Rin stood there, panting for a few moments as her dim vision cleared.
What filled her eyes was a familiar back.
Kiyohara's back.
"!"
She glanced at where he'd been just a heartbeat ago, then back at where he stood in front of her now.
How had he crossed that distance?
Was she dreaming?
Had he really gotten to her in just a blink?
But the enemy had no intention of giving her time to process it.
"He must've used some kind of Body Flicker. Don't panic—his chakra's got to be heavily drained," Kamiki said, regaining his composure and forming seals.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
A massive water dragon rose behind him, roaring forward.
"Water Release: Furious Roaring Tornado—!"
"Water Release—!"
Three other Mist shinobi formed seals as well and launched their own water techniques.
A barrage of Water Release roared toward Kiyohara and Rin, filling the air.
"Rin, hold on to me," Kiyohara said.
He reversed his grip on the sword and scooped her up in a princess carry as she staggered.
A mix of feminine scent, sweat, and blood reached him—but he had no room to think about it.
Magnetism surged.
The repulsive force under his feet launched them like a cannon shell, carrying them to the canopy of a distant tree in an instant.
"The cost is lower than Leaf Body Flicker," he noted.
And he could feel it—
His acceleration was even faster.
Crashhhh!
The spot where they had been standing was obliterated by the Water Release barrage, the earth cratering and filling with a deep pool.
Anyone standing there would have been crushed into paste in an instant.
"So fast…" Rin whispered, dazed.
She looked up at Kiyohara's sharp profile; only then did it feel real.
"Why did that use so little chakra?" Kiyohara asked Magnet Kiyohara.
All of this conversation happened in the mind; no one outside could hear a thing.
"In essence, you only used a small amount of force—one unit—to turn ten units of magnetic field. Then, from those ten, a portion flows back into you. So the chakra usage isn't that high," Magnet Kiyohara explained.
"If you'd tried that without a Magnet Release bloodline, your body would've been at the brink of collapse."
He floated behind Kiyohara like a ghost, arms folded.
Previously, he'd been forcing Kiyohara to simulate Magnet Release, and that had put a heavy load on him.
Now that the bloodline was truly his, the strain had dropped.
"So that's the pressure bloodlines put on the body," Kiyohara thought.
It made sense.
Bloodlines always came with a cost—hence "bloodline diseases."
Itachi, Hayate, Yakumo…
Yakumo Kurama had the clan's strongest "Five Senses Dominance," but could barely run 500 meters without collapsing.
Kiyohara didn't even have Earth affinity; Magnet Kiyohara had forcibly refined and merged his Wind and borrowed Earth into magnetism.
"Once you finish the second wish, the strain will drop even more," Magnet Kiyohara said.
Looking down through the leaves, Kiyohara felt a surge of anticipation.
This was only a partial inheritance—and he was already this fast.
Once he fulfilled the final wish, his power would climb even further.
"Careful, they're coming again," Rin said, wrapping an arm around his neck to keep from falling as she saw Mist shinobi climbing up toward their tree.
"I know," he replied.
Even while talking to Magnet Kiyohara, he'd kept an eye on the battlefield.
He vanished again, body a blur, taking Rin with him.
At each new perch, he pulled more shuriken from his pouch.
Soon, a mesh of copper wires crisscrossed the sky.
He coated them with Wind and Lightning Release, sharpening them further.
The trees around them fell like sliced tofu.
One move—and several more Mist shinobi died screaming under the net.
Kamiki hadn't expected the net to stretch that far; he was forced to repeatedly use Water Body Flicker to narrowly escape.
"The wires are almost done…" Kiyohara thought, feeling the frayed ends under his fingers.
These were special ninja-grade copper wires to begin with—
But add Wind and Lightning into the mix, and they burned out quickly.
That was the reality of "combat loss": shinobi burned not only chakra, but money.
Still, the results were worth it.
Around him, he'd carved out a zone of relative safety.
Kurenai and Genma finally cleared their own sectors and closed in on Kiyohara's position.
It was always safer to regroup than fight alone.
"That was close…" Kakashi thought, watching Kiyohara pull Rin out of the kill zone.
He didn't know exactly what Kiyohara had done to get that fast—but he felt a real sense of relief.
He plunged his lightning-coated hand through three more Mist shinobi.
Then dizziness washed over him.
The Sharingan's drain was brutal, chewing through his chakra nonstop.
All he could do was hope he'd grow up soon.
With age, chakra naturally increased.
Because at its most basic, chakra broke down into stamina.
Only in middle age did a ninja's reserves begin to decline.
As Kamiki focused on Kiyohara, trying to figure out some way to respond, a snake silently sank its fangs into his ankle.
Pain flashed—and his vision darkened.
The venom raced up his body, overwhelming him in seconds.
Such poison, such a snake—
His pupils shrank.
One name surfaced in his mind.
As he fell, he glimpsed a pale-skinned young man approaching.
Orochimaru.
Too late for regret.
His attention had all been on Kiyohara.
The poison was already in his heart and brain.
He was gone.
"Very impressive, Kiyohara-kun," Orochimaru said, looking up at the boy standing in the canopy.
With him on the field, the dozens of Mist shinobi nearby began to retreat.
They were waiting for the Seven Ninja Swordsmen to arrive.
Someone like Orochimaru wasn't an opponent they could handle.
"That technique you used just now… must be some kind of kekkei genkai, no?" Orochimaru asked, eyes gleaming with curiosity.
He'd taken Kiyohara for a civilian. It seemed he'd been wrong.
He didn't yet know what the bloodline was—
But one thing was certain:
His interest in Kiyohara had only grown.
~~~
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