The moment the sneering words fell, killing intent surged forth!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three blurred silhouettes tore through the dense mist almost simultaneously from different directions. The shinobi blades in their hands glinted with a cold, murderous light.
"Right side—diagonal slash from above. Left rear—straight thrust to the waist. Direct front—low sweeping strike. Their first target is you,"
The voice of the youth Kiyohara echoed in Kiyohara's mind, calmly delivering all the incoming attack information.
If it were an ordinary genin—no, even a typical chūnin—surviving such a coordinated kill strike in this suffocating mist, where one could barely see their own hand and sensory perception was crippled, would be impossible. They would be dead or severely injured within an instant.
But Kiyohara was not ordinary.
Before the youth Kiyohara's voice had even finished speaking, Kiyohara's body had already reacted instinctively.
He stomped hard against the ground, his body recoiling backward at a sharp angle like a compressed spring released in an instant, narrowly avoiding the sweeping attack in front of him.
At the same moment, his right hand snapped up, kunai in hand, blocking to the right.
Clang!
Sparks burst into the fog.
Kiyohara had successfully parried the slash from his upper right.
"Kiyohara!"
The closest to him, Kurenai saw that there was still one more strike Kiyohara had not moved to avoid.
But Kiyohara didn't panic. His expression remained calm as he dipped his shoulder, twisted his waist, core tightening, and spun sharply—barely dodging the final thrust.
Waist and legs moving as one!
Recently, the thing Kiyohara trained the most was the strength of his core.
"What?"
The Mist-nin who brushed past him widened his eyes in shock. He hadn't expected Kiyohara's movements to be that nimble, almost as if he had x-ray vision piercing the fog.
In the next instant, Kiyohara planted his foot.
Power surged from the ground to his legs, to his waist, to his back, and finally gathering explosively in his right arm. His kunai came down in a heavy arc.
It struck the Mist shinobi who had just completed his slash—right at the weakest point of his armor, the narrow gap in the scapula on his left shoulder!
Pchi!
The kunai bit deep into flesh.
The Mist shinobi screamed, his blade clattering to the ground as he staggered backward in pain.
The other two Mist shinobi widened their eyes in disbelief and immediately tried to reposition themselves to launch a second assault.
"Not bad. You can start pushing them back with ninjutsu now."
The youth Kiyohara nodded with approval.
Past him was stronger than expected.
"Right."
Kiyohara's hands flew into seals.
A compressed gust of violent wind exploded outward.
Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!
The Mist shinobi behind him was blown away, tumbling violently into the fog.
A second set of seals—his right palm struck the ground, sending crackling arcs of electricity racing outward.
The Mist-nin in front, Mizunoshō, had just pulled back his leg when a surge of paralysis shot through him—freezing his movements in place.
Lightning Release: Earth Walk!
All of this happened in the span of a heartbeat.
From the moment the three Mist shinobi launched their coordinated ambush
to Kiyohara evading and countering—
everything unfolded with lightning speed.
Kakashi, who had been preparing to assist, felt his single exposed eye widen slightly.
He had been seconds away from using Chidori, but to his utter disbelief…
Kiyohara had neutralized all three attackers by himself.
"Kiyohara… when did he develop such close-combat ability? He used to rely more on ninjutsu… Could Kiyohara's growth really be this fast?"
Kakashi was genuinely baffled.
It wasn't just Kakashi.
Genma and Rin stared in stunned silence.
All they had seen were a few blurred movements, some clashing metal, and pained screams—
and the three Mist attackers were either down or dying.
It completely shattered their understanding of Kiyohara's strength.
Kiyohara panted lightly, feeling the remaining chakra in his body and the slight soreness in his arm.
He understood clearly: 90% of that stunning display belonged to the youth Kiyohara's intel.
Without that precise information, the surprise attack would've been far more dangerous.
After all, Hidden Mist Jutsu could interfere not only with the Sharingan,
it can even disrupt the sight of the Rinnegan.
Kiyohara threw a quick glance at the wounded Mist-nin.
He pulled out a shuriken from his pouch and flicked it—finishing the job cleanly.
Almost at the same moment, a deafening sound burst through the fog—
a piercing, thousand-birds-cry shriek.
"Chidori!"
Kakashi, after a brief assessment, turned into a streak of blue lightning. Using the noise and commotion Kiyohara had created, he locked onto a Mist shinobi who still hadn't fully regained his footing.
A flash of light—
a short scream—
and the Mist shinobi dropped dead instantly.
The last enemy, Mizunoshō—the one who had mocked them earlier, watched his comrades fall without emotion.
He unsheathed the large sword on his back—a specially forged broadsword, longer and heavier than a standard Mist blade.
Chakra surged into his legs, exploding outward as he dashed forward like an arrow fired from a bow.
But he didn't charge Kakashi.
He went straight for Kiyohara, who had just finished his kill and looked slightly drained.
"Brat from Konoha—don't get too full of yourself!"
His massive blade tore apart the mist, the air screaming around it as it swung down toward Kiyohara's face—
a vicious, decisive, killing strike.
This blow carried speed, power, and ferocity far beyond the earlier chūnin.
He was undoubtedly a jōnin—perhaps even a tokubetsu jōnin specializing in kenjutsu.
"Be careful!"
Kurenai and Rin cried out simultaneously.
Kakashi tried to return to help, but he was too far away, and he had just used Chidori—his chakra had not fully stabilized.
Facing that sudden, deadly strike,
Kiyohara lifted the Mist shinobi's blade he had just picked up, placing it horizontally in front of him.
At the same time, he shouted inwardly:
"Future me—help me!"
He didn't hesitate.
If it was too hard to handle, he would simply let the future take over.
"Very well. It has been a long time since I've moved my hands.
Let me help you."
The youth Kiyohara immediately took over control of his body.
Instantly, a completely different sensation flooded through him.
Muscle memory—
force control—
awareness of the blade—
even the rhythm of breathing—
All of it transformed in a single heartbeat.
Facing the downward strike of the massive blade, the possessed Kiyohara calmly shifted his footwork.
His sword traced a circular, fluid arc—
the tip landing precisely at the point where the broadsword's power was the strongest, but where it could change direction the least.
CLANG!
The metallic clash rang louder than anything before it, sparks scattering like fireworks.
A powerful force traveled up the blade—
Mizunoshō felt his wrist go numb.
His confident, killing strike…
It felt as though he had struck
a rotating mass of cotton—
or a slippery fish twisting out of grasp.
More than seven-tenths of his force had been neutralized instantly!
"What!"
He was shocked.
To do this—
the opponent had to understand swordsmanship far, far better than he did.
"Impossible! You're clearly not a kenjutsu specialist shinobi!"
He had seen Kiyohara using kunai earlier—
even picking up his fallen comrade's blade to defend himself.
How could he suddenly handle it with the ease and familiarity of a veteran with twenty years' experience—
like an old smoker blowing perfect rings that wrap around a dog's snout?
It was too absurd.
"Hard to understand?"
The youth Kiyohara, speaking through him, smiled faintly.
The truth was simple:
"Your swordsmanship… in the shinobi world…"
He tilted the blade with practiced elegance.
"…more than that of a little girl."
(End of Chapter)
TN: Original was is nothing but a little loli, lmao.