"Why hasn't ANBU withdrawn yet? Most of the others have already pulled back."
After exchanging the recognition signals with Yugao, Kiyohara relaxed slightly, but he did not completely let down his guard.
In wartime, any unexpected situation had to be treated with utmost vigilance.
"When the retreat order was issued, one of our comrades sensed that there was still intense fighting going on over here and it was a lone force. I volunteered to come check and provide support."
Yugao's words were concise and to the point. Behind her mask, her eyes quickly swept over Kiyohara's blood-stained cheek and his somewhat bedraggled appearance, then over the surrounding battlefield littered with corpses and devastation. Her heart was shaken.
"You… you've been fighting alone all this time?"
"Yeah. It's about time I left."
Kiyohara nodded.
"But before we go, I want to send the Mist's commander over there a little 'gift.'"
Yugao followed Kiyohara's gaze. From here, she could vaguely see figures gathered on a distant high ground, and she could also sense that sizable mass of chakra.
Her brows knit beneath the mask.
"That's too dangerous! Their defensive line is reorganizing, you'll be surrounded!"
"That's why it has to be something they won't expect."
Kiyohara grinned, revealing white teeth. Combined with the bloodstains on his face, the smile carried a hint of wild ferocity.
Without saying more, he began forming hand seals, forcibly mobilizing what little chakra remained in his body.
Yugao wanted to persuade him further, but when she saw the determination in his eyes, the words stuck in her throat. Instead, she tightened her grip on the hilt of the sword on her back and stood guard at his side, fully alert.
"Your body is nearing its limit."
A voice only Kiyohara could hear echoed within his mind.
He knew it was Steel Release Kiyohara speaking.
"Let me cast this jutsu, then we'll leave. Please help me refine a bit more chakra."
Kiyohara replied.
Fortunately, after inheriting Yang-nature talent twice, his physical body had become far more resilient than that of ordinary shinobi.
Yang nature was directly tied to vitality.
Moreover, during his first inheritance, he had also obtained a portion of physical energy from Missing-nin Kiyohara.
In simple terms, his body was still capable of refining chakra.
As long as chakra was not completely exhausted, a shinobi would not be in mortal danger.
And the damage caused by this level of overexertion could be treated later by Rin.
Rin, who could use the Mystical Palm Technique, was actually among the stronger medical-shinobi tier.
"Alright."
Steel Release Kiyohara nodded.
Since his past self was insisting so strongly, he could only comply.
"Once you complete the second part of my last will, the situation should improve a lot."
Steel Release Kiyohara said.
Kiyohara had not yet fully inherited his legacy.
"That'll have to wait until after this mission."
Kiyohara replied.
During the exchange between him and Steel Release Kiyohara, to Yugao it looked like he had merely spaced out for a brief instant.
Then Kiyohara took out another soldier pill.
After consecutively consuming soldier pills, a flush spread across his skin before quickly turning into an unhealthy pallor.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Convergence!"
All the remaining iron sand—together with every explosive tag he had just scavenged from the corpses and hadn't had time to sort—well over one hundred and fifty tags by rough estimate—were all taken out by Kiyohara at once.
The black iron sand writhed like a living thing, tightly wrapping layers of explosive tags at its core, stacking them again and again, forming an ever-growing black sphere.
This still wasn't enough!
Kiyohara continued manipulating the iron sand, shaping a thick insulating layer around the outermost shell of the black sphere, then molding the whole mass into a streamlined spindle shape with a sharp, pointed head.
A massive spindle hovered in front of him.
"This is…?"
Yugao had never seen Magnet Release and explosive tags used in such a way.
"Magnet Release: Electromagnetic-Accelerated Explosive Tag Cannon!"
Buzz—BOOM!
The spindle-shaped iron-sand explosive construct, accelerated by magnetic field coils, turned into a fleeting black meteor.
Trailing brilliant blue electromagnetic afterglow, it followed an almost perfectly straight trajectory, ignoring the scattered Water Release interception attempts along the way, and smashed straight toward the Mist's command post!
At the distant command point, the ominous feeling in Zabuza's heart surged to its peak.
He abruptly looked up, sensing that something terrible was happening, though he couldn't yet put his finger on what it was.
By the time the sensory shinobi beside him hurriedly reported to Higashino Noyama that Kiyohara seemed to be using some kind of long-range ninjutsu, Zabuza finally understood where that unease was coming from.
It was from Kiyohara two kilometers away, deep in the forest!
Higashino Noyama only had time to see a streak of black light rapidly expanding in his vision. The last thing reflected in his pupils was the sight of Zabuza fleeing alone.
He wanted to say something—but it was already too late.
BOOOOM!!
A deafening explosion far more violent than any before erupted at the Mist's flank command post, accompanied by a towering mushroom cloud and a terrifying shockwave!
Its power was enough to destroy a bridge on the scale of the Kannabi Bridge.
The hillside was blasted into a massive crater dozens of meters wide.
When the smoke and dust cleared, the commander, Higashino Noyama was gone.
All that remained was a pool of blood and a few charred fragments of clothing.
Zabuza had barely escaped to a point over a hundred meters away at the last moment, but his left shoulder was still struck by flying debris, blood pouring freely.
What the hell kind of ninjutsu was that?!
Only now could Zabuza truly understand why Mei Terumi kept muttering about Kiyohara day after day after returning.
If it had been him, he wouldn't have been able to forget the man who nearly took his life either.
"So this is Magnet Release… to think explosive tags could be delivered all the way here to detonate…"
...
On the main battlefield.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya both turned their heads toward the direction of the explosion.
"Hehe… looks like the pressure on our side should ease up a bit now."
Orochimaru chuckled softly, his tone filled with satisfaction.
The Mist's flank command system had suffered devastating damage—its commander might even be dead. The impact on the overall battle situation was obvious.
Jiraiya stroked his chin.
He hadn't been paying attention to that side at all and had no idea what exactly had happened.
He only knew that some kind of ninjutsu had destroyed the enemy commander's position.
"Kiyohara-kun… I'm getting more and more curious about just how far you'll go."
Orochimaru thought to himself.
...
Kiyohara let out a long breath.
Only a small fraction of his chakra remained now.
This was thanks to Steel Release Kiyohara continuously helping to process nutrients and convert them into energy, refining chakra for him.
Fortunately, his spiritual energy was abundant and could mix with the rapidly recovering physical energy to refine new chakra.
Even so, Kiyohara could feel a dull pain and churning sensation in his abdomen.
"Let's go."
Most of the Mist's attention was now focused on him; the pursuit pressure on the flank should have eased considerably.
Kurenai and Genma should already have safely reached the second defensive line.
That meant it was time to end this operation.
Kiyohara stood up and carefully fastened the sealing scroll at his waist.
During the process, he discovered that several Mist shinobi also carried sealing scrolls, so he hung those at his waist as well and sealed their contents inside.
After deducting the necessary expenditure on explosive tags, copper wire, and shuriken, Kiyohara had made a massive profit overall.
By rough estimate, it would sell for at least 1.2 million ryō.
That was an enormous sum.
Equivalent to the rewards from several ordinary A-rank missions.
Back then, Kiyohara had scraped together everything he had and only managed to borrow seventy thousand ryō.
Now, a single battle had earned him far more than that.
Besides the money, there was something else equally important.
He could "legitimize" some jutsu related to Kirigakure, or at least some more common ninjutsu.
He could claim that he had picked up enemy ninjutsu scrolls during this battle and learned from them.
In fact, there were quite a few shinobi who did this.
For example, Kiyohara himself carried ninjutsu scrolls precisely so he could use every spare moment during wartime to grow stronger.
'Too bad opportunities like this don't come every day.'
Kiyohara shook his head inwardly.
This time, it could be called a perfect alignment of timing, terrain, and circumstance. Kirigakure had launched a large-scale assault with many shinobi involved.
And most of their top-tier fighters were tied up dealing with Orochimaru and the others.
Kiyohara simply took advantage of the chaos, cherry-picking weaker enemies.
Gradually, more and more Mist shinobi were redeployed from the main front toward the far end of this flank where Kiyohara was.
Soon after, Kiyohara finished tallying his gains and, together with Yugao, set out on the retreat.
...
By the time the sun was sinking behind the mountains, Kiyohara and the masked Yugao had returned to the second defensive line.
Along the way, Byakugan users had already spotted them.
After exchanging recognition codes and completing a series of identity verifications, the two successfully entered the camp.
"Are you alright, Kiyohara?"
When Kiyohara returned, he saw Kurenai pacing in the camp. She immediately ran up to him.
"I'm fine."
Kiyohara nodded.
On the way back, he had found a secluded spot to deal with his digestive issues.
Now, only the post-overexertion pain remained, along with a faint sense of unsteadiness in his steps.
"This time, you really did something incredible. I saw that the Yamanaka clan shinobi recorded a lot about you."
Genma walked over and said.
This time, his tone no longer carried that half-joking worry about a brother suddenly driving a luxury car.
It was filled with pure admiration.
Damn—one person killing that many enemies. If that wasn't a hero, what was?
"Just good luck. They were mostly weaklings, and I picked up a lot of explosive tags."
Kiyohara shook his head.
Whenever he encountered someone strong, he ran—using speed to kite them.
The weaker ones couldn't outrun him, so death was their only outcome.
At least against many shinobi, explosive tags and a clean slash to the throat were still extremely effective.
Even someone as strong as Pakura, if caught off guard, would still be sent to the Pure Land under the might of shuriken.
"Someone's looking for you, Kiyohara."
Uchiha Tekka said as he walked over from a distance.
He had already heard some things about Kiyohara from others.
Any lingering resentment over his loss to Kiyohara had completely vanished.
When someone was roughly on your level, jealousy and frustration arose.
But when someone was far beyond you, all that remained was awe.
"Who's looking for me?"
Kiyohara asked curiously.
"Seems to be one of the village's higher-ups,"
Tekka said, pointing him in the direction.
Hearing this, Kiyohara asked Kurenai and Genma to wait for him for a moment. He'd be right back.
When Kiyohara lifted the tent flap and went inside, he was surprised to find Orochimaru!
"Orochimaru-sama, weren't you—"
"Hehe. By the time you withdrew, our side was nearly finished as well. Kiri still doesn't have perfect control over their tailed beast, so it went berserk at the end and killed quite a few of their own shinobi instead."
Orochimaru explained.
"So that's what happened."
Kiyohara finally understood.
Tailed beasts were disasters and weapons. That alone made them double-edged swords.
They could devastate the enemy—or slaughter allies just as easily.
How to efficiently control a tailed beast was a problem every village was researching.
Effective control inevitably relied on sealing techniques.
Back then, Uzushiogakure had become too exceptional and powerful in sealing arts, provoking fear from many nations and ultimately being destroyed by a coalition.
The Kumogakure had the "Iron Armor Seal," Konoha had the "Four Symbols Seal," and other nations had their own methods for sealing and controlling tailed beasts.
But these methods still varied in effectiveness. The current Six-Tails jinchūriki could not yet fully control the beast.
That was also why Konoha had never deployed the Nine-Tails on the battlefield.
They couldn't be sure the Nine-Tails wouldn't lose control, so it remained in the village as a kind of "nuclear deterrent."
"Your potential is higher than I imagined."
Orochimaru licked his lips.
For Kiyohara to kill so many enemies alone proved he possessed immense chakra reserves.
And his combat ability was outstanding as well—otherwise, he couldn't have held out that long.
"Are you interested in becoming my assistant?"
Orochimaru extended the invitation.
He had some research projects that could use help, and delegating them would indeed lighten his burden.
"Don't worry. It won't be too difficult."
Orochimaru added, those snake-like pupils quietly observing Kiyohara.
"It would be my honor, Orochimaru-sama."
Kiyohara accepted the invitation without hesitation.
Being Orochimaru's assistant meant he could, to some extent, borrow Orochimaru's influence. At the very least, he wouldn't be a complete nobody with no backing.
In this world, what mattered was connections and affiliations.
The entire shinobi world was built on relationships.
Look closely, and you'd find that every Hokage had deep ties with the others.
The Second was the First's brother. The Third was the Second's disciple. The Fourth Hokage in the anime was the Third's grand-disciple. Likewise, the Fifth, Tsunade, was both the Third's student and the First's granddaughter.
By the time of the Sixth, Kakashi, the cycle continued—he was the Fourth's student.
As for Naruto, there was no need to elaborate. Aside from the Second Hokage, every other Hokage was connected to him in some way!
Konoha's crown prince, the ultimate beneficiary of connections—nothing exemplified it better.
Naruto's early misfortune was precisely because all those connections were kept secret, only gradually revealed later.
"Hehe, Kiyohara-kun, that's wonderful."
Orochimaru looked at Kiyohara, slightly surprised at how readily he agreed.
"Consider this a small token of my appreciation."
Orochimaru took out a ninjutsu scroll. When Kiyohara accepted it and checked inside, he found it was the Wind Release technique: Wind Cutter Technique.
After forming hand seals, it allowed one to unleash fierce cutting winds with a single hand to attack enemies.
Compared to Wind Release: Gale Palm, this jutsu produced much sharper wind currents.
(End of Chapter)