Rin's feet started to lift off the ground as well.
With her back pressed against the rough bark, her left arm was hoisted high and pinned to the trunk. It looked awkward, but for the moment she wasn't in immediate danger.
"Rin!" Kakashi barked low. In the same instant, he shoved his forehead protector up, exposing the crimson Sharingan with two tomoe. The world slowed in his eyes—his dynamic vision locking onto every movement as his body shifted into a sprint to rescue her.
"I'm fine—just stuck!" Rin shouted quickly. She struggled hard, but this webbing wasn't ordinary.
The bindings felt like steel wire—absurdly tough. The more she fought, the tighter it cinched around her wrist.
Rin yanked a metallic black kunai from her pouch.
Shk!
She stabbed at the white webbing, and the impact rang like metal striking metal.
The web bowed under the kunai, but no matter how hard she pushed, she couldn't pierce it.
It wouldn't cut.
Rin's heart jolted. This was the first time she'd met an enemy like this—what was this "silk" even made of?
Another bloodline ability?
"Hehehe… stop wasting effort," the enemy laughed. "My webs are tough as hell. I'm Kidōmaru—my threads can hold two elephants!"
Kidōmaru looked down at Rin and laughed again.
A woman trying to break his webbing? Please.
Kiyohara studied Kidōmaru.
The massive, furry brown spider he was riding had a twitching abdomen, spawning one tiny spider after another on the spot and sending them into the fight.
A contracted summon? Kiyohara thought.
Kidōmaru's six arms hung like spider legs—either relaxed or slightly bent.
It reminded Kiyohara of Orochimaru's Sound Five—there was a Kidōmaru among them too, with similarly dark brown skin.
So he's from the Land of Rice Fields… the Spider clan, Kiyohara's mind raced through what he knew.
Rice Fields was a tiny country bordering Konoha—so small it didn't even have a real hidden village.
Later, after Orochimaru defected, he would bribe and manipulate the daimyo and build Otogakure there.
Unlike the typical "one country, one village" system, Oto didn't answer to the daimyo at all—Orochimaru pulled the classic move: seize power from below, stab the daimyo in the back, take the country as his own base.
But right now, Rice Fields still existed as-is.
No village, but plenty of shinobi: clans scattered everywhere, chaotic politics, mercenaries and missing-nin common.
"Heh, so you've heard of us?" Kidōmaru's lips curled into a cruel smile.
He clearly enjoyed prey looking wary and afraid. With his six arms folded or dangling, he spoke down at them in a hoarse tone.
"You little Konoha brat have some knowledge. That's right—I'm Kidōmaru of the Spider clan. Remember the name, so when you hit the Pure Land you'll know who to complain about."
He paused, eyes sweeping from Rin—temporarily restrained—to Kiyohara and Kakashi standing ready, his tone turning bitter.
"Tch. You great nations only know how to start wars for your own benefit. The flames spread, and little countries like ours get crushed in the middle. Farms ruined, trade routes cut… how are we supposed to survive if we don't find some 'extra income'?"
His gaze settled greedily on Kakashi's crimson left eye.
"A stray Konoha squad like yours sells for a great price—especially with a kid carrying a Sharingan."
He licked his lips.
He'd expected a normal squad. He hadn't expected a jackpot.
"Hehehe… Sharingan prices on the black market never drop."
One eye was still one eye. He didn't care why it was only one.
"Ninja Art: Spider Binding!"
Kidōmaru puffed his cheeks and spat a huge sheet of webbing that spread toward Kiyohara and Kakashi.
Both reacted instantly, darting backward as the sticky web slammed in.
Kakashi formed seals and raised a wall from the ground.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!
The web slapped the wall and left a deep dent—proof of the force behind it.
Kakashi began calculating his remaining chakra.
He'd never fought an enemy like this; the lack of intel was a disadvantage. Against most opponents, Kakashi would've already ended it.
But unknown techniques meant he had to be careful.
And as someone constantly short on chakra, he had to budget every move.
He'd already used one Chidori and one Earth-Style Wall.
Now he only had enough chakra left for two and a half Chidori.
Meaning: only two full Chidori casts.
In the next moment, Kakashi leaned forward, Sharingan fixed on Kidōmaru.
He jumped, kicked off a tree, then used that momentum to dive in.
The added force from a high-angle drop made his speed even faster.
At the same time, Kiyohara formed seals and sent a spear of iron sand to feint for Kakashi.
"Spider War Bow!" Kidōmaru spat multiple smaller web nets at Kakashi in rapid succession—like blooming flowers.
To Kakashi's Sharingan, they moved in slow motion.
He swung Chidori midair, the lightning arc tearing through the webs.
But this technique had a flaw.
At extreme speed, controlling direction became difficult.
Sharingan vision could help with tracking—but even if you see something, you can't always evade it.
Kidōmaru's six arms moved. Each hand's fingers were linked to pale threads.
He was controlling thirty web-lines at once.
His arms blurred, weaving and snapping the threads. They weren't random—under his control, they instantly formed overlapping nets of varying size and properties—tough, sticky, layered—blocking Kakashi's charge route.
Even Kiyohara's iron-sand spear got bound up.
The way Kidōmaru manipulated his threads was as smooth as a master using Shuriken Manipulation Technique.
Kakashi's Chidori still punched through several layers—lightning and shredded strands scattering everywhere.
But there were too many threads, and they were too resilient. His speed was noticeably slowed.
Worse—Kidōmaru's tactics were vicious.
Thin, nearly transparent threads crept in from the sides and below, aiming for Kakashi's right hand and legs.
No—too late! Kakashi realized.
Just as he cleared the upper nets with Chidori, threads snapped around his ankle from below.
Rip!
Even as Kakashi tried to twist away on landing, several strands wrapped tight around his right wrist.
The shriek of "a thousand birds" cut off. Lightning faded.
His right hand was cocooned in white webbing.
With a heavy thump, Kakashi's right arm—like Rin's—was pinned to a tree.
"Haa…" Kidōmaru panted and shoved a soldier pill into his mouth.
He hadn't dared underestimate Kakashi. He'd opened with a full combo.
"Looks like you don't know how to use Sharingan genjutsu. Guess I worried for nothing," Kidōmaru snarled.
Then he began feeding chakra into the webbing from his fingertips.
Spider Cocoon.
A capture technique—wrapping the target in a web-constructed cocoon. The sticky strands bound the whole body, locking movement.
And by pouring more chakra in, he could densify the cocoon, tighten the webbing… and eventually strangle the trapped prey.
"Kakashi!" Rin cried.
Kakashi's eyes sharpened. With his free left hand, he yanked a kunai and slashed hard at the threads around his wrist.
White chakra shimmered along the blade—chakra flow.
Even without his short sword, Kakashi could still use some of Sakumo's blade techniques through a kunai.
And unlike Rin, it worked immediately—he cut through several threads.
"It's useless!" Kidōmaru laughed.
"These webs are made from my special chakra-infused bodily fluid. The moment it touches air, it hardens like steel. So tell me—are you faster, or am I?"
For him, the chakra cost was low. If they cut, he could simply re-layer more webbing.
All of this happened in the span of seconds.
From Kakashi's charge to being bound at the tree took only two or three seconds.
Kiyohara hadn't been idle—he'd tried to support with Lightning Release arcs, but the window was too short and Kidōmaru dodged.
"You really think two brats can beat me?" Kidōmaru sneered.
He'd already spent a lot of chakra—but he still believed he could handle Kiyohara.
That was confidence built over thirty years. Thirty years of refining his techniques.
His clan might be tiny, but he was among the strongest shinobi in Rice Fields.
And everyone knew: in a squad, the strongest one was usually the Uchiha with the Sharingan.
He'd never seen a white-haired Uchiha before—but that eye didn't lie.
So he thinks Kakashi is an Uchiha… Kiyohara realized.
Shinobi combat was also information combat.
Kidōmaru came from a poorer backwater than even Rain or Hot Water—lack of knowledge was normal.
Kakashi didn't yet have the "Copy Ninja Kakashi" fame.
Kidōmaru had no way to recognize him.
"Kiyohara! Kakashi! If it's too much, retreat!" Rin shouted.
Kidōmaru wanted captives; they weren't in immediate danger of being killed.
"No, Rin," Kakashi said sharply. "This enemy isn't that strong. The problem is we didn't have intel. Kiyohara—buy me a few seconds."
Ninken were gathering around Kakashi, guarding him from further attacks.
He'd already started reading Kidōmaru's habits. With just a little more familiarity, Kakashi was confident he could drop him in one move.
"Fine. I'll stall him," Kiyohara said.
Honestly, he didn't think it would take even "a few seconds."
Kidōmaru wasn't strong so much as weird—non-mainstream methods and no intel was what kept the fight dragged out.
Under normal conditions, either Kiyohara or Kakashi could defeat him.
Kidōmaru's plan was "correct" on paper: kill the medic first (Rin), then disable the supposed main damage dealer (the Sharingan user).
But he'd missed one thing.
Kiyohara was also a kekkei genkai user.
To Kiyohara now, Kidōmaru wasn't a person anymore.
He was a walking merit payout.
"'A corpse'—no, a merit reward—speaks," Kiyohara murmured lightly.
"Huh?" Kidōmaru gave him a is this kid brain-damaged? look.
He stomped his foot, and the massive spider summon scuttled toward Kiyohara.
"Magnet Release: Magnetic Field Rotation!"
White vapor leaked from the corner of Kiyohara's mouth.
The magnetic field began to spin.
With full Magnet Release aptitude inherited, Kiyohara's "borrow range" was far greater than before.
This time he truly controlled and rotated the local magnetic field within his reach.
The field—once rotated by his technique—was pried loose and harnessed.
Kiyohara only needed to draw a tiny bit of the earth's magnetism into his body to gain a powerful magnetic field.
Standing on the ground, it felt like he was drawing strength directly from the earth.
As long as his chakra held out, he could extend the duration of this magnetic-field boost.
Improving his physical energy would expand how much field-strength he could safely bear.
With over two "cards" worth of chakra, and Kidōmaru already having spent a lot—Kiyohara had more than enough.
And then—
Kiyohara vanished from the giant spider's eight eyes.
The spider paused in confusion, searching for the target it had been commanded to crush.
"Damn it—where'd he go?!" Kidōmaru couldn't see Kiyohara either.
Only a fading afterimage remained, dissolving like a visual error.
"Fine—if I can't see you… then Spider Web Area!"
Kidōmaru formed seals and spat multiple clumps of webbing, spreading them out into a massive net field.
To Kidōmaru, these webs were like nerves—sensitive enough to detect even tiny vibrations in the air.
Because the threads were hollow, with his chakra constantly flowing through them.
"There!" Kidōmaru suddenly barked an order to his spider.
But at that exact moment, Kiyohara's body appeared beneath the spider.
His fist was wrapped in a huge iron-sand gauntlet. He jumped and punched upward—straight into its lower jaw.
This was Kiyohara's own twist on the idea behind Earth Release: Fist Rock—except he used iron sand, condensed by magnetism.
BOOM!
The impact thundered through the forest.
In Kakashi's and Rin's stunned eyes—and Kidōmaru's what the hell am I looking at horror—Kiyohara's punch launched the massive spider up into the air more than ten meters.
During Magnetic Field Rotation, Kiyohara didn't just gain repulsion-based acceleration.
He also gained raw force—magnetic field power, amplified and fed into his body through special control.
Then Kiyohara flicked his hand. The iron-sand fist dispersed and reshaped into a long spear.
Magnet Release: Iron Sand World Method!
As the spider fell, the black spear impaled its abdomen.
Poof—!
The giant spider burst into white smoke and vanished.
When a summoned beast took damage beyond its limit, the Summoning Jutsu automatically canceled.