At this moment, Kiyohara was standing off to the side. Steel-Release Kiyohara's spirit had already completely broken into points of light, and its power poured into him like a tide.
He could feel it clearly.
His mental energy was increasing.
The sensing range inside his mind expanded, and his thoughts seemed to run a little faster.
His affinity for Earth and Yang stacked higher.
His compatibility with Earth Release noticeably strengthened, and the Yang Release chakra inside him—representing vitality—became far more active.
Along with that came a boost to his physical energy: his life force rose.
Kiyohara could even feel his muscle fibers subtly reorganizing, his bone density increasing, and the functions of his organs growing stronger than before.
'My chakra is increasing too,' Kiyohara thought.
He was now at roughly 4.4 "Kakashi" worth of chakra.
In terms of chakra reserves, that was already "thick" even among jōnin.
If it kept climbing like this, one day his chakra might even surpass the chakra progenitor, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Of course, it was far too early to talk about that.
'No idea what the next future will be,' he sighed internally, then forced his focus back onto the situation in front of him.
Every extra fraction of strength raised his odds of surviving the war to come.
And of having more ways to keep himself alive when Madara made his move.
Kiyohara lifted his head.
Shinnō was closing in, step by step.
Kiyohara's guard went up.
In the movie, Shinnō was said to be able to "open the Eight Gates indefinitely" with no side effects.
And the reason he was defeated so easily was because Sasuke used the Sharingan to read Shinnō's chakra flow, then used chakra needles to seal Shinnō's tenketsu in advance.
Shinnō's technique collapsed, and the fight ended abruptly.
Kiyohara glanced at Orochimaru, then at Kurenai and Genma.
None of them had anything like that kind of countermeasure.
In the rain, Shinnō's dense muscles gave off an odd sheen.
He took a deep breath and formed a set of complex hand seals.
"Forbidden Technique: Flesh Metamorphosis!"
In an instant, Shinnō's body began to change.
Muscles swelled and restructured at a visible pace. His skin rippled like something writhing under it. Veins bulged beneath the surface like coiling dragons.
His presence shot upward. His chakra fluctuations turned dangerous.
Orochimaru's expression tightened.
"I didn't think you'd perfected Body Activation to this level."
Back then, he'd cooperated with Shinnō for a while, even gained some regeneration-related forbidden techniques from him, and learned quite a bit.
But their partnership had soured. They'd split.
"And I should thank you for the experimental data you left behind, Orochimaru," Shinnō said, voice dropping.
In a sense, they'd refined each other.
"Now I'll show you the ultimate peak of the human body's power."
Boom!
The ground under Shinnō exploded, and his figure vanished.
Orochimaru formed seals almost at the same time.
"Summoning: Rashōmon!"
A massive demon-faced gate erupted from the earth, blocking Shinnō's path.
But in the next second, Shinnō adapted.
"Eight Gates: Sixth Gate—Open!"
Green steam burst from his body. His speed spiked again, and he drove a fist into the Rashōmon.
CRACK!
He punched straight through the heavy gate.
Wood splintered everywhere as Shinnō tore through and went right for Orochimaru.
A flicker of surprise crossed Orochimaru's eyes, but his body twisted like a water snake and slid out of the punch's line.
At the same time, countless venomous snakes erupted from his sleeves and wrapped toward Shinnō.
Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!
"Useless!"
Shinnō's green steam flared—every snake was instantly shredded into meat paste.
He turned and hammered out punch after punch, each one cracking the air. The rain curtain was ripped open into vacuum-like gaps by the shockwaves.
Orochimaru slipped through the barrage, hands flashing through seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"
Wind fed the flames, and a massive fireball surged toward Shinnō.
Most shinobi would dodge or defend.
Shinnō did something insane.
He charged straight into the fireball—like the flames didn't exist.
Green steam collided with fire, hissing violently.
Shinnō burst out the other side. His black-and-yellow coat was burned away, but his skin was only mildly flushed—and then it returned to normal in the blink of an eye.
"Ridiculous regeneration…" Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.
"Not done yet!"
Shinnō landed and surged again. This time, his fist condensed highly compressed air.
"Morning Peacock!"
A storm of punches turned into flaming projectiles, spreading like a peacock's tail—covering every angle Orochimaru could dodge.
Orochimaru had to use Substitution. His true body reappeared thirty meters away in a tree.
Where he'd been standing was now a five-meter-wide crater.
Watching from the side, Kiyohara felt his scalp prickle.
The Sixth Gate's power, stacked with a forbidden-body enhancement, gave Shinnō terrifying speed and destructive output.
Kiyohara guessed Shinnō had access to some portion of Zero-Tails already—but not full control.
If Shinnō had fully mastered it, the movie's events wouldn't have taken place. At minimum, it would still take another decade-plus.
"Orochimaru-sama!" Genma started forward to help.
Orochimaru licked his lips; excitement flickered in his eyes.
"Interesting… A body like that is worth studying."
Shinnō frowned.
Just as Kiyohara suspected, he didn't have complete control over Zero-Tails yet.
After trading blows with Orochimaru for a bit, Shinnō could feel his chakra draining too fast.
The "dark chakra" supply was unstable. Keeping the Sixth Gate open and sustaining Flesh Metamorphosis was massively expensive.
If this continued, Shinnō would be the first to collapse.
He needed a quick finish.
Shinnō's gaze swept the battlefield—and landed on Kiyohara.
That young shinobi had been standing still for a while, eyes unfocused, like he was spacing out.
Right… that kid beat Karōrō. He can use hardening-type techniques too. He must've spent a ton of chakra. If I take him and Karōrō's body together, my Body Activation research could break through!
Shinnō decided instantly.
He feinted another strike at Orochimaru—then abruptly redirected, blasting toward Kiyohara at Sixth-Gate speed.
"Watch out!" Kurenai cried.
Orochimaru fired several snakes to intercept.
But Shinnō's green steam flared again. The snakes tore apart the moment they wrapped him.
Too close.
Orochimaru's brows knit.
These snakes were essentially summoned bodies—flesh and bone.
They couldn't compare to Shinnō's current physical monster-state.
"Hmph."
Shinnō didn't even look at Orochimaru. He went straight for Kiyohara.
But Shinnō was wrong about one thing:
Kiyohara had spent a lot of chakra—
yet his chakra was also recovering rapidly now, far faster than before.
The inheritance from Steel-Release Kiyohara, plus the regeneration and recovery boost from White Snake Power, meant Kiyohara had already regained quite a bit.
And now that he had fully inherited Steel Release, his understanding was completely different.
He understood how to harden more effectively with less chakra.
He understood the optimal internal flow paths for Steel-Release chakra.
He understood precise control—hardening different parts with exact efficiency, getting better results.
So when Shinnō reached him, Kiyohara's reflexes—newly sharpened again—caught the ambush.
He used Leaf Body Flicker to dodge some distance, but Shinnō kept coming.
With the Eight Gates open, Shinnō's speed was absurd.
So Kiyohara stacked Steel Release and Earth Release: Earth Spear over his chest.
Shinnō's fist—green steam, sonic boom, everything—slammed into Kiyohara's chest.
If that landed cleanly on a normal jōnin, it would be instant death.
But—
CLANG!
A metal-on-metal impact thundered, making ears ring.
Shinnō froze.
His punch had connected—but it felt like hitting a mountain of metal.
The recoil sent pain up through his finger bones.
Kiyohara hadn't moved an inch.
Kiyohara's chest now gleamed with black metallic luster.
At the moment of contact, Kiyohara instinctively refined chakra into magnetic force and started rotating the magnetic field.
An invisible magnetic layer formed across his skin as a second barrier, dispersing the impact across his whole body.
Shinnō's full-power strike couldn't even force Kiyohara to take a step back.
"This… impossible!" Shinnō's pupils constricted.
Kiyohara slowly raised his head and exhaled.
The Sha no Sho described Earth Spear as letting the body repel all attacks like diamond-hard armor—instantly, at the moment of impact, putting on a show of invincibility.
But now Kiyohara's durability had exceeded even Earth Spear alone.
"Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes!"
In Shinnō's moment of shock, Orochimaru dropped low and spewed a flood of snakes.
Shinnō sensed the danger behind him and tried to pull away—
too late.
Kiyohara's right hand snapped out and clamped onto Shinnō's wrist.
That hand also gleamed with metal sheen—five fingers like iron clamps.
"You—"
Shinnō tried to break free, but Kiyohara's strength was insane.
Not just raw muscle—magnetic field force reinforced it.
The instant he grabbed Shinnō, Kiyohara adjusted the magnetic interaction between them to a repelling setup—but only on his own side, creating a one-way "sticking" effect.
Shinnō felt like an iron slab pinned to a magnet, the resistance to escape multiplying.
In the next heartbeat, Kiyohara's left fist was already driving forward.
No flashy jutsu. No complicated technique.
Just everything—his full-body power, Steel Release hardness, Earth Spear's muscle-destruction amplification, and the added force from magnetic-field rotation—compressed into a single punch.
BOOM!
His fist smashed into Shinnō's abdomen.
~~~
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