for this choice. First, he already had a sword technique, Shadow Sword Technique, that required practice, leaving him no energy to train another sword art.
Second, improving Thunder Snake and Thunder Prison would deepen his understanding of the form and nature transformations of lightning chakra.
This way, when he eventually returned to practicing Thunder Sword, he could achieve twice the result with half the effort.
"Alright, let's do it this way!"
Convinced his reasoning was sound, Seimei made up his mind without hesitation.
However, the question of how to divide the 45,000 chakra points between Thunder Snake and Thunder Prison still remained.
Thanks to his LV6 Chakra Control and the mastery bonus from perfecting Lightning Style: Thunder Strike, Seimei currently required about 65 chakra points to increase Thunder Snake proficiency by one point.
On the other hand, Thunder Prison was more challenging, requiring 100 chakra points to gain one point of proficiency.
Additionally, the former was a C-rank technique with a proficiency cap of LV5, while the latter was a B-rank technique with a cap of LV7.
After careful consideration, Seimei decided to allocate 15,000 chakra points to Thunder Snake.
With this, he could gain around 230 proficiency points per day and achieve perfection—LV5 (0/0)—within approximately 16 days.
The remaining 30,000 chakra points would be dedicated to Thunder Prison training.
With this allocation, he could gain 300 proficiency points daily, reaching perfection in about two months.
Of course, the actual time would likely be shorter.
Once Thunder Snake was perfected in half a month, he could redirect the saved 15,000 chakra points to Thunder Prison.
This would increase his daily proficiency gain by 150 points, significantly accelerating his progress toward perfection.
While reading a flawless version at a bookstore, everything seemed perfect.
What's more, there was also the "Sealing Array," which, although progressing slower than the "Protective Seal," wasn't lagging by much.
Seimei glanced at the panel to confirm that its progress bar for level 6 was already over halfway full. At most, it would take another ten days or so to successfully advance.
At that point, the 44,000 chakra points saved could also be invested in it.
In summary, it wouldn't take more than two months for both of his Lightning Release jutsus to reach their perfected state.
By then, he could begin practicing the "Lightning Release: Lightning Sword".
Having laid out a plan for his training in the near future, Seimei wasted no time. He closed the panel and prepared to resume his training for the day.
However, at that moment, a memory suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Seimei was momentarily stunned before realizing that he had left a shadow clone back in Shahe City to handle daily chores.
This memory had been transmitted by the shadow clone.
Seimei quickly focused his mind and browsed through the transmitted memory.
He skipped past the trivial matters and concentrated on the information significant enough to make the shadow clone actively dispel the jutsu to send it.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, a hint of joy flashing in them.
The message wasn't bad news.
On the contrary, it was good news.
According to the latest information, negotiations between the village and the Hidden Mist Village had reached a conclusion: an unconditional ceasefire between the two sides.
At the same time, both parties had also come to an agreement regarding the ownership issue of the Land of Waves that had arisen some time ago.
In principle, the Land of Waves would remain a neutral zone where neither side could deploy military forces.
As for the allocation of missions from the Land of Waves, it would depend on the country's own decisions.
In other words, they could issue missions to whichever village they preferred, and neither side could interfere.
This essentially meant that the Hidden Mist Village had conceded.
After all, the Land of Waves was right on the doorstep of the Land of Fire.
Whether from a practical standpoint or out of respect for the Land of Fire, the majority of missions originating from the Land of Waves would ultimately end up being posted in the Hidden Leaf Village.
The Hidden Mist Village was surely aware of this.
But all they really wanted was to save face.
Everything else was insignificant.
Moreover, like the Hidden Rock Village, the Hidden Mist Village didn't sign an alliance treaty with the Hidden Leaf Village. The two sides merely agreed to a ceasefire.
Even so, this was good enough.
At the very least, Seimei could say that this prolonged, grueling Ninja World War had finally come to an end.
Aside from this good news, another critical piece of information concerned the village's arrangements for front-line ninjas like them.