Rin Nohara closed her eyes, steeling herself.
The thought of Kakashi standing just on the other side of the thin earth wall, while her back was completely exposed to another boy, made her feel incredibly nervous. Even though her chest was securely wrapped in bandages, the situation was strangely intimate.
"I'm fine, Kiyohara-kun," she nodded. "Please proceed."
Kiyohara used the sterilized tweezers to gently probe the inflamed edges of the wound. Meticulously, he gripped the tiny, embedded stone fragments and pulled them out one by one.
The process inevitably tugged at the torn muscle fibers, sending sharp, stinging bursts of pain across her shoulders. Rin bit down hard on her lower lip. Fine beads of sweat gathered on her forehead, but true to her training, she never made a sound.
Kiyohara's hands were quick and incredibly steady, minimizing her suffering.
Soon, the bloody grit was piled on a piece of clean gauze.
"Brace yourself," Kiyohara murmured.
He took a cotton swab soaked in medical alcohol and swabbed the interior and perimeter of the gash. The icy touch followed by the vicious, burning sting made Rin gasp softly, her shoulders trembling.
"Alright. The foreign objects are gone, and the wound is disinfected," Kiyohara sighed in relief, packing away his surgical kit. "Rin, use the Mystical Palm."
Rin's tense muscles finally relaxed. The agonizing burning faded into a dull throb.
She molded her chakra, a warm, vibrant green light blooming in her hands. She reached back, hovering her glowing palms over the slash.
Under the effect of the A-Rank Medical Ninjutsu, the cellular regeneration was visible to the naked eye. The swelling subsided, new granulation tissue rapidly knit the muscle fibers together, and the torn skin sealed itself. Within minutes, only a faint, tender pink scar remained, which would fade entirely with time.
Rin rolled her shoulders, marveling at the lightness. The stiffness and pain had vanished completely.
"Thank you, Kiyohara-kun."
She quickly pulled her tunic back on and turned around. Her cheeks still held a lingering, faint blush, but her brown eyes had returned to their usual, gentle warmth. "If you hadn't cleaned it, the infection would have taken me out of the fight."
"It was nothing," Kiyohara smiled faintly behind his mask. "We are comrades. Watching each other's backs is what we do."
"Rin, what's the situation?" Kakashi's muffled voice called from the other side of the stone.
"I'm all patched up, Kakashi!" Rin called back, her voice bright and energetic once more.
Hearing this, Kakashi released his chakra hold on the Earth-Style Wall. The structure immediately crumbled, the dirt sinking back into the forest floor as if it had never been there.
Genma and Kurenai looked over, visibly relieved to see Rin's color had returned.
"Since Rin is combat-ready and we've caught our breath," Kakashi said, glancing at the darkening, smoke-filled sky, "we need to keep moving."
The squad transformed into a blur of swift shadows, leaping through the gloom-shrouded canopy toward the western coastline.
Their luck held; they traveled unimpeded, slipping past the chaotic skirmishes breaking out across the island.
As they traveled, Kakashi kept glancing at Kiyohara.
Learning that Kiyohara had miraculously awakened a Bloodline Limit purely out of a desperate desire to protect his comrade had shifted Kakashi's entire perspective on the boy. It resonated deeply with his lingering grief over Obito.
"So, what exactly does your new ability do?" Kakashi asked. For the usually taciturn Jonin to initiate a conversation, it was incredibly rare. "It controls magnetic force?"
"According to Lord Orochimaru, it's called Magnet Release," Kiyohara replied smoothly, leaping to the next branch.
He had been laying the groundwork for this reveal for weeks, forcing himself to visibly practice Earth Release in front of the camp to establish a paper trail. Now, by framing the awakening as a "miracle born of friendship" during a life-or-death crisis, he had crafted the perfect, unquestionable alibi to use his powers freely. Orochimaru didn't care how he got it, only that he had it.
"Magnetism, huh..." Kakashi murmured, processing the tactical implications.
"What can magnetism even do in a fight?" Genma asked through the senbon clamped in his teeth.
"It can do this," Kiyohara said.
He subtly refined his chakra, condensing a localized magnetic pull.
Twang.
The metal senbon was suddenly yanked straight out of Genma's mouth, floating through the air to hover perfectly above Kiyohara's outstretched palm.
"Hey!" Genma startled, almost tripping over a branch as he snatched the needle back out of the air.
Kiyohara chuckled and released the magnetic field. 'It requires intense micro-control, and the chakra drain scales exponentially with distance and mass,' he noted internally.
Several hours later, the squad intercepted a large Konoha convoy moving through the dense coastal brush.
It was the VIP evacuation team.
Aside from dozens of standard Jonin guards, there were over thirty members of the Hyūga Branch Family, their foreheads wrapped to hide the Caged Bird Seal. But the core of the formation consisted of only three people: The Hyūga Main Family.
Two of them were familiar faces: Hyūga Nobuhiko and the busty, arrogant Hyūga Ginka.
The escort guards immediately drew their weapons upon seeing Kakashi's squad approach. They only lowered their guard when Kiyohara proactively tossed Orochimaru's sealed secret order to the commanding Jonin, Ken'ya Takada.
"You're with us," Ken'ya ordered grimly. "This island is a lost cause. The Mist vanguard is right behind us. Move out."
The combined forces pushed westward. The heavy cloud of war and the sting of retreat made the atmosphere suffocatingly oppressive.
"That boy... the one from the outpost," Ginka whispered, her Byakugan veins bulging around her eyes as she scanned the perimeter for Mist ambushes.
"Kiyohara?" Nobuhiko recognized him. "I thought he died on the eastern front."
The casualty rate was astronomical today; men they had eaten breakfast with were already rotting in the mud.
"Hm?" Ginka frowned, focusing her white, pupilless eyes directly on Kiyohara's back.
Through the Byakugan, she could see the flow of chakra in his network. But it was different from before.
There was a heavy, dense quality mixed into his chakra—a distinct, darker hue that signified a fundamental elemental fusion. It was the visual signature of a genetic mutation.
'What is that?' she wondered, her heart skipping a beat. 'And his reserves... they've expanded massively since I last saw him. Is he another war-born monster like Minato Namikaze?'
"What's wrong?" Nobuhiko asked, noticing her staring.
"Nothing," Ginka shook her head, dismissing the Byakugan.
'Make a note,' she thought calculatingly. 'Do not offend him. If he survives, the Hyūga Clan must extend an olive branch. A rising genius is a valuable political asset.'
Suddenly, the world stopped.
Deep in the forest, miles away from their position, an unimaginably massive, terrifying spike of chakra erupted.
The sheer atmospheric pressure was so intense that the earth beneath their feet began to violently shake. The trees groaned, leaves vibrating as if caught in a localized hurricane.
Kiyohara snapped his head toward the epicenter, his eyes widening behind his mask.
At this point in the timeline, there was only one person on the entire battlefield capable of unleashing a chakra signature that rivaled the Tailed Beasts.
Might Duy. The Eternal Genin.
He had opened the Eighth Gate of Death. The final, burning swan song of a father protecting his son had begun.
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