He tried swinging his blade, and to his surprise, there was no resistance at all.
Lei Dou had braced himself for a long struggle, expecting the adjustment to take ten days or half a month.
He never imagined that, with the system's help, he would succeed on his first try.
A faint blue glow rose from the blade. A thin film of water raced along its edge, giving off a soft hiss.
[Progress: %] [Progress: %] [Progress: %] [Progress: %]
The calculation progress bar raced upward as though pumped full of adrenaline, so fast that even Lei Dou was caught off guard.
Still, this rocket ride was exactly what Lei Dou wanted.
When Lei Dou incorporated water-attribute chakra into the first form of Konoha Style: Swordsmanship, the chakra on his blade suddenly began fluctuating violently.
Even in his godlike state of Thought Acceleration, Lei Dou couldn't stop the water film from breaking apart, no matter how desperately he fine-tuned it.
Apparently, maintaining a powerful nature transformation while slashing fiercely really wasn't as simple as talking about it.
No wonder so many people in the shinobi world used swords, yet masters who could perfectly incorporate chakra attributes into their swordsmanship were vanishingly rare.
However, Lei Dou's failure sent the system's calculation progress bar surging by % as though it had taken a stimulant!
Lei Dou rolled his eyes at the sight.
So the harder I fail, the more valuable the data you collect, huh?
But Lei Dou's stubborn refusal to lose also kicked in. With his senses amplified a thousandfold, he seemed to catch a spark of inspiration.
On his second attempt, Water Release chakra clung steadily to the blade, responding as naturally as his own fingers.
But this thing was a bottomless chakra pit!
From the opening of the first form through the fifth, Lei Dou felt his chakra pouring out like floodwater. He couldn't even make it to the second half.
And its efficiency was appallingly bad.
Wrapping ordinary swordsmanship in a layer of water did make it a little stronger, but compared with that terrifying chakra consumption, it was a downright losing proposition.
No wonder nobody wanted to study this stuff. It was the very definition of thankless work.
[Calculation complete] [Skill fusion complete: Konoha Style: Swordsmanship-Water Release version] [Based on the host's memory template, modeling of Total Concentration: Water Breathing sword forms succeeded] [Congratulations to the host on acquiring a new skill: Water Breathing-all forms]
In an instant, Lei Dou felt as though a nuclear bomb had been stuffed into his head. Countless details about Water Breathing's methods of exerting force, breathing rhythms, and muscle vibrations flooded his mind.
"That's... it?"
Lei Dou gripped the hilt tightly, his gaze instantly sharpening like a blade as he stared at the battered wooden post ahead.
He drew a deep breath, his lungs seeming to turn into bellows.
"Water Breathing, First Form-Water Surface Slash!"
His blade flashed, accompanied by the rushing roar of water.
At the moment of the swing, he felt a slight stiffness and resistance, as though everything hadn't been fully lubricated yet.
But the water generated out of thin air instantly became a razor-sharp blade wave, cutting the thick wooden post clean in half. The cut was as smooth as a mirror.
Lei Dou was certain his blade hadn't touched the wood at all. The cut had been made entirely by that high-pressure stream of water.
Second Form: Water Wheel! Third Form: Flowing Dance! Fourth Form: Striking Tide...
All the way to a form that originally didn't belong in this world-Eleventh Form: Dead Calm!
Lei Dou performed the entire sequence in one go, his movements already matching the images in his memory extremely closely.
Embarrassingly, though, from the fifth form onward, their power didn't increase. Instead, it fell flat.
The later finishing moves were actually less powerful than the basic slashes at the beginning.
[Great Sage: Current calculations have completed only the basic framework. Continued calculation is recommended to optimize power until the perfect forms in the host's memories are fully replicated.]
Got it. The current processing power can only manage a rough approximation. If I want the genuine article's power, I'll have to keep running data in the background.
"Now it's time for the skill slots to shine!"
With a thought, Lei Dou dragged [Water Breathing Swordsmanship] straight into a passive skill slot and started automatically grinding proficiency.
With the skill slot supplying a constant stream of experience, combined with Great Sage's in-depth calculations, achieving the perfect results from his memory was only a matter of time.
＜
[Passive skill: Water Breathing Swordsmanship] [One complete circulation cycle completed]
Lei Dou swung his sword again. This time, the roar of water in his ears was noticeably more powerful than before.
A blue wave of cutting water roared into the distance, severing every plant in its path.
Crack!
A branch as thick as a bowl's mouth was sliced off effortlessly, water still dripping from the cut.
Although the water formed from Water Release chakra wasn't blindingly fast, its high-speed flow gave it terrifying cutting power.
[Calculating optimizations...] [Progress: %]
Just one cycle of Water Breathing had sent the calculation progress shooting up by %.
That might not look like much, but this was completely automatic. He could leave the rest to time and the system.
"Three minutes per cycle, increasing progress by %."
"That means it'll only take minutes to calculate this move to perfection!"
According to Great Sage's estimate, each completed round of calculations could raise at least one or two forms to the level of genuine killing moves.
For the remaining forms, a conservative estimate put it at another four rounds of calculations.
That meant minutes, or hours at most.
Not even a full day.
The efficiency was downright frightening.
Even better, every cycle of Water Breathing improved not only his swordsmanship but also his physique, speed, and the purity of his water-attribute chakra.
This was no mere sword style. It was clearly a top-tier comprehensive Nintaijutsu training method.
Lei Dou couldn't have been more satisfied.
This calculation ability was practically a divine tool tailor-made for him.
However, with all its processing power occupied by Water Breathing, he couldn't experiment with anything else for now.
Let's call it a day.
In fact, Lei Dou could have separated every form into an individual skill to grind.
For example, he could have focused on breaking through with the weakest one, the sixth form. That would certainly have been faster.
But the resulting swordsmanship would have been a patchwork, and its overall fluidity would have suffered badly.
It would only take a day anyway. Lei Dou could spare that much time.
What he wanted was perfection as a whole: swordsmanship that flowed endlessly like water, without a single opening.
Only calculating the entire style could make the transitions between forms seamless and unite the whole sword style into one.
With that, the Hokage-world version of Water Breathing could officially be declared a successful development!
"I've got the swordsmanship. Everything's ready now except a weapon that actually suits me!"
Lei Dou glanced disdainfully at the mass-produced ninja blade in his hand, its edge already rolled. This scrap metal clearly couldn't withstand Water Breathing's ferocious power.
Tomorrow, he would have to get up early and visit Konoha's largest ninja tool shop to see whether he could find a quality blade-or simply pay to have one custom-made.
Lei Dou looked up at the cold, clear moon overhead.
"Well, another night of living like an immortal."
Dragging his exhausted body home, Lei Dou fell dead asleep the instant his head touched the pillow.
The next day, the sun was already high.
When Lei Dou woke groggily, he was shocked to discover that his chakra was so abundant it almost seemed to overflow. His total reserves had increased more than threefold.
Using an ordinary Genin as a unit of measurement, Lei Dou now had roughly three hundred and fifty times their chakra.
With such monstrous chakra reserves, probably only the Senju Clan of old, who treated chakra like drinking water, could come close in all of Konoha.
Even Naruto Uzumaki, with his built-in cheat, would probably have to step aside for now.
In excellent spirits, Lei Dou hummed a tune as he washed up, hastily stuffed down a few bites of breakfast, and hurried out.
He strolled leisurely to Konoha's grandest ninja tool shop, but before he could enter, he stopped short.
Inside, someone busy arranging the shelves seemed to sense his gaze and abruptly turned around.
Lei Dou froze for a moment.
Oh, isn't that Tenten?
She was Konohagakure's famous little rich girl!
Other kunoichi burned through chakra when they fought. She simply burned through money.
Those showers of hidden weapons she scattered weren't weapons at all-they were shining silver coins!
She probably retrieved them after battle, but nobody else had her extravagant style of throwing money at people.
"Hey, kid over there. Are you here to buy ninja tools?"
Tenten looked Lei Dou up and down. Although he was a little taller than her, his face was still incredibly youthful.
She also ran through Konoha's Genin in her head and couldn't recall anyone like him.
Probably not a ninja.
Still... he's pretty easy on the eyes. Tenten couldn't help unconsciously brushing aside a loose strand of hair by her ear.
"That's right. I'd like to buy a ninja blade." Lei Dou walked inside without hesitation.
"A ninja... blade?"
Tenten widened her eyes as though she'd heard a joke.
An ordinary person buying a few shuriken for self-defense was one thing, but this boy had actually asked for a restricted ninja blade?
Even an average Genin might not know how to handle one properly.
Swordsmanship had an extremely high barrier to entry. Most ninja were doing well enough if they could use a kunai competently.
"You're not a ninja, are you?" Tenten asked suspiciously.
"Not yet. I'm a student at the Ninja Academy. Shimozuki Raito," Lei Dou introduced himself.
He deliberately emphasized his status as a military academy student to avoid unnecessary trouble. After all, not just anyone could buy a restricted blade like this.
"Shimozuki... Lei Dou? From Shimozuki Hayate's family?"
"Right. Since you're a student, there's even less reason to buy a ninja blade. You haven't even earned your forehead protector yet. Are you buying it as a decoration?"
Although Tenten thought Lei Dou had a nice face, his brain didn't seem particularly sharp.
The Shimozuki clan had produced skilled swordsmen, but it wasn't exactly a top-tier powerhouse.
Instead of diligently practicing the basics at his age, he insisted on playing with such a difficult weapon.
Students these days can't even throw a shuriken straight, yet they're already dreaming of roaming the world with a sword.
As his senior, Tenten felt obligated to knock some sense into this overambitious junior.
But Lei Dou merely smiled, unbothered. "You don't need to worry about that, do you, senior? I'm paying for a sword. Whether I can use it, or know how to use it, is my own business."
So much for good intentions.
Tenten slammed the kunai in her hand onto the table.
"Why won't you little brats who haven't even graduated listen to good advice?"
"I'm worried you'll hurt yourself!"
"Only a handful of ninja in all of Konoha can handle a ninja blade properly. Swordsmanship isn't something you can master overnight!"
"With that soft, delicate look of yours, you probably still miss the target with your shuriken, and you want to play with swords?"
Lei Dou sighed helplessly. Was even spending money this difficult these days?
"You won't even take business that walks right through your door?"
"Hmph! If I sell a blade to a rookie like you and you cut yourself, you'll come back blaming our shop's blades and ruin our reputation. I'd rather not earn that money..."
Whoosh!
Before she finished speaking, a cold glint flashed past Tenten's earlobe like lightning.
That instant of cold sent every hair on her body standing on end.
The next second, the shuriken buried itself directly in the solid stone wall behind her.
It sank in completely, without so much as a tip left exposed.
What terrifying explosive power!
What suffocating speed!
Tenten froze completely.
That... that hidden weapon was so fast...
She turned her head mechanically and stared at the pitch-black crack in the wall, too deep to see its bottom.
How much strength did that take...?
To throw something with that much penetrating power barehanded... this kid looked as skinny as a bamboo pole. Did he have a bear hidden inside him?
With wrist strength like that, he could probably arm-wrestle Rock Lee, who knew nothing but Taijutsu!
Tenten whipped her head back around and stared at Lei Dou as though he were a monster.
"You little brat... turns out you've got a few tricks!"
"But brute strength alone doesn't count as skill. That's just being a musclehead!"
Tenten still refused to back down.
Yet in the next second...
Another shuriken whistled through the air past the other side of her body.
This time, it was slightly slower, and Tenten could just barely make out its trajectory.
Immediately afterward, a third shuriken flew out from an uncanny angle.
It spun violently through the air, riding the airflow to trace an incredible arc.
Clang!!
Two shuriken collided precisely behind Tenten's head, bursting into sparks.
The force of the collision instantly altered their trajectories, sending them shooting in two completely different directions.
They finally embedded themselves squarely in the two coin-sized black marks on the wall.
Tenten stared at where they had landed, dumbfounded, her throat going a little dry.
Wh... what kind of god-tier move was that?
Even Tenten could use collisions to alter a projectile's trajectory like that, but...
She had only managed it through countless practice attempts, and she could never do it as fast as Lei Dou.
Even more frighteningly, Lei Dou had clearly controlled the force with precision.
He had to ensure the first shuriken had enough force, calculate the angle and timing of the second one's impact, and predict where they would land after deflecting.
The sheer calculation and control involved grew more terrifying the more she thought about it.
Tenten reassessed the "junior" before her, who had not even graduated yet.
Her cheeks grew warm despite herself, partly from shame at her earlier boasting, and partly because Lei Dou's cool, composed demeanor was so handsome that she could barely stand it.