Especially knowing Kakashi was just on the other side of the wall while she was undressing here…
Even with her underwraps still on and nothing actually exposed, Rin still felt strangely self-conscious.
In the end, she closed her eyes and nodded. "I'll be fine, Kiyohara-kun. Go ahead."
Kiyohara slid the tweezers to the edge of the wound and began carefully fishing out the tiny stone fragments, one by one.
Every movement tugged the torn flesh, sending sharp pain through her back. Rin bit down on her lower lip, sweat beading on her forehead, but she didn't make a sound.
His hands were quick and steady, doing everything he could to minimize her pain.
Soon, the small grains of grit and rock were clinking onto a piece of gauze laid beside him.
Then he soaked a cotton ball in alcohol and gently disinfected the wound and surrounding skin. The cold sting and the alcohol's bite made Rin suck in a quiet breath.
"Alright. The foreign objects are out and it's disinfected," Kiyohara finally said, letting out a breath as he began putting away the tools.
"Rin, now use Mystical Palm."
She finally relaxed. The pain had already faded quite a bit.
Green light glowed in her palms as she gathered chakra. She reached back and laid her hands over the wound.
Under the precise effect of advanced medical ninjutsu, the gash began to close visibly. Redness faded, new tissue knitting together until only a pale pink line remained.
In time, even that would disappear.
Such was the power of the A-rank medical ninjutsu, Mystical Palm.
Rin rolled her shoulders experimentally. The stiffness and dull ache were gone; she felt a lot lighter.
"Thank you, Kiyohara-kun," she said, quickly pulling her clothes back on and turning around.
Her cheeks were still a little flushed, but the gentle light had returned to her eyes.
"If it weren't for you, it probably would've gotten much worse."
"It was nothing," Kiyohara said with a faint smile as he repacked his kit.
"We're comrades. Looking out for each other is only natural."
From the other side of the wall, Kakashi called, "Rin, how is it?"
"I'm fine now, Kakashi!" she replied, her voice bright again.
Hearing that, Kakashi released the Earth-Style Wall. The earth sank back into the ground.
The structure had only been held together by chakra; without it, it became ordinary soil again.
Kurenai and Genma both glanced over; Rin's color was much better now.
"Since Rin's patched up, and we've rested enough…" Kakashi looked up at the darkening sky.
"Let's move. We need to keep going."
They didn't linger.
In the next moment, their figures blurred into motion, merging with the dim, shadowed forest as they raced westward toward the coastline.
Luck held for the rest of the way. They ran into no ambushes and no more Mist shinobi.
As they moved, Kakashi kept glancing at Kiyohara.
Knowing he might have awakened a kekkei genkai to protect a comrade, he understood him better—
Almost felt a kind of resonance.
"So what exactly can your power do? You control magnetism?" he asked, unusually chatty for once.
They were leaping from branch to branch, using the trees as footholds.
"Orochimaru-sama says my bloodline is called Magnet Release. I can feel it's related to magnetism," Kiyohara answered.
He'd been laying groundwork for Magnet Release being exposed for a while now—practicing Earth Release openly in front of others, for example.
Now, having used it to protect Rin and survive this chaos, he had a reasonable story to lean on and more freedom to use it going forward.
At least Orochimaru didn't care how it awakened—only what it could do.
"Magnet, huh…" Kakashi murmured, thinking.
"So what are your magnets good for?" Genma asked.
"Like this."
Kiyohara gathered chakra and invoked magnetism, drawing up iron sand.
In one smooth motion, he plucked the senbon right out of Genma's mouth with magnetic pull.
"Huh?" Genma yelped and quickly grabbed it with his hand.
Kiyohara released his control.
The farther away he tried to pull, and the more metal he manipulated, the more chakra it cost.
Time passed quickly as they talked.
Eventually, they ran into the Hyūga escort detail.
Besides the mass of regular shinobi, the branch family alone numbered at least thirty.
The main family, though, had only three.
Two of them were familiar faces: Hyūga Ginka and Hyūga Nobuhiko.
The moment Kiyohara's group appeared, the escort tightened formation.
Only after he presented Orochimaru's sealed orders did they relax.
"Travel with us," said Kenya, a Konoha jōnin.
"This isn't a place to linger. It won't be long before Mist pushes in," he added.
"Let's move."
Kiyohara nodded.
He wanted to leave this cursed island as soon as possible.
If they were unlucky enough to stumble into the Seven Swordsmen, he didn't know if Might Duy would arrive in time.
And unlike canon, Might Guy wasn't in this group.
The column pressed on.
The weight of war hung over everyone.
"That's… that ninja from before," Ginka said softly, glancing at Kiyohara.
Her flak jacket couldn't quite hide her fuller frame.
"Looks like him," Nobuhiko agreed.
They'd thought he was already dead.
The casualty rate in this war was brutally high; people you greeted in the morning were in the ground by nightfall.
"Hm?"
Ginka's Byakugan was still active as she scanned for ambushes.
She could see Kiyohara's chakra flowing—and noticed it had changed.
New chakra was mixed in.
Its hue was darker than the rest, like some special color threaded through the usual flow.
What is that? she wondered.
More confusing still was how much it had grown.
Was this person some kind of war-born prodigy, like Namikaze Minato?
Her expression tightened.
"What is it?" Nobuhiko asked, noticing her peeking at the rear of the column again.
"Nothing," she shook her head.
Fine. Best not to antagonize Kiyohara. If they could befriend him, all the better.
As a Hyūga main-branch member, her thoughts naturally leaned toward clan interests.
If they could build ties with promising talent early, it would be a boon for the Hyūga.
But before she could think of how to approach him, the ground shook.
A massive surge of chakra erupted somewhere ahead, making the earth tremble.
Kiyohara's head snapped toward the source.
At this time, there was only one person who could generate a chakra surge that massive.
Might Duy.
The final blaze of the greatest taijutsu: the Eighth Gate of the Eight Gates Release Formation.