As expected, just as he had anticipated, Katui was not injured by Seimei's sudden change of attack.
Almost at the moment Seimei's blade was about to touch his opponent's neck, Katui suddenly executed an extreme backward bend, narrowly avoiding the strike.
Whoosh!
Seimei's long blade grazed past Katui's cheek, the wind pressure from the blade slicing off several strands of his hair.
Feeling the murderous intent radiating from Seimei, Katui's heart pounded wildly!
He didn't dare to stay in place. With a forceful kick off the ground, his entire body shot backward like a cannonball, instantly putting distance between himself and Seimei.
This maneuver disrupted Seimei's planned follow-up attack, leaving him without an opportunity to strike.
Seeing this, Seimei snorted coldly and said, "Consider yourself lucky!"
With that, he sidestepped to avoid a kunai thrown by Akita Ri from behind, then immediately lunged toward his original target—the Cloud Village Jonin who had used Earth Release techniques to block his Fire Dragon attack.
Even though the enemy had taken advantage of Seimei's fight with Katui to close the distance between himself and his teammates, he was still somewhat isolated from the group.
Moreover, out of the three, he was the weakest in close combat. Naturally, Seimei chose the easiest target to eliminate first.
On the other side, seeing Seimei rushing directly at him, Miura Naosuke did not hesitate for a moment. He instantly leaped backward while forming hand seals, releasing a Fire Release technique. Several fireballs shot out in succession, heading straight for Seimei.
However, the hastily executed jutsu lacked power. Seimei's Sharingan spun rapidly, easily locking onto the fireballs' trajectories.
Instead of countering with a jutsu of his own, he relied solely on his extraordinary reflexes to weave between the flames, dodging every single one effortlessly.
His speed hardly diminished.
By the time Seimei reached Miura Naosuke, the latter barely had enough time to pull out a kunai in defense.
Without hesitation, Seimei swung his blade three times in rapid succession, aiming for Miura's chest, neck, and abdomen.
There was no elaborate technique to these strikes—only raw speed and power.
Yet, these simple yet deadly attacks made Miura Naosuke feel an unprecedented sense of danger.
Seimei's blade was so fast that Miura could barely see it.
With no other choice, he relied purely on instinct to block.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three crisp metallic clashes echoed.
In an instant, Seimei's blade and Miura's kunai clashed three times. Unexpectedly, Miura managed to perfectly block all three attacks.
Seimei, however, wasn't particularly surprised.
Indeed, Miura had shown from the beginning that he wasn't skilled in close combat.
But that was relative. Compared to his two teammates, his close combat abilities were indeed weaker, which was why he left the direct confrontation to them.
However, compared to most Chunin or even Special Jonin, he was still far superior.
After all, he was a true Jonin. His overall skills might have some weaknesses, but none would be a glaring flaw.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have qualified as a Jonin in the first place.
This wasn't some small, unregulated ninja village.
As one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages—particularly one as battle-hardened as the Hidden Cloud—there was no way they would promote an unqualified ninja to Jonin.
That would only expose their own weakness.
After all, the other four Great Shinobi Villages weren't just counting their number of Jonin; they cared about actual combat strength.
So, self-deception had no purpose.
These thoughts flashed through Seimei's mind as he observed his opponent. Without hesitation, he immediately activated the Shunkenjutsu (Instant Blade Technique), appearing at Miura's flank.
Then, he swung his blade once more.
Miura had already struggled to block the first three strikes. Now, facing another sudden attack, he abandoned the idea of directly blocking it.
He planted his foot and tilted his body sharply, narrowly dodging the blade.
But Seimei didn't let up. He shifted positions instantly, appearing on the other side of Miura, and slashed again.
Miura continued to dodge.
Seimei continued his assault.
For a moment, Seimei seemed to transform into a phantom, relentlessly attacking from all angles, forcing Miura into a precarious situation.
At this moment, Miura Naosuke finally understood why Seimei was known as the Demon Blade.
That's right—Miura and the other two Cloud Jonin had already recognized Seimei's identity.
Indeed, for the past two or three years, Seimei had not appeared on the Cloud battlefield, but the Hidden Cloud Village still closely monitored any rising talents from the Leaf Village.
And some of the more farsighted Jonin had even studied Seimei's abilities—Miura and his two teammates included.
Initially, they were somewhat skeptical about Seimei's rumored strength, assuming there was some exaggeration.
But now, they had no doubts.
Even setting aside the possibility that Seimei's presence here meant their reinforcement team had already been eliminated, his sheer combat ability alone demanded their full attention.
Not to mention, Seimei had just slaughtered over a dozen of their men in an instant.
Some might argue that Seimei only managed such a feat because he launched a sneak attack.
But in the world of shinobi, achieving the objective was all that mattered. Deception and trickery were commonplace—no one cared about how you did it, only that you succeeded.
The fact that he could successfully execute a sneak attack in the first place already proved his skill.
So how could they dare to underestimate him?
Because of this, in the short time Seimei was engaging Miura Naosuke, Akita Ri and Katui had already rushed over.
Without hesitation, they launched their attacks on Seimei.
Three against one—Seimei was quickly put on the defensive.
Seeing that Miura Naosuke was about to escape his attack range, Seimei hesitated briefly. Then, focusing his mind, he activated his Byakugan to scan the area, confirming there were no other enemies nearby.
With that, he activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.
That's right—he was done wasting time.
There was still another Cloud reinforcement squad to deal with. If he kept stalling here, the team he brought along would likely suffer heavy casualties.
Of course, casualties were to be expected in a mission, and everyone on the battlefield was responsible for their own survival.
But if he could minimize the losses, he would.
It wasn't out of some sense of mercy—rather, he had recently killed Danzo, and the situation in the village was somewhat delicate.
In such times, building a good reputation might save him a lot of trouble later.
Since it cost him nothing, he had no reason to refuse.
As these thoughts flickered through his mind, Seimei activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Suddenly, his eyes turned into twin black suns, radiating an eerie power.
Before the three Cloud Jonin could react, he activated the ability residing in his left eye—Amatsu no Mi!