Below.
Inside Flying Fish Town.
A Mist Ninja dressed in a dark blue robe moved his index and middle fingers away from his right eye.
It could be seen that his right eye was covered with a layer of black cloth, with faint traces of a sealing technique on it.
This person was none other than the Hidden Mist Jonin known as the "Byakugan Killer"—Ao.
The right eye being concealed was a Byakugan.
It was precisely by relying on the long-range and x-ray vision of the Byakugan that he managed to spot Seimei flying in the air in advance.
Then, the attack followed.
Unfortunately, Seimei's reaction was beyond their expectations, and they ultimately failed to shoot him down.
Seeing Ao lower his right hand, the Mist Jonin standing beside him spoke up, "How is it?"
Ao shook his head and said, "He's already gone."
"Ah, what a shame!"
Upon hearing this, the Mist Jonin sighed.
Another Mist Jonin, however, did not show any sign of regret.
He said calmly, "There's nothing to be ashamed of. We were unprepared this time, so it's normal that we couldn't take him down."
He paused before continuing, "Think of this as practice; next time, we'll do better."
"Better, huh?"
Ao muttered as his gaze subconsciously shifted toward the direction where Seimei had left, thinking, "They gained experience this time, but didn't the enemy also gain experience? Next time, if the enemy is more cautious, it won't be as easy as it was today."
With this thought, Ao looked at the ballistae set up on the building roofs.
'These things are ultimately too rigid, whether in transportation or in use.'
'Though they are somewhat powerful, they're still a bit lacking for dealing with a person—especially since Seimei has a pair of Sharingan with incredible perception abilities, making it even more difficult.'
'It seems that these can only serve as a deterrent from now on.'
Ao kept pondering, trying to find a way to deal with Seimei.
Meanwhile, after about ten minutes of flying, Seimei finally returned to the Black Stone base.
By now, it was close to midnight.
However, like the Flying Fish Town base, the Black Stone base was also brightly lit. Besides the ninja on patrol, the command center also had personnel on duty.
Clearly, with the impending large-scale battle, both sides were highly vigilant, disregarding day and night, and staying on high alert at all times.
Seimei wasted no time in submitting the intelligence he had gathered.
Not only that, but he also reported the fact that Hidden Mist Village had somehow obtained twenty-one ballistae.
Although they were likely meant to deal with him, it didn't stop him from bringing it up.
This way, he could indicate that his missions weren't easy, and also let the village think of a way to destroy those ballistae if possible.
If they really could pull it off, he'd have one less worry during the upcoming battle.
However, Seimei estimated that the village probably wouldn't be able to do it.
After all, as long as the Mist's command wasn't completely incompetent, they wouldn't relax their guard over the ballistae—so how could they let them be easily destroyed?
Thus, Seimei didn't hold much hope.
Rather than relying on the village, he figured he might have a better chance of destroying a few on his next reconnaissance mission if he found an opportunity.
Of course, those were the most direct methods. There were also more roundabout ways—like developing a jutsu that could hide his presence.
That way, if the enemy couldn't see him, they wouldn't attack, and his safety would be assured.
However, Seimei didn't know that it was Ao who spotted him tonight. Even if he could hide, it wouldn't be enough to evade the Byakugan's detection.
So, it wouldn't work.
Still, not everyone had the Byakugan, and learning a concealment jutsu wasn't just for this war.
So even if he knew that Ao's Byakugan had exposed him tonight, he wouldn't give up on learning concealment-type jutsu.
Speaking of stealth abilities, it seemed that Hidden Stone Village had such a jutsu called the "Camouflage Concealment Technique."
Back in the day, while on a mission in the Land of Rain battlefield to raid the Hidden Stone's rear logistics transfer center, his companion—Mizutani Shizuko—had been killed by Hidden Stone Jonin Ohara Shuji using that jutsu to approach them.
If it weren't for Mizutani Shizuko pushing him away at the last moment, he might have died at the enemy's hands.
That was the first time he was so close to death. Although he had avenged her later, that moment still left a deep impression on him.
He felt that the technique perfectly suited his needs.
The only issue was that the "Camouflage Concealment Technique" was considered a secret technique in Hidden Stone Village. It wasn't easy for even a Stone Ninja to learn it, let alone him.
"This is going to be a problem..."
Seimei thought to himself.
However, he wasn't too anxious.
After all, he hadn't even mastered Earth Release chakra yet, so even if the opportunity were in front of him, he wouldn't be able to learn it.
'So, better focus on building a solid foundation first!'
With that thought, Seimei stopped lingering, left the command center, and headed straight to his residence.
Once back in his room, he tended to his wounds before beginning his training.
With a large battle potentially breaking out at any moment and too many people around at the base, it wasn't a good idea to use shadow clones for comprehensive training.
But this didn't mean that the chakra he recovered every day would go to waste.
Seimei raised his hands, forming the "Ram" hand seal, and used the "Shadow Clone Technique" as usual.
In the next moment, as chakra smoke dispersed, three shadow clones appeared in the room.
Seimei approached one of them directly, assigning it to work on Earth Release chakra development.
Next, he looked at the second one, assigning it to research the development of the "Mind Link Technique."
Ever since he learned how to fly, he had been working on this, and with the practical experience and insights he had gained, he felt he was close to success.
Once this jutsu was developed, he wouldn't need to rely on dispelling the "Shadow Clone Technique" to communicate with his clones.
That way, when facing an enemy, he wouldn't need to struggle with whether to relay information or provide combat support.
After sending the second clone away, Seimei turned to the third one.
The third clone was assigned to work on the theoretical groundwork for developing "Shadow Shuriken Jutsu."
In other words, to figure out how to develop the "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu" based on the "Shadow Clone Technique."
Undoubtedly, this was not an easy task.
So far, there had been little progress.
However, compared to developing the Flying Technique from scratch, developing the "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu" was undoubtedly much simpler.
After all, it had a foundation, and he had a related concept in his mind.
Just like developing the "Wind Release: Rasenshuriken" from the "Rasengan," although no one taught him, he succeeded quickly.
So Seimei believed that developing the "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu" wouldn't take too long.
After arranging for the three clones, Seimei himself moved to a corner of the room, sat cross-legged, and began alternating between using the "Mind Projection Technique" and "Mystical Palm Technique."
Nowadays, all his tasks were concentrated at night, so his few hours of sleep were moved to the daytime.
Thus, tonight would certainly be a sleepless night.
(End of Chapter)