Splash—
Seimei burst out of the sea once more and flickered onto the island.
Without wasting a second, he glanced at his clone still training nearby and immediately dispelled the [Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu].
In an instant, all 150 clones on and around the island vanished without a trace.
At the same time, an overwhelming flood of memories surged into Seimei's mind.
He quickly shut his eyes, sifting through the incoming data, absorbing the training experience and converting it into skill proficiency.
---
Fifteen minutes passed.
Seimei reopened his eyes.
He stood silently for a moment, deep in thought.
Then, suddenly, he raised both hands and performed the hand signs for [Yingxin no Jutsu], channeling and stimulating the chakra within his body to converge in his eyes.
His Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan activated on its own.
A familiar stinging sensation hit him.
Seimei endured the discomfort, focusing intently on the changes in his eyes.
Five minutes later, he released the technique, a flicker of disappointment flashing in his gaze.
It wasn't working as well as he'd hoped.
Sure, the [Yingxin no Jutsu] was more effective now than it had been this morning, but it still fell short of expectations.
With the current rate of stimulation, even if he poured in a million chakra points a day, he'd only get one or two points of evolution per day.
That meant it would take about 100,000 points to reach the level of the Rinnegan — roughly 6,000 to 7,000 days.
In other words: over sixteen years.
Even if he added the one or two passive evolution points per day from [Hito no Go], it would only cut the time in half — still over eight years.
Sure, that was way faster than Madara's route through endless hardship, but to Seimei, it was still unacceptable.
Since arriving in this world, no skill or ability had ever required that much time to upgrade.
Clearly, the technique needed more improvement.
---
With that thought settled, he moved on to his next task: experimenting with Mokuton.
Unfortunately, just like that morning, he was still a step away from success.
But he could feel that whenever he fused Suiton and Doton, the genes in his body — inherited through the assimilation of Hashirama's cells — grew more and more active.
That meant he was getting close.
Soon, he was confident he'd master Mokuton, one of the most iconic Kekkei Genkai, and open the door to developing Kekkei Mōra.
"Not bad."
Seimei murmured to himself, then refocused.
A few flickers later, he appeared on top of a massive boulder at the center of the island, sat down cross-legged, and began the last part of his daily training — nurturing his Byakugan.
---
He was already familiar with this routine.
Quickly, he entered the proper mental state.
Time ticked away.
Two and a half hours passed in the blink of an eye.
As soon as he sensed the familiar swelling pain from his eyes, he stopped the chakra infusion and opened them.
"Status panel."
With a thought, the proficiency interface appeared before him.
Seeing that Byakugan had gained twelve evolution points, Seimei gave a satisfied nod.
After closing the panel, he let out a long breath.
Then, he extended his senses toward the Flying Thunder God mark on his clone stationed near the town.
The mark hadn't been triggered and remained intact.
That meant Jiraiya and Orochimaru still hadn't made a move.
Before, he might've been a little anxious about that.
But now?
After a full day of training, his mind had settled.
The clone was watching things for him — nothing was being delayed.
Whether or not they fought, or when they fought, had nothing to do with his core goals.
All he needed to do was train at his own pace and show up when the battle began.
---
With that, he withdrew his senses, stood up, and leapt down from the boulder.
A few flickers later, he arrived outside the wooden cabin.
Creak—
The door opened.
Seimei walked to the bed.
Then, he flopped down and instantly fell asleep.
Soon, soft snoring filled the room. Seimei had entered dreamland.
---
However, just when he thought this night would be as peaceful as the last and that he'd sleep soundly until dawn, around 3 to 4 AM — when the body is most exhausted — the clone near the town activated the Flying Thunder God mark.
Seimei jolted awake.
He sat up abruptly, focusing on the distant location of the FTG mark.
The distance was great, and the signal faint, but he could still tell: it was moving.
That meant his clone was also on the move.
And at this point, the only thing that could prompt such action... was Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
Seimei rubbed his face, took several deep breaths to calm himself, then started gathering his gear.
Once everything was packed, he wasted no time.
He locked onto the clone's FTG mark, and with a thought, activated the [Flying Thunder God Jutsu].
In a flash, he vanished from the room.
---
At the same time —
Behind the small town, in the mountain forest—
A shadow sprinting through the trees suddenly came to a halt.
In the next instant, another figure identical to him appeared out of thin air.
It was none other than Seimei, freshly teleported in.
Staring at his clone, he got straight to the point: "What's going on?"
"You'll see for yourself."
The clone didn't waste words. He immediately dispelled himself.
The next moment, all the clone's memories flowed into Seimei's mind.
He skipped the mundane parts from the past day and focused solely on what happened tonight.
Thanks to his high [Spirit] stat of 26, he swiftly processed all the information.
"They finally showed up, huh…"
Muttering to himself, Seimei flickered to the treetop of a nearby tree.
He looked toward the northern plains beyond the town at the mountain's base.
There, two blurry figures were moving quickly.
They were none other than Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
According to the clone's memory, they had just fled from the town. One chasing, one fleeing, getting further by the second.
That's right — they had been hiding in the town for the past three days.
Only tonight did they finally reveal themselves.
Watching them grow smaller in the distance, Seimei leapt down from the tree and took off in pursuit, just like his clone had done earlier.
As for why he didn't use [Wind Release: Wings of Wind] to fly?
Simple — it'd be too obvious.
He didn't want them to notice.
In fact, he wouldn't even activate his Byakugan during the chase.
Against shinobi of this caliber, using the Byakugan to observe them was basically announcing: "Hey, someone's watching you."
And if they knew they were being watched, how could they go all out?
So, from here on out, he would stick to the most basic, inconspicuous methods of pursuit.
---