A few days later, near the Land of Snow, Kiyohara and the others met up with the Land of Snow's minister, Asama Sandayū.
"Come on."
Kiyohara molded another giant clay dragon and made a separate one for Asama Sandayū alone.
"This…"
It was Asama Sandayū's first time seeing one of Kiyohara's techniques, and he hesitated a little.
"It'll be faster this way."
"Alright."
Asama Sandayū also understood the urgency of the situation, so he stepped onto the second giant dragon.
He himself had never gone to Konoha. Instead, he had sent someone there to post the request, asking Konoha's shinobi to come here, pick him up, and escort him back to the Land of Snow.
The atmosphere in the Land of Snow was extremely tense right now. Asama Sandayū had even been attacked on the road back.
That made him realize he couldn't return alone. He needed guards to escort him, and he needed help getting back to aid the Land of Snow's daimyo.
Two days passed.
When the dragons pierced through the last layer of clouds, what came into view was a world of pure white.
Endless snow-capped mountains, forests buried under thick snow, lakes sealed beneath layers of ice.
"So beautiful…"
Kurenai looked out at the scenery beyond the window.
Tsunade also leaned toward the window and stared out at the pure white landscape.
"It really is."
She tugged at her clothes.
"It's just too cold."
Kiyohara guided the giant dragons down slowly.
They landed in front of a city in the Land of Snow.
"Halt!"
A soldier stopped them.
There was obvious fear on his face. The pressure coming from the giant dragon behind Kiyohara was just too overwhelming.
"Who are you people?"
"Konoha shinobi. We're here on assignment."
Kiyohara took out the mission scroll, then waved a hand. The dragon turned back into a large mass of clay, which he stored away in his ninja pouch.
The soldier accepted the scroll, looked it over, and his attitude immediately turned respectful.
"Please wait a moment. I'll report this right away."
A short while later, a middle-aged man in a thick formal robe hurried out through the city gates.
He looked to be in his forties, with a lean face and worry between his brows, though he still managed to force a smile when he saw Kiyohara and the others.
"Nurefu!"
Asama Sandayū called out in greeting.
When Nurefu saw that Asama Sandayū had returned safely, he visibly relaxed.
"You must be the shinobi from Konoha?"
Nurefu bowed.
"I am Nurefu, minister of the Land of Snow. Thank you all for coming from so far away."
Tsunade stepped forward.
"We accepted the request. We can discuss the details once we're inside."
Nurefu nodded and stepped aside.
"Please."
The group followed him through the city gates, down several streets, and eventually arrived in front of a magnificent building.
It was the royal palace of the Land of Snow. It wasn't as dazzling or grand as the palaces of the Land of Fire, but it had a refined beauty all its own, like something carved out of ice and snow.
Inside the great hall sat a middle-aged man upon the throne.
At his side stood a little girl of about seven or eight.
She wore thick winter clothes, with long black hair and pale skin.
"You must be the shinobi from Konoha."
The daimyo of the Land of Snow rose from his throne and stepped down.
"Welcome to the Land of Snow."
Tsunade gave a slight nod.
"We came at the request of your minister. What exactly is the situation?"
The daimyo's smile faltered slightly.
He glanced at his younger brother, Kazahana Dotō, then shook his head.
"That matter… can wait until later."
He paused, then drew the little girl gently closer.
"This is my daughter, Kazahana Koyuki."
Koyuki looked up at the unfamiliar visitors.
Her gaze passed over Tsunade, lingered on Kurenai for a moment, and then settled on Kiyohara.
That big brother…
He's really handsome.
That was what she thought.
Kiyohara crouched down so he was at eye level with her.
"Hello."
He took a small clay flower from his robe.
The flower was shaped from white clay, with layered petals and a pale pink center.
"This is for you."
Koyuki accepted it and examined it curiously.
"What kind of flower is this?"
"A flower that blooms in spring."
Kiyohara said.
"The kind you can't see in the Land of Snow."
Koyuki blinked.
"What is spring outside like, anyway?"
"If the Land of Snow is all white, then spring is all green."
Kiyohara smiled faintly.
"The ground grows green grass, and the trees bloom with flowers of all kinds of colors."
Koyuki nodded like she half understood, but she was already smiling.
She was incredibly interested in spring. Her deepest wish was for the Land of Snow to become a Land of Spring.
"Thank you, big brother."
She held the flower carefully in both hands.
Watching this, the daimyo of the Land of Snow also smiled.
He had always been trying to fulfill his daughter's wish.
As daimyo, he actually didn't devote most of his energy to state affairs. He left those to his ministers.
Most of his time was spent with the Land of Snow's scientists, helping them develop giant devices that could alter the environment.
According to his vision, they would one day change the climate of the entire country so that the Land of Snow would no longer suffer under such harsh conditions, and the people could finally live in peace and prosperity.
But not far behind him, another pair of eyes watched everything with a dark expression.
It was another middle-aged man dressed in expensive clothing, with features somewhat similar to the daimyo's, though his face carried a far more sinister cast.
Kazahana Dotō.
He stared coldly at the Konoha shinobi, especially the young man currently speaking to Koyuki.
So his useless brother really had gone and asked Konoha for help.
He withdrew his gaze and turned to leave the hall.
That night, in a side chamber of the palace, Dotō sat in a room with a man in a white shinobi outfit standing before him.
The man looked to be in his twenties, with shallow scars beneath both eyes and long purple hair.
He was Nadare Rōga, one of the strongest shinobi of Yukigakure.
And also one of Dotō's hired men.
By giving up a share of the benefits, Dotō had secured Yukigakure's support.
"Can you handle those Konoha shinobi?"
Dotō's voice was low.
He was far more thickly built than his elder brother. If one looked closely, they would notice a layer of black tight-fitting armor beneath his clothes—the latest model of chakra armor.
Rōga Nadare grinned.
"Handle them? We can give it a try."
"Good chance to let Konoha's shinobi see our new equipment."
He patted the longsword at his waist.
"The chakra armor is complete. With this, our strength has increased several times over."
Dotō nodded.
Chakra armor was the highest expression of the Land of Snow's technology, and in that respect, he trusted it.
"Make your move as soon as possible. We can't drag things out with my brother any longer."
"Understood."
Rōga Nadare stood and walked toward the door.
"Oh, and that one called Kiyohara… I heard he killed the Third Mizukage?"
Dotō still had his concerns.
And he had recognized Tsunade too. He knew she was one of the legendary Sannin.
"Lord Dotō, there's no need to be afraid."
Rōga Nadare stopped walking.
"This isn't their home turf. There's no guarantee they can beat us here."
The chakra armor could not only resist ninjutsu, but even genjutsu.
Kiyohara's Sharingan would be useless against him.
And with their various Ice Release techniques, Tsunade wouldn't be able to get close enough to take them down either.
"In fact, killing him would make things even more interesting."
Rōga Nadare had already thought through how to pin the blame on a neighboring country and keep Yukigakure out of it.
Then he pushed the door open and disappeared into the night.
Dotō remained seated alone in the room, his gaze dark.
Soon.
Very soon, the Land of Snow would be his.
And once it was, he would gain the Land of Snow's hidden treasure. With that treasure and his chakra armor, he intended to claim his own piece of the spoils before this shinobi war ended.
At the same time, on the other side, Kiyohara and the others had already settled into the palace under the daimyo's arrangements.
Kiyohara sat alone in a chair in his room, eyes closed, sorting through everything he had learned that day about the Land of Snow.
Then suddenly, he heard a mechanical female voice.
[Please receive your will and cremation urn, and properly bury the remains.]
Kiyohara opened his eyes.
It had arrived.
At once, his consciousness sank into his mind. The new urn didn't look especially remarkable at first glance.
Kiyohara studied it for a moment and noticed the emblem on it was a red spiral pattern.
"Uzumaki?"
he thought.
That should be the Uzumaki clan's crest.
Could this be a future from the Uzumaki clan?
He was still thinking that when—
Click.
The lid slid open with a crisp sound.
A figure slowly rose from within the urn.
Long red hair cascaded down to the waist. The face was almost identical to Kiyohara's, except it was full of wrinkles and looked like someone in his eighties.
He wore white robes with the Uzumaki clan crest on both shoulders.
Kiyohara sized this future self up.
"A member of the Uzumaki clan?"
Uzumaki Kiyohara gave a small nod.
"That's right."
he replied.
"And I'm also the reincarnation of Asura's chakra."
Kiyohara's heart jolted.
An Asura reincarnation?
This was the first time he had ever met one.
Honestly, right now he had no idea where Asura's current reincarnation chakra even was.
In canon, it was clearly stated that Hashirama Senju died before Madara Uchiha.
And only years after Madara's death did Sasuke become Indra's reincarnation.
Then Naruto, born a month later, became Asura's reincarnation.
Before those two chakras were reborn into them, Kiyohara had no idea whether they wandered the ninja world or returned to the Pure Land.
"How do you know?"
Kiyohara asked curiously.
Even the holders of Asura's and Indra's chakra usually only had a vague sense that they were somehow different.
"My physical potential was simply too high."
Uzumaki Kiyohara said.
"As long as I kept training and tempering my body, I could keep breaking through bottlenecks."
"At first, I thought I was just a particularly gifted Uzumaki. But in the instant just before I died of old age, when my soul left my body, I realized part of my chakra was gone."
Listening to him explain, Kiyohara nodded slowly.
In the ninja world, a soul wasn't just a soul. It also carried a measure of chakra with it.
Obito had been reduced to ash and still managed to appear in spiritual form and temporarily grant Kakashi a Mangekyo Sharingan.
That let Kakashi, who had never once used Susanoo in his life, go all out for a brief moment.
"That chakra had been there from the day I was born. It was fused into me so completely that I never noticed it. But when it left, I finally sensed its existence."
"So I guessed it had to be Asura's chakra. I just never imagined it would be me."
Uzumaki Kiyohara shook his head.
"I see."
Kiyohara rubbed his chin.
This was the first future self he had met who had actually died of old age.
Even being Asura's reincarnation couldn't extend one's life forever.
The Uzumaki bloodline did grant longevity, but that still wasn't immortality.
And if someone fought too fiercely when young, they could still die early.
Though Uzushio had been called the Village of Longevity, that mostly applied to the ordinary civilians among the Uzumaki.
It had almost nothing to do with ninja.
A shinobi who lived long enough to die a natural death was rare even among the rarest.
That was simply how cruel the ninja world was.
"So… you died of old age?"
"More or less."
Uzumaki Kiyohara smiled.
"I lived past eighty. Longer than most shinobi ever do. On the last day, I lay on the shore of the Land of Whirlpools, watched the sun rise from the horizon, and then closed my eyes."
He said it calmly, as if it were nothing remarkable at all.
Kiyohara looked at him.
This version of himself was completely different from the previous futures who had died in battle or by accident.
He had lived out an entire life.
That was why Uzumaki Kiyohara seemed so serene.
"What abilities do you have? What fields are you skilled in? Any kekkei genkai?"
Then Uzumaki Kiyohara asked.
Hearing that question, Kiyohara froze for a moment.
Now that was a complete reversal.
This was the first time one of his future selves had started by asking about him. Usually it was Kiyohara who questioned the others as if checking their household registration.
But before Kiyohara could answer, Uzumaki Kiyohara suddenly spoke again.
"The Sharingan…"
His gaze rested on Kiyohara, a complicated look flashing in his eyes.
"I can feel it. There's a kind of… evil chakra on you."
Kiyohara raised a brow.
"Can the Sharingan really be called evil?"
Uzumaki Kiyohara paused.
Then he slapped his forehead and laughed bitterly.
"Sorry, sorry. I spent too much time around the Senju. Picked up their way of talking."
"In my era, the Uzumaki and Senju were close for generations. I grew up with Senju people around me all the time, and they were always saying the Sharingan was evil. After hearing it often enough…"
"I get it."
Kiyohara nodded.
The Uchiha and the Senju had spent the Warring States era killing each other. It was only natural that the clans didn't see eye to eye.
If the Senju clan hadn't dissolved and had instead stayed a major clan, conflict with the Uchiha would probably have broken out again sooner or later.
"You still haven't told me what you can do."
Uzumaki Kiyohara continued.
"Curse marks, sealing techniques, sage arts, and ninjutsu related to all seven chakra natures."
Uzumaki Kiyohara's eyes brightened slightly.
"Not bad."
He nodded.
"You've got something going for you."
Uzumaki Kiyohara felt that this past self of his was doing pretty well.
After chatting for a bit longer, Kiyohara asked,
"So what's your final wish?"
Uzumaki Kiyohara fell silent for a moment.
"Two things."
He held up two fingers.
"First: restore the homeland of the Land of Whirlpools."
"The Land of Whirlpools was once the home of the Uzumaki clan. The soil was fertile, the people lived in peace, but war destroyed all of it."
"I want you to make that land thrive again. I want towns to rise once more from the ruins of the Land of Whirlpools."
Kiyohara fell silent.
Reviving a country…
That was no small matter.
"But there aren't many descendants of the Land of Whirlpools left in the ninja world, and the other countries would never allow it to be reborn as a nation."
Kiyohara shook his head.
Back then, it was precisely because so many other nations feared the Land of Whirlpools that it had been destroyed.
There was no way they would simply sit by and let it rise again.
What if it came back seeking revenge?
That was the thought every one of those countries would have.
"I know. I just don't want the Land of Whirlpools to remain in ruins forever. As long as people live there again, that's enough."
At that, Kiyohara nodded slowly.
That made the problem much easier.
Kirigakure was shrinking back. Sooner or later, it would spit out the old site of Uzushiogakure anyway.
After that, all Kiyohara had to do was invest there and attract ordinary people to settle there. It would also give him a chance to develop trade and make some money.
"And the second?"
Kiyohara asked.
"The second is to obtain the Warring States Sealing History. It records many lost sealing techniques, but it's kept under the protection of Konoha's higher-ups."
"The Warring States Sealing History…"
Kiyohara frowned slightly.
That text did indeed record many lost sealing techniques, but more importantly, it was tied to an Uchiha named Hikari.
It also recorded the location of her seal.
And the eye technique Uchiha Hikari possessed was something even more outrageous than Obito's Kamui.
She had been the Uchiha clan's "war weapon" during the Warring States era.
Hikari's Mangekyo ability, Yachihoko, could place marks on anyone, then connect to them regardless of distance and arbitrarily control both their mind and chakra through those marks.
And her eyes could even imprint the abilities of other Mangekyo Sharingan, turning other people's powers into her own.
She alone possessed four Mangekyo abilities.
It was because that power was so terrifying that she had been sealed away by the combined efforts of the Senju and Sarutobi clans, and the Warring States Sealing History was what preserved the record of that.
At the same time, Kiyohara found himself wondering: if he could break the seal and gain Hikari's power…
What kind of terrifying advantage would that be?
But there was also risk. Hikari hated the Uchiha.
She had been locked in a dungeon from childhood, raised as a weapon, and stripped of almost all personal freedom.
As far as outsiders were concerned, Kiyohara was a pure-blooded Uchiha, so the matter would need long-term planning.
"I understand."
Kiyohara said.
The next morning, in the main hall of the Land of Snow's palace, Asama Sandayū stood respectfully to one side, while the daimyo sat on his throne wearing a gentle smile.
His daughter, Kazahana Koyuki, stood beside him, still holding the clay flower Kiyohara had given her the day before.
"You've come a long way. Thank you for your efforts."
the daimyo said.
"Did you rest well last night?"
Tsunade gave a slight nod.
"Very well. Thank you for the hospitality."
The daimyo nodded, then glanced at Asama Sandayū.
Understanding at once, Asama walked to the hall entrance and ordered the guards to withdraw farther away.
The doors to the hall closed slowly.
The daimyo's expression turned grave.
He stood up, came down from the throne, and stopped in front of Kiyohara and the others.
"To be honest, I did not summon you here only for escort duty."
He paused.
"My younger brother, Kazahana Dotō, has long been plotting to seize the throne."
Tsunade raised a brow.
"You want us to help deal with him?"
"Yes."
~~~
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