"Sensei, aren't you going to honor the wager?"
Kiyohara asked.
Tsunade blinked, then curled her lip.
"Brat, what, you think I'm the kind of person who can't take a loss?"
Then she stepped around the low table and walked up to Kiyohara.
The wall lamp cast her shadow over him, and her warm breath brushed against his face.
Tsunade bent down.
Then she reached out and gave him a hug.
Her body was softer than it looked.
Beneath that tight sleeveless top were the full, mature curves of a grown woman.
Kiyohara could clearly feel the soft cushioning pressed against him.
He raised his hands, instinctively about to return the embrace.
His arms had only just slipped around her waist—
when Tsunade lifted her head.
She shot him a glare.
"Had enough?"
Her voice came out fierce.
"…Sorry."
Kiyohara let go.
Tsunade immediately straightened up, took two steps back, and folded her arms.
"Hmph."
She turned her face away, refusing to look at him.
For some reason, this hug had felt different to her.
Even though they'd had physical contact before.
No. We're teacher and student.
Tsunade shook her head.
What she didn't know was that Kiyohara had long since set his sights on becoming the kind of student who overturned the proper order.
"You were the one getting handsy just now, so as compensation, play five rounds with me for free."
Tsunade suddenly said.
Kiyohara looked at her.
She was still facing away, offering him only that beautiful side profile.
"Of course, Sensei."
Kiyohara agreed immediately.
Even if he played ten rounds with Tsunade, whether she'd manage to win even once was a real question.
With that, Kiyohara watched as Tsunade shuffled the deck again.
The two of them then played five straight rounds.
Naturally, Tsunade lost every single one.
Kiyohara barely even needed to draw proactively. Tsunade's luck was bizarrely bad. She always somehow drew the one card that could form a pair, and left the Old Maid with herself.
When the final discard landed on the table, Tsunade stared at her empty hand.
"..."
She had no idea why her gambling luck was always this terrible.
"All right, enough for today."
Tsunade waved a hand. She was afraid that if they kept going, she'd just keep losing.
Then she turned and headed upstairs.
Kiyohara watched her back.
Those cropped pants outlined the curve of her waist and hips as she walked.
"Yeah, the feel was good."
Kiyohara thought to himself.
This was probably the sort of thing Jiraiya dreamed of and still could never get.
At the same time, Kiyohara could also feel that Tsunade was changing, little by little.
That was a very good direction.
After all, even plants and trees weren't without feeling.
And besides, Kiyohara wasn't exactly lacking in looks.
Tsunade also happened to be right at that age where desire ran hot.
…
At the same time, in Orochimaru's laboratory.
Orochimaru's gaze rested on a graceful figure.
It was a snake.
Or rather, a Ryuchi Cave emissary who had taken on the form of a snake princess.
Tagitsuhime.
Orochimaru recognized the woman at a glance.
But inwardly, he didn't dare underestimate her.
This woman had also lived for several hundred years. She only looked young on the outside.
"What brings you here?"
Orochimaru asked.
Ever since failing to learn Ryuchi Cave sage arts, he had rarely had any contact with the people of Ryuchi Cave.
At the same time, he had built up his own understanding of natural energy.
That was why he had come up with the idea of obtaining sage arts through the curse mark.
"…The White Snake Sage sent me."
Tagitsuhime's voice was soft and seductive, almost musical.
Orochimaru, however, showed no particular reaction to this centuries-old woman. To him, it only felt like she was pretending to be young.
"Because of one person."
"Who?"
Tagitsuhime's red lips parted, and she spoke two words.
"Kiyohara."
Orochimaru's brow furrowed slightly.
So the White Snake Sage had noticed him after all.
Orochimaru had always known that the beings of the sage lands were far from simple.
They acted like lofty creatures who stayed out of the ninja world, yet they had always remained active behind the scenes.
Some of them had even been alive since the era of the Sage of Six Paths.
Who knew how many secrets from the last thousand years they carried?
"The White Snake Sage is very interested in Kiyohara."
Tagitsuhime continued.
"Orochimaru, you've worked with him for a long time. Have you noticed anything unusual about him?"
She was dressed in a white robe, with three green tomoe-shaped ornaments resting across her chest.
"In that regard… quite a lot."
Orochimaru said.
To him, Kiyohara was a treasure chest full of fascination.
Every so often, something new would reveal itself.
That made Orochimaru deeply curious—just what exactly was different about Kiyohara's body structure compared to ordinary people?
It was almost as miraculous as Hashirama cells, entirely unlike any normal shinobi.
"In any case, the White Snake Sage sent me to have you bring Kiyohara to Ryuchi Cave."
Tagitsuhime said.
"The White Snake Sage rarely takes any interest in humans."
Her voice wasn't loud, yet in this room full of cold instruments, it carried a strangely gentle note.
"As far as I know, Kiyohara is the only one she has ever personally expressed a desire to meet."
Tagitsuhime said.
She herself hadn't lived as long as the White Snake Sage, but ever since becoming one of Ryuchi Cave's higher-ranking figures, she had never seen the White Snake Sage take much interest in the human world.
Nor did the White Snake Sage go out of her way to eat humans.
The ones she devoured were those who came to Ryuchi Cave seeking power and failed to endure the trial.
"I see."
Orochimaru said.
"Then tomorrow I'll have Anko invite Kiyohara here, and I'll ask him."
That meant he would have to postpone one of his missions for now.
…
The next day, Kiyohara accepted the invitation and came to Orochimaru's place.
The moment he stepped inside, he sensed a cold, eerie chakra.
There's someone else here?
Kiyohara lifted a brow slightly and kept walking in.
Inside, there was an unfamiliar woman.
While Kiyohara was studying Tagitsuhime, Tagitsuhime was studying him as well.
Then she turned.
Their eyes met.
In that instant, Tagitsuhime felt something strange—
a sense of familiarity.
It was almost as if Kiyohara were of her own kind.
But Kiyohara was clearly human, not a serpent that had taken human form.
That left a trace of confusion in her eyes.
"Orochimaru-sama, this is…?"
Kiyohara had already recognized her as one of Ryuchi Cave's three great snake princesses, Tagitsuhime.
But outwardly, he still put on an expression of confusion and asked.
"Lady Tagitsuhime of Ryuchi Cave."
Orochimaru answered.
"She's a snake."
He added after a beat.
Kiyohara's brow lifted slightly.
His gaze moved over Tagitsuhime from head to toe, then back up again, finally settling on that overly delicate face.
"…A snake?"
He looked genuinely surprised.
"A summon beast… that can take human form?"
"You could put it that way."
Tagitsuhime answered him.
"As long as a snake of Ryuchi Cave has deep enough mastery of sage arts, it can take on human form."
Tagitsuhime said.
"The White Snake Sage wants to see you."
Orochimaru said.
There wasn't much point hiding that.
Or rather, Orochimaru had no way to force Kiyohara to Ryuchi Cave against his will—
unless he used genjutsu.
But Kiyohara was an Uchiha, and there was no way his genjutsu ability would be weaker than Orochimaru's.
To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, Orochimaru decided it was better to be direct.
"Do you want to go, Kiyohara-kun? You might even be able to obtain Ryuchi Cave sage arts."
Knowing how much Kiyohara already understood about sage arts, Orochimaru went straight to the point.
Kiyohara stood there in thought for a moment.
His gaze passed over Tagitsuhime and fell on the newly replaced culture tanks lined up nearby.
Inside them, the first-generation curse mark cell samples were slowly dividing and multiplying in nutrient solution.
"This is a rare opportunity."
Orochimaru continued.
"…All right. I'll go."
Kiyohara answered only after seeming to think about it for quite a while.
Of course he was going to Ryuchi Cave.
Now that Orochimaru had brought it up himself, it saved Kiyohara the trouble of having to find out where Ryuchi Cave actually was.
After all, it was very far from Konoha.
And the second lingering wish involved killing Garaga in Ryuchi Cave.
That one, Kiyohara didn't think would be particularly difficult.
Killing Garaga didn't mean making an enemy of all Ryuchi Cave either, because a lot of the giant snakes there disliked Garaga too.
"Then how about half a month from now?"
Orochimaru said.
He had originally pushed all his morning work to the afternoon.
During this time, he was planning to gather enough money first.
"No problem."
Kiyohara had no objections.
Tagitsuhime nodded as well. As far as she was concerned, as long as she could report back to the White Snake Sage, that was enough.
…
At noon, at Tsunade's house.
When Kiyohara pushed open the entryway door, Tsunade was reclining on the living room sofa.
Her long blonde hair was scattered over the cushion, a few strands resting against her neck and shifting softly with her breathing.
The medical report in her hand had slid off to the side. Clearly, she had fallen asleep while reading it.
Kiyohara bent down, picked up the thin blanket that had slipped off, and draped it over her.
"…Hm?"
Tsunade's eyelashes fluttered.
She opened her eyes groggily.
"Kiyohara?"
"Yeah."
Kiyohara sat down beside the tea table.
"Taking a break just now?"
"…I was reading reports, but at some point I just fell asleep."
Tsunade rubbed her eyes and sat up.
The blanket slid off her shoulders. She made a lazy attempt to pull it back, failed, and gave up.
"Why are you back so late today?"
"There was something going on at Orochimaru-sama's place."
Kiyohara paused.
"And also, a messenger from Ryuchi Cave showed up."
Tsunade's hand, still rubbing at her eyes, froze halfway.
"…Ryuchi Cave?"
Her voice cleared a little.
"The White Snake Sage wants to see me."
Kiyohara said.
"She wants me to go to Ryuchi Cave soon."
"…And you agreed?"
"Yeah."
Tsunade frowned faintly.
She had no idea whether the snakes of Ryuchi Cave were easy to deal with or not.
At the very least, Garaga—the summon that Orochimaru had contracted with—was notoriously hard to handle and even demanded live sacrifices.
"What are you going there for?"
"To see whether I can learn the sage arts there."
Kiyohara said.
Aside from the lingering wish, that was one of the reasons he wanted to go.
Mount Myoboku sage arts were good, but in terms of sensory ability, they were actually inferior to Ryuchi Cave sage arts.
Really, the two just had different strengths.
"In that case, I'm going too."
Tsunade said.
"…All right."
Kiyohara didn't stop her.
If anything really happened, he could always use Flying Thunder God to take Tsunade and run.
"When are we leaving? I'll need to arrange things on the medical division's side in advance."
"Half a month from now."
"Fine."
She lifted her teacup and took a sip.
…
At the same time, in the Kumogakure war camp.
The Fourth Raikage A sat at the head of the conference table.
His body was massive and rock-like, the muscles on his bare right arm knotted and thick.
Around the table sat the full decision-making core of Kumogakure.
Including Dodai.
The veteran shinobi from the days of the Third Raikage now had his brows drawn together tightly as well.
Standing before them was the young secretary Mabui.
The scroll laid out in front of her was filled page after page with the latest battle reports and supply losses.
"The northwestern defense line has suffered repeated infiltration by Konoha's Minato Namikaze. Three of our squad leaders have already been attacked…"
"The southwestern supply route has been under constant harassment for the past two weeks. Nearly half of the chunin teams assigned to transport duty have been lost…"
"At the coastal encampment, although Jiraiya's main force has not moved on a large scale, their reconnaissance range has already pushed thirty li closer to our main camp…"
Mabui added the figures in a timely manner.
"Overall… Konoha is gradually squeezing our space for activity through attrition tactics."
Mabui said.
Even after fighting for this long, Kumogakure still hadn't managed to seize much land from the Land of Fire at all.
"…So your conclusion is that our situation is steadily worsening?"
The Fourth Raikage asked.
"No, Raikage-sama."
Dodai shook his head.
"Our total troop count is still higher than Konoha's."
"In terms of frontline combat personnel alone, we still have many more shinobi than they do."
He paused.
"But the issue isn't troop numbers."
"Then what is it?"
The Fourth Raikage asked.
"It's their top-tier combat power. And the number of geniuses they're producing."
Dodai answered.
"Konoha has the Three Sannin."
"And beyond that… Konoha has too many rising young talents."
Then he said Kiyohara's name.
That name was hardly unfamiliar to anyone in the room.
Especially to Yugito Nii, who was sitting in on the meeting as well—her expression became subtly complicated.
And according to some intelligence, Kiyohara had apparently even learned one of Kumogakure's own secret techniques—
Black Lightning.
"In that case, let's find time to organize one major offensive."
The Fourth Raikage said.
If this turned into a drawn-out war, Kumogakure didn't actually have much of an advantage.
Because high-tier shinobi could wipe out huge numbers of weaker shinobi in every battle.
And on top of that, this was not the Land of Lightning.
Their supply lines were stretched, while Konoha had already settled the war with Sunagakure and greatly reduced tensions with both Kirigakure and Iwagakure.
The best answer was to launch a lightning war now, before Konoha had fully recovered.
Otherwise, the pressure on Kumogakure from the other villages would only keep growing.
…
Before long, ten days passed.
During those ten days, Kiyohara and Tsunade even carried out another mission.
Because Kumogakure's movements had started looking suspicious, and thanks to Kiyohara's ability to fly, Konoha had sent him to investigate.
The mission itself had been fairly simple—just scouting out one of Kumogakure's encampments.
After Kiyohara gathered enough information, he turned in the mission.
"So we're back at the battlefield again."
Rin Nohara let out a sigh.
She had arrived at the front once again.
This time, though, it wasn't the Land of Rivers. It was the Kumogakure front.
"It won't last much longer."
Kiyohara shook his head.
They had no mission that afternoon, so everyone had gathered together to train.
In the nearby camp, Kiyohara could see a number of Uchiha clan members.
He even spotted Shisui Uchiha.
But Shisui looked extremely busy. After only a hurried exchange of a few words, he was already off on another mission.
"I hope so."
Rin said quietly.
Then she looked with interest in another direction.
There, Kakashi and Might Guy stood facing each other, twenty meters apart.
"Kakashi."
Might Guy's voice, as always, was full of energy. He raised a thumbs-up that gleamed under the setting sun, and that row of white teeth of his shone blindingly.
"Let's ignite today's youth through our battle!"
"…You're serious?"
Kakashi summoned Yamaru, transforming it into a silver-gray short blade.
"Of course."
Might Guy lowered his stance.
His feet planted firmly into the earth, his toes gripping the ground as he directly opened the Fifth Gate.
"Youth does not hold back, Kakashi!"
The instant the words fell, the ground exploded.
Guy's figure left an afterimage behind as he shot forward, already at Kakashi's front in the next moment. His right leg swept out.
Leaf Strong Whirlwind!
Kakashi used Body Flicker to evade the kick.
But a trace of seriousness had already surfaced in his eyes.
Fast.
It wasn't that the Sharingan couldn't see the speed.
It was that his own body's reaction speed was starting to lag behind.
Guy gave him no room to breathe.
When the first strike missed, his left leg instantly stepped in, his right knee rising as his whole body tightened like a great bow drawn to its fullest.
"Leaf Rock-Destroying Rise!"
The knee strike, wrapped in blue chakra, came from below with the force to shatter giant boulders, aimed straight for Kakashi's face.
Kakashi twisted aside and dodged.
Then he slashed toward Guy with Yamaru.
"Violent Leaf Adamantine-Strength Whirlwind!"
Guy concentrated chakra into his leg and kicked directly toward Kakashi's short blade.
With weighted training bags bound to his legs, he naturally wasn't worried about the blade cutting him.
At that, Kakashi finally uncovered his Sharingan.
His hand rose and slowly pushed his forehead protector up.
Crimson light flared in his eye socket, and the three tomoe rotated slowly like the awakening gaze of a beast.
"I just didn't want to waste too much time."
Guy smiled.
It was a truly delighted smile.
"That's more like it, Kakashi!"
He bent low, both hands touching the ground, his spine arching like a predator ready to spring.
Sweat ran down the deep lines of the muscles across his back, shining under the sunset.
The Sixth Gate—Gate of View—open!
Boom.
A green vapor burst from Guy's body.
The two clashed again.
"That fight's intense."
Rin said.
"Definitely."
Kiyohara nodded.
Both Guy and Kakashi had improved far beyond how they had been in the original timeline. Maybe that was because of his influence.
And after joining the Anbu, Guy had also become a little steadier than before.
"Rin, how is the Water Release medical ninjutsu I taught you progressing?"
Kiyohara asked.
During these ten days, he had also taught Rin Water Release medical ninjutsu.
"It's progressing really smoothly."
Rin said.
Then she raised her hand, and a small sphere of water appeared in her palm.
Kiyohara glanced at it and saw that it was filled with a large amount of Yang Release chakra.
If someone put their hand into it, it would probably accelerate wound healing.
While the two of them were talking, Kakashi also glanced over in Kiyohara's direction.
They really do match well.
That was what Kakashi thought.
If the phrase "a gifted man and a beautiful woman" had ever fit anyone, then Kiyohara and Rin were definitely a match.
For just that instant of distraction, Guy seized the opening and attacked one of Kakashi's weak points directly.
His fist stopped just before it connected with Kakashi's face.
"Looks like I win this round. I should probably start counting our wins and losses properly."
Guy grinned.
"You can count all you want."
Kakashi pulled his forehead protector back down again, instantly returning to his usual lazy demeanor.
"Kiyohara, want to spar?" Guy turned and called out.