Watching his shadow clone leave, Seimei finally stopped lingering.
He swiftly gathered his equipment, then activated Wind Release: Wings of Wind and Chakra Cloak, soaring into the sky and heading towards Konoha.
In truth, he had already placed Flying Thunder God seals both outside Konoha and at his residence. If he wanted to return quickly, he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble.
However, Seimei chose not to use them.
The reason?
It was simple.
Those Flying Thunder God seals were meant for emergencies only. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he wouldn't use them lightly.
As an S-rank forbidden jutsu recorded in the Sealed Scroll of Forbidden Techniques, he had no official way of obtaining it. Using it recklessly could easily give others an excuse to question him.
Of course, the fact that he had looted Root's collection was already known to those who needed to know. If he used this technique, they would undoubtedly deduce what had happened.
But there were still some people who didn't know.
Or rather, some who pretended not to know.
Because of this, he had to maintain appearances.
Even though he had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique, he couldn't use it without restraint.
Additionally, Flying Thunder God was a valuable trump card. If he could keep it hidden, he would.
With these thoughts flashing through his mind, Seimei stopped overanalyzing. He flapped his wings, accelerating toward Konoha.
More than half an hour later, Seimei arrived outside Konoha.
Deactivating Wind Release: Wings of Wind and Chakra Cloak, he landed on the ground.
Ignoring the astonished gazes of the people around him, he walked straight through Konoha's gates and entered the village.
Instead of heading directly to the Hokage's Office, he first made his way to Uchiha Fugaku's residence.
The message he had just received had come from Fugaku, so it was only natural to check in with him first and understand the situation before making any decisions.
Soon, he arrived at the Uchiha Clan District and reached Fugaku's home.
It seemed that Fugaku had been expecting him. The moment he entered, he saw the Uchiha clan head waiting for him.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Fugaku explained the situation.
As it turned out, not long ago, the front lines had faced a sudden surge in attacks from Kumogakure.
At one point, the enemy even broke through Konoha's defenses, advancing dangerously close to the Fire Country's borders. It was only thanks to the sacrifices of frontline shinobi that they managed to push Kumogakure back.
However, because of the intense battle, the frontline forces had suffered heavy casualties and were unlikely to withstand another large-scale assault. As a result, they sent an urgent request for reinforcements.
The problem was that Konoha had already deployed most of its shinobi to handle internal affairs within the Fire Country, leaving them short on manpower.
Since they couldn't rely on numbers, they had to make up for it with quality.
That's when they set their sights on Seimei—an elite jonin who had stood out during the Third Shinobi War and happened to be available.
Coincidentally, due to Namikaze Minato's influence, relations between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha were in a rare period of peace. So when Minato reached out, Fugaku quickly agreed to send him.
And just like that, Seimei was summoned back.
After hearing the full explanation, Seimei wasn't sure how to respond.
"Sigh."
In the end, he simply let out a light sigh and asked, "When do we leave? And who else is going?"
Seeing that he didn't refuse, Fugaku quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, he had been worried that Seimei would refuse outright.
From Seimei's actions, it was clear that he detested unnecessary trouble. Adding to that, his ongoing conflict with Danzo made Fugaku even more uncertain.
He was genuinely concerned that Seimei's temper would flare up, leading him to reject the mission.
Fortunately, Seimei was still considerate of the bigger picture and did not refuse.
However, if Seimei knew what Fugaku was thinking, he might have laughed out loud.
It wasn't that he was being considerate—he just didn't want to make things unnecessarily complicated over such a minor issue.
That's right. As far as he was concerned, Kumogakure's sudden aggression was just a small issue.
First, with his current strength, even if the A-B Combo of the Raikage and Killer B joined forces, they wouldn't necessarily be able to take him down—let alone anyone else from Kumogakure.
As long as his life wasn't in danger, no matter how dire the situation seemed, it wasn't truly a big deal.
Second, based on his memories from his past life, Kumogakure had never officially signed a ceasefire agreement with Konoha. Yet, even one or two years later, they still hadn't invaded the Fire Country.
This meant that this sudden attack was unlikely to be the prelude to a full-scale invasion.
Given that, he could infer that Kumogakure's recent actions were merely a way to test Namikaze Minato's leadership.
After all, Konoha had just appointed a new Fourth Hokage, and the frontline situation immediately shifted. The coincidence was too striking to ignore.
If his assumption was correct, this was just the beginning of a series of tests from various villages.
Other villages might not be as aggressive as Kumogakure, but they would certainly send teams to infiltrate the Fire Country and gather intelligence.
Thinking deeper, it was almost inevitable that Konoha's Anbu would be overwhelmed in the coming days.
Wait—
"Could it be that Kakashi is about to make his name through these upcoming covert battles?"
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed plausible.
Just a few days ago, he had noticed Kakashi donning the Anbu uniform.
If Anbu took action soon, with Kakashi's current self-destructive mindset, he would undoubtedly take the lead.
Under those circumstances, it made sense that he would quickly gain a reputation.
Brushing aside these thoughts, Seimei focused back on the conversation and listened to Fugaku's response.
Fugaku said, "Aside from you, there's a unit of a hundred shinobi—ten jonin, sixty chunin, and thirty genin. You'll be the captain."
"I see."
Seimei pondered for a moment before nodding.
Seeing his approval, Fugaku proceeded to break down the composition of the unit in more detail.
As expected, the team was made up of elite shinobi.
There were very few civilian-born ninja; most of them came from established clans.
Such a force had a combat effectiveness far greater than what the numbers suggested.
Seimei was satisfied.
After finishing their discussion, he left Fugaku's residence, made a quick stop at his own home to pack some essentials into a storage scroll, and then headed straight to the Hokage's Office.
He met Namikaze Minato immediately.
Time was tight, so Minato didn't waste words. He simply handed over detailed intelligence reports from the front lines and ordered him to depart.
Seimei didn't hesitate.
Outside the Hokage's Office, he met up with the assembled unit, conducted a quick headcount, and upon confirming that everything was in order, gave the command to set out.
Due to their light travel load, the journey didn't take long. In less than three days, they reached the northeastern part of the Fire Country, near the Land of Fields.
This was the front line of the war between Konoha and Kumogakure.
By the time Seimei and his unit arrived, Konoha's forces were struggling to hold off Kumogakure's attack.
It had to be said—the commander in charge of this battlefield had made a wise judgment.
Had he not requested reinforcements immediately, their existing forces would have been unable to withstand Kumogakure's assault.
Because of his swift decision, Seimei and his team had arrived just in time—preventing an even greater disaster.