Thanks to his fast movement speed, Seimei quickly arrived near the spot where the suspicious individual, dressed in civilian clothes, was scribing something on a scroll with practiced efficiency.
Now, this behavior was even more suspicious.
Scribing on a scroll in the middle of a secluded forest filled with chakra beasts?
And you think something fishy wasn't going on here?
No way!
This behavior…
It screamed "SPY!!!"
Of course, Seimei knew his speculations could be wrong.
This person here could very well be an off-duty Konoha Shinobi who came to this forest to spend some time alone and find inspiration to write some passionate stuff, just like Jiraiya from the original Naruto anime series.
It was just that this person probably liked to be surrounded by nature to draw inspiration, while Jiraiya drew his inspiration by peeping on the bathing ladies.
Cough…
But the possibility of such things was abysmally slim.
The chances of this stocky uncle being a spy were extremely high.
He just didn't know if this guy was someone from the other hidden ninja villages or a traitor of Konoha working for the other elemental nations.
"Well, I will find out anyway. Let's observe him first."
Seimei murmured while keeping an eye on the person a hundred meters away who was still scribing something in the scroll.
To avoid alerting the person, Seimei had already taken several precautions.
First, he had already activated a Chakra Isolation Seal to eliminate any trace of residual chakra from being leaked from his position. This way, even if the guy were a sensor-nin, he wouldn't be able to sense Seimei in his chakra field.
Second, Seimei had erected a Sound-Blocking Barrier Seal to block all the sound he made. Seimei could hear every sound the potential spy or other entities in the forest created, but they couldn't hear any sound made by Seimei.
Third, he had hidden behind dense foliage on top of a tree branch, which was a hundred meters away from the potential spy. But thanks to his Tenseigan, he could observe the guy's every move easily.
Everything was set.
Now, he just had to wait and see if the person tried to do anything to send information or meet with someone else.
If this person truly was a spy, Seimei would apprehend him. And if he turned out to be an innocent Konoha ninja, he would use Sharingan Genjutsu to erase the person's memories of their meeting here in the middle of the forest.
Simple and clean.
No trouble at all.
So, Seimei patiently waited and observed the potential spy's every movement, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
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[The Spy's POV]
My name is Akiyama Hisui, an official Shinobi from Iwagakure, Land of Earth.
I am 34 years old now.
After surviving countless calamities during the Warring States Era, I finally joined Iwagakure after it was formed by hundreds of thousands of ninja under the leadership of the First Tsuchikage, Ishikawa.
At that time, I was already a battle-hardened ninja who had stepped into adulthood.
Joining a peaceful ninja village was like a dream coming true.
I received plenty of resources, many relatively safe missions, and forged many valuable bonds with my fellow ninjas.
With the resources in hand, I also started dreaming about reaching the pinnacle of strength. I was already a Chunin-level ninja according to the new ninja classification.
So, I set my goals to achieve the rank of a Jonin.
However, soon, my dreams were utterly crushed by the cruel reality.
No matter how much I trained, no matter how much I persevered, I couldn't break past the shackles of my innate talent.
I had trained hard for fifteen years since becoming an official Iwagakure ninja.
I had fought countless foes, consumed many resources, and developed my main nature transformation affinity, Earth, as much as I could.
But all I could achieve was the strength of a mere Elite Chunin.
Although Elite Chunin sounded good, during the chaotic times of the Warring States Era, ninjas with the Elite Chunin-level strength were nothing but slightly stronger cannon fodder.
Before achieving the rank of an elder (Elite Jonin) or at least an elite ninja (full-fledged Jonin), all ninjas, except for the clan heirs, were expendable.
Canon fodder. Expendable. An utterly replaceable meat shield.
Yes, that's what I have become.
As a 34-year-old civilian ninja who had likely exhausted his potential and had little to no chance of ever stepping into the ranks of elite ninjas (full-fledged Jonin), I had now become an expendable asset in the eyes of my village elders.
And so, I was sent to Konoha as a spy.
Could there be any other mission that screamed expendable except for the forced mission to become a spy?
I really didn't want to take such a mission.
Because I knew that at least 9 out of 10 spies died during their missions for various reasons.
But what could I do?
Could I say no?
I couldn't.
I was weak.
I had no major clan's backing.
I had no voice.
I was helpless.
In front of the powerful village elders, I had no choice but to bow my head, receive a few weeks of espionage training, and obediently take the mission to infiltrate Konoha, the ninja village where the God of Shinobi resided.
So, in the end, I did it.
I infiltrated Konoha with the identity of one of the ninjas protecting a merchant traveling through the Land of Fire and other elemental nations.
Although the guards in Konoha were suspicious, the merchant's documents and identity were legitimate, and independent mercenary ninjas weren't rare, allowing me to enter Konoha without much trouble.
It had been two weeks since then.
My main mission?
It was to gather as much information on Konoha as possible.
The number of ninjas, the names of the prominent ninjas, their fighting styles, the names of the prodigies that should be in the hit list, and any information about the vulnerabilities of Konoha—my job was to discover any intel I could uncover and send it back to Iwagakure.
I had collected a lot of intel during those two weeks.
So, I decided to come to this secluded forest behind the iconic Hokage Rock of Konoha—a place with almost no people and only C-rank and D-rank chakra beasts—to write all the intel and send it to Iwagakure via messenger hawk.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
The merchant was planning to stay here for three months. As long as I stayed vigilant and collected enough valuable information, I could finish my mission and return to Iwagakure without any trouble.
After all, the higher-ups didn't care about the duration of the mission, only valuable intel.
Perhaps the rumors about our village and the other three main ninja villages preparing to go to war against Konoha were true.
But that wasn't what I should be focusing on right now.
I just want to finish this espionage mission, go home, and see my family now.
The state of constant vigilance was really wearing me down, both mentally and physically.
Whatever! Let's finish scribing first.
-----------------------
[Third Person POV]
After the Iwagakure spy, Akiyama Hisui, finished scribing, he rolled the scroll and bound it with a special ribbon.
Next, he grabbed a small, lightweight metal container, engraved with a simple storage seal, and put the thick scroll into the container's special storage space.
"This should do it," muttered Hisui as he clenched and unclenched his right fist. "Man. Writing so many things without the comfort of a chair and a table is indeed exhausting. My fingers are so numb right now that they are about to fall apart."
Hisui sighed and outstretched his right arm before saying, "Come here!"
As soon as his words fell, a 26-inch-long hawk with a wingspan of nearly 5 feet flew toward Hisui with the sound of flapping wings.
It was a trained messenger hawk with incredible endurance.
The hawk hovered above Hisui's head for a few seconds before flying down and sitting on his outstretched right arm.
"Good boy," Hisui complimented it before tying the small metal container that held the intel scroll to the bird's leg.
"Go now."
After Hisui finished tying the metal container to the bird's leg, he waved his arm, prompting the bird to take off.
Flutter~ Flutter~
Sure enough, the bird flapped its wings and took off.
Seeing this, Hisui couldn't help but breathe in relief.
Everything went smoothly.
…Or so he thought.
Whoosh~
However, before Hisui could completely relax, the sound of something sharp cutting through the wind echoed, startling him greatly.
"What's that?"
Hisui instinctively turned his head toward the source of the sound.
And what he saw made his blood run cold.
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A/N: If you like my story and want to read ahead, you can check out my P@treon page and read up to 17 Advanced chapters!
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