Kiyohara sheathed his kunai, reached a hand to the fallen Obito, and said, "Looks like I win."
His tone was calm.
Obito had Uchiha blood, and Kiyohara had his urn. Everyone had a bright future waiting somewhere. For now, he was a step ahead; in the future, he might be many steps ahead. As long as he rolled a powerful future and fulfilled that future's last wishes, he could take off. Of course, the stronger the future, the harder the wishes would be to complete.
Flat on his back, Obito looked at Kiyohara's outstretched hand, then at Rin's worried face. His cheeks flushed red.
This was a shame to the Uchiha!
Fortunately, Obito was used to bringing up the rear; he'd gotten used to losing back in the Academy. In his first Chūnin Exams, he'd even lost to Might Guy.
In the end, after a quick pep talk to himself, he grabbed Kiyohara's hand and stood up with a sulky, "Tch… I'll win next time!"
Minato's approving look toward Kiyohara deepened. Smiling gently, he said, "Very nice tactics and shuriken work. Kiyohara, your combat sense is far above the average genin."
Which made him curious why Kiyohara hadn't taken the Chūnin Exams.
"With your strength, you should pass without breaking a sweat."
"I've been focused on training, so I never made it to the exam."
"I see."
Minato nodded.
It was wartime now; promotions to chūnin didn't have to follow peacetime procedures. With strong performance, early eligibility for the selection wasn't impossible. Otherwise, they'd wait for the usual yearly slot.
"Kiyohara, if this mission succeeds, I'll put my name down as your chūnin sponsor," Minato said.
As the lead jōnin, he knew exactly how hard this mission would be. He glanced at his students and felt a twinge of guilt.
This wasn't a mission they should be doing.
But Konoha had no choice. The front was in dire straits; the village was at a critical moment. If they could sever Iwagakure's supply line, it would be a huge advantage for Konoha's war effort.
Precisely because Iwa considered a breakthrough impossible, an ordinary squad had to go. Send anyone too strong and Iwa's scouts would notice and call in reinforcements.
"Understood."
Kiyohara nodded.
If he made chūnin after Kannabi Bridge, his power would likely jump, and his odds of surviving the rest of the war would go up. So long as he didn't die, more versions of himself from other timelines could help him. Snowball that, and he'd meet future crises with far more composure—Nine-Tails' Attack, the Chūnin Exam "Konoha Crush," Pain's assault, the Ōtsutsuki invasion…
At any of those checkpoints, being weak meant you'd never clear the hurdle.
Minato soon took his leave. Departure was set for the afternoon three days from now. He was swamped and had a lot to handle.
After Minato left, Kakashi walked up to Kiyohara.
"You're good. Looks like you won't hurt the mission."
Kakashi's tone was flat.
Since his father's death, he valued one thing: obey the shinobi code and complete the mission. A ninja who can't complete the mission is trash.
Given what Kiyohara had shown, he wouldn't drag them down or lower their chance of success.
"Mm."
Kiyohara nodded.
This was Kakashi in his hardline phase—talking more wouldn't help. Lessons stick after one hard experience. Kannabi Bridge would be a turning point for him too, though in the original story it was only a brief dawn before deeper darkness—after he killed Rin with his own hands, he was so broken he even considered suicide.
Honestly, if Kakashi were "Uchiha Kakashi" instead of "Hatake Kakashi," he could've played with his own Mangekyō, wouldn't be constantly drained, and might have reached a new ceiling.
"Kakashi, want to train together?" Rin asked.
A ninja can't slack off. You have to keep training or your strength backslides. Get comfortable and, on a mission, that tiny bit of slippage can get you killed.
"No."
Kakashi kept it short. He planned to train alone. He'd recently developed a particularly powerful technique and wanted to polish it before it was complete.
"If I remember right, Kakashi becomes a jōnin the day before the mission," Kiyohara thought.
In truth, Kakashi's strength was only that of a newly minted jōnin. He was in an awkward spot—he hadn't fully inherited Sakumo's kenjutsu, and his Lightning Release wasn't fully under control. No matter how strong "Chidori" was, it had a fatal flaw: you needed Sharingan-like dynamic vision to wield it. That's why, in Boruto, after losing the Sharingan, Kakashi developed "Purple Lightning," a technique of similar level that didn't require Sharingan.
When it counted, Kiyohara figured he'd still need Rogue Kiyohara to possess him. Even a brand-new jōnin is a jōnin—and the gap between jōnin can be big. Thirty-some years of training and battle experience weren't something Kakashi could match.
"That's just how Kakashi is," Obito said, hands behind his head.
He didn't yet know that Kakashi's father had been slandered by comrades and killed himself; he only thought Kakashi was being pretentious.
"I think the last few days are best spent on targeted solo training," Genma said, picking up the senbon he'd dropped, wiping it off, and tucking it back between his teeth.
It had fallen because Kiyohara's showing had shocked him.
"Agreed," Kiyohara said.
With three days left, Rogue Kiyohara could still squeeze out a bit more power for him.
After saying their goodbyes, Kiyohara hurried home.
Back home, he stared at the ninjutsu scrolls in his hands and felt a headache coming on. Even with a teacher, you still need to grind the reps. It's easy to end up with "the eyes get it, the hands don't"—looks easy until you try, then you choke.
And chakra reserves were a problem that only improved day by day. Unless he fulfilled the second last wish now and fused with Rogue Kiyohara.
"By the way, got any quick ways to power up?" he asked.
Logically, a thirty-something future him who'd turned rogue should know plenty of shady—sorry, "fast and painless"—power-up methods.
"There is one: drugs," Rogue Kiyohara said.
How else do you get strong without juicing?
Kiyohara snapped his fingers—right, Sasuke took plenty of forbidden enhancers while running with Orochimaru for three years. Orochimaru treasured Sasuke's body, so the "banned substances" didn't do much harm—didn't even make his head go all pointy.