Seven days later, as agreed with Tsunade, Kagami arrived at Konoha Hospital early in the morning and personally returned the secret scroll of the Yin Seal to Rei.
Accepting the scroll Kagami handed her, Rei looked surprised.
"Huh? You’ve already learned it?"
"More or less."
Hearing this, Rei grew even more astonished.
"Kagami, don’t tell me you’re worried I’ll have trouble explaining things to my sensei? Don’t worry! She hasn’t asked about the secret scroll these past few days. You can keep it and practice for a few more days!"
As Tsunade’s disciple, Rei knew very well just how difficult it was to master the Yin Seal.
Naturally, she found it hard to believe that Kagami had managed to learn the technique in just one short week. She assumed he was worried about putting her in a difficult position and had therefore decided to return the scroll ahead of time.
Kagami didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. All he could do was urge her, "Hurry up and put it away. Don’t let anyone else see it."
Rei couldn’t help asking again, "You really don’t need it anymore?"
Kagami smiled and nodded.
In a certain sense, Kagami hadn’t lied. He had indeed mastered the Yin Seal.
It was an undeniable fact that the Yin Seal was better suited for women to practice. However, that didn’t mean the problem was impossible to solve. Given enough time, Kagami was confident he could modify the Yin Seal to make it suitable for men as well.
But seven short days were clearly nowhere near enough for him to conduct an in-depth study of the Yin Seal and improve it.
And so, he had decided to try practicing the Yin Seal using his female Fire Release clone first.
After all, only by mastering the Yin Seal himself and personally experiencing how it operated could he gain a proper understanding of its underlying principles. With that firsthand experience, he would be able to identify exactly what needed to be changed and make the necessary improvements.
Although Kagami’s Fire Release clone didn’t possess the monstrous talent of his Wind Release clone, its aptitude was still exceptional—easily one in a thousand compared to ordinary people.
Furthermore, with the assistance of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in its eye sockets, a pair that had already undergone an attempt to evolve into the Rinnegan, his cultivation of the Yin Seal proceeded remarkably smoothly.
In just one day, Kagami, controlling his Fire Release clone, successfully inscribed the sealing formula and connected it to the chakra pathways throughout his body.
After that, he spent two days learning to operate the sealing formula, another two days familiarizing himself with the circulation and storage of chakra, and the final two days practicing how to release the stored chakra.
For seven whole days, Kagami hadn’t wasted a single moment.
It would certainly be an exaggeration to say that he had completely mastered every aspect of the Yin Seal. However, there was absolutely no doubt that he had achieved a preliminary mastery of the technique.
Moreover, based on the experience he had gained while practicing the Yin Seal with his Fire Release clone over the past several days, Kagami had already begun to form a rough idea of how to modify it.
In fact, there was no need for any major alterations.
The Yin Seal was already an exceptionally refined technique. Making too many changes might only introduce unnecessary complications and end up doing more harm than good.
Therefore, Kagami intended to focus his modifications solely on the obstacles men encountered when attempting to practice the Yin Seal.
Most of these obstacles had actually been deliberately introduced by the technique’s previous developers.
Their purpose had been to make the Yin Seal more compatible with the female body. Consequently, the modifications they had made had left behind identifiable traces.
If Kagami hadn’t mastered the Yin Seal himself, everything would have remained shrouded in mystery, and he naturally would have had no way of discovering these deliberate alterations.
However, by cleverly utilizing his Fire Release clone, Kagami had circumvented the barrier that prevented men from practicing the Yin Seal.
Combined with his own considerable expertise in fuinjutsu, identifying the traces left behind by his predecessors and reversing their modifications wouldn’t be particularly difficult for him.
After chatting for a little while longer, Kagami bid Rei farewell.
Even as they parted, he never mentioned the agreement he had made with Tsunade.
After all, he didn’t want his own affairs to affect the master-disciple relationship between Rei and Tsunade.
Leaving Konoha Hospital, Kagami made his way to the Ninja Academy.
Standing beside the window of the principal’s office, he gazed out at the children practicing taijutsu on the training grounds while contemplating his own affairs.
Although Kagami had spent the past week practicing the Yin Seal, he hadn’t neglected to keep an eye on the shinobi world.
According to the intelligence he had gathered through various channels, the shinobi world had been anything but peaceful over the past several days.
First, there was news concerning the Konoha delegation dispatched to Kumogakure.
Before the delegation could even reach Kumogakure, it was intercepted by a negotiating team sent by Kumogakure near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.
As a result, both sides began trading accusations.
Konoha accused Kumogakure of harboring the rogue shinobi Danzo and undermining the unity of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Kumogakure, on the other hand, accused Konoha of abducting its kekkei genkai shinobi and secretly conducting an inhumane and sinister ritual.
Both sides presented seemingly compelling arguments, each insisting that the other was deliberately provoking trouble.
While the representatives of the two villages were still arguing back and forth, a mysterious and fierce battle suddenly erupted within Kumogakure itself.
Because the fighting affected such an extensive area, even though Kumogakure immediately imposed an information blackout, Konoha’s spies stationed in the village still managed to send back a crucial piece of intelligence.
During the battle, an unfamiliar, dark-red Susanoo had appeared in Kumogakure!
The reason the spies could identify the Susanoo as unfamiliar was that its appearance was exceptionally distinctive.
Unlike any of the Susanoo currently known to exist, this dark-red Susanoo bore a much closer resemblance to a ferocious beast or a demon, making it extremely easy to distinguish.
Following that mysterious battle, the Fourth Raikage and the Eight-Tails’ jinchuriki, Killer B, hurriedly departed the village together, leading a large contingent of elite Kumogakure shinobi.
It seemed they were pursuing something.
When Konoha received this intelligence, everyone was thoroughly puzzled. Only the Uchiha clan displayed any obvious concern.
After all, the appearance of a Susanoo meant the emergence of a new pair of Mangekyo Sharingan!
However, the moment Kagami heard the news, he could roughly guess what had happened.
Without a doubt, the two sides involved in the fierce battle at Kumogakure had been Danzo and Kumogakure.
Based on his previous analysis, the other independent wills residing within Danzo’s body seemed incapable of using kekkei genkai that didn’t originally belong to them.
Only Danzo’s own will could wield all of the kekkei genkai within his body.
Therefore, the one who had unleashed the Susanoo must have been Danzo himself!
The target pursued by the Fourth Raikage and the Eight-Tails’ jinchuriki, Killer B, when they subsequently led their forces out of the village was most likely Danzo as well.
From this news, Kagami gleaned two important pieces of information.
First, Danzo had fallen out with Kumogakure.
Second, after the fierce battle, Danzo had managed to escape from Kumogakure.
As for what had sparked the conflict and caused the two sides to turn against each other, Kagami had no interest in finding out.
There was only one thing he needed to know: the secret that Danzo possessed a pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan could most likely no longer be concealed.
After all, Konoha was obviously not the only village with spies stationed in Kumogakure.
It was foreseeable that, within a month or two at most, this news would spread throughout the Five Great Shinobi Villages and perhaps even the entire shinobi world.
By then, Kagami, Orochimaru, and Kumogakure might no longer be the only three parties hunting Danzo...