Kadoya turned back to the trap Nawaki nearly stepped on, his expression sharpening. He raised a hand.
"Fall back. Saiguu, scan for enemies."
Without hesitation, the group retreated a few steps. Saiguu picked up a nearby stone and casually tossed it toward the trap.
BOOM!
A powerful explosion tore through the ground, shaking the trees and kicking up clouds of dirt and ash. The shockwave roared outward, birds scattering into the sky.
Saiguu narrowed her eyes, her senses extending. Within seconds, her gaze snapped to a direction, her tone clipped and alert.
"Enemies incoming. Fast."
Kadoya: "..."
Great.
They hadn't even left the Land of Fire yet, and their position had already been compromised.
This was supposed to be a simple supply run to the Land of Rain, yet somehow, someone had leaked their route. And now, they had enemies on their tail before even reaching the border.
"Get ready," Kadoya muttered under his breath, irritation brimming in his voice.
But before anyone could respond, Saiguu glanced up, her eyes tightening.
"…More from above?"
That single phrase was enough.
Kadoya's instincts flared like a lightning strike. His body moved before his mind caught up.
Whistle, a sharp sound cut through the air.
He turned just in time to see multiple kunai descending straight toward his head.
"Clock Up!"
His surroundings slowed to a crawl. The kunai froze in mid-air, barely inches from his face, glinting menacingly in the muted light.
He pivoted, eyes darting, Saiguu was already in motion, ready to deflect the flurry of kunai raining toward her. Meanwhile…
"…Nawaki, you're truly an idiot."
Kadoya's gaze snapped to his other teammate, still utterly clueless as a kunai with an explosive tag sailed straight toward his face.
Kadoya tilted his head back toward the distance, his three-tomoe Sharingan flaring to life.
Figures in the sky, gliding through the clouds with strange, bird-like mechanical wings strapped to their backs. Shinobi, all of them armed and… carrying what looked suspiciously like guns.
Yup.
No mistaking it.
Ninja from the Land of Sky.
According to his memory, in the original work, they were crushed during the Second Great Ninja War.
"Tch. A bunch of flies," Kadoya muttered.
Without wasting another second, he surged forward, grabbing Saiguu by the arm and hooking Nawaki's collar with the other.
He launched them both off the ground with him, just as the explosive kunai detonated behind them, engulfing their last position in fire and debris.
The Ninja from the Land of Sky looked at the position of their target. According to a leaked intel by some unnamed Ninja, there would be a group of Konoha's Genin doing a supply run heading into the Land of Rain.
Normally, intel like this won't be much use since it's just a group of no-name Genin, if some ninja is stationed nearby to stop them then great, if not, then most would have ignore this intel since it is not worth sending a group of capable shinobi to kill a few low level Genin.
It's just a waste of time and effort.
But it was the identity of this Genin team that attracted the Land of Sky's attention. The three kids all came from powerful clans: the Senju, the Uchiha, and the Hyuga.
If ninjas from Kumo caught wind of this, even the Raikage himself might personally come here to capture these three.
As the smoke from the explosion cleared, the flying ninja from the Land of Sky scanned the charred battlefield below, only to freeze in stunned silence.
There was no sign of the three kids. Not even a trace.
BANG!
A sharp, thunderous crack echoed through the air, followed by a wet splatter. One of the sky ninja's heads exploded mid-flight, blood and brain matter painting the wind behind him.
The others spun around in horror.
Below, standing calmly a distance away, was Kadoya, eyes glowing crimson, the spinning tomoe of his Sharingan locking onto the next target. In his hand, he held a sleek, menacing weapon, not too different from their own Handheld Kunai Launchers.
He calmly reloaded Crescent Rose, then fired again.
BANG!
Another one fell.
His Sharingan spun in tandem with the Ultra-Fast Reflexes from his brother. The moment an enemy entered his field of vision, his body moved on its own, aim, pull, fire. By the time his opponents realized they were targeted, they were already dead.
"W-What the hell!?" one of the remaining ninja cried out. "Konoha has weapons like that!?"
"Be careful! That Uchiha brat's using tech like ours!" shouted another, drawing a kunai and barely managing to deflect a bullet. The impact still hurled him back, his flying device spinning wildly as he fought to regain control.
Kadoya clicked his tongue, about to fire again, but when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened.
Click.
"Nawaki!" Kadoya shouted sharply.
"Right!" Nawaki jumped forward, already forming hand seals.
"Water Style: Water Severing Wave!"
From his mouth came a high-pressure stream of water, slicing through the air and striking two of the flying devices. Sparks flew. One exploded midair, while another spiraled downward, the ninja screaming before crashing into the treetops.
Kadoya pulled out his remaining ammo clips, his high-caliber, armor-piercing rounds were gone.
"Tch," he muttered, stowing Crescent Rose away. His eyes snapped upward to see the remaining enemies launching another barrage of kunai and shuriken.
His hands blurred through hand seals.
"Water Style: Bubble Capture Seal!"
A massive, glimmering bubble formed above them, lined with swirling black sealing runes. The moment the projectiles made contact, they were halted, frozen in time, suspended inside the bubble like bugs trapped in amber.
"Send signal for reinforcement!" the enemy leader barked in panic.
Simultaneously, Saiguu's eyes sharpened.
"Ground forces incoming," she reported calmly, her Byakugan still active.
Kadoya's jaw clenched.
What the hell is going on?
They were just three genin.
And yet-
Airborne units, gun-wielding ninja, explosive traps, and now backup ground forces?
At this point, Kadoya was already contemplating erasing the entire Land of Sky off the map just to make the headaches stop.
"Cover me!" he called out. His hands began blurring through seals.
Thirty-seven in total.
The rain of kunai and shuriken resumed, but this time Nawaki and Saiguu stepped in to shield him.
"Eight Trigrams Air Palm!"
Saiguu yelled, her palm strike blasting a wave of air that knocked several incoming projectiles off course.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"
Nawaki slammed his hands to the ground, erecting a thick wall of earth to protect them from the barrage.
That's when the ground unit appeared, emerging from the trees in a rush of footsteps and chakra.
These ones wore red, with tactical vests and foreign headbands.
Iwagakure.
"The intel was right! Capture those three at all costs!" the Iwa leader barked, pointing at them with a fierce glare.
Unfortunately for them, Kadoya's hands finally stopped moving, his final seal complete.
His eyes gleamed, and a sharp grin tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Leaf Style: Senhinoha."
A swirling twister erupted around Team 7, the wind howling as thousands of leaves were pulled into the vortex. Golden sparks of electricity crackled across their surfaces, ordinary leaves no more. Kadoya smirked, standing in the center of the storm, then calmly raised his left hand. Pointing his index and middle fingers toward the enemy shinobi standing ahead.
The leaves responded instantly, shooting forward like a thousand razor-sharp blades.
Infused with Hamon, each leaf danced with deadly precision. To the Rock and Sky shinobi, they looked like nothing but harmless foliage caught in the wind, until they tore through flesh and metal alike.
Dozens of screams rang out as leaves embedded themselves into limbs, torsos, faces. Blood splattered across the clearing.
"Take cover! Hidden Mole Jutsu, now!" the Iwa squad leader shouted, clutching his bleeding arm as more leaves sliced through his flank.
"Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu!"
The Iwagakure ninja dove underground, vanishing beneath the earth in a matter of seconds.
Kadoya's smile widened.
How thoughtful.
"They buried themselves for us," he said, voice calm, almost amused. "Umu... how considerate. Since you've done the hard part, let me do the cremating."
He raised a hand and snapped his fingers.
"Fire Style: Burn to Ash."
The leaves, still lodged in flesh and linked to his chakra, ignited with searing flame. Not a wild blaze, but a contained inferno. Fire that didn't consume the leaves, but clung to the bodies of those pierced by them, melting skin onto the leaf-blades, branding muscle and bone beneath.
The ground trembled with muffled screams as fire scorched them underground. Above, the remaining Sky ninja, those lucky enough to dodge the wave of leaves, saw everything and ran.
This wasn't a genin. This was a monster.
"The intel said three genin… Not two genin and a damn Kage!!" one of them shouted while fleeing.
In their eyes, Kadoya's Senhinoha had already crossed the threshold into S-Rank territory.
Turning leaves into invisible blades was deadly enough. Turning them into flame-imbued death traps that detonated after impact? Without Water Release, it wasn't a jutsu, it was a death sentence.
As silence settled and the last of the flames faded, Nawaki exhaled in relief, his tense shoulders finally relaxing.
"That was way too close…" he muttered.
Kadoya said nothing.
He simply bit his thumb, then his hands blurred into hand seals.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A puff of smoke, then, a sleek, dark-blue ninja frog appeared.
Frogadier's golden eyes met Kadoya's, and without a word, it closed its eyes and began gathering natural energy.
Kadoya turned, forming a shadow clone in a swift burst of smoke. Tossing his large supply scroll toward Saiguu and Nawaki, he spoke with composed authority.
"You two go ahead with my clone. I'll inspect the corpses for intel. If something happens, the clone will dispel and I'll come to you immediately."
Saiguu nodded without hesitation.
Nawaki opened his mouth to protest, but before a single word could escape, Saiguu grabbed the back of his collar and dragged him off like a misbehaving puppy.
Kadoya watched them vanish into the distance.
Then, as the air around him stilled, faint yellow markings formed around Frogadier's eyes.
"They're fleeing," Frogadier said, hopping onto Kadoya's shoulder.
"Good," Kadoya murmured, pulling out Crescent Rose, now fully extended into scythe mode. The light gleamed off the curved blade. "Let the hunt begin."
He exhaled slowly.
"Clock Up."
In a blur of motion, Kadoya vanished from the battlefield, some miles away, deeper in the Land of Fire's border, far beyond the range of any Byakugan and closer to Konoha.
Five Root operatives were retreating toward Konoha.
They had observed everything, the Sky and Rock shinobi defeated, their ambush shattered. Danzo's plan had failed. With Kadoya present, capturing Team 7 was impossible. All they could do now was report back.
At least by then, Danzo would know about Kadoya's true strength.
But fate had other plans.
"Harem Jutsu!"
A loud POOF! echoed through the trees, followed by a wave of smoke and the sudden appearance of fifty stunning women, their exposed forms strategically veiled by wisps of smoke. Even hardened Root shinobi flinched.
And in that single heartbeat of hesitation, Kadoya struck.
A blur, two heads rolled to the forest floor, the large crimson scythe sweeping attack cut cleanly through their skins.
"Water Style: Bubble Capture Seal!"
A sealing bubble with black runes trapped a third operative before he could react.
"Hana Style: Whispering Death!"
Bone-white spikes laced with golden Hamon erupted from the ground, impaling the fourth shinobi. The sound of tearing flesh and bone echoed as the razor-thin spikes shredded his organs from the inside.
Kadoya now stood before the last two conscious enemies, his hand resting on the surface of the sealing bubble.
"Fire Style: Burn to Ash."
The inside of the bubble ignited in an instant. Flame surged in all directions, and the trapped shinobi screamed as the inferno consumed him.
That left one.
The final Root operative stared at Kadoya with a mix of fury and disbelief. "Kadoya Uchiha! Are you betraying the village!?"
Kadoya gave him a lazy smirk. "I'm a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf." His voice turned cold, mocking. "Not the Hidden Root."
The Root ninja gritted his teeth and snapped his fingers into hand seals.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
His shadow connected, and for a moment, Kadoya's body locked in place.
But his grin only widened.
"Ah… a Nara. Interesting."
His eyes spun into motion, his three-tomoe Sharingan glared into the Root operative's soul. The Nara clanman froze in shock. According to intel, Kadoya hadn't even awakened his Sharingan.
"Your clan's jutsu will be quite useful to me," Kadoya said calmly.
"Genjutsu: Ten-Thousand Years of Death."
The Nara shinobi gasped and then screamed.
His body buckled as his mind fractured under the genjutsu's crushing weight. Kadoya delved into the depths of his consciousness, pulling apart his resolve, peeling away his pride like rotted flesh. The illusion wasn't just pain, it was humiliation, degradation, obliteration of self.
The Root shinobi tried to trigger the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, but before the word could fully form, Kadoya had altered it to trigger the genjutsu. A tidal wave of agony surged through his mind, severing the thought before it reached his tongue.
He couldn't die, not when Kadoya is still standing before him.
He tried again only to feel the genjutsu twisted again, and the phantom pain on his butt grew more intense. What makes it even worse is that, since this is the genjutsu and the taijutsu version, each time it triggers the Root shinobi butt would reverse back to its original state despite the lingering phantom pain.
In the end, he has to give in, spilling what he knows to Kadoya, the Shadow Possession Jutsu, Yin Release and Yang Release training methods, and even the Ino-Shika-Cho secret jutsu that he knew.
By the time Kadoya was done, the Root shinobi was a hollow shell, suffering a Hundred-Thousand Years of Death.
Kadoya walked over and ended his life swiftly, then, without hesitation, he incinerated the corpses, leaving no trace.
He exhaled. His mission is still in motion. Now with the enemy dealt with.
He turned toward the direction his team had gone, before he blurred forward at high speed.