By evening, after Kabuto left, Kiyohara sat alone in his tent, sorting through everything he had gained over the past few days.
The Land of Snow's airships and trains, the development of the Land of Whirlpools, the research over on Nono Yakushi's side…
Everything was moving forward according to plan.
"Not bad."
Uzumaki Kiyohara's spirit floated out of his body and hovered beside him.
"How long do you think it'll take before the Land of Whirlpools starts showing results?"
"The docks and railway will take time, but the airships can be put into operation first."
Kiyohara replied.
"In about two months, we should start seeing results."
The technology of the ninja world was actually quite advanced, and with ninjutsu added on top of that, construction could move very quickly.
Of course, the downside was that it burned through money at a terrifying rate.
But Kiyohara's chakra reserves had grown larger and larger, which meant his efficiency in refining gold dust kept improving as well.
At this point, money really wasn't an issue for him.
He was making it even faster than Jiraiya did as a bestselling author.
Uzumaki Kiyohara nodded.
Two months wasn't long. For him, it would just be one more nap inside the urn.
As for the Warring States Sealing History, Uzumaki Kiyohara felt that, judging from what he'd seen, Kiyohara might actually acquire it even sooner than the transport lines in the Land of Whirlpools would be completed.
The war was already close to ending.
By then, Kiyohara might be able to trade in war merit for it.
…
Not long after Kabuto left, Fugaku Uchiha came to visit.
"Kiyohara, are you asleep?"
It was Fugaku's voice.
Kiyohara opened his eyes.
"Come in."
The flap was lifted, and Fugaku walked in.
He sat down across from Kiyohara.
"How much do you know about that Uchiha?"
he asked directly.
Ever since the mysterious Uchiha attacked Kiyohara, the Uchiha clan had been holding more and more internal discussions.
In the end, Fugaku decided to come ask Kiyohara himself.
Kiyohara looked at him.
"What exactly do you want to ask, Fugaku-sama?"
"That person… really was an Uchiha?"
"A Mangekyo Sharingan doesn't lie."
Kiyohara said.
Fugaku fell silent for a moment.
He found himself wondering—could it be that man?
But he quickly rejected the thought.
If Uchiha Madara were still alive, he would be in his eighties or nineties by now. Could he still possess combat power like that?
So Fugaku's mind turned instead toward the possibility of some other rogue Uchiha.
Back then, no one from the Uchiha clan had openly followed Madara when he left, but that didn't mean there couldn't have been fanatics who faked their deaths on the battlefield and later joined him in secret.
"If you learn anything more later, come tell me."
Fugaku said.
He was taking this very seriously.
Because if the truth spread, it would have a huge impact on the Uchiha clan.
If word got out that a Sharingan user had attacked a Konoha camp, people on the outside would once again start saying the Uchiha were evil by nature.
"Over this period, I'll strengthen internal investigations within the clan. If that man really is tied to the Uchiha, he'll leave some kind of trace."
Fugaku turned to go.
"Fugaku-sama."
Kiyohara called after him.
"What is it?"
"How's Itachi doing lately?"
Fugaku stopped and looked back at him.
"That boy? He's been training with Might Guy all day. He's even tanned now."
He shook his head.
"But his strength really has improved a lot."
Kiyohara smiled.
A healthy, tanned Itachi?
Compared to the weak and sickly image from canon, Kiyohara figured this Itachi had basically turned into an athlete—probably spending every day with Might Guy learning how to smash people with his elbows.
"That's good."
Kiyohara said.
Fugaku nodded and stepped out of the tent.
The tent fell quiet again.
Uzumaki Kiyohara's spirit emerged once more.
"He's gone?"
"Yeah."
Kiyohara nodded.
"That student of yours—is his name Itachi?"
"That's right."
"He's talented."
Uzumaki Kiyohara said.
"Definitely."
Kiyohara nodded.
Itachi Uchiha had been able to massacre the clan at thirteen in the original story. That kind of talent was one of a kind, even in the ninja world.
If Tobirama Senju and Itachi had ever met, Tobirama probably would have given him a thumbs-up and said he had grasped the true meaning of the Will of Fire.
"Forget that."
Uzumaki Kiyohara waved a hand.
"Move faster on the Land of Whirlpools. I'm fading more and more."
"I know."
Kiyohara said.
…
The next morning, when Kiyohara stepped out of his tent, he saw Kabuto standing not far away with a large pack in his arms.
"Lord Kiyohara!"
Kabuto ran over.
"I'm leaving now."
"Be careful on the road."
"Yes, sir!"
Kabuto turned and left.
Kiyohara watched him disappear through the camp entrance, then turned and headed toward the medical unit.
Today, the surprise attack would begin.
Not long after, the Konoha camp was filled with movement.
A large number of shinobi had arrived. Nearby sectors had sent reinforcements, and even Minato Namikaze and Fugaku Uchiha had come here.
Half an hour later, the force began advancing.
The shinobi moved through the mountains and forests. The Hyuga clan members kept their Byakugan active and scouted ahead.
The Aburame clan's kikaichu scattered into the woods, watching for any unusual movement.
Kiyohara walked near the front of the formation, with Minato at his side.
"Nervous?"
Minato asked, looking at him.
He felt a little emotional.
In just a few short years, Kiyohara had grown to this level.
"You're not nervous, Minato-sama?"
"A little."
Minato nodded.
What worried him was that if they mishandled Kumogakure, the war might drag on again.
That would give other nations a chance to stir, seeing an opening.
As the two of them talked, the force passed through a dense forest and over two ridgelines. Ahead of them was a high ground with a clear view.
A Hyuga shinobi crouched behind a giant rock, those pale eyes using long-range vision to observe the distance.
Kiyohara walked over.
"What do you see?"
It was Hizashi Hyuga. That face identical to Hiashi's was grim.
"There's an ambush ahead."
He pointed toward the forest that looked calm from afar.
"On the eastern slope, in the western valley, and behind that ridge directly ahead. There are people hidden in all three places."
Shibi Aburame stood at the other side, the lenses of his dark glasses reflecting the sunlight.
"My insects sensed it too. They've set up a sensory barrier. The moment we get close, we'll be exposed."
A low murmur rippled through the team.
Minato's brows drew together slightly.
"Go around?"
"Too late for that."
Fugaku's voice was low.
"Going around would cost us at least half a day. By then, they'd spot us anyway."
Kiyohara's eyes went past the forest and looked even farther ahead.
There, the outline of Kumogakure's stronghold was faintly visible.
"So what do we do?"
Rin looked toward the distance, not sure how they could sneak in without alerting the enemy.
"What if I use a sound-based genjutsu?"
Kurenai stepped forward a few paces and suggested it.
"No need."
Kiyohara shook his head.
"I'll take out their scouts."
The moment the words left his mouth, he vanished.
Hizashi's eyes widened.
"That fast…?"
He activated his Byakugan and tracked that chakra signature, which moved so quickly it was almost impossible to follow.
Far away in the forest, Kiyohara's figure flickered from place to place like missing frames in a film reel.
Every time he appeared, another hidden scout dropped.
Slash.
Blood sprayed.
The smell of blood began to spread through the air.
Those Kumogakure scouts hidden in treetops, behind rocks, or inside bushes didn't even have time to react before Kiyohara cut them down.
Slash.
Another scout crouched in a tree had a red line burst from the back of his neck, and his body slid limply down.
Kiyohara didn't even spare him another glance.
His figure vanished again.
In the next moment, he appeared beneath another tree thirty meters away.
His right arm moved, the edge of his ninja sword slicing through a shinobi's throat and out the other side.
The blade trembled slightly, the blood sliding off it without a single drop touching his hand.
Slash.
Slash.
Every strike brought another spray of blood.
The blood bloomed briefly in the air, then turned to fine mist and scattered in the wind.
Hizashi stood there with his mouth open, unable to speak for a long moment.
Through his Byakugan, he could clearly see the chakra signatures of those Kumogakure scouts going out one after another.
Like candles being blown out.
Fast—too fast.
So fast he couldn't even count how many Kiyohara had killed.
"Fifty scouts… wiped out in an instant."
Someone in the force sucked in a breath sharply.
Fifty scouts?
What kind of number was that?
Minato stood at the very front, a trace of surprise flashing through his blue eyes before it gave way to deeper appreciation.
When he had gone after Iwagakure's commander at Kannabi Bridge, he had also killed fifty shinobi in one go.
But back then, he had needed the others to throw his Flying Thunder God kunai for him.
Kiyohara, on the other hand, had done all of this alone.
"Kiyohara's understanding of space-time ninjutsu is getting deeper and deeper."
Kakashi stood beside Minato, the exposed Sharingan constantly following Kiyohara's movements.
"Done."
The moment the word fell, Kiyohara reappeared at the front of the formation.
His sword was already back in its sheath, and not a single drop of blood had stained his chainmail.
"There's blood in the air…"
Tsunade's nose twitched slightly. She was here too, but wearing a special mask.
Unlike everyone else's, her mask had no eyeholes.
"Move."
The force advanced, passing through the forest ahead.
The corpses of the Kumogakure scouts lay hidden in the shadows, already being covered by Aburame insects. Before long, they would be dealt with.
…
The Kumogakure stronghold drew closer and closer.
It was a large camp built inside a valley, surrounded by giant stone walls. Watchtowers stood along the walls, and patrol shinobi could be clearly seen.
Inside the camp were countless tents. The shinobi there had no idea danger was already bearing down on them.
Kiyohara stopped walking.
The force spread out behind him, with the various clans taking up advantageous positions according to the plan.
Hizashi activated the Byakugan again and carefully swept over the stronghold.
"At least two thousand inside. The Fourth Raikage is in the main tent. The Eight-Tails jinchūriki is in the northeast corner. The Two-Tails jinchūriki is in the southwest…"
He paused.
"They look like they're preparing to withdraw."
Minato's brows tightened slightly.
"Withdrawing?"
"Yeah. A lot of the tents are being packed up. Supplies are being loaded onto carts."
There was confusion in Hizashi's voice.
"They found us?"
"Impossible."
Shibi shook his head.
"All the scouts were dealt with by Kiyohara, and the sensory barrier was never triggered."
"Then they were already planning to leave."
Kiyohara said.
"The Fourth Raikage isn't stupid. After the last failed surprise attack, he must have realized we wouldn't just sit here and do nothing. Rather than wait for us to come to him, he'd rather relocate first."
"That makes sense."
Kakashi nodded.
"I'm going over first."
Kiyohara said again.
This time, Minato looked confused.
Kiyohara had taken out the scouts earlier because he had Flying Thunder God.
But what was he planning to do now?
He couldn't possibly kill two thousand people in an instant.
"What are you going to do?"
Tsunade couldn't help asking.
"Deliver a little gift."
The moment he said it, Kiyohara shot into the sky.
Dark green chakra poured out of him, condensing into a cloak over his body.
That cloak flowed behind him, forming the shape of a phantom serpent, its scales distinct, its tongue flicking with the same dark green light.
His pupils turned into golden slits. Green markings spread around his eyes.
At his forehead, a single horn faintly emerged.
Ryuchi Cave Sage Mode.
But it didn't stop there.
Kiyohara raised his right hand, palm upward.
Chakra began to gather.
Rasengan.
But the color of the Rasengan began to change as he poured a huge amount of Yin Release chakra into it.
Its color shifted—
from bright blue, to deep blue, to a pitch-black darkness.
In the end, what hovered over his palm looked almost like a Tailed Beast Bomb.
A sphere black as ink, with only a faint white ring around the edge, like a solar eclipse.
Kiyohara looked down over the utterly unprepared stronghold below.
"A farewell gift."
he said quietly.
He had named this technique Yin Release: Rasenshuriken.
Its appearance was very similar to Menma Uzumaki's Great Spiraling Ring.
Then he released it.
The black sphere began to fall slowly.
At that instant, some of the Kumogakure shinobi in the stronghold seemed to sense something.
Someone looked up.
And from the sky, a furious dark orb descended.
A black sun was falling.
Boom!
A single burst of light swallowed everything.
From the point of impact, it exploded outward at a speed too fast for the eye to follow.
The blast shook the entire valley.
A black mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
In the areas beyond the center of the blast, gale-force winds howled outward.
Trees were torn up by the roots. Tents were ripped to shreds. Shinobi were hurled into the sky and flung screaming into the distance.
When the smoke finally cleared, what remained was a massive crater.
And of the two thousand Kumogakure shinobi who had once filled the camp, only a little over a thousand remained.
Every one of them looked up at the figure floating in the sky.
Rin stood near the back of the Konoha force, her hands unconsciously covering her mouth.
That figure was reflected in her brown eyes.
That black sun.
That landscape reshaped in an instant.
"So much destructive power…"
she breathed.
"Looks like Kiyohara's developed another new technique."
Kurenai summoned Red Moon and transformed it into a short blade.
Shibi, meanwhile, was busy calming the kikaichu inside his body. The enormous chakra blast from earlier had almost sent them into a frenzy.
For Shibi, that was no small matter.
The Aburame clan allowed insects to live throughout their bodies. Some even went so far as to offer up their eyes to the kikaichu. If such a clan member ever removed their glasses, all you'd see would be black eye sockets crawling with insects.
Compared with someone like Kiyohara, insect-based techniques are just too weak.
That was Shibi's silent conclusion.
Kiyohara had only fired off a technique from the outside, and the aftershocks alone had nearly sent the insects inside him out of control.
That was the limit of the Aburame clan.
"An advanced application of the Rasengan?"
Minato saw some of the principle immediately.
He had previously seen Kiyohara use Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
That had given Minato tremendous inspiration, and he had created a similar technique of his own.
The problem was that it consumed a huge amount of chakra. If he tried to use it together with Flying Thunder God, it would push Minato too hard.
"Enemy attack!"
At last, a cry rose from within the ruined stronghold.
The entire Kumogakure camp instantly fell into chaos.
The Fourth Raikage appeared at the edge of the ruins in a flash, blond hair standing up, his muscular bare right arm tense.
Even from afar, he saw Kiyohara descending slowly from the sky.
The Fourth Raikage took a deep breath.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
A blue cloak of lightning wrapped around his body, his hair standing on end, his muscles more sharply defined than ever in the electrical glow.
Now that he had already clashed with Kiyohara once before, he didn't dare hold back.
His body flashed forward, turning into a streak of blue lightning as he shot straight toward Kiyohara.
He was absurdly fast—so fast that only a blur of blue could be seen.
Lateral Bolt of Pain!
Kiyohara threw a punch.
Eight Gods Air Strike!
Countless flame-formed fists exploded outward from his own, surging toward the Fourth Raikage like a meteor shower.
The Fourth Raikage's pupils contracted.
He raised his elbow, using his strongest defensive form.
Lightning Release chakra condensed into the strongest shield at his elbow.
Boom!
The instant the two powers collided, the ground split open.
The Fourth Raikage was sent flying backward.
He carved a trench more than a hundred meters long into the earth, then smashed through three enormous boulders with his back before finally stopping.
At that moment, a mass of blue flame came rushing in from Kiyohara's flank.
The temperature of that flame was terrifying. The air around it burned, and the ground beneath it began to melt.
Fire Release: Rat Fireball!
Kiyohara turned aside.
The flame grazed past him and scorched the ground behind him black.
He turned his head toward the source of the attack.
A slender figure stood at the edge of the ruins.
Yugito Nii, the Two-Tails jinchūriki.
She wore a tight combat outfit that traced the lines of her body, and her long hair—styled like twin tails—lashed in the wind.
"Kiyohara!"
Yugito stared straight at him.
"Today, I'm settling the score!"
The moment she finished speaking, dark blue chakra erupted from her body.
In an instant, a gigantic cat appeared atop the ruins.
Its entire body was covered in ghostly blue flames, its fur streaked with black patterns, and two tails swayed behind it.
Its face was ferocious, its fangs bared, and its eyes locked onto Kiyohara.
The fully transformed Two-Tails, Matatabi.
"ROAR!"
The giant cat opened its jaws, and deep in its throat blue light began to gather.
In the next instant, a fireball more than ten meters across erupted from its mouth.
Where it passed, the air ignited, the ground melted, and everything in its path turned to ash.
Rat Fireball: Great Flame Bullet!
~~~
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