"Seimei, Jonin!"
"Captain!"
...
As soon as Seimei appeared, all the surviving Konoha ninjas stood up, greeting him one after another.
Seimei glanced at them, nodded, and instructed them to rest and prepare for the next attack from the Mist Hidden Village.
He then found a spot to start treating his injuries.
Seimei first looked at his left shoulder, right waist, and thigh. There were three wounds in total, caused by a senbon needle and two kunai.
Though the injuries were not severe, the poison within them was not to be underestimated.
Luckily, his current constitution attribute had reached 19 points, greatly enhancing his body's recovery and self-healing abilities.
With the aid of chakra, he could resist the poison's effects.
Without these advantages, things might have been much worse.
Seimei formed hand seals, using the "Minor Ailment Extraction Technique" to sense the distribution of the poison in his wounds.
After a while, he began extracting the poison.
Soon, a ball of pitch-black blood was drawn from the wound on his shoulder. He flicked it onto the ground, releasing a strong, foul stench.
Seimei frowned slightly, flipping his palm to release a fire-style chakra that he used to incinerate the toxic blood.
With the foul smell gone, he resumed the Minor Ailment Extraction Technique to continue separating the poison from his body.
Before long, several more clumps of black blood were drawn from his shoulder wound and burned away.
"Phew~"
Feeling that the numb sensation in his shoulder had disappeared, Seimei let out a breath of relief.
After confirming that all the poison was cleared, he used the "Healing Palm Technique" to easily heal the shoulder wound.
Next, without hesitation, he treated the wounds on his waist and thigh the same way.
Unlike the senbon injury on his shoulder, these two wounds were caused by kunai and were slightly more severe.
Likewise, the amount of poison was greater.
However, since the poison had not spread too much yet, it was relatively easy to deal with.
In total, treating these two wounds took about the same time as the shoulder.
Once all three wounds were dealt with, Seimei felt much lighter.
But now was not the time to relax.
Earlier, to avoid being affected by the sealing technique of several Mist Hidden Chunin, he had forcibly endured a Water Arrow Jutsu from a Mist Hidden Jonin to cast his Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.
That injury still hadn't healed!
Seimei looked down at his abdomen.
There was a three-finger-wide hole in his stomach, with blood continuously flowing out.
This was the result of the Water Arrow.
Though the wound wasn't large, it had reached his internal organs, making it far more serious than the previous injuries.
For anyone else, survival, let alone continuing to fight, would be questionable.
Fortunately, Seimei's "Healing Palm Technique" had long since reached level 8, far surpassing ordinary medical ninjutsu.
Even with such an injury, it wasn't too much of a problem for him.
With that in mind, Seimei quickly formed hand seals to activate the Healing Palm Technique!
To speed up his recovery, Seimei did not hesitate to pour a large amount of Yang Release chakra into his body.
This method might not be the most chakra-efficient, but the healing speed was far beyond the norm.
Not to mention, Seimei injected Yang Release chakra more than once.
With his 19 points in constitution providing strong self-healing, the wound healed quickly.
Just then, a flurry of footsteps approached from afar.
Seimei suddenly opened his eyes.
Upon seeing him awake, the Konoha Chunin who had been standing guard immediately spoke up, "Captain, the scouting team just reported that the Mist ninja are about to arrive."
"Mm."
Seimei nodded in acknowledgment.
He wasn't surprised by this news.
Though he had killed a Mist Hidden Chunin scout on the way back, there were more than one scout sent out.
The enemy had surely gathered information about their position.
If anything, the reason they hadn't attacked earlier was likely due to the disruption he caused before leaving, which delayed them.
Otherwise, they would have attacked sooner.
Standing up, Seimei signaled the Konoha Chunin to stand down and then performed hand seals to use the Wind Style: Wings of Wind, taking to the sky.
...
In midair.
Seimei looked down.
Sure enough, he spotted the Mist Hidden forces.
They had already reached the frontlines of the Konoha camp, with both sides gripping their kunai, eyeing each other tensely.
His appearance immediately drew everyone's attention.
Konoha's morale slightly improved.
The Mist ninja, on the other hand, grew restless.
It seemed they had been waiting for him to show up.
Thanks to his Sharingan's keen insight, Seimei could clearly see a few Mist Hidden Jonin visibly relax.
They then wasted no time commanding their forces to attack.
In an instant, countless kunai were launched, though they weren't aimed at him but rather at the Konoha forces ahead.
Clearly, they had been waiting for him only to confirm his position, so he wouldn't catch them off guard.
Now that the real battle had begun, they wouldn't focus on just him.
In the sky.
Seimei watched as both sides clashed within moments but made no move.
He was waiting—for the Mist ninja to lose focus on him.
The battle had just begun, and the Mist still had attention to spare for him. But after a little more fighting, they wouldn't.
That would be the moment to strike.
Still, he needed to create some distractions.
Otherwise, he worried that the Konoha ninjas wouldn't hold out.
Right now, the Mist had about a 3.5-to-1 advantage, which was definitely concerning.
With a thought, Seimei flapped the chakra wings on his back, moving closer to the rear of the Mist Hidden forces.
Immediately, some Mist ninjas who were preparing to join the front lines stopped, eyeing him warily.
But in the next moment, Seimei's body traced a graceful arc in the air, flying back into the sky.
For the next few minutes, he continued this routine, feinting attacks to keep the Mist ninjas on edge, successfully distracting many of them.
Just as he was about to make a real move, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a group approaching from the direction of the Konoha base.
It was the support unit sent by Sano Nobuhisa.
This caused Seimei to hold back his attack and continue his harassment, waiting for the support to arrive.
Since an easier way to win was on its way, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
(End of Chapter)