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By the time Seimei returned home, it was already late.
Not wanting to waste any more time, he went straight to his room and crashed.
The next morning, Seimei woke up early but didn't rush off to train.
After the chaos that had rocked the village, he knew the next few days would be packed with all sorts of trouble.
Leaving just a single Shadow Clone behind might not cut it if things went south.
So, Seimei decided to stick around the village for a bit longer, waiting for things to settle down before diving back into his training.
Compared to the long-term stability he was aiming for, a few delayed days were no big deal.
And just like that, three days flew by.
As Seimei had predicted, the village was swamped with issues during that time.
Rebuilding damaged structures, patrolling the village, and maintaining order—these smaller tasks didn't require elite jonin like him.
But dealing with invasions from other villages? That was a job for the big guns.
Three days was plenty of time for the other major ninja villages to hear about the incident in the Hidden Leaf and make their moves.
Smaller villages were no big threat. They lacked high-caliber ninja, so even if they sent scouts, a team of chunin could probably handle them.
But the other four great ninja villages were a different story. They were organized, and the ninja they sent were much stronger.
In the past, the Hidden Leaf's Anbu would've dealt with these intruders.
But now, the Anbu were stretched thin, so it fell to elite jonin like Seimei to step up and take them out.
Over those three days, Seimei fought in seven battles, taking down ten jonin in total. Most of them were special jonin skilled in reconnaissance and stealth, but that number alone spoke volumes.
Thankfully, as time passed, the other villages got the intel they needed. Seeing that the Hidden Leaf's losses were minimal, they stopped sending large groups to probe.
The large-scale invasions petered out.
As for the smaller, lingering probes, the Anbu could handle those just fine.
With that, Seimei's life returned to something resembling normal.
So, he decided to start his intense training again the next day.
One thing worth noting: during those three days, the thing he'd been worried about—someone from the village or Uchiha Obito coming for him—never happened.
The village was one thing. Maybe Uchiha Shisui, to avoid stirring up bad blood between the village and the Uchiha clan, hadn't told Minato Namikaze his real identity.
Or maybe Shisui had told Minato, but the Hokage had too many concerns and decided to put it on the back burner, which is why no one came knocking.
But what about Uchiha Obito?
Sure, that night, Seimei hadn't used any of his signature techniques, but he didn't believe for a second that Obito wouldn't figure out it was him.
After all, Seimei had deliberately painted himself as a maniac obsessed with Tailed Beast power to keep Obito in check. Someone like that wouldn't pass up a chance like this. Plus, his Wood Release alone was enough to spark suspicion.
True, he'd never used Wood Release in front of Obito, but let's not forget—Obito had Zetsu by his side.
With Zetsu's sensitivity to Wood Release, it'd likely pick up on some clues about Seimei.
Even if Zetsu missed it, Obito would still likely connect the dots to him.
Seimei hadn't forgotten their first encounter at the Hidden Leaf's cemetery. Thanks to his intel advantage, he'd ripped off one of Obito's arms, which had been infused with Hashirama's cells.
In the ninja world, there were only a handful of ways to gain Wood Release. A ninja capable of suppressing the Nine-Tails with it didn't just pop up out of nowhere.
So, with a bit of thought, Obito would easily deduce that the Wood Release ninja was most likely Seimei.
Yet, despite all that, Obito still hadn't come for him.
Was Obito scared of the Hidden Leaf? No way.
With Kamui's versatility, Obito could go anywhere in the ninja world.
Couldn't find him? Also impossible.
Over the past three days, Seimei had been out and about a lot but wasn't exactly hiding. He'd even spent two nights in the village.
So that wasn't the reason either.
"Then why?" Seimei's mind raced.
Suddenly, a possibility hit him.
"Could it be…?"
Seimei muttered to himself.
He thought back to how he'd returned half of the Nine-Tails to the Hidden Leaf.
That night, Obito had been locked in a fight with Minato Namikaze. He probably didn't have the bandwidth to notice whether the Nine-Tails Seimei released was the full deal or not.
And Shisui had regained control of the Nine-Tails so quickly.
Seimei knew he'd only returned half, but Obito might not have realized that.
Especially since that same night, Minato resealed the Nine-Tails into Kushina Uzumaki, giving Obito no chance to find out.
Maybe that's what threw Obito off, making him unsure of Seimei's true intentions, so he chose to sit back and observe.
The more Seimei thought about it, the more it made sense.
"Well, that works," Seimei murmured.
This was perfect. He needed this time to focus on boosting his "physique" attribute to balance out his mental and physical strength.
If Obito wasn't coming for him, that just meant he could train in peace.
With that, Seimei pushed the thought aside. He washed his face, headed back to his bedroom, and rested.
The night passed quietly.
---
The next day.
Early morning.
Seimei got up early, freshened up, and headed to the "Gourmet Street."
The Nine-Tails incident had hit the Hidden Leaf's food scene hard.
The Gourmet Street was right in the village center, smack in the middle of where the Nine-Tails had rampaged. Thanks to Seimei's quick intervention, the damage was less than it could've been.
But "less" was relative.
Compared to another timeline where the Nine-Tails trashed half the village, the damage this time was indeed smaller.
But looking just at the village center? It was about the same, if not worse.
The Nine-Tails' sheer size meant that even a slight move could bring down entire blocks of buildings.
That night, Seimei had suppressed the Nine-Tails, but it hadn't just sat still. It fought back with unprecedented ferocity.
As a result, the surrounding buildings—Gourmet Street included—took a heavy hit. It was probably the worst-damaged area.
Luckily, before the Nine-Tails chaos broke out, some unrest in the village had shut down the night market early, so most shop owners escaped unharmed.
Whether it was the resilience of ninja world folks, their ability to bounce back, or just being used to sudden disasters, some undamaged shops were already back in business after just three days, setting up stalls in front of their still-being-repaired storefronts.
Naturally, Seimei wanted to support them.
He spent some time there, enjoying a hearty meal.
Then, he found a quiet corner, used the Shadow Clone Technique to leave a clone behind to hold down the fort, and slipped out of the village.
From there, he headed straight to the primeval forest in the northeastern Land of Fire to retrieve the Wood Clone he'd left guarding the Tailed Beast.
After collecting the two metal orbs, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport to Moon Island.
What came next was simple. Like before, he used the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, creating five hundred clones, and began his training.