Madara Uchiha withdrew his gaze, slowly closed his eyes, and once more sank into the stream of reports flowing back through White Zetsu.
He was old now. To keep breathing, to keep thinking, to keep existing at all, he had to remain linked to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
On the battlefield, however, everything was descending into open chaos.
***
Rin Nohara stayed in a comparatively safer corner of the battlefield, her hands poised and ready to move at any moment.
The two Hyuga were locked in combat with the Kirigakure shinobi pressing them from every direction.
Genma Shiranui kept drawing senbon from his pouch, enhancing them with ninjutsu before sending them flying in broad waves. But the supply in his pouch was running visibly thin.
Kurenai Yuhi had barely managed to trap a single enemy in genjutsu and create an opening for Rin to finish him off. After that, most of her chakra had already been spent.
There were simply too many Hidden Mist shinobi in this attack.
At a glance, there were more than ten.
And among all the clashes erupting across the field, the fiercest was unquestionably the duel between Kiyohara and Ao.
A short distance away, Terumi Mei stood with her emerald eyes fixed on Kiyohara's figure, her red lips parted ever so slightly.
"How is that possible...? He's only a Chunin. How can his swordsmanship contend with Ao's to this extent?"
At first, Mei had thought Kiyohara was just a Konoha ninja with an attractive face and a few clever tricks.
Now she had to admit the truth. This boy was a genuine genius.
That earlier wire trap hadn't been luck. It had been a deliberate kill setup.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Ginka and Hyuga Nobuhiko could only struggle against the remaining Mist shinobi.
With their Byakugan suppressed, they were like hawks with their eyes covered.
All they could do was rely on years of training and muscle memory, using the most basic Gentle Fist motions that did not depend on the Byakugan to reach their full potential.
Ginka's palms swept out in rapid succession, casting layers of shadow through the mist.
Even incomplete, her technique still carved out a defensive zone and blocked part of the enemy's advance.
"No... I can't let that white-haired brat find Ranmaru..."
From within the dark, hidden passage, Ao had already noticed Kakashi slipping away.
Once Ranmaru was killed, the effect suppressing the Byakugan would vanish. And the moment that happened, the two Hyuga would recover their greatest advantage.
If that happened, Kirigakure would be pinned between three fronts and worn down until defeat was inevitable.
Ao pulled a black forbidden drug from his pocket and swallowed it in one motion.
Violent chakra exploded from his body. His skin flushed an unnatural crimson, and bulging veins spread across him like cracks.
"Out of my way!"
He roared low in his throat. Facing Hyuga Nobuhiko, who rushed over to reinforce the others, Ao condensed that violent chakra into his right leg and drove out a savage, brutally direct side kick.
He struck first despite moving second.
Bang!
Nobuhiko's eyes widened in shock. It felt as if a boulder had smashed into his chest.
A sharp crack rang out. He was sent flying backward before crashing heavily to the ground.
"Nobuhiko!"
Ginka cried out, her voice breaking.
But Ao had already seized the opening.
His hands flashed through seals even faster than before.
"Water Release: Wild Water Waves!"
It was not a high-level killing technique, but the surging torrent came crashing toward Ginka like a rising wave.
She barely dodged the main force of it, but the edge still caught her.
The icy water soaked straight through her pale training clothes, leaving her in an instantly disheveled state.
"Now!"
At that exact moment, young Kiyohara moved.
His voice came sharp and cold inside Kiyohara's mind.
He slashed with his right arm. The ninja sword split the thick fog, striking straight for the opening at Ao's ribs - the instant after Ao's ninjutsu stalled for a fraction of a breath.
Ao brought his blade up to block, but even so, Kiyohara's sword still tore a bloody line across his waist.
Pfft!
Ao grunted, a sound of pain forced through clenched teeth.
His eye locked onto Kiyohara. Then he glanced toward Terumi Mei, toward Ginka struggling to recover, and toward the wider battlefield.
In that instant, he made his decision.
The mission had failed.
He had never imagined Kiyohara would be this troublesome. If things dragged on any longer, there would be no way out.
If not for this black-haired anomaly, the red-eye interference would already have crippled the two Hyuga completely, and Kirigakure would have had the rest of the battlefield in hand.
But reality offered no space for what-ifs.
They had to preserve the Hidden Mist's future.
"Terumi Mei, take Ao and withdraw! The rest of you, cover us!"
Ao barked the order in a low voice.
A complicated light flickered through Mei's emerald eyes. Pain, resentment, unwillingness.
But she knew he was right.
She bit down so hard on her lower lip it nearly bled.
"...Move!"
Before she turned, she looked once more at Kiyohara - as though imprinting the face of the boy who had ruined their entire operation into her memory.
Then she spun and rushed toward the place where Ranmaru was hidden.
The surrounding Kirigakure shinobi heard the order. Their faces were grim, their eyes burning with anger, but they obeyed anyway.
Ninja were tools. Orders were absolute.
To defy command in the field was to become a traitor. And traitors only died.
Ginka looked up through the fog and saw Kiyohara and Ao breaking away from the main battlefield, blades flashing as they fought deeper and deeper into the forest.
She could tell what he was doing.
Kiyohara had deliberately dragged the strongest enemy away to create room for the others.
"He..."
For a moment, Ginka's feelings turned complicated.
The same commoner she had quietly looked down on earlier was now creating the only opening they had.
"Kiyohara!"
Rin Nohara saw it too.
Her voice shook with worry.
She did not want to watch Kiyohara vanish the way Obito had.
***
Deep within the forest lay a relatively open valley.
The roar of water nearby muffled the noise of battle, turning the place into a strange pocket of isolation.
Ao retreated several paces and finally put distance between himself and Kiyohara. One eye fixed on him, a savage, almost delighted grin spread across his face.
"Brat, you're strong enough to force me to use forbidden medicine... but this is where you die. We're beside water now. This is my field."
The mist hanging in the valley seemed to answer him. The moisture in the air thickened, growing heavier, colder, denser.
Kiyohara stood with his sword in hand, breathing a little harder than before.
The high-intensity fighting had worn both body and mind to the edge.
Yet when he looked at Ao, a faint smile curved at his lips.
"No," he said quietly. "You're wrong."
"This is my field."
Ao's expression hardened.
Because Kiyohara couldn't explain the origin of Konoha-Style Swordsmanship: Willow, he had never let young Kiyohara use it before.
But here, now, with no allies watching closely and no need to keep pretending, that restriction no longer mattered.
His body could support the technique.
His chakra was enough.
And most importantly - for the first time since this battle began - there was no reason to hold back.
"How arrogant!"
Ao gathered all the surplus chakra created by the forbidden drug and refined it into Water Release chakra in an instant.
A violently rotating stream of compressed water formed in his right palm, whining with a shrill, cutting buzz.
It elongated at once into a blade of water sharp enough to cut through iron.
"Water Release: Water Fang Blade!"
Ao lunged.
The spinning water blade screamed through the air as he came straight for Kiyohara with a force that seemed ready to tear apart anything in its path.
"It's your turn," Kiyohara said.
He could feel his body nearing its limit.
"Good."
Young Kiyohara answered with calm certainty - and took the rest.
In the next instant, Kiyohara's body was fully possessed by the spirit of the future youth.
He looked at Ao and tightened his grip on the sword.
"Even if this isn't my peak, killing you is still enough to put my heart at ease."
Young Kiyohara smiled faintly.
Back when he had still been alive, his body had lacked the physical foundation to draw out his true level completely.
Even now he could not fully unleash all of it through Kiyohara's body. Once this was over, Kiyohara would probably need days to recover.
Ao heard those words and felt confusion crawl under his skin.
A nameless unease rose in his chest.
Why did this brat suddenly feel different?
What did he mean, not my peak?
Had he already seen his own prime?
The next moment, young Kiyohara sent chakra pouring into the ninja sword.
If he had possessed a blade like this in life, he might never have lost.
In the end, he had died to his own arrogance more than to Ao.
Then he moved.
Ao's Water Fang Blade cut forward.
Young Kiyohara stepped in and met it head-on.
"Konoha-Style Swordsmanship: Willow!"
The spinning water blade passed straight through Kiyohara's form - and failed to touch him.
Ao's eye widened.
An instantaneous movement technique?
No. That wasn't it.
He discarded the answer at once.
When he turned again, all he saw were Kiyohara's afterimages flickering through the air, along with a storm of sword phantoms so dazzling they blurred together.
He moved like a willow catkin blown across the wind, impossible to track, impossible to pin down.
Then Ao's rushing stance suddenly locked in place.
The only thing left on his face was boundless horror and incomprehension.
A thin line of blood slowly appeared across his throat.
When? he wanted to ask.
Yes - he hadn't even seen where the strike had come from.
Ao opened his mouth, but only a hoarse, broken sound escaped.