Late at night two days later, Lei Dou lay on a roof beam and silently sighed, utterly frustrated.
Two consecutive nights of spying had failed to reproduce his incredible luck on the first night and net him more water release ninjutsu.
As though they had agreed on it beforehand, these jonin spent most of their time training basic abilities like taijutsu.
Yesterday's luck had been decent enough. He had encountered a jonin skilled in Earth Release and at least analyzed two earth release techniques.
[Earth Release: Earth Replacement] [Earth Release: Earth Rock Thrust]
Although neither earth release technique saw much use, they had at least given Lei Dou earth-nature transformation for free.
Tonight, however, bad luck had practically possessed him, making things even less fruitful.
In the enormous training hall, only three scattered jonin were putting in extra hours, and all of them were grunting away as they sparred using taijutsu.
As a result, all Lei Dou had managed was to upgrade his academy-level basic taijutsu to Advanced Taijutsu.
Naturally, the upgraded Advanced Taijutsu was nothing like the flashy but impractical moves taught at the academy.
Its passive effect in a skill slot would certainly be much better. Once the Water Release: Body Flicker Technique finished computing and freed up slots, he would have to equip Advanced Taijutsu to strengthen his body.
Improving his physique also needed to go on the agenda. After all, his body was the foundation of everything.
As for his chakra reserves, Lei Dou had equipped only one Chakra Extraction Technique over the past few days because he was rushing to make progress.
The increase in chakra had been tiny-better than nothing, but barely.
All three days combined had increased his chakra by only three-tenths of an ordinary ninja's reserves.
Lei Dou now had roughly six hundred and twenty times the chakra of an ordinary ninja.
That amount was already terrifying. Calling him a human tailed beast would hardly be an exaggeration.
Taking stock of his current arsenal:
Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique, Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm, Earth Release: Earth Replacement, Earth Rock Thrust, Water Release: Wild Water Wave, Water Wave Surge, Water Formation Wall, and Water Dragon Bullet Technique.
Mastering these techniques meant Lei Dou also controlled four chakra nature transformations: fire, wind, earth, and water.
A kid who had yet to graduate mastering four nature transformations was already an absurd existence in the Shinobi World. Telling people would scare half of them to death.
And Lei Dou also possessed two kekkei genkai: Transparent Release and Boil Release!
Combined with Total Concentration: Water Breathing, Transparent Release let him assassinate enemies effortlessly without a sound. Becoming the king of assassins would be well within his reach.
When he encountered a powerful enemy he had to face head-on, Boil Release could give him an instant burst of monstrous strength, letting him smash straight through.
He supposed that gave him some ability to protect himself for now!
Yes, in a spectacular display of humblebragging, Lei Dou thought he was merely "temporarily capable of protecting himself."
"The Body Flicker Technique's computation is almost finished!"
Lei Dou watched the countdown displayed on his retina.
Less than three hours remained.
Once the Body Flicker Technique finished computing, Lei Dou had decided his next step would be to continue developing new kekkei genkai.
Lei Dou already possessed water, earth, wind, and fire nature transformations. Mixing and matching them gave him plenty of options for developing kekkei genkai.
His two leading candidates were Ice Release and Wood Release!
The reason he had put these two famous kekkei genkai at the top of his list was simple: both required Water Release as a foundation for fusion.
Water Release was the power Lei Dou had mastered most thoroughly, and it formed his foundation.
According to Great Sage's analysis, if he developed Ice Release or Wood Release, whichever he chose,
all Lei Dou needed to do was master the nature transformation of the other release he would incorporate-wind or earth.
Once he reached a sufficient level, he could easily fuse them and develop a kekkei genkai with Great Sage's assistance.
Since Lei Dou already had one successful experience developing Boil Release, he could leave the remaining tedious calculations to Great Sage's analysis and computation.
There was no need for Lei Dou to rack his own brains or handle it personally. He could simply let the whole process run automatically.
That was why Lei Dou was still torn over whether to develop Ice Release or Wood Release first.
Although Wood Release had an immense reputation in the Shinobi World, hailed as the power that ended an age of chaos, adding Ice Release to Lei Dou's existing Water Release framework would certainly produce greater power and suit his swordsmanship better.
As for Wood Release, enormous chakra reserves were essential to unleash the world-altering power of the First Hokage. Without the enhancement of senjutsu chakra, its power might even be fairly ordinary.
At most, he would be somewhat stronger than Captain Yamato, the resident landscaper.
And Yamato's little bit of strength... Lei Dou could only chuckle at that!
He still needed to weigh his options carefully.
Time slipped by, and Lei Dou returned to his usual spot, which had been wrecked beyond recognition, to wait quietly.
At last, the final hours ticked down to zero.
[Computation complete] [Congratulations, host. New skill acquired: Water Release: Body Flicker Technique]
In an instant, a vast stream of intricate ninjutsu knowledge poured into Lei Dou's mind.
For that brief moment, Lei Dou felt as though he had personally experienced a wondrous journey through the water element.
Wrapped in chakra, he could instantly turn himself into a shapeless current of water. Not only could he evade an enemy's physical attacks in an instant, but in the blink of an eye,
he could also gather that water somewhere else and reconstruct his body.
Wasn't this just elemental transformation from One Piece?!
Lei Dou's eyes snapped open, a sharp gleam flashing through them.
He raised his hands and immediately began forming hand seals to cast the technique.
For Lei Dou, ninjutsu computed by Great Sage was already engraved into his muscle memory. He needed no practice; it was as though he had been born knowing it.
Splash!!
In less than a second, Lei Dou completed the hand seals. His body immediately broke apart, turning into a pool of transparent water that spread outward.
The water then rolled swiftly across the ground as though it were alive.
In less than a second, it gathered at another spot over ten meters away and re-formed directly into Lei Dou's flesh-and-blood body.
Feeling the wondrous sensation of his body switching freely between water and solid form,
Lei Dou thought it was simply too cool!
[Great Sage: During computation, it was discovered that this principle could be extended to produce the secret Hydrification Technique. Does the host wish to compute this secret technique further?]
Hydrification Technique?
He had never expected developing a Body Flicker Technique to come with a free secret technique.
The Hozuki Clan's signature secret technique, the Hydrification Technique, was indeed an incredible lifesaving ability that could negate most physical attacks. Its weakness was equally obvious, however: Lightning Release.
This technique!
He could try developing it as a trump card, but it was not a high priority. It could wait.
Rather than develop a defensive secret technique like that, Lei Dou was more eager to test another of Great Sage's functions-converting a technique's release nature!
Great Sage, can you use the principles of Earth Release: Earth Replacement to reverse-engineer Water Release: Water Replacement Technique by converting its chakra nature?
[Great Sage: Command received. Constructing a computational model...] [15%] [67%] [99%]
The computation was ridiculously fast. This simple nature substitution was finished in barely a dozen seconds.
[Computation complete] [Congratulations, host. New skill acquired: Water Release: Water Replacement Technique]
Lei Dou closed his eyes and examined the new technique. This water release technique was very practical.
He had wanted a water replacement because Lei Dou's Water Release had passive enhancements that made it consume very little chakra, whereas substitution techniques of other natures required the normal amount.
Since the techniques had the same effect, the thrifty Lei Dou naturally chose Water Release to save more mana.
If the Earth Replacement technique could be converted into the Water Replacement Technique, couldn't he do the same with other ninjutsu?
A smile spread across Lei Dou's face like an old farmer enjoying a bumper harvest.
[Great Sage: Beginning batch computation] [Converting Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm into... Water Release: Wave Hand] [15%...100%]
[Converting Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique into... Water Release: Water Dragon Charge Bullet Technique]
[Converting Earth Release: Earth Rock Thrust into... Water Release: Water Thorn]
Water Wave Hand, Water Dragon Charge Bullet, Water Thorn!
He had gained three more useful water release techniques in one go.
The first surprised Lei Dou a little. Changing the nature of Wind Release's Beast Wave Palm had actually turned it into Captain Yamato's signature skill, Wave Hand.
The Water Dragon Charge Bullet derived from the Fire Dragon Technique had never been documented in the original story. Its effect resembled a scaled-down Water Dragon Bullet, but the dragon was smaller and more condensed, with far more terrifying speed and concentrated impact, giving it astonishing penetrating power.
As for Water Thorn, the altered version of Earth Rock Thrust, it was a good area attack for disrupting enemies from the ground or clearing out weak mobs.
It was not that Lei Dou had some special obsession with Water Release.
Rather, given his current focus on Total Concentration: Water Breathing swordsmanship, Lei Dou's use of Water Release offered the best value and greatest returns of all his nature transformations.
For starters, Lei Dou had equipped two copies of his core skill, Water Breathing, in his precious passive skill slots.
The all-around improvement this brought was simply enormous.
Water Release power, movement speed, reflexes, even part of his physical fitness, and of course his most central ability, swordsmanship,
were all perfectly integrated and enhanced within this framework.
It was effectively like applying buffs to five different attributes at once.
If he could stack two identical skill slots together, he could even exploit an astonishing passive effect that let him use the skill without any cost.
By that calculation, rounding things off, he could spam Water Release without losing any stamina at all!
So for someone as thrifty as Lei Dou, modding all his miscellaneous ninjutsu into Water Release versions offered the best value.
After all, the core principles behind ninjutsu were largely the same. It was simply a matter of swapping the chakra nature used as its power source.
"I've got attack options. What this build needs most now is a clone that can take hits and dish them out. If I could incorporate the physical properties of a Shadow Clone, that would be perfect."
Lei Dou rubbed his chin as the blue screen in his mind flickered faintly.
[Great Sage: Host intent detected. Activate the advanced derivation program for clone techniques?]
"Don't rush into a new project yet. Just use the run-of-the-mill Clone Technique I already know. How much can you improve it?"
[Great Sage: Evaluating... Conclusion: It can only produce phantoms for visual deception. These constructs possess no capacity for physical attacks.]
A decorative dud with no combat ability whatsoever?
Then what do I need this iron staff for... no, what do I need this clone for?
It might scare a few inexperienced genin, but against an elite enemy with even half a brain, this trick probably wouldn't last a second.
He might as well do without a skill that was useless but still felt wasteful to discard.
[Great Sage: It is recommended that the host first obtain the authentic Shadow Clone Technique as a data sample. An advanced physical clone capable of actual combat can then be derived.]
Can't you just work it out from scratch? Is it that hard?
Lei Dou pursed his lips in annoyance.
[Great Sage: Warning. This technique involves multiple complex variables, including equal chakra distribution, independent storage, remote neural links, and nature transformation. Computational load exceeds capacity. Estimated time for forced derivation: 30 days.]
I've already mastered water-nature transformation to perfection, and making a clone still takes a month?
[Great Sage: Correction. The core architecture of this technique lies in the logic of "cloning," not its Water Release nature. The two require entirely different computational models.]
He understood. That meant Great Sage would have to build a Shadow Clone from scratch, then modify it further on that foundation.
That really was a sizable project.
[Great Sage: Your understanding is correct.]
Fine. Since it's a forbidden-technique-level ability, I can tolerate a little attitude.
A month was too long. If this thing was so difficult to develop, it would be faster to pester Shimozuki Hayate relentlessly until he coughed up the Shadow Clone Technique.
[Great Sage: This proposal has high feasibility.]
Lei Dou rolled his eyes. Why did this system feel increasingly human? It had even learned to slack off and pass the buck.
He wondered how far this lousy system had gotten with its self-repairs. If all its functions were unlocked, wouldn't a mere Shadow Clone be a matter of minutes?
[Great Sage System: Running system diagnostics... Current derivation module repair progress: 40%. Analysis efficiency increased. Sealless Hand Seal Release functionality restored to 50%.]
Huh?
Wasn't this like getting handed a pillow just as he felt sleepy?
"So you've quietly upgraded again?"
[Great Sage: Yes.]
"Then if I asked you to calculate that Water Release clone now, would it still take a month?"
[Great Sage: Reassessing... Estimated time reduced to twenty-five days.]
Well, look at that. Ten percent more repair progress saved me five whole days.
That was progress, he supposed, but nothing special. It was still crawling along like a turtle.
"What exactly does that 'Sealless Hand Seal Release' mean?"
[Great Sage: In simple terms, the host can skip the cumbersome hand seal process when casting ninjutsu.]
No hand seals?
Lei Dou's eyes lit up. Now that was an absurdly powerful function.