Chapter 68: Abrupt End

After dodging several attacks in a row, Seimei flipped his palm and took out a kunai from his ninja tool bag, engaging in combat with Kohara Shuji. The two kunais clashed, creating a series of "clinking" sounds. However, Kohara Shuji's combat experience was clearly superior to Seimei's. In just a short while, Seimei had several more wounds on his body. *Slash~* Glancing at the new wound on his arm, Seimei suddenly exerted force, deflecting Kohara Shuji's attack. Then, he took half a step back, threw the kunai in his hand, and at the same time, drew the short sword from his waist. Compared to the kunai, the short sword was undoubtedly more handy for him. Kohara Shuji tilted his head to dodge the kunai thrown by Seimei. Seeing him draw his short sword, he sneered and pounced again. *Clang~* *Clang clang clang~* A more rapid sound of metal clashing rang out, indicating a more intense battle. Seimei originally thought that after using the 'Konoha-Style Kenjutsu', he could at least fight on par with the opponent, if not defeat him. Unexpectedly, in just two or three minutes, he fell into a disadvantage. In weapon combat, there's always the saying, "A longer weapon has a longer reach, a shorter weapon is more dangerous." His short sword, compared to Kohara Shuji's kunai, undoubtedly had an advantage in attack distance, but he couldn't fully utilize this advantage. On the contrary, Kohara Shuji's attacks let him truly experience what "dangerous" meant. In this small space, the opponent's attack and defense transitions were so smooth. At first, he could barely cope, but as time went by, he could only passively defend. Seimei had only briefly experienced this feeling of being crushed in technique by Furukawa. However, that was training. Although Seimei was not his opponent, he didn't feel much pressure. Now it was different. In a life-and-death struggle, he finally saw the true combat power of a Jonin. Moreover, Seimei vaguely felt that in terms of close combat ability, Kohara Shuji might have already surpassed Furukawa. Coupled with the fact that the opponent had rich experience in fighting against Uchiha ninjas, he tried many times to counter with the Sharingan but failed. At this time, Seimei also discovered his own problem, that is, in order to hide the Sharingan, he had made his use of the Sharingan too unfamiliar, and he didn't understand many techniques at all. In this way, it was okay to bully Chunin and Genin who hadn't seen much of the world, but if he faced an experienced Jonin, it would be a bit "helpless". 'Sure enough, practice makes perfect!' This battle made Seimei realize his shortcomings and also pointed out the direction for his future improvement. Now, Seimei was no longer thinking about how to kill the opponent because he simply couldn't do it. Now, he just wanted to learn more fighting techniques from the opponent and, by the way, improve the proficiency of the 'Konoha-Style Kenjutsu' and Sharingan. As for revenge... When his strength improved, there would always be a chance. Seimei was not someone who overestimated himself. Time passed by, and just as Seimei was immersed in the battle, several sharp whistles suddenly echoed throughout the field. 'This is... the signal that the mission is complete!' Seimei was awakened by the whistle, and this thought immediately popped into his mind. Immediately, without any hesitation, he abruptly distanced himself from Kohara Shuji at the cost of getting injured. Then, he used the 'Body Flicker Technique' and approached the nearest Konoha Jonin at an extremely fast speed. At the same time, other Konoha ninjas also gathered towards the Jonin around them. Then, before the Iwa-nin could react, led by these Jonin, they all gathered in one direction. During this period, some Iwa-nin also tried to stop them. But Konoha was prepared for this. They gathered very quickly, briefly forming a situation where there were more people on their side, and all of them had Jonin leading them. Therefore, the Iwa-nin couldn't stop them at all. When Huang Tu, the leader, reorganized his troops, the Konoha ninjas had already left the battlefield. But Huang Tu didn't want to give up. Seeing the reaction of the Konoha people, he knew that they had achieved their goal. And their goal, needless to say, was to delay. But now, the other party was about to retreat, which meant something self-evident. Huang Tu judged that it was probably too late to carry out the support mission now, so he simply gave the order to continue the pursuit. However, not long after they chased, they found that there was another group of people in the Konoha team ahead. These people were none other than the surviving Konoha ninjas from the river valley battlefield. In this way, the Konoha team grew stronger again, and their confidence also increased. On the contrary, Huang Tu didn't dare to get too close, for fear of encountering an ambush and counterattack. But similarly, they couldn't give up the pursuit either. After all, this was Iwagakure Village's defense zone. Even if it was a courtesy escort, they had to watch the Konoha ninjas leave and couldn't let them roam around. Just like that, with the tacit understanding of both sides, the Konoha ninjas gradually moved away from the river valley corridor. About an hour and a half later, they met up with the third squad that participated in the assault. Half an hour later, another team responsible for the interception also arrived. At this point, the Iwa-nin completely gave up their unrealistic fantasies. They had already lost this confrontation, and if they lost, they had to admit it. So they could only follow Seimei and the others from afar, watching them leave. Of course, Seimei and the others didn't dare to stay too long either. After all, they were in the enemy's territory. If they were surrounded, it would be a big trouble. Therefore, they left the Iwagakure Village's control area almost at the fastest speed. ... The next day. Morning. After more than ten hours of rapid march, Seimei and the others finally returned to their own territory. In Konoha's closest frontline outpost to Iwa-nin, hundreds of Konoha ninjas were lying down, almost every one of them injured. The medical ninjas who had already arrived were moving among them, treating these people. Seimei glanced at the surviving ninjas around him. The number was about half of what it was when they set off. Now, he finally understood why the Ninja World Wars couldn't last long. With this casualty rate, how could it last long? Fortunately, there weren't many such operations, otherwise, all the ninjas would be exhausted in no time. Shaking his head, Seimei stopped thinking about it and started to use the 'Healing Jutsu' to heal himself while thinking about his future training plan. First, the practice frequency of the 'Mind Reflection Technique' could be appropriately reduced. His Sharingan had been exposed, and there was no need to continue hiding it. He could keep it activated in the future and use the method of spending time to increase proficiency. In this way, he could save some chakra. And this chakra could be used to improve the 'Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique'. Secondly, the 'Konoha-Style Kenjutsu' still needed to be further improved. Seimei didn't want to experience the powerlessness of being crushed in technique again. Finally, there were the usage techniques of the Sharingan. Thinking of this, Seimei pondered for a moment, and finally murmured, "It seems that I need to contact the clan elders as soon as possible." That's right, he planned to start from within the clan. Although he could figure it out on his own, it was both a waste of time and unnecessary. After all, no matter how much he pondered, could he surpass the thousand years of inheritance of the Uchiha clan? So, when it was time to speak up, he had to speak up. He believed that once the clan knew that he had awakened the Sharingan, they wouldn't be stingy in teaching him this knowledge. (End of this chapter)