“You obtained the formula for the forbidden drug from Orochimaru?”
Kiyohara asked.
If forbidden drugs existed, they could indeed rapidly increase one’s strength.
The Akimichi clan were masters at this—though they didn’t call them forbidden drugs, but rather legally crafted secret medicines.
Take the Three Colored Pills, for instance: the green pill could enhance a person’s physical strength by a third, while the yellow pill could fully unleash the user’s latent potential.
The final red pill was said to be capable of stimulating a hundredfold of one’s potential.
Of course, Kiyohara figured that was just hype—if it were truly that powerful, the Akimichi clan would have long since become the greatest clan in the ninja world.
Still, being able to carry such a reputation already showed how extraordinary their clan’s secret medicines were.
Kiyohara was curious—what effects might the forbidden drugs that Rogue Ninja Kiyohara knew of have?
“I obtained some.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara said.
“But most of them cause great harm to the human body.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara spoke these words with a hint of regret.
Though they had brought him power far greater than an average Jonin, he would need to take medication for life to mitigate the side effects.
The reason he’d stepped on that explosive tag was because he’d suffered an episode at the time.
“Then tell me about the ones without harm.”
Kiyohara said.
“Strictly speaking, all secret medicines have harm.
The difference is whether it’s permanent or temporary, and whether it can be recovered from.”
“Elaborate.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara shot a glance at Kiyohara.
As expected of his past self—no qualms about such methods.
After all, orthodox shinobi gained power through rigorous training, what was known as following one’s ninja way to the end.
But Kiyohara was to depart for Kannabi Bridge in three days.
Even cramming wouldn’t yield much, and sharpening a spear at the last moment could only scrape off a bit of rust.
If one wanted to take a shortcut, unconventional methods were naturally required.
“You need to go take out a loan right now.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara said.
“Loan for what?”
Kiyohara was taken aback.
Were these drugs that expensive?
“Whether you’ll even survive is still unknown.
Why keep these things around?
Better to convert them into something that increases your odds of living.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara shook his head, his tone tinged with frustration over a student’s failure to meet expectations.
He’d suffered this exact loss.
Damn it—he’d fled in too much haste.
Orochimaru hadn’t given him any time at all to make his escape.
By the time he’d come to his senses, he’d already slipped out of Konoha, leaving all his belongings in the village, which were ultimately legally confiscated!
“Ninja can’t borrow much, can they.”
Kiyohara had never tried taking out a loan.
For shinobi—a high-risk profession where one could die any day—let alone loans, no insurance company would dare take them on either.
Konoha, possessing various technological creations like refrigerators, televisions, and utility poles, was actually highly modernized—it was just that people’s thinking remained relatively traditional and conservative.
He had actually considered, a few days before the Uchiha clan’s massacre night, borrowing money from every Uchiha, and once the Uchiha clan was automatically deregistered, the debts wouldn’t need to be repaid.
Kiyohara trusted Itachi Uchiha’s operational competence—he would inevitably leave only his younger brother Sasuke behind.
“Borrow as much as you can.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara spoke up.
Once you were heading to the battlefield, why not go all out and buy six sets of gear?
“This is a guaranteed-win deal.
If you die, the debt dies with you.
If you live, just take on a few extra missions and the money will be earned back.”
Kiyohara thought it over—damn, that actually made a hell of a lot of sense.
But this was basically going all-in.
Going all-in takes wisdom—opportunities to pick the right person to trust were rare.
After all, no one could truly know a mission’s difficulty; they could only judge it roughly by its rank.
Yet a C-rank mission could suddenly escalate into B-rank, and an A-rank mission might, thanks to an enemy’s carelessness or mistake, drop to the difficulty of a mere C-rank.
Take the Kannabi Bridge mission, for example.
Everyone assumed that with Minato Namikaze present, the mission was sure to succeed.
And indeed, Minato Namikaze did complete the mission.
But who knew whether they would be the one paying the price?
No matter how strong Minato Namikaze was, he couldn’t watch over everyone—and no normal person would ever think it’d be themselves who died.
That was why taking out loans for such things was something few shinobi ever did.
Only someone like Kiyohara, who knew the plot in advance, could exploit that information gap to pull it off.
Kiyohara pondered for a moment, then rummaged through his cabinets and drawers, hauling out everything valuable in his home.
Using all of it as collateral, he secured a loan of 650,000 ryo.
Any higher and no one was willing to lend to Kiyohara—even risking total ruin wouldn’t have done it.
And he’d only managed this much thanks to his decent reputation in the village and a stroke of luck.
In their eyes, a lowly Genin like Kiyohara had a fairly high chance of dying in the field.
Combined with his previous savings, he had 700,000 ryo in total—already a considerable sum.
Right away, under Rogue Ninja Kiyohara’s guidance, he went to stock up on medicinal herbs and tools.
In Konoha, the Nara clan and the Akimichi clan had deep roots in the herbal medicine trade—one could even say many of those businesses were monopolized by these two families.
The former, the Nara clan, owned a vast forest where they raised wise spirit deer, whose antlers were a highly valuable medicinal ingredient.
As for the Akimichi clan, they excelled in all sorts of medicinal formulas.
In the original story, Lady Tsunade even borrowed the Akimichi clan’s prescriptions—enough to show how much they were worth.
And since the Ino-Shika-Cho trio of clans were allied with bonds stronger than most, the Nara and Akimichi clans were a formidable team-up.
“Hiss, these herbs really are expensive.”
The money Kiyohara had just borrowed was barely warm in his hands before more than half of it was gone.
“Expensive things have their reasons.
These forbidden medicines minimize side effects to the greatest degree possible.
Control your dosage properly, and at worst you’ll have occasional headaches for three months—after that, nothing will bother you again.”
Rogue Ninja Kiyohara said.
These were some quality goods that bastard Orochimaru had only tossed his way after Kiyohara had followed him around for a long time.
As far as Orochimaru was concerned, his eyes were set on only one thing—Sasuke.
That was good news for Rogue Ninja Kiyohara too: he didn’t have to worry about Orochimaru stabbing him in the back.
He’d rather have a cold kunai pierce his body than Orochimaru’s soul slither in.
“Three months, huh?
That’s fine.”
Kiyohara was very satisfied with the results.
These weren’t forbidden medicines at all—they were practically miraculous pills!
“Hey, you little brat, what are you buying so many herbs for?”
Hearing the voice, Kiyohara turned around.
Two clouds loomed over his vision, curving with a full, generous arc.
Judging by eye, they were quite large.
Combined with the purple diamond marking on the woman’s forehead and her golden hair, her identity was obvious at once.
Tsunade!
“Lady Tsunade.”
Kiyohara spoke respectfully.
At this point in time, Tsunade had also returned to Konoha.
With Konoha on the brink of life and death, Tsunade naturally couldn’t just sit and watch.
Before the Third Great Ninja War broke out, she’d even treated Minato Namikaze when he’d collapsed at Training Ground 3.
It wasn’t as if she’d never returned to the village after Dan Kato’s death.
That incident had been recorded in the official manga, *Minato’s Side Story*.
“I’m buying these to make my family’s secret medicine.”
Kiyohara said.
He didn’t use excuses like a sick family member or an ill friend.
Those wouldn’t fool Tsunade anyway, so it was better to keep it sounding normal.
Among shinobi, there was no need to pry too deeply into each other’s business.
Sure enough, Tsunade didn’t press further.
Instead, she curiously asked about something else:
“Kid, I saw you taking out that loan earlier—how did you even manage to get it?”
Her tone carried a hint of urgency.
She’d lost some more money again and was in desperate need of capital to turn things around.