A few days flew by; the final day arrived.
After a round of tinkering by Rogue Kiyohara, he sealed some brown liquid into clear pouches.
Kiyohara eyed the bags. For some reason they looked like traditional medicine from his past life…
"Once you take these, they'll strengthen your body and, in turn, push your chakra reserves up—conservatively, about double what you have now," Rogue Kiyohara said.
If your base "blue bar" is low, the early gains are easy.
"Double, huh? Not bad."
Kiyohara liked the sound of that. With this, he might only be a genin on paper, but among chūnin he'd count as strong.
If you've got enough chakra, forget fancy technique—just brute-force it.
Think of Six Paths Naruto: it's pure stats—sage-tier physique + tailed-beast chakra + senjutsu body buffs + Six Paths power buffs. Stack all that, and you just spam Rasengan and call it a day.
"I remember Takigakure has a forbidden concoction called 'Hero Water,'" Kiyohara said.
In the anime's Takigakure arc, Hero Water boosts chakra tenfold—but you won't live long after.
"It's decent—small sips can save your life. But Takigakure still has the Seven-Tails sitting there," Rogue Kiyohara shook his head.
As if he hadn't thought about it? He was simply not strong enough. Even a Kage can't promise a clean win against a tailed beast. One casual Tailed Beast Bomb can level a mountain—there's a reason countries treat them like living weapons. Hashirama tried "tailed-beast balance" by distributing them to keep the peace, but like Qin falling in its second generation, war returned as soon as he died.
"True."
Kiyohara admitted he was getting ahead of himself. With the Willbook, if he kept fusing with other versions of himself, he could become a raw-stat monster anyway.
"Bottoms up."
He slit a corner of a pouch with a kunai and downed it in one go.
Bitter.
That was his first thought. Then a stabbing headache, like his brain was about to explode.
Hold up—Rogue Kiyohara said "headache," not this much pain!
Clutching his head, he squatted and rode it out.
"Your chakra reserves are climbing. The headache's from your brain producing chakra," Rogue Kiyohara said.
The drug works off Yang Release principles: certain herbs react with the body to generate a special chakra that feeds back into the flesh. As your physical energy rises, your total chakra rises too.
Sure enough, after the worst of it passed, warmth suffused Kiyohara from head to toe—like soaking in a hot spring after ten days without a bath.
Once the effect ebbed, he flexed his hands.
Fresh power.
He stepped into the yard, formed the Dog–Horse–Bird seals, and—
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A blast of wind roared from his mouth, skittering stones across the ground. One slammed the courtyard wall with a bang and punched a hole clean through, the pebble itself pulverizing into dust.
"As expected—the more chakra you push, the harder it hits," he thought.
Uchiha Madara alone could cast a fire technique that took twenty Water Release users acting in concert to counter. He could fight Hashirama head-on and even used the Nine-Tails like a summoned beast, never bothering to draw on its chakra—his own reserves were nothing to sneeze at.
"Hiss…"
A sudden spike of pain lanced through his skull. Side effects—manageable, and they'd fade in three months.
"If I take another dose after three months, will it still work?" he asked.
"Not really," Rogue Kiyohara shook his head. No such thing as endless free lunches. This kind of drug just pushes your body's potential further; the first dose hits hardest. After that, it's basically a wash. Otherwise, why would Orochimaru be so obsessed with Sasuke's body? Innate physique is everything.
"Got it…"
Kiyohara wedged a chunk of rubble roughly the size of the hole back into the wall.
"Next up: ninjutsu training."
He planned to learn another Lightning Release. Among the five basic elements, Lightning arguably has the highest ceiling. Simple reason: later on, Ten-Tails jinchūriki, Ōtsutsuki, and various engineered beings often absorb ninjutsu—unless you use senjutsu. Earth, wind, water—gone in a gulp. Even "the strongest offense," Amaterasu, suffers from being single-attribute and is easily countered.
Lightning's different. It activates your cells, boosts taijutsu across the board, and raises your base stats—nothing there for "ninjutsu absorption" to eat.
"Let's start with Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder," he decided, scanning the scroll listing several techniques.
Rogue Kiyohara had listed two Lightning and three Fire techniques. Electromagnetic Murder fires irregular lightning streams that crawl along the ground. Kannabi Bridge sits amid valleys and forest; in tight quarters, this is hard to dodge.
…
The next morning.
Kiyohara pulled on his new chain-shirt liner under a clean outer layer, slung a packed rucksack, and headed to the rendezvous.
"Obito's late. Again."
He arrived to hear Kakashi griping.
"Bet he's off helping some old granny," Genma mumbled around his senbon. He knew Obito's temperament—they'd been classmates, after all.
"Where's Kurenai?" Kiyohara asked.
"Up front getting things set," Genma nodded toward her. Yūhi Kurenai was checking and rechecking their kit.
"Kiyohara, Rin—please go find Obito," Minato said.
He didn't call Kakashi; no need to spark friction now. At a moment like this, the team needed harmony.
"Yes, sensei," Nohara Rin said, nodding.
Kiyohara had no objections. He'd never visited the Uchiha district—good chance to look around. He remembered Obito once kissing Rin's photo; when Kakashi went to fetch him, he'd walked right in on it. Who knew what Obito was up to now?
"Let's go, Rin," Kiyohara said.
"Mm." Rin jogged to catch up.
Meanwhile, Obito was blissfully oblivious. With the battlefield looming today, he decided to relax. He pulled out the Team Minato photo—Nohara Rin, Kakashi, Namikaze Minato, and himself.