That night, the Konoha ninja's set up camp inside a secure village controlled by the nascent Akatsuki Organization.
Kiyohara sat cross-legged on the tatami mat of his assigned quarters, methodically organizing his material gains from the day's ambush. The hard currency scavenged from the Amegakure Hunter-Nin wasn't an astronomical sum, and the several encrypted tactical intelligence scrolls he had extracted had already been turned over to Orochimaru's division. However, the sheer volume of premium-grade kunai, shuriken, and exploding tags he recovered easily replenished his depleted field supplies.
More importantly, the skirmish had allowed him to test the Power of the White Snake under live-combat strain.
'It doesn't feel quite as violently game-breaking as I expected,' Kiyohara mused, lightly rubbing his chin. 'Perhaps that is because Orochimaru himself is still actively refining the genetic serum at this point in the timeline.'
In the official records, Orochimaru's baseline stamina metric was high, but it didn't touch the absolute apex level of the Uzumaki or the Senju. Instead, the Sannin relied on his peerless efficiency in shape transformation to drastically minimize his chakra consumption per jutsu, while his passive, cellular chakra recovery rate was unnaturally fast. This physiological combination gave him the illusion of possessing an infinite pool of energy.
But Orochimaru's terrifying strength lay in his near-total functional immortality.
Between his rapid cellular regeneration, his stomach-churning Body Replacement molting technique, and his ultimate ability to remotely anchor his consciousness across the continent via the Cursed Seal, the snake's survivability had reached a god-like peak. Aside from the Sannin himself, absolutely no one in the world knew exactly how many genetic backups he had secretly embedded across the nations. Every single time an opponent confidently assumed they had decapitated him, he simply materialized elsewhere.
To survive long enough to earn a title like the Sannin, every member of the trio had to possess an absolute, world-ending specialization.
Kiyohara calculated that the Power of the White Snake was primarily an elite passive buff to biological regeneration and chakra replenishment. If he were ever successfully ambushed before he could actively flare his Steel Release armor, this passive cell activity would keep his internal organs from instantly failing. Furthermore, it served as a perfect system of redundancy, allowing him to maintain his black steel armor for significantly longer durations.
As Kiyohara remained lost in his tactical analysis, the sound of rhythmic, completely silent footsteps halted outside his sliding door, followed by a crisp knock.
"Kiyohara. It is I."
Orochimaru's voice.
Kiyohara stood up and slid the door open. Orochimaru stood entirely alone in the corridor, his golden vertical pupils seeming to catch the dim lantern light and glow faintly in the dark hallway.
"Lord Orochimaru," Kiyohara bowed his head.
"Accompany me for a brief walk. There are a few matters I wish to discuss with you."
The two shinobi strolled casually through the muddy streets of the Akatsuki settlement. Along the paths, civilian refugees and low-ranking mercenary recruits looked at the Konoha flak jackets—and specifically at Orochimaru's pale, dangerous features—with palpable terror, quickly averting their eyes.
"During our handover today, I proactively offered our military assistance to protect this Akatsuki faction," Orochimaru spoke suddenly, his voice a low hiss. "Tell me, Kiyohara... do you comprehend why I authorized the deployment?"
Kiyohara calculated the macro-political board for a fraction of a second before choosing his words carefully. "Amegakure is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hanzo the Salamander. He violently suppresses all ideological opposition internally while maintaining xenophobic isolation from the Great Nations. If this Akatsuki Organization successfully establishes a permanent foothold among the civilian population, it will inevitably fracture Hanzo's domestic control and tie up the Hidden Rain's military resources."
"The Land of Rain is geographically situated directly at the critical tri-border junction of Earth, Fire, and Wind, making its strategic position vital to the war effort. An Amegakure completely paralyzed by internal guerrilla warfare is infinitely more beneficial to Konoha's long-term interests," Kiyohara continued his clinical analysis.
"Protecting the Akatsuki right now is the strategic equivalent of planting an invisible nail directly into Hanzo's backyard. No matter how the theater of war shifts over the next year, this nail can be driven deeper to disrupt the borders."
Orochimaru let out a low, delighted chuckle, the sound echoing strangely against the wet stone walls of the village.
"Sharp. Terrifyingly sharp, Kiyohara-kun. Not only is your instinct for ninjutsu development exceptional, but your macro situational judgment far outscales that of your peers."
The Sannin halted his steps, turning his body to face the teenage prodigy fully.
"Tell me... is your obsession with researching unique Bloodline Limits truly born out of a simple desire to become strong enough to survive this war?"
This was a highly dangerous, probing question.
Kiyohara remained perfectly still, adopting a safe, intellectually ambitious persona that he knew would resonate with the mad scientist.
"Kekkei Genkai are the ultimate shortcut to ninjutsu efficiency," Kiyohara stated flatly. "For the exact same output of destructive force, a specialized Bloodline Limit consumes a fraction of the chakra while delivering twice the kinetic power. In this bloody era, raw strength is the only legal guarantee of survival."
"And besides..." Kiyohara added, his eyes narrowing slightly. "...Exploring the biological mysteries behind Bloodline Limits is a deeply fascinating pursuit. The exact chemical fusion of opposing chakra natures, the physical body's cellular adaptation to that synthesis, and the expression of dormant genetic markers... these are all universal riddles that Konoha's library has failed to solve."
Orochimaru's smile grew noticeably more genuine, his slitted eyes burning with intellectual approval. He had just received confirmation that the boy shared his exact, cold curiosity regarding the laws of physics and biology.
"Magnificent," Orochimaru whispered. "Then, during our tactical deployments over the coming days, you might encounter some truly... fascinating anomalies. Go back and rest. Tomorrow morning, Minato will take Kakashi and Rin ahead to execute a border patrol elsewhere, while our squad remains behind to ensure the Akatsuki's medical supplies are completely distributed."
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru."
Kiyohara returned to his private room but did not sleep. He sat cross-legged on the floor, conducting a complete diagnostic check on his internal meridian system. The Power of the White Snake was smoothly, continuously filtering new chakra through his coils, while subtly restructuring his cellular density. He could distinctly feel that his microscopic control over his chakra manipulation was becoming sharper by the hour.
Outside his window, the freezing Rain Country storm began to howl once again.
Concurrently, deep within a highly secure, subterranean laboratory hidden somewhere in a desolate mountain range of the Land of Rain.
A man wearing a heavy brown hood stood before a glowing chemical display. As he pulled back his hood, he revealed short, light-gray hair, a face lined with thick gray stubble, and a simple, pale yellow coat. To a casual civilian observer, he possessed the unassailable, non-threatening appearance of a humble, wandering barefoot doctor.
His name was Shennong.
He looked down at the coded intelligence report lying on his desk. It was an live status update compiled by his underground network of spies monitoring the Rain borders.
"Konoha shinobi have formally penetrated the Land of Rain sector... commanded directly by Orochimaru of the Sannin," Shennong murmured to himself, his finger lightly tapping the desk with rhythmic malice. "Their official objective is a basic merchant escort detail?"
He tossed the scroll aside and walked over to the far end of his massive laboratory. There, rows of preserved human organs, chemical centrifuges, and advanced aeronautical schematics were on display.
"Orochimaru... heh," Shennong sneered, his face twisting with bitter hatred.
His homeland, the advanced Land of the Sky (Sora-no-Kuni), had been violently destroyed and forced underground by Konoha's forces during the bloody Second Shinobi World War decades prior. Orochimaru had personally commanded several of the air-raid massacres that broke the Sky Ninja's armada. As the sole surviving leader of Sora-no-Kuni, Shennong had spent the subsequent decades dedicated entirely to engineering the total revival of his motherland while quietly accumulating the military power required for an apocalyptic revenge.
"And a new target has materialized... a Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai user named Kiyohara," Shennong picked up a secondary, separate intelligence brief that had just arrived from his deep-cover assets inside the Land of Fire.
"Aside from the missing Third Kazekage, the newly appointed Fourth Kazekage, and Toroi of the Hidden Cloud, the Magnet Release mutation is mastered by an elite few across the world. It is highly anomalous that a common civilian Chunin from Konoha has spontaneously synthesized it."
His primary operational plan for this week was to track down an Iwagakure rogue ninja who possessed a Steel Release bloodline. That specific Iwa rogue had slaughtered several of Shennong's secret researchers during a previous cross-border raid and stolen a highly classified cache of biometric data. Shennong desperately required the retrieval of that data, and intended to harvest the Steel Release user's corpse for his own genetic research.
But now, his target parameters had just expanded.
"Orochimaru's new personal research assistant... possessing an active Magnet Release mutation," a look of absolute, fanatical madness flashed in Shennong's gray eyes. "If I can manually harvest both of these Bloodline Limits, decode their cellular structures, and seamlessly synthesize them into my own flesh alongside my Body Activation Jutsu, the Eight Gates, and the dark chakra of the Reibi (Zero-Tails)..."
"...I will finally engineer the truly ultimate, god-like physical vessel!"
He strode over to a reinforced, sealed metal locker in the corner of the lab and input a complex mechanical code. Click. Inside the velvet-lined tray, twelve specialized syringes containing a thick, glowing, deep green solution were neatly arranged.
"The pinnacle of my Medical Forbidden Jutsu: Body Activation—the seventh-generation optimized serum," Shennong murmured, pulling one syringe from the rack and holding it up against the sterile lantern light.
"It can violently force human cellular mitosis and enhance base physical capabilities to their absolute genetic limit within seconds. Combined with my unique ability to open the Eight Gates infinitely without suffering cellular necrosis..."
"...I possess the raw power to beat a Sannin like Orochimaru to death with my bare hands."
He carefully stowed the syringe in his medical coat and began organizing his stealth combat gear: a pair of custom-forged chakra-metal knuckles, and a tactical pouch packed with highly volatile chemical stimulants.
Finally, he clipped a sleek, palm-sized mechanical device directly to his belt. It was an advanced archaeological artifact recovered from the ancient ruins of the Land of the Sky—a specialized device capable of projecting high-frequency waves that completely jammed and blinded all local chakra-sensing networks.
"Begin the deployment," Shennong commanded the dark corner of the room.
A masked Sky Ninja dropped silently from the ceiling, bowing. Currently, Shennong commanded a highly loyal, secret cell of remnant Sky shinobi. Furthermore, his research into ancient Sora technology was nearly complete. He was currently finalizing the dark chakra matrix of the Reibi, because the beast's negative energy was the only power source dense enough to fuel the launch of their flying fortress: Ancor Vantian.
Once airborne, its primary chakra cannon possessed the cataclysmic yield to wipe entire Hidden Villages off the face of the earth with a single shot.
The following morning, Minato Namikaze convened his squad early. Alongside Kakashi and Rin, they prepared to depart the Akatsuki village to execute their separate border patrol operations near the Grass Country.
"Lord Orochimaru, Kiyohara, Kurenai, Genma... I leave the remaining logistical distribution in your hands," Minato smiled warmly, adjusting his backpack. "Be careful on the roads."
Kiyohara nodded respectfully. Kakashi's lone eye lingered on Kiyohara's face for a long, heavy moment. He looked as if he wanted to say something regarding their competitive growth, but ultimately, he simply nodded in silent respect.
"Take care of yourself, Kiyohara," Rin waved with a bright, supportive smile.
Kiyohara looked at Rin's cheerful face. In the cold, calculating depths of his mind, he was mentally mapping the remaining weeks on the timeline, calculating exactly how much time he had left before the Mist black-ops squad would inevitably kidnap her.
After seeing off Minato's squad, Orochimaru led his team back into the central command building, where the three founders of the Akatsuki were already waiting at the stone table.
Today, alongside Yahiko and Konan, Nagato had also arrived.
However, the boy used his thick, bright red hair to completely conceal the upper half of his face, explicitly hiding his pair of legendary Rinnegan from the Konoha ninja's view. At this moment, standing quietly behind Yahiko's shoulder, he was completely taciturn and withdrawn, successfully projecting the non-threatening aura of a simple, loyal follower.
"The total distribution of the medical supplies will require another two days to finalize," Yahiko reported, getting straight to business. "Our logistics teams are currently smuggling the crates to various hidden civilian medical points across the province. Also... regarding the specific Steel Release rogue ninja you inquired about last night... our intelligence network has managed to locate a definitive lead."
A sudden, sharp flash of intense interest appeared in Orochimaru's golden pupils. "Oh?"
Before retiring to his quarters the previous evening, Orochimaru had casually instructed the Akatsuki to utilize their local civilian network to gather information on regional Kekkei Genkai anomalies. He hadn't expected their primitive spy network to deliver results this efficiently.
Konan pulled a detailed geographical map from her cloak and spread it across the stone table, pointing a slender finger at a mountainous grid coordinate located in the far northeastern sector of the Land of Rain.
"Three days ago, a heavily armed merchant caravan was completely decimated in this canyon," Konan briefed them, her voice flat. "The attacker's specialized ability was noted as highly anomalous by the survivors. He could instantly transmutate his skin into a dark, metallic state, allowing him to literally tear through the thick iron plating of the reinforced freight wagons with his bare hands."
"Do we have a physical description or a handle?" Kiyohara pressed, his interest peaking.
"Male. Roughly thirty years of age, with a distinct, jagged scar crossing his right cheek," Konan replied, checking her notes. "He operates under the moniker Kano Rō. What makes his profile unusual is that he didn't steal a single Ryo of coin from the merchants. He exclusively looted several crates of raw, high-grade rare metal ores transported from the Land of Earth."
Orochimaru licked his lips, his voice a raspy purr. "Rare metal ores, is it? Perhaps his specific variant of Steel Release requires the constant biological ingestion or external proximity of raw metallic elements to maintain its molecular density? Or perhaps the man hasn't fully mastered the cellular transformation yet and requires external mineral assistance to catalyze the chakra reaction."
Kiyohara calculated the distance on the map. The coordinate was located roughly one day's standard journey from their current position. If they deployed at a high operational tempo now, they could easily penetrate the canyon before dusk.
"Lord Orochimaru, should we—"
"Naturally, we deploy immediately," Orochimaru interrupted smoothly, a burning, predatory smile curling his lips.
"Steel Release... a Kekkei Genkai capable of altering human cellular density to match forged metal. I am intensely, profoundly interested in analyzing the biological principles behind such a mutation. And besides..." He turned his golden gaze directly onto Kiyohara. "...Didn't you express an academic desire to analyze more diverse Bloodline Limits to aid your own research? This is a flawless opportunity."
Yahiko hesitated for a moment, looking at the teenager. "Be careful. This Kano Rō's physical combat power is exceptional. He has already wiped out four heavily guarded caravans, and Hanzo's elite Hunter-Nin pursuit teams have repeatedly failed to capture him. If your squad intends to hunt him in that terrain, please exercise caution."
"A trivial concern," Orochimaru waved his pale hand dismissively, his presence radiating arrogance.
As the squad filed out of the village gates to deploy, Kiyohara distinctly noticed Konan's calm purple gaze lingering on his back for an extra moment. He turned his head slightly to match her look, but she had already smoothly turned away to return to the shadows of the bunker, leaving only a fading silhouette.
"Kiyohara, pick up the pace!" Genma called out from the path, adjusting his waterproof cloak.
The four Konoha shinobi vaulted over the perimeter walls, their bodies blurring into the gray rain as they traveled toward the northeastern canyon at maximum velocity.
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Give me powerstones.
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