Chapter 55: Return

Hearing his question, Mizutani Shizuko cried even harder.

From her intermittent narration, Seimei learned that Kogawa had stayed behind alone to cover the retreat of the entire team and was ultimately killed by two Iwa Jonin working together.

As for Ryosuke...

He had sacrificed himself purely to protect Mizutani Shizuko.

During their retreat, they were unlucky enough to encounter an Iwa Chunin team.

To protect Mizutani Shizuko, Ryosuke fought desperately, but the gap in strength couldn't be easily bridged by sheer willpower.

In the end, the two of them were no match for the four opponents, and Ryosuke died in battle on the spot.

Afterward, if a Konoha Jonin hadn't happened to pass by and rescued Mizutani Shizuko, she probably would have died too.

Seimei glanced at Mizutani Shizuko and noticed that she indeed had many injuries on her body.

Just from these injuries, it wasn't hard to imagine how critical the situation had been at that time.

At this moment, Seimei was thinking, if he hadn't carried out the mission of infiltrating the Iwa ninja stronghold and had stayed by their side, would it have been better?

After thinking for a while, Seimei had an answer - in terms of the outcome alone, it definitely would have been better.

With his current strength, he couldn't say for sure that he could protect Kogawa, as that was too difficult, after all, the enemies were two genuine Jonin.

But saving Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko's lives would have been more than enough. A mere four Iwa Chunin were not his opponents, even if they joined forces.

But on the other hand, he couldn't be their babysitter forever.

Not to mention his usual care for them during missions, just the two times they encountered Iwa ambushes and night attacks, he had taken considerable risks to save them.

Seimei believed he had done enough. If something went wrong under these circumstances, they could only blame their bad luck.

Therefore, Seimei didn't feel guilty about the deaths of Ryosuke and Kogawa, at most, he felt a bit regretful.

"Strength, I still need to increase my strength as soon as possible!"

Seimei secretly made up his mind.

Ryosuke's death, in the end, was due to his lack of strength. Otherwise, even if he encountered danger, he could have safely overcome it.

Therefore, strength was the foundation of everything.

With this in mind, Seimei didn't waste any more time. He comforted Mizutani Shizuko a few words, sent her to the medical ninja for initial treatment, and then started his own training.

...

Several hours later.

Dawn broke.

Accompanied by the sound of rolling wheels, the ninja who came to relieve them arrived at the town stronghold.

After the handover was completed, Seimei and the others started heading back to the main base.

There were 120 people when they came, but less than 50 returned, with a casualty rate close to 60%. It was undeniably brutal.

And among the surviving ninja, most were Chunin and Jonin, with very few Genin.

That's why they said Genin were cannon fodder on the battlefield.

Of course, there were special circumstances this time.

Generally speaking, the casualty rate of ninja rotating on the front line wasn't as terrifying as 60%.

At the very least, it wouldn't reach that level in a single rotation.

On the road.

The atmosphere in the team was somewhat gloomy.

Seimei glanced at Mizutani Shizuko beside him.

After several hours of rest, her condition had improved a lot, but from her expression, it seemed she hadn't yet emerged from the shadow of her teacher and teammate's deaths.

Seimei didn't have any good solutions for this and could only hope that time would heal everything.

Time passed by, and the team moved forward at a moderate pace.

Without any supplies to escort, they could have moved faster, but there were too many wounded in the team, so they had to slow down.

Despite this, they still managed to return to the main base before dark.

He, as a Genin, didn't need to worry about the mission report. After returning to the main base, Seimei immediately started his training without stopping.

...

Two days later.

Late at night.

Inside the tent.

Seimei suddenly opened his eyes, unable to conceal the joy in them.

After two days of training, his 'Chakra Refinement Technique' had finally advanced from lv3 to lv4.

"Next, let's see how effective it is."

Muttering to himself, Seimei closed his eyes again and began to meditate, refining chakra.

As soon as he started refining, Seimei noticed the difference.

If at lv3, when he used the 'Chakra Refinement Technique', it was like using a small water pipe to extract the physical and spiritual energy contained within his body.

Then now, it was like adding a high-pressure pump to this water pipe, greatly increasing the extraction speed.

An hour later.

Seimei opened his eyes and glanced at the panel - his chakra had increased by 800 points.

And at lv3, this number was 400 points.

In other words, with the 'Chakra Refinement Technique' reaching lv4, his chakra recovery speed had doubled.

This way, he could spend more time on ninjutsu and other skill training.

Before, when he hadn't learned the 'Konoha Flow Sword Technique', he didn't have to worry about not having enough time, as it didn't take much time to perform ninjutsu once.

All he needed to worry about was whether he had enough chakra.

But after he learned the 'Konoha Flow Sword Technique', especially after leveling it up to lv3, he had to pay attention.

Although practicing this technique didn't consume too much chakra, to accumulate proficiency, he had to practice it over and over again.

And this process required a lot of time.

Therefore, for Seimei, this time-saving effect was just right.

In addition, there was the most important aspect of chakra recovery amount.

Before his Constitution attribute accidentally broke through 8 points, he could only use up to 3500 points of chakra per day. After it broke through to 8 points, this number became 4200.

Seimei had estimated that with the 'Chakra Refinement Technique' advancing to lv4, this number would increase further. Now it seemed his estimation was correct.

Although he hadn't conducted detailed tests yet, based on the one hour of training just now, he could already estimate an approximate value - 5500.

That's right, it was 5500 points.

This number was a full 1300 points higher than the previous value.

If all this chakra was used to practice the 'Reflecting Heart Technique', he could gain 7.6 proficiency points.

And five proficiency points could increase the evolution progress of his Sharingan by one point.

In other words, from now on, his Sharingan could gain an extra 1.5 proficiency points on average every day.

This would undoubtedly further increase the evolution speed of his Sharingan.

The only regret was that his basic attributes hadn't changed. His potential had already been fully tapped, and his maximum chakra could only slowly increase with time.

Otherwise, he would be able to know how many points his maximum chakra could increase per hour by using the lv4 'Chakra Refinement Technique'.

According to the previous pattern of threefold increase, it should have changed from 8 points per hour to 16 points.

This way, in the future, when his basic attributes improved, he could also realize his potential in the shortest time.