"Let me try it first."The moment he saw the finished blade, the young Kiyohara reacted like an old smoker who had gone ten days without a cigarette and was suddenly handed a fresh pack of Furongwang. His gaze locked onto the sword at once, and his whole spirit seemed to brighten.Kiyohara understood immediately and loosened his hold over his body. In the next instant, the young man's thoughts flowed into him like water pouring into an empty vessel, smooth and natural, taking control of his arm for the briefest moment. His fingers wrapped around the brand-new hilt.The grip was cool and solid, but there was also an odd sense of familiarity, as though the sword had been waiting for him all along.
The young Kiyohara guided Kiyohara's arm and gave the blade a light swing. The edge cut through the air with a low, whispering whoosh, clean and sharp. Then he fed a thin strand of chakra into it.Buzz.A faint blue ripple trembled to life along the blade. The steel glimmered softly, and the chakra moved through it with astonishing ease, smooth and unblocked, as though the weapon itself had been made to carry power. The resistance was so low that it felt completely different from channeling chakra into an ordinary kunai or sword."A fine blade!" the young Kiyohara said, unable to hide his admiration.
"Its chakra conductivity is excellent. If only I'd had a sword like this back then..."Regret lingered in his voice, quiet but unmistakable."Then why didn't you just forge yourself a better sword?" Kiyohara asked. He genuinely wanted to know. With the kind of skill this future self had possessed, buying or commissioning a proper weapon should not have been difficult.
The young Kiyohara fell silent for a beat before answering. "Because I always believed true strength shouldn't depend on external things. A swordsman ought to be able to fight with whatever is in his hand—even a branch from the roadside."Kiyohara could not help going quiet for a second. This future version of himself was a little too idealistic.Even a monster like Six Paths Madara had been split in half by Sasuke's chakra-infused Kusanagi without the blade showing the slightest sign of damage. In the ninja world, whether you had a good weapon or not could mean the difference between life and death, unless your fighting style barely relied on weapons at all.
"Then where did all your extra money go?" Kiyohara asked next.The young Kiyohara looked faintly annoyed with himself. "I spent most of my mission rewards buying all kinds of swordsmanship scrolls from the black market. Master Maruboshi Kosuke is extraordinary, but even his teachings have limits. I wanted to learn from many schools, gather their strengths, and carve out my own path."He let out a quiet breath. "Unfortunately, nine out of ten scrolls out there are fakes, or badly incomplete. I wasted absurd amounts of money and time, and the ones that were truly useful were very few."Kiyohara understood at once. So this future self had been the sort of swordsmanship fanatic who was easy to swindle.
Still, before he could think any further, a ball of light rose out of the young Kiyohara's body. It floated gently through the air and merged into Kiyohara without the slightest resistance.The change came immediately.The first thing that shifted was his spirit. A clear, sharpening force poured into his mind, strengthening his perception again. The world around him seemed to grow crisper, as though some fine haze had been wiped from his senses. He understood at once that this was the will and awareness the young Kiyohara had honed through endless discipline with the sword.Then warmth spread through his limbs like hot spring water, vibrant and alive. It flowed through his muscles, meridians, and bones, nourishing them from within. This time, Kiyohara recognized the source instantly.Yang attribute talent.The young Kiyohara had possessed it, and now that talent had stacked onto Kiyohara's previously faint and barely noticeable Yang affinity. In practical terms, that meant one thing above all else: learning medical ninjutsu would now be far easier for him than before.
But the greatest change was his understanding of the sword.An immense amount of knowledge flooded into him—not flashy secret arts, not some finished ultimate technique, but something even more fundamental and far more valuable. The way of gripping a blade. Footwork. Distance. Timing. The chain by which power rose from the soles of the feet, through the waist and hips, and finally into the arms. The correct use of chakra alongside swordplay.He had not directly inherited the advanced S-rank technique Konoha Style Swordsmanship: Willow. But his foundation in the blade had been lifted to a completely different level. Principles that once would have taken him months or years to feel out by trial and error now clicked into place in an instant. It was as though a locked gate in his mind had been thrown open.This was the foundation the young Kiyohara had spent more than twenty years building.
Kiyohara felt deeply satisfied. Even without fully digesting everything, he knew one thing with certainty: if he took the sword in hand now, the current him would crush the version of himself from just yesterday.He did not waste another second. Gripping the new sword, he moved at once, and even his hand seals seemed slightly faster than before."Lightning Release: Lightning Flow Technique!"Crack.Pale blue arcs of electricity wrapped themselves around the blade almost instantly, hissing sharply through the air.
Kiyohara stepped forward and began to move through the most basic Konoha-style sword forms that had just become part of him—diagonal slashes, upward sweeps, straight thrusts. His muscles were still a little stiff, because real muscle memory had to be built over time, but the method of exerting force had changed completely.Every swing now carried a full chain of motion. Power rose from the feet, traveled through the waist and back, and gathered in the arms before exploding into the blade. The sword moved with his whole body, not just his wrist. The strikes were heavier, cleaner, and far more stable.True unity of waist and stance.The shop owner standing off to the side could not hide the surprise in his eyes. "Your swordsmanship is impressive, young sir," he said. "That foundation is remarkably solid."There was some flattery in his tone, but it was not empty. He really could see that Kiyohara's sword had changed in a way it absolutely had not been before.
The arcs on the blade slowly faded. Kiyohara sheathed the sword, hanging the scabbard at his waist, and only answered the compliment with a slight smile. There was no need to explain anything.He paid the rest of the money, thanked the shop owner once more, and left the store with the blade.One of the young Kiyohara's final wishes had now been fulfilled. The only thing left was the other one. He needed to kill Ao before the future self fully faded away.That thought brought urgency back to his mind at once. Madara's plans were still moving in the dark, and the world would not wait for him to leisurely enjoy his new strength. He had to grow stronger, faster.Behind him, the shop owner watched him go and stroked his chin. "A chakra-metal blade... and swordsmanship that solid at that age," he muttered. "He looks young, but his fundamentals are frighteningly steady. If he survives this war, who knows how far he'll go?"Then he sighed softly. In the ninja world, potential only mattered if you lived long enough to realize it.
Not long after Kiyohara returned to base, a fresh mission came down. This time it was a reconnaissance assignment.Their objective was to head into an area where Hidden Mist ninja activity had been reported, confirm troop movement and deployment patterns, and bring back as much useful intelligence as possible.The moment he read the mission, a thought flashed through Kiyohara's mind. This was the perfect chance to test the changes brought by the inheritance, as well as the performance of the new sword. It might also be the opportunity he needed to complete the young Kiyohara's second final wish.After all, if Kirigakure forces were active in that area, then Ao's chances of appearing there were not low.
The team composition for this mission was slightly different from before. Alongside Kiyohara, Kakashi, Rin Nohara, and Genma Shiranui, two Hyuga clan members had been attached to the group. The higher-ups had apparently sent them specifically to strengthen the reconnaissance side of the mission.One was a man in his early twenties named Hyuga Nobuhiko. The other was a young woman around eighteen or nineteen named Hyuga Ginka. Both were from the main family.The moment Kiyohara noticed that detail, his heart gave a faint jolt.Something about this felt wrong.A thought he had been trying not to dwell on surfaced anyway.Could this be connected to the incident where Ao stole a Byakugan?
Even so, he kept his face calm. Panic would do him no good. The future only became a prison when you mistook foreknowledge for certainty.The mission set out soon after. They advanced through damp woodland, the kind of place where sound died quickly and the scent of water lingered in the air. As they moved, Kiyohara could feel the new sword's weight resting against his waist—not burdensome, but reassuring.He had barely had time to test it before leaving, yet already it felt more natural than any weapon he had ever held.
This time, he was not the weakest person desperately scrambling to survive behind everyone else. He had real progress behind him now. A stronger spirit. A stronger Yang affinity. Better chakra. A genuine swordsmanship foundation. And a future self whose unfinished path still waited to be walked.That realization made his breathing steady.The road ahead was still dangerous. Madara was still moving in the shadows. Obito was still trapped in that darkness. Kirigakure was still preparing its own schemes. And his next final wish still hung over him like a drawn blade.But for the first time in a long while, Kiyohara did not feel like prey waiting to be devoured.He felt like someone finally beginning to sharpen his own edge.And if Ao truly showed up... then this time, the future waiting at the end of the path might not be his death at all. It might be someone else's.Kiyohara rested one hand lightly on the hilt at his waist and followed the team deeper into the mist-heavy frontier, his gaze calm and his mind already turning toward the next battle.