The straight-line distance between the Village Hidden in the Rocks and the Village Hidden in the Leaves wasn't all that far. Pushing himself to the absolute limit of his speed, Seimei made the trip from just outside Iwagakure to the outskirts of Konoha in under half an hour.
By the time he arrived, the sky had only brightened slightly.
Seimei found a spot to land.
Then, like second nature, he scoped out an area rarely patrolled by Konoha's ninja, activated his Mangekyō Sharingan, and used the Ama no Miya ability to slip through the sensory barrier, entering the village undetected.
Without wasting a second, he rushed home at top speed.
He didn't bother dismissing the shadow clone he'd left behind. Seimei just splashed some water on his face, cleaned up a bit, and headed straight to his bedroom.
Ten straight days of grueling training, plus last night's mad dash, had left him utterly exhausted.
The moment his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light.
Soon, the faint sound of his snoring filled the room.
The shadow clone, seeing this, didn't know exactly what had happened but could tell Seimei was wiped out.
So, it quietly stood guard outside the door, making sure no one would disturb him.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Before long, the sun was up.
But Seimei was still fast asleep.
In fact, it wasn't until noon that hunger finally woke him.
Groggy, he cracked open his eyes, feeling his stomach grumble like it was staging a revolt. After wrestling with the idea of staying in bed, he dragged himself up and shuffled out of the bedroom.
Spotting the shadow clone by the door, Seimei mumbled, "What time is it?"
"Half past twelve," the clone replied, as blunt as ever.
Seimei did some quick math—he'd gotten about six hours of sleep. Compared to his usual recovery naps, that was way too short.
But there was no way he was crawling back into bed now.
"Whatever. I'll rest more after lunch," he thought, dismissing the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and absorbing the shadow clone.
As he headed to the bathroom to freshen up, he sifted through the clone's memories.
By the time he was done, he had a decent grasp of everything that had gone down in the village over the past ten days.
Out of all the news, one thing stood out: Namikaze Minato's order to investigate Orochimaru.
Just as Seimei had predicted, even with the approval of the old guard like Sarutobi Hiruzen, the investigation wasn't going smoothly.
Orochimaru, after all, was one of the legendary Sannin.
Meanwhile, Minato, the Fourth Hokage, had only been in charge for a few months. His grip on power wasn't exactly ironclad.
So, yeah, the investigation was hitting some serious roadblocks.
Obstacles were popping up left, right, and center—some out in the open, others in the shadows.
Seimei didn't know much about the shady stuff, so he didn't dwell on it.
But the public drama? That was impossible to ignore.
In just ten days, the whole village—ninja and civilian alike—was buzzing about it. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, and the arguments were heated.
Broadly speaking, there were two camps. One side backed Minato, saying it was only right to investigate Orochimaru and get answers for the people who'd gone missing.
This group was mostly smaller clans looking to gain some influence in the chaos, plus civilians who felt uneasy and wanted closure.
The other side claimed Minato was scared of losing his Hokage hat and was using the investigation to take down Orochimaru, his old rival for the title.
This crowd was mostly Orochimaru's former subordinates. Some were straight-up accomplices, while others were just terrified that if Orochimaru went down, they'd get swept up in the fallout.
Both sides were going at it like cats and dogs.
But Seimei? He caught a whiff of something fishy.
He wasn't surprised there'd be arguments—that was a given. But for things to blow up this much? That was unexpected.
Seimei had a hunch that spies from other villages were stirring the pot, fanning the flames to make it worse.
Otherwise, even with Minato's shaky control as a new Hokage, things wouldn't have gotten this out of hand.
At the very least, civilians wouldn't be this invested. There was a huge gap between ninja and regular folks—without someone lighting a spark, Seimei couldn't see them caring this much.
Especially when he thought back to the rumors that had been spreading through the village before. That only made him more certain of his theory.
Still, if he could figure that out, there was no way Namikaze Minato hadn't.
"Is he using this as a chance to clean house in the village?" Seimei muttered to himself.
He mulled it over but couldn't say for sure.
"Ugh, this kind of stuff isn't my thing," he grumbled, shaking his head.
He dropped the thought, got himself together, and headed out.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat and filling his stomach, he went back home.
Time to rest. For real this time.
---
In the blink of an eye, it was mid-afternoon.
Seimei woke up in his bedroom, sitting up and stretching with a satisfied groan. He felt good.
Suddenly, something clicked in his mind.
He closed his eyes and focused, checking on the Fūshin Sakuon: Keiyaku Shunshin no In seals he'd placed on his hidden agents last night.
None were missing. None had been triggered. And most were still on the move. Everything pointed to one thing: neither Kirigakure nor Iwagakure had noticed anything off.
"Phew," Seimei let out a long breath, finally relaxing.
He sat on the bed for a bit longer, then got up and left the room.
After wandering around the house, he grabbed a few books from the study.
Then, he headed to the courtyard, plopped down on a reclining chair, and started flipping through them leisurely.
The books detailed the experiences of Uchiha ninja who'd tried combining two chakra natures to create kekkei genkai.
Some of the notes, like the ones from Senju Tobirama's research on Doton: Kajuugan no Jutsu and Doton: Keijuugan no Jutsu, were rare finds the Uchiha had stumbled upon.
Last time he took a break, Seimei had borrowed a few from the Uchiha library. Over the past ten days, his shadow clone had been skimming them.
Thanks to the clone's memories, picking up the books again felt natural.
The clone's studies had given him a bit of a foundation, though not enough to start developing a kekkei genkai himself.
Still, Seimei believed in the power of steady progress. Quantity could lead to quality.
Once he had more theoretical knowledge, he'd be ready to experiment with blending chakra natures. When he finally went for a kekkei genkai, it'd save him a ton of trouble.
Who knows? He might even make crazy progress!
With that hope in mind, Seimei dove into the books, reading with focus.
As for the village's escalating drama?
He straight-up ignored it.
(Chapter End)