With his throat slit, the Root ninja let out a series of "heh heh heh" sounds.
However, he was truly dedicated to his duty. Even on the verge of death, he managed to force out a hand seal, transforming himself into a "Blood Demon."
After killing the entangled Blood Demon once again, Seimei witnessed this scene. It was too late to stop it now.
Fortunately, the situation wasn't too dire.
After becoming a Blood Demon, although the opponent gained "immortality," killing them a few times would completely erase their sanity.
At that point, even if two Blood Demons attacked together, Seimei wouldn't be afraid at all.
The current problem was how to break this barrier.
That's right, even though the Root ninja had "committed suicide," the barrier hadn't dissipated.
This led Seimei to have some speculations - perhaps this so-called Blood Demon's Barrier and these two Blood Demons were two sides of the same coin, and only by killing them could the barrier be broken.
This wasn't just a wild guess from Seimei. When these two Blood Demons were born, the surrounding blood-red barriers had brightened slightly.
Following this line of thought, could the death of the Blood Demons weaken the barrier?
Thinking of this, Seimei first killed the newly born Blood Demon a few times. After it lost its sanity, he sheathed his short sword.
Then, he dodged the pounces of the two Blood Demons, rapidly formed hand seals, opened his mouth, and exhaled a large burst of flames.
These flames divided and condensed in the air, ultimately forming hundreds of fist-sized fireballs.
"Go!"
Seimei shouted, controlling all the fireballs to split into two groups, each smashing into one of the Blood Demons.
The Blood Demons didn't know how to dodge and were hit on the spot by the fireballs.
Accompanied by a series of explosions, both Blood Demons fell to the ground, and then a "sizzling" sound came from the surface of their skin.
That was the sound of blood repairing their wounds.
Soon, the two Blood Demons stood up again and continued to roar as they launched attacks on Seimei, as if they hadn't been injured at all.
But Seimei keenly noticed that the light of the surrounding barrier had dimmed slightly.
In other words, his guess was correct. Killing the Blood Demons could indeed weaken the barrier.
It also proved that ninjutsu could injure these Blood Demons.
Well, it was already absurd enough that they were immune to physical attacks. If they were also immune to ninjutsu damage, even if the cost was high, they would have been famous by now.
How could it be that Seimei had never even heard of them?
However, through this incident, Seimei gained a deeper understanding of the ninja world. He realized that some memories from his past life could only serve as references and couldn't be completely trusted.
After all, those were just fragments of the real world.
A mere Root organization could come up with such a bizarre barrier ninjutsu. Who knew what other ninja villages were hiding?
'It seems I need to be more cautious in the future.'
He inwardly warned himself. Seimei no longer held back his chakra, using his three fire-style ninjutsu in rotation, quickly weakening the barrier until it was almost invisible.
Seimei flashed to one of the barriers, observed it for a moment, and then formed hand seals again, unleashing his currently strongest single-target ninjutsu - Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique.
A fireball was exhaled from his mouth, rapidly expanding before smashing into the barrier.
Crack~
A crack appeared on the barrier.
Then the second, the third...
Soon, the barrier in front of him was covered in dense cracks.
Finally, with a faint sound of shattering glass, the entire barrier turned into specks of light, disappearing into the air.
Breathing in the fresh air again, Seimei felt a sense of relief.
But just then, over ten kunai suddenly flew out from the forest, aiming at various parts of Seimei's body.
Seeing this, Seimei's pupils constricted. He instantly drew his short sword and, with a flurry of swings, deflected all the incoming kunai.
Then, with a flash, he sprinted to one side.
However, before he could run far, an Iwa-nin blocked his path.
At the same time, figures faintly appeared behind him and on both sides.
"As expected, I'm surrounded..."
Seeing these people, Seimei murmured.
Back when the two Root ninjas activated the Blood Demon's Barrier, Seimei had already guessed that he might be surrounded by Iwa-nin.
After all, such a special barrier, even with its limited coverage, was enough to attract attention.
That's why he had just used ninjutsu without holding back, breaking the barrier as quickly as possible to avoid being surrounded by Iwa-nin.
Unfortunately, he was still a step too late.
'In that case, I can only fight my way out.'
Making up his mind, Seimei didn't hesitate any longer and immediately charged towards the Iwa-nin in front with his sword.
Clang, clang, clang~
The sounds of intense fighting echoed through the forest.
Seimei fought while advancing deeper into the dense woods.
...
Two hours later.
At the second rendezvous point.
Seimei finally saw his teammates.
According to the plan, there were two designated rendezvous points after the interception mission.
However, when he managed to shake off the Iwa-nin's pursuit and arrived at the first rendezvous point, apart from two Iwa-nin corpses, there were only some traces of fighting at the scene.
As for his teammates, he didn't see any of them.
Left with no choice, he could only continue forward. On the way, he unfortunately encountered another team of Iwa-nin, consisting of four people led by a Tokubetsu Jonin.
In order to escape them, Seimei even got slashed on his side.
Fortunately, he had the Healing Technique, and this injury wasn't a problem.
After nearly another hour of rushing, he finally reached the second rendezvous point and finally saw his teammates.
However, before he could get close, a kunai was shot towards him.
Seimei's expression remained unchanged as he quietly stopped. The kunai landed warningly about half a meter in front of him.
"Password?"
A voice came from ahead.
Seimei frowned slightly and directly asked, "What password?"
However, hearing his question, that person and the others beside him seemed relieved and then said, "It's one of our own."
"Come over!"
Hearing this, Seimei hesitated for a moment and then walked over.
When he got closer, the person who had asked the question explained, "Seimei, don't mind it. Someone tried to infiltrate us at the first rendezvous point, so we temporarily arranged this test."
Hearing the explanation, Seimei finally understood where the fighting traces at the first rendezvous point came from and the purpose of their password inquiry.
Their operation this time was rushed, and they hadn't set a rendezvous password at all.
But outsiders didn't know that!
So, when asked, any hesitation or irrelevant answers would definitely be suspicious.
Whereas someone like Seimei, one of their own, would directly inquire.
In this way, they could make an initial distinction between friend and foe.
After that, further verification would be relatively simple.
After exchanging a few words and confirming their identities, Seimei went straight to Uchiha Shisui's side.
(End of Chapter)