"It looks brutal. This training method of yours is... pretty unusual."
Looking at the sweat soaking Kiyohara's forehead, Rin couldn't help thinking of Might Guy, the oddball from their academy days. The way Kiyohara kept swinging that thick stone rod around was not unlike Guy's brand of madness.
"It's fine. You get used to it after a while."
Kiyohara did his best to sound casual as he subtly shifted his stance, making sure the shadow of the stone rod no longer fell straight across Rin's face.
"Think of it as... training the core, the waist, and the way the whole body generates force together," he added. "If your hips, stance, and shoulders move as one, your strikes get heavier."
He said it lightly, but in truth he still cared more about endurance and raw strength at this stage. The finer points of swordsmanship, Young Kiyohara would teach him later. For now, his body had to be hammered into shape first.
"I see..."
Rin nodded, half understanding and half not. Then, noticing the sweat running down his temple, she took out a handkerchief and handed it to him.
"By the way, when it's our turn later, we'll be transporting supplies to another outpost about ten kilometers away," she said. "I heard the Hidden Mist have been especially active around there."
"Got it."
Kiyohara nodded, showing he understood.
Though he, Rin, and the others had not originally belonged to the same team, the war had already reduced all neat arrangements to scraps. For the sake of coverage and efficiency, squads were split and recombined constantly, each person shoved wherever they were needed most.
So Kiyohara set the rare stone rod aside inside his tent, changed his grip on the handkerchief, and headed out with Rin.
By the time he arrived, most of the others were already there.
"Kiyohara, how's your Lightning Release training going?"
While the rest of the group checked the supplies and secured the transport packs, Kakashi walked over and spoke to him first.
"Not bad. I've basically got it now."
Kiyohara nodded.
He had already learned the Lightning Release: Lightning Flow Technique Kakashi had taught him. Not only that, over the last stretch of days he had also fully picked up Wind Release: Gale Palm, the ninjutsu Minato had rewarded him with.
"That's good." Kakashi's visible eye remained steady on him. "We'll probably run into a Hidden Mist ambush this time too, so don't let your guard down."
Before Kiyohara could answer, Kakashi continued in a low voice, "Anyone who can't protect their comrades is scum. I'm prepared for that now."
Looking at Kakashi's suddenly enlightened expression, Kiyohara felt the strange sense of Konoha "substitution literature" grow even stronger.
Oh no. Don't tell me this guy really was projecting all the guilt and unresolved feelings he had toward Obito onto him.
"Ahem. My ninja way is to protect my comrades too," Kiyohara said.
"We're leaving."
Rin walked over at just the right moment and cut the conversation short.
This time, Kakashi was the jonin in charge of the squad.
That was only natural. Among the people present, he was the only actual jonin.
Kakashi glanced at Kiyohara one last time, then turned and gave the order to move out.
Before long, the supply unit was threading its way through the forest.
As they traveled, Kiyohara used the stretches of quiet to continue exchanging thoughts with Young Kiyohara in his head.
"How long would it take me to learn Konoha Style Swordsmanship: Willow?" he asked silently.
That technique had been created by Maruboshi Kosuke, an old man who looked harmless enough to be ignored. Yet the move itself was no joke. It was an S-rank composite sword art that blended illusion and blade work into one seamless killing technique.
If he learned it, it would become one of his strongest trump cards.
"Your spiritual strength is high," Young Kiyohara replied. "That means your Yin Release foundation is naturally better than average. For a technique like Willow, that helps a lot."
The young swordsman's spirit hovered beside him, voice cool and precise, like a teacher correcting posture with the flat of a scabbard.
"Yeah."
Kiyohara understood that clearly enough. The boost in spiritual power left behind by Rogue Ninja Kiyohara had changed him in a very real way. In the past, he could only have been called average in that regard. Now it was different.
"I also received a last will before I died," Young Kiyohara continued. "That's part of why my spiritual power was stronger than a normal person's. If you eventually inherit what I have, you may reach an even higher level than I ever did."
"And how long before I can actually use it?" Kiyohara asked.
He wasn't interested in vague praise. What he wanted was a timetable.
"With my guidance, about two months."
Young Kiyohara did not soften it for him.
When necessary, he could possess Kiyohara's body and let him experience the sword path firsthand. That already cut the learning time down by an absurd amount. Even so, two months was still two months.
"That long..."
Kiyohara's brows knit together.
It wasn't greed. It really wasn't. But this was a battlefield. On a battlefield, two months was enough time to die three different ways and still have bad luck left over.
He needed money first.
Only money could solve the immediate problem.
If he gathered enough, he could forge the chakra-conductive ninja sword Young Kiyohara wanted, finish one of the last wishes quickly, and collect another round of gains. Until then, lofty sword ideals would stay lofty.
***
Half a day later, the transport team had pushed deep into damp woodland.
The air beneath the canopy was heavy and wet, and the light grew thinner the farther they went. Moss clung to roots. The earth was soft. Even the sound of footsteps seemed to be swallowed before it traveled very far.
Along the way, Kiyohara occasionally asked Young Kiyohara for pointers—how to align the shoulder on a downward cut, how to keep the waist from twisting too early, how to step without bleeding force out through the heel.
Then the voice in his head abruptly changed.
"Something's wrong. Three o'clock."
Young Kiyohara stopped in the middle of a discussion about footwork and looked ahead.
As a swordsmanship jonin, his sense for danger was far sharper than Kiyohara's own. He had survived long enough to die at Ao's hands for a reason.
"There's someone there."
Kiyohara raised a hand at once and spoke aloud, signaling the others to halt.
The entire squad stopped almost instantly, every eye turning wary, scanning the surrounding trees and brush for movement.
"Which direction?" Kakashi asked at once.
His perception was not poor, but it was not exceptional either. Better than the average chunin like Genma, Rin, or Kurenai, yes. But still weaker than a seasoned jonin's battlefield awareness.
"Over there."
Kiyohara indicated the direction Young Kiyohara had pointed out.
Almost the moment he finished speaking, the air around them grew even wetter.
What had at first been faint threads of moisture became visible. Wisps of milky-white fog began to seep from between the trunks, gathering low to the ground, then climbing into the branches.
In only a few seconds, the visibility plummeted.
Ten meters became five. Five became three. The world outside those few paces blurred into pale smears and dark vertical shadows.
"Hidden Mist Technique."
Kiyohara's expression tightened.
Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique was one of Kirigakure's signature jutsu. More than simple cover, it dulled the senses, scattered sound, and turned the battlefield into the enemy's home ground.
"Damn it, I can't see anything."
Genma stopped flipping the senbon in his mouth and grimaced.
The moment the enemy was allowed to hide while they were left blind, the balance tilted hard in Kirigakure's favor.
"I'll try Wind Release."
Kiyohara formed hand seals immediately.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A violent gust burst from his mouth and churned through the thick fog ahead. For an instant, the white curtain tore open, exposing a corridor of clearer air between the trunks.
But before anyone could even take a full breath, the fog farther out surged inward like living tidewater. The gap vanished in two seconds flat. By the third, the mist was thicker than before.
"So brute force won't do it..."
Kiyohara frowned.
But he was not panicking.
He still had a third eye.
His future self.
"It's useless."
A cold voice rang out from everywhere at once, echoing through the white gloom so strangely that it was impossible to pin down a direction.
"Konoha fools! This is a carefully prepared kill zone by Kirigakure. Did you really think a mere C-rank Wind Release jutsu could blow it away?"
The mockery in the Hidden Mist ninja's voice was unmistakable. Every word carried the kind of confidence that came from standing on chosen ground with a prepared formation and terrified prey trapped inside it.
"Even the Sharingan would be blinded in this fog!"
The words spread through the mist like needles.
Even the Uchiha's Sharingan would have to kneel before Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique.