From a distance, Kadoya stood with Greninja at his side, both gazing up at the small, floating man-made island suspended in the sky like a defiant speck against the clouds.
"I'm still not sure if this is genius or idiotic," Greninja muttered, his long tongue-scarf fluttering in the cold breeze. "Building a base camp in the sky... They must be pretty confident."
"For those who can't reach it? Smart, I'll give them that." Kadoya replied, his black scarf billowing behind him. "But for those who can… It's basically begging to be wrecked."
To be fair, setting up a floating base came with tactical advantages, clear visibility, high ground, and a tighter perimeter.
If it wasn't for his Black Illusion, which makes him look like a black mist right now, they might have actually spotted him.
"You're just broken," Greninja said with a roll of his eyes. Through their Battle Bond, he could feel the faint echo of Kadoya's power as if it were his own.
"You're benefiting from it," Kadoya smirked, then clapped his hands together.
Both ninjas performed hand seals in unison.
"Water Style: Water Jet!"
Streams of water coiled around their feet, launching both skyward in a spiraling surge. As they ascended rapidly toward the floating fortress, the Sky Ninja scrambled. One of them spotted the rising intruders and immediately alerted the others.
"Up you go!" Greninja shouted, clapping his palms together. With a burst of chakra, he propelled Kadoya even higher, then vanished in a puff of smoke, undoing the summoning.
Shuriken and kunai rained down toward Kadoya as he ascended. Calmly, he waited until the weapons were nearly upon him. Then using Blink. He vanished and reappeared mid-air, just behind the barrage. Metal flew uselessly through the space he'd occupied seconds earlier.
"Persistent are we?" Kadoya muttered as another wave of metal blades came his way.
He activated Double Jump, kicking off mid-air, breaking the natural law of physics to dodge the second rain of steel. His body twisted in midair with ease, weaving past the spinning weapons like a ghost dancing through a hailstorm.
"What the hell is this guy!?" one of the Sky Ninja yelled, now fully panicked.
By then, it was already too late.
Kadoya rose above them, now towering over the base. He looked down with a smirk.
"Now I'm the one with the high ground," he shouted, hands already flashing through rapid hand seals.
"Water Style: Leviathan!"
A monstrous roar echoed through the skies as a titanic serpent of water materialized above the base. Its glowing yellow eyes glared down at the stunned Sky Ninja before it lunged.
The massive leviathan crashed down like a divine hammer, smashing through the floating island. From the ground below, the sky fortress burst apart in a spectacular explosion before plummeting to the earth, slamming into the landscape with a resounding boom that shook the forest.
From the smoking crater, Kadoya casually emerged, brushed dust from his shoulder, not a scratch on him.
"On to the next one," he muttered, before vanishing into the treeline with a swift Body Flicker, already en route to the next Sky Ninja base.
At another Sky Ninja outpost, one of the guards yawned, barely keeping his eyes open as he stared into the rain-soaked land.
Positioned far from the main battlefield and suspended high in the sky, the base felt untouchable. Its elevation granted a natural defense against attacks from the ground, and up here, above the clouds, no one worried about threats from above.
Which made what was happening now all the more ironic.
Unseen by the guards, Kadoya calmly strode forward, in the air itself. Step by step, he advanced toward the floating stronghold, supported by nothing but the open sky beneath his feet.
His Wind Style: Invisible Air Walk uses Wind Chakra Nature, infused with Yang Release. By compressing and solidifying the surrounding air molecules, he forged invisible footholds, turning the very atmosphere into a path.
To the unsuspecting eye, he was walking on nothing. To Kadoya, it was like strolling across a glass bridge only he could see.
Originally, Kadoya didn't have much, or any use for this ninjutsu, seeing how if he suddenly began walking on air, the Third Hokage and his boyfriend might get triggered, demanding him to give this jutsu to Konoha, or they would take it from his corpse and label his clan as Evil for not sharing Clan Jutsu.
Sounds far-fetched, but they managed to convince nearly everyone in the village that a mission is more important than the life of a comrade. Directly going against the so-called "Will of Fire" that they used to brainwash children. So who knows if they could actually pull it off?
Speaking about Sakumo's future, the difference in age between Minato and Kakashi in the original story was ten years; currently, both he and Minato have become 10, which means maybe next year, Kakashi will be born.
But then again, many things have changed from the original story; maybe Kakashi would be born a year later or something.
"Anyway..." He said, looking down at the sky ninja base from above the cloud, seeing that those careless fools had actually not noticed him casually strolling toward them from above.
"Since you're so careless, let me show you the power of the Uchiha." He said, closing his eyes and digging into his memory, taking one of the Uchiha's Fire Ninjutsu that he briefly saw after becoming the Clan Head of the Uchiha.
His hands only formed a single seal.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
A literal sea of flame engulfed the floating island in an instant, it didn't take long for the second sky ninja base to break down and fall from the sky, crashing into the ground and creating another loud explosion.
"The Uchiha's fire ninjutsu combined with the Mera Mera is indeed too much for them to handle." He muttered, before looking down at his map, and swiftly headed toward another sky ninja base.
In another Sky Ninja base, screams echoed into the night, sharp, brief, and drowned in the sound of bodies collapsing and blood splattering against cold steel.
Kadoya walked calmly through the carnage, shrouded in the swirling veil of Black Illusion. To the terrified eyes of the enemy, he was no longer a man, just a phantom of death, a moving cloud of black mist that butchered anything it touched.
Steel scraped against metal as he dragged his Zanpakutō lazily across the floor, its tip trailing behind him, screeching like a warning to those still alive.
Naori materialized beside him, arms crossed, her eyes scanning the heap of corpses with a deep frown etched across her face.
She wasn't surprised, after all, she was an Uchiha too. She knew about the clan's Curse of Hatred.
She knew what happened when pain and passion twisted their hearts, making their personality become extreme.
Like how Madara, in his path for world peace, decided that the Infinite Tsukuyomi is the only way for world peace, by trapping everyone in an eternal genjutsu.
Itachi decides that killing everyone in his family is the only way to stop his clan and the village from clashing.
Sasuke lived and breathed revenge until there was nothing left of him but rage. When he discovered the truth of the Uchiha Massacre, he decided to take his revenge on Konoha, before finally suffering defeat under Naruto's powerful Talk-no-jutsu.
Hundreds, hundreds of Sky Ninjas are already dead by his hands. Naori didn't understand the obsession. The first time they encountered Sky Ninja, Team 7 had overwhelmed them effortlessly, killing them like simple pigs. The second time, they managed a surprise attack, and still failed to scratch him.
That was all it took. Two minor encounters, and now he had judged their entire village to death.
He is more extreme than Madara.
At least he gave people the chance to surrender. Kadoya didn't. Once you were on his list, you're on the chopping block.
Naori felt worried, feeling him becoming too extreme.
If he is already like this when he is normal, what would happen when he falls into the Curse of Hatred?
"Kid," Naori said, stepping beside him, "I think that's enough killing for today."
He didn't respond.
She narrowed her eyes. "Kadoya! Oi! Are you even listening-?"
"I know you're awake," he muttered, not to her, but to his Zanpakutō. His gaze was fixed on the blade, voice soft, almost reverent. "I saw that! You're not just a piece of steel. So say something already."
He raised the weapon and slammed it against the wall, creating a loud clang.
Naori stared. "…Are you seriously talking to your sword?"
Kadoya didn't reply. He continued speaking to the blade before hitting the wall with it again.
"This is getting ridiculous," Naori sighed, dragging a hand down her face. "You've officially lost it."
She dissolved back into his body, seeing that he didn't even listen to her at this point.
"Hey! Don't think you can hide from my Sharingan!" Kadoya snarled, slamming his Zanpakutō against the wall with a loud clang that echoed through the ruined base. "I saw you."
His voice dropped to a dark whisper as he held the blade in his hand. "If you don't come out… I won't hesitate to break you down to your base components. You think you're irreplaceable? I've already lined up replacements. Is that what you want?"
A tremor ran through the blade, subtle, but there.
A few tense seconds passed… then the air shimmered.
The spirit of the blade manifested before him, a small girl with long golden hair that flowed like liquid light. She wore a flowing black dress that brushed the floor, her feet bare. Around her neck hung a golden necklace.
She looked up at him with bright crimson eyes, eyes filled with uncertainty and fear.
She knew him. She knew what he was capable of.
With his rapidly evolving power and unstable nature, she understood that if he wanted, he could snap her existence in two and forget her name before nightfall. He didn't need her, at least not in the way most soul reapers relied on their Zanpakutō.
"I… I'm here," she whispered, voice barely audible. "My name is… um…"
A pause.
"…Enuma… Elish…"
She flinched beneath the weight of his gaze, Sharingan glowing in the dark.
"I-I can create powerful wind-based attacks," she continued, almost stumbling over her own words. "T-That's my ability…"
Her voice trembled. She wasn't just nervous. She was terrified.
Then, Kadoya chuckled. Low at first, then louder, before turning into the crazed Uchiha laughter, the kind that cracked from the edge of madness.
The little girl shrank back instinctively, nearly turning to flee back into the safety of the blade.
But before she could, his hand came down gently on her head. He ruffled her hair like he was greeting a pet.
"Do you really think you could hide your name from me?" he whispered with a grin. "Ea."
The moment he spoke it, her entire body froze. That was her name. Her true name.
As a Fate fan, how could he not know about Ea, the sword of Rupture? This little girl tried to give him a fake name, but using Enuma Elish wasn't a good move on her part. Enkidu is already in his position, so her Enuma Elish here actually meant The Star of Creation that Split Heaven and Earth.
And not the Enuma Elish of Enkidu, which translates into O' Humans, Let Us Restrain the Gods.
"Care to tell me why you hid your name from me, Ea?" He asked, despite not being much taller than her, he still patted her head, the aura he gave off still terrified her.
"M-My power is really strong and uncontrollable... I'm doing this for your own safety!" She hurriedly said, still afraid.
When his system gave him his Zanpakutō, it never mentioned to him that the Zanpakutō's spirit was already developed but was just unwilling to manifest herself due to Kadoya's lack of strength back then.
He was simply too weak, just a child back then, so she didn't see him worthy enough to wield her. Which led to her staying silent and calmly waiting for him to grow up and get stronger first, only then would she be willing to answer him and tell him her true name.
However, his growth was something she didn't expect, and his powers were getting too much for her to handle.
He was getting stronger, which is great... but he wasn't getting stronger by using her.
Leading to him finding no use for her when he could simply create a water blade or a bone blade, which could also do the same job much faster. It was only when he got Tiamat, his Crafting System, Ninja Art: Skill Shock, did she began to fear him.
Tiamat, the Mother of Genesis. One of the Primordial Deities in Mesopotamian Mythology.
Crafting System (she doesn't know about the system) could let him directly crush and alter the material of any item that his hand could hold.
Skill Shock, the ability to negate one of the opponent's abilities for a minute with the same cooldown as one minute.
For example, if someone is using a Fire Release ninjutsu, Skill Shock negates their ability to use Fire Chakra Nature entirely, or a Hyuga activating their Byakugan, Skill Shock also negates their entire eyesight completely, giving them temporary blindness.
Kadoya has tested this Ninja Art on Nawaki when he tries to use a Water Ninjutsu, which led to him just spitting his saliva out instead of shooting out a Water Bullet. It was pretty funny to see him freaked out for an entire minute, thinking he actually failed his ancestor and lost the ability to use Water Release.
"We'll talk about your disobedience later, right now... I have a few fish to catch." He said, patting Ea's head. Deciding to deal with this misbehaving girl later, his gaze fell back onto the escaping Sky ninja in the distance.