As Kiyohara scavenged the battlefield, the youth Kiyohara dissolved into a mote of light, slipping into the urn within his mind, settling beside the urn of Missing-nin Kiyohara—neighbors in death.
Kiyohara glanced inside, and a strange feeling crept up his spine.
Great… Naruto has a giant cage sealing the Nine-Tails in his body…
Don't tell me mine is going to turn into a funeral hall!
"…Forget it."
Shaking his head, Kiyohara focused on the matters at hand.
He walked to Ao's corpse, drove a kunai into the man's skull, retrieved it then calmly wiped the blade before putting it away.
This was to prevent Kirigakure's scouts from extracting intelligence through postmortem techniques.
In the shinobi world, the dead could indeed "speak."
Not stopping there, Kiyohara further damaged Ao's body to conceal his methods of attack.
Being cautious in everything was never a mistake.
"Not bad… Ao's sword is pretty good too."
Kiyohara finally picked up the shinobi blade that had fallen nearby, then removed Ao's jōnin armor.
The last thing to fall into Kiyohara's hands was Ao's shinobi tool pouch, which contained a small bag of specially made soldier pills.
"In a certain sense, these soldier pills aren't much different from forbidden drugs."
Kiyohara examined them several times, and only after confirming there was no poison did he store them inside his sealing scroll.
There were many different types of soldier pills. This particular type, which boosted chakra output placed a heavy burden on the user's body.
Long-term consumption would definitely leave aftereffects.
Which was why, in the later years, whether it was Naruto, Sasuke, or even Sakura, none of them continued using this type of pill.
"There are quite a lot of explosive tags… more than twenty."
Kiyohara rummaged through the rest of the pouch. The remaining items were basic tools—wire threads, shuriken, kunai, and so on.
There was also a telescope and a map.
Kiyohara's looting speed was extremely fast; the entire process took no more than thirty seconds.
After long-term practice and countless battles, he had developed a fully streamlined, instinctive routine for looting.
"Well then, time to head back."
Just as Kiyohara retraced his steps, on the opposite side of the battlefield, deep within the thick mist, Terumi Mei was dashing forward at great speed while supporting the pale and exhausted Ranmaru.
"Ranmaru, don't stop."
Mei urged her.
Although the Red Eye bloodline limit was extremely similar to the Byakugan and could even be considered its natural nemesis, Kirigakure still coveted the Byakugan for one reason:
The Red Eye placed overwhelming strain on its user, leaving the body weak and their combat endurance extremely poor.
In other words, even simple marching during war was enough to exhaust Red Eye users.
Just as the two were about to escape the battlefield, a figure blocked their way.
Kakashi.
"Stay."
Kakashi's voice was calm as he held a kunai in his hand.
Mei's heart tightened.
Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't be afraid—but right now she could not afford to let Ranmaru get harmed. Besides, Konoha reinforcements could appear behind them at any moment.
"Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!"
Mei unleashed her bloodline limit again. A torrent of viscous corrosive acid surged forward.
Kakashi's Sharingan spun rapidly, capturing the entire spread of the acid spray. He retreated at high speed and threw a kunai laced with explosive tags.
BOOM!
Explosions thundered. Water vapor and acidic mist surged everywhere.
Using the explosion as cover, Mei didn't linger for even a moment. She turned and raced after Ranmaru, disappearing back into the dense mist.
Kakashi waved his sleeve to disperse the acid fumes and smoke in front of him. His Sharingan pierced through the gradually settling chaos.
He could see Mei and Ranmaru fleeing farther and farther away and within moments they vanished beyond his line of sight.
He stood in place silently for a moment.
From a tactical standpoint, he should pursue. He should at least try to capture that special shinobi who could disrupt the Byakugan.
But reason told him otherwise.
The main battlefield's situation was still unknown—especially since Kiyohara had lured Ao away alone. Whether he lived or died was still uncertain. Rin and the others might also be in danger.
"Ensure comrades' safety first,"
Kakashi made his decision. He put away his kunai, closed his left eyelid to minimize Sharingan's chakra consumption, and sprinted back toward the direction he came from.
'Obito… I really have changed a lot.'
Kakashi touched his left eye subconsciously. Sometimes, he could feel strange "visions."
His left eye would flash with pitch-black fragments, as if someone stood deep within a dark cave…
…
Meanwhile, on the main battlefield—
With Mei and Ranmaru successfully escaping, and Ao having been drawn away, the remaining Mist shinobi were either swiftly eliminated after Kakashi's return or scattered into the mist.
The battle, it seemed, had finally ended.
But no atmosphere of victory appeared.
The air reeked of blood, steam, and a faint burnt smell. The oppressive tension made it hard to breathe.
Nohara Rin, Hyūga Ginka, Shiranui Genma, and the weakened Yūhi Kurenai gathered together.
Hyūga Nobuhiko lay nearby. His wounds had been treated as best as possible and were now stabilized.
Everyone's eyes instinctively turned toward the thick mist where Kiyohara and Ao had vanished.
Rin clasped her hands tightly to her chest, occasionally rising on her toes to look anxiously into the haze.
The fear of losing another comrade gnawed at her.
It was the same way Obito had disappeared from their world back then.
Kakashi leaned against a tree that still had shuriken embedded in it—the very ones Kiyohara had left behind, with thin copper wires still attached.
Kiyohara's performance had far exceeded what Kakashi originally expected—but his opponent had been a Mist jōnin who, in the end, had swallowed a dangerous forbidden drug with extremely obvious side effects… The outcome was uncertain.
Ginka stood silently nearby, her soaked white shinobi clothes clinging tightly to her curvy figure, outlining several prominent contours and sending chills through her body.
Her usually proud expression carried traces of complexity. She could only sigh.
Genma had already retrieved the thousand senbon scattered across the ground—cleaned them properly, then sat down to rest.
According to Kakashi, the shinobi who interfered with the Byakugan had already fled. That meant the Hyūga clan members could now conduct proper surveillance again.
Kurenai steadied her breathing. She was so drained that even standing was difficult, yet those scarlet eyes of hers never once left the direction Kiyohara had gone.
The heavy silence surged like a rising tide, threatening to swallow them whole.
Just as Kakashi took a deep breath, preparing to say something—
Soft footsteps emerged from within the fading white mist.
And then—
A familiar figure stepped out, one slow step at a time, from the veil of fog.
It was Kiyohara.
He looked far more battered than when he left—his shinobi uniform torn in several places, his face smeared with blood and dirt, his complexion clearly pale.
But he was alive. And he had returned.
"Kiyohara!"
Rin's worried expression finally eased, and she let out a breath of relief.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt badly?"
"I'm fine. I won't die. Just… tired."
Kiyohara replied.
Kakashi walked over, his dead-fish eyes scanning him up and down. After confirming there were no critical injuries, his shoulders relaxed slightly.
"Good. As long as you're back."
(End of Chapter)