Inside Kiyohara's tent—
"I can finally relax a little."
Kiyohara let out a long breath.
Back at Kannabi Bridge, his nerves had been strung tight for days.
Rogue Kiyohara could help him scout for nearby enemies, but pre-laid traps were another story entirely.
Step on one of those, and even the Sannin couldn't save you.
Tsunade's little brother Nawaki, for example—Orochimaru was literally looking at him one second, and the next he was blown apart by exploding tags. Not even a whole body left.
So the fact that one future version of him died to exploding tags really didn't surprise Kiyohara at all.
"Orochimaru is the officer in charge of this outpost, huh," Rogue Kiyohara's spirit drifted out, tone a bit nostalgic.
One way or another, Orochimaru had been his direct superior for decades.
"By the way, didn't Orochimaru give you a Curse Mark? Even Mizuki had one, right?"
Kiyohara suddenly asked.
Orochimaru's underlings all had a shared trait: curse marks, across the board.
You could say Orochimaru was on the cutting edge of the whole curse seal system.
"He did. But do you really think your body can handle it?" Rogue Kiyohara glanced at him.
It wasn't that he was looking down on himself—when he possessed Kiyohara's body, he could clearly feel the ceiling on this flesh.
A lot of jutsu weren't limited by imagination—they were locked off by physical talent.
Take the Rasengan: gather chakra in your palm and have it spin in multiple directions while compressing it into a dense "chakra sphere."
You think in all the thousands of years of ninja history, only Minato thought of that?
What really chains ninja is their body. If your "physical talent" is bad, no matter how clever the idea, you just can't use it.
"So what Curse Mark do you actually have?" Kiyohara asked, curious.
He probably couldn't handle it right now—but once he fused with Rogue Kiyohara, maybe he could.
"The Curse Seal of Earth. But it needs Jūgo's cells as the medium," Rogue Kiyohara said.
All of Orochimaru's curse seal tech shared a core idea: Jūgo's innate ability to absorb natural energy, extracted as "Jūgo cells."
"Makes sense."
Kiyohara nodded, then had Rogue Kiyohara dictate the details while he wrote them down on a scroll.
At this point in time, Orochimaru probably hadn't finished developing the curse marks. When he later defected, the mark he gave Anko was still a prototype—couldn't even reach second stage.
Thup, thup.
Just as Kiyohara rolled up the scroll, someone tapped on the tent flap.
"Come in," he said.
After a moment, the flap lifted, revealing a face under a black mask.
Kakashi.
"It's late. What's up, Kakashi?" Kiyohara asked.
Kakashi now wore his forehead protector tilted down to cover his left Sharingan eye.
If his body weren't still so small, he'd already look like the future "Copy Ninja" Kakashi.
"I… wanted to talk about Lightning Release," Kakashi said hoarsely—or maybe he was just stuffing down too much grief with nowhere to put it.
In the whole squad, he'd realized, only Kiyohara knew Lightning Release.
Minato used Flying Thunder God, Rin did medical ninjutsu, Kurenai specialized in genjutsu, and Genma loved senbon and other tools.
Only Kiyohara had shown both Wind Release and Lightning Release.
So whenever he needed to talk, Kakashi came to him.
"It's kinda late for that…" Kiyohara said automatically, glancing up at the crude clock hanging in the tent.
It was already ten at night.
Ten p.m.—a dangerous time.
It could mean a lonely single guy settling down to "practice his craft."
Or a happily attached guy visiting his girlfriend to "discuss their future."
It was not the time for a gloomy boy to come in and say, "Let's talk about ninjutsu."
If it were Rin at this hour, Kiyohara would absolutely "sacrifice himself for the greater good."
But this was Kakashi…
Did Konoha have its own brand of "replacement romance" going on?
He really hoped Kakashi didn't see him as another Obito.
He glanced back at Rogue Kiyohara hovering in the air; the spirit's expression was halfway between a grimace and a smirk, like he was about to burst out laughing but forced it down.
"Is it already that late?" Kakashi blinked.
His head had been so full of Obito that he'd completely lost track of time.
"I'll come back tomorrow then," he said, turning to leave.
"No need. Sit. Let's talk," Kiyohara waved him back.
He knew Kakashi was normal; it was just his own brain doing free association.
"I think Chidori is still incomplete. But with Obito's Sharingan, its flaws are a lot smaller now," Kakashi began, sharing his thoughts on the jutsu.
Kiyohara listened, nodding from time to time.
Your Chidori is too fast, but your Sharingan compensates for it perfectly.
Kakashi's Lightning Release definitely outclassed his; the guy was just looking for someone to talk to. And Kiyohara could also use the chance to hear how a genius thinks and sharpen his own Lightning Release.
As he listened, he realized Kakashi was just dumping everything, unfiltered.
Picking through those fragmented comments, Kiyohara felt like if he listened a bit longer, he could piece together the full training method for Chidori.
Right now, he wanted Kakashi to talk more so he could keep learning.
"So, Kiyohara, you're really into Lightning Release too?" Kakashi asked.
"Of course," Kiyohara said.
Traditional ninja liked to say Wind Release had the strongest killing power of the five basic elements.
That kind of thinking was… cute.
Compared to raw wind, Lightning had far more potential—electricity generates magnetism, magnetism generates electricity, and if you kept going you could pretend to brush against the "fundamental forces" of the universe.
Electromagnetic force was one of those four.
If he ever reached that level, he'd spin magnetic fields like a toy and fire off a proper railgun.
For now it was just fantasy; he couldn't do any of it yet.
But that didn't make Lightning Release any less promising.
"Then we can go over it more in the future," Kakashi said, nodding slightly.
After talking it out, he did feel better—and he'd also managed to straighten out his own understanding of Lightning Release.
He'd noticed that while Kiyohara mostly listened, the questions he did ask were full of strange, clever angles.
"Thanks, Kiyohara," Kakashi said, turning to leave.
Kiyohara watched his back and rubbed his chin.
When he fused with Rogue Kiyohara, his talent and base stats would both go up.
If his base stats got high enough… would he be able to track Chidori's speed even without a Sharingan?
~~~
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