After lingering for a while longer to sort through the information in his mind, Seimei decided not to waste any more time and prepared to return to the village.
But before that, he first dispelled his Shadow Clone Technique.
In an instant, all the shadow clones training across the nearby sea vanished.
Immediately afterward, a flood of training experiences and memories surged into his mind.
Seimei quickly closed his eyes, carefully processing and absorbing the information, eventually converting it into skill proficiency.
Time ticked by, second by second.
About ten minutes later, Seimei reopened his eyes.
After a final check of his equipment to ensure everything was in order, he focused on the Flying Thunder God Seal he had placed at home. With a thought, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
His vision shifted abruptly, and in the next moment, Seimei returned to the village, appearing in his bedroom.
In front of him was a shadow clone who had just received the mission.
Seimei nodded at his clone and took the mission scroll from its hand.
Unrolling the scroll, he carefully read through its contents.
This time, the mission was both simple and complicated.
Simple, because all he needed to do was reach the Land of Lightning and escort someone back safely.
Complicated, because not only was this person being targeted by ninjas from the Hidden Cloud Village (Kumogakure), but there were also some individuals within Konoha watching him closely. There was a chance that by the time Seimei arrived, the person might already be dead.
Even if he managed to retrieve the person, enemies from both sides would likely pursue and try to intercept them.
How the situation would unfold depended on the developments to come.
As for why this individual was being targeted so fiercely?
It all traced back to research notes left by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
As everyone knew, Tobirama Senju was a genius researcher.
The famed Flying Thunder God Technique now mastered by Minato Namikaze, the world-altering Edo Tensei (Reanimation Jutsu), and the commonly-used Shadow Clone Technique were all results of his research.
And those were just the tip of the iceberg. After his death, the room filled with his unfinished research and incomplete jutsu prototypes remained.
This mission was related to one of those unfinished techniques.
The Hidden Cloud Village recognized the value of Tobirama's research after seeing the power of Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique.
After a long-term setup, using spies, they managed to steal some of Tobirama's research data.
At first, Konoha was unaware.
By chance, one of Konoha's spies stationed in the Hidden Cloud discovered this secret research, following the clues to uncover the stolen information.
Not only that, but the spy also realized that the Hidden Cloud had made significant progress and even created a terrifying prototype of a forbidden jutsu.
What kind of forbidden technique it was remained unclear, as the scroll only mentioned that it would have a tremendous impact on the battlefield.
Once the spy confirmed the situation, he decisively destroyed the research data, killed several Cloud ninja researchers, and fled with the findings.
Now, the Hidden Cloud was hunting him down.
Seimei's mission was to rendezvous with the spy and escort him back safely.
At first glance, it seemed like the only threat was from external enemies. But why were internal forces involved too?
It was simple: the Hidden Cloud spy within Konoha hadn't been caught yet.
Only those with high-level access could get their hands on such sensitive information.
Thus, Seimei also had to watch out for betrayal from "his own people."
For these reasons, Seimei knew this mission would require both strategy and caution.
Luckily, his strength was more than enough—if he could successfully retrieve the target, his raw power alone would be enough to fight his way out.
With a clear plan in mind, Seimei quickly packed his gear, sealing anything he might need, then left the house and headed toward Konoha's main gate.
In truth, he could have simply dispelled the shadow clone from within the village and headed straight to his destination from the offshore island.
But doing so might have exposed his use of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
He would rather take the extra effort than risk such exposure.
Additionally, this strategy could serve as bait to lure enemies out of hiding.
If the Hidden Cloud spies were truly influential, they might make a move against him.
If they attempted an ambush or tried to monitor him, Seimei could turn the tables and uncover their identities.
It was also the perfect opportunity to test his perfected Mind-Reading Technique—as long as the enemies made a move soon enough.
As it turned out, his reputation as the "Ghost Sword" was still intimidating, or perhaps the Hidden Cloud spies didn't want to risk exposing themselves.
No ambushes or surveillance occurred along his journey out of the village.
This ruined his plan to lure out potential threats.
"What a shame."
On a forest trail outside Konoha, Seimei used his Byakugan one last time to scan the surroundings. After confirming there were no threats, he let out a sigh.
Without wasting another moment, he formed hand seals and activated both Chakra Cloak and Wind Release: Wings of Wind before soaring into the sky, heading toward the Land of Lightning.
During his last mission, he had to march on foot due to the size of his team.
This time, however, traveling alone meant he could ignore terrain obstacles entirely and fly straight there.
This was also one of the main reasons Minato assigned him to this urgent mission.
At the moment, in terms of mobility, no one in the village could match him—aside from Minato himself with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
In fact, in some ways, Seimei's mobility surpassed even Minato's since the Flying Thunder God required special markers, and Minato couldn't possibly have placed them everywhere.
Sometimes, the freedom offered by Wind Release: Wings of Wind was simply more convenient.
High above, Seimei watched the scenery blur past beneath him and shook his head, focusing entirely on his journey to the Land of Lightning.
His maximum flight speed was 300 meters per second—18 kilometers per minute, or 1,080 kilometers per hour.
Several smaller nations lay between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, and the straight-line distance exceeded 2,000 kilometers.
Factoring in the distance from each village to their respective national borders, the total journey could surpass 5,000 kilometers—nearly half the circumference of the entire ninja world.
Fortunately, Seimei had enough chakra to fly continuously.
Otherwise, if he had to stop and rest, the mission target would likely be long dead by the time he arrived.