"Let me try it—now."
Future Kiyohara's tone was like a chain smoker seeing his first cigarette in ten days.
Kiyohara understood immediately and relaxed his grip over his body.
In the next second, Future Kiyohara's will flowed in like water, taking control of his arm. He reached out and grasped the freshly forged hilt.
Cool. Solid. And unmistakably familiar.
He gave the blade a light swing.
Fshhh!The air hissed as the sword sliced through it.
He channeled a small amount of chakra into the blade—
Hummmm—
The faint blue wave pattern along the blade shimmered to life. Chakra coursed smoothly through the metal, with barely any resistance.
Completely different from any other tool he'd used.
"Good blade."
Future Kiyohara couldn't help but praise it aloud.
"The chakra conductivity is excellent... If only I'd had a sword like this back then…"
His voice carried a hint of regret.
"Then why didn't you forge a decent one?"Kiyohara asked curiously.
With his strength, money shouldn't have been a problem.
"Because I believed true power shouldn't rely on external tools. I thought I should reach a level where even a tree branch could serve me in battle."
"..."
Kiyohara fell silent.
'Wow. This future me was kind of... idiot.'
Even Six Paths Madara got chopped in half by Sasuke's chakra-enhanced Kusanagi. A good weapon in the shinobi world wasn't optional—it was vital.
"So what'd you do with your money?"
"Most of it went toward buying so-called sword manuals from around the world. You know how it is—Master Maruboshi Kosuke was a genius swordsman, but his repertoire was limited. I wanted to draw from many schools and forge my own path."
"But nine out of ten scrolls were trash—fakes, fragments, or half-baked nonsense. I wasted tons of money and time. Only a handful had any real value."
Kiyohara blinked.
'So he was a swordsmanship nerd. A passionate one… and apparently easy to scam.'
Still, it gave him perspective. This version of his future self had walked a long and difficult road—full of missteps, but also dedication.
Just then, a warm orb of light emerged from Future Kiyohara's spiritual body and flowed into Kiyohara's chest.
Immediately, Kiyohara felt his spiritual energy solidify again—his senses sharpened noticeably.
This was the seasoned willpower and mental acuity of a warrior honed over twenty years. It felt like a gift of pure foundation.
Then came a wave of vibrant, sunlike energy flowing through his muscles and meridians—
"This is… Yang Release?"
Kiyohara recognized it immediately.
Future Kiyohara's Yang-nature chakra was stacking onto his own, strengthening a latent affinity he'd barely had before.
It would make future training in medical ninjutsu far easier.
But perhaps most valuable of all—
—were the insights.
A flood of swordsmanship knowledge surged into his mind:
How to channel chakra through a blade
Core mechanics of footwork
Proper striking distance
Advanced control of momentum and energy flow
He hadn't fully inherited the legendary Leaf Style Sword Art: Willow, but his basic understanding had evolved to an entirely new tier.
Where once he fumbled, now his mind saw clearly.What was once vague theory now felt like muscle memory waiting to awaken.
'This is what twenty years of training looks like.'
Kiyohara nodded with satisfaction.
Even if he couldn't replicate everything yet, he could definitely beat his old self into the dirt.
He couldn't resist trying it out.
Sword in hand, he formed seals with instinctive smoothness.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Current Technique!"
Crack!Electric arcs crawled up the blade the moment he finished the last seal.
He slashed a few practice strikes—diagonal, straight thrust, upward sweep—each flowing directly from the muscle memory Future Kiyohara had just granted him.
The movements were still a bit stiff, but the power and form were on point.
He could feel every strike's momentum travel from his feet to his hips to his shoulders.
This was true balance—sword and body in harmony.
From the corner of the room, the shopkeeper's eyes gleamed with surprise.
"Impressive, young man. That's some solid swordsmanship. Rare to see someone with fundamentals that polished."
It was partly flattery, but also sincere. He'd other boys in his age—and this was leagues above where they started.
The electric arcs flickered out as Kiyohara sheathed his blade.
He just smiled and nodded, saying nothing.
After paying off the remaining balance, he thanked the shopkeeper and turned to leave with the sword at his side.
'One wish fulfilled. Now onto the second.'
If he could take down Ao before Madara's scheme kicked in, it would mean another powerful inheritance—and another major leap in strength.
That urgency still pressed against his mind.
As Kiyohara disappeared from sight, the shopkeeper stroked his chin, murmuring to himself.
"Chakra metal… refined blade… and fundamentals this good? He's young, but his form is mature. Could he be a prodigy like the White Fang?"
A moment of silence. Then a wistful sigh.
"Let's hope I see that boy again. If he lives long enough, he might really make history."
Back at Camp.
Not long after Kiyohara returned, a new mission order arrived.
Recon.A stealth investigation into a zone where Mist-nin had been sighted, to uncover troop movements and intelligence.
Kiyohara accepted the assignment with a glint in his eye.
'Perfect. Time to test this sword—and maybe find Ao.'
If Ao was active in this region, this could be the chance he needed to finish his second future's request.
This time, the squad lineup had changed slightly.
Alongside Kiyohara, Kakashi, Rin, and Genma, two members of the Hyūga clan had joined them—clearly an upper-order move to bolster the team's sensory strength.
One was an older shinobi named Hyūga Nobuhiko, around twenty.
The other—a silver-eyed teenage girl named Hyūga Ginka—looked only slightly older than Kiyohara.
Just their presence made his stomach sink slightly.
'Wait... don't tell me—
Is one of them going to be Ao's target for the Byakugan theft?!'
His grip tightened around his sword.
The mission had just become much more personal.