"Sigh... what a pity."
With a light sigh, Seimei pushed the thought aside and refocused on the tree trunk in front of him.
Looking at the Flying Thunder God seal he'd placed, he could clearly sense that unless he actively removed it, no one else would be able to erase it—at least, not without destroying the tree itself.
In other words, as long as he had enough chakra, he could teleport back here anytime, anywhere.
And this was just a tree.
But let's not forget—this seal could also be placed on people.
Just imagine—if a ninja with ill intentions learned this technique and randomly marked others with it, what kind of chaos would ensue? The entire shinobi world would be thrown into turmoil.
After all, no one would accept having their life and death controlled by someone else.
At that point, the so-called Flying Thunder God seal would become a Damocles' sword hanging over everyone's heads.
Perhaps that's exactly why the Flying Thunder God Technique was classified as a forbidden jutsu.
Difficult training, casting risks, intelligence leaks—these were all secondary reasons.
With that thought, Seimei's resolve to keep this secret became even stronger. The fact that he had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique must never be exposed—at least, not openly.
Unlike Minato Namikaze, Seimei couldn't win the trust of the masses.
Not to mention, his unauthorized killing of Danzo had already planted a thorn in the hearts of Konoha's higher-ups.
There may have been no evidence, but when it comes to how the higher-ups perceive you, evidence isn't always necessary.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, it was best to keep this ability hidden for now.
Of course, that was just for the time being. Once he no longer had to care about others' opinions, it wouldn't matter anymore.
Shaking off his thoughts, Seimei refocused.
Next, he turned his attention to the Flying Thunder God seal itself.
Since Tobirama Senju and Minato Namikaze each had their own unique markings, Seimei felt that, as the third user of this technique, he also needed his own distinct symbol.
After pondering for a moment, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Got it!"
He reached out and erased the previous seal on the tree trunk. Then, gathering his chakra, he re-inscribed a new Flying Thunder God seal in the same spot.
Unlike the previous complex and somewhat chaotic condensed sealing formula, this new mark was much simpler.
As for its design...
It consisted of a central circle with six straight lines radiating outward, all connected to the circle.
At first glance, it looked like the simple "sun" drawings that kindergarteners make.
And honestly, that wasn't far from the truth.
This design was inspired by his Mangekyō Sharingan, simplified into a seal.
Seimei studied the sun-like pattern carefully.
Then, after sensing it to confirm that the Flying Thunder God Technique could be activated normally, he nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad. This will do."
From now on, this would be his personal seal.
With a single thought, Seimei made the mark vanish.
After that, he returned to the large boulder and began contemplating how to allocate the 600,000 chakra points he would save each day now that he had perfected the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Well...
Actually, there wasn't much to think about.
He had already planned it out ten days ago.
With that in mind, Seimei reached into his ninja tool pouch and pulled out a sealing scroll.
Unrolling it, he formed a hand seal and muttered, "Release!"
Poof!
A burst of chakra smoke dispersed.
In front of him, a dozen scrolls and books appeared.
---
Yes, this was exactly what he had taken from the Uchiha clan's archive ten days ago.
The scroll contained records of several Fire, Earth, and Lightning Release jutsu, along with insights into mastering the chakra nature and shape transformations of these three elements.
At the time, he had already decided that once he had fully mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique, he would shift all the chakra he had invested in it toward practicing these new skills.
This would further deepen his understanding and control over the Fire, Earth, and Lightning chakra natures.
Now that the Flying Thunder God Technique was perfected as expected, it was time to begin.
However, just as he picked up one of the scrolls, a sudden flood of memories surfaced in his mind.
This familiar feeling…
Seimei immediately knew that one of his shadow clones had voluntarily dispelled itself.
Instinctively, he looked up and scanned his surroundings.
But the previous training session had just ended, and the next one hadn't begun yet. There were no shadow clones in sight, whether on the island or over the nearby ocean.
Wait—
Suddenly, Seimei realized something.
Without hesitation, he closed his eyes and carefully browsed through the incoming memories.
As he expected, these memories didn't come from any of his other shadow clones—they belonged to the one he had left behind in Konoha.
And for that clone to deliver a message in this manner… it had to be something serious.
Indeed, it was.
A moment later, Seimei opened his eyes, a thoughtful expression flashing across his face.
From the clone's memories, he learned that Minato Namikaze had just personally assigned him a mission.
Mission Rank: S-Class
Mission Objective: Infiltrate Kirigakure
Mission Details: Investigate the reason behind Kirigakure's sudden lockdown of the Land of Water.
Three days ago, Kirigakure had abruptly sealed off the entire Land of Water. All ports and major transportation routes were completely shut down.
Now, chaos was spreading throughout the country—panic, rumors, and misinformation were running rampant.
And most importantly, not a single shred of information was coming out of Kirigakure itself.
With the Third Shinobi War having just ended, tensions were still high across all the hidden villages. This sudden move by Kirigakure naturally drew everyone's attention—including Konoha's.
After multiple failed attempts to infiltrate the Land of Water through conventional means, Minato thought of Seimei. He wanted him to use his flying techniques to enter the country from above, then find a way into Kirigakure and uncover what was really going on.
Since the situation was completely unknown and he would be infiltrating enemy territory alone, the mission was classified as S-Class, with no upper limit on difficulty.
As he processed all this information, Seimei furrowed his brows slightly.
At first, he had assumed that Kirigakure was simply repeating history—sealing itself off once again to enforce its infamous "Bloody Mist" policy.
But after thinking it over, he realized that at this point in time, Obito Uchiha hadn't yet taken control of Yagura Karatachi.
Without Obito's influence, Kirigakure wouldn't have initiated such a policy again.
Which meant… something else was at play here.
Something unusual was going on.
---