"I can borrow from a wider range of the magnetic field now—it's like I'm drawing power from the earth itself."
Kiyohara didn't fully understand the mechanics, but he could feel his body growing lighter.
If he had to describe it, it was like his personal gravity had been reduced.
"Hsssss… haaah…"
White steam still streamed from the corners of his mouth, trailing backward in thin wisps.
He stepped forward and felt something pushing up from beneath his feet.
Like a plant absorbing sunlight and heat, he was drawing surrounding magnetic force into himself once the field started turning.
"Rin's in danger."
Kakashi's Sharingan caught sight of her being swarmed. He himself was still stuck in melee, heart twisting with frustration.
He'd promised Obito he would protect her.
If he someday ended up in the Pure Land, how would he face Obito if he failed?
Even without that promise, Rin was one of his most precious comrades.
"No good—too many of them," Genma said, spitting out his senbon for once, anxiety creeping in.
They weren't the only ones under attack; more enemies were coming in from further out.
With every passing moment, more were joining the fray.
He'd tried throwing senbon earlier, but Mist had used Water Release to raise moving shields, blocking them outright.
"They're too far. My genjutsu won't reach," Kurenai said, frowning.
All techniques had a range, whether ninjutsu or genjutsu.
The battlefield had fractured into several zones; friendly units were scattered dozens, even hundreds of meters apart.
Rin was the farthest.
Because she wasn't strong offensively, all she could do was dodge—every dodge pulling her farther from the group.
Kurenai suddenly thought of asking if Kiyohara could throw a shuriken that far.
But when she turned, something about him looked wrong.
"Kiyohara?" she murmured.
From a distance, it looked like he was… smoking.
"Are you okay, Kiyohara?" she called, blocking another enemy.
"I've never felt better," he said.
He drew his sword and in one smooth motion decapitated a Mist chūnin who'd gotten too close.
Thump.
The head hit the ground.
His draw and strike speed were far beyond what she'd seen before.
Kurenai's eyes widened. It was like someone had hit a fast-forward button on him.
He must have used some kind of jutsu.
Kiyohara didn't bother explaining.
He lifted his gaze toward Rin's position.
Then he stepped.
Force always came in pairs.
When Kiyohara focused the magnetism at his soles, it repelled the ground—so what happened?
Magnet Kiyohara had already given him the answer.
The earth was fixed. Push down on it with a strong magnetic force, and an equal and opposite reaction force would push him up.
The earth wouldn't move.
So he would.
His body became a stone launched from a catapult.
Bang!
He shot forward like a bolt of lightning, tearing through the battlefield toward Rin.
"Huff…
…huff…"
Rin watched Mist shinobi weaving through the trees, despair coiling in her chest.
Her stamina was nearly gone; she was light-headed, vision dimming at the edges.
There were too many enemies.
Their numbers were less than half of the enemy's. And more white fog was rolling in from afar, a visible wall of mist bearing down on them.
Soon, everything would be swallowed.
If this dragged on, they would be slaughtered.
She realized the Mist ninja around her weren't rushing to kill her—they were delaying.
They wanted to use her as bait.
Her comrades would rush to save her, throwing themselves into traps and overextending.
Then Mist would pick off the strongest among them—and finally, they'd come for the medic.
Her eyes flicked toward Kakashi's sector.
He was clearly trying to form seals.
If he used Chidori to force open a path, he might reach her.
But time and again, enemies cut him off and drained his strength.
"Keep it up. Your comrades will be tapped out soon enough," said a rough-faced Mist shinobi with both hands clutching a pair of battered swords. His name was Kamiki.
He clearly had only just finished a fight himself.
Then, while Rin was distracted, he slashed across her back.
A line of fire tore open along her spine.
Blood ran down her back.
Fortunately, the cut wasn't too deep; she immediately stopped the bleeding with medical ninjutsu.
"So vile… typical Mist shinobi," she muttered, gritting her teeth as she drew a kunai.
Her back burned. She could feel grit and stone fragments along the wound—left behind by his blades having carved through earthen jutsu.
It would make healing harder.
But now wasn't the time to think about that.
She'd already steeled herself to die.
She couldn't be a burden.
She'd resist as long as she could.
If she was going down, she wanted her final act to still help her friends.
At the same time, a white head rose quietly from a patch of bushes.
White Zetsu took in the scene and relayed it through the mental link across the entire Land of Fire, all the way to Madara.
This was his underground network.
Madara's greatest tool for watching the world.
"Should I step in?" White Zetsu asked.
Madara had emphasized keeping an eye on those around Obito—they were important pieces.
If not for Obito, Kakashi, Rin, or Kiyohara would've meant nothing to him.
"Don't be hasty," Madara replied, linking his vision to Zetsu's through a certain jutsu.
Vision-sharing techniques weren't rare—Rasa and Gaara's Third Eye, for example, could detach and scout independently.
"How interesting," Madara said.
His old face stayed impassive.
The jutsu was chakra-intensive, but with the Demonic Statue backing him, he had a deep well to draw from.
"What's interesting?" Tobi asked from beside him.
"Is it poop?" he added, then quickly pinged the other Zetsu through the mental link.
Lacking the proper organs, he was oddly fixated on the topic.
"No. It's… Kiyohara," one of the Zetsu answered, turning his attention back to the battlefield.
A figure shot across the terrain, covering hundreds of meters in a heartbeat and kicking up a straight line of dust in his wake.
The speed was astonishing.
Kamiki barely registered a shockwave when a gust slammed into his ear.
Years of battle hardened his reflexes; he instantly turned into water without even looking.
Water Body Flicker!
His emergency move tipped off the other Mist special jōnin attacking Rin.
But just because Kamiki escaped didn't mean the others would.
Schk!
Kiyohara's blade swept through the air.
Lightning surged blue and bright along the edge, drastically amplifying its sharpness and piercing power.
That was the chakra metal's conduction at work.
Like a hot knife through butter, half a Mist shinobi's torso slid off his hips and hit the ground.
"Enemy's here—don't underestimate him!" Kamiki yelled from his puddle.
He'd never imagined Kiyohara would be this fast.
Was he some kind of Body Flicker specialist?
~~~
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