In the shinobi world, performing ninjutsu without hand seals was a godlike feat, barely possible even after mastering a technique to perfection and turning it into muscle memory and instinct.
Great Sage had really come through with its support this time.
But!
"You just said you're only fifty percent restored? What's with this half-finished business?"
[Great Sage: This means hand seals are still required for guidance, but their number and execution time can be greatly reduced. Once the system is fully repaired, all skills can be activated instantly.]
I knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.
Still, shortening the windup was fantastic. When experts fought, even a 0.1-second advantage could mean the difference between life and death.
Lei Dou wasn't disappointed. Instead, he was itching to see just how smooth this feature could be.
"Quit dragging your feet. Max out every Water Release skill I currently know and optimize them to the limit!"
[Great Sage: Task established... beginning comprehensive calculations.] [Estimated time: 4 minutes.]
A complete overhaul of all my skills in just four minutes? Now that's efficiency I can get behind.
Guess I'll wait, then.
Time felt a little slow while he waited, but it really only took about as long as a song.
When Lei Dou received the data for the first optimized Water Release technique, he was stunned.
These so-called perfect calculations had pushed his current chakra utilization to its absolute limit.
Under Great Sage's radical modifications, the once-unremarkable C-rank ninjutsu, Water Release: Wild Water Wave, unleashed so much water with such force that it resembled a flood bursting through a dam.
How was this Water Release? This was clearly Sea Release!
Once every skill had finished updating, Lei Dou felt as though he had switched to a completely different game account.
The skill names hadn't changed, but the power beneath them had undergone a complete transformation.
Not only had their power doubled, but more importantly, combining them with the half-finished Sealless Hand Seal Release made them dramatically easier to execute.
Techniques that once required five or six hand seals could now be fired off with three at most.
Some simpler techniques could even be triggered with a quick Horse seal.
One seal took only the blink of an eye. There was practically no difference between that and instant activation.
It mostly came down to his reactions in battle.
That tiny delay could be ignored entirely.
Lei Dou fixed his eyes on the Giant Boulder ahead. The next second, his hands formed a seal with lightning speed, and his entire body dissolved into a mass of transparent water.
Rather than falling to the ground, the water shot into the distance in countless thin streams, as though fired from a high-pressure water gun.
In the blink of an eye, those streams gathered again twenty meters away, reforming into Lei Dou's solid body.
Water Release: Body Flicker Technique!
His movement speed was more than a whole tier above the previous version.
From his body liquefying and vanishing to reforming, the entire process took less than half a second.
It was dizzyingly fast.
"I have a feeling Konoha's legends in the shinobi world are going to get another title like 'Body Flicker Shisui.' It'll be 'Body Flicker Lei Dou'!"
At this level, probably only Minato Namikaze's ridiculously unfair Flying Thunder God could outclass his Body Flicker Technique.
As exhilarating as it was, once Lei Dou calmed down, he noticed a problem: if both hands were busy forming seals, what was he supposed to do with his sword?
"Great Sage, calculate the feasibility of one-handed seals!"
[Great Sage: Establishing new task... calculating.] [Estimated time: three hours.]
Once he learned one-handed seals, he could wield ninjutsu in his left hand and a sword in his right. That would be the truly complete magic-and-martial build!
Three hours wasn't long, but Lei Dou wasn't an idiot. He certainly wasn't going to stand there like a log waiting. He headed straight home to lie down and rest.
When a ding in his head announced that the calculations were complete, Lei Dou casually tried forming seals with one hand.
Apart from keeping his left hand rather busy, it didn't diminish the power of his ninjutsu at all.
Such a counterintuitive move would definitely catch an opponent off guard in a real fight.
Definitely worth it.
With nothing else to do while lying in bed, Lei Dou began considering where to invest in his skill tree next.
There were two main paths before him: Wood Release and Ice Release. Which should he favor first?
Wood Release's prestige went without saying, but Lei Dou worried whether his frail little body could bring out its power.
Without the giant power bank that was Sage Mode or Hashirama Senju's monstrous vitality, Wood Release was really only good for landscaping.
Captain Yamato was proof enough. He could use Wood Release, sure, but compared with the First, it was like the difference between a customer's photo and the seller's promotional shot.
Lei Dou had lofty ambitions. If he couldn't create a spectacle like Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees, he might as well skip Wood Release altogether.
By comparison, Ice Release seemed better suited to him right now.
After all, Lei Dou was already highly proficient in Water Release. If he combined it with Wind Release to develop the Ice Release kekkei genkai, his offensive power would grow exponentially.
And as someone who had transmigrated, if he developed Ice Release, he certainly wouldn't limit himself to making mirrors like Haku. He would get creative with it.
However, while Ice Release excelled at killing, it didn't come with an innate healing buff like Wood Release.
The self-healing granted by wood release cells was a lifesaving ability Lei Dou had coveted for a long time.
With swordsmanship and modded Water Release for offense, Boil Release for bursts of power, and Transparent Release for sneak attacks, Lei Dou wasn't really short on damage.
What he lacked were support abilities, such as sensory radar or healing skills.
Sensing wasn't much of an issue. With his thinking accelerated, Lei Dou's five senses were monstrously sharp.
Although he couldn't see chakra directly like the Byakugan, even a mosquito flapping its wings nearby couldn't escape his notice.
That was enough for now.
But healing was an absolute necessity.
"Wait! Who said healing had to come from Wood Release?"
"Great Sage, didn't you scan a secret technique called the Hydrification Technique earlier?"
[Great Sage: Searching memory bank... yes. Would you like to begin extrapolation?]
The Hydrification Technique didn't directly restore health, but it granted immunity to physical attacks. Turning myself into water would practically make me immortal, wouldn't it? Wasn't that better than slowly healing?
[Great Sage: Risk warning. This technique is exclusive in nature. Once constructed, it will place the host in a state of passive liquefaction, severely interfering with the use of other kekkei genkai.]
Passive liquefaction?
So I'd turn into water whenever I got hit?
That sounded pretty invincible. How did it interfere?
[Great Sage: Simulated scenario-when the host's body automatically liquefies, forcibly activating Boil Release: Unrivaled Strength will instantly heat the water within the body to boiling. The host will experience cooking himself. Fatality rate: 99.9%.]
Huh?!
Lei Dou's mouth twitched. So this was the legendary "I killed myself"?
This skill was kind of a trap!
Calling it useless wasn't fair. Immunity to physical attacks was practically a cheat in the Hokage world.
But sacrificing every other kekkei genkai for it would mean throwing away something far more valuable for a minor gain.
In the future, Lei Dou fully intended to combine the strengths of countless disciplines. Crippling himself for a single Hydrification Technique was absolutely out of the question.
"What a shame. I was hoping to become a Logia user like the ones in One Piece. This secret technique looks powerful, but it has way too many restrictions."
[Great Sage: This is not a dead end. If the host seeks only a healing effect, the principles of the Hydrification Technique can be integrated into a medical framework to accelerate wound healing.]
"You mean... something like the Hydrification Healing that appeared in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations?"
Some vague images flashed through Lei Dou's mind. He seemed to remember something like that existing.
[Great Sage: Precisely that technique.]
"But didn't you just say this thing would clash with my abilities?"
[Great Sage: Adding a limiting mechanism will suffice. Replace passive full-body liquefaction with active localized liquefaction, activating it only under specific conditions. Immediately restore physical form after treatment to avoid conflict.]
In other words, turn a passive skill into an active skill and switch it on only when needed!
[Great Sage: Correct.]
Lei Dou thought it over.
If it only activated locally, that really did seem highly feasible.
He would lose the invincible aura of physical immunity, but being able to instantly heal after getting hit was still fantastic.
"Then how much healing would a technique developed along those lines provide?"
[Great Sage: The extrapolation model indicates that after the host's injured area liquefies, chakra can replenish the lost water, after which the bodily tissue can be reconstructed. Its repair efficiency is ten to one hundred times that of traditional Medical Ninjutsu.]
That much?
Use chakra to replenish water, then turn the water back into flesh?
That sounded even more technologically outrageous than stimulating cell division.
That's Great Sage for you.
[Great Sage: (￣▽￣)ノ]
"If I can fix my healing weakness, there's really no reason to obsess over Wood Release. Developing Ice Release first to boost my offense would be more practical!"
With this alternative available, Wood Release could move a little further down his priority list.
Once he learned Senjutsu, he could tackle the enormous undertaking of Wood Release. Only then would it truly be complete.
His top priority now was maximizing his combat power.
[Great Sage: Notice. The host lacks foundational knowledge of Medical Ninjutsu. Estimated time to extrapolate Hydrification Healing Technique from scratch: 30 days.]
Why was it thirty days again?
Lei Dou was a little speechless. Were you obsessed with "one month" or something?
[Great Sage: If the host obtains a data model of the Mystical Palm Technique, extrapolation time can be greatly reduced to approximately three days.]
Fine. So after all that, I was just missing a prerequisite skill.
You should've said so sooner!
How hard could learning the Mystical Palm Technique be?
Wasn't Konoha Hospital's door practically wide open for me?
At that thought, a mischievous smile curled Lei Dou's lips.
Now that his strategic direction was settled, he needed to reshuffle his skill slots.
[Passive skill 1: Chakra Extraction Technique (essential; chakra reserves are fundamental)] [Passive skill 2: Basic Visual Genjutsu (mental strength still needs to grow)] [Passive skill 3: Advanced Taijutsu (the body is the foundation of every endeavor)] [Passive skill 4: Wind Release (laying the groundwork for Ice Release)]
As for Thunder Breathing Swordsmanship, it could go offline and take a break for now.
Early the next morning.
Although it was the weekend and he didn't have to sit through dull theory lessons at school, Lei Dou still got up bright and early.
His objective was clear: the Konoha Hospital dungeon.
With a godlike skill like Transparent Release, sneaking into the hospital to learn the Mystical Palm Technique would be a walk in the park!
Although Konoha Hospital was an important military facility, it usually had only a few Chunin guarding the entrance, and security was fairly lax.
For Lei Dou as he was now, it might as well have been his backyard.
After hurriedly wolfing down a few bites of breakfast, Lei Dou pushed open the door and headed straight for the hospital.
But before he reached the hospital entrance, he stopped while passing the little park on its outskirts.
A small figure lay curled up on a bench shrouded in morning mist.
Looking closer, he realized it was Hinata.
Why was she out on a park bench in the cold this early on a weekend instead of lying in her big bed at home?
Lei Dou's mind filled with questions.
"Hinata?"
"Hey, Hinata?"
After calling twice without a response, Lei Dou had no choice but to move closer and gently pat her slightly chilly shoulder.
Hinata shuddered and opened her eyes groggily. The instant her vision focused, she saw a boy's face right in front of her.
"Eek!"
Like a startled rabbit, the little girl sprang up, her forehead hurtling straight toward Lei Dou.
Fortunately, Lei Dou had trained, and he sidestepped out of the way.
Otherwise, that headbutt would have cracked both their heads open.
That was way too reckless. Did she really need to react that strongly?
"What's wrong, Hinata? Sleeping out here in the middle of nowhere first thing in the morning isn't like you."
"N-n-n-nothing..."
Hinata hunched her shoulders and averted her eyes, not daring to look directly at Lei Dou.
Her fair little face turned tomato-red before his eyes, as though steam might start rising from her head.
Lei Dou paused. Wasn't she blushing a little too often?
How had I never noticed this steam-girl trait at school?
But that wasn't important. What mattered was why the Hyuga Clan's young lady had ended up out on the street.
"Tell me honestly. Why are you here?"
Seeing the exhaustion around her eyes, he wondered whether she had actually spent the entire night on this bench.
If Hyuga Hiashi found out, wouldn't he turn all of Konoha upside down?
Still puzzling over it, Lei Dou sat down at the other end of the bench.
"You didn't run away from home, did you?"
Hinata stiffened, clutching the hem of her clothes tightly with both hands. She lowered her head without a word, sitting as straight as though she were being lectured by the head of discipline.
Seeing her look so downtrodden, Lei Dou was at a loss.
Did I really look that scary?
"You don't want to talk to me? Should I go, then?"
"No! That's not it!"
Hinata jerked her head up, so flustered that tears welled in her eyes and her face flushed even redder.
"Then tell me. What happened?"
Hinata hesitated for a long time before speaking in a voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz. "I... had an argument with my family and ran away in a huff... I didn't know where to go, so I ended up here..."
In a huff?
This meek little lamb actually argued with her family?
Oh!
I got it!
It was probably that strict father of hers, Hiashi, forcing Hinata to practice those killing techniques again when she didn't want to fight.
He wanted his daughter to achieve greatness, but all she wanted was to be a pretty girl living a quiet life.
I knew this story.
"I think I can guess. What you want to do and what your dad wants you to do are completely at odds, right?"
Hinata looked up in surprise, her eyes plainly asking, "How did you know?"