Chapter 89: Exposed

Snapping back to reality, Seimei picked up the short sword beside him and swung it downwards, effortlessly slitting the throat of the Iwa-nin in front of him.

In truth, if he wanted to maximize its use, he shouldn't have killed the opponent directly.

Instead, he could have imprisoned them, forcing them to continuously refine chakra, and then extract it from them at intervals, thus obtaining a steady source of chakra.

However, the current situation obviously didn't allow him to do so.

Moreover, he didn't have any effective means to control the opponent at the moment.

In that case, Seimei could only reluctantly eliminate them.

Looking away, Seimei turned his attention to the Iwa-nin whose limbs he had pierced. Without any hesitation, he walked straight towards him.

Along the way, he formed hand seals again and activated the Chakra Absorption Technique, his right hand once again enveloped in a layer of chakra.

"What are you doing?"

Before Seimei could even get close, the Iwa-nin cried out in fear.

Clearly, he had witnessed what Seimei had just done.

But Seimei didn't care. With a flash, he appeared before the Iwa-nin and grabbed his face.

The next moment, a continuous stream of chakra flowed out from the opponent's body, through his right hand, and into his own.

This person had slightly more chakra remaining, so Seimei absorbed it for nearly thirty seconds before completely draining his chakra.

And he gained over a thousand chakra points.

Without wasting any time, Seimei exerted a slight force with both hands, and then heard a "crack." He had snapped the neck of the Iwa-nin in front of him.

Seimei stood up and walked towards the third person, the one he had first struck down. Due to the chest injury, he had already fallen into a coma.

This saved Seimei a lot of trouble.

Stepping over the pool of blood, Seimei placed his hand on the opponent's back and spent about twenty seconds draining his chakra.

Without chakra to sustain him, this person lost his life within a few breaths.

With this, Seimei had eliminated three enemies. Apart from the consumed chakra, he had gained a net profit of over three thousand chakra points.

This amount of chakra was enough for him to use the Heart Reflection Technique more than eighteen times, which translated to six points in Sharingan evolution progress.

If he accumulated four more points, it would be equivalent to a day's progress.

In other words, it would bring the time for his Sharingan to evolve into Three Tomoe one day closer.

Although it was only one day, don't forget that Seimei had only absorbed the chakra of three ordinary Chunin this time.

If the number of targets were higher or their level was higher, the chakra he absorbed would undoubtedly be more, allowing him to save even more time.

Not only that, but currently, his Chakra Absorption Technique was only at lv1, with a chakra conversion loss of nearly 50%.

If he became more proficient and the loss decreased, the chakra he could obtain would also increase, which would undoubtedly further accelerate the evolution of his Sharingan.

Furthermore, the chakra consumed during the battle wasn't wasted; it was converted into proficiency for other skills.

In this way, when he cultivated again, Seimei could appropriately reduce his investment in these skills and instead allocate more chakra to practicing the Heart Reflection Technique.

This would further accelerate the evolution of his Sharingan.

Thinking of this, Seimei couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. He finally saw hope.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~

Just then, several kunai suddenly shot from the side.

Catching this in his peripheral vision, the Sharingan in Seimei's pupils spun rapidly. Like a cannonball, he pushed off the ground with both feet and launched himself away.

However, as soon as he landed, several more kunai were shot at him.

The angle of these kunai attacks was very tricky, just at the edge of his field of vision. Even if he swung his sword to block, he couldn't completely deflect them all.

Left with no choice, Seimei could only dodge again.

However, what awaited him was another sneak attack with several kunai.

Seimei had to continue dodging.

After five consecutive dodges, Seimei finally found an opportunity to counterattack.

Thump, thump, thump~

Using a large tree to block some of the kunai, Seimei swung his short sword, knocking down the remaining few.

Then, he stabbed the short sword into the ground, rapidly formed hand seals, and unleashed a Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique in the direction the kunai had come from.

The massive fireball, carrying a wave of heat, crashed into the bushes.

Suddenly, a figure darted out from within.

Seeing this, Seimei immediately took out several shuriken and threw them at the figure.

However, this person's reaction speed was extremely fast. Seeing the shuriken coming, they immediately swung their kunai, deflecting the shuriken that were blocking their path.

Then, with a flash, they dodged behind a tree, avoiding the attacks of the remaining shuriken.

Seimei originally intended to continue his assault.

But just then, behind the kunai he had dodged earlier, thin, almost invisible steel wires appeared.

Suddenly, the area where he stood was like a cage, enveloped by a net formed by the steel wires.

Moreover, this net was rapidly shrinking.

If it were an ordinary person, they might have fallen for it, but Seimei had the Sharingan.

Although the previous situation was urgent, he still relied on the Sharingan's powerful perception to notice the clues behind those kunai.

Therefore, he had anticipated all of this.

In that case, it was impossible for him to be caught.

He twisted his body like a gymnast, avoiding contact with all the steel wires and slipping out before they closed in.

The prepared attack missed, and the hidden assailant paused their attack.

Suddenly, the scene fell silent.

Seimei looked around, and after a long while, he said, "Come out. If you want to kill me, hiding in the shadows won't be enough."

Tap, tap, tap~

Faint footsteps approached.

Two figures emerged from the darkness.

Seimei looked towards the sound and frowned slightly.

Although these two individuals wore Iwagakure headbands and Chunin uniforms, their aura was completely different from other Iwa-nin.

'Iwa Anbu?'

This thought crossed Seimei's mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

Even Iwa's Anbu ninjas shouldn't have such a unique aura.

In Seimei's perception, these two were like dead people, devoid of any vitality that living beings possessed.

If the Sharingan hadn't clearly told him that these two were indeed alive, Seimei would have thought they were corpses being controlled.

So...

'What kind of ninja would have such an aura?'

Seimei pondered.

Suddenly, he thought of someone - Danzo.

It wasn't that Danzo himself had this "deathly aura," but rather that the Root organization ninjas he led had a similar quality.

He remembered that at the end of the Chunin Exams, when he sensed Danzo's malice and glanced in his direction, it seemed that the figure beside him had a similar aura.

However, at the time, to avoid attracting Danzo's attention, he didn't look closely and quickly averted his gaze after a brief glance.

Now it seemed that he had been wishful thinking. Just because he didn't want to cause trouble didn't mean trouble wouldn't come looking for him.

"Danzo..."

Seimei gritted his teeth and spat out these two words.

At the same time, he glanced at the two, trying to discern something from their expressions.

However, it turned out he was overthinking.

The expressions of the two hadn't changed from beginning to end, even after hearing Danzo's name.

But this further confirmed his suspicions.

Only Root ninjas who had "erased their selves" could exhibit such an aura.

He just didn't know why they were targeting him. Was it simply because he was a member of the Uchiha clan?

Wait...

That might actually be the case!

Considering Danzo's prejudice against the Uchiha clan and his greed for the Sharingan, it was indeed possible that he would try to eliminate him, a "future star" of the Uchiha clan.

While he was still pondering, the two Root ninjas launched their attack.

(End of Chapter)