An hour and a half later.
The Anbu captain and the Anbu ninja codenamed Suzu finally arrived at the scene.
Looking at the messy scene and the corpses of their two teammates, they no longer had their previous composure.
"Captain?"
Suzu wanted to say something, but the Anbu captain raised his hand to interrupt her. "First, investigate the scene and see if we can find any traces of the target."
"Yes, Captain!"
After Suzu responded, she and the Anbu captain began to carefully examine the scene.
A while later, they gathered again, their expressions under the masks not looking good.
It wasn't that they hadn't found any traces left by Seimei.
On the contrary, they found many.
But it was precisely because there were too many that they didn't know where to start.
As Anbu ninja, their abilities in this area weren't weak, but compared to their two teammates who specialized in investigation and tracking, they were far inferior.
However, those two were now dead, making it impossible for them to distinguish the true and false clues in a short time.
This meant they would inevitably waste a considerable amount of time.
And by the time they figured it out, Seimei would probably be long gone.
Although he was reluctant to admit it, the Anbu captain knew that they most likely wouldn't be able to catch Seimei this time.
However, even if there was a one in ten thousand chance, he still didn't want to give up.
After thinking for a moment, the Anbu captain instructed Suzu, "Suzu, send a message to the teams ahead, telling them to immediately seal off all roads leading to the Land of Rain border in this area."
That's right, just as Seimei had predicted, once his whereabouts were known, Iwagakure had already mobilized a large number of people to wait for him ahead.
If he hadn't discovered the hawk above his head earlier and continued running, he would have eventually walked right into the trap specifically prepared for him.
At that point, he would truly have no chance of escape.
It was important to note that because his actions were exposed prematurely, he had to evacuate early.
Currently, his Sharingan's evolution progress hadn't reached the critical point yet, and he couldn't evolve it into the Mangekyo Sharingan in a short time.
This meant he had lost his biggest trump card.
In that case, once surrounded, he would have no ability to break through the encirclement.
The only thing awaiting him then would be certain death.
It could only be said that his caution had saved his life once again.
...
Three days later.
Land of Earth.
Southern border.
Seimei carefully passed through Iwagakure's last line of defense and entered the Land of Rain.
Then, after spending another day, he crossed the area controlled by Iwagakure and arrived at the area under Konoha's control.
Reaching this point, he was finally out of danger.
Looking back on the past few days, he had been crossing mountains and rivers, living a life of constant anxiety.
Iwagakure not only sealed off all roads but also sent people to search the mountains.
To avoid Iwagakure's pursuit and interception, he didn't dare to relax for a moment. He couldn't take the normal roads, so he had to spend the entire journey in the mountains, trekking through mountains and rivers. It wasn't just a figure of speech.
After a few days, he had almost become a wild man.
Now, all Seimei wanted was to find a place to take a comfortable bath and then have a good sleep.
"Who's there?"
Just as Seimei was lost in thought, a slightly稚嫩 yet low shout suddenly came from the distance.
Immediately afterward, several kunai flew over, grazing his cheek and embedding themselves in the tree in front of him.
Seimei stopped and instantly activated his three-tomoe Sharingan, looking in the direction the kunai had come from.
However, to his surprise, what met his eyes was another pair of three-tomoe Sharingan.
Seimei looked towards the owner of the eyes and saw a young Uchiha ninja, who seemed even younger than him, walking out.
"Shisui?"
That's right, the person who came was none other than Uchiha Shisui.
Behind him were three Konoha Chunin, clearly members of his team.
However, Seimei's gaze only swept over them briefly before returning to Uchiha Shisui.
After months of fighting on the battlefield, he had undergone tremendous changes. Although his appearance was still young, his demeanor was exceptionally calm and composed.
Upon first contact, he gave off a sense of trustworthiness.
"Seimei?!"
Uchiha Shisui looked Seimei up and down a few times, hesitantly speaking.
It wasn't that he didn't recognize Seimei, but Seimei's current unkempt appearance was completely different from before, making him unsure.
In the past, although Seimei wasn't exactly a clean freak, he always presented himself in a neat and tidy manner.
But now...
He was almost indistinguishable from a wild man.
Seimei saw the disbelief in his eyes and replied with a wry smile, "It's me."
Hearing this, Uchiha Shisui raised his hand to signal his teammates to relax, then said with a smile, "How did you end up looking like this?"
Seimei pointed to the north and said, "Mission requirements, no choice."
Hearing about the mission, Uchiha Shisui tactfully didn't pry further. The two chatted for a bit, and after verifying Seimei's identity, he let him pass.
Watching Seimei's departing figure, a strange glint flashed in Uchiha Shisui's eyes.
Although he couldn't be completely certain, during the brief moment of eye contact just now, he felt his Sharingan being suppressed.
In other words, Seimei's ocular power might be even greater than his.
And how fast was his own progress?
Compared to other Uchiha Jonin, Uchiha Shisui was very clear - among all the Uchiha ninja, he was definitely in a league of his own.
But what about Seimei?
He had clearly awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan after him, yet his ocular power now surpassed his. This made him feel happy, but also inevitably sparked a sense of competition in his heart.
At the same time.
Seimei was also estimating the degree of Uchiha Shisui's Sharingan evolution.
In the end, he concluded that if calculated according to the system's rules, it was probably only one or two thousand evolution points behind his own.
"Hiss~"
Reaching this conclusion, Seimei couldn't help but gasp.
You know, he was practically cheating with his cultivation, while Uchiha Shisui could only rely on himself.
Even so, he was only one or two thousand evolution points ahead of the other party.
This showed just how strong the other party's talent was!
However, Seimei quickly regained his composure.
Whether the other party's talent was strong or not had little to do with him. He just needed to follow his own path; there was no need to compete for superiority.
Moreover, no matter how strong the other party's talent was, when they encountered the threshold of the Mangekyo Sharingan, they would still slow down.
He was different. If he truly disregarded everything else, he could awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan in at most half a month.
But what use was that?
Apart from increasing the risk of developing genetic diseases, it wouldn't significantly improve his apparent combat power.
After all, he couldn't expose the Mangekyo Sharingan at this time.
Therefore, what he needed to do now was to first increase his 'Physique' attribute and narrow the gap between it and his 'Spirit' attribute.
Only in this way could he lay a solid foundation for future progress.
(End of Chapter)