A few seconds later, Seimei released his grip.
The person had become a lifeless corpse, providing him with about seven thousand chakra points, a standard amount. Without wasting a second, Seimei wiped the blood off his hand and approached a barely-breathing Mist Village chunin.
At that moment, the ninja suddenly opened his eyes, shouting wildly, "Die, you brat!"
He reached out his right hand, trying to grab Seimei.
But Seimei's expression remained unchanged, his three-tomoe Sharingan calmly watching him.
In the next instant, a flash of cold light appeared.
A sharp "splat" sounded, and the man's right hand was severed.
Not only that, but Seimei reached out his left hand, swiftly tearing open the wounded arm and revealing a burning explosive tag hidden near the man's waist.
Clearly, his opponent had intended to grab him and go down together.
But under the Sharingan's watchful gaze, such tricks were futile.
Seimei's expression remained steady as he threw the explosive tag aside.
With a loud "boom," a nearby tree was blasted apart, but Seimei remained unharmed.
Seeing the Mist Village chunin before him still trying to resist, Seimei cast a genjutsu using his Sharingan in an instant as their eyes met.
The opponent fell silent immediately.
Without delay, Seimei raised his hand, casting the Chakra Absorption Technique.
Draining him completely, Seimei gained almost seven thousand chakra points.
Satisfied, Seimei stood up and looked over the battlefield.
The Mist Village special jōnin was being surrounded by four members of a Konoha reconnaissance team.
Reconnaissance squads usually consist of one special jōnin leading three chunin, and this Konoha squad was no exception.
In other words, the Mist Village special jōnin was up against an opponent of equal rank and three lower-ranking ones.
It wasn't just a matter of struggling for an advantage – survival itself was at stake.
Meanwhile, the nine Mist Village chunin weren't faring much better.
Although Seimei had only sent out four shadow clones, which have low durability and can be defeated with a single hit, they were far from easy to deal with.
Each shadow clone had combat prowess to hold its own, even two-on-one, against the Mist Village chunin.
The clones, with their superior speed, circled around their nine opponents like phantoms, launching attacks without giving them a chance to retaliate.
While Seimei observed, one clone managed to seize an opportunity, pressing a palm to a Mist Village chunin's chest.
With the power of the Rasengan, the Mist chunin was sent flying.
*Thud*
The Mist Village chunin hit the ground hard.
*Cough*
Blood spurted from his mouth.
As he struggled to rise, a hand reached out as if to help him up.
Instinctively, he reached for it – then froze.
He realized he was moving towards Seimei himself.
The Mist chunin looked up, his gaze following the hand, only to see Seimei's youthful face.
"It's you…"
*Splurt*
He coughed up more blood, backing away from Seimei.
But before he could react, Seimei grabbed his hand.
In the next moment, the Chakra Absorption Technique was activated.
Chakra surged out of the chunin like a broken dam.
"No—"
The Mist chunin shouted in horror, swinging his left fist towards Seimei.
However, Seimei didn't dodge, allowing the punch to land on his face, causing his cheek to swell.
Encouraged, the Mist chunin prepared to throw another punch.
But he found himself out of energy.
Meanwhile, Seimei's regenerative abilities kicked in, quickly reducing the swelling on his face.
In Seimei's grip lay yet another lifeless, chakra-drained body.
It all happened so quickly that the other Mist Village ninjas had no time to intervene. Even if they wanted to, Seimei's four shadow clones wouldn't allow it.
With this Mist chunin's chakra drained, Seimei joined the shadow clones in battle.
His presence boosted their morale, unleashing their full strength.
In less than three minutes, the eight Mist chunin were all defeated, with no chance of escape.
Seimei sent the shadow clones to assist the Konoha squad in subduing the special jōnin, while he absorbed chakra from the fallen Mist ninjas.
Due to an overflow of chakra beyond his body's capacity, he created additional shadow clones to balance it out.
After draining the special jōnin's chakra, Seimei's number of clones increased to eight.
Calculating quickly, Seimei estimated he had harvested about ninety thousand chakra points from this battle.
If distributed evenly to improve skills like *Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall* and *Earth Release: Earth Rising Spears*, it would raise each one's level by one.
However, now wasn't the best time for training.
Seimei started to consider creating a sealing jutsu to store chakra, similar to the Yin Seal.
"Maybe it's necessary!" he thought. Though opportunities to harvest chakra like this were rare, having a tailed beast someday would provide him with a constant source of chakra. He'd still need something to store it temporarily.
After all, he couldn't carry a tailed beast around everywhere, could he?
Developing such a sealing jutsu would be worthwhile.
But that was for the future.
For now, it didn't matter.
As long as he didn't release his shadow clones and used them to practice various techniques, his chakra wouldn't go to waste.
As for the *Earth Flow Wall* and *Earth Rising Spears*… he could always train those later with his naturally replenished chakra.
Flexibility was key.
(End of Chapter)