A new future!
Sure enough, beside the Ash Box bearing the slashed forehead protector symbol of "Renegade Kiyohara," ripples spread through the air as a second Ash Box appeared.
This new Ash Box had a dull metallic sheen all over it. On its lid was the sharp emblem of a tachi.
"A tachi?"
Kiyohara inexplicably thought of the Tachi-wielder.
He shook his head and tried knocking on the Ash Box with his mind.
"You there?"
Kiyohara asked tentatively.
Even if it was his future self, who knew what sort of temperament he would have after living in a different world, through different experiences, and at a different time?
"It seems I've... died."
A phantom spirit emerged from the Ash Box.
The spirit appeared to be in his early twenties, standing as straight as a pine.
His face bore a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Kiyohara's, but his features were harder. There was a battle-forged resolve in his brows, as though no difficulty could ever make him waver.
"You're my past self, aren't you?"
The new Kiyohara quickly grasped the situation and realized that the Last Words Book had sent him into another version of his own hands.
"That's right. I'm your past self. You practice swordsmanship?"
Kiyohara asked curiously.
In the Ninja World, the distinction between blades and swords was muddled. It could be called blade technique or sword technique.
"You can understand it that way."
Young Kiyohara nodded.
"Civilians are born with scarce chakra, so I became Maruboshi Kosuke-sensei's disciple and trained in Konoha-Style Kenjutsu: Willow..."
His voice had the crisp clarity of clashing metal and stone, unlike the weathered tone of Renegade Kiyohara.
"Later, I died at the hands of Ao of Kirigakure. His Byakugan could perfectly see through my muscle movements, making him difficult to handle."
"Is that so..."
Kiyohara quietly listened as Young Kiyohara introduced himself.
He also understood the future represented by this version of himself. His chakra reserves were roughly the same as his own before taking forbidden drugs.
So he had taken another path, choosing to devote himself to swordsmanship and make use of every bit of chakra.
Many sword techniques also consumed chakra, but they placed greater emphasis on skill.
"Then what is your final wish?"
Although this was not a future with a Kekkei Genkai, which left Kiyohara somewhat disappointed.
It would still be good if he could inherit Young Kiyohara's swordsmanship.
After all, once a ninja ran out of chakra, all he could rely on were blades, swords, fists, and kicks.
And while Maruboshi Kosuke was known as a perpetual genin, it was only because he had no desire to pursue the title of Jonin. In truth, he was far stronger than an ordinary Jonin!
If this future version of himself had become Maruboshi Kosuke's disciple, he must also have learned much valuable knowledge.
Those were precisely the things he, who had started with nothing, needed most.
"I only have two wishes. The first is for you to avenge me."
Young Kiyohara spoke.
Damn it, they had actually killed him!
That Ao of Kirigakure had brought death upon himself!
"Fine. I'll avenge you."
Kiyohara nodded.
Ao of Kirigakure had not yet transplanted the Byakugan, so he was nowhere near as strong as he would become in later years.
It was only natural to want revenge on the person who had killed him.
"What's the second?"
Kiyohara continued.
Young Kiyohara said:
"I want you to forge a ninja sword that can perfectly channel chakra and amplify the power of sword techniques. Another major reason I lost to him was that my blade broke."
"..."
Kiyohara nodded slightly at that.
This was in the bag.
The wishes of this future that had appeared were actually simpler than Renegade Kiyohara's.
After all, to become a Chunin, he first had to complete the mission at Kannabi Bridge. The pressure was truly maxed out.
As for this wish, Kiyohara had already begun preparing for it.
The Chakra Metal was ready. He only needed to gather enough money and find a craftsman to forge the ninja sword.
The other task was not difficult either. The current Ao was merely a civilian like him.
In the original story, Ao had appeared many times, but he was better known as the first ninja to transplant a Byakugan, and his mastery of it was only decent.
Kiyohara felt that, if things went quickly, he might be able to settle it this month.
Recently, Kirigakure seemed to be planning an advance.
The faster he fulfilled the wishes, the faster he could fuse with different futures.
Kiyohara looked forward to whether the next future might finally give him a version of himself with a Kekkei Genkai.
First, he would set a small goal: finish it within the next month or two!
If all else failed, Kiyohara planned to have Young Kiyohara fight for him.
In a sense, he might display even greater strength than Renegade Kiyohara.
Because he relied on skill.
"But, my past self... your body is far too weak."
Young Kiyohara's spirit floated beside him, his brows faintly furrowed as he bluntly criticized him.
"Think about it. If your chakra is exhausted in a prolonged battle, or if you encounter an enemy capable of disrupting or absorbing chakra, the only things you can rely on are this battle-forged body and years of close-combat skill."
Facing this cold and demanding "future self," Kiyohara could only compose himself and answer seriously:
"I understand. Then how should I begin?"
"The foundations of swordsmanship lie in grip, footwork, and exertion. First, find something suitable to substitute for a ninja sword and practice the most basic swings, chops, slashes, and thrusts."
Young Kiyohara spoke.
Hearing this, Kiyohara swept his gaze over the stream bank and quickly fixed on a hard wooden branch that had been polished smooth and straight by the water, with an appropriate thickness.
He walked over and picked it up, weighing it in his hand. Its weight and length seemed suitable enough, and he was about to use a kunai to trim it into a simple wooden sword for practice.
"Wrong."
Young Kiyohara's voice rang out. His phantom arm lifted, pointing toward something half-hidden in the grass not far away.
It was not wood at all, but a black-gray stone rod roughly one and a half meters long and as thick as two fists.
Judging by its appearance, it had likely broken off from a rock. It was extremely heavy, and one would need both hands just to barely lift it.
"Swing that. It builds strength."
"Train with that thing?"
Kiyohara's eyes widened, and he nearly thought he had misheard.
He pointed at the stone rod, which looked more like something used to tamp earth or build a small bridge pier.
An image of a certain one-armed hero, accompanied by a Divine Condor and wielding a Black-Iron Heavy Sword, immediately flashed uncontrollably through Kiyohara's mind.
But he had neither lost an arm nor had a condor.
"When you grow accustomed to the stone rod's weight and inconvenience day after day, and carve the proper method of exertion into your bones, then when you switch to a real ninja sword someday, it will feel as light as nothing."
Young Kiyohara clearly had far more perseverance than Kiyohara.
Listening to Young Kiyohara, Kiyohara considered it carefully and found that it did make sense.
Rock Lee in the original story trained in much the same way, except he wore many weighted packs filled with iron blocks.
Over the following days, aside from routine patrols and sentry duty, occasional short-range supply transport, and making time to practice Wind Release: Gale Palm.
Kiyohara would carry that conspicuously heavy stone rod to a relatively flat patch of ground at the edge of the camp and carry out what Young Kiyohara called "basic swordsmanship training."
"Kiyohara, are you... practicing a new taijutsu?"
Nohara Rin noticed Kiyohara's big, black, hard... thick stone rod and became very curious about why he kept swinging the thing.
"Yeah, that's right."
Kiyohara nodded.
Whenever he raised his hands, the shadow of the thick stone rod cast a patch of darkness across Nohara Rin's face.
Don't misunderstand. That was because the sun was shining from behind him.
Before you continue