Chapter 145: The Pursuers

Two hours later.

When Seimei once again dispelled the 'Shadow Clone Technique' and completed another round of cultivation, the chakra belonging to the Iwa-nin was finally exhausted.

At this moment, the surroundings were still quiet, just as he had predicted. A mere two hours wasn't enough for the Iwa-nin to surround this place.

"Phew—"

Seimei let out a long sigh of relief, walked over to the last two Iwa-nin Chunin, formed hand seals, and executed the 'Chakra Absorption Technique'.

In just a few breaths, his chakra was fully restored, while the two Iwa-nin on the ground completely lost their lives due to the rapid loss of mental and physical energy.

Although much of his information had been leaked, Seimei still didn't want Iwagakure to know why he targeted these people.

Therefore, before leaving, he still routinely used the 'Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique' to incinerate the bodies on the ground.

This way, Iwagakure couldn't discover what he had done through the corpses.

Finally, after cleaning up the battlefield and erasing his own traces, Seimei quickly left the area, heading straight towards the southeast.

Next, he needed to cross half of the Land of Earth, follow the southwestern border, enter the Land of Rain, and finally return to the area under Konoha's control.

That's right, Seimei was planning to return now.

Although there was no news from the Third Raikage, Seimei estimated that he couldn't hold on for much longer. At the latest, by tonight, he would definitely be dead.

Instead of waiting until then to act, it was better to set off now. This way, he might even be able to avoid some of Iwagakure's eyes and ears!

However, what Seimei didn't know was that shortly after he left, a four-person team from Iwagakure arrived at the scene.

Unlike ordinary teams, these four were clad in black robes and wore masks. They were clearly an Anbu team.

The four members of the team looked at the charred corpses on the ground. Although they didn't speak, the aura around them collectively turned a few degrees colder.

"Suzu!"

The Anbu ninja at the lead suddenly spoke.

Without needing further instruction, the Anbu ninja codenamed Suzu responded, "Understood, Captain!"

With that, she swiftly formed hand seals, her mouth slightly open. An invisible sound wave rapidly spread out from her as the center.

Suzu closed her eyes, her ears twitching slightly, carefully listening to the changes in the sound wave.

A moment later, she opened her eyes and shook her head at the Anbu captain, saying, "Captain, the person has already left."

"Kuro?"

Hearing this, the Anbu captain turned his head to look at another Anbu ninja.

The Anbu ninja codenamed Kuro didn't waste any words and immediately began to carefully examine the scene.

Although Seimei had cleared his traces before leaving, it couldn't withstand such meticulous scrutiny. So, the Anbu ninja, who specialized in tracking, quickly discovered the trail.

He led his teammates to a certain spot in the stone forest, pointed at a faint footprint on the ground, and said, "Captain, this was left by the target."

"Is that so?"

The Anbu captain carefully observed the footprint for a while, then looked at the direction the toes were pointing, and said, "So the target ran in this direction?"

"That's right."

Kuro replied affirmatively.

"Very good!"

The Anbu captain nodded and immediately said in a cold voice, "Let's go."

With that, he directly used the 'Body Flicker Technique' and disappeared.

The other three, seeing this, immediately followed.

...

At the same time.

Walking through the forest, Seimei suddenly felt a sense of unease.

He stopped and carefully sensed his surroundings.

However, he found nothing.

"Could it be an illusion?"

Seimei thought to himself.

But soon, he dismissed this idea.

Seimei trusted his intuition; there must be danger approaching.

After thinking for a moment, Seimei no longer followed the original path but changed direction, taking a detour towards his destination.

After walking for a while, the feeling of unease indeed disappeared.

Seimei slightly relaxed.

However, before he could be happy for long, after only about an hour, that uneasy feeling reappeared.

If the last time could still be attributed to an illusion, then this time, there was no way it could be called an illusion.

After all, how could there be two identical illusions?

Without any hesitation, Seimei immediately changed direction again.

At the same time, he carefully cleared the traces he left behind.

As expected, this time the uneasy feeling disappeared for a longer duration.

But in the end, this feeling returned.

At this point, Seimei was almost certain that someone was following him, and they were very close. Otherwise, he wouldn't have such a strong sense of unease.

If he wasn't mistaken, the other party should be a ninja from Iwagakure, but to make him feel uneasy, their strength definitely couldn't be weak.

Under such circumstances, Seimei naturally wouldn't confront them head-on. Knowing the enemy was stronger and still engaging in a direct clash wasn't bravery, but recklessness.

With this thought, Seimei once again changed his direction of travel.

This time, not only did he clear his own traces, but he also used the 'Shadow Clone Technique' to create a shadow clone.

Then, he and the shadow clone exchanged a glance and ran in different directions.

The shadow clone maintained a slightly faster speed than before, attracting the enemy to pursue, while Seimei used the 'Body Flicker Technique' with all his might to move at the fastest speed.

That's right, Seimei didn't want to encounter the enemy at all, nor did he have any thoughts of ambushing them or anything like that.

Right now, he just wanted to leave the Land of Earth as soon as possible and return to the area under Konoha's control.

The reason for his urgency was simple. The shadow clone he left with the Third Raikage had just sent a message: the Third Raikage had died in battle.

This meant that Iwagakure would have enough manpower available from now on.

Although most of them would have to return to the front lines, even if they dispatched a small portion, it would be enough to cause him trouble.

Therefore, what he needed to do now was to leave the Land of Earth immediately. Before that, he absolutely couldn't get entangled with the Iwa-nin.

With this thought in mind, Seimei's pace quickened even more.

Seimei was somewhat grateful that he had cultivated the 'Body Flicker Technique' to the perfected level early on. Now, using it truly felt like flying.

Coupled with his chakra, which far surpassed that of an average Jonin, Seimei was confident he could shake off the pursuers behind him.

Of course, this didn't mean he would ignore those pursuers.

As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."

Even though he didn't plan to engage with the enemy behind him, and they most likely wouldn't encounter each other, to be on the safe side, understanding the enemy was still necessary.

And the shadow clone he had just separated had this task.

That shadow clone had a full 10,000 chakra points within it. As long as it avoided being hit and reduced the number of direct confrontations, even a Jonin might not necessarily be able to defeat it.

Avoiding enemy attacks might be difficult for other people's shadow clones, but for him, possessing the Sharingan, it was very easy.

In this way, gathering some intelligence about the enemy shouldn't be too difficult.