Rin walked over to his side, hesitated for a moment, then asked softly,
"Kiyohara-kun, this sword… are you really going to keep it and use it? It belongs to the Mist, after all…"
"War spoils."
Kiyohara cut her off.
"Whoever seizes it owns it. If the Mist doesn't like that, they can send someone to take it back."
He said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Rin opened her mouth, but in the end said nothing more.
Because Kiyohara had always been like this when it came to collecting spoils.
Kurenai sat by the side of the boat, watching the waves roll past.
Kakashi stood guard at the stern, Sharingan still active as he monitored the waters behind them.
Might Guy sat cross-legged on the deck, eating soldier pills and resting. Opening the Sixth Gate repeatedly had put a huge strain on his body, and he needed to recover as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Ginka stood by the mast, using her Byakugan to check for reefs nearby.
Her feelings were just as complicated.
As a member of the Hyuga main house, she had been raised hearing that the Byakugan was Konoha's strongest dōjutsu, and that the Uchiha were nothing more than a cursed clan whose mutated bloodline was awakened by emotion.
But today, she had personally seen how terrifying the Sharingan could be.
No—not just the Sharingan.
Kiyohara himself.
Copying ninjutsu one-on-one, and even turning around and using it with greater power than the original owner.
Was that even fair?
"We're here."
Kiyohara suddenly spoke.
Ahead, the outline of the coastline appeared in view.
The Konoha camp had been built against the mountain, tents arranged in neat order, and patrol ninja were visible on the watchtowers.
The sand-gold boat gradually slowed and finally came to a smooth stop beside the temporary dock.
"Vice-Captain Kiyohara!"
The ninja on guard duty hurried over, but the moment they saw everyone on board—especially Samehada slung over Kiyohara's shoulder and the Executioner's Blade in his hand—they all froze.
"Th-that's…"
"War spoils."
Kiyohara jumped down from the boat. The sand-gold vessel immediately broke apart and flowed back into the gourd in a stream of gold.
"Where's Sensei?"
"Tsunade-sama is… in the main tent."
Kiyohara gave a small nod.
This mission had yielded more than just two ninja swords—he had also copied dozens of Water Release techniques.
More importantly, he had shown the Mist a display of raw power.
No doubt Kirigakure would be a lot more cautious about attacking from here on out.
"Kiyohara."
Tsunade's voice came from behind him.
She had somehow already walked up beside him.
"Sensei."
Kiyohara answered.
"You killed two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"
Tsunade's eyes fell on the two swords he was carrying.
After all, anyone carrying two oversized ninja swords like that was impossible to ignore.
"That's right."
Kiyohara nodded.
"Sensei, could you have someone remove the summoning formula, or at least seal them away for now?"
That was his main concern.
He planned to have the Executioner's Blade reforged.
His current ninja sword was short on materials anyway, so he might as well have it remade into a new blade.
As for the design, Kiyohara preferred a straight sword—something like Sasuke's Kusanagi.
"You're not planning to hand them over?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"Do you want your student to hand them over, Sensei?"
Kiyohara blinked and looked at her.
Tsunade looked right back at him.
She had to admit, she still wasn't used to him giving her that kind of look.
But there was no helping it—she was his teacher.
Even if her student had turned out mediocre, Tsunade still would have taken care of him and arranged a good future for him.
And this student was far from mediocre.
He was a perfect student, one fully worthy of inheriting her legacy.
"Hmph. Fine, keep them. I'll talk to the old man."
Tsunade waved a hand dismissively.
Kiyohara was her student. Protecting the results of his labor wasn't difficult.
Besides, the former owners of these two blades were Jūzō Biwa and Fuguki Suikazan.
Now that the Mist had lost two more of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, they were bound to be furious.
But for Konoha, this was undeniably good for morale.
"Sensei is mighty indeed."
Kiyohara smiled faintly.
This was the advantage of having someone powerful backing you.
If he had just been some talented commoner, or even a strong commoner, doing something like this would definitely have drawn criticism.
People would have said he was greedy for famous swords, that he lacked the Will of Fire, and so on.
But with Tsunade endorsing him, it became a story of a young hero worthy of a legendary blade.
"And this is…"
Hyuga Tetsumon walked over from a distance.
With the Byakugan, he had spotted the two swords on Kiyohara immediately.
"Tetsumon-sama, Kiyohara…"
Ginka briefly explained what had happened.
Tetsumon's expression instantly shifted to shock, and he nearly sucked in a breath.
But it was cold enough here that he didn't actually inhale sharply.
He just widened his eyes.
Why couldn't the Hyuga clan produce a genius like Kiyohara?
No—that wasn't quite right.
Tetsumon shook his head slightly.
Hiashi had apparently seen Kiyohara as an example and started wondering whether the Hyuga might also have people with the bloodline but outside the main family.
So he had gone to the Kohinata branch family—and actually found a genius.
Kohinata Mukai.
He only had one Byakugan, but he could hide it.
That perfectly made up for the Hyuga clan's biggest weakness: being terrible at infiltration.
After all, their eyes were naturally pale white. One glance told you they were Hyuga, and almost no one would assume it was just cataracts.
Still, Mukai was already much older, and he even had a son. In that respect, he simply couldn't compare to a young prodigy like Kiyohara.
"Give me the swords first. I'll have someone deal with them."
Tsunade held out a hand.
Kiyohara handed both swords over.
"All right, move along."
Tsunade waved off the gathering Konoha ninja around them.
They had no choice but to disperse.
Then Tsunade told Kakashi and the others to go rest while she took Kiyohara to the sealing unit.
She had the sealing team seal both swords, then arranged for them to be sent back to Konoha so Kushina Uzumaki could remove the summoning formula inscribed on them.
If you asked which clan had the strongest sealing techniques—
the answer was obviously the Uzumaki.
The Uzumaki clan's sealing arts were unquestionable authority.
Watching the swords be carried off under heavy guard, Kiyohara was already thinking about what to do with Samehada.
On the boat, he had already taken a quick look at it.
He had found that it had no sex.
And it couldn't reproduce asexually, either.
So the best method would be cloning.
Not a perfect full copy, though.
Rather, he needed to find a lifeform similar to Samehada, remove the nucleus from its egg cell, then replace it with Samehada's nucleus to create a clone.
That was the simplest form of cloning.
As for the research materials and techniques, Kiyohara had already received some "support" from Orochimaru.
The experimental base he had destroyed on the Summoning Island in the Land of the Sea had contained some data on cloning.
That had worked out perfectly for Kiyohara and saved him a great deal of early investment.
"Sensei, I'm going back to rest."
Kiyohara waved at Tsunade.
Today was also the day the Willbook would arrive, so he wanted to go back and wait for it.
"The fact that you killed members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen will spread across the ninja world soon enough."
"And then?"
Kiyohara asked.
"And then…"
Tsunade turned her head and looked at his profile.
"You'll end up on the Mist's kill-on-sight list. And you'll become a priority target for the other villages too."
"Oh."
Kiyohara's reaction was flat.
Tsunade sighed.
"You're really not worried at all?"
"Would worrying help?"
Kiyohara asked back.
"Aren't I already one of those targets?"
Tsunade fell silent.
The brat had a point.
After all, after he killed Kurotsuchi Raiga, his ranking was probably already high enough.
"Still…"
Kiyohara smiled.
"If they dare come, I won't mind collecting a few more ninja swords."
"Seven of them—completing the whole set sounds pretty interesting."
It wasn't just the Seven Swords of the Mist that interested him.
He was also curious about the Six Paths Tools of the Land of Lightning.
Those were among the few true "rule-based" artifacts in the ninja world.
If the conditions were met, their effects activated automatically, which made them terrifying.
"You…"
Tsunade's first instinct was to say Kiyohara was being arrogant.
But when she thought about it carefully, he had already killed three of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. At this point, it wasn't really boasting anymore.
"Forget it. Don't go back just yet."
Tsunade grabbed his hand.
"?"
Kiyohara looked at her, puzzled.
Broad daylight, pulling and dragging like this—wasn't that a bad look?
And he was still her student.
People might think he'd gotten promoted through… special treatment.
"Come gamble with me."
Tsunade said it as if it were perfectly reasonable.
She had just confirmed he hadn't been seriously hurt, and now she wanted to satisfy her urge to gamble by dragging him into it.
"All right."
Kiyohara could only nod.
Seeing that, Tsunade took him to her tent.
Not long after, her smug voice could be heard inside.
Something along the lines of: With seventeen cards, you think you can beat me? You really think you can win?
But very soon, that smugness turned to total disbelief.
As everyone knew, Tsunade's gambling skill—whether against others or against herself—was absolutely consistent.
She was terrible.
So the result was obvious. Kiyohara crushed her in no time.
Meanwhile, things were going much less smoothly on the Mist's side.
Inside the main tent, more than ten Kirigakure ninja sat on either side, candlelight throwing flickering shadows across every face.
"That's the situation."
Mei Terumi finished her report.
"Kiyohara led a six-man squad in a strike on Supply Island Number Three. Fuguki Suikazan-sama and Jūzō Biwa-sama… were killed. The Executioner's Blade and Samehada were taken."
A wave of suppressed breaths spread through the tent.
One Mist jonin with a scar across his face shot to his feet.
"Six people? They only had six people?"
"They had six."
Mei nodded.
"But it was mainly Kiyohara who killed the two lords."
"Can the swords still be summoned back?"
another Mist ninja asked, turning toward the man inside the tent.
That man was Hōzuki Mangetsu.
The greatest prodigy of the Hōzuki clan's current generation, a genius famed even in childhood, and now the deputy commander of Kirigakure's eastern front.
"They can't."
Mangetsu shook his head.
Even before Mei returned, Hōzuki Akatsuki had already sent someone back to have him attempt a summoning.
It had failed.
The Hōzuki clan had overseen the summoning contracts for the seven swords across generations. If even he couldn't call them back, that meant Kirigakure had likely lost those two swords for good.
Clearly, Konoha had already taken measures against them.
Right now, all they really wanted was for Mei to recount more of the details in full.
"What exactly are Kiyohara's traits?"
Mangetsu asked.
He was curious just how strong this young ninja he had never met actually was.
"His chakra reserves are extremely deep, and he can perfectly copy any ninjutsu he sees—even… improve it."
Mei paused, her voice lowering further.
"Fuguki-sama's Thousand Feeding Sharks was crushed head-on by the exact same Water Release technique. His version was larger and more refined. Jūzō-sama's Executioner's Blade didn't even touch the corner of his clothes."
"Copying ninjutsu…"
An older Mist ninja rubbed his stubbled chin, brow furrowed.
"The Sharingan does have that ability, but as far as I know, Uchiha copying mostly means imitating hand seals and chakra flow. To learn a jutsu on the spot and then outperform the original requires not just ocular power, but deep understanding of that chakra nature."
"He's all-nature."
Mei added.
"So far, he seems to have displayed ninjutsu of every elemental attribute."
Genjutsu counted as Yin Release, and medical ninjutsu was a form of Yang Release application.
"And though I'm not sure which sage region his inheritance comes from, there's a natural energy fluctuation around him. Fuguki-sama's Samehada fusion form was actually burned by his Fire Release—he literally boiled part of the sea."
"Boiled part of the sea…"
Someone repeated in a daze, disbelief written all over his face.
To achieve that, the temperature of the flames would have to be terrifyingly high.
Ordinary Fire Release was usually limited in naval warfare because the sea absorbed heat too quickly.
But if the fire was hot enough to generate explosive steam the instant it touched seawater, then that was an entirely different matter.
This incident would deal a heavy blow to Mist morale.
"Aoba-sama, I recommend we adjust our strategy."
Mangetsu looked toward another ninja.
The elder known as Aoba slowly opened his eyes. His left eye was a normal dark brown, but his right had turned a murky gray-white from an old battle wound.
"Speak."
"Continuing to engage Konoha and Sunagakure head-on along the coastline is disadvantageous for us."
Mangetsu pointed to the map spread on the table.
"Kiyohara, along with the Hyuga clan, greatly reduces the effectiveness of our Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique and silent killing tactics."
His finger moved across the map, extending inland from the coast.
"I suggest our main force remains here to keep the allied army pinned down, but that we shift tactics toward harassment and delay instead of looking for large-scale battles. At the same time, we pull out an elite force from here…"
His finger stopped at a river junction.
"…and infiltrate along the inland waterways of the Land of Rivers, bypass the main battlefield, and drive straight into the interior of the Land of Wind."
Murmurs rose through the tent.
"Inland warfare? But that's Suna's territory. Their puppet users have the advantage in desert and hill terrain…"
"Then we don't fight them in the desert."
Mangetsu cut them off.
"The inland river system of the Land of Rivers is dense. We can use Water Release for rapid mobility. Our targets are here, here, and here."
He tapped three oasis towns along the border of the Land of Wind in succession.
"If we capture those points and establish inland supply lines, then we won't be completely dependent on sea transport anymore. We'll be able to sustain ourselves through the battlefield. And…"
He paused.
"With Suna already fighting on two fronts and their main force pinned to the western coast, their inland defenses are weak. If we can establish a foothold inside the Land of Wind, the entire situation will shift in our favor."
Aoba was silent for a long while before nodding slowly.
After the meeting ended, Mei followed the others out of the main tent.
The night was already deep, and the sea wind hit her face with its salty stink.
The sensation of that hand pressing against her rear surfaced in her memory again.
And so did those mocking words.
Live on in your ugliness.
"Kiyohara…"
She whispered his name, emerald eyes burning.
I swear I'll wipe away this humiliation one day!
That was the vow in her heart.
At the same time, though, she knew the gap between their strength right now was far too large.
So she resolved to focus on developing her bloodline limit.
Meanwhile, back in his tent after leaving Tsunade, Kiyohara sat quietly and waited for the arrival of the Willbook.
At a certain moment, a new voice appeared in his mind.
[Please receive your will letter and urn, and bury the remains properly.]
A new future had arrived.
Kiyohara calmed the restless excitement in his heart and focused his awareness inward.
In his mind, a new urn appeared.
It was pitch black, with raised metal decorations embedded along the edge of the lid.
On the urn was a mark shaped like a bolt of lightning.
Kiyohara found it strangely familiar.
"The Cloud's emblem…"
His spiritual consciousness stared at the new urn.
"So this time it's a future from Kumogakure?"
He reached out and touched the cold lid.
When the gap opened to about the width of a palm, a black hand suddenly shot out and grabbed the edge.
The skin was dark, the muscles sharply defined, and bulging veins could be seen across the back of the hand.
Then a huge figure slowly rose out of the urn.
Kiyohara raised a brow.
Kumogakure was famous for producing dark-skinned ninja, but this man's complexion was only somewhat dark.
It wasn't the typical deep Cloud skin tone—more like a mixed-blood shade.
A little lighter than Killer B.
As expected, this was indeed the "himself" from the Cloud Village timeline.
The translucent spirit finally appeared in full.
He was over 1.9 meters tall, with muscles knotted like sculpture. His upper body was bare and covered in battle scars, the most striking of which was a massive claw mark running diagonally from his left shoulder down to his right abdomen.
He wore a Cloud-style flak jacket, and his short blond hair stood up like bolts of lightning.
"Yo, past me."
The new future greeted Kiyohara.
Kiyohara gave a small nod.
The biggest thing was how incredibly sturdy his body looked.
Exceptionally sturdy.
Kiyohara suspected that if he inherited this future, he might also inherit a large amount of physical energy.
"Your name?"
Kiyohara asked curiously.
"Yotsuki Kiyohara."
The spirit spoke, voice deep and heavy, with the distinct accent of the Cloud.
"I'm from the Yotsuki clan."
Yotsuki Kiyohara, huh.
Kiyohara lifted a brow.
No wonder his skin was a little darker than average.
The Yotsuki clan was one of Kumogakure's great clans. Their physical vitality far exceeded ordinary ninja, and they had extremely strong compatibility with Lightning Release.
Or rather, in the harsh environment of the Land of Lightning, anyone without strong physical talent had probably already died off.
The ones left were all the result of nature's ruthless selection.
Kiyohara studied this future self, who resembled him in appearance but gave off a completely different aura.
Yotsuki Kiyohara's features were rougher, his brow ridge heavier, his nose sharper, and his whole presence carried a kind of untamed ferocity.
"How did you die?"
Kiyohara asked directly.
Yotsuki Kiyohara grinned, baring white teeth.
"The damn Eight-Tails tore me apart. When it went berserk, I was too close. I tried to force it down with Lightning Release Chakra Mode, and then…"
He pointed at the huge claw mark across his chest.
"Just like that."
"That's it?"
Kiyohara got the feeling Yotsuki Kiyohara had probably been pretty strong.
~~~
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