The familiar voice sounded in his mind right on schedule, and Kiyohara's spirits lifted.
He immediately found an excuse to leave his companions, who were reinforcing the defenses, and went behind a more secluded ruin that overlooked part of the coastline.
At the same time, ripples gradually surfaced in his mind.
The ripples appeared bit by bit, forming the outline of an Ash Box.
This Ash Box was completely different from the previous two.
It was neither wooden nor ordinary ceramic, but a coarse stone box of a dull, heavy color, as if metal ore sand had been mixed into it.
A strange pattern was engraved on its surface. Kiyohara recognized it at once—it was the symbol on Sunagakure ninja forehead protectors!
"Sunagakure's symbol?"
Kiyohara's heart skipped a beat as a sense of foreboding rose within him.
Could it be another version of me from a different ninja village?
Kiyohara thought.
Before Kiyohara could say anything, the stone Ash Box trembled slightly, and voices seemed to emerge from within.
"Hey!"
"Even if I die today, I'll kill you bastards who don't know your place!"
"?"
Those strange voices brought a trace of confusion to Kiyohara's face.
As the voices faded, an illusory figure emerged from within.
The figure was similarly young, with features seventy to eighty percent similar to Kiyohara's, but his temperament was entirely different.
He wore the standard uniform of a Sunagakure ninja, with a Sunagakure forehead protector slashed across the middle.
"Oh? I'm already dead?"
The future Kiyohara looked down at his translucent hands, then raised his head to look at the young and immature Kiyohara. His brows rose, and surprise appeared on his face.
So he was no longer fighting.
He spoke.
"I never expected this so-called Last Words Book to be real. I only completed