It's not that Shigure enjoys fleeing—far from it.
Rather, when combined with his breathing sword techniques, escape-style ninjutsu becomes the most cost-effective choice among elemental transformations.
Currently, Shigure possesses two variants of Breathing in his passive skill slots. This offers numerous enhancements: speed, reaction time, physical performance, swordsmanship—all of it. It's a multi-faceted upgrade.
By stacking two of the same passive skills, he not only gains the enhancements but can also trigger their special effects without expending chakra.
In simple terms: Escape-style ninjutsu with zero chakra cost and zero physical drain.
That's why Shigure focuses on converting other jutsu into Escape Style.
The effects are largely the same—it's just the elemental attribute that changes.
"We're still missing a clone technique. If I had a proper clone—ideally something similar to the Shadow Clone Technique—it would be perfect."
[Great Sage: Would you like me to deduce a new Clone Technique for the host?]
"If we base it on the standard Clone Jutsu, what kind of result would we get?"
[Great Sage: Preliminary result would be a visual clone that deceives opponents but lacks combat capability.]
No combat ability?
What's the point then? Just to mislead enemies?
It's useless against elite opponents, and overkill against weaklings.
A waste of chakra.
[Great Sage: If the host acquires the real Shadow Clone Technique, I can use it to deduce a battle-capable clone.]
"Can't you just deduce it now? How hard can it be?"
[Great Sage: This technique involves advanced chakra distribution—factors like storage, control, remote feedback, and elemental affinity. Estimated deduction time: one month.]
Even with my current mastery of Escape Style, it still takes a month?
[Great Sage: That's because this is a derivation based on the Clone Technique, not Escape Style. The required affinity transformation is minimal.]
So basically, it's not just a deduction—it's almost the same as recreating the entire Shadow Clone Technique from scratch and then modifying it?
[Great Sage: Correct.]
Tch. No wonder it takes so long. The Shadow Clone Technique is classified as a forbidden jutsu for a reason.
It's ridiculously hard to recreate.
Rather than wait a month, maybe I should just bug Gekkō Hayate until he teaches it to me directly.
[Great Sage: That is a feasible alternative.]
Like there's any other choice!
Is this system slacking off now?
Wasn't the deduction function fully restored? It shouldn't take this long to process a single jutsu!
[Great Sage: Deduction capacity currently at 40%. Analytical precision enhanced. "Indian-Style Destruction" function restored to 50%.]
Huh?
Indian-Style Destruction? What kind of bizarre naming scheme is that?
"You regained some functions?"
[Great Sage: Affirmative.]
"How long will the clone deduction take now?"
[Great Sage: Estimated time reduced to 25 days.]
A 10% recovery cut the time by 5 days.
That's… progress, I guess. Slow, but still something.
"Explain this 'Indian-Style Destruction' thing."
[Great Sage: Simplified explanation—this allows the host to cast ninjutsu without forming hand seals.]
No hand seals?
Now that is interesting.
Typically, you'd have to master a jutsu completely—refine it to perfection—before you can perform it without seals.
If this system can help automate that...
But wait—
"The effect is only at 50%? Meaning...?"
[Great Sage: Seals are still required, but the time to form them will be greatly reduced. Once fully restored, seals will no longer be necessary.]
So, not quite hands-free casting yet.
Still, cutting down seal time is a serious advantage.
In battle, even a second can mean the difference between life and death.
Shigure didn't feel disappointed. On the contrary—he was eager to test this new function.
"First things first—optimize all of my current Escape-style techniques to their perfect forms!"
[Great Sage: Optimization initiated.]
[Estimated time: 4 minutes.]
Only four minutes to perfect all his Escape-style ninjutsu?
Now that was a good deal.
He sat and waited patiently.
Forty minutes passed in a flash.
After completing the first Escape-style calculation, Shigure was momentarily stunned.
The term "perfect calculation" meant the technique had been optimized to the absolute limit of his current capabilities.
But what truly shocked him was this: a seemingly basic Escape technique—Escape: Raging Wave (Ranbō)—after being processed by the Great Sage, had transformed. In its most refined, extreme form, it was no longer just a low-level water-style jutsu.
This wasn't some mere wave.
This was a sea.
Once all the Escape-style techniques were fully calculated, Shigure felt as if he had undergone a complete evolution.
While the core structure of the jutsu hadn't changed, their power had. Radically.
Each Escape jutsu now had its force amplified to terrifying degrees. And it wasn't just about raw power—thanks to the recalculations, even the number of required hand seals had been significantly reduced.
Coupled with the Great Sage's partially restored ability—Indian-Style Destruction—which cut sealing time even further...
...Shigure now only needed three seals at most to perform even his most advanced Escape-style techniques.
At the very least, some could now be executed with a single seal.
A single hand seal.
That was basically instant casting.
How long does it take to form one seal? A tenth of a second? Maybe less.
Functionally, there was almost no difference between this and true instant release.
Shigure stared ahead, then quickly formed a single seal with practiced ease.
In the very next instant—his body turned into a surge of water and exploded into streaming currents.
The torrents twisted and arced across the battlefield, rushing forward like streaks of living water.
And then—just as suddenly—the water reshaped into Shigure's form, fully intact.
"Escape Style: Instant Flow!"
The speed was astonishing—far beyond the traditional Body Flicker Technique (Shunshin no Jutsu).
From vanishing to reforming took less than half a second.
He was approaching a true teleportation threshold.
"At this rate... Konoha might end up calling me Shunshin Shigure someday."
With this level of movement, only the Flying Thunder God Technique (Hiraishin no Jutsu) could surpass him.
And yet, just as the excitement settled in, Shigure frowned.
In actual combat, he'd still need both hands free to form seals. That meant—no swordsmanship while casting ninjutsu.
A real flaw.
"Great Sage, calculate the possibility of forming seals with one hand."
[Great Sage: Calculation initiated.]
[Estimated time: Three hours.]
If he could master one-handed seals, then ninjutsu and swordplay could be combined seamlessly—
—and his complete combat form would finally be realized.
...
TN:
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