—Meanwhile—
Land of Fire.
Southern Sea.
On top of a giant boulder on a remote island—
A figure suddenly appeared. It was Seimei.
He rolled his neck, glanced up at the full moon hanging in the night sky, and then sat down cross-legged, beginning his routine of nurturing the Byakugan.
That's right. Even today, he hadn't skipped this part of his training.
At the center of his forehead, the "Seal of All Things" began to activate, linking itself to his Byakugan.
He skillfully drew chakra from the unique space within his forehead, where it was compressed again via the seal, turning it into a more concentrated, high-energy form. This chakra was then infused into his Byakugan.
A tingling sensation followed. Seimei closed his eyes in comfort.
Time ticked by quietly.
Before long, two and a half hours had passed.
As a swelling sensation spread from his eyes, Seimei knew his Byakugan had reached its current limit.
He stopped the nurturing process without hesitation.
Opening his eyes, Seimei glanced at his status screen.
Just as expected, the evolution progress behind his Byakugan had increased by another 12 points—now at 2000/5000, inching ever closer to the next stage.
Satisfied, he nodded.
He closed the panel, extended his senses to the shadow clone stationed back in the town, and, confirming there was nothing unusual, stood up, leapt down from the boulder, and walked toward a nearby wooden cabin to rest.
The night passed peacefully.
---
The Next Morning
At the break of dawn, Seimei was already up.
The first thing he did after waking was check in on his shadow clone.
Just like yesterday—no signs of trouble. The clone remained on standby.
With nothing to worry about, Seimei began his usual routine: wash up, eat, and train.
Step one of his training?
"Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
In an instant, 150 shadow clones appeared.
Though 150 may not sound like a lot, when they stood together, it was a dense, black sea of identical figures.
Thankfully, Seimei was long used to this sight.
And since they were all essentially him, there was no chaos.
He quickly divided them into groups and assigned different skills for each group to work on.
Once everything was organized, the clones dispersed.
Soon, only Seimei remained.
But that didn't mean he had time to rest.
He turned and headed straight for the beach.
When the seawater reached his knees, he took a deep breath and activated his "Skin Breathing" system.
Then he infused chakra into the soles of his feet, anchoring himself to the ocean floor.
Splash, splash—
As he pressed forward, his legs cut through the water, creating bursts of white foam.
That was only the beginning.
As he waded deeper and the water rose past his waist, the splashing stopped. The buoyancy of the sea became more noticeable.
Still, thanks to the chakra keeping him grounded, he could move freely underwater.
Seimei kept walking.
Before long, only his neck and head remained above the surface.
And then—
He took a deep breath and stepped forward again, fully submerging himself.
But holding his breath wasn't the point.
The true purpose was to push his physical limits by training in the extreme pressure of the deep sea, using that harsh environment to accelerate his body's evolution.
So, he continued walking forward.
1 meter… 2 meters… 3 meters…
Soon, he was 30 meters underwater.
At this depth, the pressure was about three times what it would be at the surface.
But Seimei wasn't done.
He moved his limbs to check his condition—everything was fine.
So he kept going.
Ten seconds later, he reached 60 meters deep.
Now, the pressure was about six times that of the surface.
For a regular person with no diving gear, this would be the limit. Beyond this, their organs would start to fail.
But Seimei's body was long past human limits.
He could go even deeper.
Because to truly evolve, he had to push as close to the limit as possible.
That was how you got results.
He kept descending.
Before long, he was 110 meters below the surface.
The pressure here? Roughly eleven times greater than aboveground.
This still wasn't his true limit—he could likely go a few meters deeper if he forced it.
But he had plans to train here for an entire hour, so pushing too far too soon was unwise.
Seimei glanced around the ocean floor, ignoring the marine life swimming nearby, and found a relatively flat rock.
He walked over, brushed off the sand, and sat down.
Then, using chakra from his palms and lower body, he anchored himself securely to the seabed.
With that done, he activated Shōsen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique), concentrating pure Yang Release chakra into his body.
Then, opening his Mangekyō Sharingan, he activated Hito no Gyō (Human Dominion), guiding the Yang chakra to flow through his cells, enhancing his body at a cellular level.
Minutes passed, and he continued this process again and again—condensing chakra, strengthening cells, and occasionally resting his eyes when needed.
He was also experimenting—trying to combine Shōsen Jutsu and Hito no Gyō into a passive enhancement technique that would constantly improve his body.
It wasn't easy. So far, he'd only made the tiniest bit of progress.
Still, progress was progress.
And Seimei wasn't expecting instant results. He was in it for the long haul.
His mind briefly wandered—but he quickly pushed all distractions aside.
Training time at this depth was precious. He had to stay focused.
An hour passed.
Suddenly, Seimei opened his eyes.
He stood up and began walking back toward the coast.
Why not use Hiraishin no Jutsu to teleport?
Well, he'd tried that before—but the sudden shift between sea pressure and surface pressure was brutal, making him nauseous and disoriented.
After a few bad experiences, he gave up on the shortcut and chose the safer, more gradual way: walking.
This way, his body could adjust naturally, avoiding injury.
And as for the little extra time it took?
It wasn't really any more time than recovering from the aftereffects of teleportation—so it was worth it.
Plus, this way, he didn't have to waste chakra.
Even if the amount used was minimal—chakra was chakra.
Seimei wasn't the type to waste energy needlessly.