Konoha, Land of Fire, March 12th, Year 015

It has been more than a week since Seimei joined the get-together with his other friends and battled Reina.

Using his shadow clone, he meticulously documented every detail of his battle against Reina, analyzing his movements, Ninjutsu skills, and even his flaws with surgical precision.

He wanted to understand what he lacked. He wanted to identify the common mistakes he made. He aimed to correct those mistakes to address his weaknesses and refine his combat style, making it even more precise, effective, efficient, and deadly.

And he did exactly that.

Now, he was looking to create a new deadly wide-area Ninjutsu that could enhance his battle power further.

Sure, he couldn't have picked any one of the thousands of Ninjutsu from the Senju clan's main library. With his system, he could quickly master any Jutsu with continuous grind.

But spending time with his father, Tobirama, the genius inventor and master of forbidden techniques, had taught him one very important lesson.

No Jutsu would ever suit you more than the Jutsu you had created with your very own hands.

Sure, below the Kage-level, it didn't matter whether you had your own Jutsu or not. As long as you could master Ninjutsu well, you could use it to end your enemies.

At the Kage-level, creating something of your own, something that suits you well and is unique to you, was very important if you wanted to gain an edge against the other ninjas of the same caliber.

His father once said that without developing something that truly belonged to you, you could have a hard time finding your own path. And without finding your own ninja way, it would be very difficult to step into the level of Kage, no matter how vast your chakra was or how much you trained.

Why was that the case?

Seimei didn't know. Neither Tobirama nor Hashirama ever told him that…until today.

Tobirama simply mentioned that he was a bona fide Elite Jonin-level ninja now. So, he had the qualification to go to the deeper levels of the Senju clan's ancestral archives and read more about the clan leader level or Kage-level ninjas.

And that was exactly what Seimei was going to do.

Leaving the research on the new Ninjutsu aside, he also wanted to understand more about the Kage-level ninjas.

What made someone a Kage-level ninja?

What were the special abilities of a Kage-level ninja?

What sets the Kage-level Shinobi apart from the Elite Jonins or S-rank ninjas?

What were the differences between the Kage-level Shinobi of this alternate Narutoverse that he lived in and the original Narutoverse of his previous life?

And why were his father and uncle so sure that he would eventually ascend to the Kage-level even without relying on his Dojutsu?

All these questions were circling inside his mind.

And he was determined to get the answers.

Fortunately, the ancestral archives of the Senju clan had the answers.

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Seimei carefully went through the archives, curiously looking at different scrolls. Some of those scrolls were as ancient as three thousand years old.

Of course, these original copies were preserved with proper sealing techniques. Unless you literally burned them with an A-rank Fire Release Ninjutsu, they would stay intact for tens of thousands of years more.

But it made sense.

After all, the Senju clan was nearly ten thousand years old. They also had a close relationship with the Uzumaki clan, which was just as old as the Senju and the Uchiha clans.

So, the Senju clan never had to worry about not having enough Jutsu and sealing techniques.

As Seimei rummaged through the pile of well-organized scrolls, his eyes suddenly landed on the scroll he was searching for.

[The Analysis of Modern Clan Leader-Level Shinobi]

"Found it," murmured Seimei.

"According to my father, this scroll here contains the insights into the Kage-level capabilities of all the Kage-level ninjas of the Senju clan in the last 250 years or so."

"Well, the term 'Kage' only began to become popular in the last ten years. Before that, the Kage-level ninjas were widely known as the Clan Leader-level ninjas."

"Now, let's see what secret this realm holds."

With this, Seimei unrolled the scroll eagerly and started reading it with a serious expression.

He kept reading the scroll for hours without stopping, completely absorbed in its content.

The more he read, the more his eyes began to sparkle with understanding.

Finally, after an unknown number of hours, Seimei put the scroll down, sighed, and exhaled slowly.

He exclaimed, "No wonder. No wonder the Kage-level is like a chasm that many S-rank ninjas failed to cross in their entire lifetimes."

"No wonder each of these Kage-level Shinobi is the true pillar of the clans and the hidden Shinobi villages."

After reading the records, Seimei understood that Kage-level ninjas were leagues above any other Shinobi rank that came before it.

The original Narutoverse from his previous life never clarified what made a Shinobi a Kage-level ninja.

Was it just their power level?

Their mastery of Ninjutsu?

Was it about mastering one or more nature affinities to an extreme level?

Was it about having a massive amount of chakra?

Or was it about having an exceptional combat style that covered almost all visible weaknesses of a regular Shinobi?

It was never clear what kind of power made them stronger than Elite Jonin-level ninjas.

Because of that, the Naruto fans from his previous life often trolled the Kage-level ninjas, saying that they would still die from a Genin's kunai if they were careless.

However, the insights from the scroll completely wiped out his previous prejudice and skepticism.

According to the scroll, to become a true Kage-level Shinobi, a ninja needed to fulfill the following conditions at the very least:

• The ninja's chakra must exceed 100,000 points (This condition can be avoided under very few circumstances)

• Chakra control must reach an exceptional level.

• The spiritual power of the ninja must exceed a certain threshold.

• The physique and the reflexes of a ninja must reach a very high level.

• The Shinobi should be able to use at least 75% of their body's full capacity without harming the foundation of the body (Ideally 80%).

• Improve the quality of the chakra running through the chakra pathways to a certain limit, making Ninjutsu, chakra reinforcement, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu incredibly potent.

• The combat style should be refined enough to cover the obvious weaknesses of a ninja.

• And most importantly, the ninja should be able to instinctively form a powerful protective chakra membrane as soon as their body, spirituality, or sixth sense detects a threat to their life.

• The protective chakra membrane was like an automatic self-defense mechanism of a Kage-level ninja's body. It also boosted physical strength, speed, dexterity, and reflexes to a new height. The Kage-level ninjas should be able to form it within a few milliseconds. It's an evolution of the chakra reinforcement, making a Shinobi's body resilient enough to block many lethal blows, including chakra-infused Kunai and low-level Ninjutsu from any ninja below Kage-level.

With enough hard work and dedication, an S-rank ninja might be able to cover the first seven conditions.

However, the difficulty of achieving the last two conditions was almost nightmare-level.

Many S-rank Shinobi in every era trained like a tireless ox, but they never achieved the required conditions.

Only by having the right bloodline, cheat-tier Kekkei Genkai or Kekkei Tota, or enough talent, vivid imagination, and enlightenment can a ninja master the instinctive release of chakra membrane, master it, and step into the Kage-level.

Having a mind innovative enough to develop new Ninjutsu or modify the existing ninja arts, as well as having an indomitable will, could make it way easier to reach the Kage-level than most could imagine.

Why was that the case?

Tobirama had already explained the actual reason to Seimei…

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