After putting the sealing scroll containing a living, breathing Elite Chunin-level ninja away as if he were putting away some necessary trash he would need to throw out later, Seimei swiftly moved to the previous battle zone.
As he arrived there, he saw his shadow clones already cleaning the battle zone.
One of his shadow clones walked toward him and tossed another sealing scroll at him.
The shadow clone had a lazy vibe that screamed Nara. It was divinely annoyed by the clean-up and corpse-collecting job he had to do. It would rather laze around somewhere comfortable.
Seimei could swear that something was seriously wrong with the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
What if…what if one of his shadow clones inherited some of his rather embarrassing personalities and made a scene in front of many people?
It would be social death.
The yawning shadow clone saw that Seimei was in a daze and said with an annoyed expression, "We have sealed up the bodies and heads of the unidentified ninjas we have killed in that scroll. You would probably need it during your report to the intelligence division."
Hearing this, Seimei suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and nodded.
He was about to ask about how the treatment of the Konoha ninjas was proceeding when the clone instantly dispelled himself.
The shadow clone's memory immediately flooded into his mind along with its remaining chakra.
It didn't even take him one-tenth of a second to sort out all of the clone's memories and understand the situation there, including the condition of the Konoha ninjas.
His lazy shadow clone just didn't want to waste time narrating everything, so it directly dispelled itself to transmit all the relevant memories to Seimei.
After understanding everything, Seimei let out an amused chuckle.
"On second thought, shadow clones with different personalities aren't a bad thing."
"At least my long-term, solo missions won't be boring and lonely in the future."
"Now…"
The Konoha ninjas, whom his shadow clones had treated, regained enough strength to travel to Konoha on their feet.
So, Seimei joined them to protect them from any other sudden danger or life-threatening situations.
And after traveling for one and a half hours, Seimei and the group of Konoha ninjas arrived at the gate of Konoha without any trouble.
Seimei went straight to the Hokage's office. He reported everything about the ambush of chakra beasts on the fellow Konoha ninjas and the group of unidentified ninjas he discovered while saving them.
Then, he proceeded to explain his fight as well as everything he observed before handing the scrolls containing both the living and the dead Shinobi to his father, Senju Tobirama, who was now working as the Second Hokage.
After that, he went back home.
The interrogation unit, along with the Yamanaka clan's mind-reading specialists, would still take time to extract every info from the dead ninjas' heads.
As for the Elite Chunin-level ninja he captured…he will certainly receive the utmost hospitality of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Division.
Anyway, his job was done.
He would ask his father about the unidentified ninjas later.
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Next Day, at the Senju Residence…
It was already past 8 PM. Seimei and Tobirama were sitting across from each other on two tree branches after some light exercise.
Well, it was a light exercise for his father, Tobirama.
For Seimei, it felt as if he had just gone through years of life-and-death struggle. Training with his father was never easy.
No matter how strong Seimei got, Tobirama would adjust his own strength with pinpoint precision, forcing Seimei to reveal almost all of his trump cards.
But even then, he would still get thrashed all the same.
Fortunately, the injuries weren't too bad this time.
Just a minor recovery potion and a good night's sleep would be enough for him to recover completely by the next morning.
While he slept, his terrifying physique, which was brimming with vitality, would take care of mending the damaged tissues, making his body even stronger than the day before.
Not even the black and blue bruises would remain.
What's more, Seimei was already ten years old now, and he had already entered the first growth phase of a ninja's life.
At this stage, his physical strength, agility, vitality, reflexes, mental power, and chakra capacity would experience a sharp rise until he reached adulthood (Becomes 18).
His intense training, battle experience, and physical growth have caused his combat power to receive a significant boost over the last year and a half.
Now, he could fight head-on against Elite Jonin-level ninjas. And if he fought cleverly, he could easily take down multiple Elite Jonin.
But still, that was his limit.
If he suddenly met an S-rank Shinobi now, he could only flee.
The power difference between an Elite Jonin and an S-rank ninja or a Quasi-Kage-level ninja was still big after all.
But it didn't matter.
If he insisted on fleeing, there was no way an S-rank ninja could stop him from retreating.
In this world, as long as you could return home alive, you were a qualified ninja. Of course, that was as long as you didn't destroy your homeland in the process.
He would flee today. But that wouldn't be the end.
Sooner or later, he would also reach S-rank and even higher.
His system and the Otsutsuki bloodline gave him what most people in this world lacked—the sheer potential for unlimited growth.
As long as he could retreat and didn't die, he would grow stronger with every passing month and year.
Then, he would go in search of the enemies who had forced him to retreat or threatened his life and crush them mercilessly.
But now was not the time to dwell on that.
Because his father was about to talk about those unidentified ninjas.
And talk he did.
"Let's talk about the unidentified ninja and his dead comrades."
"You know, there are independent ninja clans, right? I told you about them."
Seimei slowly nodded his head with curiosity gleaming in his eyes.
Seeing this, Tobirama continued.
"When the Senju and the Uchiha clan founded Konoha together, we actually invited every ninja clan of the Land of Fire to join us."
"After all, my brother wanted to create a united group of ninjas to prevent unnecessary conflicts within the borders of the Fire Country."
"If all ninja clans and ninjas within the Land of Fire came together under a single banner of Konoha, we could avoid clan wars or constant conflicts that forced the Shinobi clans to sacrifice a lot of their clansmen every year, including children."
"Tired of constant conflicts and war, many ninja clans joined our cause."
"That's how Konoha was founded, and we kept integrating as many ninja clans as possible until the end of the third year of the Konoha calendar."
"That's how we managed to create a stronghold of more than 200,000 ninjas and a few million civilians and merchants with decent potential to give birth to offspring who could become loyal Konoha Shinobi in the future."
"In fact, your friend, Ishimori Haneda's family, was one we had specifically scouted and brought here."
"Haneda's father had the talent to be a ninja. But he was too old. So, we thought that even if he couldn't become a ninja, his offspring might inherit his innate talents."
"And we were spot on."
"I'm sure I don't have to elaborate since you know how talented your friend is. A civilian ninja in training who has an innate affinity to five basic elements."
Then, Tobirama's expression became more solemn, and he kept talking.
"However, not every ninja clan of the Fire Country joined us."
"There were those Shinobi clans who felt that joining us meant the end of their clan's autonomy and influence."
"Although they decided not to join us, they agreed to never harm the people of the Fire Country and the ninjas of Konoha, which is essentially an autonomous military stronghold within the country."
"To earn their keep, those clans pledged their loyalty to the nobles, big merchants, and Daimyo of the country."
"I don't have the exact numbers. But those independent ninja clans must have at least 20,000 ninjas. The number can be as high as 30,000 ninjas."
"We were supposed to be neutral."
"But now, it seems one of these independent clans, the Oshino clan, has a death wish."
The more Tobirama spoke, the angrier he became.
Chakra surged around him like wild waves, and his eyes radiated chilling killing intent.
Seeing this, Seimei just had one thought in his mind.
Another ninja clan is going to be exterminated from the face of the world, isn't it?
Oshino clan, oh Oshino clan…why did you have to target Konoha?
Now, you're done for.
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