"No surprise there, huh."
Seimei muttered under his breath, watching the Hidden Stone patrol teams converging on his location within a one-kilometer radius.
Their coordinated movements made it clear—his presence had been exposed.
Otherwise, they wouldn't all be heading straight for him.
But how did I get found out?
Seimei's mind churned with questions.
Suddenly, he thought of the scrolls and books he'd just stashed away.
"Could it be…?"
A bold idea struck him.
He suspected the books and scrolls might contain traps or contingencies set by the Hidden Stone Village—or even Onoki himself.
After all, he'd been undetected for over two hours, but the moment he started flipping through those materials, trouble showed up. It was hard not to connect the dots.
True, the way the scrolls and books were stored didn't suggest they were highly valued by the village.
But as critical documents left by a former Tsuchikage, it wasn't unreasonable for the Hidden Stone to have placed some safeguards on them.
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
He'd only given the materials a quick glance earlier, so he couldn't be sure they were clean.
But abandon them? No way.
He'd gone through too much trouble to get his hands on those documents to just ditch them.
Re-checking them thoroughly? There wasn't time for that.
In the brief moment he'd been standing there, the first set of footsteps he'd heard had already reached the building's exterior—a four-man Anbu team.
They didn't waste time talking, immediately engaging two of Seimei's shadow clones outside.
Hearing the commotion, Seimei didn't hesitate. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled two kunai.
Swish! Swish!
The kunai sliced through the air, piercing the door and striking the two Hidden Stone Anbu still trapped in his Sharingan's genjutsu.
The sharp pain and suffocating sensation snapped them out of it.
But it was too late.
Their eyes, fixed on Seimei, were already lifeless.
Ignoring their final struggles, Seimei formed hand seals and cast a ninjutsu—Fire Release: Flame Cremation Technique!
Boom! Boom!
Two bursts of searing flames engulfed the Anbu, turning them into human torches in an instant.
The fire spread outward, licking at the precious documents on the shelves.
Seimei's move was a two-for-one: destroy the bodies to cover his tracks and force any potential enemies to split their focus to save the documents.
With that done, he sensed the Flying Thunder God mark outside the Hidden Stone Village, ready to teleport away.
At this point, he couldn't worry about the village's sensory barrier.
As long as he wasn't caught red-handed, whatever the Hidden Stone discovered afterward wouldn't matter.
But before he could act, a blinding white light pierced through the wall, shooting straight toward him.
A wave of indescribable dread surged in Seimei's heart.
This was, without a doubt, the most lethal threat he'd felt since arriving in this world—the closest he'd ever come to death.
On instinct, he activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.
His reflexes sharpened, and the world around him seemed to slow down.
Amaterasu!
He practically shouted the name of his ocular jutsu in his mind.
In the next instant, he vanished from the spot.
Whoosh!
The white light passed through his afterimage, sinking into the ground and silently carving a bucket-sized hole.
From the alternate dimension he'd slipped into, Seimei peered down through the hole and saw straight to the second floor of the Tsuchikage's building.
There, another slanted hole pierced through the floor, hitting the ground level and leaving a deep, smooth pit.
No need to guess what that white light was—it was the legendary Dust Release.
More precisely, Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique.
This forbidden ninjutsu could disintegrate anything it touched at the atomic level.
Its terrifying power could overwhelm even a complete Susanoo.
Seimei figured only Yin-Yang Release, which countered all other techniques, could block such an attack head-on.
His instincts had been right—if that hit had landed, even he would've been reduced to nothing.
Honestly, as his strength grew, Seimei had always said the ninja world was vast and he wasn't invincible.
But deep down, he'd gotten a bit cocky.
His brazen infiltration of the Hidden Mist, Hidden Stone, and Hidden Cloud Villages showed as much.
Onoki's attack was a wake-up call.
There was always a bigger fish, a higher sky.
Sure, Seimei's strength was top-tier in the ninja world. Even Onoki, who'd just posed such a threat, wouldn't stand a chance if Seimei got serious.
But the power of ingenuity was limitless. Someone could always devise a way to counter him.
He'd need to be more cautious moving forward.
These thoughts flashed through his mind as Seimei quickly reflected. Then, he traced the path of the white light through the hole in the wall, looking out into the night sky.
No surprise there—he spotted a short, barely four-foot-tall old man with a bushy beard and mustache blending into his eyebrows, and a comically large nose.
It was none other than the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki.
He was floating in the air, hands positioned at his chest, staring intently in Seimei's direction.
Unfortunately for Onoki, he couldn't see Seimei.
But Seimei couldn't just leave like this either.
The catch? While using Amaterasu, he couldn't activate Flying Thunder God.
He'd have to reappear in the real world first before teleporting.
But if he did that and used Flying Thunder God, it would ruin his disguise as Obito Uchiha.
After all, Flying Thunder God's teleportation was distinctly different from Kamui's.
If no one was paying close attention, he could've gotten away with it before—the village's sensory barrier wasn't that precise.
But now, with a cunning, battle-hardened veteran like Onoki watching, using Flying Thunder God would give him away instantly.
That would spell trouble.
Seimei hadn't forgotten that the Hidden Stone still suspected the Hidden Leaf was tied to the disappearance of the Four-Tails.
A few months ago, they'd even sent someone with Yuzuki Imamura, a fake Four-Tails Jinchuriki, to infiltrate the Land of Fire.
If they linked this incident to the Hidden Leaf, it would spark open conflict between the two villages.
Even if Seimei himself stayed in the clear, it would still affect him.
He had no interest in wasting time and energy on that mess.
So…
This ends here!
With that resolve, Seimei stepped toward a corner of the room.
Once the wall blocked Onoki's line of sight, he deactivated Amaterasu.
Before Onoki could launch another attack, Seimei darted forward, reaching the door in an instant.