"Careful, Natsu."
Tetsu and Natsu stood within the Hyuga clan's formation. Tetsu's temples bulged, veins protruding as he maintained his active Byakugan. Through his sight, he saw pale red chakra erupting from Utakata's abdominal meridian system, surging like a tide toward his limbs.
The sheer volume of that chakra made Tetsu's spine tingle. Was that... truly an amount of chakra a human could possess? Having spent significant time on the battlefield, Tetsu had learned the term "Human Weapon." These were people who had monsters sealed within them to harness their power—monsters known as "Tailed Beasts."
"Mhm," Natsu replied, her tone dismissive. She stole a glance at Kiyoshi, who stood at the front, fearing he might misunderstand her presence next to Tetsu.
Late last night, she had gone to Kiyoshi's tent. As usual, he had made her do those... shameless things. Thinking of it now, her face flushed a deep crimson. She quickly shook her head to clear the thoughts.
'Focus! This is a battle!'
"What's wrong, Natsu?" Tetsu noticed the blush on her cheeks. He looked up at the cloudless sky, wondering if the sun was simply too hot today.
"Is the Byakugan something you lot think you can covet?" Hiashi Hyuga shouted. His hands gathered massive amounts of chakra, which he thrust toward the distant Mist ninjas.
[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm]!
*Crack!* A translucent shockwave of compressed air tore through the space, slamming into a group of Mist ninjas and sending them collapsing to the ground, coughing up blood. With Hiashi's opening move, the battle ignited instantly.
"The 'Fierce Eye' Fugaku, huh..." Juzo Biwa grunted, shouldering his Executioner's Blade and charging forward.
*Clang!*
The sound of kunai meeting the heavy blade rang out, sending sparks flying. Fugaku's eyes shifted into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan as he locked into a high-speed dance of death with Juzo. His younger brother, Hizashi Hyuga, moved in tandem to flank the swordsman.
In a world of such terrifying individual power, the tradition remained: "To catch the bandits, first capture their leader." Once the elites were dealt with, the remaining "small fry" would fall with little effort.
A squad of Mist ninjas stepped forward, hands moving in a blur of synchronized signs to release their signature technique.
[Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu]!
*Hum!*
A thick, heavy mist began to blanket the battlefield. This mist, capable of obscuring even the Rinnegan when cast by a coordinated group, became so dense one could not see their own hand. Except for the Hyuga clan, every shinobi present felt the sudden weight of sensory deprivation.
"[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm]!"
"[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm]!"
The Hyuga members repeatedly thrust out air palms, attempting to blow the mist away. Simultaneously, hundreds of bubbles began to float through the fog. Whenever a Leaf ninja drew near, the bubbles would *pop*, releasing a corrosive acid that melted through chainmail and dissolved flesh. Screams of agony filled the air.
Kiyoshi stood still, listening to the chaos. This was the primary drawback of [Sage Mode]—the process of refining natural energy into [Senjutsu Chakra] required "stillness."
"Has Utakata made his move?" Kiyoshi's Three-Tomoe Sharingan tracked the swirling patterns of the mist.
At this stage, Utakata had not yet defected from the Mist. His eventual defection would stem from a tragic misunderstanding: his master, Harusame, would try to remove the Tailed Beast to save him from discrimination, but Utakata would believe his master was trying to steal his power.
The resulting rampage and murder of his master would turn him into a rogue ninja who distrusted the bond between master and student.
Later, he would meet the golden-haired girl, Hotaru of the Tsuchigumo clan. But since Kiyoshi was also interested in Hotaru, whether Utakata would ever meet her was now a matter of debate.
In the anime, Hotaru possessed the [Fury] Forbidden Jutsu, which allowed her to absorb massive amounts of natural energy and passively refine it into [Senjutsu Chakra]. It could trigger an explosion with a radius of hundreds of kilometers. Kiyoshi was very keen on studying that kind of passive accumulation.
"It looks like your side is losing," a voice drifted through the mist.
Terumi Mei walked slowly toward Kiyoshi. She appeared even more enchanting than before, every movement carrying a calculated allure. "Uchiha Kiyoshi, let's settle our score first."
"Oh?" Kiyoshi looked at her. Seeing her supreme confidence—as if she already held his life in her hands—he couldn't help but chuckle.
"Hmph. I doubt you'll be laughing in a moment." Mei smiled. With Lord Utakata here, what could Kiyoshi possibly do? This time, they would inflict heavy losses on Leaf and give Kiyoshi a bitter taste of defeat.
"Whether I'll be laughing later, I don't know," Kiyoshi said, a greenish, shimmering cloak of light gradually enveloping his body. "But I know you definitely won't be laughing now."
"!" Mei's pupils shrank. "Impossible... it shouldn't be time yet."
She was shocked. She had specifically investigated Kiyoshi's abilities; entering [Sage Mode] was supposed to take a long time to refine and balance the chakra. Furthermore, the form couldn't be maintained for long. She assumed Kiyoshi had charged up for ages before his grand entrance yesterday, and that he hadn't had nearly enough time to do it again just now.
Mei clenched her fists and took an instinctive step back. She had timed her approach perfectly—if Kiyoshi could still use yesterday's power, she wasn't confident in winning.
"Hmph, bluffing! [Lava Style: Melting Apparition Jutsu]!"
Frustrated by her own momentary cowardice and fueled by the memory of what Kiyoshi had done to her before, she summoned her courage. She spat out a large glob of viscous, highly corrosive orange acid.
*Sizzle...*
The acid hissed through the air, sounding like a thousand angry vipers.
"Nice 'Melting' Style," Kiyoshi critiqued. The corrosiveness of this move was enough to melt even [Susanoo]. Against a body of flesh and blood, it would turn a person into a puddle instantly.
Kiyoshi had no intention of testing his physical durability against it. He flicked his hand, and arcs of electricity shot out. Lightning created from [Lightning Style] chakra couldn't match the speed of natural lightning, but it still far exceeded the speed of sound.
At Mei's current level, she couldn't react to something moving at multiple times the speed of sound. Just as her eyes caught the flash and her body twitched to dodge, she felt her back slam into something solid.
"Remember what I told you? All disadvantageous situations in this world are caused by the inadequacy of the person involved," Kiyoshi said softly into her ear.
His speed in refining [Senjutsu Chakra] was far beyond what others imagined. Yesterday's "long wait" was merely him testing the upper limits of his capacity. Measuring him by that standard was a fatal mistake—one Mei had just made.
"What!" Mei spun around instinctively, throwing a punch.
Kiyoshi caught her fist effortlessly in his palm. His natural strength was already among the elite, and [Sage Mode] amplified his physical power to absurd levels. Sage Naruto could lift giant summons dozens of times his size; for Kiyoshi, the boost was even more terrifying. He had to be careful as he wrapped his hand around her small fist, intentionally holding back to ensure he didn't accidentally crush her bones to powder.
Even so, Mei's brow furrowed in pain, her face turning pale. Such strength! Caught off guard, she hadn't had time to reinforce her body with chakra. She felt only the crushing pressure and the sharp pain in her hand.
"You're still too weak, Terumi Mei," Kiyoshi said, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
The current Mei lacked the maturity of the future Fifth Mizukage; she was still "unripe." Since she was green, she needed fertilizer. And during the process, she needed "stakes and pillars" to shape her growth toward the desired result. In other words... "conditioning."
It was said that in certain circumstances, victims developed a warped affection for their captors. Kiyoshi didn't know if that would happen here, but the increase in his visual power would be very real. "Beautiful things" needed to weather the storm to reveal their true form.
"Because I killed your comrade, your heart is filled with grief and hatred for me?"
"What do you think?" Mei glared at him, her gaze burning with loathing. She valued her comrades deeply and cherished every hard-won "bond." In the Mist, under the high-pressure "Blood Mist" policy, such feelings were rare. Everyone kept their hearts locked away, fearing a backstab.
She and her two companions had gone to Leaf for the Chunin Exams, hoping to start a new chapter in their lives. Then Kiyoshi appeared. He had killed her teammate, Hozuki Reigetsu, as casually as one might kill a rabbit. She had set out to prove herself to the world, only to have her team decimated the moment they left the village.
"It seems I hit the mark. In that case..."
Kiyoshi decided to turn up the heat. Hatred, was it? Then let her hate to the very end. A flash of crimson light sparked in his eyes before they returned to golden slits. A massive surge of visual power invaded Mei's body.
"What... what did you do to me?" she cried out in alarm. She assumed it was a genjutsu meant to extract Mist intelligence.
"Watch the others closely. This is the result of your weakness. Because you aren't strong enough, you can only linger on in this ugly state, watching helplessly as the others suffer," Kiyoshi said, his words baffling to her.
*Crackle!*
The shuriken in Kiyoshi's ninja pouch began to float around him, influenced by magnetism. Then, they streaked into the thick mist.
*Puchi!*
A spray of fresh blood erupted from the mist directly in front of Mei. The hot liquid soaked into the ground. A ninja holding a blade collapsed in the distance; he had seemingly been trying to ambush Kiyoshi. Mei could faintly see the blood-stained headband—it bore the Mist symbol!
*Splash!*
The air became more humid. A [Water Style] stream flowed nearby. This was a Mist battlefield; water jutsu were as common as rain. Mei began to tremble uncontrollably.
"You..." She couldn't speak. Her legs felt weak—so weak that standing was a struggle.
Kiyoshi didn't give her time to process. His silhouette blurred into the mist. In his hand, fire and lightning intertwined to form a brilliant, drilling longsword. With a rotating roar, every Mist ninja that drew near was mercilessly harvested.
Mist that obscured vision? To the sensory abilities of [Sage Mode], it was as if the fog didn't exist. Kiyoshi "saw" everything with perfect clarity!
"I'm getting stronger..." His movements became increasingly fluid. Mist ninjas who managed a momentary reaction were still too slow to evade his ambushes, losing their heads to his blade. The peerless speed and the lethal [Sage Art: Fire Style: Fire-Thunder Sword] turned the chaotic battlefield into Kiyoshi's personal garden.
"That kid from yesterday..." Juzo Biwa grunted while clashing with Fugaku, catching glimpses of the flashes of light within the mist.
"That is Uchiha Kiyoshi." Utakata floated forward inside a giant soap bubble, a pinkish-purple tail manifesting behind him.
As Kiyoshi drew the attention of everyone else, Mei used a special Mist technique to keep her eyes locked on him through the fog. Every time Kiyoshi took a life, her body jerked, and she involuntarily released a burst of [Water Style] chakra. Only now did she realize what Kiyoshi had done to her. Every time he killed someone, she would...
"Uchiha Kiyoshi!" she tried to scream.
*Thud!* The reality of the conditioning sent her to the ground. Her over-stimulated body collapsed into a shallow puddle. It was impossible to tell if it was the blood of her comrades or the water from her own body. Her pupils grew hazy and unfocused as she lay on the cold earth.
"The Tailed Beast is here."
Kiyoshi sensed the massive chakra approaching. He flicked his body to the right, narrowly dodging a fast-moving bubble. The bubble hit the ground, instantly melting a deep pit. A dense cluster of bubbles followed immediately.
"[Sage Art: Wind Style: Great Breakthrough]!"
Kiyoshi opened his mouth and spat out a whirlwind. Enhanced by [Senjutsu Chakra], it instantly grew into a hurricane-force gale. The air-dependent bubbles were swept away instantly, and the thick mist was torn open, revealing a clear patch of sky.
"[Water Style: Acid Stream]!"
As the gale hesitated for a fraction of a second, a stream of concentrated acid erupted from Utakata's hands. A hundred-meter wave of acid flooded the area, covering every possible path of retreat for Kiyoshi.
"Kiyoshi!" Mikoto cried out in fear. The Six-Tails specialized in acid, and Utakata was a master at combining it with water jutsu. Even hard armor and kunai would be dissolved in seconds, let alone human flesh. At this distance, Kiyoshi had no time to throw a Flying Raijin kunai. He was a cornered rat!
"Looks like the brat can't run this time," Juzo chuckled, his Executioner's Blade whistling through the air. Fugaku's heart sank as he parried Juzo's blow. Kiyoshi was the bridge between the Uchiha and the village; he couldn't die here.
"Die," Utakata said calmly.
Kiyoshi stood his ground, neither dodging nor hiding. Arcs of electricity crackled intensely around him, spreading outward.
"What good is Lightning Style now?" Utakata wondered. 'Is he trying to hurt me one last time before the end?'
*Swoosh!*
A black arc of electricity flashed through the air, moving faster than the eye could follow. Only ninjas with exceptional visual prowess could catch a trace of it. In an instant, Kiyoshi used the Flying Raijin mark on the lightning arc to teleport directly behind Utakata. He raised his rotating Fire-Thunder Sword and severed one of the chakra tails on Utakata's back.
*Thud.*
The slimy, acid-dripping tail hit the ground. For the first time, Utakata's calm face showed utter disbelief. His pupils contracted. How did Kiyoshi get there? He reached out to grab him, but Kiyoshi's figure vanished, reappearing on the ground below.
"Tailed Beast power only matters if the person can master it," Kiyoshi said. He pulled out a sealing scroll and quickly sealed the severed chakra tail before it could dissipate. This was good stuff—part of the Ten-Tails. Theoretically, if he gathered parts of all nine beasts, he could synthesize the Ten-Tails.
"Was that Lightning Style or Space-Time Ninjutsu?" Utakata frowned. He had never seen a jutsu that allowed someone to move *along* an arc of lightning. It was unheard of.
"Another new technique. How many jutsu does Kiyoshi know?"
"He bypassed Utakata's attack and counterattacked in a single breath. How fast is he?!"
"I thought Uchiha Kiyoshi only knew [Flying Raijin]!"
The clearing in the mist allowed everyone nearby to witness the exchange. The Leaf ninjas let out cries of shock. If they had been in that position, they wouldn't have escaped so easily—they would have lost a layer of skin at best.
"So this is Kiyoshi's true strength..." Asuma Sarutobi watched from the back, feeling a bitter sting. Why was Kiyoshi so far ahead when they were from the same generation? Asuma looked at Kurenai, who was staring at Kiyoshi with total concentration, and a sour feeling filled his gut.
A seed of ambition began to sprout; he wanted to go out and make a name for himself. He had heard the Daimyo was recruiting for a group called the "Twelve Guardian Shinobi." He wanted Kurenai to look at *him* with that same intensity!
"You don't need to know the name of the jutsu," Kiyoshi said to the confused Utakata. He rarely used this move in front of others. He had only used it against Madara at Kannabi Bridge and just now in front of Mei.
He kept the mechanics of his original jutsu secret—it was his "ace in the hole." In a way, he was following the path of the greats, like Minato, who became the "Yellow Flash" using only [Flying Raijin] and [Rasengan].
"Arrogant," Utakata snorted. Usually, he was the one who maintained a calm, confident posture. He hadn't expected to meet someone even better at "posturing" than himself. No wonder he was an Uchiha!
Pale red chakra began to seep from Utakata, enveloping him entirely. The color grew darker and more viscous, like a layer of flowing, crimson blood.
"Shifting from the 'Leaking Chakra Mode' to 'Version 2'?" Kiyoshi watched calmly. Version 1 was the pale red "Tailed Beast Cloak." Version 2 was a more stable, darker, concentrated form that mimicked the beast's skeletal structure.
Most Jinchuriki's meridians couldn't handle that much power, so the chakra manifested outside the body. Even a member of the Uzumaki clan like Naruto would suffer skin tears and burns in this form.
"Now... Sharingan." Kiyoshi reactivated the Sharingan he had closed upon entering Sage Mode. His golden vertical pupils shifted to a dark gold, with three black tomoe circling the slit. His physical stats surged further. He could now clearly see every strand of chakra flowing within the Tailed Beast Cloak.
"It's like an endless source," Kiyoshi thought. The more he sensed it, the more he realized how vast the chakra of the nine great entities was. However, he had no intention of becoming a Jinchuriki.
His own chakra was growing constantly, already exceeding what a normal Naruto could hold. One day, with his trait system, he would become a human Tailed Beast in his own right. Given enough time, he'd make Kaguya crawl.
*Sizzle...*
Utakata's dark red membrane released white steam, corroding everything in his path as he charged at Kiyoshi.
"A Jinchuriki's only advantage is their massive chakra. A ninja's understanding of jutsu can bridge the gap." Lightning began to flash in Kiyoshi's palm. A high-intensity current of [Lightning Style] and [Senjutsu Chakra] concentrated in his hand.
[Sage Art: Lightning Oppression Horizontal Thousand Chiyo]!
Utakata lunged, all six tails sweeping toward Kiyoshi simultaneously. The air reeked of thick acid. Yet, Kiyoshi acted as if he were completely unaffected, simply raising his lightning-covered hand to block the six tails. To the onlookers, it looked almost effortless.
"He blocked the power of a Tailed Beast!" Juzo Biwa and the others were stunned. They cast aside their lingering disdain and finally viewed Kiyoshi as a peer-level threat.