After Saiguu had finished her… experiments with her living toys, and after they finally passed away from sheer blood loss, Kadoya calmly rolled up the scroll, dispatching the report to Orochimaru.
Not long after, an explosion rang out nearby.
Both of them turned just in time to see Nawaki crawling out from yet another smoking crater, coughing up dust and looking like he'd been through a demolition derby.
Another explosive tag, courtesy of Nawaki's uncanny knack for attracting them like iron filings to a magnet.
In the original work, he would be lying six feet under right now. The current Nawaki was… fine.
A little battered, sure. But otherwise unharmed.
Thanks to his time training with Kadoya and Saiguu, he'd managed to awaken a sliver of the Senju vitality. His body healed a little faster, and more than that, he had developed his own technique, Earth Style: Earth Armor.
A rugged layer of hardened earth, molded and reinforced with chakra, now clung to his skin like a second, rocky hide. It slowed him down, made him a bit clunky in a fight, but the tradeoff was worth it. His defense had spiked dramatically.
It reminded Kadoya a little of Gaara's sand armor: a protective shell that turned Nawaki into a miniature tank. Bulky, hard to disguise, but reliable. And for someone with Nawaki's bad luck when it came to stepping on explosive tags, it was a literal lifesaver.
"What have you done to my disciple, you little brat from Konoha?!"
The words roared out with such force that their eardrums throbbed as if an explosion had gone off right next to them. They turned to see a man standing there, fury crackling in his black eyes.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties, dressed in purple with a chest protector, his red hair tied back in a high ponytail. And he was glaring at them, with the murderous gaze of a man who had seen too much and lost too much.
Kadoya's expression shifted from surprise to a cold, measured calm. He recognized the man instantly, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki.
Just the Four-Tails he've already bullied the Nine-Tails… what can a monkey do to him?
He turned his gaze to Nawaki, the idiot who had managed to step on every explosive tag in the area and reveal their position. Of course, it had to be him. Kadoya narrowed his gaze back toward the Four-Tails Jinchuriki.
"So," Kadoya said softly, his voice cutting through the pounding rain. "The Jinchuriki decided to show up."
The air grew thick and heavy. Even the rain seemed to hush, replaced by the low murmur of swaying leaves and distant thunder.
Roshi's eyes swept over the ruined battlefield and the lifeless bodies of Iwa shinobi. His fists clenched, chakra rising in waves.
"Did you kill all of them?!" he demanded, his voice raw with fury.
Roshi wasn't just another Iwa shinobi, he was one of their strongest, a man who had trained under the Third Tsuchikage himself. But despite his power, he was treated like a tool, a weapon to be unsheathed only when things turned truly desperate.
And now, he had arrived too late, only to find his disciple dead.
His chakra flared, a suffocating wave of pressure that made Nawaki and Saiguu tense up instinctively. Kadoya's long blue scarf whipped violently in the wind, but he just stood there, unmoved.
Roshi's hands moved in a blur, forming seals with deadly precision.
"Earth Style: Mountain Jutsu!"
The ground heaved and split open, two massive hemispheres of earth surging upward to crush them in a violent embrace.
"Clock Up."
Kadoya's voice was calm, almost bored. In an instant, he blurred forward, grabbing Saiguu and Nawaki and pulling them out of harm's way. The mountain of earth crashed down behind them, shaking the ground with an echoing roar.
Roshi's eyes widened as he saw them disappear from the spot.
"Is that all?" Kadoya's cold voice rang out. Roshi looked up, startled to see Kadoya already standing atop the massive dome of earth he'd just created.
Long hair and scarf streaming in the cold rain, Kadoya stood there with his arms crossed, looking down at Roshi as if he were some amusing child.
"Since you wish to dance," Kadoya murmured, his hands weaving seals in a smooth, practiced motion, "let's see if you can amuse me, monkey."
"Water Style: Advent of a World Drowned In Water!"
With the final seal complete, torrents of water erupted from the ground, merging with the relentless rain of the Land of Rain. The downpour intensified, and massive pillars of water surged around Roshi, quickly flooding the battlefield.
Water rose to Roshi's chest, threatening to submerge him. His eyes narrowed, and he formed hand seals with determined precision as a layer of Tailed Beast Chakra enveloped him. A single chakra tail lashed behind him.
"Lava Style: Lava Chakra Mode!"
A blazing magma cloak enveloped Roshi's body, radiating searing heat that met the water with a hiss of steam. The collision of hot magma and cold water created billowing clouds of vapor that obscured his vision.
Roshi clenched his teeth as he felt his chakra rapidly draining. The cold water chilled the magma, turning chunks of the molten cloak to brittle stone. He leapt up, landing lightly on the evaporating surface, channeling chakra to his feet to reduce the impact of the water's draining effect.
"Hmm, if you don't get serious, I'll be very disappointed," Kadoya said coldly, his icy blue gaze locked on Roshi as the older shinobi charged forward.
With a casual wave of his hand, Kadoya commanded the water. A powerful wave slammed into Roshi, flinging him back like a ragdoll.
"What the hell?!" Nawaki shouted, eyes wide as he took in the flooded battlefield, rain crashing around them.
"This power…" Saiguu murmured in awe, watching Kadoya's effortless manipulation of the terrain.
Kadoya exhaled, hands forming seals once more. Black lightning crackled around his palms.
"Lightning Style: Black Flash!"
He hurled the black lightning at Roshi, who managed to dodge at the last instant, the bolt carving a smoking crater where he had stood. But Kadoya wasn't done; he flicked his wrist, and another surge of water slammed into Roshi from the side, sending him careening back.
Roshi growled, chakra tails growing to three as he struggled to his feet, only to be struck by yet another crashing wave.
"Can you still dance, monkey?" Kadoya asked, voice cold and mocking as he looked down at the battered Jinchuriki.
Honestly, if Kadoya had focused on Fire Release like many Uchiha, this fight would be a nightmare. But he had mastered Water Release instead, a natural counter to the Four-Tails Jinchuriki's molten might.
"Damn you, Konoha bra-ugh!"
Roshi's defiance was cut off as another wave of water slammed into his face, sending him skidding across the flooded ground like a ragdoll. He disappeared beneath the violent water's surface.
Kadoya exhaled sharply, feeling the strain on his chakra and stamina. His Advent of a World Drowned In Water technique was modeled after the First Hokage's legendary Advent of a World of Flowering Trees, which is very taxing on his chakra reserve.
His chakra was only mid-Kage-level, but the Uzumaki's powerful vitality coursing through his veins allowed him to sustain it. Even so, he felt the drain from using this ninjutsu on such a large scale.
Kadoya pulled out a can of Monster Energy, cracking it open with a practiced flick and taking a deep drink to steady his breath and recover his strength.
From the churning waters where Roshi had disappeared, hot bubbles began to rise, bursting through the surface with violent hisses. A massive, four-tailed red monkey emerged from the flooded battlefield, sending waves and steam flying. The beast let out a deafening roar as it rose fully, Kurama's younger sibling, the Four-Tails, a towering behemoth of muscle and chakra.
A massive ball of energy began to form in front of the Tailed Beast's maw, a Tailed Beast Bomb, shimmering with an ominous 8:2 ratio of positive black chakra and negative white chakra.
Seeing this, Kadoya chugged the last of his Monster Energy, crushed the can in his hand, and tossed it aside with a grim smile.
The Tailed Beast Ball was launched, a roaring projectile of death.
And then-
"Quick Style: Massive Spiral Rotation Rasengan!"
A yellow blur shot past Team 7, a giant Rasengan spinning in the hands of a young blonde blur. Their eyes widened in shock as they recognized the reckless hero.
"MINATO!?"
The Rasengan collided with the Tailed Beast Bomb in a cataclysmic clash of raw chakra. Minato leapt back as a strong web shot out from Kadoya's hand, latching around his waist and yanking him to safety beside Team 7.
The Rasengan was overpowered by the Tailed Beast Bomb, but the impact managed to redirect it.
The redirected Tailed Beast Bomb missed them by inches, detonating in the distance and obliterating the flooded forest behind them.
"Minato!? What are you doing here?!" Nawaki exclaimed, now stripped of his Earth Armor and clad only in his soaked boxers.
Minato grinned, wiping rain from his eyes. "I graduated," he said simply, that bright, unshakable smile somehow making everything feel less dire, at least for a moment.
Nawaki and Saiguu turned from Minato to Kadoya, then back at Minato, and back at Kadoya, and finally returned to Minato.
Why does the way you speak sound so much like Kadoya?
Seeing his brother's cheerful grin in the middle of a battlefield, Kadoya let out a soft sigh, a faint smirk playing on his lips.
"Are you scared?" he asked.
"Yes," Minato admitted, no bravado in his voice. Just the simple, honest truth. "But not as scared as I am of seeing my friends die."
"How did you even find us?" Saiguu asked, a note of disbelief in her voice.
Minato just scratched the back of his head, still smiling. "No matter where Kadoya is… only I can find him."
It sounded like bragging, but it was the absolute truth. Of everyone in Konoha, only Minato Namikaze could track down Kadoya Uchiha, no matter where he tried to hide.
Kadoya's smirk widened. "I see. So reinforcements came too?"
In the next instant, a white blur descended from the trees, landing lightly in front of them. Saiguu's eyes widened in shock as she recognized the man's distinctive white hair and the short sword in his hand.
Sakumo Hatake.
Kadoya breathed out a sigh before canceling his ninjutsu, unless his Advent of a World Drowned In Water has the chakra draining effect similar to Wood Release, continuing it now would be pointless now that the Tailed-Beast is out.
"Are you alright?" Sakumo asked, his eyes still locked onto the Four-Tails.
"Still fine." Kadoya said with a shrug which cause Sakumo to frown, hearing his laid back attitude.
"Wait a minute, why are you in your boxer?" Minato asks, suddenly noticing Nawaki was only in his boxer.
"Don't shame him, he is becoming an exhibitionist." Kadoya suddenly said, not waiting for Nawaki to explain that he needed to strip down to his boxer shorts to fully utilize his Earth Armor.
"I see. Weird fetishes but okay." Minato simply nodded.
Nawaki wanted to shout and explain himself, only for the Four-Tails to let out a loud roar, cutting him off.
"Tch! Kadoya, can you support me?" Sakumo asks, narrowing his gaze toward Kadoya.
Even now, facing a Tailed Beast, Sakumo wasn't confident in himself to take a tailed beast all by himself. So he is looking for Kadoya for support, knowing that his power Water Style is a direct counter to Lava Style.
After all, Kadoya's previous water ninjutsu was enough to force Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, to transform.
"Easy." Kadoya said, clapping his palms together and forming his large water shuriken.
"You're oddly way too calm for this." Sakumo couldn't help but comment.
"Lava Style: Scorching Rocks Jutsu!"
The massive monkey let out a loud roar, launching multiple massive boulders of molten rock toward them. Kadoya quickly takes action, throwing his large water shuriken forward.
His hands blur through seals.
"Water Style: Water Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
The single large water shuriken spinning in the air suddenly multiplied into over a hundred, shredding through the massive molten boulders and striking the Four-Tails, making it let out a painful roar.