Seii withdrew his hand from Ooyashiro En's head, shaking his head slightly to himself. "Doesn't matter how they were taken down. It's over now, and it's ti for
to head back."
With that thought, he used the Mind's Eye Technique to connect with all the shadow clones stationed on the periter, ordering them to clean up the battlefield. Then, he teleported back to Moon Island.
His vision shifted in an instant.
In a single mont, Seii found himself back in the clearing at the center of Moon Island.
"Phew~"
Letting out a soft breath, he pushed aside stray thoughts and tapped into the chakra stored in the interdinsional space at his forehead, resuming the nurturing of his Byakugan.
About an hour later, a dozen mories flooded into his mind.
Seii briefly snapped out of his focus, skimming through the mories from the shadow clones tasked with cleaning up the battlefield. Once done, he went right back to nurturing his Byakugan.
Ti kept ticking by.
Another hour passed in the blink of an eye.
It was now deep into the night.
A familiar swelling sensation pulsed from the Byakugan in his forehead.
Seii imdiately knew he'd reached his limit.
Without hesitation, he stopped channeling chakra.
As the Byakugan settled back to normal, he opened his status panel, glanced at the progress of its evolution, and nodded in satisfaction.
Then, he stood up and headed to the wooden cabin at the edge of the island for so rest.
The night passed quietly.
…
The Next Day
Seii woke up a bit later than usual.
After quickly washing up and downing a few enhanced soldier pills to fill his stomach, he made his way to the clearing at the center of the island.
He didn't dive straight into training. Instead, he closed his eyes and carefully sensed the locations of Chikamura Daiki and Koike Raiko.
That's right—he hadn't forgotten about those two.
Last night, he'd deliberately let them escape from that island.
Now, they were holed up sowhere outside the Misty Sea.
From the looks of it, they were probably resting.
After a mont's thought, Seii created a single shadow clone and had it use Wind Release: Wings of Wind and Chakra Cloak to fly toward their location.
Once the clone confird their exact position, it would head to the Land of Water. There, through another shadow clone stationed in the area and so of his hidden agents, it would leak their whereabouts to the Hidden Mist Village.
The Mist would take care of eliminating them.
The reason for this roundabout plan was caution.
Yesterday, those two had already clashed with the Hidden Mist's pursuit team.
It was obvious that the Mist would be hunting them down in the coming days.
And their escape route happened to pass near Moon Island.
If Seii killed them himself, the Mist, unaware of the details, might trace their path and stumble upon him.
That was sothing he absolutely couldn't allow.
So, last night, he'd let them slip away. Only if the Hidden Mist dealt with them directly would the matter be fully resolved.
That way, Moon Island wouldn't be exposed by so careless mistake.
This ticulous cleanup was why he'd gone to such lengths.
Well… it wasn't that complicated.
With the Sealed Heart, Locked Soul: Contract Teleportation Mark, the positions of Chikamura Daiki and Koike Raiko were completely transparent to him. He didn't need to waste effort tracking them down.
As for passing the intel to the Mist, his shadow clone could handle that without him getting involved.
So, it wasn't really a hassle.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Seii stopped dwelling on it. He drew on the chakra stored in his forehead's interdinsional space to restore his condition to peak, then perford the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
With bursts of chakra smoke, over two hundred shadow clones appeared in the clearing.
Looking at them, Seii began dividing them into groups.
This ti, the clones wouldn't just work on developing Storm Release. So would also start experinting with creating Wood Release clones, building on the Shadow Clone Technique.
That's right—Seii was wasting no ti. He'd had the idea yesterday, and today, he was putting it into action.
…
In a flash, it was noon the next day.
Suddenly, Seii teleported back to the island from the ocean floor.
He summoned a burst of Fire Release chakra, instantly drying the water on his body.
He was about to recall all his shadow clones to absorb their training experience from the past hour.
But just then, a mory surfaced in his mind.
He paused the motion to dispel the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and began reviewing the mory.
It ca from the shadow clone he'd sent out yesterday morning to tie up loose ends.
In the mory, Seii saw Chikamura Daiki and Koike Raiko surrounded by the Hidden Mist's pursuit team. After a brief battle, they were killed on the spot.
Opening his eyes, Seii carefully sensed the Sealed Heart, Locked Soul: Contract Teleportation Mark in their direction.
As expected, it was gone.
Interestingly, just before their deaths, Daiki and Raiko had tried to reveal Seii's existence in a desperate bid to survive.
But those attempts were thwarted by the shadow clone observing from the shadows.
In fact, their actions only hastened their demise.
After all, having your mind tampered with during a fight isn't just a mistake—it's the difference between life and death.
As for the risk of the Hidden Mist's Anbu noticing sothing odd during the cleanup?
Seii wasn't worried.
Why? Because he had an agent embedded in that team.
While he couldn't directly control their thoughts, subtly influencing their minds was well within his capabilities.
With careful execution, no one would notice anything amiss.
And the facts proved him right.
After eliminating the two, the Mist's pursuit team left without lingering.
With that, the trouble caused by Chikamura Daiki and Koike Raiko was fully resolved.
Now, Seii could train in peace.
Speaking of training, he glanced at the shadow clones working diligently on and off the island, then dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique with high hopes.
Why was he so optimistic?
Simple. After a day and a half of research and experintation, he'd nearly figured out how to create a Wood Release clone.
Now, it was just a matter of verifying if his conclusions were correct.
With that in mind, he closed his eyes and began sifting through the mories, absorbing and digesting the training experience they contained.
Ti ticked by, second by second.
About half an hour later, Seii opened his eyes again.
This ti, processing the training experience had taken longer than usual.
Naturally, the gains were greater too.
Standing in place, he pondered for a mont, then raised his hands, channeling chakra into Wood Release and performing the Wood Clone Technique.
His shoulders began to writhe.
Monts later, two heads sprouted from them.
They were wooden, rough-looking at first.
But soon, they beca strikingly lifelike.
Just as the two wood clones were about to fully detach from his body, they suddenly wilted, collapsing back into him.
Clearly, the attempt had failed.
Seii paused, reflecting on where things went wrong.
After a while, he had his answer. With a soft shout of "Again," he channeled chakra once more and perford the Wood Clone Technique.
The familiar scene repeated—two heads erged from his shoulders, writhing as they tried to separate from his body.
But this ti, too, it didn't work. They only managed to form their upper bodies before inexplicably twisting into vine-like shapes.
(End of Chapter)
Reviews
All reviews (0)