The next afternoon came in the blink of an eye.
Inside the room.
Seimei opened his mouth wide, letting out a long yawn.
At this moment, his eyes were half-closed, and his face was full of exhaustion, as if he would fall asleep the next second—clearly, he was extremely tired.
In fact, that was indeed the case.
For the past ten hours or so, aside from going out for meals, he spent all his time training. This not only drained a lot of his chakra but was also a huge strain on his spirit.
This was why he was so fatigued.
With a thought, Seimei raised his hand and dispelled the Shadow Clone Technique.
The next moment, three waves of chakra, carrying three sets of memories, rushed into his mind, giving him a brief burst of energy.
But this only treated the symptoms, not the root cause.
Once Seimei processed those memories, he felt even more tired.
He looked out the window.
The sun was already starting to set.
Seeing that it would be dark in a few hours and knowing that he had a mission tonight, Seimei decided to stop training.
He stood up, walked to the bed, and, the moment he relaxed, collapsed onto it, falling asleep almost instantly.
…
Time passed, minute by minute.
Soon, night had fallen.
Suddenly, Seimei opened his eyes.
A moment later, there was a knock at the door: "Knock, knock, knock."
Seimei extended his senses and instantly detected a person outside. Based on the chakra signature, he recognized the visitor as a Chunin messenger from the Jonin commander.
After confirming this, he relaxed a bit, straightened his appearance, and then opened the door.
Looking at the visitor, Seimei asked directly, "What's the matter?"
Hearing this, the Konoha Chunin outside handed over a mission scroll and said, "Jonin Seimei, Captain Nobuhisa sent me to inform you of a change in tonight's mission."
Seimei took the mission scroll calmly, opened it, and said slowly, "Go on."
Seeing Seimei's composure, Ichiro Nakagawa admired him silently.
Without further thought, he quickly relayed everything Nobuhisa Sano had instructed.
"The village has just received information that a batch of reinforcements from Kirigakure may arrive tonight. The captain wants you to verify the authenticity of this intel. If true, you need to assess their strength and numbers."
"Additionally..."
He added, "The enemy's marching routes are on the scroll."
After hearing this, Seimei remained silent for a while, carefully reading the scroll's contents.
It was roughly the same as what Nakagawa had said.
Indeed, it seemed that a batch of Kirigakure shinobi would be coming from the forward base tonight, but the exact number was unknown to the village.
So, they needed him to use his flying ability to scout.
As for the routes, there were three listed on the scroll.
It was clear that the spies Konoha had planted weren't in high-ranking positions, as the information obtained was quite vague.
Out of these three routes, only one was likely genuine.
And these routes were far apart from each other, which meant only a shinobi with flying abilities, like him, could scout them all in a short amount of time.
For others, aside from trying to spread themselves thin, there wouldn't be many good options.
Moreover, compared to others, he had an additional advantage: even if discovered, it wouldn't be a big deal.
Because he could just fly away, without much concern for his safety.
As for crossbows...
Indeed, last night, Kirigakure's deployment in Fish Town caught him off guard.
However, it shouldn't be forgotten that to reach here from the forward base, they could only take the sea route.
In other words, they had to travel by boat.
Under these circumstances, even if they carried crossbows, they wouldn't be able to use them effectively.
So Seimei had no worries about his safety.
Various thoughts flashed through his mind.
Seimei put away the scroll and said to Nakagawa Ichiro, "Alright, I understand the mission. You can go back and report."
"Yes, Jonin Seimei!"
With that, Nakagawa Ichiro responded and turned to leave.
After watching him leave, Seimei went back inside.
He first washed up to clear his head, then ate something to fill his stomach, and finally set out.
…
An hour later.
On a sea route from Fish Town to the Land of Waves.
Seimei circled high in the sky, with his Sharingan activated, carefully observing the sea surface below in the bright moonlight.
However, even after spending nearly half an hour combing through an area of several kilometers, he found no trace of Kirigakure shinobi.
"Looks like this route is false."
Seimei murmured and was about to leave, but then, as if something came to his mind, he suddenly stopped and descended to the sea surface.
The next moment, the chakra wings behind him disappeared as he deactivated the Wind Release: Wind Wings.
Immediately after, he raised his hands and formed the cross-shaped "Ne" hand seal, casting the Shadow Clone Technique.
*Poof*—
Amid a puff of chakra smoke, a shadow clone appeared.
Seimei nodded at it, and both simultaneously formed hand seals.
The next moment, chakra wings grew out from both their backs, using the ninjutsu—Wind Release: Wind Wings!
*Whoosh*—
With two successive sounds of breaking through the air, they flew up again, with the shadow clone staying behind to continue patrolling this route for any Kirigakure reinforcements.
As for Seimei himself, he proceeded to the next route.
Indeed, Seimei did all this just to leave a shadow clone here for surveillance.
And the reason he had to descend to cast the technique again was because he hadn't fully mastered Wind Release: Wind Wings yet.
Although after last night's prolonged flight, its level was approaching Lv4, he still couldn't summon a shadow clone with chakra wings.
Thus, he had no choice but to land on the sea surface temporarily.
No doubt, this was quite cumbersome.
However, after raising Wind Release: Wind Wings by another one or two levels, reaching Lv4 or Lv5, he probably wouldn't have to go through such trouble anymore.
With these thoughts in mind, Seimei flapped his wings and flew off into the distance.
…
Half an hour later.
Seimei completed a rough search of the second route but found nothing.
This time, he didn't linger. He quickly did the same, leaving a shadow clone for surveillance and moved on to the third route.
On the third route, he still found nothing.
However, Seimei wasn't anxious.
Now that all three routes were under his watch, all he had to do was wait patiently.
With some time on his hands now, he could spend it studying the Mind Synchronization Technique, which was close to being perfected.
If successful, communication between him and his two shadow clones would become much easier.
With this in mind, Seimei began recalling the relevant memories.
Moments later, he continued progressing along the path previously forged by his shadow clones.
(End of Chapter)