"Allow me, Lady Yugito."
A shinobi wearing a yellow scarf stepped forward from behind Yugito.
He was dressed in standard Kumogakure attire, with short purple hair and a ring of purple beard encircling his cheeks.
Kumogakure's Magnet Release user—Toroi.
"It's Kumo's Magnet Release user, Toroi," Minato said to the others.
He then looked toward Kiyohara.
Kiyohara was not the first person to be known as a Magnet Release user.
In the current shinobi world, those most proficient in Magnet Release undoubtedly belonged to Suna. That village possessed the greatest number of Magnet Release bloodline limit users.
After them came Kumo.
And Toroi was the most prominent among them in public view.
"Hmph. You killed our comrades, now repay that debt with your lives."
A savage grin curled at the corner of Toroi's mouth.
So what if Minato was here?
After the A–B duo had fought against Minato, and through their routine intelligence gathering, they had gradually figured out his combat habits.
The Flying Thunder God Technique could indeed traverse space-time, allowing him to come and go without a trace—earning him the title of the fastest in the shinobi world.
However…
The speed at which a kunai was thrown could not itself traverse space-time.
Minato could only teleport to the location of a Flying Thunder God-marked kunai. If the kunai was not there, then neither could he be.
"Yellow Flash, your Flying Thunder God is useless against me!"
Toroi first sidestepped around Kiyohara and fixed his gaze on Minato behind him.
He converted all the newly refined chakra within his body into magnetic force, forming an invisible magnetic field that wrapped around him.
As long as Minato could not get close to him, there was no need to fear his speed.
Then Toroi bent slightly at the waist, and from both sleeves slid out two stacks of square-shaped shuriken.
These were clearly specially crafted weapons—not the traditional four-pointed shuriken, but rather square, plate-like projectiles.
They had been custom-made specifically to complement his Magnet Release.
They could create a far larger area of damage than ordinary shuriken.
Minato's brows furrowed slightly.
This was precisely what made Magnet Release users so troublesome to deal with.
It was not that Toroi was overwhelmingly powerful—rather, his abilities happened to counter Minato's specialty to a certain extent.
Even so…
Minato did not believe he would lose to Toroi.
Just as he was about to employ another ninjutsu, Kiyohara likewise refined chakra and transformed it into magnetic force.
Between techniques of the same nature, power ultimately came down to chakra quantity and quality. Whoever possessed more chakra held the advantage.
Even with bloodline limits—this principle still applied.
"!"
Only now did Toroi finally shift his gaze to Kiyohara.
He had heard the intelligence reports about Kiyohara—the so-called Magnet Release user of Konoha.
He had always scoffed at that claim.
That was why he had not even given Kiyohara a proper glance earlier, focusing all his attention on Minato instead.
But now he realized that this young man seemed far more formidable than the rumors suggested.
A ruthless glint flashed through Toroi's eyes. He spread his hands, and the specially crafted square shuriken floated before him. As he infused them with Magnet Release chakra, they began to spin at high speed.
"Magnet Release: Twin Sparrow Blades!"
In the next instant, Toroi pushed off the ground. His entire body shot forward like a cannonball toward Kiyohara, the rotating square shuriken moving in tandem with him.
His strategy was clear—engage in close combat and use the properties of Magnet Release to confine Kiyohara within the attack range of the square shuriken.
"Magnetize the opponent's body through contact, then use magnetic attraction for a killing blow… Not a bad idea," Kiyohara commented calmly.
A trace of crimson appeared in his pitch-black eyes.
One tomoe—then gradually, it became two.
Ordinarily, the evolution of the Sharingan was irreversible.
Once it advanced from one tomoe to three, even if the user's ocular power was nearly exhausted, it would still remain in the three-tomoe state. It could not regress to one or two tomoe.
Only the Mangekyō Sharingan could temporarily revert to a three-tomoe state due to insufficient ocular power.
Perhaps because Kiyohara's Sharingan had been inherited, he discovered that he could consciously control its state.
The two-tomoe form was a deliberate display.
Stronger than the single-tomoe, yet not as striking or abrupt as revealing three tomoe at once.
He intended to unveil the three-tomoe Sharingan in his next battle.
After all, how long had it been since he awakened it?
Compared to the natural evolution speed of the Uchiha clan, his progression was like riding a rocket skyward.
'I can see it… the flow of his chakra.'
In Kiyohara's vision, the trajectory of Toroi's chakra flow was crystal clear.
There seemed to be a subtle difference between Toroi's Magnet Release chakra and his own.
Though Kiyohara could not fully articulate what it was, he felt instinctively that Toroi's Magnet Release was inferior to his.
The distance between them closed rapidly.
One hundred meters.
Fifty meters.
One meter!
Toroi's right hand shot forward, his fingertips wrapped in Magnet Release chakra, attempting to make the first contact with Kiyohara's shoulder.
A mere instant of contact would be enough to magnetize him.
And dispelling magnetization required time.
That sliver of time would be his opportunity!
However, at that very instant—almost as if he had seen through Toroi's intention, Kiyohara shifted aside the moment Toroi's muscles tensed.
Simultaneously, he spread the five fingers of his left hand, releasing an equally dense surge of Magnet Release chakra.
The two magnetic forces collided in midair, clashing in a silent but violent confrontation.
"What?!"
Toroi's pupils contracted sharply. He felt the magnetic force he had infused into the square shuriken being disrupted and neutralized by Kiyohara's power.
The shuriken, which had obeyed him like extensions of his own limbs, began to waver. Their rotational trajectories became unstable and chaotic.
"My Magnet Release surpasses yours entirely."
Kiyohara's voice sounded low beside Toroi's ear.
In the next second, the nature of Kiyohara's chakra shifted abruptly.
If Toroi's Magnet Release was like a crude magnet, then Kiyohara's was like a finely tuned electromagnetic field.
A reverse magnetizing force surged outward from Kiyohara's body. Not only did it neutralize the magnetization Toroi had attempted to impose on him, but it also turned the tide—beginning to invade Toroi's own chakra system.
"Impossible… how can you…"
Toroi was horrified to discover that he had lost control over part of his shuriken.
Two of the square blades suddenly reversed direction and shot straight toward him instead.
Startled, he hurriedly leapt backward, forming hand seals in rapid succession to forcibly stabilize the remaining six shuriken. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead.
This brat from Konoha… his mastery over Magnet Release was actually superior to his own!
Staring at Kiyohara's youthful face, Toroi felt a brief moment of dazed disbelief amidst his fear.
Kiyohara, however, did not grant him even the slightest chance to catch his breath.
At the very instant Toroi retreated, Kiyohara drove his right leg into the ground with force, leaving a shallow crater where his foot struck.
From ankle to thigh, the skin along his entire right leg took on a dark metallic sheen, as though forged from blackened steel.
Steel Release.
Earth Release: Earth Spear.
But that was not all.
Magnet Release: Magnetic Field Rotation.
In that moment, the two bloodline limits fused flawlessly, producing an effect far greater than the sum of their parts.
"Magnet Release: Electromagnetic Kick!"
Kiyohara's right leg lashed out like a whip.
The air split with a sharp tearing sound.
All Toroi saw was a blurred black shadow hurtling toward him. He had no time to think—relying purely on years of battlefield instinct, he gathered all the square shuriken before him, forming a makeshift metal shield.
BOOM!
The deafening clang of metal colliding resounded across the battlefield, shaking loose the snow that had accumulated on nearby trees.
Right before his eyes, Toroi watched as his most prized shinobi tools—those square shuriken forged through Kumogakure's secret techniques and honed through years of combat—began to fracture under that single kick.
First came hairline cracks.
Then fragmentation.
Finally, they shattered completely, exploding into countless shards of metal that sprayed outward in all directions.
And that metal-lustered leg, wrapped in a rotating magnetic field, did not slow in the slightest after smashing through the shield. It continued forward relentlessly.
In Toroi's field of vision, that foot grew larger and larger…
He felt his flak jacket compress first, then the fabric and the chainmail beneath it deform and rupture simultaneously. An indescribable, overwhelming force pierced through every layer of defense and struck directly into his body.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Toroi lowered his head and saw a hollow cavity in the left side of his chest.
Not a dent. Not broken ribs.
A genuine, empty hole.
Flesh, bone, organs—everything in its path had been utterly pulverized and vaporized by the impact of that kick.
The edges of the wound were scorched black, the result of intense heat generated by extreme friction.
He did not even feel pain—only a strange, hollow sensation of blood draining away.
"You…"
His lips moved faintly.
Then the remaining force carried his body backward like a kite with its string cut. He traced an arc through the air before crashing heavily into the snow twenty meters away, motionless.
Snowflakes drifted down gently, settling over his rapidly cooling corpse.
Silence fell.
The remaining Cloud shinobi stood frozen in place, staring at the scene in utter disbelief.
Lord Toroi… the famed Magnet Release jōnin of Kumo… had been killed with a single kick by Konoha's Magnet Release jōnin?
Toroi had earned his reputation years ago.
Kiyohara, by contrast, was merely a rising star of recent times.
"Kiyohara defeated him just like that!"
Rin let out a soft gasp.
"Lord Toroi!"
A young Cloud shinobi roared as he charged forward, eyes bloodshot and lightning erupting around his body.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Violent Soak!"
He concentrated all his Lightning Release chakra into his right elbow, transforming into a streak of blue lightning as he dashed toward Kiyohara at high speed.
This was one of Kumogakure's most widely practiced Lightning Release techniques, and it had long been favored by multiple generations of Raikage.
Though not especially difficult, it concentrated Lightning Release's piercing power and destructive force into a single point—enough to shatter boulders with one blow.
At that very instant, a flash of gold appeared at his side.
Minato had, at some unknown moment, arrived at the center of the battlefield. In his right palm rested a rapidly rotating sphere of blue chakra.
"Rasengan."
His voice was calm.
The Cloud shinobi did not even have time to turn his head before the Rasengan struck his back.
The terrifying rotational force tore through his flak jacket, shredded muscle, snapped bone, and penetrated deep into his body.
His forward momentum halted abruptly. It was as if an invisible giant hammer had smashed into him, sending him crashing forward and plowing a deep trench into the snow before lying still.
Yet the battle was not over.
At the very same moment Minato made his move, Yugito sprang into action.
She had been waiting precisely for this instant—the split second when Minato's attention was drawn by his comrade's attack.
"Die!"
A flash of crimson flickered in Yugito's eyes, her pupils narrowing vertically like those of a beast.
The Two-Tails' chakra surged violently from within her body, forming a dark red Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak over her skin.
Her hands transformed into claws, her nails lengthening into sharp, hooked talons aimed directly at Kiyohara's throat.
The strike was lightning-fast, impeccably timed.
But Kiyohara had already anticipated it.
Sharingan—Genjutsu!
Though he currently displayed only a two-tomoe Sharingan, when combined with his immense spiritual energy, innate Yin Release talent, and the inheritance of powerful ocular strength, his two-tomoe Sharingan far surpassed that of an ordinary user.
After all, could Indra's three-tomoe Sharingan truly be compared to the transplanted three-tomoe Sharingan embedded in Danzo's arm? Were they even on the same level?
Under the Sharingan's dynamic vision, Yugito's movements slowed dramatically.
But Kiyohara intended not merely to observe—he intended to interfere.
An invisible wave of ocular power spread outward.
"?!"
Yugito suddenly felt her vision blur. Kiyohara's figure split into afterimages, and the surrounding scenery began to distort and waver.
Though the disorientation lasted less than half a second, in a battle between experts, that was already fatal.
Kiyohara twisted his body aside. Her claw grazed past his neck, severing a few strands of black hair that drifted downward.
At the same time, he inhaled deeply, his chest expanding as his hands completed a series of seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Blazing flames erupted from his mouth, engulfing Yugito at close range.
The fireball exceeded four meters in diameter, its intense heat instantly vaporizing the surrounding snow into rising white steam.
"ROAAAR!"
Yugito let out an inhuman cry as her Tailed Beast cloak swelled violently. Two dark red chakra claws crossed before her, forcibly tearing the Great Fireball apart from the center.
The flames split and surged past her on both sides, scorching two blackened trails across the ground.
Yet she was far from unharmed.
Her chakra claws showed signs of melting under the intense heat, and to her shock, even with the Tailed Beast's chakra protecting her, she still felt a searing sting along her skin.
The temperature of that Great Fireball… far exceeded that of ordinary Fire Release techniques.
"This guy's Fire Release…"
Yugito glanced down at her slightly reddened arm. The Tailed Beast chakra was already repairing the damaged skin—but the rate of recovery was noticeably slower than she had expected.
And at that very moment, another attack followed immediately on the heels of the first.
"Chidori!"
The piercing cries of birds rang sharply across the battlefield, their shrill echoes slicing through the cold air above the snow-covered ground.
Yugito was waiting for the right moment. Kakashi was doing the same.
When he saw his best companion placed in danger, Kakashi had almost been unable to restrain himself from intervening immediately. For a split second, instinct overwhelmed reason—he had already lost too many comrades in this war, and the thought of losing another was unbearable.
He did not want to lose anyone ever again.
But Kakashi forced himself to hold back.
He understood that it was not yet the optimal time to strike.
Now was!
Kakashi's figure suddenly flickered into existence at Yugito's rear flank. In his hand, lightning chakra condensed into a razor-sharp arc of electricity, humming and crackling as it thrust straight toward her back.
Yugito's expression changed instantly. She twisted her body forcefully in mid-motion, her chakra claws sweeping toward the incoming bolt of lightning.
The clash between the brilliant lightning and the dark crimson chakra erupted in a blinding flash. Electric arcs sprayed outward in all directions, scattering across the snow like shards of light.
"Retreat!" Yugito shouted sharply.
Borrowing the force of the collision, she leapt backward nearly ten meters, landing squarely in front of the remaining Cloud shinobi.
Her gaze swept across the battlefield.
Toroi was dead. Another jōnin had been instantly killed by Minato. Combined with the two chūnin who had earlier been sniped by Kiyohara, nearly half of their ambush squad had already been wiped out.
And on the opposing side—Minato stood almost entirely unscathed. That magnet-release brat's strength far exceeded the intelligence estimates. There was also Kakashi of the Sharingan, and two additional Konoha shinobi providing support from behind.
Yugito could also sense an enormous chakra presence within a female leaf shinobi, one that was no weaker than her own.
What exactly was that?
Kumohad once infiltrated Konoha and abducted Kushina, who was about to become the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. That much was known.
But this girl was clearly not Kushina.
The age did not match. Nor was her hair red.
And Konoha was supposed to possess only one tailed beast.
So what was going on?
Yugito's thoughts raced rapidly.
Kiri had chosen to suppress information, unwilling to let other villages see their weakened state. Konoha, for its part, had quietly reaped its gains, pretending that nothing had happened.
Under this tacit mutual understanding, the other shinobi villages remained completely unaware that the tailed beast had already changed hosts.
"Lady Yugito, what about the rear outpost? That's our supply point!" one Cloud shinobi asked anxiously.
"Abandon it," Yugito said through clenched teeth.
"With the Yellow Flash here, we can't hold it. Retreat immediately and bring the intelligence back!"
She cast a long, deep look at Kiyohara, as if trying to carve the image of this young boy into her memory forever. Then she turned sharply.
"Move!"
The remaining Cloud shinobi did not hesitate. They immediately followed Yugito's lead.
If they had been facing other shinobi, retreating—essentially abandoning their mission—would likely have resulted in punishment. The psychological burden would have weighed heavily on them.
But upon seeing Minato, that burden vanished entirely.
The reason was simple: abandoning a mission in the presence of Minato would never incur punishment.
The remaining Cloud shinobi followed Yugito without the slightest hesitation. With a few swift leaps, they disappeared into the vast, snowbound forest.
Kiyohara deactivated his Sharingan and let out a long breath. A plume of white mist drifted from his mouth into the frigid air.
"Kiyohara, are you alright?" Minato asked as he approached.
His golden hair stood out vividly against the snowy backdrop, and the battle just now had not even left a single crease in his clothing.
"I'm fine, Lord Minato," Kiyohara replied with a nod, a faint smile appearing on his face.
"It seems Lord Minato's reputation works better than any ninjutsu."
If Minato had not been present, Kiyohara was certain Yugito would not have retreated so easily.
Minato smiled wryly and shook his head.
"That's only temporary. Once your name spreads, Kumogakure may start fleeing at the mere sight of you as well."
There was undisguised admiration in his gaze as he looked at Kiyohara.
"To be honest, in a few years, you might even surpass me. That kick just now… combining Magnet Release, Earth Release, and taijutsu to that extent—even I was surprised."
Those words caused Kakashi, standing nearby, to glance at Kiyohara involuntarily.
To receive such praise from Teacher Minato—Kiyohara's growth rate was truly astonishing.
"Sensei, what do we do next?" Kakashi asked.
Minato's expression turned serious.
"We proceed as planned. Target: the supply point. Although Yugito said they're abandoning it, we can't rule out the possibility of a trap. Stay vigilant."
He then looked at the two-tomoe Sharingan in Kiyohara's eyes.
His talent is exceptional, Minato thought silently. To awaken and evolve the Sharingan this quickly…
Only slightly slower than Obito's unusual pace.
This time, Kiyohara likely evolved his Sharingan while protecting his comrades.
From one tomoe to two.
At that thought, Minato glanced at Rin.
The last time Kiyohara awakened his Sharingan… it had seemed to be because of Rin as well.
The others also noticed the change in the tomoe within Kiyohara's eyes. When questioned, he simply claimed he did not know when it had evolved.
But fluctuations in the Uchiha's Sharingan were not uncommon—especially during wartime.
Other clans might grow weaker the more they fought.
The Uchiha, however, might grow stronger.
The fewer their numbers, the more powerful the survivors became.
The team regrouped and, under Minato's leadership, rapidly advanced toward the coordinates marked on the map.
Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at their destination.
It was a cluster of buildings concealed within the snowy mountains. From the outside, they resembled abandoned hunters' cabins, but upon closer inspection, one could tell that many of the wooden walls were unusually thick—clearly reinforced.
Yet now, the place was completely deserted.
"They've indeed withdrawn," Minato confirmed after inspecting several key positions.
"But they left in a hurry. Some things weren't fully destroyed."
He pushed open the door of the largest cabin. Inside, dozens of wooden crates were stacked high.
Some had been smashed open, their contents scattered across the floor. But many more remained intact.
"Take what we can. Destroy the rest on-site," Minato ordered.
"Priority goes to medical supplies and soldier pills."
"Understood!"
Everyone immediately sprang into action.
Kurenai pulled a small sealing scroll from her shinobi pouch and unfurled it with practiced ease.
This had become her recent habit. After completing multiple missions alongside Kiyohara, she had realized that he always managed to scavenge valuable materials from the most unexpected places. Without sealing scrolls, there would be no way to carry everything.
"Rin, look," Kurenai said with a hint of pride, waving the scroll at Rin.
"When you go on missions with Kiyohara, you can't afford not to bring one of these."
Rin blinked, watching as Kurenai began stuffing supplies into the scroll like a diligent little squirrel—bundles of bandages, disinfectants, hemostatic powders, painkillers, antidotes…
These were the most urgently needed medical supplies on the battlefield.
Their mission was to destroy the supply point, not occupy it.
Therefore, these materials were at the discretion of the shinobi carrying out the mission.
If they had been tasked with capturing the supply point instead, they would not have been allowed to touch these goods. They would have had to wait for reinforcements to arrive and garrison the location, after which higher authorities would determine how the supplies were allocated.
"Red, when did you become so…" Rin began, momentarily unable to find the right word.
"So experienced?" Kurenai raised her head with a grin.
"That's because I've been on missions with Kiyohara longer than you. Every time, he fills sealing scrolls with all sorts of things."
On the other side, Kakashi and Minato exchanged a glance.
That did seem to be the case.
And as for Kiyohara…
He was busy rummaging through crates.
From inside his cloak, he casually pulled out five sealing scrolls.
Minato's eyelid twitched at the sight.
He recalled that after the Kannabi Bridge mission, Kiyohara had also returned heavily laden with spoils but not to this extent.
Now, he had upgraded to five scrolls!
"Kiyohara, this is…" Minato began.
"Lord Minato, look," Kiyohara said, opening one of the crates.
Inside were neatly arranged, high-quality soldier pills, each individually wrapped in wax paper—clearly special supplies reserved for Cloud jōnin.
"Kumogakure's soldier pill formula differs from ours. If we bring these back and have Lady Tsunade analyze them, we might improve Konoha's own recipe!"
"And these are scraps of chakra-conductive metal. They may not be fully formed, but they can be used to forge the blades of kunai and shuriken, enhancing the performance of our shinobi tools!"
"Medicinal herbs native to the Land of Lightning, some of these can't even be purchased in the Land of Fire!"
As he spoke, Kiyohara's hands moved with astonishing speed, sorting, packing, and sealing supplies in a seamless, fluid process.
Having sold materials many times before, he had already mastered the market prices.
Minato opened his mouth, then finally just sighed and shook his head with a smile.
"Very well. Thrifty indeed."
War was not only about clashes on the front lines—it was also about resources and logistics.
What could be better than strengthening oneself with the enemy's supplies?
(End of Chapter)