Even though he was only facing a Wood Clone, Kyosuke felt immense pressure during the exchange of blows and knew he had to go all out.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Kyosuke created two Shadow Clones; one bravely charged forward to tangle with Yamato in close combat, while the other clone and the original stepped back and used Ninjutsu simultaneously.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
That's right, it was the exact same heavy-artillery tactic he had used against Uchiha Osamu: using a massive amount of borrowed Chakra to completely overwhelm the enemy with sheer area-of-effect damage.
A move doesn't have to be new; it just has to work.
The hurricane and roaring flames combined, instantly igniting a massive area of the desert. Because of the vanguard Shadow Clone's suicidal interference, the Yamato clone had absolutely no chance to dodge the blast radius.
He could only violently kick away the Kyosuke clone in front of him and press both hands flat to the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
The ground shattered, and a thick, towering earthen wall rose from the earth, standing tall in front of Yamato to block the inferno. The blinding wind and fire rushed harmlessly past both sides of the sturdy wall.
"Now's my chance!"
Seeing that the Wood Clone's vision was temporarily obscured by its own defense, Kyosuke and his remaining Shadow Clone coordinated seamlessly, charging from different flanking directions.
Yamato leaped over his wall, looked up, and saw the two Kyosukes charging from above and the left. He immediately extended his hands toward them, sharp wooden spears jutting rapidly from his palms to easily shatter the two incoming attackers.
"Rasengan!"
Using the Shadow Clones as a distraction, Kyosuke's true body had launched a stealthy sneak attack from directly behind Yamato. The grinding, swirling Rasengan slammed directly into Yamato's back.
With a crack, the figure turned into a pile of shattered, rotten wood. A substitution!
"How do you know the Rasengan?!"
Hearing a shocked voice directly behind him, Kyosuke was startled. He immediately retreated several paces and turned to face the real Yamato.
Yamato stood his ground but didn't attack again, his eyes wide with disbelief. Meanwhile, Kakashi was completely entangled in a mass of unbreakable wood, having already become Yamato's struggling prisoner.
Kyosuke felt it was about time to finally reveal his identity and replied smoothly, "Naturally, my teacher taught it to me."
Hehe, I've made it so obvious; Yamato should have realized what time period he's in by now.
Filled with dawning doubt, Yamato walked up to the tied-up Kakashi. Amidst Kakashi's useless, angry struggling, Yamato gently removed the mask from the boy's face and was greatly surprised.
"Kakashi...?"
Kakashi glared at Yamato. "You know me? Are you really a Konoha ninja?!"
In an instant, Yamato understood the bizarre cause and effect of the situation. He realized that because of the Dragon Vein's temporal distortion, he must have traveled back to the past—back to when his senpai, Kakashi, was just a child.
Kyosuke intentionally let out a loud sigh of relief and asked, knowing full well the answer, "So you really are one of us. We're here on a highly classified mission. Do you have one too?"
Yamato didn't know how to possibly explain the truth and thought it much better to hide the fact of his time travel to preserve the timeline. He simply nodded stiffly. "That's right. I'm also on a mission."
"That's great! What is your mission? We can cooperate."
"We are hunting Mukade, a rogue ninja from the Sand Village who is very dangerous and uses puppets."
"We? Do you have other companions? Just as well, we have our own captain and teammates inside the city too."
"Yes, I have another companion with loud yellow hair."
Kyosuke and Yamato chatted casually like old friends, completely ignoring the bound Kakashi lying on the sand.
Kakashi couldn't help but yell, "Hey! Let me go already!"
However, both Kyosuke and Yamato chose to completely ignore him.
Since Sakumo Hatake's death, although Kakashi had the sincere, constant company of Kyosuke and Guy—and thus his personality was much better than in the anime—he still became an obsessed workaholic, doing missions every single day to numb his mind.
Most importantly, after Kakashi earned all that mission money, he never treated Kyosuke to a meal. After several failed attempts to mooch some barbecue, Kyosuke was quite unhappy and felt that Kakashi should suffer a bit of indignity tied to a log.
As for Yamato, he and the adult Kakashi had become friends through sparring, except Yamato could never beat Kakashi and often got thoroughly beaten up. Seeing the arrogant young Kakashi now, he thought about bullying him back a little to let Kakashi suffer, counting it as petty future revenge.
"Alright, the commotion in the city has died down. Let's go take a look."
In the end, Yamato softened his heart and released the jutsu. Also deeply worried about Naruto's safety, he took the initiative to end the conversation that was torturing Kakashi's pride. Otherwise, given Kyosuke's enthusiasm for chatting, he would have talked for at least a day and a night.
With Naruto and Minato Namikaze inside the city—the literal protagonist and the protagonist's legendary father—what real danger could there possibly be? Kyosuke thought confidently as they jogged toward the gates.
Unexpectedly, Kyosuke was very quickly slapped in the face by reality.
Upon entering the towering city, the three learned from Minato that Uzumaki Naruto had actually been captured by Mukade. The villain demanded that the Konoha ninjas hand over Queen Sara, or he would publicly execute Naruto in the central plaza.
Oops, is my mere presence causing a butterfly effect that's going to get the protagonist killed?! Kyosuke was genuinely surprised, while Yamato was extremely anxious and immediately rushed toward the plaza.
At the plaza, Naruto was hanging precariously from a high balcony, completely surrounded by a horde of deadly mechanical puppets. Yamato immediately attacked the swarm. Kyosuke and Kakashi couldn't stop him from acting rashly, so they could only follow and join the chaotic fight against the puppets.
The puppets weren't weak, and they were incredibly numerous. The battle quickly devolved into a chaotic brawl, and the three were soon separated, fighting their own desperate battles across the plaza.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
"Rasengan!"
Supplied with plenty of Chakra, Kyosuke smashed several puppets to pieces in a short while. Just as he was about to jump across the plaza to support Kakashi, a deep, yawning hole suddenly exploded in the ground beneath his feet.
A giant, horrifying Centipede Puppet rushed out from the depths, its massive mechanical mouth opening wide to swallow Kyosuke whole in a single gulp.
"Oh no! It's Mukade!" Yamato shouted from afar.
After being violently swallowed into darkness, Kyosuke landed hard on a metal floor. He looked up, saw a middle-aged ninja hooked into the machinery, and was startled, knowing this man must be the boss, Mukade. Fighting inside the belly of the beast would be very disadvantageous.
Kyosuke immediately began forming hand seals, preparing to blast a massive opening in the hull to escape. But to his confusion, he found the enemy wasn't attacking at all.
Instead, the enemy said something that greatly shocked Kyosuke.
"Moshi moshi? Is that Kyosuke? I am the future you. Don't be afraid."
"What?!" Kyosuke gasped, dropping his hands.
Extremely surprised and seeing there was no immediate danger, Kyosuke slowly approached Mukade's suspended body. He found that the villain was standing completely still with his eyes closed, seemingly unconscious.
Only a voice—one incredibly familiar to Kyosuke—emanated telepathically from within Mukade's body.
"I don't know if this world is my past history or a divergent parallel timeline, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, I programmed this fragment to only awaken when it encounters your specific Chakra signature."
Kyosuke tapped cautiously on Mukade's armored chest and asked, "Who exactly are you, and what do you want with me?"
"I am the future you. To be precise, I am a small portion of your future thoughts and memories that was secretly implanted into Mukade's body by your future self before he traveled back. I came here solely to give you a gift."
Hearing about a gift, Kyosuke's inherent greed peaked. "Oh? It seems I'm doing quite well in the future. What gift are you giving me this time? The Rinnegan? The Six Paths Power?"
"I have no memories of your future self's status. I don't know what will happen to you. Perhaps your future self was afraid of dangerously affecting your natural growth and intentionally didn't give me those memories. As for the gift itself, I don't know what it is either. See for yourself."
In an instant, a brilliant, warm light appeared from Mukade's chest and rushed directly into Kyosuke's brain, which both shocked and angered him.
He wouldn't easily trust a mysterious voice and had remained highly vigilant. He had only wanted to fish for more information just now, but he hadn't expected to be hit directly by an unavoidable jutsu.
Fortunately, the light didn't harm his mind. Instead, it blossomed into a profound, complex realization, and Kyosuke finally relaxed.
This was a complete, perfect realization regarding the complex cultivation of Senjutsu—Sage Mode. Although it couldn't magically help Kyosuke master Senjutsu instantly, it contained all the theory and feeling required. It would allow him to be perfectly familiar with nature energy when practicing in the future, with absolutely zero risk of petrification or failure.
Could it be that the other party really is from my future? Kyosuke thought in awe. Why send this specific realization? Is it a hint that I must take Senjutsu seriously to survive what's coming?
"The gift has been successfully delivered, and my Chakra is about to dissipate," the voice echoed, growing fainter. "Be careful; Mukade will wake up in a moment and attack you... Keep it up... past me... remember, you're the most handsome..."
What was originally an incredibly profound, touching scene was instantly ruined by the shameless mention of being the most handsome, leaving Kyosuke caught somewhere between laughter and tears.
"Well," Kyosuke smirked, drawing his blade as the puppet around him began to rumble to life. "This guy must be the future me. He's just as fond of telling the absolute truth as I am."