Kiyohara's eyes lit up; everything suddenly made sense.
If a jōnin backed him up at the critical moment, he might just walk away with his life.
"Then let's not waste time."
Back inside, he grabbed blank scrolls and a pen under Rogue Kiyohara's puzzled gaze.
"What are you doing—buckling down to study now, hoping to create some 'honor-student' version of the future?"
Rogue Kiyohara asked.
"No, that's too much hassle. I only got one jutsu from you. If you try to teach me one-on-one, I won't learn many. But if we write them down, I can keep learning forever."
Kiyohara said it dead serious.
That way, every time a future version of himself showed up, he could record whatever jutsu that future self knew.
Keep it up long enough and he'd end up with a massive jutsu library.
Otherwise, how do you maximize the gains?
Skimming others is called "harvesting." Skimming yourself—can you even call that harvesting?
It's like walking into an exam where everyone's "cheating," except the answers you're copying are from your own head.
"…"
Weathered as his face was, Rogue Kiyohara still looked taken aback.
Past him seemed…a bit capitalistic.
He thought it over, then started writing anyway. It was his past self, after all—no harm lending a hand.
After dictating another jutsu, Rogue Kiyohara suddenly froze.
"What is it?"
Kiyohara thought he needed time to recall.
"Someone's coming."
Even as a spirit, he had a jōnin's sharp senses.
Without that, he wouldn't have made it to middle age in the shinobi world.
At that, Kiyohara set the scroll aside and tidied the table.
"Kiyohara!"
Sure enough, a voice called from outside a moment later.
He slid the door open to find a beautiful woman with crimson, ruby-like eyes.
Yūhi Kurenai.
"Kurenai," Kiyohara greeted.
She was his teammate; their other teammate was Shiranui Genma. The three of them formed a squad.
"These are the soldier pills you asked me to buy," Kurenai said, handing him a small pouch.
"Thanks, Kurenai."
He took it.
"How are the rest of your preparations?"
A few days from now they were slated to join Minato's team on a classified mission.
Classified enough that, for now, they didn't even know the details—only that it involved Kannabi Bridge.
Were they going to gather intel, or launch an attack?
Only on the day they set out would the leading jōnin reveal the brief.
"More or less."
Kiyohara nodded.
He didn't have much to bring.
Just take Rogue Kiyohara's urn—his future self was his lifeline at crunch time.
"I really wish the war would just stop."
Kurenai stood there in crisp shinobi gear, a trace of worry between her brows.
The never-ending war hung over everyone like a storm cloud.
Being a ninja was already high-risk; throw war into the mix and it was misery on top of misery.
"It won't drag on much longer," Kiyohara said.
Any war is, at its core, collective violence—using force and weapons to achieve political, economic, or social ends.
The Ninja World War was no exception. Round Two's wounds had healed, and every country once again felt cocky enough to try.
Only this time, everyone would lose.
Konoha would bleed ninjas, to the point kids were shoved onto the battlefield.
Kumogakure would lose its vaunted Third Raikage.
Kirigakure's Three-Tails would die alongside Nohara Rin.
Iwagakure and Sunagakure would both be hollowed out, with talent gaps they couldn't bridge.
If that's the Five Great Nations, imagine the small ones—the Land of Rain would be the saddest of all, infiltrated like a sieve.
"How long is 'not much longer'?"
"A few years, give or take. When there aren't enough people left to fight, the war stops, doesn't it?"
Grim as it sounded, that was the reality.
"Won't that mean all our comrades die?"
Kurenai was horrified.
"I think we should worry about ourselves," Kiyohara said, shaking his head.
"But Minato-sama's with us too. It should be fine, right?"
Like everyone else, Kurenai put great faith in Namikaze Minato's name—almost a sure thing.
"On a battlefield, anyone can die. Don't get careless, Kurenai."
Even Sasuke's "Six-Tomoe Rinnegan" got stabbed out by a single kunai. In this world, no one can swear they won't die.
"…Okay."
Kurenai nodded.
"I'll head out first."
With that, she left.
Kiyohara quietly watched her retreating back.
Rogue Kiyohara's spirit had also been watching their conversation.
Inside the urn, he had no senses and couldn't perceive the outside world at all.
But once he floated out, he could function like a soul.
"How's your genjutsu?" Kiyohara asked, turning back.
He'd noticed Rogue Kiyohara kept handing over ninjutsu.
"Terrible," Rogue Kiyohara said.
"Figures."
Unless some future "Kurama Kiyohara" or "Uchiha Kiyohara" showed up, there was no reason his genjutsu would be any good.
This world, in every way, preached bloodline supremacy.
"Let's keep going."
After Kurenai left, Kiyohara pulled out pen and paper again and had Rogue Kiyohara keep passing him jutsu.
It was the only way. Without strength, you couldn't rack up military merit; without merit, you couldn't get new techniques.
Konoha had long since locked ordinary ninja into a dead loop.
…
For several days straight, Kiyohara stayed home training.
Testing himself, he found his Wind Release and Lightning Release training really had sped up; his comprehension was worlds apart from before.
So this is what stacking feels like?
I'm into it.
Out in the yard, he formed the Dog and Dragon seals, then pressed his palms together with a sharp clap.
He gathered wind-natured chakra in his hands and compressed the pressure.
Whoosh!
A translucent blast of wind shot from his palms and slammed the stump, carving deep grooves into it.
"Haa…"
He was panting again.
What could he do? Even Rogue Kiyohara, to be blunt, didn't have "One Kakashi" of chakra.
If elite-jōnin Kakashi's chakra reserves were the standard unit, then Rogue Kiyohara—only recently up to ordinary jōnin strength—couldn't compare.
And the current Kiyohara was just a genin.
Even with a small boost from the fusion, his reserves were still on the anemic side.
"A ninja's battle is a battle of chakra," Kiyohara muttered, rubbing his chin.
Until he fulfilled Rogue Kiyohara's second wish, he'd have to budget every drop.
The next day.
In the middle of training, Kiyohara was summoned by Namikaze Minato. When he arrived, Obito, Kakashi, Nohara Rin, and the others were already there.