"Clench your teeth, boy. This is going to be painful," Kiyoshi warned, his face completely serious, devoid of the grandfatherly smile he usually wore. Kaida nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. Kiyoshi and Tatsuo nodded in return and began channeling their chakra into the seal.
After accessing the seal, both of them began making more seals, each taking the left and right sides of Kaida's body, as if they were creating some type of symmetrical painting on Kaida's skin.
Once again, Kaida's body was covered in seals from head to toe. This time, both Kiyoshi and Tatsuo placed their hands on Kaida's head, and all the seals began shrinking into the main seal. Kaida could instinctively feel the chakra he had stored inside it diminishing at an alarming rate.
Within seconds, the chakra he had stored was almost completely used, leaving only 20% of it behind. By the end of the process, all of the seals scattered across Kaida's body completely submerged into the rhombus on his forehead.
'My chakra reserves are almost three times that of a normal Jonin, and this used half of it. That means two Jonin-level chakra reserves are required just to make this seal. Considering how minuscule the amount of chakra needed to make those arrays was, these seals are on a completely different level from what I can do… for now,' Kaida thought.
"Maintain it for some time. I need to catch my breath," Kiyoshi said, removing his hands. Tatsuo became visibly more tense and started supplying more chakra into the seal.
This time the seals was to make a passage and hole in a dam which store chakra, it was a very delicate process and needed quite a high amount of concentration and chakra, that's why both Kiyoshi and Tatsuo were tried from just this much once gain
But After just two minutes, Kiyoshi returned and passed his chakra into the brush. The bristles once again became hard. He started drawing a straight line emerging from the rhombus on Kaida's forehead. Slowly, he covered each point on Kaida's body that represented the healing seal on the surface of his skin. But as soon as he completed that, the bristles, already hard, turned into something resembling small knives.
Much like chakra scalpels, they began making seals inside Kaida's body while leaving the skin intact. It was a very dangerous process, which is why a fuinjutsu grandmaster was required; otherwise, the chakra pathways in the body could be damaged.
After completing the seals on the skin, Kiyoshi began creating the lines to supply chakra to the seals inside Kaida's body, on his bones and organs. At that moment, Kaida understood why Kiyoshi had told him to clench his teeth.
As soon as Kiyoshi made the first line, Kaida screamed so loudly that even the people outside heard him, though the room was soundproof.
It felt like his organs were being scratched with a sharp knife. The pain he had felt before when Mitsuru was making seals was from small cuts and burns, but this time the damage was far more severe.
Since the pathways for chakra had to be large, the brush was quite large as well, and the injuries it caused were not small either.
Luckily, Kaida was already strapped to the bed, so the process was not ruined by his movements.
"Hang in there, boy, it will be over soon," Tatsuo said, maintaining the seal on Kaida's head. Until all the pathways were made, the seal was in a volatile stage and could potentially disperse without constant maintenance and chakra supply from Tatsuo.
Kaida bit his lower lip to stop himself from screaming, knowing that Tatsuo wouldn't be able to hold on for the whole day. Kiyoshi couldn't stop his work, so he continued making the pathways.
Kaida bit his lip so hard that blood began to flow. Mitsuru even worried he might bite his lip off, so she quickly gagged his mouth with a clean cloth.
The process of making the pathways ended after five minutes. Kiyoshi double-checked to ensure he hadn't missed any seals.
After confirming that all the marks were covered, Kiyoshi moved to Kaida's forehead and began making the final seals, joining the rhombus—the cluster of hundreds of other seals—with the pathways he had created. Only then did Tatsuo finally remove his hand and release a sigh of relief.
"You can remove the cloth now, Mitsuru," Kiyoshi said, sitting down and taking deep breaths.
Hah, hah, hah.
Kaida panted heavily from all the pain he had endured, but luckily, due to the sudden flow of chakra from the seal on his forehead to the healing seals when Kiyoshi connected them, his injuries healed rapidly. As a result, Kaida felt no pain after the process ended.
"That was really painful," Kaida finally spoke after calming his breathing.
"Yeah, but you'll get used to it, since we'll have to repeat this process every two months," Mitsuru said.
Kaida's face went pale, his brain working in overdrive. 'Is two months enough to complete all of my plans? Can I get the most out of this time? If not, what should my priorities be?' But not for a second did he think he would go through this again in two months.
Absolutely not. Only a mentally ill person would consider doing that again when there are so many other ways to get the power he needed.
"Hahaha, don't scare him so much, Mitsuru. He's just been through so much," Kiyoshi laughed, lightly scolding Mitsuru.
"Hehehe, sorry, Kiyoshi-sama. I couldn't resist getting that reaction," Mitsuru chuckled, pointing at Kaida's still-pale face as if he had seen a ghost.
"Well, I agree that it was worth it," Tatsuo said, joining in the laughter.
"?" Kaida just sat there, confused.
"There's no need to do this again, Kaida. Everything is permanent now, and unless you completely neglect the seal's maintenance for months, it will remain with you for life," Kiyoshi explained.
Kaida, finally regaining his color, chuckled as well. It was like he had just been on an emotional roller coaster, from intense pain to relief, to fright, and back to relief again. His emotions had gone up and down.
"Thank you for your help, Kiyoshi-sama, Tatsuo-sama," Kaida said. Since he was still strapped to the bed, he couldn't bow, but he conveyed his gratitude.
"No need, boy. Both Mitsuru and Lord Third told us about your amazing talent. That's why we decided to work so hard for you. Make sure you prove that we were right to do so by achieving great feats for the village in the future," Kiyoshi said.
"I promise, Kiyoshi-sama," Kaida replied resolutely.
'Well, I'm planning on adding some more S-rank ninja to Konoha's ranks in the future. That should be enough of a great feat, right?' Kaida thought happily.
Shrr shrr.
Mitsuru removed the straps binding Kaida to the bed. Feeling the pressure from the straps gone, Kaida moved his hands and legs a little, then stood up and put his clothes back on.
"Thanks, Sensei, though it would have been better if you hadn't enjoyed making fun of me," Kaida said with a smile, "but still, thank you."
"No problem, boy," Mitsuru said, patting Kaida's back.
"There should be no problems with the seal, but just in case you feel anything, come to us and we'll fix it. After all, we can't do a crappy job after taking money from you, right?" Tatsuo said.
Kaida nodded, knowing that the money he had given them was definitely not enough for this level of assistance from a fuinjutsu grandmaster. Normally, they would charge that amount for just a simple task, where they didn't have to exert much effort. Kaida had only paid the bare minimum, most likely due to Mitsuru and Hiruzen's recommendation.
But there was no reason to refuse the extra help.
"I would be very grateful for your help if such a situation arose, though I'm sure it won't," Kaida said with a smile.
"Silver tongue, nice skill to have, boy," Tatsuo said with a laugh.
"Take care of yourself, son," Kiyoshi said, standing up. "We'll head back now. I'm in desperate need of rest."
"Once again, thank you for your help, sir," Kaida said, bowing slightly. Both Tatsuo and Kiyoshi waved their hands as they left. Kaida and Mitsuru walked them out of the hospital, where a carriage was waiting.
After they left, Kaida turned to Mitsuru and asked, "Sensei, I have a question."
"Go ahead."
"Why did you ask me to learn those seals? I didn't have to make a single one during the entire process."