Kiyohara panted slightly, though the expression beneath his mask remained as cold and calm as ever.
His chakra reserves had recovered significantly with the help of the Iwa Spirit's biological hijacking and "accelerated digestion." But all of this was violently overdrawing his physical limits. It was like overclocking a CPU; he could force his body to perform far beyond its theoretical capacity for a short time, but doing so for extended periods would lead to catastrophic, permanent hardware damage.
Therefore, Kiyohara knew he would inevitably need to rest for several days after this battle to prevent his internal organs from failing. He could feel the agonizing fatigue from continuous, supersonic combat and mental tension accumulating in his muscles.
Of course, the gains were astronomical.
Kiyohara's current combat proficiency was miles ahead of his past self. If he were to fight his previous incarnation using the stats he possessed before the Kannabi Bridge mission, the current Kiyohara could win effortlessly using only basic Taijutsu!
But...
Kiyohara looked toward the deep forest. He slowly took off his black mask, revealing his handsome face. He was covered in cold sweat, clearly showing significant exhaustion. The quicklime powder had settled, and the chemical mist had dispersed, so there was no tactical point in wearing the filter anymore.
He sensed a powerful, icy chakra signature filled with absolute, focused killing intent. It was breaking through the scattered outer perimeter of the flank at an incredible speed, heading straight for his exact coordinates.
After multiple genetic inheritances and stacking Yang Release, Kiyohara's sensory talent had become formidable. Without needing a warning from the Iwa Spirit, he could feel the assassin approaching rapidly.
'A powerful executioner has arrived...' Kiyohara's eyes narrowed. The opponent's baseline movement speed was terrifyingly fast, not at all inferior to his own bursts of magnetic repulsion. Unless he stacked the Konoha Body Flicker on top of his magnetic field, he wouldn't be able to outrun this man in a straight line.
'An elite, specialized Body Flicker assassin from Kirigakure?' Kiyohara analyzed internally.
In an instant, a figure leaped flawlessly out from a muddy splash of water and landed ten meters in front of him.
Sora Mizurugi's dead eyes instantly locked onto Kiyohara.
He didn't waste a single word of monologue. His uniquely serrated ninja sword was already unsheathed. The blade shimmered with a dense, pressurized layer of water—clearly infused with highly condensed Water Release chakra to increase its cutting power.
"Your farce ends here, boy," Sora's voice was as cold as his gaze.
Kiyohara could clearly feel the oppressive, suffocating pressure emanating from the opponent, far exceeding any Mist Jonin he had slaughtered today. This was a true, battle-hardened elite; every micro-movement contained tempered killing intent and absolute efficiency.
'It's time to retreat,' the pragmatic thought flashed through Kiyohara's mind.
The goals of pinning down the enemy, creating logistical chaos, and harvesting military merit had already been vastly over-achieved. If he left now, using his superior top speed and the dense jungle terrain, he had an excellent chance of shaking off this assassin and safely retreating to the Konoha inland defense line.
However...
His gaze passed over Sora, looking as if it could pierce through the chaotic battlefield miles away. He looked toward a temporary Mist command point where his sensors could vaguely detect several massive, high-value chakra signatures gathered together.
If he could... if he could somehow assassinate the commander stationed there and completely paralyze the Hidden Mist's tactical network in this entire sector... the resulting strategic chaos and battle merit payout would be unprecedented!
With an achievement of that magnitude, a promotion to Special Jonin—or even full Jonin—would be practically guaranteed!
At that rank, the restricted ninjutsu archives and resource quotas he could legally access would be fundamentally different. If he established enough outstanding, undeniable merit, it might not be impossible to eventually apply for clearance to view the legendary Scroll of Seals, which recorded countless forbidden, world-ending techniques!
The only reason Minato Namikaze, who came from a poor civilian background, could learn a lost, forbidden space-time jutsu like the Flying Thunder God was because his military merits and tactical genius were both undeniable, earning him special approval from the Third Hokage.
Risk and reward swayed violently in Kiyohara's calculating heart like the two ends of a weighted scale.
'Before I evacuate... let's make one more big score!' Kiyohara made his decision instantly.
He still had strength left. He couldn't just leave like this.
The countdown to Madara Uchiha's psychological torture plan involving Rin was rapidly approaching. If he wanted to save her life—or simply protect his own—he had to increase his political rank and raw firepower as quickly as possible.
If he left now, his current battle merits would be enough to exchange for a few standard jutsu, but they wouldn't be enough to officially secure a Jonin promotion. Many of the specialized techniques Kiyohara possessed (like his Steel Release) could not be displayed openly without drawing the deadly scrutiny of Root or ANBU.
Promotion to Jonin wasn't just about raw combat power; it involved seniority, undeniable tactical track records, and political recognition from the Hokage or the core council. Otherwise, even with the apocalyptic strength to overturn the Ninja World, he could only remain a Genin. (At the end of Shippuden, even after Naruto Uzumaki lost his arm saving the world, he was still forced to cram theoretical logistics knowledge to get promoted).
A genius like Kakashi had only been promoted to Jonin early as an exception because he had completed a massive, documented volume of high-difficulty, A-Rank assassinations.
'My background is perfectly clean, and it's wartime now. If I assassinate a Mist Commander, a promotion should be a sure thing,' Kiyohara concluded coldly.
Facing Sora's killing intent, which surged over him like a tidal wave, Kiyohara did not retreat. Instead, his hands blurred through a rapid sequence of seals while his left hand simultaneously reached deep into his tactical pouch.
Seeing Kiyohara's movement, Sora's figure violently blurred, turning into an almost invisible, liquid line of water, advancing at a speed far exceeding any previous enemy!
Water Release: Water Stream Self-Dancing Technique!
A lethal flash of a serrated blade appeared, aimed flawlessly straight for Kiyohara's carotid artery!
However, at the exact millisecond the water-infused blade was about to touch Kiyohara's skin... square-shaped, pitch-black iron sand rushed forward. It was compressed as thin as a sheet of paper.
Shua-la-la!
One thin, black sheet after another snapped into place, forming a wall of rigid black sandpaper between the blade and Kiyohara's neck.
Sora frowned slightly mid-slash. Iron sand compressed this thinly couldn't possibly possess the structural integrity to block his high-pressure water blade.
Without hesitating, his greatsword hacked down fiercely upon the black shield, intending to seamlessly slice Kiyohara's iron sand in half and decapitate the boy in one fluid motion!
However, as the serrated blade bit into the thin black sand, his sword suddenly felt a violent, unnatural vibration.
When Sora looked down, his dead eyes widened.
Beneath the thin veneer of iron sand was a brilliant, blinding burst of orange firelight!
BOOM!
A deafening, catastrophic chain of explosions roared directly in front of Sora's face.
Firelight soared into the canopy, thick smoke billowed outward, and a violent, supersonic shockwave mixed with thousands of deadly, jagged iron sand fragments expanded frantically in all directions!
A massive, scorched crater was blasted into the ground, and the surrounding ancient trees were instantly shredded to splinters and ignited!
Although Sora possessed elite reflexes and retreated backward instantly, he was still caught by the outer edge of the blast radius, barely managing to use his Water Stream technique to accelerate his dodge.
But even so, several pieces of burning, shrapnel-like iron sand grazed his cheeks and arms, leaving deep, stinging lacerations.
He landed gracefully in the distance, looking at the churning fireball and the massive cloud of smoke. A look of absolute, profound disbelief appeared on his cold face for the first time.
'A madman... is this kid a suicidal madman?!' Waves of shock surged in Sora's heart.
Using ultra-thin iron sand to completely wrap highly volatile explosive tags, making him mistake it for an ordinary Magnet Release shield?!
Wasn't the boy terrified of a microscopic chakra control error? Or having the tags detonated prematurely by an enemy's attack, blowing himself to bloody smithereens too?!
At such point-blank range, both people would take the exact same concussive force of the explosion!
To Sora, this kind of psychotic tactic was simply unheard of. It completely placed the user in the most lethal situation possible, trading mutual destruction for extreme defense and counterattack opportunities!
As the thick, black smoke thinned slightly, Sora saw Kiyohara's figure still standing perfectly still by the edge of the crater.
Only a portion of the boy's outer flak jacket had been incinerated by the blast, revealing the black chainmail lining underneath.
Sora's eyes narrowed. 'Wait...'
He noticed that besides the destroyed clothing, Kiyohara didn't seem to have a single scratch or burn on his flesh!
"Surprised?" Kiyohara smiled faintly.
At the exact microsecond of the detonation, Kiyohara had instantly flared his Steel Release, hardening his skin to absorb the thermal and kinetic shockwave flawlessly. He could use his bloodline to negate the damage, but Sora was just fragile flesh and blood.
The next moment, Kiyohara formed seals again.
More and more square, black, sandpaper-like sheets emerged from behind Kiyohara's back, slowly drifting around him. They smoothly assembled into a circular, floating shield system, constantly hovering around his perimeter.
After initially having the idea of using magnetic force to control the flying fragments of a shattered sword, Kiyohara had suddenly engineered an even better, infinitely more lethal application.
And this method consumed very little raw chakra; it only required him to use thin layers of iron sand to carry and camouflage standard explosive tags.
Kiyohara called it... Magnet Release: Iron Sand Exploding Tag Mode!
By launching these camouflaged, magnetic tags like guided missiles, he could trigger catastrophic, point-blank explosions on demand.
If he had to identify a drawback, it was that it was astronomically expensive. It was a pure, money-burning fighting style.
But Kiyohara was essentially using the war to sustain the war. These hundreds of explosive tags were all stripped directly from the corpses of the Mist ninja he had just slaughtered.
Taken from the Hidden Mist. Used against the Hidden Mist.
And then, they would be violently converted into Kiyohara's mounting military merits.
"!!" Sora's eyes widened, recognizing the sheer volume of explosives floating around the boy.
"You want to assassinate me?" Kiyohara smiled coldly. "You'll have to ask my explosive tags if they agree first."
Everyone is trying hard to stay alive. If Sora had an issue with that, he could take it up with the bombs.
Sora's face darkened with fury. He specialized in high-speed, close-quarters assassination. But the opponent's almost shameless, "suicidal defense" completely negated the tactical advantage of his Water Stream Self-Dancing Technique.
Every single close-quarters assault could slam into an invisible explosive tag. Even if he could use his elite speed to dodge before the detonation, or use Water Release to defend, it would violently disrupt his rhythm, consume massive amounts of chakra, and risk lethal shrapnel injuries.
"No matter how many explosive tags you stole, there will be a time when you inevitably run out," Sora's voice was low and deadly as his hands rapidly blurred through seals.
"Water Release: Hiding in Mist Technique!"
A thick, suffocating fog suddenly expanded violently, with him as the epicenter, instantly enveloping an area of nearly a hundred meters in zero visibility.
In this signature Hidden Mist assassination environment, his Water Stream speed would receive the maximum possible environmental boost!
However, Kiyohara's tactical reaction was even faster!
Almost at the exact millisecond the mist began to rise, he had already moved!
With the explosive support of magnetic repulsion stacked flawlessly with the Konoha Body Flicker, Kiyohara's figure seemed to turn into a streak of black lightning tearing through the thick fog!
The hovering halo of Iron Sand Exploding Tags swirled rapidly behind him like a lethal cape.
His spinning, supersonic form generated a localized hurricane. Wherever he passed, shallow trenches were carved into the dirt. Gravel, clods of earth, and broken grass blades were violently pushed aside by an invisible magnetic hand, shooting out to both sides like shrapnel.
The thick fog was forcefully, violently carved into a brief, clear tunnel by his sheer velocity!
Sora's Water Body Flicker activated simultaneously. He was like a phantom fish in water within the mist, turning into several liquid afterimages that were impossible to distinguish between real and fake, attempting to intercept and flank the boy.
But Sora soon discovered, to his utter horror, that Kiyohara's target did not seem to be him at all!
The boy was ignoring the elite assassin entirely, charting a direct, supersonic collision course toward the scattered, regrouping squads of Mist Chunin and Genin along his charge path!
"Stop him!"
"Watch out!"
Terrified screams rang out in the mist.
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Give me powerstones.
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