That was right. Transparent Release's only fatal weakness was probably the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan.
Lei Dou channeled his chakra and raised his hand, watching his arm gradually disappear from sight.
"This bloodline ability isn't weak. It's just a shame the Byakugan counters it so completely!"
Whether he bent light to turn invisible or concealed his presence, the Byakugan could see the chakra flowing inside his body. Seeing through his invisibility would be child's play.
He might not need to fight anyone from the Hyuga Clan right now, but what if he faced them someday? Wouldn't he be completely helpless?
Lei Dou looked at the Wooden Sword in his other hand. Covered in Transparent Release chakra, it also vanished completely from sight.
"As long as I cover it in Transparent Release chakra, even something that isn't part of my body can turn invisible."
"What about ninjutsu, then?"
If he could apply Transparent Release to ninjutsu and turn a fireball or water dragon invisible, who could defend against that?
The thought immediately sparked Lei Dou's interest, and he decided to test it himself.
Finding a deserted corner, Lei Dou prepared to unleash the only elemental technique he currently knew-Water Release: Wild Water Wave!
He began forming hand seals.
Chakra gathered furiously in his throat, ready to burst out as a torrent the next second.
He deliberately limited his chakra output, keeping the stream small.
But at that critical moment, Lei Dou tried to force Transparent Release's chakra nature into it.
It went wrong instantly!
Water Release: Water Wave collapsed before it could even leave his mouth.
The two streams of chakra clashed inside him, nearly causing a backlash that would have blown Lei Dou's throat apart.
"That was close! I almost got myself killed!"
Lei Dou calmed the restless chakra inside him and patted his chest, still shaken.
Clearly, developing combination ninjutsu was delicate, advanced work, not something he could pull off on a whim.
One small mistake could leave him in the hospital for half a month.
Reviewing his failure carefully, he realized that casting Water Release already involved transforming chakra into water nature. Forcing Transparent Release's nature transformation into it at that point...
That was essentially asking him to split his concentration and perform two completely different nature transformations simultaneously.
That was far beyond what Lei Dou could handle right now.
He was lucky he hadn't ruined his chakra pathways.
"Can Transparent Release really only serve as an invisibility cloak?"
If so, this kekkei genkai was worth far less than he'd hoped.
It was best to maintain only one chakra nature transformation at a time. In that case, he could only combine it with basic, non-elemental ninjutsu.
Ordinary Clone Techniques or Shadow Clones, for instance.
"Non-elemental..."
"What about the Rasengan?"
Lei Dou's eyes lit up. In theory, the non-elemental Rasengan should work!
But after another moment's thought, he shook his head with a wry smile.
Never mind how hard developing the Rasengan would be. Its tremendous noise alone was a glaring flaw.
It buzzed like a power drill. What good would making it invisible do? He'd only be fooling himself!
Transparent Release's core tactical value was surprise. If the sound gave away his position, how could he launch a sneak attack?
Surprise?
"Hidden weapons!"
Lei Dou's eyes brightened, and he pulled a black Kunai from his ninja tool pouch.
Transparent Release chakra instantly covered it, and sure enough, the Kunai vanished into thin air the next second.
But the cool sensation against his fingertips told him it was still in his hand.
"That's it! If combining it with ninjutsu is too difficult, surely physical hidden weapons will work!"
Hidden weapons were all about ruthless, underhanded attacks that were impossible to guard against.
They were a perfect match for Transparent Release!
An enemy couldn't even dodge a throwing knife they couldn't see.
Unless they were a battle-hardened Elite Jōnin who could determine a weapon's trajectory by sound.
Otherwise, ordinary ninja facing these invisible weapons wouldn't even know what killed them.
He casually flung the invisible Kunai. With a sharp thunk, it embedded itself precisely in the tree trunk opposite him.
Only after a full three seconds did the Kunai slowly become visible again.
A satisfied smile appeared on Lei Dou's face.
"Looks like I'll have to improve my throwing fundamentals before I can turn this 'invisible hidden weapon' trick into a trump card!"
He had Konoha Style: Swordsmanship for close combat and Water Release: Water Wave to harass enemies at medium and long range.
At a critical moment, he could throw in a few invisible Shuriken for a sneak attack.
With that combination, Genin at his level wouldn't stand a chance. Lei Dou felt he could now put up a fight even against Chunin, or a careless Jonin.
"Transparent Release plus hidden weapons really is a great way to catch people off guard!"
"If I learn Shadow Clone later, a whole crowd of invisible clones throwing invisible weapons... what a beautiful sight! My enemies' heads would probably explode!"
"But my throwing accuracy is only barely passing by school standards."
"I'm still a long way from a real expert who can hit wherever they aim."
Lei Dou frowned. It looked like he would have to spare a precious skill slot and keep "Hidden Weapon Throwing" loaded for a while.
He didn't need Uchiha Itachi's flashy level of skill. Fast, accurate, and deadly would be enough.
Only then could he bring out its full power alongside Transparent Release.
[Passive skill slot loaded: Hidden Weapon Throwing Technique]
Lei Dou temporarily unloaded one instance of "Chakra Extraction Technique" and replaced it with "Hidden Weapon Throwing Technique."
That left the extraction technique in slot one to keep his chakra pool growing.
Slots two and three held the throwing technique and swordsmanship respectively.
Lei Dou also intended to test his limits: with his current chakra reserves, how many Kunai could Transparent Release make invisible at once?
Before he could begin, the system notification sounded.
[Passive skill: Hidden Weapon Throwing Technique] [One simulated run completed]
One run was already finished? It had only been a few seconds!
That was efficient!
Lei Dou fixed his gaze on the distant tree and flicked out two Kunai.
Before, he would have counted himself lucky if both even hit the target.
This time, however, both Kunai lodged firmly in the central area of the trunk.
Neither had hit the exact center, but the margin of error had shrunk considerably.
The improvement was already plain to see.
[Passive skill...] [One simulated run completed]
His progress was practically rocket-powered, with another experience update every few seconds.
Still, throwing hidden weapons was a physical skill with a low barrier to entry, so its fast runs made sense.
Ten minutes later!
Ten short minutes might not be enough for an ordinary person to accomplish anything, but Lei Dou already felt as though he had practiced for months.
The instant the Kunai left his hand, its whistle through the air became sharper and faster.
When it struck the trunk, the impact made his teeth ache.
Thunk!
This time, nearly half the Kunai's blade sank deep into the hard tree trunk.
His strength had increased considerably, but his accuracy was even more frightening.
Ten Kunai formed a perfectly straight line on the trunk.
Each was spaced roughly ten centimeters from the next, with barely any deviation.
He had achieved that astonishing muscle memory and control in just ten minutes.
If he left it running for an hour, who knew what it would become?
The thrill of growing stronger with cheats was even more addictive than cuddling cats.
"Within fifteen meters, I can hit wherever I aim without a problem!"
"Then..."
The corners of Lei Dou's mouth lifted as he decided to increase the difficulty.
He stepped back ten meters, bringing the distance to twenty-five.
Raising his hand, he sent a Shuriken spinning through the air.
A slicing swish rang out.
The next second!
Thunk!
The Shuriken buried itself firmly in the trunk!
Lei Dou frowned, dissatisfied. "My accuracy starts drifting as soon as I increase the distance."
The Shuriken had landed about five centimeters off target. That small error might not normally matter, but in a life-or-death fight, it could get him killed.
He would have to keep grinding proficiency in the background.
Lei Dou's goal was clear: within thirty meters, he had to hit every single time, without fail.
His throws also needed enough power. If they only scratched someone's skin, he would be wasting Transparent Release's ambush advantage.
For the rest of the session, Lei Dou became an emotionless throwing machine.
He kept throwing Kunai, not so much to practice as to help refresh his state through the system.
Refreshing his hidden weapon throwing state was much simpler and more straightforward than an internal discipline like chakra extraction.
Within half an hour, Lei Dou refreshed his state more than a dozen times.
After every completed run, experience in wrist movements and judging wind direction flooded his mind.
Even more amazingly, Lei Dou discovered that his wrist strength was skyrocketing too.
Stronger wrists would also greatly help him wield a heavy sword. He was gaining two benefits at once.
And so, for three full hours, Lei Dou threw hidden weapons tirelessly.
He only stopped when his arm ached so badly it felt ready to pop out of its socket.
Over those three hours, Hidden Weapon Throwing Technique refreshed more than thirty times.
An average of ten times an hour-its efficiency was outrageous.
By then, the effects of its passive runs were approaching the limits of what his body could bear.
Lei Dou plopped onto the ground and rested, panting.
"With only one Chakra Extraction Technique loaded, I still can't keep going without draining myself."
"If I'd loaded two throwing techniques just now, my arm probably wouldn't be this sore."
As he muttered to himself, Lei Dou suddenly sprang up as though shocked, his eyes blazing.
"Wait! Running two skills at once can offset the drain..."
"Then if I run two Taijutsu skills during battle, doesn't that mean... unlimited stamina?"
Setting aside mental fatigue, two Taijutsu skills to recover health and two extraction techniques to recover chakra-wouldn't that make him a perpetual motion machine?
Never mind the crazy chakra recovery. The concept of "unlimited stamina" alone would be enough to let Lei Dou run rampant in this world.
"If I learn Senjutsu later, I'll have unlimited chakra and unlimited stamina!"
That meant his current priorities were to push his maximum chakra reserves as high as possible while throwing himself into Taijutsu training.
With two Taijutsu skills loaded, he could become a tireless fighting machine and wear his enemies down until they died.
Just imagining such an unfair fighting style thrilled him.
Once he mastered Senjutsu or his chakra reserves reached the required level, he could transition into an all-round fighter proficient in Nintaijutsu.
Lei Dou lay on the grass, gazing at the blue sky and white clouds, and couldn't help laughing foolishly.
After that, Hidden Weapon Throwing Technique remained in his skill slot for a full seven hours.
The final results far exceeded even Lei Dou's wildest expectations.
When the sun set and Lei Dou dragged his exhausted body home, his hidden weapon skills had reached an absurd level.
At distances of ten to fifteen meters, his Kunai could punch straight through wooden boards up to fifty centimeters thick.
That terrifying burst of wrist strength turned tiny hidden weapons into lethal bullets.
Even at his maximum range of fifty meters, he could maintain extremely high accuracy, and the weapons flew astonishingly fast.
Forget Genin-even many Jonin might not possess such incredible accuracy.
Lei Dou believed that if he kept running the skill passively, he could become a grandmaster of hidden weapons.
But he still sensibly switched it back to "Chakra Extraction Technique."
After all, chakra was a ninja's foundation.
"I have to go back to school tomorrow. What a pain."
That night, Lei Dou tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
He used to attend school to learn skills. Now, going there was simply a waste of his life, seriously slowing his skill-grinding progress.
Wouldn't that time be better spent refreshing his skill states a few more times?
The next morning.
"My chakra reserves actually shot up again-nearly doubling!"
Lei Dou stood before the bathroom mirror, looking at the energetic boy reflected in it.
With chakra filling his entire body, even his skin looked much more radiant, and he felt astonishingly refreshed.
Lei Dou clenched his fists, feeling the torrent of chakra surging through him, brimming with confidence.
The chakra inside him surged like a tide. After sensing it carefully, he found that his reserves had doubled since yesterday.
If he had to pick a benchmark and use that genius Sasuke as a unit of measurement, Lei Dou's mana bar now had to be sixteen or seventeen times Sasuke's.
But compared with Naruto, whose chakra reserves were downright monstrous, this amount was only about a third of his.
He could clearly feel that today's chakra growth curve was starting to level off, no longer rising as sharply as before.
The principle was much like cultivating internal energy: the further he progressed, the more bottlenecks he encountered. Maintaining a rocket-like rate of growth was never realistic.
It looked like he would have to refresh the status of his "Chakra Extraction Technique" skill when he got home from school tonight.
If he simply left it alone, his daily chakra gains would be far too small to amount to anything.
In truth, doubling his reserves in a single day would terrify anyone who heard about it. It could hardly be called slow.
But Lei Dou had ambitions. How could he possibly be satisfied so easily?
After all, greed was sometimes the best fuel for humanity's relentless climb.
Once he was ready, Lei Dou opened his front door and strolled toward the Ninja Academy with light steps.
The moment he appeared at the school gates, practically every head turned, and he instantly became the center of attention.
Today, Lei Dou wasn't wearing his usual bargain-bin clothes. His outfit was refined without losing its air of luxury, making him look like a completely different person.
The girls passing by stared wide-eyed, each seemingly drawn to him like iron to a magnet.
"Oh my god... is that Lei Dou? Isn't it a little unfair how handsome he looks today?"
"Why are you stating the obvious? Lei Dou always had good looks. He was handsome before too, okay!"
"No, it's mostly that his clothes used to be too plain. They completely hid that gorgeous face. This is his final form!"
"Exactly! He's such a feast for the eyes!"
Escorted by the girls' burning gazes, Lei Dou calmly stepped onto the school grounds.
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