"Then I must thank you for your generous gift, Orochimaru-sama," Kiyohara bowed his head respectfully.
Now that he had officially accepted the position as Orochimaru's research assistant, he was perfectly positioned to participate in—and profit from—Orochimaru's impending development of forbidden drugs, genetic engineering, and Cursed Seals.
"Then rest first, Kiyohara-kun. Your complexion doesn't look very good at all," Orochimaru noted clinically.
Kiyohara's face was currently pale and entirely bloodless, clearly suffering the severe physiological aftereffects of overclocking his metabolism during the prolonged slaughter.
"Then I will take my leave," Kiyohara said, picking up the Wind Cutter scroll and exiting the command tent.
Back outside in the mud, he briefly exchanged relieved pleasantries with Kurenai and Genma before returning to his newly assigned, private tent to collapse.
'The "Power of the White Snake"... after I secure a sterile lab to test its chemical composition, if there are no parasitic traps, consuming it might permanently increase my baseline chakra capacity,' Kiyohara thought to himself as he stripped off his ruined flak jacket.
If he could adapt the cellular regeneration to his own biology, his chakra recovery speed would skyrocket, providing a massive passive buff even without the Iwa Spirit hijacking his digestion.
Kiyohara then meticulously organized the massive volume of spoils packed into his sealing scrolls. He planned to find time during his downtime to fence them all on the black market.
He would spend a significant portion of that blood money on premium, chakra-conductive chainmail. His current mesh armor was shredded from Sora's explosive Water Release.
After all, Steel Release was an active ability that consumed massive amounts of chakra. High-quality chainmail, however, was a passive, zero-cost physical defense that could block a lethal sneak attack if he was caught off guard.
Aside from logistical upgrades, the only remaining problem Kiyohara faced was completing the Iwa Spirit's second dying wish.
'Old man, do you have any actionable intelligence regarding the deployment of other Steel Release ninja?' Kiyohara summoned the Iwa Spirit in his mental space.
"There should be quite a few within the Hidden Stone," the Iwa Spirit spoke up, floating in the dark. "In my timeline, several Iwagakure shinobi who possessed the mutation were dispatched on a classified mission somewhere near the Land of Grass... but I have no idea if your timeline's events will perfectly mirror mine."
Kekkei Genkai mutations were statistically rare, but when looking at the sheer population of a Great Nation, there were actually quite a few individuals who possessed them.
Furthermore, it wasn't just trained shinobi who possessed Bloodline Limits. Being a ninja was merely a militarized profession. There were also ordinary civilians who awakened terrifying abilities at birth or during puberty. Sadly, such civilian anomalies were usually deemed demonic calamities by ignorant villagers, leading to their imprisonment, execution, or the wholesale slaughter of their entire bloodline.
"True," Kiyohara stroked his chin, pondering the geopolitical situation.
With the coastal defensive line having successfully retreated inland, the main Hidden Mist forces should subside for a while. They needed time to establish supply lines and gather strength before launching their next major offensive. In the short term, there would only be minor border skirmishes.
'During this operational pause, those Mist ANBU will find a way to kidnap Rin... while covertly transferring the Three-Tails Jinchuriki inland,' Kiyohara calculated.
Their original, canon plan was brutal but logically sound: seal the Three-Tails inside Rin, brainwash her, allow Konoha to "rescue" her, and finally trigger the seal to cause the beast to go violently out of control within the center of Konoha.
The apocalyptic consequences of a Tailed Beast rampaging inside a densely populated village would be seen years later during the Nine-Tails incident. The defending shinobi could only fight with their hands tied to avoid collateral damage; otherwise, the entire village would be leveled in the crossfire. From a purely strategic perspective, it was a flawless decapitation strike.
But Kiyohara knew this entire operation was an elaborate, psychological front engineered by Madara Uchiha to break Obito's sanity.
After all, Madara couldn't control everyone with Genjutsu simultaneously. He inevitably controlled a key group of Mist commanders, then manufactured a logical military excuse for the rest of the Mist army to execute the kidnapping.
"I'll just have to wait and see," Kiyohara sighed.
He planned to actively request missions related to the Iwagakure front near the Land of Grass, while continuously probing intelligence networks to locate a Steel Release user.
He dismissed the Iwa Spirit back into the stone Urn and quickly fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.
The next day, Kiyohara and the rest of the garrison received the official sitrep.
Just as Orochimaru had predicted, the Hidden Mist armada had to temporarily halt their inland offensive due to the unexpected rampage and subsequent loss of control of the Six-Tails. The battlefield entered a tense phase of stalemate and recuperation.
The immediate pressure on Konoha's eastern front was greatly reduced, and several exhausted frontline units were rotated back to the Village for mandatory R&R. Kiyohara's squad was among them.
The long-lost, peaceful streets of Konoha came into view. Seeing the familiar Hokage Rock looming over the bustling civilian crowds made the teenage shinobi who had just survived the bloodiest meat grinder of the decade feel as if a lifetime had passed.
Kiyohara took a deep breath of the familiar scent of street food and clean air. His long-tense, paranoid nerves could finally relax slightly.
He could go to the market, sell his massive haul of corpses, and violently convert that cash into tangible ninja potential!
Konohagakure. Inside a secure conference room in the Hokage Building.
An elite Joint Jonin Council meeting was being held. Every single shinobi present was a full Jonin or a tactical commander.
Thick pipe smoke swirled in the air, and the political atmosphere was heavy.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat in the center seat, puffing thoughtfully on his pipe. His aged gaze slowly scanned the Jonin, the civilian Advisors, and the hologram representatives of the frontline commanders.
Danzo sat in the shadows of a side seat with his lone eye half-closed. The two Village Elders, Koharu and Homura, whispered to each other in low voices.
"On the Iwagakure front, that stubborn old man, Ōnoki, is still holding the line. But according to our deep-cover intelligence, their logistics and manpower replenishments are showing severe signs of fatigue. They cannot sustain this operational tempo much longer," the Jonin Commander responsible for Intelligence Analysis reported.
"Sunagakure seems to be hoarding their remaining strength, likely waiting to see who breaks first. As for Kumogakure... the Fourth Raikage is a radical militant, but having just taken office, he requires internal political stability before committing to a full-scale invasion. Therefore, the possibility of Kumo opening a new front in the short term is low."
"And the Hidden Mist..." the analyst paused. "They suffered a massive logistical setback this week. The catastrophic loss of control of the Six-Tails caused significantly more damage to their own beachhead infrastructure than it did to our retreating forces, making it structurally impossible for them to organize an offensive of the same scale in the short term."
Hiruzen slowly exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. "In other words, the key to winning this war currently lies with breaking Iwagakure. As long as we decisively resolve the Iwa front, we can free up enough military strength to crush the pressure from the other borders."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Shikaku Nara spoke up from the table.
Danzo then spoke slowly, his raspy voice echoing from the shadows. "Perhaps... we can add some fuel to the fire and approach the Iwa problem from... unconventional aspects."
He didn't state it explicitly, but those familiar with his brutal doctrine understood perfectly: he meant deploying Root for mass infiltration, infrastructure sabotage, and political assassination deep within the Land of Earth.
Hiruzen remained noncommittal, turning his gaze to Orochimaru, who was sitting nearby.
"Orochimaru. You commanded the eastern front. This time, the Hidden Mist was forced to retreat. Besides the Six-Tails rampage, the unexpected, devastating strike on their flank command post seemed to play a significant tactical role. I read the initial reports... Kiyohara's performance was quite exceptional?"
The gazes of dozens of elite Jonin in the conference room instantly shifted toward the Sannin.
Kiyohara's name, along with the heavily redacted battle reports, had already begun to circulate among Konoha's high command.
Creating massive, sustained chaos on the flank completely single-handedly. Slaughtering dozens of Hidden Mist Chunin and Genin. Executing an elite Jonin assassin in close-quarters combat. And allegedly utilizing a classified, long-range Magnet Release ninjutsu to vaporize the enemy command post.
This combat record was absolutely, utterly appalling for a teenage Chunin.
A hint of a dark smile flashed in Orochimaru's golden vertical pupils. He licked the corner of his mouth and spoke in his characteristically smooth, hissing voice.
"Sarutobi-sensei. Kiyohara is indeed... an exceptionally rare specimen. Given his raw firepower and tactical ruthlessness, even skipping the Special Jonin rank and promoting him directly to full Jonin would be entirely justified."
Hearing this unprecedented praise from Orochimaru, Hiruzen nodded thoughtfully.
Kiyohara was indeed a prodigy, just as he had suspected during the Academy days, and his spontaneous development of the Magnet Release mutation was terrifyingly high. Such absolute, lethal talent was exactly the kind of weapon Konoha desperately needed to end this war.
In the shadows, Danzo opened his lone eye slightly.
Kiyohara's performance was indeed brilliant. But the more brilliant the weapon became, the more desperately Danzo wanted to drag the boy into the dark and chain him to Root.
The tactical meeting continued for several hours, arguing over the microscopic details of various fronts, resource allocations, and the next strategic maneuvers.
Finally, Hiruzen tapped his pipe against the desk. "Gentlemen. The war is not yet over. Konoha still requires your dedication. The Iwagakure front is the critical focus of the next operational phase. All departments must be prepared to deploy. Meeting adjourned."
Returning to his civilian apartment, Kiyohara first boiled water and brewed a cup of premium green tea for himself.
This specific tea wasn't something he had purchased; it was a quiet gift from Kakashi. It seemed that after seeing how brutally minimalist and barren Kiyohara's apartment was—lacking even basic hospitality items—Kakashi had silently left a tin of tea leaves on the counter before they deployed.
Feeling the rich, refreshing taste wash over his tongue, Kiyohara admitted that Kakashi had excellent, expensive taste.
He then entered his bathroom.
Splash—
The scalding hot water washed over his highly conditioned, heavily scarred musculature, washing away the grime and dried blood of the coastline.
'I am... vastly stronger than I was before the Whirlpool mission,' Kiyohara noted clinically.
He reached out his wet hand. First, a faint, razor-sharp layer of wind current appeared across his palm. Then, it instantly morphed into violently jumping blue electric arcs. Finally, the lightning dissipated, and his skin gradually solidified, turning the dull, pitch-black color of steel before returning to its natural tone.
Wind, Lightning, and Earth. These three attributes were now Kiyohara's strongest foundational nature transformations.
His innate genetic talent in these specific elements was terrifying. He didn't even need to inherit the corresponding techniques from the Urn anymore; he could literally learn them just by studying the theoretical scrolls.
A jutsu that would take a normal shinobi years to master, he reduced to months. Then two months. Then one month.
Kiyohara suspected that once his elemental affinities were completely maxed out by future inheritances, he might be able to perfectly replicate any ninjutsu he saw with a single glance—just like the Sharingan.
'But I still need more time to develop in secret,' Kiyohara brushed his wet black hair back and tied a towel around his waist as he stepped out of the steam.
Standing in front of the mirror, he noted that as he aged, his facial features were becoming increasingly sharp, defined, and mature. The boyish softness was completely gone.
After drying off, Kiyohara put on his clean, daily civilian clothes. His inner chainmail was completely shredded from the explosive tags, so he had to go out to the shinobi district to purchase a replacement immediately.
When frontline ninja returned to the Village, they wouldn't stay for long. The war was still raging, and after a few days of rest, they would be deployed back to the meat grinder.
After Kiyohara spent the morning processing his battle merit settlements, fencing his looted weapons on the black market, and purchasing premium armor replacements, Kurenai came to find him near the central market.
"Kiyohara! I just went to the Clan registry and officially signed a Summoned Beast contract!" Kurenai said excitedly as she walked over. "It's a ninja cat, and it can even do a perfect backflip! Do you want to come over and see it?"
"A... backflip?" Kiyohara was taken aback by the oddly specific flex.
"That's right! I left him at my house," Kurenai tucked a stray strand of curly black hair behind her ear, looking up at him expectantly.
In truth, she harbored ulterior motives; she desperately wanted to practice her new genjutsu with him. She hadn't practiced with Kiyohara in a long time, and without his clinical, brutal feedback, she found she really wasn't used to training alone.
Because among her peers, absolutely no one possessed Kiyohara's terrifyingly vast knowledge of ninjutsu theory. His resistance to genjutsu was absolute, and he often explained highly complex illusion mechanics in a very pragmatic, easy-to-understand way.
Although her father, Shinku, was an elite Genjutsu Master with abilities far surpassing Kiyohara's current level, her father was entirely too serious, rigid, and strictly traditional. Training with him felt stifling. Training with Kiyohara felt dangerous, but vastly more effective.
"Hmm. Alright," Kiyohara thought about it and agreed.
His passive Genjutsu resistance was currently excellent due to his massive Yin Release, but his actual knowledge of casting illusions was incredibly shallow.
To be victorious in a hundred battles, one must know both oneself and the enemy. Otherwise, with a single microsecond lapse in attention, one could fall victim to a high-level visual trap. It wasn't a bad idea to push his understanding of Genjutsu mechanics forward today.
"Eh?" Kurenai blinked in genuine surprise.
She had fully expected that, given Kiyohara's notoriously cold, pragmatic personality, he would say something ridiculous like A true shinobi never falls into a woman's trap and politely decline her invitation to focus on his own training.
She hadn't expected him to agree so readily.
"Then... follow me!" she smiled brightly, turning to lead the way toward the Yuhi compound.
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Give me powerstones.
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