Before he knew it, several days had passed in a blur, and the final day had arrived.
After missing-nin Kiyohara spent some time fiddling and working his preparation methods, he finally sealed some brown liquid medicine into several transparent pouches.
Kiyohara looked at the bags and felt a strange sense of familiarity—it reminded him of traditional herbal medicine from his previous life.
"Once you consume these, they will strengthen your physical body, which in turn will boost your chakra capacity. Conservatively speaking, it should at least double what you currently have."
The missing-nin Kiyohara explained.
With a low base chakra pool, increasing it was naturally quite simple.
"Double, huh… that's pretty good."
Kiyohara was very satisfied with the result.
With this, even though his official rank remained that of a genin, in terms of actual strength, he would already be considered upper-mid among chūnin.
As long as one had enough chakra, forget about fancy skills—simply relying on pure power was enough to crush opponents.
It was like Naruto in Sage of Six Paths mode: the body of a sage, tailed beast chakra, sage arts reinforcing the body, and the power of the Six Paths amplifying everything. With such stacked enhancements, all he needed to do was throw a Rasengan and the battle was decided.
"I remember the Hidden Waterfall Village has another forbidden medicine… it's called Hero Water, right?"
Kiyohara commented.
In the anime's Takigakure arc, there was a forbidden medicine called Hero Water that multiplied chakra tenfold. But the cost was steep: the user's lifespan was drastically shortened, often leading to death.
"It's useful in small amounts, enough to save your life once. But Takigakure has the Seven-Tails guarding them," The missing-nin Kiyohara shook his head.
Did Kiyohara think he hadn't considered that?
Of course he had thought about that.
He simply wasn't strong enough.
Even a Kage-level shinobi couldn't guarantee absolute victory against a tailed beast. A single Tailed Beast Bomb could flatten a mountain. That was exactly why tailed beasts were considered strategic war weapons.
Hashirama Senju had believed that distributing tailed beasts among the villages would create balance and ensure peace. But just like the Qin Dynasty collapsing after its second emperor, once Hashirama died, the shinobi world immediately plunged back into war.
"You're right," Kiyohara admitted, realizing he had been too restless.
As long as he had the Last Will System and could keep fusing with other versions of himself from different timelines, he would eventually become a pure stats monster anyway.
"Alright. Down the hatch."
Kiyohara used a kunai to cut open one of the sealed pouches, then gulped the liquid in one go.
Bitter!
That was his first reaction.
Then came a splitting headache, as if his skull were about to burst.
Wait—this wasn't what missing-nin Kiyohara described at all! He said it would hurt, but not like this!
Kiyohara clutched his head and crouched down, enduring the throbbing pain.
"Your chakra reserves are increasing right now. The headache comes from your brain producing chakra."
The missing-nin Kiyohara explained.
This forbidden medicine worked based on the principles of Yang-Release chakra.
It used specific medicinal ingredients to trigger a physical reaction, producing a special kind of chakra, which would then nourish and reinforce the body. As the body strengthened, chakra capacity rose accordingly.
Sure enough, after the initial agony, a warm, comfortable sensation slowly spread through Kiyohara's limbs and bones.
It felt like going ten days without a bath and then suddenly soaking in a hot spring.
Once the medicinal effects gradually subsided, Kiyohara clenched his fist.
A brand-new sense of power surged through him.
He walked out to the courtyard, formed the same seals as before—Ox → Horse → Bird and shouted:
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A powerful gust blasted from his mouth, stirring up stones across the ground. With a boom, the wind slammed into the courtyard wall and blew a hole straight through it.
The small stone that had struck the wall shattered into dust and scattered.
"As expected, the more chakra you pour in, the stronger the jutsu becomes,"
Kiyohara thought to himself.
It was the same reason why Uchiha Madara's Fire Release required twenty Water Release shinobi working together just to neutralize one of his attacks. Madara fought Hashirama relying solely on his own overwhelming chakra. Even Nine-Tails was just an auxiliary summon—he didn't even need tailed-beast chakra.
Naturally, his chakra reserves were absurd.
"Ughh…"
Kiyohara winced, clutching his head again.
A sudden sharp stab of pain flashed through his skull.
This was the price of using forbidden medicine. Fortunately, the side effects would fade after three months.
"If I take this medicine again after three months, will it still work?"
Kiyohara asked.
"No. It won't have any effect,"
Missing-nin Kiyohara shook his head.
Nothing too good lasts forever. This medicine only unlocked latent potential, and the first dose was always the strongest. Afterward, the body adapted, and the effect diminished.
It was the same reason Orochimaru was so obsessed with Sasuke's body—raw physical talent was incredibly important.
"So that's it…"
Kiyohara muttered, picking up a piece of stone roughly the same size as the hole in the wall and stuffed it in to block the gap.
"Then the next step is to train another jutsu."
Kiyohara planned to learn another Lightning-Release jutsu.
Among the five elemental releases, Lightning Release arguably had the highest ceiling.
Why? Because later on, almost every major enemy like the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, the Ōtsutsuki clan, and even artificial humans often possessed the ability to absorb ninjutsu.
Unless one mastered Sage Arts, almost every elemental attack—Earth, Wind, Water, Fire—got absorbed instantly.
Even the supposedly strongest attack, Amaterasu, suffered from being a single attribute and was easily countered.
Lightning Release, however, could activate the body's cells, enhancing taijutsu and all physical stats. This made it a direct power-up that could not be absorbed.
"Let's go with Lightning Release: Earth Walk."
Kiyohara looked at a scroll that recorded several jutsu.
The missing-nin Kiyohara had taught him two Lightning Release jutsu and three Fire Release jutsu. Among them was Lightning Release: Earth Walk.
This technique sent chaotic lightning currents skimming across the ground. In the narrow ravines and forested terrain of Kannabi Bridge, enemies would have very limited space to dodge.
(TN: I don't if I'm right about the technique. The Chinese Naruto Fandom had a list of techniques but the English version doesn't have one or I never managed to find it.)
…
The next day.
Kiyohara put on his newly purchased chainmail inner armor he had bought. With his outer clothes worn neatly over it and his backpack filled with essential tools strapped properly onto him, he headed toward the meeting point.
"Obito is late again."
The moment Kiyohara arrived, he heard Kakashi complaining about Obito.
"Probably off helping some old lady again."
Genma said, a senbon dangling from his lips.
He knew Obito's personality pretty well—they had all been classmates, after all.
"What about Kurenai?"
Kiyohara asked as he approached.
"She's up front preparing."
Genma pointed ahead, where Kurenai was busy checking her supplies.
"Kiyohara, Rin, I'm counting on you two to go look for Obito."
Minato said.
He deliberately didn't ask Kakashi to go. With tensions between Kakashi and Obito, the last thing they needed before deployment was internal conflict.
"Yes, Sensei."
"Understood, Lord Minato."
Rin nodded.
Kiyohara naturally had no objections. He had never been to the Uchiha clan's compound before—this was a good opportunity to take a look.
He remembered once catching Obito kissing Rin's photo, only for Kakashi to walk in and witness the scene.
Who knew what Obito was doing now?
"Let's go, Rin."
Kiyohara said.
"Mhm."
Rin jogged lightly to catch up to him.
Meanwhile, Obito was in his own world.
Since they were heading to the battlefield today, he wanted to relax for a moment.
So, he took out the group photo of Minato's team. The picture had Rin, Kakashi, Minato-sensie, and himself.
(End of Chapter)