"Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!"
At the instant the genjutsu was activated, the movements of a Sand chūnin clearly slowed by half a beat.
In their vision, thick vines suddenly sprang into existence out of thin air, coiling around their limbs and restraining their movements.
Although this was nothing more than deception of sight and perception, in a battlefield where situations changed in the blink of an eye, even half a second of hesitation was enough to be fatal.
Immediately after, Kurenai rapidly threw out several shuriken.
Clang!
At the very last moment, the curved-blade shinobi actually broke free from the genjutsu, crossing his twin blades to block the shuriken.
Kiyohara vaulted out through the second-floor window.
He did not immediately join the fight, instead first observing the battle of Genma and Kurenai.
Compared to before, after being tempered by war, both Genma and Kurenai had improved significantly.
The Sharingan slowly rotated in the night, and Kiyohara took in every detail without missing a thing.
Yura and the Sand jonin who had yet to make a move—a tall, lean man with a scar across his face were also staring straight at Kiyohara.
Their gazes were filled with wariness and disbelief.
"Magnet Release Kiyohara…"
Yura softly uttered the codename in a hoarse voice.
The intelligence on geniuses from other villages was always carefully studied by the major hidden villages.
Kiyohara was clearly among them.
At first, he was called "Magnet Release Kiyohara," but later he gained another title— "Magnetic Lightning Executioner Kiyohara."
The reason was simple: Kiyohara was ruthless in combat. Those who caught his attention rarely survived, as if they had gone straight to their own funeral.
The stronger a shinobi was, the more titles they tended to accumulate.
Over time, only the most fitting one would remain.
Even Minato Namikaze had other titles when he first rose to prominence.
The scar-faced Sand jonin, Gila, couldn't help but sneer as he spoke,
"I've heard that the Mist shinobis who died by your hands didn't even leave behind complete corpses."
Kiyohara calmly looked at them.
On the battlefield, Genma and Kurenai were already locked in fierce combat with the remaining three Sand shinobis.
Senbon collided with curved blades in showers of sparks, while the puppet master's wooden puppets rampaged back and forth outside the orphanage, forcing the two to dodge continuously.
While the caregivers were evacuating the children to safety, a few bold kids secretly peeked out through the windows.
Their eyes were wide as they watched the battle, their small faces filled with a complex mix of excitement and awe.
"That shinobi big brother is amazing …"
a boy of about seven or eight muttered.
"That long-haired big sister is so cool too!"
another girl said, pointing at Kurenai.
The plump nun and the bespectacled man anxiously tried to pull the children back to safety, but children's curiosity ultimately outweighed their fear.
Yakushi Nonō stepped out of the orphanage.
If these Sand shinobis were going to harm the children, she would take action herself.
"Headmistress, let me handle it,"
Kiyohara said as he looked at Yakushi Nonō.
Yakushi Nonō had not fought in many years; her strength had likely declined considerably.
In Boruto, Naruto had only neglected training for a few years, yet he was careless enough to get stabbed through the abdomen by the newly emerged Uchiha Shin, recovering only thanks to the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Moreover, Yakushi Nonō's true strengths lay in "infiltration" and "medical treatment."
Nonō fell silent.
It was true, she hadn't seen real combat in many years. Physical reflexes, chakra control, battle instincts…
Those things that had once been as natural as breathing had gradually dulled during the peaceful routine of daily life.
"…Be careful."
In the end, she said only those two words.
Still, she held a blade in her hand, clearly prepared to act if the situation took a turn for the worse.
Kiyohara's gaze swept over the children who were secretly watching the battle.
They had no idea just how cruel the world they were witnessing truly was.
At the center of the battlefield, Yura and Gila exchanged a glance.
"Deal with those two first,"
Gila said quietly, jerking his chin toward Genma and Kurenai.
Yura shook his head, the puppet arm letting out a faint mechanical whir.
"No. According to the intelligence, that Uchiha named Kiyohara is the real threat… we must join forces to deal with him."
"Join forces against a brat?"
Gila scoffed, though his eyes grew serious.
He had read the intelligence scrolls and knew the feats of the shinobi before him—slaying amember of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, killing multiple Mist jōnin, and even rumors that he possessed some kind of long-range secret technique.
"Don't underestimate him."
Yura drew a tachi coated in deadly poison.
As he charged toward Kiyohara, his other hand flicked forward, sending out five chakra threads so thin they were nearly invisible, aiming for Kiyohara's limbs and neck.
This was one of the applications of the "Secret Black Technique." Once ensnared, one's movements would be controlled by the puppet master's chakra threads!
Kiyohara's eyes sharpened but instead of retreating, he advanced!
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Bullet."
Kiyohara murmured softly as his wrist flicked.
The gourd at his waist vibrated as iron sand surged forth.
Spindle-shaped pellets condensed into form, arcs of lightning dancing across their surfaces.
As Magnet Release chakra surged, Kiyohara's long black hair was blown upward.
Like a mass of black flames, it swayed and danced violently.
Whoosh!
The sound of tearing air was sharp enough to pierce the ears!
White shockwaves rippled through the air.
For a brief instant, the night itself seemed to brighten, and everyone clearly saw Kiyohara's calm, expressionless face.
The iron sand pellet shot out at a speed far exceeding that of kunai or shuriken—its target was not Yura, but the Jōnin standing behind him: Gila!
"What?!"
Gila was horrified, completely unprepared for Kiyohara to attack him first.
He hurriedly formed hand seals.
"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"
A violent torrent of air burst from his palm, attempting to deflect the pellet's trajectory.
But the iron sand pellet, condensed by Magnet Release, was far heavier than ordinary shinobi tools. The wind release only shifted it by a few centimeters—
Pshhk!
Blood exploded outward!
The iron sand bullet pierced straight through Gila's right shoulder, carrying a spray of flesh and blood as it burst out his back, then slammed deeply into the mountain wall behind him!
The tremendous impact sent his entire body flying, smashing him violently into a large tree!
"Gahhh!"
Gila let out a piercing scream. His right shoulder was nearly torn apart, the sound of bones shattering clearly audible.
He collapsed limply to the ground, blood rapidly pooling beneath him.
His life hung by a thread and with more air going in than coming out.
With a single strike, a Sand jonin was crippled!
The battlefield fell into a brief, stunned silence.
Both Genma and Kurenai froze, and even their opponents stopped moving.
Yura's puppet arm stiffened midair, his face beneath the mask drained of color.
He knew Kiyohara was strong but he never imagined he was this strong! Gila was an experienced Sand jonin skilled in Wind Release and taijutsu, yet he couldn't even withstand a single move?!
Behind the windows, the children erupted into suppressed cheers.
"So amazing! That big brother is amazing!"
"He beat the bad guy in one hit!"
"I want to become a shinobi like that someday!"
The innocent voices of children rang especially clearly in the night air.
They couldn't comprehend the danger of the battle, only the cool sight of Kiyohara defeating an enemy in one strike.
The plump nun hurriedly covered several children's mouths, afraid their voices might draw the enemy's attention.
Yakushi Nonō pushed up her glasses, surprise flashing through the blue eyes behind the lenses.
Kiyohara slowly withdrew his hand.
Even without prolonged charging, the power was still this terrifying.
He raised his hand again, and another bullet shot forth.
Pshhk!
Blood sprayed into the air.
Every time Kiyohara lifted his hand, someone died.
Facing an iron sand bullet moving faster than the speed of sound, Yura barely managed to dodge.
"This brat… he's far more troublesome than the intelligence described…"
Yura's expression grew increasingly grim.
It seemed this mission was doomed to fail.
"Secret Black Move…!"
Yura activated the Secret Black Technique.
Within Sunagakure, puppet techniques were divided into many schools, and the Secret Black Technique was one of them.
There were even higher-level schools beyond it, such as the "White Secret Technique."
"Thousand Blade Strangle!"
As Yura's voice fell, more than ten blades suddenly shot out from the puppet arm.
Each blade split mid-flight into dozens of cicada-wing-thin fragments, forming a vast net of blades.
Every blade was coated with lethal poison—mere contact was enough to kill a shinobi within three seconds!
At the same time, the remaining Sand shinobis left only two or three to keep Genma and Kurenai occupied, while the rest controlled their puppets to flank Kiyohara from both sides.
The wooden puppets opened their mouths, revealing dense arrays of poison needle launchers within!
"Die!"
The Sand shinobi sneered as the puppets unleashed a torrential storm of poison needles!
A three-sided pincer attack!
Poison blades, poison needles, chakra threads…
Kurenai cried out in alarm,
"Kiyohara!"
Genma tried to rush over to assist, but the curved-blade shinobi tightly entangled him.
Kiyohara's expression, however, did not change.
Bzzzt!
A piercing crackle of electricity resounded through the night sky!
At Kiyohara's feet, blinding lightning suddenly erupted!
Lightning Release chakra surged madly through the chakra pathways in his legs!
"Lightning Release: Lightning Foot…"
Kiyohara said calmly.
Crackle!
Arcs of electricity flickered beneath his feet.
This was the result of his efforts over the past few days.
By using Lightning Release chakra to stimulate the cells in his legs, forcibly activating them, he could achieve extreme speed.
Relying on chakra reserves several times greater than those of an ordinary jōnin, powerful chakra control, his talent in Lightning Release, and the exchanges he had with Uchiha Kiyohara, he had preliminarily completed this technique.
The difficulty was roughly at the C-rank level.
In the next instant, Kiyohara's original figure slowly faded away with the wind.
Afterimage!
The real Kiyohara had already left his original position.
Lightning Release stimulated and activated his leg muscles, while Magnet Release generated a powerful repulsive force beneath his feet. The explosive force produced by the overlap of the two pushed Kiyohara's speed to a level that the naked eye could barely track!
Yura only saw a blurry afterimage flash past, and then—
BOOM!
A deafening crash!
Kiyohara appeared at the side of Yura's puppet arm, his right leg swinging over like a massive warhammer.
The lightning-wreathed foot slammed viciously into the joint of the puppet arm!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The crisp sound of metal breaking rang out in succession.
The puppet that Yura had painstakingly crafted shattered like rotten wood under that single kick.
Blades flew apart, mechanical components scattered everywhere, and the internal poison storage canister ruptured, splashing purple toxin all over the ground.
"No—"
Yura didn't even have time to finish the last syllable.
Kiyohara's second kick had already arrived.
This time, the target was his chest.
Bang!
Amid the dull impact, Yura was sent flying like a kite with its string cut, crashing into and collapsing a thick tree.
His chest caved in, blood gushing from his mouth and nose.
He stared wide-eyed, fixing his gaze on Kiyohara's foot.
On that ordinary pair of shinobi boots, tiny arcs of electricity were still jumping, slowly dissipating.
Where the sole had struck the ground, a charred footprint was left behind, its edges still emitting wisps of white smoke.
"Wh… why…"
Yura struggled to spit out a few words.
"My blades… the poison…"
Kiyohara lowered his head and glanced at his right leg.
There were a few faint cuts on the pant leg, but the skin beneath was completely unharmed.
Hardened skin had blocked all of the poison blades for him.
"Your poison can't break my defense,"
Kiyohara said indifferently. Then he opened his water flask and rinsed himself clean before walking over to Yura.
Yura still tried to struggle, but Kiyohara's foot had already stepped on his throat.
Force pressed down from the sole.
Crack.
The sound of a cervical spine snapping rang out.
Yura's pupils scattered, his breathing weakening.
The rest of the battle held no suspense.
Yura and Gila were killed, and the remaining few chūnin were quickly defeated under the joint assault of Genma and Kurenai.
The curved-blade shinobi had his heart pierced through by senbon, while the other was controlled by Kurenai's genjutsu and finished off with shuriken.
The battle was over.
The children poked their heads out from behind the windows.
"Everyone back inside!"
The plump nun shouted at them.
Intimidated by her presence, the children reluctantly returned to the building.
Kurenai walked over to Kiyohara, hesitating as if she wanted to say something.
She looked at the traces of lightning still not fully dispersed around Kiyohara's feet, then at the shattered puppet arm on the ground.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Kiyohara shook his head and turned toward Genma.
"Handle the bodies. Check if there's any intelligence."
"Understood."
Genma nodded, the senbon in his mouth spinning around once.
Kiyohara didn't respond, instead beginning to inspect the battlefield.
Thud.
Several scorpions fell from their bodies and quickly crawled toward the distance.
Their skin was the color of wood, with traces of mechanical structures on their limbs.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Kiyohara threw shuriken, pinning them to the ground one by one, gears spilling out from their bodies.
After that, Kiyohara began searching their belongings, first putting on a pair of gloves made of iron sand.
These Sand shinobi might very well have hidden toxins on them.
Soon, Kiyohara found quite a few items.
Among them were notes on puppetry and things like poison formulas, antidotes, and so on.
There was also a "Secret Black Technique: Hand,"
A technique that allowed more weapons to be hidden within the arms.
Naturally, Kiyohara had no intention of modifying his own body, but using it as reference and preparation against these Sand shinobi was still useful.
...
Twenty kilometers away from the orphanage, inside a hidden mountain cave.
The cave was dimly lit, with only a few oil lamps swaying and casting a dull yellow glow.
The air was filled with a pungent stench of mixture of preservatives and blood. The ground was littered with various puppet parts, human remains, and organ specimens soaked in formalin.
A red-haired boy sat on a stone stool, holding a delicate carving knife, carefully engraving a forearm.
The flesh of the arm had been separated, exposing the bone within, which had already been modified into mechanical components.
Sasori looked as though he were creating a work of art. His movements were focused and meticulous, giving no indication that he was performing something as horrifying as human modification.
Suddenly, he stopped.
The carving knife hung suspended in midair as Sasori's brow furrowed slightly.
He set down the arm bone and closed his eyes.
Just now, Yura's squad… had been completely wiped out.
Through the puppet scorpions he had planted on them, Sasori had received the signal.
Fragments of lingering images replayed in his mind.
Finally, Sasori opened his eyes.
The dim lamplight shone on his delicate face, casting it half in light and half in shadow.
The corners of his mouth slowly curved upward.
It was not a smile, but the fanatic excitement of an artist upon seeing suitable material.
"Kiyohara…"
Sasori softly murmured the name, his voice echoing through the empty cave.
"Magnet Release… Sharingan…"
His gaze fell upon a scroll in the corner of the cave.
It was his most important treasure, a scroll sealing the Third Kazekage puppet.
"I already have Iron Sand Magnet Release, but…"
Sasori stood up and walked to the worktable in the center of the cave.
Spread out on the table was a thick notebook, densely filled with records of human modification data, improvements to puppetry techniques, and his visions of "eternal art."
Nearby, dozens of completed or half-completed human puppets were neatly arranged. Each retained their appearance from when they were alive, yet their eyes were hollow, their skin dull from preservation treatment.
These were his collections, his artworks.
But it still wasn't enough.
Sasori wanted to collect more.
"A Sharingan specimen… perhaps you'll be the first."
He muttered to himself.
Moreover, he was very curious—after acquiring the Sharingan kekkei genkai, would Magnet Release undergo some kind of change as well?
How would it differ from the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release?
With that thought, Sasori took out another scroll from his robe.
When it unfurled, it revealed hundreds of puppet scorpions sealed within.
Each of these creations, no larger than a fingernail, was capable of gathering intelligence.
"Go,"
he said softly.
"Go and help me take a good look… at my future collection."
The puppet scorpions on the scroll seemed to come alive, rustling as they crawled off the worktable and vanished into the shadows of the cave.
They would traverse twenty kilometers of forest, lie in wait around the orphanage, and become Sasori's eyes.
Sasori possessed Sunagakure's unique puppet techniques, allowing him to turn people into "human puppets" after killing them.
If the enemy possessed a bloodline limit while alive, after his special processing, the puppet would continue to retain that bloodline limit!
...
The next day.
Kiyohara woke up early and immediately smelled a fragrant aroma.
It was Kurenai.
She handed Kiyohara an onigiri.
"Is this breakfast?"
Kiyohara asked, puzzled.
"Of course,"
Kurenai blinked.
She had made it herself, after all.
During her free time over the past few days, Kurenai had borrowed the orphanage's kitchen.
"Thank you,"
Kiyohara nodded.
He could tell that this rice ball was different from the ones sold in nearby villages and towns, and guessed it was homemade.
"Today it's Genma's turn to guard the orphanage. Let's go check the shed area,"
Kiyohara said.
"Alright,"
Kurenai nodded.
After last night's incident, more Konoha shinobi had been dispatched to the area.
Their mission was to guard this place for half a month.
Once the half-month period was over, they would have to leave and head back to Kikyo Mountain to take on other missions.
So, during this time, Kiyohara needed to learn as many medical ninjutsu as possible.
Yakushi Nono noticed Kiyohara's scarlet eyes. She had only learned last night that Kiyohara actually possessed the Sharingan.
Naturally, she knew what abilities the Sharingan had.
However, as repayment for the donation, as well as Kiyohara's help the previous night, Yakushi Nono didn't dwell on the matter.
After leaving the shinobi world, she had come to terms with many things.
"If you haven't learned it yet, I can slow down a bit,"
Yakushi Nono turned back and gave Kiyohara a gentle smile.
"No need,"
Kiyohara shook his head.
He looked at the patient's face, which was practically about to sprout question marks, and refused.
With his current one-tomoe Sharingan, Kiyohara could still learn it.
The reason was simple.
He wasn't the only one learning.
There was also Uchiha Kiyohara!
Although Uchiha Kiyohara couldn't use medical ninjutsu, he could memorize the flow traces of medical chakra through the meridian system and then relay them to Kiyohara.
After all, the dynamic vision of a three-tomoe Sharingan was nothing short of extraordinary.
(End of chapter)