Konoha Year 49.
Kiyohara's face looked terrible.
He was, in all likelihood… about to die.
He stared again and again at the mission scroll in his hand. No matter how he turned it around, the words didn't change: reinforce Minato's team—at Kannabi Bridge.
He was a transmigrator. From the moment he awakened fragments of his past life's memories, Kiyohara had lived cautiously, hiding his presence, doing everything possible to stay alive just a little longer.
Yet somehow, he had still been assigned this suicidal mission.
How was he supposed to survive a battlefield where life blossomed and withered by the second?
The Battle of Kannabi Bridge… for him, it meant nine deaths out of ten.
From the very beginning, the mission felt wrong.
The enemy lineup consisted of three battle-hardened Iwa jōnin, one of whom—Hikō—was considered among their strongest.
And Konoha's side?
A newly promoted jōnin Kakashi, a chūnin Rin, and another chūnin—Obito.
Meanwhile, Namikaze Minato had to assist the front line, meaning the three youths would eventually be facing three elite jōnin alone.
Was that… reasonable?
Kiyohara joining them meant nothing more than another expendable body.
Even Kakashi—who created an S‑rank Lightning Release at age twelve—could barely keep his footing here.
And Kiyohara himself was just… a genin.
Everyone knew the truth: sometimes the gap between people was wider than the gap between a person and a dog.
Some genin could shatter the Valley of the End just by exchanging blows.Others, like him, were the ones sent to fill the trenches with their corpses.
"What's wrong, Kiyohara?"
Rin looked at him in confusion.
Her short black hair brushed lightly against the purple paint on her cheeks as she spoke.
Why did Kiyohara look so grim the moment he received the reinforcement mission?
This time they had the Yellow Flash leading them. It should've been a guaranteed victory.
"No, it's nothing."
He shook his head.
He lifted his gaze slightly. Rin's waist was wrapped with a light pink sash, her black top fitting neatly against her figure, over-the-knee socks hugging her legs.
"Don't worry. I'll protect everyone this time."
A blond young man approached them with a warm smile.
"I believe in you, Lord Minato."
Kiyohara nodded.
Could he say he didn't?
Namikaze Minato, the man blazing like the sun itself—feared across all nations. Enemy shinobi who saw him often abandoned their missions on the spot, without punishment.
Yet despite being known as the Fastest Shinobi Alive, Minato always arrived one step too late when it mattered most.
"Yeah! With Minato-sensei here, this mission's no big deal!"
Obito strolled over, hands behind his head, grinning wide as he stopped beside Rin.
Behind them, a white-haired boy wearing a black mask stared ahead with detached indifference, as if nothing in the world could stir him.
Kiyohara watched this peaceful scene quietly—teacher and students, warm and trusting.
And after this battle… Rin would be captured by Kirigakure.Obito would descend into darkness.And later, he would give Naruto a "gift" wrapped in explosive tags—Konoha's most catastrophic wedding present.
So how was he supposed to stay alive?
People never truly shared each other's joys or sorrows. To Kiyohara, their chatter was just noise.
After exchanging a few polite words, he slipped away.
He was wondering whether he should write a will and tidy up his nonexistent inheritance when a voice echoed abruptly in his head.
[Last Will System activated.]
[Last Will: Using you as a temporal anchor, countless futures will branch outward.]
[Please accept your will and your urn. Handle your remains carefully.]
A synthetic female voice reverberated through his mind.
"Wait—my future self… died!?"
Kiyohara froze on the spot.
He knew going to Kannabi Bridge was a death sentence. They were already sending him his urn!
"Urn?"
Just as he was about to ask where it was, a phantom urn materialized in his mindscape.
It bore the Konoha symbol, struck through by a single horizontal slash.
Kiyohara's expression stiffened.
This… looked suspiciously like the mark of a rogue-nin.
"When you hear this message, I'm already dead. Everything that follows… is my final will…"
Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed.
Startled, Kiyohara watched as a faint spirit drifted out of the urn.
It looked about seventy or eighty percent like him—only older, worn, shaped by years of hardship. A middle-aged version of himself.
A scratched forehead protector sat across his brow.
A rogue-nin.
"You're… the me who died? And you defected?"
Kiyohara recalled the system's words:
Using him as an anchor, countless futures would unfold.
So becoming a rogue-nin was one possible future?
"More or less. As you can see, I'm a rogue-nin now."
The phantom pointed at the slash across his forehead protector.
"When did I… no—you defected?"
Kiyohara asked.
This was only one of many potential futures. It didn't mean he'd follow the same path.
"A few years after this war."
The rogue spirit's voice carried a hint of regret.
"Why?"
"For strength, of course. In this world, clans thrive on bloodlines. Civilians rely on mutation. I had no choice but to join Orochimaru if I wanted to grow stronger."
Kiyohara fell silent.
That was the shinobi world.
In this world, gold always shone.Unfortunately, he—as a civilian—was made of iron.
Here, strength flowed through wombs, mentors, and blood.If you had none of that, all you could do was pray to the Sage of Six Paths and hope he was feeling generous.
"Then how did you die?"
Kiyohara asked the only question that truly mattered.
"Explosion tags."
"…"
That was… pathetically anticlimactic.
He suspected quite a few people died that way.
"At least it proves I survived the Kannabi Bridge mission. Can you share what you know?"
He asked.
Even with foreknowledge, the slightest butterfly effect could change everything.
"No. I never received this mission."
The rogue self shook his head.
"I spent most of that period doing logistics."
"?"
Kiyohara's eyes widened.
Meaning… the future changed?Not just him—everyone and everything could shift?
There could be future versions like ANBU Kiyohara, or even Hokage Kiyohara?
"Then what's my… I mean, your relic?"
Kiyohara remembered that the urn was supposed to contain belongings.
Was it just the ghost?
"My relic… is probably myself. I can remain for a while and teach you a few jutsu."
The rogue spirit said calmly.
"But I won't last long. I had a 'Last Will' too, but I awakened it too late. After I died, I was simply packaged and sent to another version of me."
He began explaining his understanding of the system.
It seemed one could gain a portion of a dead self's power by fulfilling their final wishes.