Grind is My Ninja Way

"How is the situation now?" Seimei asked Kanda Otsuru.

Kanda Otsuru immediately handed him the monocular and said, "Those four warships are still advancing. It seems they intend to directly attack the forward base."

This answer didn't surprise Seimei. He nodded, took the monocular from Kanda Otsuru, and looked in the direction he pointed.

The moon was exceptionally bright tonight, and Seimei easily spotted the four Kirigakure warships.

At this time, they were a bit closer to the reef watchtower, but they didn't come towards it. Instead, they formed an angle with it and headed towards the Konoha forward base in the Land of Waves.

Indeed, as Kanda Otsuru said, they were most likely planning to directly attack the base.

In that case, his mission was to wait for the battle to break out and then launch a surprise attack from their rear.

In this way, he could stall for a while longer.

And at this point in time, every minute he delayed increased the possibility of his main body returning.

So, naturally, he would delay as long as possible.

However, just as he was thinking this, he suddenly saw several dark figures jump off the ships.

"This is..."

Seimei abruptly took away the monocular and activated his Sharingan.

Although the Sharingan's long-range vision was average, with its powerful insight, he could still see some things.

"As expected, it's Kiri-nin!"

Seimei's heart stirred, and he thought, "Are they coming this way?"

Indeed, those Kiri-nin who jumped off the ships were stepping on the sea, heading straight towards them.

And behind them, on the other three ships, more Kiri-nin were jumping off.

In the end, a team of nearly fifty people was coming towards them.

This made Seimei's face look very unsightly.

Others, seeing his expression, asked: "Captain, what's wrong?"

"The enemy has discovered us."

Seimei replied concisely.

"What?"

Hearing this, the others, some anxious, some calm, all looked in that direction.

With the help of the bright moonlight, they could roughly see some dark figures rushing towards them.

Seimei picked up the monocular again, carefully observing the movements of those ships. Seeing that they were still heading towards the Land of Waves, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

The ships didn't turn around, which meant that although the enemy had discovered them, they didn't attach much importance to them.

And a mere fifty enemies were still within an acceptable range.

With this in mind, Seimei immediately ordered: "Everyone, prepare for battle!"

"Yes, Captain!"

The others responded in affirmation.

However, before they could leave, Seimei spoke again: "Attention, once the battle starts, try to stall for time as much as possible. After those ships are far away, then go all out and annihilate this group of enemies."

The reason why Seimei made such arrangements was, firstly, to prevent the Kiri-nin from calling for reinforcements if they couldn't win, and secondly, it was indeed to stall for time.

The other Konoha ninjas obviously understood his first intention and quickly replied: "Understood, Captain!"

"Mm."

Seimei nodded and let them go prepare.

As for not being able to support the main battlefield in time because of this, Seimei wasn't too concerned.

They were already holding off enemies that outnumbered them, so what else could they do?

They couldn't just leave all the fighting to them, right?

Therefore, Seimei wasn't worried about any subsequent repercussions.

Now, he just hoped that his main body would return quickly.

······

Rewinding back to a few minutes ago.

On the other side.

After several hours of long-distance travel, Seimei finally crossed the strait and arrived at the Land of Waves.

Then, he sprinted all the way and arrived near the forward base.

However, before getting close, he noticed something was amiss.

In the dead of night, the base, which should have been silent, was now bustling with activity.

From the looks of it, they seemed to be building defenses.

In an instant, Seimei understood that the enemy was coming to their doorstep.

Because he didn't know the situation of his shadow clone for the time being, he didn't rashly reveal himself but used the 'Transformation Technique' to change his identity.

Then, relying on his familiarity with the base and his advanced Chakra concealment technique, he infiltrated the base and returned to his residence.

Opening the hidden compartment under the bed, Seimei took out a piece of paper from it. On it, in characters, was written the mission of his shadow clone and his various plans.

This was a backup plan he had prepared long ago, precisely to prevent such a situation from happening.

Now it seemed that this preparation wasn't in vain.

"Watchtower No. 3... stall for time..."

Seimei murmured, gathered Fire Release Chakra in his palm, and burned the paper in his hand to ashes.

Then, without any pause, he sneaked out of the base again, found a deserted spot, and jumped into the sea.

After swimming in the sea for a while, he surfaced, then walked on the waves, heading towards the location of the forward base in the Land of Waves from another direction.

About twenty minutes later.

Seimei arrived near Watchtower No. 3.

Before getting close, he heard the sounds of fighting.

Bursts of Chakra fluctuations came, indicating that the battle there was quite intense.

Seimei, worried that his shadow clone couldn't hold on, immediately wanted to speed up.

However, the next moment, a memory suddenly flooded into his mind.

Seimei hurriedly stopped and quickly browsed through these memories.

Without any surprise, these memories were from that shadow clone.

He only skimmed through the memories of the past three days or so and then focused on browsing all the memories from tonight, especially the memories before its death.

A moment later, he opened his eyes and muttered: "It was actually her!"

·······

At the same time.

On the other side.

Terumi Mei looked at Seimei, who had abruptly turned into Chakra smoke and dissipated, and her heart skipped a beat. She thought to herself: "It was a shadow clone!"

Immediately, she vigilantly scanned her surroundings, as if afraid that Seimei's main body would suddenly appear from somewhere.

However, to her confusion, Seimei's main body never showed up.

That's right, it was Terumi Mei who had killed Seimei's shadow clone.

Originally, after three days of consumption, the shadow clone didn't have much Chakra left.

As a result, it encountered a powerful opponent like Terumi Mei and couldn't withstand it.

Although the current Terumi Mei was still a bit young and inexperienced in battle, she possessed two Kekkei Genkai and had a vast amount of Chakra.

Thus, under long-range and wide-area attacks, the shadow clone's weakness of low damage tolerance was immediately exposed.

Although the shadow clone struggled desperately, trying to play to its strengths and get close to the opponent, using swordsmanship to limit her ninjutsu, it ultimately failed.

Indeed, Terumi Mei's combat experience was average, but knowing that the opponent had the title of 'Ghost Sword', it was impossible for her to let him get close.

So, the shadow clone was worn down and killed by her just like that.

(End of Chapter)