Seimei drags in a slow breath… then exhales like he's blowing smoke.
Calm the hell down. Focus.
He shuts everything else out and reaches with his senses, feeling for the spatial node buried in this cavern.
Ten seconds. Twenty.
There it is.
Just like he thought—this spot's a direct pipeline into another dimension. Natural energy is getting vacuumed straight through the damn wall and into whatever's on the other side.
Then—snap—the whole pocket dimension just vanishes.
Seimei's eyes narrow. Every nerve lights up.
Sage chakra's already circulating—natural energy yanked from his stomach dimension and mixed on standby. One thought and he's full Sage Mode, 100% murder output.
He waits.
Five seconds. Ten.
Nothing comes crawling out.
"…Guess it wasn't me," he mutters, tension easing a hair.
Look, he's not scared of throwing hands with one of the Three Holy Lands, but he's also not dumb enough to start a war over nothing. That shit would just waste months of training.
Good thing the universe isn't that much of an asshole today.
Another minute ticks by, and the node flickers back online.
Natural energy starts flowing again… but something's off.
Seimei frowns.
The vibe's different.
The first dimension felt cold, scaly—like sticking your hand in a snake pit. Pure Ryūchi Cave energy.
This new one? Still damp and chilly, but wrapped in warm, vibrant, life-filled chakra. Yang Release on steroids.
He'd bet his Rinnegan this is Myōboku's giant slug princess—Shikkotsu Forest.
Only one real owner in there: Katsuyu herself. Every other slug is just a chunk of her.
So the first one was Ryūchi Cave, this one's Shikkotsu Forest… which means the node is rotating between the Three Holy Lands.
Why the hell is it switching every eight hours?
Seimei has zero clue, and it's pissing him off.
So he plants his ass right here and waits, eyes cracked open behind the eyelids, watching for the next flip.
He's not leaving a fat question mark hanging over the best training spot he's ever found. No way he's letting shadow clones babysit this without knowing the pattern.
Of course he's not just gonna sit on his hands like a chump.
Wood Clone—pop.
Tops off his chakra from the forehead stash.
Then—bam—224 shadow clones explode into existence.
Four extra compared to last batch. His max chakra crept up another 600k+ in the meantime. Nice.
He seals the whole squad into the usual scroll, tosses it to the Wood Clone. No words needed. Dude locks onto Moonlight Island, Flying Thunder Gods out, gone.
Seimei refills again, pops another hundred shadow clones, and scatters them around the cavern like a natural-energy dragnet.
At this density? A hundred clones will more than cover his daily sage needs.
He remotely pops a sleeping Wood Clone back on the island for one last top-off, then drops straight into Sage Mode—face paint, frog eyes, the full package.
Body Extreme, go.
Yeah, no lava-forged hell-chamber down here, so gains are slower.
But slower still beats zero.
He grinds, rep after rep, while keeping one corner of his Rinnegan peeled for spatial shifts.
Eight hours bleed away.
Midnight creeps in.
He's just debating whether to crash here or head back when—there it is again.
Tiny ripple.
Rinnegan flares.
Shikkotsu Forest vanishes.
Sixty seconds later, a third pocket dimension slides into place.
No special flavor this time, but process of elimination says Myōboku Mountain.
Home of the big prophetic toad.
Seimei feels a tiny chill crawl up his spine.
If the Great Toad Sage dreams about some asshole siphoning "their" natural energy, things could get spicy.
He waits, half-expecting a toad summons squad to pop out and start swinging.
…Nothing happens.
Either Gamamaru didn't see shit, or he saw it and didn't care.
Seimei shrugs. Works for him.
Three rotations, eight hours each—someone set up a ritual or array that cycles the Three Holy Lands through this node like a damn conveyor belt, slurping up the world's natural energy on a schedule.
Not his circus, not his monkeys.
And since his clones have been guzzling the stuff the whole time with zero holy hit-squads showing up, he's calling it safe enough.
Decision made.
Main body's heading back to Moonlight Island to keep hammering the volcano forge.
Natural energy? These hundred clones can camp here 24/7 and pipe it home.
Just to be safe—if Orochimaru tries any sneaky shit while he's gone—he leaves one Wood Clone on permanent guard duty.
Seimei cracks his neck, disperses the training clones for the memory haul, and locks onto the island mark.
Time to get back to god-mode grinding.
Flash.
He's gone.