"Who's there?"
A low shout echoed through the underground base.
"It's me!" Seimei quickly replied.
Recognizing Seimei's voice, the shadow clone lowered its guard.
A moment later, a fireball flared to life, banishing the surrounding darkness and illuminating the underground space.
Seimei glanced at the shadow clone.
It was clear the clone had been dormant in the dark, only to be startled by his sudden teleportation.
Fortunately, the shadow clone was somewhat prepared, so no mishaps occurred.
Without much chit-chat, they exchanged a quick greeting, and Seimei dispelled the Shadow Clone Technique.
Instantly, the clone's memories flooded into Seimei's mind.
Unlike the shadow clone stationed in the Hidden Mist Village, this one had to take a more active role since there were fewer informants in the Hidden Cloud Village. As a result, its memories were a bit more substantial.
It took Seimei a full hour to sort through them all.
By the end, he had a solid grasp of what was happening in the Hidden Cloud Village.
Overall, like the Hidden Mist, the Hidden Cloud was relatively calm.
However, while the Hidden Mist focused on internal issues, the Fourth Raikage's position was secure, allowing him to direct more attention outward.
For example, tensions along the border with the Leaf Village.
That's right—even now, the two villages hadn't signed a peace treaty.
As a result, small-scale skirmishes would occasionally erupt along the border.
But according to the latest intel, voices opposing the war were growing louder within the Hidden Cloud.
And why wouldn't they? You can skip a fight, but you can't skip a meal.
The Land of Lightning was full of mountains, with limited arable land. At least a third of their food supply had to be imported annually.
The Land of Fire, with its fertile lands, produced the most grain in the ninja world.
During peacetime, the Land of Lightning relied heavily on the Land of Fire to cover that shortfall.
Now, with no truce in place, the Leaf Village naturally blocked grain exports to the Land of Lightning.
The pressure on the Land of Lightning was obvious.
Under these circumstances, it was no surprise that anti-war sentiment was rising in the Hidden Cloud.
It's easy to imagine that, without the Nine-Tails incident weakening the Leaf Village and giving the Hidden Cloud an opportunity, they would've signed a peace treaty much sooner.
That way, the Hyuga clan wouldn't have had to sacrifice Hinata's life.
Of course, that was a story from another timeline.
Since Seimei had decided to intervene in the Nine-Tails incident, he wouldn't let those events unfold. The ninja world was better off with some stability, after all!
Pulling his thoughts back, Seimei shifted his focus from these matters and began searching for other valuable intel.
Soon, he found something noteworthy in the shadow clone's memories.
The Two-Tails Jinchuriki, Yugito Nii, had started training with the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Killer B, to learn how to control her tailed beast's power.
This intel came from the memories of a Hidden Cloud Anbu informant.
Unfortunately, that Anbu didn't know where they were training.
So, the shadow clone didn't know either.
If Seimei had to guess, he'd bet they were on Turtle Island.
Turtle Island was a secret Hidden Cloud base—a massive, ancient turtle that had lived for who-knows-how-long, drifting across the sea with its own unique ecosystem.
On that island was a mysterious place the Hidden Cloud called the Waterfall of Truth.
The Waterfall of Truth could reflect a person's inner darkness. By overcoming it, one could break through their limitations and become purer.
This made it easier to master a tailed beast's power.
That's why Seimei suspected Yugito and Killer B were there.
However, as a sacred training ground for the Hidden Cloud, Turtle Island's importance was obvious, and the village guarded its secrets tightly.
They'd also set up numerous barriers to hide and protect it.
On top of that, the Fourth Raikage, A, would periodically issue orders to change the island's location.
With these three layers of secrecy, hardly anyone could know Turtle Island's current position or status.
Of course, if Seimei went all out to investigate, he could probably find it.
But that would definitely alert the Hidden Cloud.
That clashed with his low-profile strategy, so he naturally wouldn't do it.
Another key factor in his decision was that he currently had enough chakra and didn't need to stir up trouble.
Dismissing those thoughts, Seimei moved on.
Just like in the Hidden Mist, he formed hand seals and used Wood Clone Technique to create a wood clone, replacing the shadow clone.
Then, he used All-Encompassing Forest Seal again, storing a million points of chakra in the clone.
Seimei instructed it to spend the next month developing more informants in the Hidden Cloud.
The wood clone nodded in acknowledgment.
With that, Seimei didn't linger. He used Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport back to the spot outside the Hidden Cloud Village where he'd been earlier.
Then, he activated Wind Release: Wings of Wind and Chakra Cloak, followed by Earth Release: Ultra-Lightweight Rock Technique to reduce his weight, and took off toward the Land of Earth.
The Land of Earth bordered the Land of Lightning on one side and faced it across the sea on the other.
To avoid trouble, Seimei didn't take the eastern land route.
After leaving the Hidden Cloud, he flew west, crossing the sea and bypassing the Land of Iron to enter the Land of Earth from the other side.
As expected, this route didn't draw any attention.
Afterward, Seimei locked onto the Hidden Stone Village's location and flew straight there.
Upon reaching the outskirts, he activated his Byakugan to examine the sensory barrier enveloping the entire village, then used Ama no Miya to slip through.
Inside the Hidden Stone, he didn't immediately use Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport to the underground space where his shadow clone was, as he had in the Hidden Mist.
Although the Hidden Stone didn't have a separate barrier for detecting spatial fluctuations, last month's intel from the shadow clone revealed they'd recently set up one to detect chakra fluctuations.
Apparently, this was a direct order from Onoki.
Seimei didn't know why Onoki had suddenly issued such a command, but he wasn't about to take the risk, so he opted to travel on foot.
Thankfully, with Ama no Miya, he could easily avoid the Hidden Stone's patrols.
The journey was uneventful, and he soon reached the underground space where his shadow clone was waiting.
With practiced ease, he dispelled the Shadow Clone Technique, and its memories synced with his mind.
He quickly sorted through them.
Compared to the other two shadow clones, this one had far fewer memories.
The reason was simple: that new chakra-sensing barrier.
Unsure of Onoki's intentions or what he was planning, Seimei had instructed the shadow clone to stay dormant during their last rendezvous.
As a result, it had accumulated very little over the past month.
Consequently, his understanding of the Hidden Stone was still stuck at last month's level.
Even so, he didn't plan to have the wood clone do much moving forward.
Right now, aside from the Four-Tails and Dust Release, there wasn't much in the Hidden Stone that interested him.
As for the Four-Tails… well, he didn't need extra chakra at the moment, so it wasn't a priority.
As for Dust Release… once he developed Storm Release, he might try to steal its training methods to further master the fusion of three chakra natures.
But for now, there was no rush!
So, whatever Onoki was up to, Seimei could afford to sit back and observe.
There was no need for the wood clone to take action either.
Shifting his gaze from the wood clone, Seimei didn't waste any more time. He used Earth Release: Earth Vein Dragon Technique to leave the underground space.
Then, he carefully slipped out of the Hidden Stone Village.
Standing at a high vantage point, he gazed at the silent Hidden Stone, his eyes flickering with unspoken thoughts.
Whoosh~
A sudden breeze snapped him out of it.
Without wasting another moment, he activated Wind Release: Wings of Wind and Chakra Cloak.
Then, he used Earth Release: Ultra-Lightweight Rock Technique to reduce his weight.
Under the cover of night, he glided like a bat, silently flying toward the Leaf Village.
(Chapter End)