To keep the sudden surge in spiritual energy as balanced as possible, Kiyohara had started adding physical training to his routine.
The problem was that neither he nor Rogue Ninja Kiyohara had ever been proper taijutsu specialists. That meant there was no secret training method, no miraculous body-conditioning art, no hidden inheritance from a fist sage. All he could do was work through the basics honestly, one rep at a time.
"Hey... you..."
Kurenai had arrived at that exact moment.
She had only meant to call him over and talk about the mission, but the sight that greeted her left her standing still for half a beat. Kiyohara was dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts, his upper body bare, sweat running along the faint lines of his muscles as he trained in the yard.
How could he be so casual?
Well-bred and far more self-conscious than she let on, Kurenai immediately dropped her gaze and refused to look any longer.
A shirtless man by itself was one thing. A shirtless Kiyohara, with that face of his, was another matter entirely.
For a moment, her heart skipped.
"What's wrong?"
Kiyohara lifted a brow, pausing in the middle of his set.
He truly did not understand what the problem was. His build was only average, maybe even a little lean. Ninjas trained daily. Of course they had some muscle. There was nothing remarkable about it.
"Nothing."
Kurenai bit her soft lower lip, forcibly steadying herself, and in her mind did her best to replace Kiyohara's exposed upper body with the image of a radish.
Only then did she manage to continue.
"The mission location is on the eastern front of the Land of Fire."
"East?"
Kiyohara rubbed his chin.
Only two great nations lay in that direction: the Land of Lightning and the Land of Water.
"The southeast?" he asked.
"Mm."
Kurenai nodded.
Kiyohara's expression shifted at once.
To the southeast was the Land of Water.
If Madara wanted to stir something up, he probably still needed a few more months. That should be enough time for Kiyohara to keep growing stronger.
Silently, he did the math in his head. In around twenty days, it would have been a full month.
I hope another "last will" arrives by then.
His thoughts raced, but his face gave nothing away. Instead, he asked Kurenai for more details about the mission.
This time, the assignment was much simpler than Kannabi Bridge. Their team was being sent to handle transport duty.
Kiyohara immediately approved.
Now this was what a normal mission should look like. A sensible difficulty level. Something that actually matched their current strength.
Starting with Kannabi Bridge had basically been like clearing the tutorial and walking straight into the final boss.
"We meet at the mission point tomorrow," Kiyohara said.
"Don't forget."
Having delivered the message, Kurenai turned and left in a hurry.
Kiyohara watched her go, then lowered his eyes in thought.
"There wasn't enough time to forge the sword..."
He clicked his tongue softly.
After thinking it through, he decided to hold onto the money and wait. Better to save up and get something truly worthwhile after the next trip back to the village. For now, kunai would have to do.
Even if he commissioned a ninja sword right now, he didn't know proper swordsmanship. At best it would be a sturdier weapon, and just maintaining it would cost money. It wasn't worth it yet.
***
The next day, Kiyohara packed his gear and arrived at the meeting point.
As always, it was Konoha's main gate.
He even noticed the two shinobi on duty and instinctively compared them to the future gatekeepers everyone would eventually know by name. Unfortunately, it wasn't them.
This mission was still assigned to the same team, and the jonin in charge was still Minato Namikaze.
The original jonin supposed to lead Kiyohara's squad had already stepped on an explosive tag and died.
By the time Kiyohara arrived, several people were already there waiting, and one of them immediately waved him over.
He looked around and found Kakashi, Rin, Kurenai, and Genma fully geared and ready to move. He was the last one to arrive.
"Kiyohara," Minato said with an easy smile, reaching into his pack. "I heard about your performance. You did very well. The village approved an additional reward for you."
He handed over a scroll.
"A scroll?"
Kiyohara accepted it, opened it, and saw the title written inside.
Wind Release: Gale Palm.
It was a C-rank Wind Release technique, roughly the right level for a chunin to begin learning. Like Great Breakthrough, it wasn't ranked by raw destructive power so much as by learning difficulty. Still, more difficult techniques usually did mean stronger results.
"Thank you, Minato-sensei."
Kiyohara did not bother pretending otherwise. This was free value being delivered straight into his hands. Refusing it would be idiotic.
At the same time, he understood exactly what it meant.
His performance at Kannabi Bridge had caught the village's attention. The higher-ups had begun to see him as someone worth investing in.
After all, he wasn't some "problematic clan element" with built-in political complications. He was a civilian shinobi. Straightforward. Clean. Useful.
Minato seemed pleased that he had accepted it, and soon after, he called everyone to move out.
Their destination was the eastern front.
***
Several more days passed on the road.
The farther east they went, the more Hyuga clan members Kiyohara began to notice. That was when he realized they were close.
Konoha's main body - along with most of the Uchiha - was concentrated against Kumogakure. The Hyuga and the remaining core forces were assigned to deal with Kirigakure.
The thought made Kiyohara's mind drift.
Ao from the Mist would one day steal a Byakugan from a member of the Hyuga main family, creating the first major leak of that bloodline. And once that happened, the Hyuga clan's internal controls would become even more severe.
In truth, compared with the Sharingan, the Byakugan was terrifying in a different way.
A transplanted Sharingan demanded immense chakra upkeep unless you were born Uchiha. Most outsiders simply couldn't sustain it.
The Byakugan, on the other hand, did not appear to impose the same kind of constant burden.
It was basically opening the door to an entirely new world.
"From this point on, your team will be stationed here," Minato said after meeting with the shinobi overseeing the logistics base. "Your routine duties will be guard work and escorting supplies to nearby positions."
"Understood," Kiyohara replied first.
This assignment was practically perfect for him.
If he could stay alive here for two more weeks, he would be able to see whether another last will appeared. On top of that, this quiet stretch would give him time to train Gale Palm properly.
At the very least, he needed a second future as a fallback. Right now, his sense of security was still paper-thin.
"This kind of mission?" Genma scratched his head. "Feels almost too easy."
"This is what normal difficulty looks like," Kiyohara said flatly.
If not for Rogue Ninja Kiyohara, Kannabi Bridge would have ended with either him collecting corpses... or becoming one.
And if Kurenai and Genma had been dragged any deeper into that mess, they probably would not have come back alive either.
***
Two weeks slipped by in a flash.
For Kiyohara, those days passed with almost unnerving calm.
After merging with Rogue Ninja Kiyohara, his talent for Lightning Release had risen sharply, but his Wind Release had improved as well. Even without anyone guiding him, he had learned Wind Release: Gale Palm at a startling speed.
One afternoon, he stood beside the stream near camp.
It was where the shinobi fetched water for cooking, washing, and bathing. Usually it was noisy with activity, but today the bank was relatively quiet.
Facing the water, Kiyohara formed two hand seals - Horse and Dragon - then brought his palms together.
A compressed gust of wind burst from between his hands and slammed into the stream.
Whoosh!
In an instant, the surface of the water caved in under the impact, exposing the pebbled bed beneath. A fish that hadn't fled in time was blasted out of the current and thrown onto the shore, where it flopped helplessly in the dirt.
"Looks like we'll be getting an extra dish tonight."
Kiyohara was just about to pick it up and carry it back for soup when a cold, synthesized female voice rang out in his mind.
Please check your will and urn, and properly bury your belongings.
Kiyohara's eyes lit up at once.
It was here.
He did the count without even needing to think.
Today was exactly one month.