Land of Water.
Northwest.
Inside a small town's inn.
Four Kiri ninja had each taken a room and were resting.
Out of nowhere, a new figure appeared in one of their rooms.
And the moment it did, it stood right at the head of the bed where the Kiri ninja was sleeping.
As if sensing something, the ninja on the bed snapped his eyes open.
Upon seeing the intruder, he immediately tried to roll out of bed to put some distance between himself and Seimei.
Yup, the intruder was none other than Seimei, who had teleported in using Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique).
He looked at the Kiri ninja's frantic reaction, his expression unchanged. With just a glance, he pulled the ninja's consciousness into a genjutsu.
This caused the ninja's rolling motion to freeze, and he flopped back onto the bed.
But Seimei wasn't exactly thrilled about it.
Why? Because under his Byakugan's x-ray vision, he could see that in the two adjacent rooms, the Kiri ninja who had been sleeping were now wide awake.
They'd already gotten out of bed, cautiously looking toward his direction, and were moving toward their doors, clearly planning to come check things out.
Honestly, their reactions caught Seimei a bit off guard.
Sure, when he teleported in with Hiraishin no Jutsu, his chakra signature would leak for a split second.
But that window was usually so short that Seimei could suppress it with a single thought.
Under normal circumstances, regular ninja wouldn't even notice.
Yet these two did.
Clearly, they weren't your average ninja.
And the guy on the bed?
His reaction was lightning-fast too. Sure, he didn't manage to do much in the end, but he'd still made the right call to try and get away from Seimei immediately.
All of this screamed that these guys weren't ordinary.
Seimei reined in his thoughts and glanced at the face of the ninja on the bed.
His 24-point Spirit attribute gave him a killer memory, and he instantly recognized this guy as the captain of a Jōnin squad that had been chasing an Iwa Anbu member that one night.
In other words, this dude was a legit Jōnin.
Good thing Seimei had appeared out of nowhere, and his Mangekyō Sharingan was like a cheat code against regular ninja.
Otherwise, if this guy had gotten even a moment to breathe, Seimei might not have taken him down so easily.
As for the other two…
Seimei scanned with his Byakugan again.
The guy in the left room was unfamiliar, with no marks on him.
But the one in the right room was one of the Kiri Anbu he'd planted a seal on that night. Right now, though, he wasn't wearing the signature Anbu gear.
No clue if he'd quit the Anbu or was on some undercover mission.
Either way, just as Seimei had suspected, these two weren't pushovers.
And now that they were alerted, trying to quietly turn them into his pawns was obviously a no-go.
So, no point wasting time.
With a thought, Seimei activated Ama no Go's ability, phasing through the door and stepping into the hallway.
By now, the two ninja had come out of their rooms, one on the left, one on the right. And further down, the door to the fourth room had just been pushed open, meaning someone else was about to step out.
Using his Byakugan, Seimei checked the chakra levels of the three.
Quickly, he locked onto the weakest one—the ninja in the fourth room.
Seimei moved, using Ama no Go to phase across the hallway, appearing right in front of the guy.
Then, in the ninja's shocked and confused face, Seimei deactivated Ama no Go, revealing himself.
The ninja tried to shout a warning, but the next moment, he froze in place.
Just before his consciousness was dragged into a genjutsu, all he saw was a blood-red haze, his vision dominated by a massive pair of Sharingan eyes, like black suns.
The overwhelming pressure snuffed out any thought of resistance.
Though he didn't manage to sound the alarm, there was already a Kiri ninja facing Seimei from the other end of the hallway.
So, the moment Seimei appeared, that ninja spotted him.
Without hesitation, he hurled a kunai.
Seeing this, the former Kiri Anbu ninja on the right reacted just as fast.
He spun around, throwing a kunai of his own while kicking off the ground, charging at Seimei like a cannonball.
His speed was almost on par with the kunai thrown by the guy on the left.
But too bad for them—this was all pretty basic for Seimei.
With a glance, the Mangekyō Sharingan's insane perception picked apart the flaws in their attacks.
Seimei dodged with a few quick flashes, evading the initial kunai from the left, followed by a few shuriken that came after.
At the same time, he seized an opening and nailed the charging former Anbu with a powerful Konoha Gōriki Senpū (Leaf Strong Whirlwind), sending him flying.
Before the two could launch another attack, Seimei cast Genjutsu: Kurayami no Gyō no Jutsu (Darkness Walking Technique)!
Originally, this jutsu could only target one person, but after maxing it out, Seimei could now hit multiple targets at once.
As an A-rank ninjutsu with high learning difficulty, it was effective even against Sharingan users, let alone two "ordinary" ninja.
The moment Seimei used it, the two Kiri ninja in the hallway lost their vision, standing there like blind men, warily shifting into defensive stances.
But if they weren't a match for Seimei at full strength, what chance did they have now, half-blind and severely weakened?
Seimei flashed forward, reactivating Ama no Go mid-movement. In the split second he vanished and reappeared, he was already in front of the closer ninja—the former Kiri Anbu.
The next moment, he cast Jigyō Jubaku no In (Self-Karma Curse Seal).
Dense seal patterns appeared, instantly locking down the ninja's movements, leaving him standing there like a wooden post.
Then, Seimei flashed again, appearing before the other ninja. He dodged a blind stab guided by instinct, then slammed a Rasengan into the guy's stomach, critically injuring him.
Pfft!
A gush of blood spewed from the ninja's mouth.
Seimei ignored it, shaping his hand into a blade and using Chakura no Tō (Chakra Scalpel). With a few quick swishes, he severed key nerve points, including the spinal nerves.
And just like that, the ninja was completely paralyzed.
"Phew…"
After all that, Seimei let out a light breath.
With that, all four members of this Kiri squad were out of commission.
Now, he could do whatever he wanted with them.
The whole fight sounded long, but it all went down in less than a minute.
Still, since they were in an inn, some people had noticed the commotion.
Seimei's ears twitched, picking up suppressed breathing from a few nearby rooms.
Clearly, those were the ones who'd heard something.
But thanks to his earlier Byakugan sweep of the entire inn, he'd confirmed that aside from these four Kiri ninja, there were no other ninja around.
So, he wasn't worried about anyone interfering.
As for the ordinary folks who'd heard the noise?
Small fry have their own survival instincts. They might've heard something, but they wouldn't dare step out of their rooms.
So, no need to sweat it.
Of course, when he left, he'd wipe a chunk of their memories to make sure his presence didn't leak.
But for now?
Time to deal with the spoils!
Since these guys couldn't be turned into pawns, they'd just have to serve as fuel to replenish his chakra.
With that thought, Seimei crouched down, formed hand signs, and cast Ninjutsu: Chakra Kyūshū no Jutsu (Chakra Absorption Technique) on the paralyzed Kiri ninja.
Time ticked by.
Soon, the guy was drained dry, reduced to a husk.
After that, Seimei stood up and repeated the process, sucking the chakra, mental energy, and physical energy from the other three.
All told, he gained nearly 100,000 chakra points.
While it didn't fully cover the chakra he'd burned through tonight, it offset a huge chunk of it.
(Chapter End)