Seii reached Uchiha Sorata's location and saw him putting the storage scroll away into his ninja pouch.
Seeing Seii appear in front of him all of a sudden, Sorata raised one of his eyebrows in astonishnt before his expression went back to the sa blank look once again.
He just asked, "All done, there?"
Seii nodded and replied, "Yeah. Got those guys alive. It looks like you're done here, too."
"We should go back and hand these scrolls over to the team leader, Haku."
Uchiha Sorata responded, "Let's go then. We still have to find the other ninjas from our list."
As he was about to rush forward in a different direction, Seii stopped him.
"Wait a minute, Jonin Sorata."
Sorata, who had already adjusted his body to leap into the air, forcefully halted his motion, causing him to almost lose balance and slip.
Fortunately, he was a Jonin with great control over his body and physical movent, so he adjusted his balance within a fraction of a second.
He frowned a little and stared at Seii with a deadpan expression.
He asked with a voice tainted with irritation, "What now?"
Witnessing the whole ordeal, Seii smiled apologetically and replied, "Before we go look for the others, we have sothing else to deal with."
Countless hypothetical question marks imdiately appeared above Uchiha Sorata's head as he tilted his head in confusion.
"Sothing else to deal with?"
Without giving him any verbal reply, Seii simply grabbed three sharp, glinting kunai, and with a flick of his wrist, he threw them with pinpoint accuracy and lightning-fast speed toward a distant dark corner approximately fifteen ters away.
Swish~ Swish~ Swish~
Seii's actions puzzled Uchiha Sorata. He was about to ask if he had lost his mind from the academy work, as a few Uchiha kids attending the academy often complained about the mind-numbing syllabus of each grade.
He wanted to ask why Seii was throwing kunai toward so random dark corner, but he was imdiately forced to shut his mouth.
Why?
Because the three kunai that were supposed to hit the wall or ground were deflected by sothing tallic as they bounced off while creating tiny orange sparks.
Clang~ Clang~ Clang~
Spark!!!
Clatter! Clatter!
And those sparks had just revealed the figure of the man who had just deflected the kunai thrown by Seii.
That guy was lurking in the dark all this ti, and he couldn't even detect him.
If not for Seii, he would have never found this man. This man could be an enemy spy, a bounty hunter, or soone worse.
If Sorata was attacked by him while retreating with his back facing the man, he would be at a huge disadvantage and would have a hard ti defending himself unless the man was weak.
But looking at how skillfully he deflected the three kunai thrown by Seii with one smooth strike, this unknown man was anything but weak.
Thinking this far, Sorata's face darkened further as he stared at the man with hostility, ready to lunge at him.
On the other hand, Seii, who had a calm expression but a chilling look in his eyes, said, "Why don't you show yourself, mister?"
"After all, you have already been discovered by us."
The man was silent for a mont before letting out a cold, dry chuckle.
He stepped out of the shadow of the dark corner, letting the light of the full moon fall onto his figure.
The man was about five feet ten inches (5'10'') tall, brimming with sturdy yet lean muscles, and a brown complexion that was clearly a result of too much exposure to direct sunlight.
He had short, plain brown hair and brown eyes and wore a simple brown jacket and black pants.
A straight ninja sword was sheathed on his back.
His eyes scanned Uchiha Sorata and Seii sharply and asked, "I thought I hid my chakra and presence properly."
"Even the Uchiha here couldn't find ."
"I wonder…"
"Would you be kind enough to tell how you detected ?"
Seii stared at the man silently.
His chakra reserves already exceeded the typical Elite Jonin level ninjas.
Who is this guy?
I didn't see any information about him in the mission scroll.
No, that's not important.
The real question is…
What the heck is a powerful ninja like that doing here in this border town?
And his whole deanor and complexion…
If they are not fake, then this guy should be a ninja from Sunagakure.
If he had a valid permit, then we would have already been notified about him.
A Sunagakure Elite Jonin deep inside the borders of the Fire Country without any prior notification or permit from Konoha?
That bastard of a Kazekage Reto.
He could no longer hold back, huh?
But at the sa ti, he doesn't dare to start a war against Konoha alone without the support from the other hidden villages in the major elental nations.
Whatever.
This guy in front of sounds like bad news.
Let's deal with him first.
After a brief internal monologue, Seii smiled and replied, "If you were , would you have freely given intel about your capabilities to an unknown, unidentified person?"
While saying that, Seii also signaled Uchiha Sorata with his fingers, secretly relaying the power level of the enemy while telling him to get ready to engage with the enemy.
Seeing this, Uchiha Sorata gave a slight, almost undetectable nod.
The unidentified man before them saw everything, but he didn't bother with it. Every ninja group might have different signals to share information secretly and silently.
It wasn't worth racking his brain over it.
Finally, he replied, "Ah!"
"You're right."
"I apologize. I misspoke."
"My na is Masaru. Nice to et you."
Masaru spoke calmly as if he were greeting a gentleman at a high-end banquet. The atmosphere would have been peaceful if Masaru weren't radiating a surge of chakra outwards that caused the air around him to crackle.
This ti, Uchiha Sorata, who had stayed silent all this ti, responded, "Well, we have a gentleman with manners here."
"I just hope you will also co with us peacefully, so we can treat you as Konoha's guest of honor."
Wow! An adult Uchiha with a surprisingly good sense of humor. Now, that's rare. Seii noted in his mind.
Masaru acted as if he looked 'troubled' and gently shook his head, "I can't accept your invitation, I'm afraid."
Seii gave him a nod and said, "Is that so? Too bad."
Masaru interjected, "Indeed."
"In that case…"
Suddenly, Masaru ford three hand seals in the blink of an eye, placed his hands together, and pulled them back in a wide, semi-circular arc.
Wind Release: Sickle Weasel Technique
Instead of creating a tornado of wind with countless tiny wind blades, Masaru's Sickle Weasel Technique created a single scythe-like, sharp, horizontal wind blade that packed a lot of punch.
The wind blade was launched forward toward Seii and Uchiha Sorata, approaching them at a blindingly fast speed.
However, before it could even reach them, Seii created one single-handed hand seal and released a large amount of Water Release chakra into the air, which caused the surrounding water vapor to condense into tiny water droplets.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall
The water droplets soon converged around Seii and Sorata and created a rotating vortex of water around them before the wind blade could even cross half the distance between Seii and Masaru.
At the next mont, the wind blade finally smashed into the vortex of protective water, trying to break its defense.
Splash~
However, the wind blade, which was sharp enough to bisect human bodies in half, could only cause a little water to splash out before it completely dispersed.
The battle between Seii and Sorata vs. Masaru had begun.
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