Walking alongside the current generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Kadoya moved calmly alongside them. Their Jonin instructor, Dan Kato, was guiding them through reconnaissance tasks, making sure they stayed focused.
"Kadoya, I heard you went to the battlefield for a mission. How was it?" Inoichi Yamanaka asked, curiosity glinting in his eyes.
It was a relatively calm morning, and even though they were supposed to be focused, they were still just ten-year-old children at heart. Curiosity was only natural.
"…It was fine," Kadoya replied with a shrug. "We ran into some Iwa ninjas… and saw a monkey."
Dan nearly stumbled at Kadoya's casual tone. If someone didn't know the real details of that mission, they might actually believe he'd just seen a random monkey, rather than the Four-Tails, which he'd apparently crushed single-handedly.
In reality, few people knew exactly how it happened. Even Sakumo's report had only said that Kadoya had somehow handled both the Four-Tails and its Jinchuriki alone.
Meanwhile, the war didn't seem to have changed Shikaku Nara and the others much. They still wore that same lazy, half-distracted expression, typical of children their age. After all, they'd mostly been stationed at the Konoha camp, and even their occasional battles were nothing compared to the insanity Kadoya and the others had faced.
These guys hadn't wandered straight into enemy strongholds like Kadoya… or continuously stepping on explosive tags like Nawaki… or be extremely paranoid like Saiguu.
Truly, no matter what generation, Team 7 was anything but normal.
Dan flipped through the mission sheets in his hand, his expression focused. Finally, he clapped his hands together, interrupting the younger ninjas' conversation. "Alright, listen up. Patrol ranges have been assigned to each team," he said. "Kadoya, I want you to go with Shikaku Nara and the others first. It'll help you get familiar with the area and the team's rhythm. Sound good?"
"Sure," Kadoya said, his tone as casual as ever.
With everything set, Kadoya and the others rose and made their way to the mission point.
The so-called mission point was merely a garrison tucked away in the forest.
"Kadoya, why are you wearing that?" Inoichi Yamanaka asked, noticing Kadoya had changed his clothes.
His usual attire had been replaced by a white Taisho-style kimono, black pants, and black sandals. A long black scarf wrapped around his neck, topped off with his Haori of the Vow. His previous outfit had been stained with enemy blood and worn for days, so his mother was currently washing it.
Kadoya looked more like a wandering traveler than a shinobi.
"My old set got dirty," he said simply, idly wondering how she'd manage to dry his clothes while she is inside his body.
They continued moving, staying low and hidden beneath the thick canopy of ancient trees. The forest was quiet, the air heavy with the scent of rain and damp leaves. The only sounds were the rain tapping against the foliage and the occasional rustle of shifting branches.
Every movement within a dozen meters was under Shirohebi's watchful control.
The group stayed silent, conserving energy. Suddenly, Shirohebi's warning resonated in Kadoya's mind. His eyes snapped open, and through the seal linking their vision, he saw a squad of shinobi rushing through the forest toward their position.
Judging by their attire, they were Iwagakure ninjas.
Immediately, countless red signal flares burst into the sky, bright as day against the dark clouds.
Kadoya frowned. It wasn't surprising to see Iwa-nin appear; they'd been organizing attacks on the Konoha camp lately. Word had spread that the Blade was present, and that had made some of them pause… but not all.
He could see at least three different types of signal flares.
Which meant the attackers weren't just Iwa-nin.
The Land of Rain was a chaotic battlefield, with four different factions constantly shifting alliances and tactics. Could it be that Iwa had joined forces with someone?
He raised his head and took in the distant horizon.
If it were peacetime, he might have stopped to appreciate the view, like a vivid fireworks show. But the rain-slicked earth would soon run red with blood, not petals.
A shame. Such a beautiful sky.
Six Iwa shinobi broke through the underbrush, one Jonin, two Chunin, and three Genin.
Not a large force. Kadoya quickly deduced they were a headhunter squad, tasked with intercepting any Konoha shinobi who tried to flee the main battlefield.
It didn't matter. His priority was to kill them before they got the chance.
He exhaled, voice low and calm. "Clock Up."
In a blink, Kadoya was behind the Jonin. The man's instincts flared too late. Kadoya swung his bone blade, decapitating him cleanly.
Blood sprayed across the wet earth, staining the forest floor.
Though his clothes had changed, his weapon was the same, a long, sinuous blade sprouting three smaller blades, the entire blade was covered in grotesque Sharingan eyes that moved in eerie unison.
"It's the Blade!!"
Seeing the blade, one of the Chunin screamed in terror, only for a moment later to see his own back, feeling how light his body suddenly became.
The Sharingan on the blade spun hypnotically, and the two Genin fell to their knees, caught in Kadoya's Reverse Control Lapse genjutsu. They gasped and hyperventilated, eyes wide with fear.
Kadoya advanced, his blade flashing in the rain. In a swift arc, their heads fell, lifeless bodies slumping to the ground.
One of the Genin, who is still unaware of the Blade, tries to charge him with a kunai, wanting to take revenge for his fallen comrade.
Kadoya just spun his blade before slicing off his two hands, seeing that his screaming in joy at the loss of his hands, Kadoya swiftly cut his waist, splitting him into two, so that he would be happier. Screaming even louder before finally getting tired and falling asleep.
The lone Chunin turned and fled. Kadoya didn't bother to chase him directly. Instead, he tossed the blade aside and wove a quick series of hand seals.
"Mirror Style: Final Attack Ride."
He leapt into the air, mirrors forming in midair, layer after layer of reflective surfaces. As his foot touched the first mirror, he vanished into it, reappearing out of the second, then entering the third.
The Chunin sprinted desperately, zigzagging through the forest. But no matter how he twisted or turned, the layer of mirrors kept appearing behind him, locking onto him, tracking his every movement.
In the world of shinobi, information was everything. The more you understood the enemy, the better your chances of survival. That was why Kadoya was so dangerous, like Tobirama, he crafted his own techniques. No one knew how to counter them until it was too late.
Kadoya emerged from the final mirror, his foot crashing into the Chunin's back. His spine got cracked, his ribs shattered, organs ruptured, and the Chunin was dead before he hit the ground.
Kadoya skidded to a stop, rain washing the blood from his foot.
"Tch. Dirty again," he muttered, flames briefly igniting around his leg to burn away the gore.
He turned back to see his temporary teammates finally catching up. Seeing their slow approach, he stepped forward to meet them.
Tch! Not even half as fast as my brother. How disappointing.
"What took you guys so long? Were you farming potatoes while I killed them?" He asked, voice dry.
Shikaku Nara: "..."
Inoichi Yamanaka: "..."
Choza Akimichi: "..."
Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza fell silent, blank stares meeting his.
They all wanted to complain, but upon seeing the enemy shinobi, they had to calculate the risk and plan out their next action before executing it.
Not everyone is like Kadoya, who could confidently charge into a group of enemy shinobi and confidently say he has surrounded all of them before killing them one by one.
The words stuck in their throats when his gaze fell on them, his bored expression reminded them of the time he asked them to "dance" and they got hospitalized.
So the members of Team 4 didn't dare to say anything.
Kadoya turned away, eyes scanning the forest. "Anyway," he said sharply, "let's keep moving. There is more out there."
A moment later, a red flare streaked across the sky.
It came from Kadoya's right, not far away. He recognized it instantly, a Konoha ninja's SOS signal.
He paused, then smirked.
An SOS flare… that means enemies... meaning free points.
"Watch yourselves. I'll take care of it, don't get surrounded," he said, already moving. The current generation of Ino-Shika-Cho could only watch him vanish into the rain-drenched forest, leaving them speechless.
In less than half a minute, Kadoya arrived at the source of the distress signal.
What appeared before him was a three-man squad. The opponents were not Iwa ninjas but Suna ninjas.
Two Suna Jonin besieged a battered Konoha Jonin, while another Suna Jonin toyed with three exhausted Konoha Chunin.
The opponent didn't seem to have a Jonin leading the team... Or rather, they were all Suna Jonin.
"Interesting." Kadoya murmurs.
A bone blade sprouted from his palm, the grotesque crimson Sharingan eyes along its edge flickering open. One of the Suna Jonin caught sight of him, then, in the blink of an eye, Kadoya's figure vanished.
The Suna Jonin's head flew skyward, mouth agape, eyes wide with confusion. His body crumpled to the sodden earth below, the blade's many Sharingan eyes glinting in eerie unison before Kadoya calmly caught it.
The three Chunin, who had been on the brink of collapse, froze in shock. The blade's red eyes gleamed like devils in the mist, and for a moment, they forgot about the boy who had come to their rescue.
Kadoya's bored expression didn't waver. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the blade aside. It struck the ground before disappearing.
Only then did the Chunin realize their gaze was so focused on the blade that they forgot about the person who had come to their rescue.
"Water Style: Leviathan Jutsu."
From the sodden earth beneath his feet, water erupted like a geyser, coiling upward and forming the massive body of a serpentine creature. Its sleek fins shimmered, its yellow eyes glowed with predatory menace, and Kadoya stood calmly upon its brow.
This cause the attention of the two Suna Jonins.
Even the injured Konoha Jonin froze seeing the large water serpent, he couldn't help but be reminded of the Second Hokage's Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu. He knelt on the wet ground, holding his injured arms and muttering. "Lord Second..."
Despite the name and shape change, Kadoya's Leviathan is more similar to the First's Wood Dragon than the Second's Water Dragon Bullet.
Water Dragon Bullet, although it could be ridden as a mount, it's mostly used to hit its target once before disappearing.
Leviathan functions more like the Wood Dragon, which can move freely and be controlled by the user, moving around and attacking with its mouth and body, instead of just crashing and disappearing.
"What the hell is that!?" one of the Suna Jonin shouted as the Leviathan lunged forward, jaws agape.
The three Jonin quickly used the Body Flicker to move out of the way of the massive water Leviathan, seeing that the first attack was avoided, Kadoya simply controlled his Leviathan, whose shape is based on the Leviathan in Final Fantasy, to move toward the Suna shinobi.
This was the Leviathan's debut, he wouldn't let it go to waste. Letting it miss every attack would be like claiming Sakura was useful, utterly laughable.
Or like the Uchiha's famous Great Fireball Jutsu that never kills anyone.
The Suna Jonin ran and launched desperate counterattacks.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Wind Style: Wind Bullet!"
The two Jonin ran desperately, firing off Wind Release ninjutsu at the water Leviathan, only to find out that their attack couldn't do anything to it. As any damage the Leviathan takes, its massive water body would just absorb the rainwater to quickly recover.
And since their battlefield is the Land of Rain, the Leviathan was nearly invincible.
"Use the signal flare, quick!" one of them shouted, just as the Leviathan's tail crashed into his back, launching him skyward with a sickening crack.
"Ikari!" the other Jonin yelled, but it was too late. The Leviathan's maw snapped shut around the airborne ninja, the faint outline of his body fading into the serpent's translucent form before vanishing completely.
The last Suna Jonin's hands trembled as he fired his SOS flare, a desperate red beacon cutting through the rain and clouds. Hope briefly flickered in his eyes, reinforcements would come.
Until he looked up.
Through the rain-soaked gloom, he met the unblinking crimson gaze of Kadoya's Sharingan, staring down from the Leviathan's brow.
His body froze, falling into an unknown genjutsu that made his body betray him.
The Leviathan lunged as he could only helplessly watch.
Its jaws snapped shut, and the last Suna Jonin vanished, leaving only ripples in the rain and the quiet satisfaction in Kadoya's eyes as he looked up at the Suna's SOS flare in the sky.