Grind is My Ninja Way

A few hours later...

It was late at night.

Seimei finally completed his training plan for the day.

He then used the Heart Link Technique to connect with his shadow clones traveling with the team, confirming their current position.

In two days, the convoy had already moved ahead of him.

At this point, he needed to confirm whether the team had moved out of communication range with him and his clones, so he could adjust his training location accordingly.

Soon, the connection was established.

The convoy had not yet left the communication range, but they were close.

Thus, Seimei decided not to linger any longer.

He quickly cleaned up the traces of his activities from the past two days.

Then, after consulting his map, he identified a new resting spot.

Using Wind Style: Wings of Wind and Chakra Cloak, he flew at top speed toward the convoy's direction.

Thanks to his incredible speed of 300 meters per second, it took him only about ten minutes to reach his destination.

This time, there were no surprises; the area was calm and quiet.

Seimei found a random spot, lay down, and fell asleep.

The next day, he ate some prepared ration pills to fill his stomach and resumed his training.

Meanwhile, the convoy continued moving forward.

And so, five days passed unnoticed.

Seimei initially thought it would take a full week to return to the village.

Unexpectedly, in just five days, the convoy was already close to the village.

At this pace, they would likely reach the village in another day at most.

This showed the team's eagerness to return, as even their traveling speed had unconsciously increased.

Seimei fully understood this.

After all, most of the convoy members, like him, had been away from the village for two or three years.

For Seimei, it wasn't as much of an issue—he had no attachments, having essentially taken over someone else's role.

But the others were different.

They had families and homes, so it was only natural for them to want to return as quickly as possible.

The only fortunate thing was that they hadn't encountered any major troubles on the way back. If someone had died just before reaching the village, that would have been truly unfortunate.

Setting these thoughts aside, Seimei looked at his skill panel, which showed his Water Style: Great Shark Bullet Technique was just 1,000 experience points away from leveling up. The sight made him uncomfortable.

Originally, based on a seven-day timeline, the skill would have leveled up perfectly upon his return to the village.

Now, even if he trained hard tomorrow, he'd still be 500-600 points short, which was frustrating.

It was worth noting that the gap between level 8 and level 9 was significant despite being just one level apart.

Reaching level 9 would bring a substantial qualitative improvement to the Great Shark Bullet Technique, making it far more practical.

Seimei hadn't forgotten his plan—to eliminate Danzo after returning to the village.

At a time like this, every bit of strength counted.

Unfortunately, the convoy's eagerness to return to the village disrupted his plans.

However, this wasn't a big problem.

After all, it wasn't as though he could eliminate Danzo immediately upon returning.

Gathering intelligence and waiting for the right opportunity would still take time.

Who knows? By the time he was ready to act, even his Chakra Cloak, which still needed about half a month to level up, might reach the next level.

At that point, he'd be even more confident.

With these thoughts racing through his mind, Seimei closed the skill panel and found a random spot to rest, quickly drifting off to sleep.

Time flew by.

By the morning of the seventh day, Seimei and his group passed through the gates of Konoha, stepping back into the village.

Loud cheers erupted from the crowd ahead.

On either side of the road, countless villagers had gathered, cheering enthusiastically as they watched the convoy return.

Seimei looked at the scene with an expressionless face, thinking to himself, "They really went all out to make this lively."

That's right; these people didn't come here spontaneously—they were organized by someone.

In fact, they could have returned to the village as early as last night.

However, they received a last-minute notice from the village, instructing them to return this morning instead.

Clearly, the purpose was to hold this welcome ceremony.

This is also a means of winning people's loyalty.

After all, if everyone risks their lives on the front lines and comes back to find no one there to greet them, it's hard not to feel disheartened.

Perhaps they wouldn't say anything outright, but who knows what they might think deep down?

Ninjas are still human, and as long as they are human, they can't escape the allure of fame and fortune.

Didn't you notice how the smiles on the faces of the convoy members grew brighter when they saw the reception?

Shaking his head silently, Seimei stopped dwelling on it. After going through the motions of the ceremony with everyone else, he headed to the Hokage Tower to turn in his mission report.

After completing this, he returned to his residence.

At this point in time, the Nine-Tails incident hadn't happened yet, and although the Uchiha clan's territory had been relocated once by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, it was still within the village's core area.

As a result, it didn't take him long to get there.

Returning here after such a long time, Seimei felt both familiar and unfamiliar with the place.

The familiarity came from the memories of his predecessor.

After all, his predecessor had lived here for nearly a decade, leaving behind countless memories of this place.

The unfamiliarity came from the fact that, since his transmigration, Seimei had only lived here for a few months, including the time he returned for the Chūnin Exams.

Compared to the more than two years he had spent fighting outside, this time was hardly worth mentioning.

Surveying the surroundings, Seimei reconnected with his predecessor's memories. Then, he spent some time cleaning the house, both inside and out.

Once everything was tidy, he returned to his bedroom to rest for a while.

Initially, Seimei had planned to go out and train later.

But as soon as he lay on the bed, he didn't feel like moving anymore.

After more than two years of battling on the front lines, he hadn't faced any major dangers, but deep down, he had never felt truly secure.

As a result, he had accumulated quite a bit of exhaustion.

Earlier, he had only analyzed others, thinking that they wanted to return to this safe place for inner peace. He hadn't realized that Konoha, for him as well, was a safe harbor.

So, returning to this environment suddenly and inevitably brought on a sense of relaxation.

No, it couldn't exactly be called laziness—it was more like a form of self-adjustment.

Even training requires a balance of work and rest.

In the past, while he would occasionally rest during his training, it was never a true relaxation.

But now it was different.

In this relatively safe place, perhaps he could finally let himself fully relax.

With this thought in mind, Seimei unknowingly closed his eyes.

A few minutes later, the soft sound of snoring filled the room.

Even though he had rested for a few hours the night before, as soon as he let his body and mind relax, he fell asleep.

This showed just how much exhaustion he had accumulated.

It made sense when you thought about it. Suddenly being thrust from a peaceful modern world into this one—and immediately having to go to the battlefield—would have been a jarring transition. Though Seimei had always appeared to adapt well, this was ultimately just a façade.

Deep down, he never truly felt secure.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have worked so tirelessly to improve his strength.

In this dangerous world, only unparalleled power could give him even a sliver of comfort.

After all, Seimei was still just a person—a regular person.

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