Three hours later.
It was nearing dusk.
Seimei finally finished absorbing the chakra from the four Iwa-nin Chunin.
Afterwards, he skillfully executed the C-rank ninjutsu - Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique, completing the task of destroying the bodies.
Next, he hurried to a location closer to the battlefield, searching for his next target.
Seimei knew the Third Raikage could only hold on for three days, after which he would die of exhaustion.
By then, Iwagakure would have its hands free, and if he acted then, the risks would increase dramatically.
Therefore, he had to seize the time and improve himself as much as possible within these three days. After that, he would have to consider leaving the Land of Earth.
With this thought in mind, Seimei couldn't help but quicken his pace.
...
Time flew by, and three days passed.
This afternoon.
In a stone forest near the northwestern border of the Land of Earth, over twenty Iwa-nin were lying on the ground, occasionally letting out groans of pain. They were clearly all wounded.
In front of them stood Seimei and his four shadow clones.
Logically, capturing so many Iwa-nin should have made him happy, but there was no joy on Seimei's face at this moment.
No other reason, but that information about him might have been leaked.
Seimei cast his gaze towards an Iwa-nin Jonin in front. Even though the Jonin's hands were crippled and there was a twisted ugly wound on his chest, there was still no fear in his eyes.
Seeing Seimei looking over, the Jonin said fiercely, "Uchiha brat, just you wait. Soon someone will come for you.
You can defeat one of me, but can you defeat the entire Iwagakure?
Having killed so many of us, the Third Tsuchikage won't let you off!"
"Shut up!"
Hearing this, Seimei frowned and said to the shadow clone beside him, "Make him shut up!"
The next moment, the shadow clone flashed and appeared behind the Iwa-nin Jonin. Then, with a chop to the neck, the Jonin was knocked unconscious.
"Takagi-Jonin!"
Seeing the Iwa-nin Jonin being knocked out, several Iwa-nin in the crowd shouted out.
This time, without Seimei's command, the other three shadow clones immediately moved, knocking out all the Iwa-nin on the scene in an instant.
Seimei looked at the Iwa-nin on the ground, feeling troubled.
Just as the Iwa-nin Jonin said, he could defeat one of them, but he couldn't defeat the entire Iwagakure.
Well...
At least not now.
And what he was about to face was very likely the pursuit and interception of numerous Iwa-nin.
It all started about ten minutes ago.
At that time, after discovering this gathering point of the wounded, he observed for a while and determined that the guarding force consisted of only one special Jonin and three Iwa-nin Chunin. He then took immediate action.
However, at the most intense moment of the battle, a Jonin suddenly appeared among the wounded, and it wasn't a special Jonin, but a real Jonin.
This caught Seimei completely off guard.
If it weren't for his swordsmanship skills, the Sharingan's assistance, and the timely use of the no-hand-seal 'Rasengan' to land a critical hit on the opponent, the battle might not even be over yet!
Even so, he failed to stop the opponent's summoning beast, a pangolin, which burrowed into the ground and disappeared in an instant.
It was precisely because of this that Seimei said his information might have been leaked.
Fighting two Jonin, he naturally couldn't maintain the 'Transformation Technique', and his true appearance had already been exposed.
And that pangolin had been hiding for a long time, definitely witnessing everything.
Now, it had escaped.
It was foreseeable that his appearance would soon be known throughout Iwagakure.
That was fine, it was just his appearance, a 'Transformation Technique' could solve that.
The key was that his strength had been exposed, so what awaited him next would definitely not be Chunin, but at the very least special Jonin.
Thus, he had to be cautious.
With his current strength, dealing with one or two Jonin was still manageable, but if that number increased to three, it would become dangerous.
And judging by Iwagakure's arrangements today, it was clear they were already figuring out how to deal with him.
However, this still needed verification.
Thinking this, Seimei went straight to one of the Iwa-nin guards, woke him up with a few slaps, and then began to use the 'Genjutsu: Sharingan' to extract information.
The reason he didn't directly target the two Jonin was that Seimei was afraid there might be some trap.
Although this possibility was small, to be on the safe side, he decided to start with this Iwa-nin Chunin.
To Seimei's surprise, he directly obtained the information he wanted from the Chunin's mind. Iwagakure hadn't encrypted this information at all, or perhaps they didn't think this information was that important.
This saved Seimei a lot of trouble.
He quickly closed his eyes and carefully read the relevant information.
A moment later, Seimei opened his eyes with a "just as I thought" expression on his face.
Based on the Chunin's memory, Seimei had confirmed his guess. Iwagakure's arrangements today were indeed targeted at him.
Of course, before today, they didn't know exactly who he was, only that there was a person or a small team hunting Iwa-nin, particularly fond of targeting the wounded.
So, they followed the traces he left, all the way to this place, and then set up several traps, waiting for him to take the bait.
And Seimei, because the past three days had been too smooth, after discovering this gathering point of the wounded, only confirmed the status of the four guards and didn't carefully investigate the situation of the wounded.
In the end, he fell right into the trap.
It was also fortunate that the Third Raikage wasn't dead yet, and the main force of the Cloud ninja hadn't completely escaped the pursuit of Iwagakure, tying up a considerable number of their forces.
Otherwise, if Iwagakure had arranged a few more high-level ninja, he wouldn't have been able to defeat them so quickly.
At that time, let alone defeating them, it would be considered good if he didn't get captured there.
Thinking of this, Seimei couldn't help but feel a lingering fear.
"No, I can't stay here for long!"
Seimei abruptly stood up, ready to have the shadow clones deal with the Iwa-nin on the ground and then leave this place immediately.
However, when he saw the Iwa-nin all over the ground, he still felt somewhat reluctant.
These over twenty Iwa-nin, Seimei only needed to do a quick calculation to know that these people could provide him with at least 150,000 chakra points.
This was not a small number!
After hesitating for a moment, Seimei finally decided to take a gamble, letting the shadow clones cultivate together with him, using the fastest speed to consume this chakra.
Of course, his decision to stay wasn't entirely because he was reluctant to part with this chakra.
Although this chakra wasn't a small amount, with his current chakra recovery speed, accumulating it would only take about a week, far less important than his life.
The reason he decided to stay was that he felt Iwagakure couldn't mobilize enough manpower to threaten him in a short time.
Before discovering this gathering point, he had roughly walked through the surrounding area and hadn't found any signs of a large number of Iwa-nin gathering.
In other words, if Iwagakure wanted to take action against him, they could only mobilize people from farther away, and it was unknown how long it would take for them to arrive.
Moreover, after the pangolin delivered the information back, Iwagakure still needed to go through layers of reporting and approval, which would also take some time.
It was precisely considering these factors that Seimei decided to stay and take a gamble.
(End of Chapter)