"Understood, Lord Orochimaru. You must be careful."
Kiyohara carefully put away the scroll.
If he were to flee without this thing, who knew—he might end up being labeled a deserter.
Even a withdrawal had to be an orderly one.
Once chaos broke out, it would only increase casualties.
"Go," Orochimaru said, waving a hand at Kiyohara.
With his level of strength, even if the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist all showed up, he would still have a way to get away safely.
"Alright."
Kiyohara nodded, then instructed Kakashi and the others to retreat together.
He trusted that Orochimaru would be fine.
If nothing else, Orochimaru could be said to have maxed out the skill of staying alive.
At the former site of the Uzushiogakure, no matter who might die here, Orochimaru was extremely unlikely to be one of them.
The group quickly headed westward.
After watching Kiyohara and the others leave, Orochimaru bit his fingertip and used his blood as a medium to release a ninjutsu.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Bang!
As the white smoke dissipated, a gigantic purple serpent appeared in the field.
Kiyohara, who was already moving farther away, heard the commotion behind him. When he turned his head, he could see a massive purple snake towering far higher than the surrounding trees.
That was Orochimaru's summoned beast—Manda.
Among them, only Kakashi possessed a summoning beast of his own.
"Lord Orochimaru's summoning?"
"It's so big. Just one look and you can tell it's incredibly strong,"
Genma exclaimed with admiration.
He glanced back once more. He had heard of Orochimaru's summon before, but this was the first time he had ever seen it with his own eyes.
"Indeed,"
Kurenai nodded in agreement.
The casual exchange between them helped disperse some of the heavy, oppressive atmosphere from earlier.
If a shinobi's nerves stayed constantly taut, it was easy to develop post-war trauma after a battle.
While they were talking, Rin's complexion gradually grew paler as time passed.
With the constant jolting of their movement, she could feel the pain in her back worsening by the second.
She had only used a simple "Hemostasis Jutsu" to stop the bleeding, hastily sealing the wound.
If she wanted it to heal properly and quickly, she would still need to use proper medical ninjutsu.
Otherwise, with movements this intense, the wound could tear open again at any moment.
But before that, the gravel and stone fragments embedded in the flesh had to be picked out first. If they were healed together with the wound, the area would inevitably become inflamed and infected.
Kiyohara also noticed Rin's increasingly pale face and the slight furrow in her brows.
So he spoke up. "Let's find a place to stop for a bit—recover our stamina and take care of Rin's wound at the same time."
Rin's current condition was not suitable for continued travel.
"That sounds good,"
Kakashi nodded.
He, too, had noticed that something seemed off about Rin's expression.
After running for so long, all of them needed to readjust their condition.
They still had several hours of travel ahead before reaching the western coastline.
If they didn't recover properly and happened to run into an enemy ambush, they would be placed in a very passive and dangerous position.
Thus, the group decided to take a short break of several dozen minutes to rest and recover their chakra.
"Rin, let me treat your injury,"
Kiyohara said.
He glanced at the sky—it was already gradually growing dark.
Only in the distance could faint fires still be seen burning.
Those were likely the traces left behind by Fire Release ninjutsu or explosive tags.
"If your wound isn't properly treated, it could split open again, and it hasn't been disinfected either,"
Kiyohara said as he took some simple medical tools out of his shinobi pouch.
He had always valued his own life highly, so he made sure to prepare the corresponding equipment.
"Help me?"
Rin thought for a moment. Among everyone here, only Kiyohara had some basic knowledge of medical ninjutsu and could help her.
So she nodded.
Seeing this, Kiyohara asked Magnet Release Kiyohara to check the surrounding area for any signs of Kirigakure shinobi.
Along the way, he had repeatedly entrusted the drifting spirit of Magnet Release Kiyohara with this task—floating ahead to scout. If there was a Mist shinobi ambush, they could avoid it in advance.
The downside of doing this was that Magnet Release Kiyohara's spirit was becoming thinner and thinner.
Whether it was possessing someone or drifting too far away, both would accelerate his dissipation.
Even simply appearing in the outside world had the same effect.
That was why, when not needed, these spirits would remain inside the urn at all times, slowing down the rate at which they faded away.
Inside the urn, their perception of time would become blurred.
At the same time, they were completely cut off from the outside world—unable to see, hear, or smell anything—like being in a deep sleep.
After several experiments, Kiyohara discovered that if he so wished, he could even force his future selves to remain inside the urn indefinitely, strictly forbidding them from going out.
This, at the very least, protected Kiyohara's personal privacy.
But what he valued more was that, if a future version of himself with a bad personality were to appear, this could prevent him from being affected by it.
Among the infinite possibilities, there was always a chance of a "Perverted Kiyohara," or some other strange and bizarre future self existing.
This kind of ability was essentially an extra layer of insurance.
"There are no enemies nearby,"
Magnet Release Kiyohara returned within a few breaths, his figure growing increasingly transparent.
Without lingering, he plunged straight into the urn, doing his best to slow down his own dissipation.
From now on, unless Kiyohara actively summoned him, Magnet Release Kiyohara would no longer casually appear in the outside world.
After receiving the report, Kiyohara stopped and said to Kakashi, "Kakashi, Rin's back wound needs to be re-treated. There are too many people here, so it's not very convenient. Can you use Earth Release to make a temporary partition?"
Kakashi immediately understood Kiyohara's intention.
Both he and Genma were men, while Rin was a woman—there were indeed certain inconveniences between men and women.
He nodded without asking further questions, quickly forming hand seals. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
A thick earthen wall rose up from the ground in response. Its surface was smooth, separating Rin and Kiyohara from Kakashi, Kurenai, and Genma, forming a relatively private space.
To conserve chakra, the wall Kakashi created wasn't very large, but it was just enough to block the silhouettes of two people.
The earthen wall cut off their line of sight, bringing with it a slight sense of security.
Kiyohara glanced at it and figured that Kakashi's chakra was probably running low—otherwise he might have even carved a dog's head into it.
"Rin, sit down. Let me take a look at your wound,"
Kiyohara said.
"Thank you for troubling yourself, Kiyohara-kun,"
Rin softly responded, then sat down with her back facing him.
Although she knew this was necessary treatment, the thought of letting a member of the opposite sex see the skin of her back—especially in such a desolate wilderness—still caused a faint blush to quietly creep onto her cheeks.
She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. This was wartime; there was no room for excessive bashfulness.
She and Kiyohara moved to the other side of the earthen wall, then slowly removed her upper garments, leaving only her close-fitting chest wrap.
Her smooth, fair back was exposed to the slightly cool air. Her skin was delicate, but a ferocious-looking wound, already crudely sealed yet still red and swollen—ran across her back, ruining that sense of beauty.
Along the edges of the wound, tiny fragments of gravel that hadn't been fully cleaned out were still visible.
"The wound has partially torn, and there are foreign objects inside,"
Kiyohara squatted down and carefully examined it.
"The 'Mystical Palm Technique' can promote healing, but it can't automatically expel things embedded in the flesh. These have to be manually removed first—otherwise it'll cause infection, or even more serious consequences."
As he spoke, he spread open a small leather pouch taken from his shinobi tools. Inside were neatly arranged sterilized tweezers, a small scalpel, a tiny bottle of medical alcohol, and clean gauze.
"It might hurt a little. Bear with it."
Kiyohara picked up the tweezers, carefully wiped them down with an alcohol swab to disinfect them, then leaned closer to the wound.
Rin could feel Kiyohara's warm breath gently brushing across her back, and her body tensed up involuntarily.
(End of Chapter)