Kiyohara had already decided what to give Kurenai for her birthday.
An anklet.
He went out, bought the materials, and made it himself. It was simple—just a red cord he braided by hand, plus a small bell.
The bell didn't make any sound, so it wouldn't jingle or be annoying when she walked.
And since Tsunade's birthday would come around eventually too, Kiyohara was already thinking about whether he should give her a necklace.
With that in mind, he decided to go to Konoha Hospital first and have the "White Snake Power" he'd split into two tested.
When it came to Orochimaru, Kiyohara planned to stay cautious.
Orochimaru left contingencies behind through curse marks. At Kiyohara's estimate, with Orochimaru's current level of research, he still couldn't pull off something as extreme as "reviving" just by leaving chakra inside someone else—at least not until the first true curse mark was complete.
That would be the one Orochimaru had just finished researching before planting it into Mitarashi Anko.
Still—better safe than sorry.
Once he reached Konoha Hospital, Kiyohara went straight to his lab.
Because he was Tsunade's student, he had a private lab of his own—small, but his.
He ran the analysis again out of habit and confirmed the White Snake Power was extremely "clean," with no extra impurities mixed in.
Only then did he finally feel comfortable giving it to Kurenai and Rin.
It didn't take long for him to find Rin at the hospital.
He decided to give her the closer half first, then deliver the other half to Kurenai tomorrow.
He held the small sealed vial in his hand—the prepared half-dose of White Snake Power—and found Rin in her office.
It looked like her shift was just about to end; she was packing up.
In her nurse uniform, she wore white knee-high socks—completely different from the dark red ones she wore as a shinobi.
"Kiyohara?"
Rin turned around, surprised to see him. "You're looking for me?"
"Yeah." Kiyohara nodded, stepped closer, and handed her the vial. "This is for you."
Rin took it with a puzzled look, examining it under the office light. The bottle was tightly sealed.
"This is…?"
"Something Orochimaru-sama developed, I guess. It boosts cellular vitality and chakra recovery. It's especially useful for medics."
Kiyohara explained it in the simplest way possible. "I tried it myself—works well. No noticeable side effects. It suits you."
Rin's eyes widened.
That kind of gift… she could practically feel her chest warming.
Something like this—countless shinobi would kill for it.
"This is too valuable, Kiyohara… I—"
Her fingers unconsciously pinched the hem of her uniform.
"Take it." Kiyohara cut off her refusal.
"Besides, I was going to ask you something too. Rin—Kakashi said you've traded for a lot of Water Release scrolls?"
"If you have time, besides medical ninjutsu, we can also talk about Water Release."
Right now, Water nature was the one thing he still lacked. Not having it wouldn't stop him from learning Suiton, but it would make things slower and harder to use smoothly.
Rin nodded quickly.
"Of course! You've helped me so much—this is nothing…"
Then she hesitated and added awkwardly, "And, um… I'm not actually that good at Water Release yet…"
She'd only been studying it for a short time. Even with the Three-Tails boost, she still lacked experience.
"We learn from each other," Kiyohara said simply.
"Really?"
Rin gave him a look that practically screamed: I've read a lot, don't lie to me.
She knew how strong Kiyohara was in almost everything.
Did he really need her help?
"Really."
Seeing how unconvinced she looked, Kiyohara couldn't help reaching out and pinching her slightly baby-fat cheeks.
Rin's body twitched. She just stood there, suddenly more tense.
"I'm going to need you later," Kiyohara said.
Rin was the Three-Tails' jinchūriki. The stronger she became, the better her odds of mastering it later.
Her Water Release might even surpass Yagura's someday—because thanks to Kiyohara's influence, Yagura wouldn't ever get the Three-Tails now.
Hearing that, Rin finally relaxed a little.
"Try it now," Kiyohara said. "I'll watch—just in case."
Rin sat down, pulled out the stopper, and tilted her head back to drink the pale green liquid in one go.
Kiyohara watched closely.
White Snake Power could be taken orally or injected.
Oral absorption took longer, but it was safer.
Rin felt a warm, gentle current spread through her body, rushing into her limbs.
A soft hum slipped from her throat before she could stop it.
Her chakra felt… livelier.
The deep fatigue in her body was peeled away thread by thread, replaced by a lightness—like she'd suddenly been recharged from the inside.
Without thinking, she lifted her arm and stared at her skin.
It looked… whiter. Tighter. Healthier. Like it had a subtle glow.
"How do you feel?" Kiyohara asked.
"It's… amazing…"
Rin stood up, moved her arms and legs, eyes sparkling. "My chakra flow is so much smoother. I feel more awake too… and my skin really changed."
Only after saying it did she realize what she'd just admitted.
Her cheeks warmed, and when she looked at Kiyohara, her gaze had picked up a complicated shade.
No woman disliked better skin—firmer, brighter.
But Kiyohara giving her this…
Did he… notice those details too?
The thought alone made her heartbeat speed up.
"As long as it works," Kiyohara said calmly, either not noticing her embarrassment—or simply not caring. "It's a refined white snake extract. Their regeneration is honestly absurd. It improves your constitution, and yes—your skin gets better too."
Rin forced down the ripples in her heart and bowed seriously.
"Kiyohara… thank you. You always think about me. I really don't know how to repay you."
Kiyohara looked at her.
"Just a verbal thank-you?"
"Huh?"
Rin froze, then remembered what she'd promised before.
"Ah—then I can help you organize medical notes, and my Suiton notes too! And I can make bento—really good ones—"
"Only that?"
Kiyohara's voice carried a teasing edge.
Honestly, watching Rin panic like that was kind of fun.
She was even shyer than Kurenai.
Rin blinked at him, staring at his handsome face, and suddenly her brain short-circuited into a dangerous conclusion.
Skin gets better…
He mentioned it on purpose…
Does he… want that kind of repayment?
Her ears burned.
She clenched the hem of her uniform, glanced left and right.
The hallway outside the office was empty.
This was the top floor of the hospital—no patient rooms up here, so barely anyone came through.
Rin took a deep breath, as if making a life-or-death decision.
She stepped forward, just half a step, rose onto her toes, and planted a quick kiss on Kiyohara's cheek.
It was fleeting—like a butterfly touching water.
Then she jerked back two steps, her whole face flushing so red it looked like she might start steaming.
"Th-that… that's enough, right? I—I'm going now. See you tomorrow!"
She spun around and fled without looking back, her footsteps rapidly vanishing down the stairwell.
Tap-tap… tap-tap…
Only the sound of her frantic descent remained.
Kiyohara raised a hand and touched the spot she'd kissed.
There was still a faint, warm softness lingering.
People in the shinobi world really grew up fast…
He couldn't help shaking his head.
Kids here went to war at a few years old. Their bodies were denser, tougher than anything from his previous life—everyone was practically a mini-superhuman.
And with this war dragging on longer than canon, Rin was older too.
Extended war forced teenagers to mature faster, to face death sooner—and emotions tended to come out more directly.
Yeah… boys need to learn to protect themselves, Kiyohara thought dryly.
He'd only meant to tease her a little.
He hadn't expected Rin to go on the offensive like that.
Someone's here.
Kiyohara suddenly looked toward a direction—he felt something watching.
The moment he turned, the sensation vanished.
White Zetsu?
His brows knit together.
White Zetsu could slip through organic matter, disguise itself nearly perfectly, and infiltrate better than any professional spy in the Five Great Nations.
Kiyohara was pretty sure Obito or Madara was still watching Konoha.
…I'll have to be more careful.
He rubbed his chin.
He wasn't about to let private moments become some kind of live broadcast.
From now on, before doing anything, he'd run a sensory sweep first.
And the spirits in the urns—unless Kiyohara allowed it—were not permitted to come out on their own.
Inside the urns, they couldn't see or sense the outside world anyway.
Kiyohara was like a sealed black box, carrying all those urns inside him—walking memorial hall included.
"Back to training."
After watching a little longer and finding nothing unusual, Kiyohara left the hospital.
…
In another shadowed corner, a pale figure disguised as an ordinary villager slowly withdrew its head.
"Ahh… that perception really is sharp," White Zetsu muttered to itself, only barely avoiding being noticed.
"But that was something interesting…"
"Human emotions are such complex, contradictory things."
It had watched everything.
Zetsu didn't understand.
From what it observed, Kiyohara was extremely rational—goal-driven.
So why give a precious resource to a "teammate"?
Wouldn't it be more logical to use it on himself, or trade it for profit?
Maybe Kiyohara had already used it and no longer needed it… so he gave it away?
And Rin—she was clearly shy, so why kiss him?
Did humans "thank" people with physical contact?
"…I should tell Obito," Zetsu decided.
Its body sank into the building's shadow like melting wax, vanishing silently.
"He'll definitely be interested in this… though I still don't know why he'd be interested."
If it were Zetsu, it was only interested in pooping.
With that thought, it disappeared completely.
…
Elsewhere—
Obito sat shirtless.
His right side looked normal, but his left side was coated in a pale, corpse-like tone.
He raised his right hand.
It looked like a normal hand in shape, but the color was deathly.
Before he realized it, it had been a long time since half his body had been replaced with Hashirama cells.
Over that time, his body had changed completely.
He no longer needed to eat.
He no longer needed to excrete.
He didn't even understand the mechanism—he just felt like he'd become… a "plant person."
And after discovering he could use Wood Release, that feeling only grew stronger.
So sometimes, he still ate—despite not needing to.
He took out a rice ball, raised it to his mouth.
It was cold. The seaweed was soggy. The rice had lost its fresh scent.
He didn't care. He just needed the process.
Bite.
Chew.
Swallow.
He finished one quickly.
"Obito…!"
A dramatic voice echoed from the rock wall.
A white figure seeped out of stone, forming into Swirl Zetsu, waving its arms like it was carrying world-shattering gossip.
"What is it?" Obito asked flatly, reaching for a second rice ball.
He placed it in a bowl, picked up chopsticks, and decided to eat "properly."
He even set grilled fish on top as a topping.
"Konoha news!" Swirl Zetsu leaned in and whispered—though there was no one else here. "It's about Rin."
Obito's brow tightened.
"Rin… what happened to her?"
"Obito, Rin kissed Kiyohara!"
The cave went silent.
Obito lowered his head; black hair hid his eyes.
His right hand tightened around the bowl until his knuckles whitened.
Tiny wooden splinters sprouted from the Hashirama-cell arm, like something trying to grow—then forced itself back down.
A few seconds passed.
Then Obito laughed.
It started as a low chuckle—then grew, louder and louder, until it became near-maniacal laughter that filled the entire cave.
He laughed until tears came, until the echo sounded warped.
Swirl Zetsu flinched and backed away.
"O-Obito? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm great."
Obito wiped the corner of his eye, and the smile vanished instantly.
"I already knew. I already expected it."
"In this fake world, everyone is the same."
"Rin too. She changed—or maybe she was never the person I imagined."
He slammed the untouched rice bowl down onto the stone table.
Clack.
The rice basically became a sad "bowl meal."
Swirl Zetsu tilted its head.
It was just laughing—how did it turn this explosive so fast?
"Hmph." Obito's voice dropped. "I knew it. That Kiyohara… he acts calm and composed, but who knows what he's planning. Rin is too naïve—she'll get fooled by someone with a little power and a good mask."
Swirl Zetsu silently thought: Wasn't Rin the one who kissed him first?
But it wisely kept its mouth shut.
Obito flexed the pale hand slowly.
"This world is full of lies, betrayal, and pain… it twists everything. The Rin I knew was kind—she'd wait for me to come back. But this one…"
That was why he wanted to create a new world.
This Rin wasn't the Rin he knew anymore.
Swirl Zetsu nodded like it understood.
It didn't, but it could feel the stubborn will leaking off Obito—exactly what Madara needed, exactly what their plan required.
…
The next morning, before sunrise—
Kiyohara was running tests on a few fish.
He extended his right index finger, condensed chakra at the fingertip.
"Body Derangement."
He tapped the fish's scales.
Inside a plastic box of water, the fish's movement instantly froze.
Then it started spinning wildly, fins twitching out of sync, mouth opening and closing as bubbles rose—completely losing balance and orientation.
A few seconds later it floated belly-up. Still alive, but unable to swim properly.
Five seconds later, Kiyohara tapped it again.
As chakra flowed in, the scrambled nerve signals calmed. The fish's movement gradually normalized.
It turned in confusion, then flicked its tail and swam to the other side of the box, having no idea what just happened to it.
"Success."
Kiyohara withdrew his hand, satisfied.
Body Derangement.
He'd mastered it in only a few days.
Turning his chakra into a weak electrical field, injecting it into the target's nervous system, and disrupting their control of movement.
Because the brain-body connection relied on electrical signals—mess the signal up, and you mess the body up.
The Sharingan's copying helped, sure.
But the real key was his precise chakra control.
Years of training Magnet Release and Steel Release had sharpened that control even further.
"Next is practical combat usage."
Kiyohara thought it through.
"In a fight, this can create a split-second opening. Combined with Sharingan perception, it'll be nasty."
He glanced at the sky. The sun was fully up now, washing the yard in light.
Time to deliver the other gift.
He went back inside, pulled a small box from the drawer, and opened it.
Inside lay a delicate red-cord anklet, with a tiny silver bell no bigger than a fingernail.
The cord was hand-braided. The bell was custom-made so it wouldn't make noise when it swung.
He closed the box, changed into everyday shinobi clothes, and headed toward the Yuhi residence.
…
Yuhi household.
"Kiyohara?"
Kurenai opened the door and froze when she saw him. "Why are you here?"
For the past few days she'd been training at home nonstop and hadn't gone to look for him once.
"I'm delivering your birthday gift early."
Kiyohara handed her the box.
"I've got a mission today. I might not make it back in time for your birthday."
Kurenai's eyes widened slightly.
So he really remembered?
Last time she'd only said it casually and forgotten almost immediately.
She took the box, beaming.
"Thank you for remembering… you didn't have to bring it personally."
"It's fine. Open it."
Kurenai carefully lifted the lid.
Inside was a red-cord anklet—and beside it, a small bottle of liquid.
The red cord was bright and pure, the exact shade of "red" in her name.
A tiny, exquisite silver bell was threaded onto it.
"This is…?"
"An anklet," Kiyohara said simply.
Kurenai's eyes filled with confusion.
An anklet… she'd never received a gift like this before.
Was this… normal?
Or did Kiyohara have some kind of weird hobby?
"You're not a pervert, are you?" she blurted out.
"How would I be?"
Kiyohara shook his head.
He was being slandered out of nowhere.
It was just that Rin had a bracelet—so giving Kurenai an anklet felt like a matching "set," that was all.
"This liquid boosts your chakra and recovery," Kiyohara said, repeating the same explanation he'd used with Rin.
Kurenai made the exact same face Rin had.
Kiyohara was giving her something like this?
"Alright, I'm heading out."
He waved and turned to leave—he had a mission to run.
After he left, Kurenai shut the door, leaned against it, and clutched the box tightly.
Her heart was beating fast—she couldn't tell whether it was excitement or something else.
Back in her room, she sat before her vanity and opened the box again.
Her fingers traced the braided cord. The knots were even and tight—clearly made with care.
"An anklet…"
She murmured, cheeks warming.
Shinobi wore accessories sometimes, sure. But anklets were rare—especially as a gift from the opposite sex.
After hesitating, she decided to try it on.
She sat on the bed and slipped off the white sock from her left foot.
Her feet were slim, her ankles delicate.
Years of training had shaped her calves into smooth, firm lines, but they still kept a youthful softness.
She picked up the anklet.
As she bent forward, her collar dipped slightly, hinting at curves that had grown more than before.
The cord wrapped around her ankle; the cool touch made her tremble faintly as she fastened it.
She stood and took a few steps.
Lift. Set down.
The tiny bell swayed lightly with her stride.
She walked to the mirror, tugged up her pant leg, and examined it.
The girl in the reflection had flushed cheeks and a wandering gaze.
She dropped her pant leg quickly and hurried back to sit on the bed, fingertips brushing the knot at her ankle.
"This is… really weird…" she whispered—yet she didn't take it off immediately.
In the end, she carefully unfastened it and placed it back in the box.
As she closed the lid, she made a quiet decision:
She'd only wear it at home—when she was alone.
"…Now for the medicine."
Kurenai stared at the bottle containing the White Snake Power.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 120 Chapters Ahead of Others!