A few days later.
Konoha.
Root's headquarters.
In Danzo's office.
A Root ninja knelt on one knee and reported, "Sir, the information has been confirmed. Two days ago, Uchiha Seimei and Uchiha Shisui arrived at the frontline camp. The 'Crying Rain' squad's mission failed."
As he spoke, he handed a mission report to Danzo.
Danzo took the report, quickly scanned it, then threw it on the ground, cursing, "Useless! They're all useless!"
For this mission to succeed, he had even used a spy who had been undercover for a long time.
He had even started planning half a month in advance, leaking information about some of the village's support teams to Iwagakure to gain their trust.
Unexpectedly, at the critical moment, his subordinates failed him.
'And those Iwa-nin are also useless. They couldn't even seize such a good opportunity. They're truly utterly useless!'
The more he thought about it, the angrier Danzo became. In the end, he slammed his fist on the table.
Bang!
A loud sound echoed from the front.
The Root ninja remained kneeling on one knee, showing no reaction.
Only after Danzo calmed down did he speak, "Sir, should we continue to send people to assassinate them?"
Hearing this, Danzo pondered for a long time and finally said, "Forget it. Let's leave them alone for now. Kumogakure has been gathering forces recently, and it seems they have some big moves planned. Your primary task now is to keep a close eye on them."
"Yes, sir!"
The Root ninja below responded.
Seimei was unaware that he had unknowingly escaped a crisis.
And by the time Danzo turned his attention back to him, he would no longer be the Chunin who could be easily dealt with by sending a few people.
...
Time flew by, and it was early September.
It had been twenty days since he left the village, and half a month since he arrived at the front lines.
During this half month, Seimei carried out one patrol mission and one reinforcement mission, encountering no significant danger.
Therefore, his training had never stopped.
And after these days of diligent practice, several of his skills had improved considerably.
First was the Body Flicker Technique. Its level directly increased from lv3 (870/1000) to lv4 (0/0), reaching the perfected state.
Now, to use the Body Flicker Technique, he only needed to form a simple "Mi" hand seal.
Moreover, after using the technique, his maximum speed was about 30% faster than at lv3.
Under these circumstances, if he launched a surprise attack on an ordinary Chunin, unless the opponent was exceptionally alert, they wouldn't be able to react at all.
In other words, he now had the ability to instantly kill some Chunin.
Next was Genjutsu: Sharingan. After these days of practice, its level had also increased from lv2 (420/500) to lv3 (120/1000).
Just like when it leveled up from lv1 to lv2, this upgrade once again improved the casting speed and genjutsu power.
This gave Seimei more opportunities to use it in battle, which was a decent improvement.
Then there were Konoha-Style Kenjutsu and Uchiha-Style Kenjutsu...
Because he couldn't practice during the days of travel, their progress was slightly slower than expected.
Nevertheless, they had also reached the brink of leveling up. The former's proficiency had reached lv4 (1910/2000), and the latter's was lv4 (1750/2000).
Seimei estimated that in about a week, they would be able to level up.
At that time, he could try to merge these two swordsmanship styles.
Furthermore, their upgrade would most likely trigger an increase in his "Physique" attribute.
And this would undoubtedly increase the amount of chakra he could use daily in the future.
In this way, he could allocate more chakra to practicing the Heart Reflection Technique, thereby further promoting the evolution of his Sharingan.
Speaking of the Sharingan's evolution, he had to mention the Chakra Absorption Technique.
After half a month of focusing resources on it, he had already raised its level from lv1 (1/200) to lv2 (105/500).
Now, when using it, he could extract two hundred chakra points per second from the enemy and convert 60% of it into his own chakra.
Utilizing this technique, during the past half month, he had extracted chakra from seven enemies in two missions, gaining a total of about eight thousand chakra points.
He had used all this chakra to practice the Heart Reflection Technique, gaining forty-eight proficiency points, which resulted in an additional sixteen points in Sharingan evolution progress.
However, this speed was still too slow.
Seimei planned to find an opportunity to act alone after merging the two swordsmanship styles to obtain more chakra, thereby maximizing the acceleration of his Sharingan's evolution.
"Seimei, what are you thinking about? Let's go!"
His teammate's call woke Seimei from his daze.
He casually replied, "Nothing," and then followed the team towards the west of the main camp.
Next, he would be carrying out a week-long patrol mission, mainly to prevent infiltration from Sunagakure teams.
That's right, it was Sunagakure.
The Land of Rain was currently basically divided into four parts. Apart from Amegakure, which was huddled in the central region, Konoha occupied a large area in the south, the northeast belonged to Iwagakure, and the west was Sunagakure's territory.
Seimei hadn't forgotten his plan to obtain the Puppet Secret Technique and improve his Chakra Control level. After returning to the battlefield, he had applied for it.
Now, after going through layers of approval, he had finally been transferred to the west of the main camp.
From now on, his missions would be concentrated in this area.
This would greatly increase his chances of obtaining the Puppet Secret Technique.
However, before that, he still needed to familiarize himself with the opponents. After all, he had been fighting Iwa-nin for the past few months.
Now that he had switched, he naturally needed to get acquainted with Sunagakure's fighting style.
Because each ninja village had different geographical environments and leadership choices, there were significant differences in the ninjas' combat methods, fighting habits, and even chakra attributes.
For example, in Iwagakure, because Onoki had opened the doors of the Ninja Academy wide, setting very low entrance standards and graduation requirements, the number of Iwa-nin was almost the highest among the Five Great Ninja Villages.
But similarly, the average combat power of Iwa-nin was also the lowest among the Five Great Ninja Villages.
Therefore, to fully utilize their value, they needed to work in groups and cooperate as a team.
Hence, Iwa-nin were more skilled at group combat.
In contrast, due to its desert location and scarce resources, Sunagakure couldn't afford to train that many ninjas.
So, the number of Suna-nin was almost the lowest among the Five Great Ninja Villages.
But correspondingly, fewer people meant more concentrated resources, so the ninjas trained by Sunagakure were mostly elites.
Compared to group combat, they were more adept at one-on-one battles.
Naturally, different strategies needed to be employed against these different types of ninjas.
And this was what Seimei meant by familiarizing himself with the opponents.
Time passed by.
As it neared dusk.
Seimei and the others finally arrived at their destination.
After completing the handover with the ninjas stationed there, they officially began their patrol mission.
(End of Chapter)