"Forget it, let's leave it at that for now."
Muttering to himself, Seimei decided to stop overthinking.
He stood up, gathered his belongings, and then sensed the Flying Thunder God mark in his training room within the village.
With a single thought, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and returned to the village.
That's right—tonight, he wasn't planning to rest on the island.
For the past week, he had been training at the very limits of his body and mind every single day. He was reaching his breaking point.
Now that Senluo Wanxiang Seal had been upgraded, he had reached a temporary milestone in his training. It was time to relax a little.
As the saying goes, too much of anything is bad. Even in training, balance is crucial. Seimei had no intention of pushing himself to the point of collapse.
---
His vision shifted abruptly.
One moment, he was standing on a giant rock on the island.
The next, he was inside his training room at home.
Almost the instant he arrived, faint footsteps echoed in the quiet room. The door to the training chamber swung open, and a figure stepped inside.
It was none other than his shadow clone, which he had left behind in the village to keep up appearances.
Their eyes met.
A moment later, the shadow clone dispersed.
Immediately, Seimei's mind was flooded with the past few days' worth of memories from his clone.
Although the information was substantial, he was already accustomed to handling such mental overloads—especially now that he had been using dozens of shadow clones for simultaneous training.
Besides, most of the memories were repetitive.
He quickly sorted through them.
However, as he finished reviewing the memories, his brows furrowed.
Over the past week, for some unknown reason, both the village and the Uchiha clan had significantly increased their patrols, as if they were searching for someone.
Unfortunately, his shadow clone, following his instructions, had kept a low profile.
As a result, while it had noticed some abnormalities, it hadn't investigated further.
This meant Seimei had no clear idea of what had happened.
He stood in place, thinking for a while, but still couldn't piece anything together.
In the end, he decided to let it go.
Whatever it was, he'd deal with it tomorrow.
For now…
He just wanted to take a hot bath and get a good night's sleep.
---
But just because he wasn't looking for trouble didn't mean trouble wouldn't come looking for him.
Just as he lay down and drifted into sleep, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed outside.
Though the footsteps weren't particularly loud, they were close enough to jolt his heightened senses awake.
In an instant, Seimei's eyes snapped open.
Lying in bed, he had been snoring just a moment ago. Now, he was fully alert.
The next second, he flipped over, grabbed the long blade beside him, and moved toward the window.
Peering through a narrow gap, he spotted two standard four-man patrol squads of Uchiha ninja approaching from opposite sides of the street.
Seeing them, Seimei immediately recalled the abnormalities his shadow clone had observed.
"Looks like something really is going on in the village. My shadow clone wasn't wrong—these people are definitely looking for someone."
As he pondered this, the squad leader of the right-side patrol team suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Then, his gaze snapped toward Seimei's direction.
No—more accurately, he was looking right at him.
Under the dim moonlight, the ninja's scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan glowed ominously.
In the brief moment their eyes met, a surge of powerful spiritual energy infused with chakra shot toward Seimei's mind through the gaze, attempting to drag him into an illusion.
That familiar sensation…
Seimei immediately recognized it.
It was the Uchiha clan's signature genjutsu—Genjutsu: Sharingan!
For someone to project such a powerful illusion from this distance, their Three-Tomoe Sharingan had to be at its peak.
Among the Uchiha, aside from Fugaku Uchiha and a few elders who had honed their skills over time, there was only one other person capable of this.
"Shisui Uchiha."
Seimei whispered the name, unaffected by the genjutsu.
Indeed, it was none other than Shisui Uchiha, a prodigy even younger than Seimei himself.
Recognizing Seimei's identity, Shisui withdrew his illusion.
However, the three other Uchiha in his squad were startled by their leader's sudden halt and wary stance. They immediately took up defensive positions, scanning their surroundings cautiously.
One second…
Two seconds…
Three seconds…
After more than ten seconds of silence, nothing happened.
One of the team members finally spoke up. "Captain, did you find something?"
Shisui briefly glanced back at Seimei before answering, "No, it's just one of our own."
Without waiting for further questions, he added, "You guys continue with the mission—I'll step away for a moment."
"Yes, Captain!"
Although confused, the three Uchiha obeyed immediately.
It was clear that they trusted Shisui immensely.
Seeing them acknowledge his command, Shisui nodded before vanishing in a blur, using Body Flicker Technique to leave the area.
---
A few moments later.
Outside Seimei's house.
Knock, knock, knock.
A firm yet measured knock echoed at the door.
Creaaak.
The door swung open from the inside.
Looking at Shisui standing at the entrance, Seimei, still visibly fatigued, sighed. "Come in."
As expected, Shisui had come to find him after leaving his squad.
Seimei had anticipated this, so he had already dressed and waited by the door.
Shisui, not bothering with pleasantries, nodded and stepped into the courtyard.
Inside the living room, the two sat in silence for a moment before Shisui finally spoke.
Noticing the redness in Seimei's eyes and his weary expression, Shisui asked with concern, "Seimei, you look…"
Hearing the genuine concern in his voice, Seimei waved a hand dismissively. "It's nothing—just overtraining."
Before Shisui could respond, Seimei cut to the chase. "What's going on lately? The patrols have been unusually frequent. Are you guys searching for someone?"
Shisui hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yes, both the Uchiha and the village patrol teams are looking for someone."
"What happened?" Seimei pressed.
"Over the past few days, the village's sensory barrier has been triggered multiple times," Shisui explained. "It seems someone has infiltrated the village."
"Triggered the barrier? An intruder?"
Seimei frowned slightly.
"That's right," Shisui confirmed. "Based on the analysis from the Barrier Corps, the intruder most likely used space-time ninjutsu. You know how dangerous that is. That's why we're searching for this person."
Hearing this, Seimei's heart skipped a beat.
Could they be talking about me?!
But he quickly dismissed the thought.
No—he hadn't returned to the village all week.
Which meant…
Whoever triggered the barrier was someone else.