Seimei darted through the wild, rugged mountains and soon reached the outskirts of his target city.
Now, you'd think a city this close to the Land of Waterfalls would've gotten bustling real quick after the Third Shinobi World War ended. After all, import-export trade's always been a goldmine—both in his past life and this one—especially in a place like the ninja world, where the terrain's so distinct and varied.
But reality? This city was still eerily quiet.
And the reason's pretty straightforward. The Land of Earth's eastern and southern borders are boxed in by a massive mountain range that stretches who-knows-how-many miles. That's how they drew the line between nations.
During wartime, sure, that kind of terrain was a killer natural defense. But now? It's the biggest roadblock to trade between the two countries.
Iwagakure went all out to carve out a few trade routes, but the Land of Waterfalls is just too small. Plus, its own terrain's a mess—way too complicated for any big-time trading.
So, on this side near the Land of Waterfalls, there's no decent trade route to speak of.
Because of that, this city—which should've thrived off cross-border business—never hit the boom everyone expected.
Worse yet, the war drained it dry. Tons of people left, and it's only been in the last few months that civilians have slowly started trickling back in.
What's that? You're saying Takigakure wouldn't dare invade?
Yeah, you're right—they don't have the guts.
But that doesn't mean the other big ninja villages wouldn't "borrow" the route for their own moves.
All these factors piled up, and even after the war, this place stayed a ghost town.
Still, quiet or not, the city's got its usual classes and factions kicking around.
Seimei landed just outside the city, cast a quick "Transformation Technique," and slipped inside.
First thing he did was use his Byakugan's x-ray vision to scan the whole place, picking out everyone with chakra in their system.
There were a few stray ninja with no backing, some bounty hunters hustling for cash, and a handful of Iwa ninja hired as guards by the local nobles.
But all together? Barely a crowd.
And their skills? Let's just say Seimei could tie one hand behind his back and still mop the floor with them.
So, no real threat there.
Once he confirmed that, he didn't waste a second and kicked his plan into gear.
The plan itself was pretty simple.
Step one: track down the city's big shot—the noble lord appointed by the Land of Earth's daimyo.
As the guy with the most power on paper, his info network's gotta be decent, if not the best in town.
Seimei figured he'd start there, digging for any recent news about Old Man Onoki.
If there's nothing, he'd turn the lord into a sleeper agent, task him with keeping an eye out for Onoki, and while he's at it, map out the other factions in the city.
You know how it goes—cats have their paths, rats have theirs.
This high-and-mighty noble might not give a damn about some wandering monk, but the lower rungs of society? The riffraff and small-timers? They're a different story.
In a ninja world where travel's a slog, a monk wandering around stands out like a sore thumb to the locals.
Seimei was betting that if he turned the leaders of these shady groups into his pawns, he'd hear about Old Man Onoki the second he showed up.
And it wouldn't stop with this city—he'd pull the same move in every other town he hit.
Pretty soon, the whole Land of Earth would turn into one giant web. It'd look like nothing special most of the time, but the moment Onoki popped up, that web would snap tight and trap him good.
When that happened, Seimei could swoop in, no rush, and snag the Four-Tails off him.
What about Iwagakure catching wind of it?
Yeah, there's a chance.
But Seimei figured as long as his luck didn't totally tank, he'd be fine in the short term.
Here's why he thought so—three reasons, really.
First off, the people he'd control? Just regular folks.
In the ninja world, regular people and ninja might seem tied together, but they're actually pretty separate. Sure, civilians living in ninja villages might know a bit more about shinobi, but out here? Most don't even realize ninja exist.
It's basically ninja policing ninja, civilians handling civilians.
Unless something huge goes down, ninja don't meddle in the regular world.
So, Iwagakure's not likely to notice he's puppeteering these people anytime soon.
Second, his control methods are sneaky as hell. Even if someone senses something's off, they'd struggle to pin down what's wrong.
And last—the big one—he's not taking over entire groups. Just a few key leaders.
That slashes the odds of getting caught big time.
Put those three together, and unless luck totally screws him, Iwagakure won't catch on to the weirdness in the civilian world for a while.
And if they do figure it out way down the line?
Well, if he hasn't found Onoki by then, it won't matter much if these pawns get exposed.
With all that swirling in his head, Seimei activated "Heavenly Guard," dodged past a few mid-tier Iwa ninja and the regular guards in the lord's mansion, and zeroed in on the noble himself.
Then, it was plan time: first, he used "Ninja Art: Mind Reading Technique" to skim the guy's memories.
No dice on Onoki.
Right after, he slapped a Flying Thunder God seal on him.
Next up, he started setting up a "Transcription Seal."
But mid-process, he paused.
Here's the snag: regular folks don't have chakra. No way they could trigger a Flying Thunder God seal on their own.
So, Seimei improvised. He tracked down a stray ninja in the city and hit him with his Mangekyo Sharingan, brainwashing him into a go-between for Seimei and these civilians.
Now, when these regular folks spot the target and trigger the "Transcription Seal," they won't try activating the seal themselves—they'll just reach out to this stray ninja.
Then, the ninja passes the word to Seimei.
Yeah, it's a bit of a hassle, but it won't slow things down too much.
Why not use the noble's ninja guards as the middlemen?
Simple: those Iwa ninja might be hired help, but their gigs don't last forever. Forcing them to stick around would raise red flags with Iwagakure.
So, he had to pass on that option, tough as it was.
He didn't even mess with them or turn them into pawns like that Iwa sentry from before—too risky with Iwagakure potentially sniffing around.
All in all, this little operation hit a few bumps, but it went decently enough.