"Brat from Konoha, your tricks are impressive, but… this is as far as you go."
Ao held a slightly curved ninja blade, glancing once at the two Hyūga who were watching him like a great enemy.
With their Byakugan crippled, they couldn't properly use advanced Gentle Fist.
Many of the Hyūga's most powerful techniques were built to work together with Byakugan; only then could they reach full power.
Without wasting any more words, the leaves in the forest stirred. As one leaf drifted in midair, Ao moved.
A heartbeat later, Kiyohara moved too.
They charged toward each other. As their blades met, the falling leaf landed on the edge of the steel and was immediately blown away by the shockwave.
Clang!
The sharp ring of metal on metal blasted through the fog, sparks flying.
Ao's strength was enormous; the impact numbed Kiyohara's wrist. But with good body coordination and load-dissipating technique, he managed to withstand the hit.
He twisted the blade, letting the clash slide, and immediately chopped toward Ao's wrist.
Ao dodged.
Ding! Ding! Clang! Clang!
Their silhouettes crossed and recrossed in the mist, sword flashes flickering in every direction.
Kiyohara had Lightning chakra running along his blade so that every strike came with crackling arcs.
Ao, relying on superior power and seasoned foresight, always managed to block or slip away at the last moment and counter, forcing Kiyohara to defend.
For a while, the duel was dead even; steel rang relentlessly in the fog.
But Kiyohara knew the truth—dragging this out would only hurt him.
Ao had much more chakra and stamina, and he still hadn't used any serious Water Release.
Sure enough, after another clash that sent them sliding past one another, Ao's left-hand fingers moved.
One-handed seal.
"Water Release: Water Hail!"
Pupupupupupu!
A storm of high-pressure water bullets erupted from Ao's flank, sweeping across a huge area like a sudden downpour of steel.
"Let me," Swordsman Kiyohara said, unable to hold back at the critical moment.
He wanted his rematch.
"Alright."
Kiyohara relinquished part of his control; his right arm fell fully under Swordsman Kiyohara's command.
His left arm stayed under his own control, maintaining his core will and preparing to run a "dual-thread" operation.
This cut carried twenty years of training—Kiyohara wasn't sure how this younger Ao could possibly block it.
Not to mention the two Hyūga hadn't even gotten serious yet.
With the way things stood, he felt the fight was already leaning his way.
Under Ao's startled gaze, Kiyohara's blade blurred, slicing apart the incoming water bullets with deft precision.
At the same time, his left hand clumsily gathered chakra, S-L-O-W-L-Y forcing its way through a one-handed seal.
One-handed.
Just moments before, Kiyohara hadn't shown any ability like this.
And now he, like Ao, was dividing his focus—sword in one hand, ninjutsu in the other.
Ao's doubts deepened, and in his mind, Kiyohara's danger level climbed again.
The kid was progressing too fast.
Ao's mission had three parts:
One, train the prodigy Terumi Mei.
Two, steal a Byakugan.
Three… kill enemy geniuses while they were still young.
Minato's rise had taught everyone a hard lesson:
Better to kill the wrong one than let the right one slip away.
Every time Konoha's situation collapsed, some last-minute genius would appear to drag it back from the brink.
"Die."
Ao decided to stop holding back.
This had to end quickly before something else went wrong.
His hands moved faster, and he cast another Water Release—this time forming a water spear several meters long.
And just as he did, Kiyohara, moving at four or five times his usual glacial hand-sign speed, finally completed his seal.
Seals were only there to guide chakra into a jutsu. While he hadn't trained formal one-handed signs, he had inherited Rogue Kiyohara's Wind Release know-how.
At the last second, his cheeks puffed.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
He drew in a breath and compressed chakra from his chest into a powerful spiral wind, blasting it from his mouth.
Boom!
The gale didn't fully destroy the water spear, but it scattered and warped its path, breaking it apart into a torrential rain that slammed down all around them.
The fight between Kiyohara and Ao was dizzying to watch.
The other ninja instinctively gave them space.
"Damn it—was this brat training swordsmanship in the womb?" Ao thought, scowling.
This was a chūnin?
It felt like he'd been training with a blade longer than Ao had.
As time passed, Ao's expression darkened further.
He realized that Kiyohara kept staying one step ahead of his movements, like he'd fought Ao before.
Had this kid studied his fighting style?
Schk!
A line of blood traced down Ao's face.
In just a few exchanges, Kiyohara's blade had sliced his cheek, leaving a fresh red cut.
"Don't lose focus," Ao reminded himself, pushing everything else out of his mind and signaling for other Mist shinobi to cover him.
"Now!" Kakashi realized immediately that Ao was fully tied up, maybe even forced to show his true strength.
This was their best chance to locate and eliminate the "Red Eye" user disrupting the Byakugan.
He didn't hesitate. He quickly called to Genma and Kurenai:
"Cover me. I'm going to find whoever's interfering with the Byakugan."
With that, he flashed away, using the chaos and thick fog to slip out of the main clash and move toward the area where he suspected the interference barrier was.
...
Meanwhile, back at the Mountain Graveyard—
The massive head of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path cast a deep shadow.
Madara sat quietly on his giant wooden chair, eyes closed, listening to the flow of intel through White Zetsu.
As long as there were enough Zetsu, his invisible underground network would only grow more vast.
"Oh?"
Suddenly, Madara opened his eyes.
He had been following the battle lines between Fire and Water, laying the groundwork for his next phase.
Then he noticed Kiyohara's fight with Ao.
"The brat's progress isn't bad. Even in the Warring States era, he wouldn't be considered weak," he murmured.
He'd been tracking everyone who'd had contact with Obito.
They were important pieces in pushing Obito into darkness.
Kakashi, Nohara Rin, Kiyohara—all those connected to Obito had earned a measure of his attention. He couldn't let them die accidentally at someone else's hands—not before they'd served their purpose.
"Shame he's not Uchiha," Madara said again, shaking his head.
Even if Kiyohara was a genius, without the Uchiha name, he wasn't worth too much of his focus.
Only the Uchiha could truly wield the Sage of Six Paths' power.
His gaze shifted deeper into the cave.
Obito was doing squats and push-ups.
Beneath the bandages, a new pale arm mirrored the White Zetsu limb on the other side.
"So… is it because of Kiyohara?" Madara wondered, watching Obito's relentless training.
"Because that brat, Kiyohara, is shining unexpectedly bright at Rin's side, Obito feels threatened, afraid of being replaced and losing what he cherishes. That's what's driving this explosive growth?"
"As expected… the source of Uchiha power is the heart," Madara said, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Very good. Kiyohara was doing well.
The last report had already pushed Obito to throw himself into rehab with a zeal that exceeded Madara's expectations.
That meant the original plan could be moved up.
"Time to start plotting the Three-Tails…"
Madara's fingers tapped the arm of his massive wooden chair.
The stage was set.
All that remained was to call each actor onto it in turn.
~~~
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