The familiar chime echoed in his mind.
Kiyohara's spirits lifted. He found an excuse to step away from his squad, ducking behind a crumbling, moss-covered wall that overlooked the eastern coastline.
He closed his eyes and entered his mental space.
A ripple distorted the air next to the urns of the Rogue Ninja and the Sword Master.
A third urn materialized.
It wasn't wood or polished metal. It was a dull, rough stone box, mixed with dark metallic sand that shifted like fluid.
Engraved on the lid was a symbol: an hourglass.
The Sunagakure Headband Pattern.
"The Sand Village?" Kiyohara's heart skipped a beat. A bad feeling surged up. "Is it me from another village?"
Before he could analyze it, the stone urn vibrated violently.
"YEAH!"
A voice roared from inside the stone. "I'll kill you useless bureaucrats even if it costs me my life today!"
"?"
Kiyohara blinked.
The shouting faded. A phantom figure erupted from the urn.
He was young, bearing the same face as Kiyohara, but his temperament was wild. He wore the tan and white flak jacket of Sunagakure, his headband tied tightly across his brow. He radiated an aggressive, volatile energy.
"Oh? I'm dead?"
The future Kiyohara looked down at his phantom hands, the rage draining from his face, replaced by mild surprise.
He looked at the present Kiyohara.
"So the 'Last Words Letter' is real. I only managed to complete one of my predecessor's wishes before I died. Guess I got packaged and shipped to the past."
His memory was clearly stuck mid-battle. He didn't even realize he had been killed.
"Are you... the Suna version of me?" Kiyohara asked cautiously.
"That's right." The Sand Ninja pointed to his forehead protector. "And I inherited the Kekkei Genkai: Magnet Release (Jiton)."
'A Bloodline Limit!'
Kiyohara's heart leaped with joy.
This was a massive upgrade. Magnet Release wasn't a forbidden or clan-exclusive secret like the Sharingan. It was a mutation. The Third Kazekage had it. Rasa (the Fourth) had it. Toroi of the Cloud had it.
If Kiyohara suddenly manifested it, he could claim it was a spontaneous genetic mutation—just like Hashirama's Wood Release. It would withstand scrutiny.
"How did you die?" Kiyohara asked, needing to understand the context of the wishes.
"Die?" Magnet Release Kiyohara scoffed, crossing his arms defensively.
"The Village system is weak. It restricts true strength. I wanted to prove that Suna needs an absolute dictator, not a compromising politician. So... I went to challenge the Kazekage to a death match."
He sighed, shaking his head like it was a minor inconvenience.
"Unfortunately, my raw power wasn't enough. I was ambushed by the Kazekage's personal ANBU guard before I could even reach his office. Caught me off guard. I lost."
Kiyohara took a deep, steadying breath.
He suppressed the urge to scream.
'You thought the Village system was too 'urbanized'? So you tried to assassinate the Kazekage in broad daylight?!'
He confirmed it: This version of himself was a radical, power-supremacist extremist. His brain was fundamentally broken by the law of the jungle.
"So," Kiyohara cut straight to the chase. Dealing with a fanatic required brevity. "What are your dying wishes?"
Magnet Release Kiyohara held up two fingers.
"Simple."
"First: Kill a Sunagakure ANBU. I wanted revenge on the squad that jumped me, but given your current weak civilian aura, you aren't strong enough. Any Suna ANBU will do as a compromise."
Kiyohara nodded. 'Manageable.'
"Second: Defeat Pakura."
The Sand Ninja sneered. "That woman always suppressed me in spars just because she was older and had Scorch Release. Beat her down for me."
Kiyohara analyzed the requests.
Neither was impossible.
* Kill an elite Suna operative.
* Defeat the future Hero of the Sand.
"Timing is everything," Kiyohara thought. Right now, Pakura was likely a rising star, not the untouchable legend she would become later in the war. If he acted soon, he could win.
"I understand," Kiyohara agreed. "I will fulfill them."
"I hope you don't disappoint me," the Radical muttered, floating out of Kiyohara's body to look at the ocean.
"If I complete the first wish," Kiyohara asked, "Do I inherit the Bloodline Limit?"
"You should."
The Radical held out a hand. Black iron sand materialized, swirling around his phantom fingers like a dark halo.
"My parents gave me a weak Magnet affinity. But the previous guy in the urn also had Magnet Release. When I completed his wish, our affinities merged. My Iron Sand became absolute."
Kiyohara nodded. The math checked out. Completing the first wish would grant him the combined Magnet Release of two future selves.
"Where are we?" the Radical asked, staring at the ruins. "The Land of Whirlpools?"
"Yes. The old site."
"Are there any Suna ninja here?" The Radical looked eager. He wanted to kill an ANBU immediately.
"Maybe," Kiyohara said, looking at the churning gray sea.
The Land of Whirlpools was a massive buffer zone. With the war escalating, Fire, Water, and potentially Earth and Wind could all be sending black-ops teams here to fish in troubled waters.
Kiyohara looked at the swirling black sand around the Radical's hand.
'Iron Sand is versatile,' Kiyohara theorized. 'But with my Lightning affinity... could I use electromagnetic induction? Could I build a Railgun?'
The possibilities were suddenly endless.
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