Kiyohara put away his kunai and extended a hand to Obito, who was still lying on the ground.
"Looks like I win."
His tone was calm.
Obito had the bloodline of the Uchiha clan, and he had his own urn of ashes.
They both had bright futures ahead.
He just had a slight edge for now. In the future, that edge might grow even larger.
As long as he drew a powerful future self, Kiyohara could fulfill their dying wish and really take off.
Of course, the more powerful the future, the harder the dying wish might be to fulfill.
Obito lay on the ground, staring at Kiyohara's outstretched hand, then glanced at Rin's concerned face nearby. His own face instantly flushed red.
This was a disgrace to the Uchiha name!
Fortunately, Obito was used to being dead last. Back at the Academy, he'd grown accustomed to the taste of defeat.
During his first Chūnin Exam, he'd even lost to Might Guy.
Eventually, Obito managed to give himself a mental pep talk. He grabbed Kiyohara's hand with a sullen expression and stood up, muttering under his breath:
"...Damn it, I'll definitely win next time!"
Minato Namikaze looked at Kiyohara with growing appreciation in his eyes. He smiled warmly.
"Excellent tactics and shuriken technique, Kiyohara. Your combat ability far exceeds that of an ordinary genin."
On that note, Minato was also curious why Kiyohara hadn't taken the chūnin exam.
"With your skills, you should be able to pass the chūnin exam easily."
"I've been focused on training, so I never got around to taking it."
"I see."
Minato nodded.
However, this was wartime. Chūnin promotions didn't necessarily have to follow peacetime protocols.
If someone performed well, an exceptional early promotion to chūnin wasn't out of the question.
"Kiyohara, if this mission succeeds, you should be directly promoted to chūnin."
Minato said.
As the squad's jōnin leader, he understood perfectly well how difficult this mission would be.
He looked at his students, feeling a twinge of guilt.
This wasn't the kind of mission they should be undertaking.
But Konoha had no choice.
The situation on the front lines had become extremely dangerous. The village was facing a critical moment of survival.
If they could successfully cut off Iwagakure's supply lines, it would give the village a huge advantage in the war against them.
Precisely because Iwagakure believed no one could possibly break through, this mission had to be carried out by an ordinary squad.
If they sent shinobi who were too powerful, Iwagakure's scouts would definitely detect them and call for reinforcements.
"Understood."
Kiyohara nodded in acknowledgment.
After the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, if he became a chūnin, his strength would likely surge dramatically.
In the wars to come, his chances of survival would improve significantly.
As long as he didn't get killed, Kiyohara could continue receiving help from different timeline versions of himself who had died.
With this snowball effect, he'd be able to face future crises with much more composure.
The Nine-Tails Attack, the Chūnin Exam Destruction Plan, Pain's Assault on the Village, the Ōtsutsuki Invasion, and so on.
At any of these critical junctures, being too weak would be an insurmountable hurdle.
Soon, Minato departed first.
The mission would begin three days from now, in the afternoon.
He was always busy, with countless matters to handle.
After Minato left, Kakashi walked over to Kiyohara.
"You're not bad. Looks like you won't be a liability on this mission."
Kakashi said flatly.
Ever since his father's death, he'd only cared about one thing.
Following the shinobi code. Completing the mission.
A ninja who couldn't complete their mission was trash.
Given the strength Kiyohara had just demonstrated, he wouldn't drag everyone down or reduce their chances of success.
"Mm."
Kiyohara nodded.
This was Kakashi's obsessive phase. No amount of talking would get through to him.
Some lessons can only be learned through experience.
The Battle of Kannabi Bridge would become a turning point for Kakashi too.
But in the original story, it was merely a brief dawn before descending into darkness. After he killed Rin with his own hands, he became so devastated that he considered suicide.
Honestly, if Kakashi had been named Uchiha Kakashi instead of Hatake Kakashi, he might have at least awakened his own Mangekyō Sharingan to play with.
That way, instead of being drained, he could have reached new heights.
"Kakashi, want to train together?"
Rin asked.
A ninja couldn't afford to slack off. Constant training was necessary to keep from regressing.
Once you got comfortable, even the slightest decline during a mission could get you killed.
"No thanks."
Kakashi's response was brief.
He planned to train alone. He'd recently been developing a particularly powerful technique.
He wanted to refine it a bit more before the mission.
"If I remember correctly, Kakashi became a jōnin the day before the mission."
Kiyohara thought to himself.
Kakashi's strength was really only at the level of a newly promoted jōnin.
His current situation was somewhat awkward.
He hadn't properly inherited his father Sakumo Hatake's sword techniques, nor had he mastered Lightning Release ninjutsu.
No matter how powerful his "Chidori" was now, it had a fatal flaw.
You needed dynamic vision like the Sharingan to wield it properly.
That's why in "Boruto," after losing the Sharingan, Kakashi developed "Purple Lightning," a Lightning Release technique of the same caliber that didn't require the Sharingan.
In critical moments, Kiyohara figured he'd still need to rely on the Rogue Ninja Kiyohara possessing his body.
Even though the rogue was also a newly promoted jōnin, there were gaps between jōnin too.
Over thirty years of training and accumulated combat experience wasn't something Kakashi could match.
"That's just how Kakashi is."
Obito said, hands behind his head.
Right now, he didn't know about how Kakashi's father had been slandered by his former comrades, leading to his suicide.
He just thought Kakashi was being melodramatic.
"I also think it's better if we each do targeted training for these last few days."
Shiranui Genma picked up the senbon that had fallen to the ground, wiped it off, and put it back in his mouth.
It had fallen because he'd been so shocked by the skill Kiyohara had just displayed.
"Makes sense."
Kiyohara agreed.
In the remaining three days, the Rogue Ninja Kiyohara could still help him improve.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Kiyohara quickly headed home.
Once he got back, Kiyohara looked at the ninjutsu scroll in his hand and felt a headache coming on.
Sometimes, even with a teacher's guidance, you still needed to practice constantly on your own.
It was easy to end up in a situation where your eyes understood but your hands couldn't follow.
The classic "looks easy until you try it" problem.
And the matter of chakra reserves was something that required gradual accumulation over time.
Unless he could immediately complete a second dying wish and merge with the Rogue Ninja Kiyohara right now.
"By the way, do you know any fast ways to get stronger?"
Kiyohara asked.
Logically speaking, his future thirty-something self had become a rogue ninja, so he should know plenty of shortcuts... no wait, quick and painless methods for boosting strength.
"There is one. Taking drugs."
The Rogue Ninja Kiyohara said.
How can you get stronger without taking drugs?
Hearing this, Kiyohara remembered that during the three years Sasuke spent with Orochimaru, he'd also taken quite a few forbidden substances.
It's just that Orochimaru valued Sasuke's body, so the drugs didn't have any harmful side effects. They didn't mess with his brain.