“So, Madara Uchiha is right beneath my feet.”
Kiyohara thought to himself.
The original story was actually rather vague on this point.
It was possible that Madara Uchiha had White Zetsu move Obito into the underground cavern, and then Madara fooled Obito into believing he had fallen there on his own.
It was also possible that the truth was simply that Obito, at his Sharingan stage, had unconsciously used a portion of “Kamui’s” power.
“Are you okay…
Rin…
Kakashi.”
Obito showed only half his body and his head, using his left eye to look at the other side.
“Obito!”
Kakashi’s pupils contracted.
He immediately rushed over, trying to push the boulder with all his might to rescue Obito.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard Kakashi pushed, he couldn’t budge it an inch.
“Stop pushing, Kakashi.
I’m done for.
The right side of my body is completely crushed, and I can’t feel a thing.”
Hearing this, Kakashi leaned against the wall in self-reproach, recounting his own mistakes.
It was all his fault that things had come to this.
Kiyohara watched this scene quietly from behind.
Was he moved?
The bond between these three was indeed deep.
But…
In Obito’s heart, only Kakashi and Rin Nohara counted as people.
As for everyone else, no matter how well they treated Obito, he would turn his back on them without a second thought.
For example, he would turn around and try to kill his master and mistress.
Even though Kushina had kindly brought Obito rice balls and looked after him during his training.
This was also why Kiyohara had never chosen to interact much with Obito before.
First, there was no need.
Second, he might attract Madara Uchiha’s attention and become a pawn in Obito’s descent into darkness.
“Minato Namikaze should be on his way here by now.”
Kiyohara thought to himself.
Once Minato Namikaze arrived, they could all go together to destroy the Kannabi Bridge, and the mission would be complete.
Relying on this mission, Kiyohara should be eligible for a promotion upon his return, enough to participate in the Chunin selection.
He estimated that he would only need to pass an internal assessment, and he could be promoted directly.
“Taiseki is dead?”
Kiyohara suddenly noticed that among a pile of fallen rocks, seemingly because of the lime powder he had thrown, Taiseki had failed to escape and had gotten his head crushed directly, leaving only his body sticking out.
With such a stroke of luck, Kiyohara immediately chose to loot the body.
The moment he touched it, he struck gold.
“Well, well, he was even carrying thirty thousand ryō in cash on him.”
Kiyohara found a thick stack of bills in Taiseki’s ninja pouch and promptly took them out for righteous confiscation, stashing them into his own pocket.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, Kiyohara discovered there was also a ninjutsu scroll inside.
Opening it, he found a C-rank ninjutsu named “Earth Release: Underground Submarine Voyage.”
It allowed the user to use chakra to turn solid sand and stone underground into fluid, enabling them to swim quickly through the soil beneath the earth.
“He was probably training in this jutsu recently.
Too bad he never mastered it.”
Kiyohara shook his head.
Now it all benefited him.
If Taiseki had really mastered “Earth Release: Underground Submarine Voyage,” he probably wouldn’t have been crushed to death.
Even as he mused, Kiyohara never stopped moving.
He packed the Iwagakure flak jacket, along with kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and other items, all into the sealing scroll.
“Kakashi, I want to give you my Sharingan as a present for your Jonin promotion.”
While Kiyohara was looting the body, Obito had nearly finished saying his last words to Kakashi.
“Rin, use your medical ninjutsu to transplant my Sharingan into Kakashi.”
“Obito…”
Kakashi was at a loss for words for a moment.
Rin Nohara rubbed her face, holding back the grief of losing her comrade, and said to Kakashi:
“Come here.
The surgery is about to begin.”
With that, Rin Nohara started taking out the corresponding tools from her medical kit.
“Here we go, hot-swappable Sharingan.”
Kiyohara quipped inwardly.
The most miraculous thing in the ninja world was the Sharingan.
It was practically a plug-in—whether you could handle it or not, anyone could install it.
After all, eye transplantation was actually an extremely difficult surgery.
The optic nerve is a non-regenerative nerve.
To connect the eyeball, you had to join those optic nerves.
Yet the optic nerve is made up of more than a million individual nerve fibers.
To perfectly connect the donor eyeball’s optic nerve to the recipient brain’s optic nerve was as difficult as taking a severed bundle of fiber-optic cable containing over a million microscopic strands.
You’d have to realign and weld each one perfectly, with no color or numbering marks to guide you.
Not to mention the subsequent immune rejection reactions and blood supply issues.
The fact that Rin Nohara could complete an eye transplant surgery in such a crude environment made Kiyohara have to admit that medical ninjutsu truly was all-purpose.
“The Iwagakure shinobi are gathering around.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara’s spirit form drifted back from afar.
He had been scouting the area for Kiyohara all along.
“I know.”
Kiyohara nodded slightly.
In truth, Kakashi and the others in the original story had been in the same situation—they’d nearly been wiped out before blowing up the bridge, surrounded by a group of Iwagakure shinobi.
In the end, it was Minato Namikaze’s timely rescue that kept them alive.
This made Kiyohara wonder—perhaps that was the real purpose of this mission: to let Minato Namikaze wipe out the Iwagakure shinobi who came surrounding them in one fell swoop.
After all, if Minato Namikaze had personally taken on this mission, the enemies would have fled the moment they saw him, dragging things out with guerrilla warfare.
“Just about enough chakra recovered.”
Kiyohara thought to himself.
On this mission, besides this achievement, his biggest gain was accumulating a lot of experience.
Many of the techniques Rogue Ninja Kiyohara had mentioned required Kiyohara to personally practice them before they could become his own.
This experience and knowledge counted as software.
Combined with the talent he’d absorbed from part of Rogue Ninja Kiyohara’s gifts and the doubled chakra reserves from the forbidden drugs, that counted as hardware.
With both software and hardware advancing in tandem, Kiyohara’s strength naturally soared.
He could now easily defeat his past self—even with one hand tied behind his back!
“You’re like cockroaches, still alive.”
Kakkō walked out from another exit.
By now he had already bandaged the wound on his arm.
He looked at Kiyohara and the others, somewhat surprised that they hadn’t been crushed to death under the rocks.
“And you—you actually used such a dirty trick to deal with Taiseki.”
Kakkō turned his gaze to Kiyohara.
When he saw Kiyohara still looting Taiseki’s gear, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
“Hmph, let me take care of this white-haired brat first.”
Kakkō sensed that something about Kakashi seemed different, and upon closer inspection, he realized the kid had actually transplanted a Sharingan!
Seeing this, a flicker of greed passed through his eyes.
If this brat could do it, wouldn’t he succeed too?
Kakkō raised his blades.
The blades were strapped to his wrists with white bandages—one on each hand.
Kakashi stared at Kakkō, his eyes filled with resolve.
“Kiyohara, let me handle this.”
Kakashi stepped past Kiyohara and raised his ninja sword.
He was going to avenge Obito.
The next moment, both their figures vanished simultaneously.
When they reappeared, a sharp clang of impact erupted in the middle of the area.
The tantō—inherited from Sakumo Hatake, the blade Kakashi had never once broken in his entire life—shattered!
(End of Chapter)