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In the forest, Obito Uchiha materialized.
With his single Mangekyo Sharingan, he carefully scanned the surroundings. After observing for a moment, he extended his mental energy to sense the lingering traces in the area.
Unfortunately, Seimei had stayed here too briefly, leaving behind few clues.
As a result, Obito didn't find much.
Beneath his mask, his expression was grim.
One thing was certain: the Three-Tails had indeed been here not long ago. Beyond that, everything else was a mystery.
Standing in place, deep in thought, Obito turned his gaze toward the direction of the Hidden Mist Village, muttering, "Looks like I need to make a trip back."
He'd come here in a hurry after receiving intel from Zetsu, so he was missing a lot of details.
Now, he needed to fill in those gaps and figure out who was behind this.
Yes, Obito was convinced there was a mastermind at play.
The evidence at the scene suggested the Three-Tails had appeared out of nowhere, flattening a swath of trees, lingered briefly, and then vanished just as abruptly.
He didn't recall the Three-Tails having any space-time abilities.
So, the only explanation was human intervention.
This conviction led him to believe there was definitely a puppet master pulling the strings.
He even had a few suspects in mind.
After all, across the entire ninja world, there weren't many who could subdue the Three-Tails so easily and wield space-time ninjutsu.
His top suspect? None other than Seimei, whom he'd met not long ago.
That said, he didn't have solid evidence yet. He'd need to head to the Hidden Mist Village and gather more intel to make an accurate judgment.
No matter what, he had to uncover the Three-Tails' whereabouts.
The tailed beasts were essential to his ultimate goal. Even if he didn't want to draw attention by collecting them now, he needed to know exactly where each one was.
That way, when the time came to act, he wouldn't be caught off guard.
With these thoughts, Obito activated his Kamui.
A swirl of spatial distortion formed a passage to the Kamui dimension. Leaning back slightly, Obito was sucked inside.
---
Meanwhile, on Moon Island, in the central clearing, Seimei was reflecting on his recent actions.
He figured the clues he'd left behind should keep the Hidden Mist Village occupied for a while.
After all, on the surface, he hadn't revealed any mastery of space-time ninjutsu.
Yet, the method he used to whisk the Three-Tails away from the lakebed was unmistakably space-time ninjutsu.
Combined with the deliberate traces he left in the forest, it'd be impossible for his enemies not to investigate in that direction.
For the short term, he wouldn't have to worry about the Hidden Mist Village tracing it back to him.
Why only the short term, not forever?
Simple: he'd never underestimate the intelligence-gathering capabilities of a major ninja village.
They might not suspect him at first, but after a couple of rounds of investigation, he'd likely end up on their radar.
After all, beyond space-time ninjutsu, the ability to subdue the Three-Tails so easily was another lead.
That would inevitably bring the Sharingan into their sights.
And as a genius of the Uchiha clan, he'd naturally become a suspect.
But that was a problem for the distant future, nothing to worry about now.
The bigger concern was the Hidden Leaf.
Once Minato Namikaze got wind of this, he'd likely zero in on Seimei as a suspect.
After the Nine-Tails Incident, Minato had already grown wary of him.
Connecting the dots to the missing half of the Nine-Tails, Minato would probably suspect Seimei of capturing the Three-Tails.
If he dug deeper and considered the Hidden Rock Village's infiltration team sent to the Land of Fire after the Four-Tails went missing, he might even suspect Seimei had the Four-Tails too.
But when the time came, Seimei would just deny everything.
With his current strength, no one could force him to admit anything.
Of course, he figured Minato's initial suspect would likely be Obito Uchiha.
After their clashes, Obito's exposed abilities matched the characteristics of the Three-Tails' disappearance perfectly.
Hmm...
Thinking of Obito, Seimei's brow furrowed slightly.
It hit him that Obito had long set his sights on the Hidden Mist Village.
While his earlier wood clone's memories showed no signs of Yagura Karatachi being under Obito's control yet, there was no guarantee Obito wouldn't learn about tonight's events.
Or rather, he'd most likely find out.
When that happened, Obito would probably lock onto Seimei as the prime suspect right away.
True, Seimei hadn't revealed his Flying Thunder God Technique in front of Obito.
But after their multiple encounters, Seimei didn't believe Obito hadn't noticed something.
For one, during their battle at the graveyard, Seimei had easily seen through Obito's Kamui, accurately predicting his reappearance and seizing an arm infused with Hashirama's cells.
That kind of keen sensitivity to spatial fluctuations wasn't something a ninja without similar abilities could pull off.
So, even if Obito didn't say it out loud, he was probably already suspicious.
Coupled with Seimei's earlier capture of the Four-Tails, it was only natural for Obito to zero in on him.
What Seimei didn't know was that Obito's involvement came even sooner than he'd anticipated.
Almost as soon as Seimei left, Obito had arrived at the forest and was already suspicious of him.
But even if Seimei knew, he wouldn't care too much.
As he'd said, with his current strength, no one could force him to do anything.
Besides, knowing Obito's style, even if he figured out Seimei had taken the Three-Tails, he'd likely keep quiet.
After all, Obito's ultimate goal was the tailed beasts themselves. Who held them in the meantime didn't matter to him.
Heck, he might even hope they were all in one person's hands, so he could deal with them all at once when the time was right!
With this thought, Seimei shook his head, brushing it aside.
He pulled out the metal orb containing the Three-Tails, checked on it, then formed hand seals and cast the Chakra Absorption Technique.
Soon, the Three-Tails' chakra flowed through the All-Encompassing Seal array into his body, where he converted it into his own chakra.
Inside the sealed space, the Three-Tails sensed its chakra being drained. Its barely calmed emotions flared up again, and it began hurling insults and provocations at Seimei, trying to rile him up.
But Seimei ignored it completely.
The Three-Tails then tried to suppress its chakra to stop the drain.
However, Seimei had designed the seal array with uncooperative tailed beasts in mind. The sealing chains embedded in its body could forcibly extract its chakra.
This infuriated the Three-Tails, who thrashed wildly in the sealed space.
Annoyed by its antics, Seimei tightened the All-Encompassing Seal with a thought, rendering the Three-Tails immobile.
Like an insect trapped in a spider's web, it could only watch as Seimei drained its chakra.
Visibly, its condition grew sluggish.
Once Seimei sensed it was nearing its limit, he stopped.
He then extended his mental energy into the special space in his forehead, carefully sensing the newly added chakra.
Using this as a reference, combined with his experience draining the other three tailed beasts, Seimei came to a conclusion: to keep the Three-Tails in stable condition while providing him chakra long-term, he could extract up to 1.5 million points of chakra daily.
While this was far less than the Nine-Tails, it was on par with the Four-Tails, which satisfied Seimei.
With this extra 1.5 million points of chakra, his burden would be significantly lighter.
Plus, the chakra he'd stockpiled earlier would last even longer.
"Not bad!" Seimei nodded in approval.
He stored the metal orb containing the Three-Tails, glanced at the time, and was about to head to bed.
But then, as if remembering something, he smacked his forehead.
Raising his hands, he formed seals and cast the Wood Clone Technique.
Whoosh!
A wood clone split off and stood before him.
As usual, Seimei applied the All-Encompassing Seal to it and infused it with plenty of chakra.
Once done, he looked at the clone and said, "Alright, head to the Land of Water now. Find a way to infiltrate the Hidden Mist Village again and keep gathering intel."
That's right—just moments ago, he'd realized the wood clone he'd stationed in the Hidden Mist Village had self-destructed to relay a message to him.
Now, he had no eyes in the Hidden Mist Village.
And with this critical period, when he needed to keep tabs on their movements, he couldn't afford a blind spot.
So, he quickly created this new wood clone to take its place.
The clone, hearing his orders, didn't waste words. It nodded, cast Wind Release: Wings of Wind, and took off into the sky, heading toward the Hidden Mist Village.
Watching it disappear into the night, Seimei yawned, returned to his wooden cabin, and went to rest.