"And you?"
"It's easier to focus standing up," Kiyohara said.
Seeing that, Kakashi had no choice but to sit and continue explaining the Lightning Release ninjutsu he had just mentioned. The technique was called Lightning Release: Lightning Flow.
Its principle was simple enough in theory: Lightning chakra could be attached directly to a ninja tool.
"So that's Chakra Flow," Kiyohara said, immediately grasping the core of it.
Chakra Flow was a comparatively advanced application. Ordinary, non-elemental chakra could cling to the body or to an object without much difficulty, but once chakra underwent a nature transformation, making it adhere cleanly became far more difficult.
Otherwise, every ninja in the world would just pour their elemental chakra into a kunai before drawing it.
A good example was Uchiha Shisui's preferred sword style, Uchiha Style: Sword Leap Flame. By using a specific technique to coat a short blade in Fire chakra, he could turn a normal slash into a flaming edge.
The way Kiyohara had infused Wind chakra into his shuriken before followed a similar logic. The difference was that he had only been crudely injecting chakra, not truly transforming it through a proper technique.
"That's right," Kakashi said. "Once Lightning Release: Lightning Flow is properly used, the electric current becomes much stronger."
As he spoke, Kakashi took a kunai from his pouch and demonstrated the technique for Kiyohara. In the next instant, pale blue arcs of electricity crackled around the kunai, flickering in quick, sharp pulses.
The power was obviously greater than Kiyohara's rough method of simply stuffing Lightning chakra into a weapon.
"This is the method," Kakashi said. "Take a close look."
He pulled out a scroll from his person. Written across it were the words Lightning Release: Lightning Flow.
Kiyohara was just about to ask why Kakashi carried something like that around with him when Kakashi answered first.
"I was already researching techniques like this, so I happened to bring the scroll with me. My father left it behind. It's only a C-rank ninjutsu, though."
Kiyohara's eyes sharpened.
So that was it.
He remembered all at once. In the future, Kakashi really did develop a similar application - Kunai Raikiri - by channeling the power of Raikiri into a kunai, turning it into a thrown weapon that still retained terrifying piercing force.
"Thanks, Kakashi."
Kiyohara took the scroll and patted him on the shoulder.
Kakashi really was absurdly generous. At that point, what else could Kiyohara even say?
"It's nothing." Kakashi shook his head. "Talking with you has helped me organize my own thoughts too."
And to Kakashi, it really was only a C-rank technique. Besides, he believed Kiyohara would have gotten access to it sooner or later anyway.
The two of them continued discussing Lightning Release for a while longer. Then, an ANBU ninja arrived outside the house and informed Kiyohara of the time and place for the chunin selection.
"In that case, focus on your training these next few days," Kakashi said as he stood.
Then he waved once and left.
"The chunin selection..."
Kiyohara stroked his chin thoughtfully.
There was still enough time.
Since this was an internal recommendation, he wouldn't need to sit through any written exam. At most, he would only need to spar against other genin.
And with the rogue-nin Kiyohara by his side, if he truly encountered a situation he couldn't win, he could just let his future self take over.
Kiyohara didn't believe any current-era genin could beat a jonin.
The only reason he had escaped death again and again on the Kannabi Bridge mission was because the rogue-nin Kiyohara had possessed him at the critical moments. Unless everyone else failed spectacularly, there was no way they could bridge that gap.
Not everyone was Naruto or Sasuke - reincarnated gods wearing human skin.
***
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
In those two days, Kiyohara poured almost all his energy into mastering Lightning Release: Lightning Flow and combining it with his own Lightning Release: Shuriken Guidance Technique.
With the rogue-nin Kiyohara giving him close instruction, his progress was absurdly fast.
After all, who else had a teacher available twenty-four hours a day, a teacher who could watch every move from point-blank range and correct mistakes instantly? It was the perfect way to squeeze every last drop of efficiency out of his time.
Other than the basic eight hours of sleep he forced himself to keep, plus eating, drinking, and using the toilet, Kiyohara barely stepped outside.
Kakashi didn't come to bother him during those two days either. He knew Kiyohara was about to participate in the chunin selection, and for once, he had the tact not to interrupt.
By the last evening, the technique still wasn't perfectly smooth. Its responsiveness wasn't where Kiyohara wanted it to be yet.
But for actual combat, it was already more than enough.
Finally, the day of the chunin selection arrived.
In the bathroom, hot water poured from the showerhead in a steady stream.
Today was the day.
Kiyohara wiped the water off his face with one hand and slicked his wet black hair back from his forehead. Warm water rolled down the half-defined lines of his back and over the lean muscles he had only just begun to build.
Looking down at himself, he frowned slightly.
"I'm still too skinny. I really need to find some serious physical training."
Almost every ninja had muscle on them. Only a tiny number got soft and heavy after becoming complacent.
For some reason, that made him think of Mitarashi Anko.
Back in Boruto, she had gone from a sexy woman in black fishnets to a plump middle-aged teacher people joked about as "Sweet Potato Anko."
Kiyohara clicked his tongue.
"I wonder if there's a future version of me that specializes in taijutsu... or maybe even one with a bloodline limit related to the body."
If he could get something like Yotsuki Kiyohara or Senju Kiyohara, then his taijutsu training would progress twice as fast and his physical foundation would rise in leaps.
According to the Last Will, Kiyohara was the anchor point. Countless possible futures branched outward from him.
Like the roots and branches of a massive tree.
The rogue-nin Kiyohara was only one branch of that tree - just one possibility that happened to be fairly close to his own current path, since both versions of him were ordinary commoners.
But that did not mean every branch had to resemble the one he was on.
Somewhere, among those countless possibilities, there could very well be versions of him born with bloodline limits.
After all... he was a transmigrator.
Birth itself was not fixed. Reincarnation could happen anywhere.
Which meant this probably was not a simple linear timeline of commoner Kiyohara becoming rogue-nin Kiyohara becoming taijutsu Kiyohara, one after another.
No.
A better way to understand it was as a possibility-based model of time.
At this exact moment, he stood at the crossing point of countless parallel branches - an anchor where all sorts of superposed possibilities overlapped.
So the so-called "future" in the Last Will was not really the future in a chronological sense.
It was possibility.
More precisely, possibility branches.
In other words, the Last Will was not necessarily anchored to this specific body of his. It might be anchored to Kiyohara's existence itself - the core self that remained consistent across all those branches.
The ability of the Last Will allowed the Kiyohara standing here, in this present, to reach out and pluck fruit from any other branch on the tree.
Because fundamentally, all of those futures shared the same root.
They were all possibilities born from the single fact of his transmigration.
"Still, I need proof."
Kiyohara let the thought settle in his mind.
At present, all of this was only theory.
If he wanted a real answer, he would need more urns. More remains. More Last Wills from other possible selves.
But he had a feeling that once he fulfilled the dying wish of the rogue-nin Kiyohara, another will might appear.
The rogue-nin Kiyohara had been fading all this time. Only when he retreated into the urn did the dissipation slow down.
What would happen after the fusion, though?
Kiyohara had no idea.
The rogue-nin Kiyohara might disappear completely.
Or perhaps he would continue to exist in some altered form.
"Kiyohara! Today's your chunin selection. Why haven't you left yet?"
A voice drifted in through the bathroom vent.
It was Kurenai Yuhi.
Kiyohara froze for a second, then looked up.
He had been standing under the hot water so long that the whole bathroom was full of steam.
"I'm coming," he called back.
Outside the bathroom, the rogue-nin Kiyohara floated there with his arms folded, watching him in silence.
Then the phantom smirked.
"You really do think too much."
Kiyohara snorted. "And that's why I'm still alive."
He shut off the water, grabbed a towel, and wiped himself down quickly.
Today was not a day he could afford to be careless.
Three days earlier, he had still been a genin balancing on the edge of death, relying on luck, information, and a dead future self in a funeral urn.
Today, he was about to step into the chunin selection.
That meant status.
It meant resources.
It meant a higher salary, better access to missions, easier contact with ninjutsu, and a genuine place within the village hierarchy.
Most importantly, it meant he would finally be able to fulfill the second dying wish of the rogue-nin Kiyohara.
Become a legally recognized chunin.
Once that happened, the remaining talent, experience, and whatever else was left of that future self could finally merge into him.
That was the real prize.
Kiyohara dried his hair, got dressed, and reached for the ninja tool pouch waiting outside.
The moment his hand settled on it, his expression sharpened.
There was no more absentminded speculation in his eyes now. Only focus remained.
He was going out to claim what he had bled for.
And after that...
After that, maybe he would finally get to see what sort of monster he could become when one Kiyohara was added to another.
Or perhaps not added at all.
Perhaps multiplied.
Kurenai called through the door again, sounding half impatient and half amused. "If you don't hurry up, you're going to be late."
Kiyohara tied the pouch at his waist and opened the bathroom door.
Steam billowed out around him.
"Late?" he said, looking at her. "For something this important? Not a chance."
But as he stepped outside, the thought still lingered quietly in the back of his mind.
The Last Will did not seem bound by straight lines of past and future.
If that was true, then sooner or later...
One of the branches reaching back toward him might carry something far more terrifying than a rogue ninja.
And when that day came, he had better be strong enough to take hold of it.