"Then I must thank Orochimaru-sama," Kiyohara said.
Now that he had become Orochimaru's assistant, when Orochimaru later developed forbidden drugs and curse marks, Kiyohara might also be able to take part to some extent and profit from it.
"Then go and rest first, Kiyohara-kun. Your complexion doesn't look very good," Orochimaru said as he looked at Kiyohara's face.
At the moment, Kiyohara's face was pale and bloodless, clearly a lingering aftereffect left behind by prolonged combat.
"Then I'll take my leave first, Orochimaru-sama," Kiyohara replied, then took the scroll and walked outside.
After returning outside, he briefly exchanged a few pleasantries with Kurenai and Genma, then returned to the newly arranged tent to rest.
'After the 'Power of the White Snake' medicine is tested, if there are no problems, once I take it, I might even be able to increase my chakra,' Kiyohara thought to himself.
At that point, even without relying on the somewhat opportunistic method of refining chakra with the help of his future self, his chakra recovery speed would still be very fast and gain a noticeable boost.
After that, Kiyohara once again sorted through the scroll full of spoils of war, planning to find time to sell all of them.
When the time came, he would use part of that money on a new suit of chain mail.
The chain mail he currently had was damaged, and he could replace it with something more refined.
After all, Steel Release was an active ability and consumed chakra.
Chain mail, on the other hand, was passive and could help Kiyohara block sneak attacks at critical moments.
Aside from that, the only remaining problem Kiyohara faced was the second final wish.
"Do you have any leads on any Steel Release users?" Kiyohara asked as he summoned Steel Release Kiyohara.
"There should be quite a few. In my timeline, there were Iwagakure shinobis with Steel Release, and I know where they went. But I don't know whether your timeline will still be the same as mine," Steel Release Kiyohara replied.
Bloodline limits were very rare, but looking at an entire great village, there were actually quite a few.
That was because it wasn't only shinobi who possessed a bloodline limit.
Being a shinobi was merely a profession.
There were also ordinary people who, either at birth or suddenly one day, awakened special abilities.
It was just that such abilities were often easily regarded as disasters by ignorant villagers, leading to those people being imprisoned or killed, tearing families apart.
"That's true," Kiyohara said, stroking his chin.
With the defensive line retreat this time, Kirigakure's main forces would likely pull back for a while, accumulating strength and waiting for the next major offensive.
In the short term, there would only be minor conflicts.
As for Kirigakure's ANBU, they would try to abduct Rin, with the Three-Tails' jinchūriki accompanying them, in order to carry out a tailed beast transfer.
Their original plan was to seal the Three-Tails inside Rin, send her back, and have it lose control inside Konoha in the end.
As for what happens when a tailed beast goes berserk inside a shinobi village, one could simply look at the example of the Nine-Tails.
The shinobis could only fight with many restraints; otherwise, the entire village would be reduced to rubble.
From a planning perspective, it did have some degree of feasibility.
But Kiyohara knew that all of this was merely a smokescreen by Uchiha Madara.
After all, Madara couldn't possibly control everyone with genjutsu. He would inevitably control a portion of them, then find an excuse to make the rest believe and accept it.
'We can only see what happens later,' Kiyohara thought.
He planned to proactively take on missions related to Iwagakure later and gather information from multiple sources to increase the chances.
After letting Steel Release Kiyohara return to the urn, he also quickly fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, Kiyohara and the others received news.
Just as Orochimaru had said, due to the unexpected rampage and loss of control of the Six-Tails' jinchūriki, Kirigakure's offensive had no choice but to slow down temporarily and shift into a standoff and recuperation phase.
The pressure on Konoha's eastern front was greatly reduced, allowing some units to rotate back to the village to rest. Kiyohara's group was among them.
The long-unseen streets of Konoha came into view once more. The familiar Hokage Rock and the bustling crowds made the shinobis who had experienced the bloodshed of the battlefield feel as though they had stepped into another world.
Kiyohara took a deep breath of the familiar scent of everyday life in the air, and the nerves that had been tense for so long finally relaxed a little.
It was just the right time to go back, sell everything off, and convert it into solid, tangible shinobi potential!
Several dozen minutes later.
Konoha.
Inside the Hokage Building, in a spacious room.
A new jonin meeting was being held here, and everyone present was at least a jonin.
Smoke filled the air, and the atmosphere was heavy.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat in the main seat with a pipe in his mouth, his gaze slowly sweeping across the assembled jonin, advisors, and representatives of the frontline commanders.
Danzo sat to the side with his eyes half-closed, while the two advisors, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, spoke to each other in low voices.
"On the Iwa front, that old stubborn Onoki is still holding on, but according to intelligence, their supplies and troop reinforcements are already showing signs of fatigue. They won't last much longer," reported a jonin responsible for intelligence analysis.
"Suna seems to be stockpiling strength, or perhaps observing. Kumo… the Fourth Raikage, A, is an aggressive type, but since the Fourth has just taken office, internal stability is still needed, so the likelihood of a large-scale invasion in the short term is reduced.
"As for Kiri… they've suffered a heavy setback this time. The Six-Tails' rampage caused even more damage to themselves than to us, making it very difficult for them to organize an offensive of the same scale in the short term."
Hiruzen slowly exhaled a smoke ring.
"In other words, the key to the current war situation lies with Iwa. As long as we deal with Iwagakure, we can free up enough forces to handle pressure from other directions."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Nara Shikaku spoke.
At this moment, Danzo slowly opened his mouth, his voice low and deep.
"Perhaps… we could add a bit more fuel to the fire, and start from other angles."
He didn't say it outright, but those familiar with his style all understood—he was referring to infiltration, sabotage, assassinations, and other methods at which Root excelled.
Hiruzen neither agreed nor disagreed, instead turning his gaze toward Orochimaru, who was seated nearby.
"Orochimaru, you know the situation on the eastern front best. This time, Kirigakure's retreat was due not only to the Six-Tails, but also to the unexpected strike on their flank, which seems to have played a significant role. I've heard that Kiyohara performed very well?"
Many of the jonin in the meeting room also looked over.
As battle reports returned, Kiyohara's name had already begun circulating among Konoha's upper echelon and some jonin circles.
Single-handedly creating massive chaos on the flank, killing large numbers of Kiri's mid- and lower-ranked shinobis, as well as an elite jonin, and even seemingly using some kind of long-range ninjutsu to annihilate the enemy commander…
Such a record was nothing short of astonishing for a chunin.
A hint of a smile flashed through Orochimaru's golden slit pupils. He licked the corner of his mouth and spoke in his distinctive hoarse voice,
"Sensei, Kiyohara is indeed outstanding. He should be qualified to skip the rank of special jonin and be directly promoted to jonin, don't you think?"
Hearing this, Hiruzen nodded.
Kiyohara was indeed the genius he had thought, a talent with a very high degree of development in the Magnet Release kekkei genkai.
Such a person was exactly the kind of talent Konoha needed during wartime.
Danzo slightly opened his eyes. Kiyohara's performance was indeed eye-catching, but the more eye-catching it was, the more he wanted to bring him under Root's control.
The meeting continued for some time, discussing details of each front, material allocation, and the next stage of strategy.
In the end, Hiruzen tapped his pipe and said,
"Everyone, the war is not yet over. Konoha still needs all of your efforts. The Iwa front will be the focus of the next phase. All units must make preparations. Meeting adjourned."
...
After returning home, Kiyohara first brewed himself a cup of tea.
This wasn't something he bought himself, it was a gift from Kakashi.
It seemed that Kakashi had noticed how extremely minimalist Kiyohara's home was, to the point that there wasn't even any tea, so he brought some over.
Savoring the refreshing taste in his mouth, Kiyohara felt that Kakashi had pretty good taste.
After that, he entered the bathroom.
Splash—splash—
Well-proportioned muscles were rinsed by the water, which flowed down along the contours of his body.
"I'm stronger than I used to be… much stronger," Kiyohara murmured.
He extended his hand. First, a faint current of wind appeared on it, then it turned into crackling arcs of electricity.
Finally, it gradually solidified into a rock-like color before returning to its original state.
Wind, lightning, and earth—these three natures were now Kiyohara's strongest basic nature transformations.
His talent in these natures was also extraordinary.
Many corresponding techniques didn't need to be inherited by him; he could learn them through postnatal training alone.
What once took years could be reduced to months, then to two months, one month.
Kiyohara even suspected that once his talent in this area was fully developed, he might be able to learn any ninjutsu he saw at a glance.
"I still need more time to grow," Kiyohara thought.
He brushed his hair back, put on a bathrobe to cover his lower body, and stepped out.
In front of the mirror, as he grew older, his facial features had become increasingly defined and handsome.
After finishing his simple grooming, Kiyohara put on his everyday clothes.
The chain mail lining was already damaged; he needed to go out and buy a new one.
When shinobi returned to the village, they wouldn't stay inside for very long.
The war was still ongoing, and after a few days, they would need to return to the front lines again.
After Kiyohara finished handling the settlement of merits, material supplies, ninjutsu exchanges… and a whole series of matters, Kurenai came to find him.
"I just went and found a summoning contract too. It's a cat, and it can even do backflips. Want to come take a look?" Kurenai said.
"A backflip?" Kiyohara was stunned.
"That's right. I left it at home," Kurenai said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
She actually harbored some thoughts of wanting to train together with Kiyohara.
It had been quite a while since she had trained with him. After losing Kiyohara's company, Kurenai realized that she really wasn't used to it.
Among her peers, there was no one who dabbled in as many ninjutsu as Kiyohara did, and his talent in genjutsu was also very strong. He often explained complicated, roundabout concepts in a very simple and easy-to-understand way.
Although her father, Yuhi Shinku, was also a genjutsu expert, his genjutsu skills were even stronger than Kiyohara's but her father was too serious and rigid, making it feel stifling to be around him.
"Alright, sounds good," Kiyohara thought for a moment and agreed to Kurenai's request.
His resistance to genjutsu was decent at the moment, but he didn't know many genjutsu techniques himself.
If he wanted to remain undefeated, he still needed to know both himself and his enemy.
Otherwise, one moment of carelessness and he could fall into an opponent's trap.
Pushing his progress in genjutsu today wasn't a bad idea either.
"Eh?" Kurenai was surprised.
She had thought that, given Kiyohara's personality, he might say something like "a sigma man never falls into a woman's trap" and politely decline.
Instead, Kiyohara agreed so readily.
"Then come with me," she said.
(End of Chapter)