Kakashi stood up. The invisible shackles that had bound him since his father's suicide shattered.
'Father... you were right.'
'In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.'
He stepped back, his hands blurring through seals.
Ox. Hare. Monkey.
CHIRP-CHIRP-CHIRP!
The sound of a thousand birds screaming in unison filled the cave. Blue lightning condensed in his palm, wild and untamed.
Kiyohara watched from the rear, his eyes locked on the jutsu.
'The Chidori...'
He stared intently at the pale blue arcs. If he had the Sharingan, he could copy it right now. Unfortunately, he was stuck with normal eyes and a ghost.
"I will avenge Obito."
Kakashi whispered.
His left eye—the transplanted eye—snapped open.
A crimson iris with Two Tomoe spun slowly.
The world slowed down.
The dust motes in the air. The twitch of Kakkō's muscle. The trajectory of the blade.
The Sharingan's dynamic vision eliminated the tunnel vision caused by the Chidori's speed.
'The jutsu is finally complete,' Kiyohara realized. 'The Chidori was practically tailor-made for the Uchiha. Without those eyes, it's just a suicide run.'
"This brat's speed!"
Kakkō frowned. The boy was faster than before.
He raised his dual blades.
'I'll strike first. If I cut his neck before he reaches me, the lightning dissipates.'
He tensed to swing.
Whoosh!
A shuriken, shrouded in a razor-sharp vacuum of wind, cut through the air.
"Kiyohara..."
Kakashi didn't turn back, but he knew. Only one person on this team infused Wind Release into shuriken with such precision.
His heart warmed. The teammate he had dismissed as a "rule-breaker" and a "civilian" had saved him again.
"Damn it!"
Kakkō's eyes widened. A pincer attack?
Kakashi was closing in fast. He couldn't dodge the lightning and the wind shuriken.
If he dodged the shuriken, Kakashi would pierce his heart. If he struck Kakashi, the shuriken would take his arm—or his head.
Kakkō made a split-second choice.
He shifted his body, sacrificing his non-dominant arm to take the shuriken hit, hoping to counter-kill Kakashi with his good hand.
Too slow.
He underestimated the synergy of the Sharingan and the Chidori.
Kakashi saw the shift. He adjusted his thrust mid-sprint.
CRACK-ZAP!
The blue lightning shattered Kakkō's blade and punched clean through his chest.
Simultaneously, Kiyohara's wind-shuriken struck Kakkō directly in the forehead.
Double kill.
Kakkō collapsed, dead before he hit the floor.
"Haa... haa..."
Kakashi fell to his knees, panting heavily. The Chidori, combined with the drain of a newly transplanted Sharingan, had nearly emptied his chakra reserves.
But he forced himself up. He stumbled to Rin's side, looking at the boy buried under the rock.
While they grieved, Kiyohara moved.
He went straight for the corpse.
"Loot now, mourn later," he muttered. "The Missing-nin says reinforcements are swarming. If I don't grab this now, it's gone forever."
He reached for Kakkō's weapons.
"Whoa... is this Chakra Metal?"
Kiyohara inspected the broken blade. It hummed slightly when he touched it.
Chakra Metal was incredibly rare. While a ninja could technically channel chakra into a pencil if they were skilled enough, ordinary steel resisted the flow.
Chakra Metal amplified it.
He stripped the broken blade, the intact blade from the other wrist, and the mounting brackets.
"Can these be reforged?" Kiyohara asked the spirit.
"It should be enough," the Missing-nin confirmed. "If you smelt them down, there's enough material for a short sword or a pair of trench knives."
"Jackpot."
Kiyohara grinned.
He had only ever seen Chakra Metal on Asuma Sarutobi, the Third Hokage's son.
That guy was the definition of a "Pay-to-Win" player. Rumor had it Asuma once wrote an essay titled "My Hokage Father" that nearly gave the Academy Principal a heart attack.
'Konoha really is a society built on connections,' Kiyohara sighed cynically. 'But since I don't have a Hokage dad, I have to rely on robbing corpses.'
"Reforging this will cost a fortune, though," the Missing-nin warned. "Blacksmiths who can work Chakra Metal aren't cheap."
"Good thing I have a habit of looting cash too."
Kiyohara sped up his search. He stuffed the metal, Kakkō's wallet, and a few scrolls into his sealing scroll.
'I need a bigger inventory,' he noted. 'This war is the best economic opportunity I'll ever get.'
"Kiyohara! There's movement outside!"
Kurenai's voice was sharp with panic. Her sensory range had picked up multiple signatures.
"I know."
Kiyohara sealed the last scroll and stood up.
"Say your goodbyes. We leave in ten seconds."
He looked at Kakashi.
The boulder was massive. Without a master Earth Release user or the Eight Gates, moving it was physics-defyingly impossible.
"Kakashi... take Rin... and go," Obito wheezed.
His vision was fading. The pain in his crushed half was gone—replaced by a terrifying numbness.
"The enemy reinforcements... are here."
"Earth Release: Fissure Technique!"
Outside, an Iwagakure squad slammed their hands onto the earth.
RUMBLE!
The ground beneath the cave cracked open. The floor split, creating a massive chasm that swallowed the debris.
"Kakashi!" Obito shouted, his voice desperate. "I'm entrusting Rin to you!"
The rocks shifted. Obito's body slid backward, falling into the dark fissure created by the enemy's jutsu.
"OBITO!"
Kakashi reached out, but he was too late.
The rubble swallowed his friend.
"Move! We have to go!" Kiyohara grabbed Kakashi's vest and hauled him toward the exit.
They sprinted out of the collapsing cave just as the ceiling came down completely.
The Front Lines.
Miles away, amidst a battlefield of corpses.
Minato Namikaze froze.
He had placed a Flying Thunder God seal on the Kunai he gave Kakashi.
He could sense the marker. And right now, the signal was frantic.
'Something went wrong.'
Minato decimated the Iwa-nin in front of him with a Rasengan.
He threw a marked Kunai into the air.
Flash.
He vanished.
....
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