On the road, Rin appeared quite active, occasionally asking Tsunade advanced questions about Medical Ninjutsu. Although Tsunade's attitude was lazy, she answered them thoroughly.
Rin listened seriously, nodding from time to time. Kiyohara also pricked up his ears; the knowledge regarding microscopic chakra control was highly beneficial for his own training.
On the trail, Kakashi and Kiyohara were responsible for the vanguard scouting.
Kakashi summoned his Eight Ninken, while Kiyohara utilized his high-speed Body Flicker to quickly scout ahead and report back.
Along the way, Rin carefully searched the undergrowth for usable medicinal herbs. When they stopped to rest, she would collect them and stow them in her medical pouch.
"This Purple Cloud Grass has an excellent hemostatic effect," Rin showed Kiyohara a small, vibrant purple flower. "Combined with medical chakra, it can rapidly accelerate localized wound healing."
"What is the actual difference between Medical Ninjutsu and standard herbalism?" Kiyohara asked curiously.
Rin explained patiently, "Medical Ninjutsu uses raw chakra to directly stimulate cellular division and regeneration. It is instantaneous, but it consumes a massive amount of the patient's and the medic's energy. Herbalism uses the natural medicinal properties of plants to assist the body's immune system. It is much slower, but the effects are long-lasting and don't drain chakra. A true Medical Ninja must be proficient in both."
Tsunade listened to their conversation from behind. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly; she was clearly satisfied with Rin's textbook explanation.
When night fell, the four of them set up camp by a slow-moving stream.
The campfire crackled, reflecting off their faces.
Tsunade took off her high-heeled sandals and rubbed her aching ankles. She was wearing light blue cropped pants, the tight fabric outlining the powerful, rounded curves of her legs.
She walked over to the edge of the stream. The cuffs of her pants slid up slightly, revealing smooth calves as she slipped her feet into the cool water. Kiyohara took a brief glance, noting that Tsunade's toenails, like her fingernails, were painted a vibrant crimson.
Kiyohara also walked over to briefly wash his feet.
When ninja travel, they basically rely entirely on foot travel across rugged terrain. If their feet were wrapped tightly in enclosed boots, the resulting bacterial smell after a week-long mission would be considered a biological weapon.
"Hmm..."
Kakashi was guarding the perimeter. He was on the first rotation.
Kakashi's sense of smell was significantly better than an ordinary person's, and he suddenly smelled something highly unusual—a thick, reptilian musk.
"Kiyohara. Do you sense anything wrong?" Kakashi asked, his visible eye narrowing in solemn suspicion.
"Something is out there..."
Kiyohara stood up from the stream. With a wave of his hand, the iron sand from the thermos at his waist rushed out.
The sand thinned out exponentially, spreading outward like a massive cloud of black mist.
This was a utility application Kiyohara had discovered recently.
In the Ninja World, there are various high-level jutsu for hiding one's presence, such as Iwagakure's Camouflage Concealment Technique or Gekkō Hayate's Transparent Escape.
Sure enough, when the iron sand mist passed over a specific empty patch of air near the treeline, it faintly stuck to something.
The outline became clearer and clearer as the magnetic sand clung to a massive, invisible shape. The figure of a monster faintly appeared—at least several meters long, closely resembling a massive Chameleon.
It was a giant Summoned Beast!
"Contact! A giant Summoned Beast!" Kiyohara shouted immediately, drawing his Tachi.
Summoned Beasts generally fall into two categories: those who have signed blood contracts with a clan, and those who are wild, living in the uncharted regions of the world. A wild beast of this size was easily capable of tearing a Chunin squad to shreds.
"Roar!"
The invisible Chameleon realized the black mist had compromised its camouflage and immediately became violently agitated.
It opened a massive, bloody maw filled with razor-sharp fangs and lunged directly toward the nearest target: Tsunade.
Tsunade's legendary combat instincts overrode her fatigue. Chakra instantly condensed in her right fist. Without even looking back, she pivoted and swung her arm violently!
"Monster Strength."
BOOM!
The terrifying kinetic shockwave from her punch tore the air apart. The invisible figure took the blow directly to its center of mass.
SCREECH!
A sharp, agonizing wail rang out. The massive beast was launched backward, slamming brutally into the edge of the woods a dozen meters away, snapping a thick tree trunk in half.
The catastrophic impact interrupted its camouflage. Its true form was revealed—a massive lizard covered in dark green scales. Its shoulder blade and ribcage were entirely caved in, the bones shattered into powder. Thick blood gushed uncontrollably from its nose, maw, and the massive lacerations on its side.
This was the absolute, unrivaled power of Monster Strength.
Kiyohara's eyelids twitched. In terms of pure physical destruction, even the Fourth Raikage couldn't compare to Tsunade. If she hit a human ninja with that much force, she would literally punch them into minced meat.
Unfortunately, the moment the beast materialized and the thick pool of blood splattered across the grass, Tsunade's movements suddenly froze.
Her face instantly turned ashen. Her eyes widened in uncontrollable revulsion and terror, and her entire body began to tremble violently.
Her hemophobia had been triggered.
"Lady Tsunade!" Rin cried out. Not knowing the Sannin's secret, she hurriedly stepped forward to support the swaying woman.
Although the Chameleon was heavily injured, the scent of its own blood triggered its ferocity. It struggled to crawl up, its crimson, reptilian eyes locking onto the suddenly paralyzed Tsunade, and it pounced again!
Crackle!
Blinding lightning bloomed in Kakashi's hand. Holding the swirling electric arcs, he charged directly into the beast's path.
"Chidori!"
The sharp lightning blade pierced directly through the Chameleon's tough green scales. But the size difference between the two was massive; the localized piercing wound barely slowed the charging behemoth.
While Kakashi stalled the beast, the iron sand in Kiyohara's hand surged and aggressively condensed.
Crackling blue electric arcs generated around the compressed metal.
Only this time, after rolling the sand into a dense sphere, Kiyohara didn't flatten it into a coin.
Having practiced the Object Manipulation Jutsu extensively, his spatial shape manipulation had vastly improved. The sphere deformed in his hand, stretching and tapering until it became a perfect, aerodynamic spindle.
The spindle shape—sharp at both ends and wide in the middle—is the absolute optimal shape for fluid dynamics and armor-piercing ballistics.
The black coil rings formed rapidly around Kiyohara's arm. He raised his hand, aiming directly at the beast's skull.
BANG!
The spindle-shaped projectile shot out like a sniper bullet.
Its initial velocity exceeded six hundred meters per second. At this close range, even Kakashi could barely track the black blur with his Sharingan!
PFFT!
Blood splattered wildly.
The aerodynamic iron projectile tore cleanly through the Chameleon's thick cranial scales, embedding itself deep into its muscular shoulder socket.
The beast let out a shrill, deafening wail. Its forward momentum was violently interrupted, and it rolled heavily into the dirt, losing the vast majority of its mobility. Even though the projectile was small, the sheer kinetic energy it carried directly tore through dozens of centimeters of tough flesh and bone.
'It's significantly more lethal than the coin,' Kiyohara analyzed clinically. 'But the raw destructive depth is still far inferior to Tsunade's punch.'
He immediately wove hand signs.
The iron sand rapidly expanded, wrapping tightly around the incapacitated beast.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Binding Coffin!"
The Chameleon was several meters long. Kiyohara's current sand reserves could only cover it in a thin, constricting layer, but it was enough to temporarily lock its joints.
"What are you doing, Kiyohara?!" Kakashi asked, panting slightly. He had released two Chidori today, and the Sharingan's mana consumption was taking its toll. Seeing the beast neutralized, Kakashi immediately pulled his headband down, covering his left eye to enter low-consumption mode.
"I plan to tame it," Kiyohara said calmly.
He had originally wanted a flying-type Summoned Beast for mobility, but a beast with active optical camouflage was an incredible prize. The Chameleon relied on its outer skin and scales to bend light; theoretically, hiding under its body or inside its mouth could grant Kiyohara total invisibility.
"You want to sign a contract with it?" Tsunade asked, keeping her eyes squeezed shut and her face turned completely away from the bloody carnage.
"Yes. I purchased a blank summoning scroll for this exact purpose," Kiyohara replied.
He bit his index finger, quickly unrolled the blank scroll, and wrote his name in blood. Then, he gathered a smear of the Chameleon's blood and wrote the beast's species classification next to his name.
"Summoning Jutsu: Blood Contract!"
The sealing formulas spread out, burning themselves onto the Chameleon's scales. In the dark, Kiyohara felt a faint, tethered connection establish itself in his chakra network.
The contract was weak, but it was sealed.
He released the Iron Sand Restraint.
The Chameleon let out a mournful, rattling cry. It had just wanted to eat a blonde human, and now it had been beaten half to death and enslaved. It instantly engaged its camouflage, turning invisible again, and frantically fled into the dark forest.
Kiyohara didn't chase after it.
As long as his name remained on the scroll, the spatial tether was absolute. He could summon it at any time. Taming a wild beast was a slow process of breaking its spirit and forcing submission. He would simply summon it occasionally, beat it into submission, and eventually wear down its wild temperament.
"Lady Tsunade, are you alright?" Rin asked, gently guiding the eye-closed Tsunade away from the blood.
Rin was deeply confused. 'Is the Medical Saint... afraid of blood?' It was an utterly absurd thought, but the physical symptoms were undeniable.
Rin hurried back to check on Kakashi and Kiyohara. After confirming they were unharmed, she breathed a sigh of relief. "That was too dangerous. That beast's optical camouflage is flawless. If you hadn't used the iron sand to outline it, Kiyohara—"
"Kakashi smelled it first," Kiyohara smiled faintly. "Then Lady Tsunade completely shattered its ribcage, giving me the opening to pin it."
His words were entirely true. If Kiyohara had encountered it alone, he would have had to expend a massive amount of chakra to kill it, let alone capture it alive.
Tsunade's condition improved significantly once she was seated away from the gore. Her breathing steadied.
"Well done, kid," Tsunade said to Kiyohara, her full lips curving into a tired smile. "That beast's camouflage is highly valuable. Cultivate its loyalty well."
After the incident, the squad relocated the camp to a more secure, hidden clearing deeper in the woods.
Rin started a new fire, boiled water, and thoughtfully brewed a cup of calming herbal tea for Tsunade.
Kiyohara meticulously set up tripwires along the perimeter, using near-invisible copper threads. Kakashi deployed his Ninken to guard the outer boundary.
Night fell completely. A scattering of bright stars shone through the canopy.
By the campfire, Tsunade's state had fully recovered. She looked at Kiyohara, who was sitting on night watch, and spoke suddenly.
"Kiyohara. In the battle against the Uchiha kid, your deployment of Magnet Release was excellent. But your chakra consumption was highly inefficient."
Kiyohara turned his head. "Please guide me, Lady Tsunade."
Tsunade took a sip of the herbal tea. "A Kekkei Genkai provides overwhelming firepower, but you cannot rely on it excessively. Using it to brute-force your problems is amateurish. Microscopic control and the rational, mathematical distribution of your chakra reserves are the true foundation of a Kage-level shinobi."
She glanced over at Kakashi. "Kakashi suffers from the exact same flaw. His Chidori consumes entirely too much energy, and his base reserves are significantly lower than yours."
Kakashi remained silent. His chakra volume was originally considered high for his age, but the constant, parasitic drag of the Sharingan had crippled his stamina.
Kiyohara nodded respectfully. Tsunade's assessment was perfectly accurate. To secure a rapid victory against Shisui, he had burned a massive amount of chakra on electromagnetic acceleration. In a prolonged, multi-target warzone, that fighting style would leave him completely drained and vulnerable.
"Thank you for the guidance, Lady Tsunade," Kiyohara bowed his head slightly.
It was late at night. The two medics, Rin and Tsunade, had retired to their sleeping bags.
Kakashi and Kiyohara sat across from each other across the dying campfire, listening to the crackling embers and the faint chirping of insects.
"Here. Replenish your strength," Kiyohara tossed a sealed pouch of premium, air-dried beef jerky to Kakashi.
When dropped into hot water, the meat expanded significantly and was packed with dense protein. It was a massive upgrade over eating roasted bugs for sustenance.
"Thanks," Kakashi caught the pouch. He dropped a few strips into his canteen cup to soften in the hot water. He looked at Kiyohara strangely.
'Kiyohara never mistreats his own stomach,' Kakashi noted. Despite living as a pragmatic, ruthless combatant, Kiyohara's logistical supplies were always highly refined and efficient.
Kiyohara leaned back against a tree trunk, the orange firelight dancing across his face.
He glanced up at the night sky.
'Counting the time... it should be exactly midnight.'
Today was the last day of the cycle.
And while Kiyohara sat quietly on guard duty, the mechanical voice of the Urn finally echoed in his mind.
[Please check your suicide note and urn, and properly bury the relics.]
'It's here!'
Kiyohara's heart leapt with excitement. The most anticipated moment of the month had finally arrived.
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