Just like that, a few hours flew by.
The sky was bright and clear.
Inside the wooden cabin, Seimei slowly opened his eyes. The blinding sunlight hit his face, making him raise a hand to shield it for a sec. After squinting and adjusting for a bit, he finally dropped his hand.
He turned his head, peering through the gap in the window toward the horizon. The sun was already halfway up the sky—yep, it was late morning.
Seimei did some quick mental math. Flying back from the Land of Water, even with a few delays, he figured he should've made it by now. Time to head back and report in!
With that thought, he sat up in bed. After a quick wash and popping a couple of soldier pills to fill his stomach (gotta love those ninja snacks ), he whipped out "Wind Release: Wings of Wind" and his "Chakra Cloak," soaring into the sky toward the Leaf Village.
About half an hour later, there it was—Leaf Village in sight! He dropped altitude, landing back on solid ground, and strolled right into the village like he owned the place.
But instead of rushing straight to the Hokage's office, he swung by his house first. Grabbing some ink and paper, Seimei jotted down everything from last night, turning it into a mission report. Naturally, he left out all the juicy secrets about himself.
Still, he did mention that Iwa ninja from their covert ops team. Truth be told, he'd rather not drag that guy into it. Once it's in the report, Minato's bound to ask questions, and then Seimei's stuck cooking up lies to cover the gaps.
Too bad skipping it wasn't an option. Last night's chaos in the Mist Village was a total mess—there's no way it'd stay hidden from the other villages. Seimei wasn't naive enough to think he was the Leaf's only intel source. Even if the spies couldn't get word out now with Mist Village on lockdown, once things loosened up, the info would leak. And if his story didn't match? Suspicion city.
So, yeah, he wrote about using that Iwa spy and the covert ops guy. Of course, he tweaked the details a little. Both of them were dead anyway—no one's gonna call him out on it.
It took him nearly an hour, revising and rewriting, but he finally finished the report. Sure, there were a couple of spots that seemed too convenient, but overall, it held together. Minato's sharp, but Seimei figured he wouldn't nitpick the small stuff.
Snap! He flicked the report with his finger, copied it over neatly, and then headed to the Hokage's office.
---
Half an hour later, it was almost noon. Seimei strolled out of the Hokage's office feeling light as a feather. Just as he'd guessed, once Minato got the scoop on what went down in Mist Village, he didn't dig into the report's little hiccups.
The debrief took a quick 30 minutes, and boom—mission complete! This gig netted him 500,000 ryo. Honestly, it's kinda chump change for an S-rank mission—those usually pay over a million. But since the village assigned it directly, the cash reward was lighter, with part of it swapped for village merits instead.
Those merits? Enough to snag an A-rank ninjutsu from the village stash. For now, though, Seimei wasn't cashing them in. He wanted to save up more and maybe—just maybe—convince Minato to teach him the "Spiritualization Technique" from the Scroll of Seals.
Yep, that's right—the S-rank forbidden jutsu that lets your soul pop out of your body! It's all about boosting mental strength and using it in a fight. Super risky to learn and use, but Seimei had his eye on it. His body still needed five months to fully sync with Hashirama's cells before he could tweak his "Mind Reflection Technique." Once that's done, he could evolve his Sharingan further and keep pumping up his mental stats.
That's gonna take six months at best, maybe nine at worst. Sitting around that long with no progress on his mental power? No way—he couldn't stomach it. That's where the "Spiritualization Technique" comes in. If he could master it, his mental stats would probably shoot up. Plus, he'd get a killer move and a shot at creating a new skill focused purely on mental growth, separate from "Mind Reflection."
If the Third Hokage were still in charge, he wouldn't even dream of asking. But Minato? Younger, bolder—maybe he'd greenlight a forbidden jutsu from the Scroll of Seals. So, Seimei was hoarding those merits.
The risks? Psh, his mental strength was already solid, so practicing it shouldn't be an issue. And with his proficiency panel, he could dodge the danger anyway.
Thoughts buzzing, Seimei shook his head to clear it and stepped out of the Hokage's office. After grabbing a quick lunch outside, he headed home.
He'd been training nonstop for ten days—time to chill! This mission gave him the perfect excuse to swing back home and take a breather. But he wasn't about to waste the downtime. He still had yesterday's unfinished business: figuring out how to use the 600,000 chakra points he saved daily now that he'd maxed out "Flying Thunder God."
---
At the Uchiha clan grounds, in Seimei's house, inside his training room:
Seimei pulled a scroll from his ninja pouch, formed a hand sign, and barked, "Release!" The storage scroll on the floor unrolled itself, revealing a dozen scrolls and books.
He cracked them open one by one. Seven scrolls held three Fire Release jutsu, two Earth Release jutsu, and two Lightning Release jutsu.
The books? Packed with training notes and insights on those three chakra natures.
To get a better grip on those chakra types, he'd picked some tricky jutsu to learn. Sure, their combat payoff might not match the effort—most people would call them duds—but for Seimei, they were perfect.
Only a clan like the Uchiha, with its deep history, could dig up obscure stuff like this from the back corners. Otherwise, he'd have been out of luck!