"It's a pity it isn't a defensive Ninjutsu," Kiyohara felt a bit regretful, tucking the Earth Rising Spear scroll into his vest.
He remembered a jutsu called Earth Spear (Domu), which hardened the skin to diamond-level durability. Kakuzu had used it to tank point-blank explosive tags. That was the kind of survivability he wanted.
"You don't need a defensive jutsu," the Radical Spirit scoffed in his mind. "When you used my Magnetic Field Rotation yesterday, you were just like me in my youth—clumsily bearing the raw gravitational force with your physical body like a brute."
"When you truly master it," the Spirit explained, "you will realize that it is not you moving. It is the magnetic field around you pushing you. It makes you faster than lightning."
Kiyohara stopped walking. "Pushing me?"
"Yes. Once your body adapts to the Magnet Release, you can precisely control the polarization. You absorb the ambient magnetic power from the earth and repel against it. It's absolute magnetic levitation."
The Spirit's voice held dark pride. "By then, your speed will far exceed any standard Body Flicker. As long as the enemy cannot hit you, defense is useless."
Kiyohara nodded slowly, a thrill of realization running through him.
He hadn't considered that layer. He had just used the technique to turn himself into a heavy, blunt-force wrecking ball. But if he could refine it to achieve frictionless magnetic levitation? The speed would be terrifying.
In the ninja world, speed is king. Minato Namikaze was the most feared man alive purely because of the Flying Thunder God.
'If I can solve the speed flaw and the physical burden... this technique is a god-tier movement ability,' Kiyohara concluded. 'But to fully unlock it, I have to complete the second dying wish. I have to defeat Pakura.'
Kiyohara walked to the Medical Department tent. He spent 20,000 Ryo—the bulk of his recent scavenging profits—to purchase a batch of high-grade soldier pills. They were expensive, but they recovered chakra faster and had fewer cellular side effects than the standard military rations.
'Pakura will not let the capture of her disciple go,' Kiyohara calculated, securing the pills in his pouch. 'She will likely use the chaos of the incoming Mist invasion to launch a rescue or revenge mission. My priority is surviving the Mist vanguard so I can catch Pakura in the crossfire.'
On the way back to his squad's station, Kiyohara spotted Rin Nohara hurrying out of the medical tent. She looked exhausted, her eyes shadowed from back-to-back healing shifts.
"Rin," Kiyohara called out.
"Kiyohara?" Rin stopped, a tired but gentle smile touching her lips. "Is there a mission briefing? Or has your hand worsened?"
She subconsciously looked at his left hand, which she had healed the day before.
"No, my hand is fine."
Kiyohara reached into his pouch and pulled out a small bracelet. It was woven from thin, lavender cords, with a single, polished brown wooden bead at the center.
He had woven it on the boat ride back from the mainland, using a branch he had snapped off a coastal tree.
He handed it to her.
"Happy Birthday, Rin."
Rin froze.
She blinked her large, brown eyes, looking from the simple bracelet to Kiyohara's calm face in pure disbelief.
Today was November 5th.
With the war, the blood, and the constant fear of death, she had completely forgotten her own birthday. Even Kakashi hadn't said a word.
"This... Kiyohara, thank you!"
Rin carefully took the bracelet. Her fingertips gently stroked the warm wooden bead. Her eyes immediately welled up with tears.
"I didn't expect anyone besides my parents to remember," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "Even Kakashi forgot..."
"Kakashi is the squad captain," Kiyohara said smoothly, offering a perfectly reasonable excuse to highlight his own attentiveness. "He's under a lot of pressure with the incoming invasion. He probably just had a momentary lapse."
"You're right. That must be it," Rin nodded, though the contrast between Kakashi's neglect and Kiyohara's thoughtfulness was already cemented in her mind. "But how did you know it was today?"
"I accidentally saw your file when the Academy was registering our information years ago," Kiyohara lied effortlessly. He had read the official databooks in his past life.
"I see..."
Rin slipped the bracelet onto her wrist. The lavender cord stood out beautifully against her pale skin. She looked up at him, her gentle smile now radiant and deeply touched.
"Really, thank you so much, Kiyohara. I will cherish it."
She wanted to repay him immediately. "How is your medical study going? Is there anything you need help with?"
"Actually," Kiyohara smiled under his mask, the trap perfectly sprung. "If you have the time, could you teach me the theory behind healing internal organ damage?"
Meanwhile. Deep underground in the Mountain Graveyard.
"Look closely, Obito."
Madara Uchiha's ancient, raspy voice echoed through the cavern. "This is the world you cherish. These are the companions you were willing to die for."
Obito's single, surviving Sharingan was fixed on a projection cast against the cavern wall. It was a visual feed transmitted by White Zetsu, using his parasitic spores.
The image showed the Konoha camp.
It showed Kiyohara handing Rin a bracelet. It showed Rin's face lighting up with a radiant, tearful, beautiful smile—a smile directed entirely at another boy.
Obito couldn't hear the words, but the body language was devastatingly clear. The intimacy. The blush on her cheeks. The way she cherished the gift.
That smile was like a Kunai plunging directly into Obito's heart, twisting brutally.
"No... Impossible..." Obito's voice was hoarse, choked with pain and disbelief. "Rin... she..."
He couldn't accept it.
He had just "died." He was crushed under a boulder to save them. And yet, life had moved on. Rin's life had continued. She was smiling at someone else.
'I don't want that!' Obito's mind screamed, his teenage insecurity and possessive love twisting into toxic grief. 'I want her to think of me! She said she would always watch over me! If I died, she should mourn me for ten years at least! Not replace me with a new teammate in a month!'
Obito felt an agonizing, suffocating heartbreak. And beneath it, a dark, ugly surge of intense jealousy.
"Everyone can be replaced, Obito," Madara watched the boy quietly from his stone throne.
This was the plan. Stir the darkness. Feed the insecurity. Erode the boy's faith in the world until the ultimate, final tragedy awakened the true power of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Listen well, Obito," Madara whispered, a smile touching his withered lips. "So-called bonds are fragile things. They shatter in the face of time and reality."
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