"If the windmill simply stops like this, it would be such a profound pity," Orochimaru hissed softly, a psychotic, fascinated smile curling his pale lips. "If you encounter mortal danger on the flank... let me see just how violently you, this little gust of wind, can blow."
Orochimaru's golden, vertical pupils stared at Kiyohara without a moment's pause.
The coastal wind continued to howl, carrying with it the apocalyptic roars of the approaching Hidden Mist armada and the distant, thunderous explosions of the Tailed Beast.
"Then, thank you very much for the gift, Lord Orochimaru," Kiyohara bowed his head respectfully.
The "Power of the White Snake" solution was undeniably a miraculous survival tool. But Kiyohara was pragmatic; he absolutely would not inject it rashly.
Who knew if Orochimaru had secretly laced the serum with his own parasitic chakra, or some other inexplicable genetic trap? In the original timeline, before his defection, Orochimaru had implanted a lethal Cursed Seal directly onto his own student, Anko Mitarashi. The Orochimaru who was eventually killed by Itachi Uchiha was able to be resurrected precisely because of the microscopic genetic backup he had embedded in Anko's neck years prior.
'Only after I find a secure laboratory, analyze the biochemical components, and confirm there are no hidden genetic markers will I even consider using this,' Kiyohara resolved internally. If there were traps, he would simply reverse-engineer the healing properties for his own research.
"It's too early for thanks. Spin the windmill to your heart's content," Orochimaru smiled. He detested boring, predictable things. Seeing something unexpected—like a civilian boy manipulating fundamental physics—gave him a rare sense of vitality.
"According to my main body's sensory network, at least four elite Hidden Mist hit squads are currently infiltrating this exact flank sector. Their goal is to intercept our retreating troops, slaughter the stragglers, and expand their beachhead," Orochimaru stated clinically.
Orochimaru's words made Kiyohara's heart tighten. If the Mist ANBU were allowed to cut off the primary retreat route, Kurenai, Genma, and the rest of the vulnerable caravan would be massacred.
Orochimaru seemed to see directly through his thoughts. "My main body needs to concentrate entirely on stalling the Six-Tails and the Mist vanguard. I cannot spare any additional chakra to secure the flanks. However, a rout is unacceptable. The retreat must be orderly. Someone needs to violently delay the advance of those infiltration squads to buy time for Captain Shikaku to reorganize the inland defense line."
His golden gaze fell heavily on Kiyohara. "Your initiative to stay behind and act as the rearguard is incredibly timely. The Magnet Release jutsu you developed grants you exceptional, supersonic mobility, making you flawless for executing delaying tactics. Use the jungle terrain and your speed to harass, mislead, and execute hit-and-run strikes. Do not seek total annihilation; simply delay their advance."
Kiyohara immediately understood Orochimaru's tactical intent. This aligned perfectly with his own greedy agenda.
Acting alone as a highly mobile sniper would allow him to "help his comrades" (delay the pursuers) while simultaneously "collecting resources" (looting enemy corpses and racking up massive military merit). It was killing two birds with one stone.
"I understand, Lord Orochimaru," Kiyohara said solemnly, gripping his Tachi. "I will do my absolute best to bleed the enemy's pursuit."
"Heh heh... very good," Orochimaru's Shadow Clone revealed a deeply meaningful smile.
If Kiyohara were to simply die here, it would be a tragic waste of a fascinating specimen. But even if the boy died, Orochimaru could still retrieve his corpse and harvest his genetic data. A Magnet Release specimen for his collection wouldn't be bad at all.
Poof.
In the next moment, Orochimaru's Shadow Clone vanished in a puff of white smoke, its chakra returning to the main body on the beach.
Kiyohara took a deep breath. He didn't delay any longer.
He first rapidly scanned the burning, chaotic mess of the abandoned Konoha encampment.
Many medical tents and logistical supply points had not been completely vaporized during the shockwave of the Tailed Beast Ball. In the frantic evacuation, command had left things behind. It was a perfect opportunity to fill his pockets.
He engaged the Body Flicker Technique, his figure blurring between several half-collapsed barracks.
In the triage tent, there were abandoned, high-grade hemostatic agents and premium bandages scattered across the mud. At the quartermaster's point, there were several forgotten, locked sealing scrolls, which likely contained combat rations or highly valuable explosive tags. He even found two flawlessly balanced, chakra-conductive kunai on a weapons rack that had been mostly melted by the slug's acid.
He rapidly packed these premium supplies into his own high-capacity Sealing Scroll.
Thanks to the microscopic metal perception granted by Magnet Release, he could easily detect and magnetically pull valuable shuriken and wires hidden under the burning debris.
Just as he sealed a pristine chakra-metal short sword into his scroll, a violent chakra fluctuation spiked in his sensory perception. It wasn't coming from the apocalyptic main battlefield on the beach; it was rapidly approaching from the dense woods ahead and to his left. It carried the distinct, metallic scent of blood and seawater unique to Mist shinobi.
"They're here," Kiyohara's eyes narrowed.
He stowed his loot scroll and rapidly formed hand seals. Chakra surged violently through his meridian system.
A dull, metallic luster appeared on the surface of his skin beneath his flak jacket, as if his flesh had been plated with a layer of flowing, impenetrable black steel.
Steel Release!
This was a mutated Kekkei Genkai with an effect conceptually similar to Earth Spear. However, true Steel Release did not possess the catastrophic weakness of being countered by Lightning Release. The only thing that restricted the absolute defense of Steel Release was the user's total chakra capacity.
And then—
The magnetic field began to roar.
The magnetic force generated by his chakra began to resonate violently, actively syncing with the planetary magnetic field of the earth beneath his boots. This connection meant Kiyohara could draw upon an external, virtually limitless source of kinetic acceleration at any moment.
The invisible domain of Magnet Release expanded rapidly outward. In the past, Kiyohara could only borrow the magnetic field within a few meters of his body. Now, his domain expanded to a massive twenty-meter radius.
"Konoha Body Flicker Technique!"
As he engaged the standard teleportation jutsu, a massive wave of absolute magnetic repulsion exploded beneath his boots. A violent ring of displaced air blasted open on the ground.
Kiyohara's figure instantly broke the sound barrier, turning into a blurred, supersonic black line charging straight toward the approaching Mist squads.
Three elite Hidden Mist squads had just broken through the treeline when they saw the black blur crashing directly toward them.
"Watch out! Konoha nin—!"
The Jonin's warning was only half-shouted.
Kiyohara had already violently shattered the formation of the first squad.
His speed was so terrifying that the Mist ninja could only see a dark blur, followed immediately by the blooming red flowers of their own arterial blood.
Iron sand rapidly condensed and attached to the steel Tachi in his hand, violently extending its length by dozens of centimeters and turning it into a jagged, pitch-black greatsword.
The blade, forged from chakra metal, hummed and vibrated furiously under the extreme enhancement of Wind Release. Translucent, razor-sharp air currents rotated around the edge, causing the air to let out a deafening screech. If one looked closely, they could even see a volatile layer of blue lightning arcs crackling across the iron sand.
Kiyohara gripped the hilt tightly and lunged forward, unleashing absolute kinetic violence.
Lightning Release and Wind Release shared the same fundamental characteristic: they provided unrivaled, armor-piercing sharpness.
Back during his Genin days, Kiyohara had used this combination on simple copper wires. Now, he applied it to a masterwork blade. The terrifying chakra-conduction effect of the metal triggered instantly. Wind and lightning merged, hissing violently across the iron-coated steel!
SWOOSH!
The ground beneath his feet shattered. Kiyohara became an invisible afterimage.
The first Mist Chunin frantically tried to form defensive seals, but the jagged black blade had already seamlessly severed his neck.
The second Genin hurriedly threw a barrage of shuriken. Kiyohara casually sidestepped the projectiles at supersonic speed. He swung the Tachi in a brutal backhand arc, cleanly severing the boy's kunai and his entire right arm in a single motion.
The third target was the captain of the squad—a highly experienced veteran who had instinctively triggered the Substitution Jutsu the exact microsecond Kiyohara materialized.
The wooden log was instantly bisected, and the captain's true body materialized five meters away in the branches.
Cold sweat dripped from the captain's forehead. The Substitution Jutsu requires the user to burn a massive burst of chakra to temporarily match the attacker's speed and swap their physical location. But just now... he realized that if his neural reflexes had been a fraction of a millisecond slower, he would have been violently cut in half by this Konoha demon!
The surviving Jonin didn't dare be careless; he desperately wished his parents had birthed him with two extra hands so he could weave seals faster.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
A massive, roaring dragon of high-pressure water condensed behind him and swept down toward Kiyohara with crushing force.
But at this close range, Kiyohara's reaction speed was absolute. Utilizing magnetic repulsion, he smoothly side-stepped the massive dragon.
Under the horrified, disbelieving gazes of the remaining Mist squads, Kiyohara's figure violently snapped backward, withdrawing to a spot fifty meters away. As he reappeared, he casually drove his Tachi backward, instantly impaling a dazed Mist Genin who happened to be standing in his new location.
Puchi.
Blood splattered thickly across the grass.
"What kind of ghostly speed is this?!"
"Who the hell is that?! Did the Yellow Flash teleport here?!"
"Holy crap, is that speed even biologically possible?! Is he running or flying?!"
"Formation! Stop him!" one of the leading Mist Jonin screamed in panic.
The Hidden Mist military had suffered devastating casualties against Minato Namikaze before. This was the third time they had encountered a Konoha shinobi with god-like Body Flicker. The first was the Yellow Flash. The second was the newly rising prodigy, Shisui of the Body Flicker.
"You guys... are entirely too slow," Kiyohara whispered.
In Kiyohara's cold black eyes, the faces of the Mist ninja were perfectly reflected. He saw their anger, surprise, disdain, and sheer, unadulterated terror. The fragile reality of human life on a battlefield.
'Pity. This isn't even my maximum output yet,' Kiyohara noted clinically.
Even though his dynamic vision struggled to process the environmental blur at these speeds, his mutated nervous system could still physically react to the incoming data. This was the terrifying, compounding result of his massive spiritual energy and the genetic gifts from his future selves stacked perfectly!
As long as he had the chakra to fuel the magnetic repulsion, Kiyohara was a living railgun projectile traversing the battlefield.
In other words, unless he encountered an opponent with an absolute, unbreakable defense (like the Third Raikage) or a powerhouse with the neural reflexes to intercept him (like Minato), Kiyohara possessed the absolute right to slaughter the weak.
Any ninja who couldn't physically react in time became pathetic weeds waiting to be harvested by Kiyohara's blade.
'Now, I'm going to initiate a budget version of battlefield dominance,' Kiyohara thought ruthlessly.
He didn't possess the apocalyptic, god-like power to dance through an entire allied army like Madara Uchiha... but systematically slaughtering the Chunin and Genin on the flanks was incredibly easy.
I will reap you all. I will refine your corpses! You will all become my accumulated military merit points!
In the next instant, the repulsive force beneath Kiyohara's boots exploded again. His body violently changed vectors, rushing toward the second Mist squad like a refracting black laser.
"Scatter!" the Jonin of the second squad barked desperately.
Too late.
Kiyohara's speed formed an absolute tactical suppression zone on the battlefield.
He wasn't Minato; he didn't possess the instantaneous, space-time teleportation of the Flying Thunder God. But in terms of pure, linear kinetic acceleration and violent directional changes, he was currently operating completely outside the capture limit of a standard ninja's dynamic vision.
The black blade flashed again.
This time, Kiyohara did not seek a one-hit assassination.
The iron sand greatsword swept horizontally, a massive wave of wind and lightning forcing three enemies back simultaneously. As they retreated, Kiyohara's left hand blurred, pulling a thick stack of explosive tags from his pouch. He stuck them violently to the surrounding tree trunks and rocks as he passed, like a flock of deadly birds taking flight.
"Burst," he uttered a single, cold word.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Successive, deafening explosions kicked up massive clouds of soil, wood chips, and thick smoke, blinding the area. The Mist ninja were forced to raise defensive walls, their formation instantly collapsing into chaos.
Using the smoke as cover, Kiyohara had already rushed toward the third squad.
"Arrogant Konoha brat!" the Jonin of the third squad, Haku Yamagami, roared in fury. He was one of the few elites on the flank with a naturally high neural reflection speed.
Therefore, he was barely able to track Kiyohara's trajectory.
Yamagami gripped a massive, broad-bladed greatsword with both hands.
"Watch me cut you in half!"
The heavy blade slashed down, tearing through the air with a deafening screech.
Kiyohara did not dodge.
His originally pale palm instantly turned pitch-black. Activating Steel Release, his hardened right hand shot upward, grabbing the razor-sharp edge of the descending greatsword completely barehanded.
CLANG!
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Give me powerstones.
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