Three hours later, dawn began to break.
Seimei stirred from his sleep.
Lying in bed, his mind replayed the events of the previous night, still feeling a bit surreal.
He reached into his ninja pouch and pulled out the metal sphere, gazing at the sealed Three-Tails inside. Only then did it sink in that last night wasn't a dream.
It wasn't surprising he felt this way. Capturing the Three-Tails had gone too smoothly. Even including travel time, the whole ordeal took less than ten minutes.
It almost didn't feel real.
But when he thought about his current strength, Seimei let it go. If he, with his power, had to struggle against a mere Three-Tails, that would've been a joke.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he tucked the metal sphere away, geared up, and stepped out of the cabin.
At the stream's edge, he washed up, downed a few enhanced soldier pills to fill his stomach, and started training.
Originally, Seimei figured this incident would only affect him after ten days or maybe half a month, leaving him plenty of time to train in peace.
But to his surprise, just the next day, the shadow clone he'd left in the village sent him a message.
---
That afternoon, Seimei was deep in the volcano, grinding through Body of the Extreme training, one cycle after another.
Suddenly, a memory flashed into his mind.
Confirming it wasn't from one of his training clones accidentally getting themselves killed, he immediately paused his training. With a thought, he used Flying Thunder God Jutsu to teleport back to Moon Island.
He didn't even bother deactivating Sage Mode. Closing his eyes, he dove straight into the memory.
The memory contained a lot, and it took him some time to process it all.
When he opened his eyes again, the tension on his face had eased slightly.
The news wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either.
The memory came from the shadow clone he'd left in the Hidden Leaf Village, which had dispelled itself to sync with him.
The reason it had to pass the message this way? Uchiha Obito had come looking for him.
Yes, that Uchiha Obito. He'd snuck into the Leaf Village again and tracked down Seimei's clone.
His purpose? It was about the Three-Tails.
Last night, Seimei had wondered if Obito, upon learning about the incident and getting involved in the Hidden Mist's investigation, would immediately suspect him.
Sure enough, just one day later, Obito showed up. No pleasantries, no beating around the bush—just a direct question: Did Seimei take the Three-Tails?
Of course, the shadow clone had no idea. Seimei's ten-day training cycle wasn't up yet, so he hadn't returned to the village to sync memories with the clone.
The clone played it off naturally. Though it pieced together some things from Obito's question, it firmly denied any involvement.
After hearing the answer, Obito stared at the clone for a long time before leaving without a word.
Recalling the memory and analyzing Obito's reaction before he left, Seimei pondered for a while but couldn't figure out whether Obito believed the denial.
Either way, it didn't matter much.
As he'd said before, with his current strength, no one could force him to do anything.
So, he'd just keep training.
With that in mind, Seimei didn't rush to send a new shadow clone back to the village. Instead, he used Flying Thunder God Jutsu again, teleporting back to the volcano beneath Moon Island to resume his training.
Tomorrow would pass, and the day after was the tenth day of his training cycle. He'd return to the village then.
For now, there was no need to send another clone back.
It'd also help avoid some risks.
Being absent from the village for a day or two? No big deal.
Clearing his mind, Seimei adjusted his breathing, acclimating to the harsh volcanic air. Then he resumed Body of the Extreme, strengthening his body once more.
---
Two days later, evening came.
Seimei returned to the village.
Walking through the streets, he could feel the buzz in the Hidden Leaf was even livelier than his last few visits.
This must be the hope brought by peace.
But beneath the lively surface, he sensed a faint undercurrent of tension.
Glancing at the shadowy corners, Seimei's sharp eyes picked up on the increased presence of Anbu ninja.
They were watching the crowds, as if searching for something.
It wasn't until the next day, through some discreet methods, that Seimei learned they were hunting for spies from the Hidden Mist Village.
Apparently, the Leaf had received intel that the Mist had sent a group of spies into the village.
Now, the Anbu were actively tracking them down.
This brought Seimei back to a suspicion he'd had two nights ago.
If he was right, this whole mess was probably his fault.
After all, the Three-Tails was missing, and the Hidden Mist would naturally investigate to the bitter end.
But their efforts were doomed to fail.
Shaking his head to himself, Seimei stopped paying attention to the activity around him. After resting in the village for a day, he returned to Moon Island to start a new round of training.
As far as he was concerned, as long as the shadow clone he'd left undercover in the Hidden Mist didn't send an alert, there was no need to worry. He could just focus on training.
And so, the days passed.
A month later, just as Seimei had predicted, the Hidden Mist's fruitless investigation led them to suspect the Uchiha clan's Sharingan.
They began investigating prominent Uchiha ninja with fully awakened three-tomoe Sharingan.
Naturally, that included Seimei, the renowned genius ninja.
But their efforts hit a wall. His shadow clone in the village barely left the house, giving the Mist nothing to work with.
The few times Seimei went on missions, he personally handled them, in and out quickly.
So, after a month, the Mist's investigation had barely impacted him.
Also, contrary to his expectations, Minato Namikaze never came to question him, sparing him the hassle of coming up with excuses.
As for Uchiha Obito, after that one visit to his shadow clone the day after the incident, he hadn't shown up again.
And no rumors about Seimei possessing the Three-Tails had spread through the ninja world.
All in all, the past month had been relatively peaceful for him.
And after a month of grueling effort, just before his chakra reserves ran dry, Seimei finally pushed his body to the brink of transformation.