At the border of the Land of Wind, Sunagakure camp.
The blazing sun scorched the yellow sands, and heat haze twisted the distant landscape.
The Sand shinobi's faces were full of exhaustion and unease. Two straight days of defeat had only made the already low morale of the force even worse.
When the Konoha reinforcements led by Kiyohara arrived, the Sand commander, Baki, personally came out to receive them.
"Vice-Captain Kiyohara, you came at just the right time."
Baki's voice was hoarse.
"Kirigakure's advance has far exceeded our expectations. Our defense line… has already been pushed back thirty li."
Kiyohara swept his gaze over the camp.
Wounded soldiers were everywhere, and muffled groans kept drifting out from the medical tents.
The Sand shinobi's equipment was well-made, but many of them were injured, and there was a hunted, frightened look in their eyes.
"What exactly is the situation?"
"The Third Mizukage is personally commanding the central force. Under him are at least several elite jonin."
Baki pointed to several red X's on the map.
"The main forces of the Kaguya clan and the Hozuki clan are all here. The biggest problem is…"
He paused, lowering his voice.
"The Third Mizukage's technique is extremely strange. Three of our jonin entered within a hundred meters of him, and their bodies suddenly… exploded into blood mist."
Kiyohara's eyes narrowed.
Blood Release?
So it really existed.
He had thought it was just something made up in fan stories from his previous life.
Now that he thought about it, it wouldn't be strange no matter what tricks this Third Mizukage had up his sleeve. In the original work, the man probably had less than sixty seconds of actual screen time.
After all, whether it was the anime, databooks, or manga, he was only ever mentioned in passing.
"What kind of blood mist?" Kiyohara asked.
"It was like their bodies were torn apart from the inside."
At that moment, a cool female voice came from the side.
"Baki-sama, the eastern recon team is back. They found Kirigakure's supply line—"
Then, as the woman seemed to get a clear look at Kiyohara's face, she immediately shut her mouth.
Kiyohara turned and saw Pakura standing not far away.
She was still wearing that outfit that showed off her figure, her long hair tied behind her waist.
The moment she saw Kiyohara, her lips tightened into a hard line.
She hadn't forgotten the humiliation she suffered at his hands.
She had been captured, treated like a prisoner, and interrogated.
Worst of all, Kiyohara was much younger than her and still carried himself with that arrogant attitude.
That innately evil little brat!
"Oh? If it isn't Konoha's honored guest."
"So, what is it this time? Are you here to support us, or to enjoy the sight of our humiliation?"
The camp instantly fell silent.
Several Sand shinobi exchanged glances.
The fact that Pakura had been captured and interrogated by Kiyohara was no secret in Sunagakure.
Even many ordinary villagers and lower-ranked shinobi knew about it.
Naturally, they also knew there was bad blood between the two.
Baki obviously couldn't let things keep going in that direction. Sunagakure still needed Konoha's help.
So he gave a light cough.
"Pakura, mind your words. Konoha is our ally."
"Ally?"
Pakura let out a cold laugh.
But she said nothing more. She just tossed a recon report to Baki and turned away.
Kiyohara's expression didn't change.
It was perfectly normal for a cat that had been traumatized before to hiss uncontrollably.
Tease it a few more times and it would settle down eventually.
"How are things in the east?" Kiyohara asked, getting back to business.
Baki unfolded the report, his brow tightening even further.
"Kirigakure has built a camp twenty li away. There are roughly nine hundred men there, commanded by Kaguya Ryūno. He's a very famous powerhouse in the Kaguya clan, nicknamed 'Spiral Bone Ryūno.'"
"Spiral Bone Ryūno…"
Kiyohara rubbed his chin.
He felt like shinobi nicknames were all pretty lame.
Shisui was called "Shisui of the Body Flicker," Kakashi's future nickname was "Sharingan Kakashi."
And his own current nickname was "Magnet Release Kiyohara."
Of course, some people also called him "Black Lightning."
He liked that one better. It had more style.
"Do you have intel on him?" Kiyohara asked.
"A Shikotsumyaku genius. His control over his bones is incredible."
Baki pointed to a sketch in the report.
It showed a wild-looking man with bone spikes bursting through the clothing at his shoulders and elbows.
"It's said the bone drills on his arms once pierced straight through a meter of solid steel in a single charge. Personality-wise… he's a typical Kaguya. Lives for battle."
Kiyohara nodded.
"I'll take a small squad to scout."
"Now? But Kirigakure has only just stabilized their position. Their guard will definitely be at its highest."
"Precisely because they've only just stabilized, they'll be careless."
Kiyohara cut him off.
Baki hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded.
"Be careful. Do you need Sunagakure's cooperation?"
"No. The fewer people, the better the concealment."
Kiyohara turned around.
"Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, with me. Everyone else, assist Sunagakure in reinforcing the defense line."
"Yes!"
Just as the Konoha squad was about to move out, an explosion suddenly erupted from the west side of the camp.
Boom!
That was followed by a rapid chain of detonating explosive tags and the shouts of Sand shinobi.
"Enemy attack…!"
"It's a Kirigakure strike team!"
Baki's face changed.
"They actually dared attack the main camp directly?"
"Looks like they're already here."
Kiyohara turned to look in that direction.
He ordered the Konoha shinobi to move in and support.
"Let's head over first, Baki."
"Right."
Baki had no objections. He drew a kunai and prepared to fight.
By the time they reached the area, the sound of ninjutsu collisions was already shaking the air.
War between shinobi really could alter the terrain itself.
Boom!
At that moment, Kiyohara noticed a huge explosion rip through the distant forest.
Explosive tags?
Kiyohara's first thought was that Kirigakure shinobi had planted a trap of explosive tags on the ground amidst the chaos.
The resulting shockwave whipped his hair back and made his clothes snap in the wind.
Kurenai raised both hands to shield her face, barely peeking through a narrow gap between her fingers.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Wall!"
Kiyohara raised a hand.
The gourd at his waist trembled.
Rumble!
On the west side of the camp, the Kirigakure strike force—who had just been forming hand seals—stared in shock as a golden wave of sand burst from the ground and instantly condensed into a gigantic wall of gold dust, completely blocking the explosion's shockwave and fragments.
"Gold dust? Is that the Fourth Kazekage?"
one Kirigakure chunin cried out.
"No… that's not Sunagakure's Kazekage!"
The Kirigakure jonin leading the team looked up at the figure emerging from behind the gold dust wall.
"That's… Konoha's ninja, Kiyohara!"
Kiyohara stepped out from behind the wall, his crimson Sharingan turning in the smoke like a flickering red thread.
The Kirigakure jonin reacted at once and decided to strike first.
"Everyone, form seals and use Water Release—"
He never got to finish.
Because Kiyohara was already standing right in front of him, close enough that they could see the reflection of each other's pupils.
"What in the—"
The shock was still frozen on the jonin's face.
Then he saw the three tomoe in Kiyohara's eyes begin to spin. A red gleam flashed, and the flow of chakra through his entire body suddenly turned chaotic, leaving him rigid and unable to move.
Slice! Slice!
Two flashes of steel.
The jonin's arms were severed cleanly at the shoulders, blood gushing out.
He didn't even feel pain.
The Sharingan genjutsu had temporarily numbed even his pain nerves.
Kiyohara seized his throat with one hand and slammed him to the ground, staring directly into his pupils with the Sharingan.
Cold, oppressive eye power poured straight into him.
"Tell me the Third Mizukage's location, and what you know about Blood Release."
"I… I…"
The Kirigakure jonin's will collapsed rapidly before the Sharingan genjutsu.
"Mizukage-sama is… is at the command camp ten li northwest… Blood Release is… a forbidden technique. I only know that it needs… it needs contact with the other person's blood…"
"Contact with blood?"
Kiyohara pressed further.
"How?"
"I… don't know."
Seeing he couldn't get any more useful intel out of him, Kiyohara crushed his throat on the spot.
Seven Kirigakure shinobi had already surrounded him.
Even though their leader had been instantly taken out, they still maintained formation and formed seals together.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
Water techniques came crashing in from different angles, merging in midair into a huge net of surging water.
A normal jonin facing a coordinated technique like that would either have to take it head-on or dodge, and either way would be forced into a disadvantage.
Kiyohara chose a third option.
He took a deep breath, clasped his hands together in front of his chest, and his chest visibly swelled.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
Whoosh—!
A massive crimson wave of flame poured out from his mouth, so hot that the very air crackled and popped.
The instant water and fire collided, it produced a deafening roar.
White steam blasted into the sky, engulfing several hundred meters in an instant.
Visibility dropped to less than three meters, leaving only scalding mist.
"There's too much steam… I can't see!"
one Kirigakure chunin shouted from within the fog.
Even Kirigakure shinobi couldn't see through steam that dense.
"Watch out, he's hiding in the mist—ugh!"
The sharp crack of a neck bone breaking.
Then a second. Then a third.
Each snap was followed by the dull thud of a body hitting the ground.
Inside the thick steam, the Kirigakure shinobi could hear their comrades screaming, but they couldn't see where the enemy was.
"He's in the mist—use Wind Release to blow it away—"
The Kirigakure shinobi, ironically, were the ones trying to disperse the fog so they could locate Kiyohara.
"Too late!"
Before long, all seven of those Kirigakure shinobi were dead.
Seeing that, Kiyohara immediately went off to support the other fronts.
…
Kurenai stood at the edge of the steam, hand seals forming as she prepared a Wind Release technique, when she suddenly heard the faintest whistle of something cutting through the air behind her.
She spun around at once, but the attacker's kunai was already right in front of her.
In that instant, a hand wrapped in blue electric arcs shot in from the side and grabbed the attacker's wrist.
Crack!
The wrist bone shattered.
Then that hand slid upward, seized the attacker by the throat, and twisted lightly.
Thud.
The corpse fell.
The steam thinned slightly, revealing Kiyohara's figure.
He flicked the blood from his hand and looked at Kurenai.
"On the battlefield, always assume the enemy can come at you from a blind spot."
Kurenai's cheeks flushed slightly.
"I understand, Kiyohara."
she said softly.
Kiyohara had already turned to face another part of the battlefield.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
Electric arcs surged over the surface of his body, wrapping him in a cloak of lightning.
"You finish clearing out the leftovers. I'm going ahead."
"Understood!"
Kiyohara turned into a streak of blue lightning and shot toward the next Kirigakure concentration point.
He was too fast.
With Lightning Release Chakra Mode boosting his Lightning Release: Flash Step, every movement left behind trailing afterimages of electricity.
Ordinary Kirigakure shinobi couldn't even follow his motion. All they saw was a flash of blue light, followed by sudden agony in their throat or chest.
Slash!
Every flash of steel brought with it a spray of blood.
Kiyohara barely used ninjutsu at all. He simply combined speed, taijutsu, and swordsmanship.
And yet that method was brutally efficient.
In the blink of an eye, a whole number of Kirigakure shinobi had already died to him.
One of them finally reacted and formed hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Prison Technique!"
A huge sphere of water appeared out of nowhere, swallowing toward Kiyohara.
At the same time, two Kirigakure jonin came in from both sides, their ninja swords wrapped in Water Release chakra as they slashed toward his waist and neck.
A three-sided assault.
Kiyohara didn't even pause.
His left hand continued thrusting forward, his blade piercing straight through the heart of the jonin in front of him. Then his right hand swung back, sending three shuriken wrapped in Lightning Release chakra flying out. They collided midair, changed direction, and buried themselves in the foreheads of the two attackers from the sides.
As for the Water Prison—
Crackle!
The lightning cloak around Kiyohara suddenly exploded outward, blue-white electricity bursting out like countless little snakes and instantly flooding through the entire sphere.
"Aaaagh!"
The Kirigakure jonin who had cast the Water Prison let out a scream.
Water conducted electricity. At that moment, his own technique backfired on him, leaving him convulsing as he collapsed.
Inside the Sand camp, the Konoha and Sunagakure shinobi who had been about to step in for support all froze on the spot.
The steam produced by the collision of water and fire slowly began to clear.
Revealing Kiyohara standing there.
They had seen powerful people before.
But they had never seen someone cut through enemies like this as if he were slicing vegetables.
Kiyohara stood in the middle of a pile of corpses, his sword dripping blood, the lightning cloak around him slowly fading.
He flicked the blood from the blade and turned his gaze northwest.
A powerful chakra signature was rapidly approaching from that direction.
"Be more careful,"
Kiyohara said casually.
"The enemy's numbers are only getting larger."
…
Far away, at Kirigakure's command camp.
The Third Mizukage stood atop a hastily constructed high platform.
He was a thin old man, his face lined with wrinkles, but his deep blue eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.
"Kiyohara…"
he murmured the name.
"He's even stronger than the reports described."
"Mizukage-sama, please allow me to face him."
Hozuki Mangetsu knelt on one knee.
"The Executioner's Blade and Samehada can't just be lost for nothing."
"Don't be impatient."
the Third Mizukage said calmly.
"Kaguya Ryūno has already gone. Once he's tested Kiyohara's depth, then you may move."
Hozuki Mangetsu could only retreat for the moment and wait for the Third Mizukage's command.
The Third Mizukage raised a pale hand and slowly clenched it in the air.
"He's no ordinary one."
The Third Mizukage shook his head.
He felt the Uchiha were a clan favored by the gods.
That person was also… from the Uchiha clan.
As soon as he finished speaking, a violent shockwave of colliding chakra erupted in the distance.
Boom!
Even from several li away, the earth could be felt trembling.
"It's begun."
The Third Mizukage looked in that direction.
"Kaguya Ryūno's Spiral Bone Drill Breaker against the Uchiha's Lightning Release… let's see which is stronger."
…
At the center of the battlefield.
Inside a crater thirty meters across.
Kiyohara stood at the bottom, flexing his slightly numb right hand.
He had been planning to continue advancing when one of Kirigakure's shinobi charged over.
Along the way, that man had already cut down quite a few Sand and Konoha shinobi.
Naturally, Kiyohara wasn't about to stand aside and watch.
If all the Konoha shinobi died off, he'd be left as a commander with no soldiers.
So Kiyohara moved to intercept him.
But unexpectedly, Kaguya Ryūno slammed into him head-on.
That last clash had already given Kiyohara a decent measure of the man's strength.
Among elite jonin, he was at the very top tier—extremely close to Kage-level power.
His mastery of Shikotsumyaku was very high.
Because the stronger he was, the tougher his bones became.
And across from him, on the other side of the crater, Kaguya Ryūno slowly straightened up.
Both his arms were now fully encased in bone, forming two spiral-shaped drills.
The tips of the bone drills were still spinning at high speed.
"Good… really good!"
Kaguya Ryūno laughed wildly, not caring at all that blood was running from the corner of his mouth.
"You're the first person who's ever taken my Shikotsumyaku: Spiral Bone Drill Breaker head-on and survived!"
His appearance truly was savage.
Long black hair hung loose, he had no eyebrows, only two red dots where they should have been.
The upper half of his clothes was torn apart, revealing lean muscle and bone spikes bulging beneath the skin.
Kiyohara didn't waste words.
He tightened his grip on his new ninja sword.
The blade was already repairing the tiny chips in its edge.
It had, after all, just drunk quite a bit of blood.
Kiyohara also noticed that his stamina was slowly recovering.
He understood immediately.
That was the effect of the Executioner's Blade.
Even though it had been reforged, its shape changed, and new materials added, its core ability hadn't changed all that much.
In the next instant, Wind Release chakra coated Kiyohara's blade, and Lightning Release arcs wrapped around it as well.
He was using both Wind and Lightning chakra.
Both of them increased a weapon's sharpness and cutting power.
"Oh? Two chakra natures enhancing your blade?"
Kaguya Ryūno's eyes lit up even more.
"Come on, let me see whether your sword is sharper, or my bones are harder."
He stomped the ground and shot forward like a cannonball, his twin bone drills leading the charge like a massive spiraling bone lance.
It was honestly Kiyohara's first time hearing a request like that.
So he smiled faintly.
Since Kaguya Ryūno wanted to test it, he'd indulge him.
Then Kiyohara accelerated with Magnet Release.
His speed instantly broke the sound barrier, a sonic boom cloud trailing behind him.
Clang!
The moment blade and bone drill collided, a shower of blinding sparks erupted.
After a single clash, the two separated.
A chip the size of a grain of rice had appeared in Kiyohara's blade.
One quarter of Kaguya Ryūno's right arm bone drill had been sliced away.
"Haha… hahahaha!"
Kaguya Ryūno wasn't angry. He laughed harder.
"To be able to cut through my bone drill—good, this is perfect! Now I can finally fight at full strength!"
A dense burst of cracking noises came from throughout his skeleton. More bone spikes burst through his shoulders, back, elbows, and knees.
His whole body became like a killing machine clad in a suit of white bone armor.
"Shikotsumyaku: Dance of the Early Fern!"
Rumble!
Centered around Kaguya Ryūno, countless bone spikes burst from the earth, instantly forming a forest of bone fifty meters across.
Each spike was as thick as a thigh, its tip sharp as a spear.
Kiyohara raised a brow slightly.
"Interesting."
he said.
In the original story, that was a move Kimimaro could only use with the Earth Curse Mark, State Two.
That alone showed that Kaguya Ryūno was stronger than Kimimaro.
If not for the fact that the Kaguya clan had completely lost their minds and recklessly tried to challenge the Land of Water head-on without any preparation, they probably wouldn't have ended up exterminated to the last.
That was what Kiyohara thought.
But his body never stopped moving.
The instant the bone spikes appeared, he had already leapt into the air.
To his dynamic vision, those spikes were far too slow.
For an ordinary Uchiha, eyesight exceeded bodily reaction speed.
In other words, they could see it—but they might not be able to move in time.
Kiyohara was different.
His body was far stronger than that of a normal Uchiha.
He could not only see it. He could respond to it.
From above, he looked down over the forest of bone and formed hand seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique!"
Three fire dragons dove down into the bone forest.
The intense heat made the white bones crackle and pop, but even more bone spikes kept
growing.
The expanding bone forest drove away all the Kirigakure, Sunagakure, and Konoha shinobi in the surrounding area.
Leaving only Kiyohara and Kaguya Ryūno inside it.
"Useless!"
Kaguya Ryūno's mad laughter echoed from within the bone forest.
"My bones regenerate faster than your flames can burn them down!"
Before the words had even finished, three especially massive bone spikes shot up from underground, stabbing toward Kiyohara in midair.
At this moment, Kaguya Ryūno was overflowing with confidence.
Since birth, he had heard nothing but praise calling him a genius.
He didn't even think much of Mei Terumi, despite her dual bloodline limits.
In his eyes, she had just gotten lucky.
Kiyohara was the same.
"I'm the real genius."
Kaguya Ryūno declared victory like it was already decided.
In a situation like this, even if Kiyohara could fly, there was no time left for him to change position.
Kaguya Ryūno also knew Kiyohara possessed some kind of powerful hardening technique.
But he was confident he could pierce through even that.
"Really?"
Kiyohara smiled.
Wasn't it a little too early to be popping champagne at halftime?
Did he really think this was all Kiyohara had?
Kiyohara shook his head.
If he had been born in Kirigakure, then the one truly worthy of being called a genius would only have been him.
How could one person's effort possibly stand against the layered accumulation of all his efforts?
Even stacking ten ordinary people together could still only create a single genius.
In the next instant, curse mark patterns began spreading across Kiyohara's skin.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 120 Chapters Ahead of Others!