The sun rose and set.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.
This was the final day of Seimei's current round of intense training.
That night, after finishing two hours of Body Extreme practice, Seimei completed the last item on his training schedule for the day.
Next, according to his plan, he would head to the other three villages to swap out the wooden clones he'd left there and, while he was at it, figure out a way to steal the Hidden Stone Village's records on Dust Release training methods.
As a bloodline elimination technique developed by the Second Tsuchikage, Mu, and passed down to the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, the Hidden Stone Village definitely had detailed records.
So, Seimei wasn't worried about finding his target.
Once he got his hands on those records, it would massively speed up his progress in developing Dust Release.
Over the past three days, his shadow clones had been experimenting, and he'd fully grasped how tough it was to develop Dust Release.
By his estimate, without any reference material, successfully combining Fire, Earth, and Wind Release to create Dust Release would take him two to three years at least.
And that was only because he'd already gotten a handle on blending two chakra nature transformations.
For someone without that foundation, they might not even see a glimmer of success in their entire lifetime, let alone achieve it.
But two or three years was still too long for Seimei. He didn't want to wait that much.
So, stealing the Hidden Stone's records was a must.
With that thought, Seimei didn't waste any more time. He packed up his gear, swallowed a few enhanced soldier pills to replenish his energy, and immediately activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
That's right—this time, he didn't use a flight ninjutsu to head to his destination. He went straight for teleportation.
Why?
Simple. His chakra reserves were plenty right now, so there was no need to skimp.
Clearing his mind, Seimei stopped overthinking and looked around.
In just an instant, he'd gone from the clearing in the center of Moon Island to a forest outside the Hidden Mist Village.
Byakugan~
Familiar with the scene, Seimei focused his thoughts, unsealed the mark on his forehead, and activated his Byakugan.
The next moment, everything in his vision changed. Darkness was no longer a barrier. With the Byakugan's X-ray vision, he could see his surroundings clearly.
After confirming there were no anomalies in the Hidden Mist Village ahead, he activated the Ama no Miya ability, effortlessly slipped through the village's sensory barrier, and entered the village.
Then, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique again, teleporting to the underground cave where his wooden clone was stationed.
The moment he appeared, he dispelled the Wood Clone Technique.
This ensured there were no mix-ups.
Standing in the cave, Seimei closed his eyes and carefully reviewed the wooden clone's memories.
Unlike shadow clones, wooden clones were tougher and bolder, so they were far more active.
As a result, their memories were much more extensive than those of shadow clones.
Digesting those memories took him a bit longer.
However, while the volume of memories had increased, the amount of useful information hadn't.
Seimei couldn't help but regret not instructing the clone to filter out the useless stuff beforehand.
Rubbing his temples, Seimei opened his eyes again.
After a moment of thought, confirming that nothing noteworthy had happened in the Hidden Mist Village over the past month, he raised his hands to form seals and cast the Wood Clone Technique again.
His shoulder wriggled.
The next moment, a new clone split off from his body.
Seimei looked at it and, without hesitation, used All-Encompassing Seal to create a pocket dimension within the clone.
Then, he placed his hand on the clone's body, channeling a million points of chakra into it.
After finishing, he looked at the wooden clone and instructed, "Unless something comes up, try to keep activity to a minimum."
The wooden clone, inheriting his latest memories, understood immediately.
It nodded and said, "Got it."
Seeing this, Seimei didn't linger. He activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and teleported back to the forest outside the Hidden Mist Village.
As usual, he activated his Byakugan and scanned the area.
Confirming no one was around, he triggered Ama no Miya again, slipping into a different dimension to bypass the Hidden Mist's sensory barrier and leave the village.
Once he was out of the village's surveillance range, Seimei drew chakra from the pocket dimension in his forehead, fully replenishing his reserves.
Then, he locked onto the position of the wooden clone hidden in the Hidden Cloud Village, focused his thoughts, and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
His vision shifted abruptly.
In an instant, he went from the outskirts of the Hidden Mist to inside the Hidden Cloud Village.
He'd confirmed last time that, due to its unique geography, the Hidden Cloud Village didn't have a village-wide sensory barrier.
So, he teleported directly in.
Beneath a pool of water.
In a pitch-black underground space.
The moment Seimei's figure appeared, a vine shot out and wrapped around him.
No need to guess—it was the wooden clone stationed here.
The clone seemed prepared for his arrival, though. Before the vine could fully coil around him, it confirmed his identity and retracted.
But Seimei didn't even acknowledge the clone's reaction.
The distance between the Hidden Mist and Hidden Cloud was just too far. Teleporting in one go took a toll on him.
It wasn't enough to completely drain him, but losing a chunk of chakra so quickly still left him feeling rough.
Right now, he was rapidly pulling chakra from the pocket dimension in his forehead to replenish his body.
Naturally, he didn't have time to deal with the wooden clone.
Time ticked by.
Soon, he'd fully restored his chakra.
"Phew~"
Only then did he let out a long breath.
Checking his condition, Seimei muttered under his breath, "Looks like I still need to boost my chakra cap."
Sure, his chakra reserves were far beyond most ninjas, but teleporting across the entire shinobi world in one go was still a stretch.
Seimei's goal was the stars and seas. If he couldn't even move freely across the shinobi world, that'd be a real problem.
So, he had to keep pushing his chakra limit as high as possible.
Only then could he unleash more chakra in an instant, teleport farther, and gain greater freedom.
He'd been working toward that goal all along.
It was just a matter of keeping at it.
Clearing his thoughts, Seimei stopped daydreaming.
He raised his hand, forming a ball of Fire Release chakra in his palm.
Instantly, the surrounding darkness was pushed back as a flicker of flame lit up the underground space.
Looking at the wooden clone, whose arm was gradually returning to normal, Seimei asked directly, "Anything big happen in the Hidden Cloud Village lately?"