Konoha Year 49.
Kiyohara didn't look so good.
He was probably going to die.
He kept checking the mission slip in his hand. No matter how he looked at it, it said the same thing: reinforce Minato's squad at—Kannabi Bridge.
He was actually a transmigrator. Ever since arriving and awakening his Past-Life Insight, Kiyohara had been tiptoeing through life, lying low and trying to live longer.
He hadn't expected to pull the "certain-death" assignment again.
How was he supposed to complete a mission on a battlefield where everything was "thriving" and trying to kill you?
The Battle of Kannabi Bridge, for him, was as close to a death sentence as it gets.
This mission reeked of weirdness from start to finish.
On the enemy side: three battle-hardened elite jōnin. One of them, an Iwagakure jōnin named Hikari, was considered top-tier.
On Konoha's side: a freshly promoted jōnin, Kakashi, plus the chūnin Nohara Rin and Obito.
Meanwhile, Namikaze Minato needed to go support the front line, which meant the rest would be one jōnin with two chūnin versus three elite jōnin.
How…was that reasonable?
If Kiyohara went, it was just one more body for the pile.
Even Kakashi, who had developed an S-rank Lightning Release at age twelve, couldn't fully grasp how deep the water ran here.
And Kiyohara was only a genin.
As everyone knows, the gap between people is sometimes bigger than the gap between a person and an insect.
Some genin get into fights and the aftershocks shatter the Valley of the End.
Others, like him, are genin whose job on the battlefield is to fill the line—cannon fodder.
"What's wrong, Kiyohara?"
Nohara Rin asked, puzzled.
As she spoke, a few strands of her short black hair brushed the purple paint on her cheeks.
Why did Kiyohara look so upset the moment he got the order to reinforce them?
This time they had Minato-sensei—the ninja world's number-one speedster—leading the team. It should've been a near sure thing.
"No, it's nothing."
Kiyohara shook his head.
He glanced up at the pretty girl: a light-pink skirt cinched at the waist, black top, and tight over-the-knee socks.
"Don't worry. I'll protect everyone on this mission."
A blond young man walked over with a gentle smile.
"I believe in you, Minato-sama."
Kiyohara nodded.
Could he say he didn't?
Right now Namikaze Minato was at his zenith. Even ninja from other villages, on seeing him, would just abort the mission on the spot and not be punished for it.
And yet, the man called the fastest in the ninja world spent his whole life never quite catching up—always a step behind disaster.
"Exactly. With Minato-sensei here, this mission's basically no big deal."
Obito strolled over with his hands behind his head and stood beside Nohara Rin, grinning like an idiot.
In the back stood a white-haired boy wearing a black mask, his flat gaze seeming uninterested in anything.
Kiyohara quietly watched this heartwarming scene of a kindly teacher and dutiful students.
And after this very battle, Rin would be captured by Kirigakure. Obito would fall into darkness and stage in Konoha a grand show of "respect," personally sending Naruto a "gift" of explosive tags.
So how was he supposed to stay alive?
People don't really share each other's joys and sorrows; to Kiyohara they were just noisy.
After a few polite words, he left them.
He was debating whether to write his will early and plan out his estate when a voice suddenly rang in his head.
[Willbook activated.]
[Willbook: Using you as an anchor point, countless possibilities will branch out from the future.]
[Please receive your final letter and urn, and properly lay your effects to rest.]
A synthetic female voice echoed in Kiyohara's mind.
"Wait—so I die in the future?"
Kiyohara lost his composure on the spot.
He knew Kannabi Bridge was a no-go. They'd already delivered the urn!
"An urn?"
Just as he was about to ask where it was, a phantom image of an urn appeared in his mind.
It bore the Konoha symbol—crossed out with a single slash.
Kiyohara had a bad feeling.
Hold on…doesn't that look like a rogue-ninja mark?
"By the time you hear this, I'm already dead. What follows should be my last words…"
A familiar voice suddenly spoke.
Startled, Kiyohara saw an ethereal spirit float out of the urn in his mind.
It looked seventy or eighty percent like him—him, but middle-aged. A face weathered by time, a forehead protector slashed with a horizontal cut.
A rogue ninja.
"You're…me, dead? And a defector?"
Kiyohara remembered what the Willbook had said.
Using him as a time marker, countless possibilities would extend from the future.
A rogue ninja was one of those possible futures?
"More or less. As you can see, I'm a rogue now."
Rogue-Kiyohara tapped the slashed forehead protector.
"When did I—you—defect?"
Kiyohara asked.
It was only one of infinite futures. It didn't mean he had to defect.
"A few years after this war ended."
Rogue-Kiyohara's tone held a sigh.
"Why?"
"To go further. In the shinobi world, clans rely on bloodlines; civilians rely on random mutations. If I wanted to get stronger, I could only join Orochimaru."
Rogue-Kiyohara said it plainly.
Kiyohara fell silent.
That was the shinobi world.
In this world, gold will shine—but unfortunately, as a civilian ninja, he was just a chunk of scrap iron.
Everyone knows: true power travels through childbirth, master-disciple lineages, and blood.
If you've got none of that, then you pray to the Sage of Six Paths and hope for the best.
"How did you die?"
Kiyohara asked the real question.
"Exploding Tags."
"…"
What a perfunctory way to go.
Kiyohara figured plenty of people met that end.
"At least it proves I survived the Kannabi Bridge mission. Can you share any intel?"
He pressed.
Even with foreknowledge of the plot, the tiniest butterfly effect could change everything.
"No. I never received this mission."
Rogue-Kiyohara said.
"I spent most of my time doing logistics."
"…?"
Kiyohara's eyes widened.
So his future was like people inside 'Limited Tsukuyomi'—not only would he change, other people and events could change too?
Could the future also produce 'Anbu Kiyohara'? 'Hokage Kiyohara'?
"What about your effects?"
Kiyohara remembered there should be relics in the urn. He was curious what else there was.
Just this spirit?
"If we're talking relics…that'd be me, I guess. I can stick around for a while and teach you some jutsu."
Rogue-Kiyohara said.
"But I won't last long. I had a 'Willbook' too, but I awakened it too late. After I died, I got bundled up and sent to another me."
He went on to explain his understanding of the Willbook: fulfill the dead person's last wishes, and you'll receive a certain boost from them.