At the exact moment Tekkā's body twitched to move or not move, Kiyohara hooked the fingers of his right hand—his shuriken-throwing hand—back toward himself.
The nearly invisible copper wires behind the three lightning-wreathed shuriken snapped taut.
Under his control, their formation tightened, spiraling inward toward Uchiha Tekkā at the center like a constricting net.
"Not good."
Tekkā's brows knit. The Sharingan clearly tracked their lines of movement—but his body couldn't keep up with the sudden change in direction.
He managed to dodge two of them, but the third lightning-wrapped shuriken still scraped past the outside of his arm.
Crackle!
A powerful current exploded across half his body. Burning pain and numbness shot through his arm.
His movement stuttered; for a heartbeat, he froze in place.
Kiyohara used the last of his jump's momentum to close the distance, stepping up in front of him.
He pressed the tip of his black kunai to Tekkā's throat.
"I lost…"
Only then did Tekkā finally disperse the paralysis with chakra—but that brief instant was more than enough to decide the fight.
His Uchiha pride wouldn't let him say anything else.
Even though his face had turned slightly red with embarrassment, a loss was a loss.
Making excuses and talking tough were the acts of the weak.
Seeing the complicated look on his face, Kiyohara slowly lowered his kunai.
"Just a lucky win," he said with a faint smile.
Without Rogue Kiyohara's help, he doubted it would have gone that smoothly. Whether he'd have won at all would've been a big question mark.
Still, as things stood… my urn sits above your Sharingan.
The proctor froze for a moment, then announced loudly:
"Winner: Kiyohara!"
Watching with his Byakugan, Hyūga Tetsu frowned slightly.
Normally, the Sharingan could only see chakra flow.
The Byakugan not only saw chakra, but also muscle, organs—everything in the body.
Which meant he'd seen most clearly what had happened: that last jump of Kiyohara's blatantly violated normal bodily limits. Those muscle movements weren't something a "typical genin" should be capable of.
"A secret technique, huh…" Tetsu thought.
He chalked it up to Kiyohara having done some kind of prep work before the match—something that only kicked in against Tekkā.
In such a huge world, there was no shortage of secret arts and bloodline powers.
Down at ringside, the proctor kept his gaze on Kiyohara for a moment before lowering his eyes to the clipboard, finding Kiyohara's name and writing two large characters after it: "Excellent."
He didn't bother hiding the appreciation in his eyes.
Jōnin Minato has a sharp eye after all. This Kiyohara isn't just fundamentally solid—his adaptability in the field is outstanding. Direct promotion is more than justified, he thought.
Kiyohara steadied his breathing and stepped off the ring, walking up to the proctor.
"Sir, when is the next match?" he asked.
The proctor looked at his young face and, for once, let a rare trace of warmth soften his features. Tapping the board in his hands, he said:
"No need for another match. The way you handled Uchiha Tekkā just now already fully demonstrated your strength, tactical sense, and situational response. Those are all well above the standard for a genin.
"According to the rules and my judgment, you've already met the chūnin criteria. Once all the matches are finished, we'll distribute the flak vests reserved for chūnin."
Direct promotion.
Kiyohara blinked, then felt a rush of joy.
That saved him the trouble of grinding through more fights.
"You hear that?" he said inwardly to the presence only he could sense.
"Looks like I'm about to fulfill your second wish."
"I hear it," Rogue Kiyohara nodded faintly, his spirit still hovering quietly at Kiyohara's side.
Kiyohara could feel his gaze rest briefly on the proctor, then drift back.
"A chūnin. A real, official chūnin… Hah. Maybe your future won't be like mine, hunted like a stray snake," Rogue Kiyohara murmured with a faint laugh full of complicated emotion—relief, irony, and maybe, buried deep, a hint of envy.
"Once you officially gain chūnin status, my consciousness will fade. You'll fuse with me and inherit part of what I was. But… in the end, the path is still yours to walk," he said evenly.
Kiyohara fell silent.
He knew that was, in a way, the true "last will."
Without another word, he turned and headed for the stands.
Kurenai was already waiting there, a bag of snacks in her arms.
When she saw him coming, she hurried forward a few steps, surprise in her voice.
"That was amazing, Kiyohara. I was scared to death—I thought once he opened his Sharingan you'd lose for sure."
"Barely pulled it off," Kiyohara smiled.
His "purity" was higher than Tekkā's—if you put it that way.
He took the three-colored dango skewer she handed him, bit into it, and let the sweet, chewy texture melt away some of the weariness in his body.
"What was that jutsu you used just now? I never saw you use it in the Land of Grass," Kurenai asked.
"That move was something I came up with myself. I call it Lightning Release: Manipulated Shuriken Lightning Conduction. It combines Lightning infusion and manipulated shuriken. Being able to pull it off was thanks in part to the Lightning tricks Kakashi shared earlier," he said with a simple explanation.
"Kakashi, huh…" Kurenai nodded, half understanding.
She wasn't skilled in Lightning Release.
But having Kiyohara get stronger only made it more likely their squad would survive the brutal battlefield.
"Either way, it's great that you're getting stronger!"
Kiyohara nibbled on snacks and looked back at the still-ongoing matches below.
One-tomoe Sharingan really is strong… but it's only the starting point of Uchiha power, he thought.
Ahead lay two-tomoe, three-tomoe, and the legendary Mangekyō… stronger eye techniques and even scarier enemies.
Right now, he was still far from that level.
It only made him more curious about what he'd gain after fusing with Rogue Kiyohara.
Rogue Kiyohara had only merged with one future. The second future's Willbook had never been completed before his death.
Kiyohara hoped he'd inherit more chakra this time.
Because his chakra reserves were still painfully small.
~~~
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