Another Sand shinobi barely managed to knock aside several shuriken with his kunai, but the retracting copper wire suddenly looped around his body.
Even though he dodged in time, the wire still carved a deep gash into his flesh, twisting his posture completely out of shape.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Current Technique!"
Kiyohara formed seals, and in an instant, electricity surged along the conductive wire.
Seeing this, the last remaining Sand Anbu urgently attempted to evade.
He fixed his eyes on the movement of Kiyohara's fingers, trying to predict how the wire would manipulate the shuriken.
Left!
The Sand Anbu immediately leapt to the right, inwardly relieved that he had also trained in controlled shuriken techniques.
Schhk!
A heartbeat later, his expression beneath the mask froze in disbelief.
A sudden, violent pain ripped through his back. Electric arcs surged through his nerves, and he could even smell the faint scent of scorched flesh.
"Th-This… why…?"
His eyes widened as he collapsed face-first onto the ground.
Why didn't Kiyohara's shuriken follow the movement of his fingers?
"Hah… as expected. Magnetism really can influence metal."
Kiyohara thought back to Kumogakure's jōnin Toroi.
His development of Magnet Release specialized heavily in magnetization—capable of magnetizing both people and objects.
Just now, Kiyohara had magnetized two shuriken so they would attract each other. Because of that magnetic pull, the shuriken that should have flown left instead veered sharply to the right.
With that, both Sand Anbu lay dead.
Four ordinary Sand shinobi remained.
While Kiyohara was fighting, Gekkō Hayate and Uzuki Yugao had not been idle either.
Hayate popped a pill into his mouth, recovering some chakra. Then his body turned transparent—clearly activating the bloodline ability of Transparent Release. With this, he instantly assassinated a Sand shinobi.
Yugao, wielding her sword, dispatched another.
Among this group, only Pakura's disciple Machi and the Sand Jonin Ota were still alive.
Kiyohara arched a brow. He wondered if, in the future, there might be a "Permeation Release Kiyohara."
This bloodline limit was incredibly useful for stealth and ambushes.
It was just a shame that the one using it here was Gekkō Hayate, someone who couldn't bring out even half of its potential.
"Captain Ota… what should we do now?"
Machi asked nervously.
Ota quickly formed seals, unleashing a Wind Release technique.
Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!
Razor-thin blades of wind sliced toward Kiyohara.
Ota knew well that Kiyohara was the most troublesome enemy here. As long as he killed Kiyohara, he would still have the strength to handle the two Leaf ANBU Hayate afterward.
"Coming for me, huh?"
Kiyohara also formed seals and released Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, while using Magnet Release to coat a small amount of black iron sand onto his shinobi blade.
The amount was tiny—nearly impossible to detect.
The wind blades clashed against Kiyohara's torrent of wind, causing the copper-wire web in the air to sway violently.
At the same moment, Kiyohara vanished, leaving only a flurry of drifting green leaves.
"Damn it—where did he go?!"
Cold sweat trickled down Ota's temple.
Kiyohara had thrown out far too many shuriken earlier, and the copper wires were specially treated—perfect for shinobi combat.
In this chaotic situation, Ota had no energy left to—
—check where all the wires were connected.
Whoosh!
A sudden slicing sound cut through the air—Kiyohara hurled his shinobi blade straight at Ota.
Ota instantly raised his kunai to block, completely unaware that some of the black iron sand had already adhered to the sword's surface.
When Kiyohara yanked the copper wire connected to the hilt, the tension snapped tight, pulling the blade back into his hand. He then lunged forward, aiming a heavy downward slash at Ota.
Ota felt a spark of joy—he never expected Kiyohara to abandon his advantage with the wire web and come at him in close combat.
Just as he confidently raised his kunai to block, he felt an unexpected drag—his kunai had suddenly become heavier, slowing his movement.
"What—?!"
He assumed it was fatigue.
But Kiyohara's blade did not wait.
Schhk.
Half of Ota's head was cleaved clean off, spinning across the ground.
To any observer, it looked like Ota simply failed to move fast enough to block Kiyohara's strike.
Magnet Release really is convenient against enemies like these, Kiyohara exhaled.
Ota had been too tense—so tense that he never noticed the iron sand on his weapon.
Even if he had noticed, he probably wouldn't have doubted anything—he would've thought it was a bit of stray dust floating around.
After all, Magnet Release users were extremely rare.
"Leave the last one alive as a prisoner."
Kiyohara ordered.
"Understood."
Yugao quickly subdued Machi. After all, Machi was primarily a sealing specialist, not a fighter
"You are…?"
Hayate's disembodied voice drifted through the air.
"I'm Kiyohara, sent by Lord Orochimaru to investigate this area."
Kiyohara displayed his forehead protector and recited the designated passcode.
All the nearby shinobi had their own coded signals to prevent impersonation by the enemy.
After verifying, Hayate slowly revealed himself, coughing twice.
Seeing his frail, sickly appearance, Kiyohara couldn't understand how this man got into the Anbu.
In the end, he could only conclude that Hayate had been recruited for his specialty. After all, Anbu's translates to Special Assassination and Tactical Squad which handles the dark side of the village—and Transparent Release was perfect for assassination.
"We'll interrogate this woman to extract intel on Sand."
Kiyohara said, looking at the bound Machi with mild regret that he lacked genjutsu for interrogation.
If he did, he would have questioned her personally.
"My mission isn't over yet. Take her back yourselves."
Kiyohara continued.
His assignment was to scout this region.
After checking for any remaining Sand shinobi, he would return to report.
He had two days. One day to patrol, then he could take the boat back.
He had considered running away—finding some excuse not to go.
But that would make him a missing-nin on the spot.
At critical moments, Konoha never tolerated cowards.
While Kiyohara was rummaging through the pouches on the bodies, Yugao called out to him.
She watched the young man searching through a corpse's shinobi tools and said softly:
"…Thank you for saving me."
Kiyohara turned his head to glance at the masked Yugao.
In the original tale, she and Hayate were a pair of tragic lovers..
Even without seeing her face, Kiyohara could easily imagine the beautiful features hidden behind the mask.
After all, Uzuki Yugao was known as one of the flowers within the Anbu squad.
He shook his head.
"It's nothing."
He had only been considering the importance of preserving their combat strength so they could gang up on the enemy later.
The opponents were simply weaker than he expected—he finished them off quickly.
"Well then, I'll be going."
After saying this, Kiyohara swiftly departed, leaving only his retreating silhouette behind.
Yugao stood frozen for a moment as she watched him leave.
She felt that this man… didn't quite follow conventional logic.
"What's wrong?"
Hayate asked between coughs. He had just recovered some chakra with a soldier pill.
"…I just feel like I've seen him somewhere in the village before."
Yugao shook her head.
"Let's head back."
Together, she and Hayate escorted Machi toward the nearest outpost.
Meanwhile, Kiyohara's patrol continued uneventfully.
…
The next day.
Kiyohara took a boat back to the ruins of Uzushiogakure.
The moment he stepped ashore, he could feel the atmosphere grow even heavier.
After reporting in, he received his merit points.
He calculated carefully—his current merit was enough to exchange for two ninjutsu.
So, he chose one: Earth Release: Earth Spear.
Merit left unused was meaningless. Only by converting everything into techniques could he transform it into true potential for his own ninja path.
Otherwise, it was all just useless numbers.
At this moment, only four hours remained before the Mist's invasion.
(End of Chapter)