Grind is My Ninja Way

After pondering for a moment, Seimei shook his head, put those thoughts aside, and headed towards the area where the wounded were being treated.

There was still an hour before the meeting started, and he planned to use this time to gain some proficiency in the Mystical Palm Technique.

Currently, his Mystical Palm Technique had reached Lv6, but it required a full ten thousand proficiency points to advance from Lv6 to Lv7.

Relying solely on practice would be too slow.

Therefore, he couldn't miss any opportunity for practical application.

Although this would prevent him from using the condensed Yang Release chakra to strengthen his body, sharpening the knife wouldn't delay the woodcutting. The sooner he mastered the Mystical Palm Technique to Lv7, the better the strengthening effect would be.

Arriving at the treatment area, medical ninja were already busy. Seimei seamlessly blended in and started treating the wounded.

The other medical ninja didn't say much, just nodded at him and continued their work.

Clearly, they were already used to Seimei occasionally coming to help.

Time passed by. About fifty minutes later, Seimei stopped the treatment, informed the head of the medical team, and left.

On his way to the meeting room, Seimei opened his panel and glanced at it. The proficiency of the Mystical Palm Technique had increased by one hundred and twenty points.

"Not bad!"

He muttered, closed the panel, and headed straight to the meeting room.

When he arrived, many people were already seated, all of them Jonin.

Seeing him come in, they all nodded in greeting, and some even took the initiative to say hello.

Seimei keenly sensed a subtle change in their attitude towards him. They seemed... more enthusiastic!?

Not only that, but he also saw a hint of apprehension in their eyes.

'What's going on?'

Seimei was puzzled, but after a brief thought, he understood the reason.

After all, the only thing that could make these people apprehensive was strength.

And strength...

He had just demonstrated it in this battle.

Leaving aside the later encirclement and annihilation, Seimei had been mostly conserving his strength, taking the opportunity to harvest chakra.

But in the earlier stages, he had faced the siege of several Iwa Jonin, killing four and severely injuring one.

Although only two of the four he killed were true Jonin, and the other two were special Jonin with specialized skills.

It still couldn't deny his strength.

So, it was normal for others to be apprehensive of him.

And this also made Seimei feel that his decision to hide his true strength at the end was correct.

His current achievements had already caused these people to be apprehensive. If he had killed those two Iwa Jonin as well, it wouldn't be just apprehension anymore.

Perhaps these people wouldn't do anything, but what about those who were at odds with the Uchiha clan? There was no guarantee that they wouldn't do something after learning the news.

Thinking of this, Seimei suddenly wasn't as looking forward to the upcoming meeting.

Now, he just wanted to go back and grind the proficiency of his various skills, thereby increasing his strength.

Only powerful strength could give him peace of mind.

However, it wouldn't be appropriate to leave now. Seimei could only wait quietly for the meeting to start.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long. Just a few minutes later, Nara Shikaku, who was presiding over the meeting, arrived.

He sat in the chief seat, tapped on the table, and directly announced the start of the meeting.

First, he summarized the gains and losses of this battle.

He didn't mention the captured equipment and losses, as they weren't very important. The main focus was on the casualties of both sides.

According to post-battle statistics, a total of ninety-three Iwa ninja had been eliminated in this battle.

Among them, eighteen were Jonin (including eleven special Jonin), sixty-three were Chunin, and the remaining twelve were Genin.

Such a victory was considerable for their small base.

Of course, this was only for their base. Other bases couldn't even dream of killing so many Iwa ninja, let alone not being overrun by them.

After all, the main personnel of their base were the spearhead of the counter-offensive plan executed over a month ago and were already elites.

After several fierce battles and a second screening, their average strength was even higher.

That's why they were able to annihilate the Iwa assault team in one fell swoop.

Even so, they had paid a heavy price.

"In this battle, we lost a total of eight Jonin, forty-six Chunin, and thirty-two Genin, with about sixty wounded, both lightly and severely."

Hearing Nara Shikaku's words, everyone fell silent.

With eighty-six casualties, in terms of the number of deaths alone, they were actually about the same as the Iwa ninja. At best, it could only be considered a pyrrhic victory.

Of course, if they were to nitpick, Iwa's losses were definitely more severe than theirs, as the number of Jonin casualties on both sides differed by a factor of two.

But overall, their losses were indeed not small.

After a long silence, Nara Shikaku continued, "We owe a lot to Seimei-sama this time."

Hearing this, everyone turned their attention to Seimei.

'What does this have to do with me?'

Seimei was puzzled.

Then he heard Nara Shikaku say, "If it weren't for Seimei-sama withstanding the pressure in the early stages, killing several Iwa Jonin, and entangling two others, our losses would have been even greater."

Everyone nodded involuntarily.

Indeed, the time with the highest casualty rate was during the initial interception battle. Eighty percent of the casualties occurred then.

As for the subsequent encirclement and annihilation...

Because they had more people on their side, even if they were injured in battle, they would often be rescued, so the actual number of deaths wasn't high.

And in the early stages, it was precisely Seimei who contributed the most, so it was not wrong to say that they owed it to him.

However, these words sounded a bit like excessive praise, potentially harmful.

Seimei glanced at Nara Shikaku, who was sitting in the chief seat, but couldn't discern anything from his expression.

'I hope I'm overthinking it!'

He muttered inwardly and said calmly, "I just did what I should have done. The victory in this battle should be attributed to the eighty-six comrades who sacrificed their lives. It was their lives that were exchanged for this victory."

Seimei's politically correct words silenced the others who were about to echo Nara Shikaku's sentiment.

Hearing this, Nara Shikaku looked at him in surprise, then added a few more words before moving on to the second topic.

The second topic was about their defense strategy going forward.

The Iwa ninja, having suffered such a heavy loss this time, definitely wouldn't let it go. If they could launch one surprise attack, they could launch a second or third.

Therefore, the subsequent defense was crucial.

Everyone understood this, so they all expressed their opinions and quickly formulated a tight defense plan.

"Very good, then everyone will act according to the plan," Nara Shikaku concluded.

At this point, the meeting was nearing its end, and Nara Shikaku finally mentioned the reason for the Iwa ninja's sudden large-scale attack.

(End of chapter)