After those final words, Kadoya took a step forward.
The tension snapped.
The Iwagakure shinobi stared at him, frozen. Breath shallow. Hands slick with sweat. Hearts pounding like war drums.
Then, he sprinted.
"He's coming!" one of them shouted, panic thick in his voice.
"Don't look into his eyes!" another warned.
Kadoya's crimson cloak billowed like a storm behind him as his pace quickened, blurring into a red streak across the battlefield.
Across the line, a thousand Iwa-nin screamed their battle cry.
"GAAAHHHHH!"
They surged forward, weapons raised, saliva flying from clenched teeth, blood vessels popping in their eyes from the strain.
Kadoya whispered, "Clock up."
Time seem to slow down around him.
In a blink, he was already inside their formation.
Limbs flew. Bones shattered. Blood sprayed.
"Clock over."
Time resumed with a sickening crunch as Kadoya spun, his heel slamming into the neck of one shinobi, creating a loud snap. He launched another into the dirt with a brutal kick, the man's spine folding in half like paper. A third took a clean kick to the jaw, his head spun in a full 360 before Kadoya cleaved another clean in two with his bone blade.
He launched himself forward, feet landing atop a corpse, using it as a springboard into the center of the chaos.
There, he danced.
Uchiha taijutsu mixed with lethal kenjutsu, as Kadoya moved like a phantom of death. His kicks shattered ribs. His punches caved in armor. His blade was poetry in motion, carving, slicing, parrying. Every movement was efficient. Every strike was fatal.
His Sharingan moved wildly, reading every attack before it even reached him.
He tilted his head a little, and a kunai whistled past his ear.
He caught it.
In one motion, he tore off the explosive tag attached to its string, slapped it onto an incoming enemy's stomach, and kicked him back into his comrades. A loud boom rang out. Flames and screams erupted behind him as he hurled the kunai back, burying it in the throat of its original owner.
An explosion backlit him as he leapt through the fire, slamming a boot into a shinobi's chest, ribs cracking like twigs. He seized the man's body, using it as a shield against a flurry of kunai before tossing it aside like trash.
They swarmed him. None could touch him.
He ducked, spun, and vaulted, grabbing one by the wrist, snapping the bone, and ripping the arm free. Without hesitation, he used it to bludgeon another shinobi into the mud.
A Iwa-nin tried to grab his legs.
He flipped upward, doing the famous Uchiha Double Side Kick, their necks snapped with twin cracks. He landed, crushing the hands beneath his heel.
With a pulse of chakra, bone blades erupted from his arms. Twin spears of ivory death. He tore through the crowd, connecting both into a double-edged glaive, spinning it in a wide arc.
The wind howled with the force of the swing. Flesh and steel parted alike.
He hurled the bone-blade like a massive shuriken, tearing through a line of enemies, before summoning a large crimson scythe from his arsenal.
Its edge gleamed.
He carved through another dozen shinobi, then slammed the blade into the ground and launched forward, scythe dragging behind him like a comet.
His boots crashed into a shinobi's chest, creating a loud crack. Ribs shattered. He caught the man by the throat, using him to absorb a barrage of kunai, then tossed the corpse into a cluster of Iwa-nin like a bowling ball.
His Sharingan flared.
One shinobi froze, caught in a genjutsu before he even realized it.
Thunk.
A kunai buried itself into his skull.
Blood painted the ground. Bodies littered the earth. The few remaining Iwa-nin surrounded him, trembling, their wills frayed.
He stepped toward one of them, grabbing him by the throat and forcing him to his knees.
Kadoya stared into the terrified man's eyes, his voice soft but sharp as a razor:
"Do you wish to dance?"
The ground erupted beneath him, jagged stone spikes lanced upward, aiming to impale him.
Kadoya jumped back.
The shinobi he had been holding wasn't so lucky, skewered instantly by the stone from below. Kadoya did a double-jump, flipping backward and landing gracefully on the flooded battlefield, just outside the enemy's formation.
With cold, unreadable eyes, he dusted off his shoulder.
Then, he formed a single hand seal.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
The flames didn't just erupt, they consumed. Fueled by the Mera Mera no Mi and amplified by the Fire Plate, Kadoya's technique surged outward with overwhelming heat. The dark skies over Amegakure lit up in a blinding orange blaze, and raindrops evaporated before they even reached the firestorm.
"His jutsu spans an enormous range!" one shinobi shouted in alarm.
Over twenty Iwa-nin responded immediately, weaving through rapid hand seals.
"Earth Style: Multi Mud Wall!"
One after another, massive walls of earth rose before them, layered defenses, stacked thick like fortress battlements.
The firestorm crashed into the walls like a tidal wave of hell. Mud steamed. Stone blistered. The walls held, but barely. Some melted. Others crumbled under the heat. But the bulk of the Iwa-nin managed to shield themselves behind the earthen barriers.
"Water Style: Advent of a World Drowned in Water!"
The already stormy terrain turned chaotic. Waves surged, and the ground beneath their feet flooded rapidly. Within seconds, water had risen to their knees, then past their waists.
The Iwa shinobi quickly tried to stabilize, focusing chakra into their feet to walk on the water's surface.
But it was too late.
"Water Style: Leviathan!"
The flood churned unnaturally, then split as an enormous shape stirred beneath the surface.
A pair of glowing golden eyes opened beneath the waves, their stare locked onto the enemy.
With a monstrous roar, the Leviathan rose from the deep. Towering and serpentine, it twisted through the rising waters with terrifying grace. Its gaping maw opened, and with a single, devastating lunge, it devoured an entire squad of Iwa shinobi in one violent chomp.
Screams echoed through the downpour.
From above, a new voice rang out.
"Particle Style: Boundary Dismantling Jutsu!"
Kadoya turned, eyes narrowing as a middle-aged man floated high in the sky, Onoki, the Tsuchikage.
A translucent white cube of disintegration energy hurtled toward him, humming with raw annihilation.
Kadoya's Sharingan spun. In an instant, three tomoe merged into the crimson X of his Mangekyou Sharingan.
Shunkan Teishi.
The energy cube halted mid-air, suspended just inches from his face, frozen in time.
Rei no Ketsugō.
With a sudden burst of force, the cube reversed course, shooting back toward its caster at high velocity.
Onoki's eyes widened in horror.
"Impossible!"
He barely managed to phase out of the way, dodging his own technique as it carved a hole through the air behind him.
Kadoya lowered his hand, eyes still glowing crimson.
He hadn't even moved.
Onoki descended, hovering just above the rippling, unsteady surface of the flooded battlefield.
"Elite units, form up with me!" he barked. "The rest of you, evacuate the wounded and retreat to the village!"
There was no hesitation in his voice. The plan was clear: let the injured and lower-ranked shinobi escape, while he and the best of Iwagakure would hold the line against the monster before them.
The monster named Kadoya Uchiha.
Onoki floated forward, his gaze fixed on the young shinobi drenched in blood and rain.
"Uchiha brat…" he said coldly. "Your power… it's far too dangerous." His voice, furious, carried the weight of his years and responsibility. "You've taken too many of my people. If I let you leave here alive, you might become another Madara."
He didn't say it for drama, he meant it.
Though Iwagakure lacked the sheer number of Kage-level shinobi that Konoha or Kumogakure boasted, it still had its elite. Thirteen battle-hardened jonin formed a wall behind Onoki. And beside him stood a living weapon, Han, the Jinchūriki of the Five-Tails, his body already steaming with chakra.
Two Kage-level shinobi, and the finest of Iwa's elite, now faced Kadoya.
But Kadoya just clicked his tongue.
"Tch… Onoki brat, you dare look down on me!?" he snapped.
Everyone: "…"
There was a pause.
Onoki's eye twitched.
Brat? The Third Tsuchikage was over three decades older than this loudmouthed Uchiha, and yet, he was the one being called a brat?
A thick tick mark pulsed on his temple, and his glare sharpened like a kunai.
Unbothered, Kadoya casually raised a glass vial to his lips. The glowing blue liquid inside shimmered ominously as he downed it in a single gulp. He tossed the bottle aside with a clink, the glass shattering on a half-submerged stone.
"Is this all? Where is the Four-Tails?"
Everyone: "..."
Roshi was captured by Kadoya and is now imprisoned in the Konoha camp. He was trying to convince Son Goku to help him escape, but the Four-Tails were afraid of Kadoya, so even when he wasn't around, it didn't dare to cause trouble.
Being chained up by Enkidu is one of the most terrifying things it faces, not because its power was sealed off, leaving it powerless. But because when Enkidu bound it, no matter how much or how hard it struggled, it couldn't break free from Enkidu.
This created an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
"It doesn't matter," Kadoya said with a smirk. "Since you brought up this line, allow me to show you mine."
He formed a single hand seal.
"Identities Clone!"
A massive cloud of smoke burst around him, engulfing the battlefield in white. As it slowly cleared, several figures stood beside Kadoya.
Black hair, dressed in the familiar Indra's style red rope, black pants, Kadoya Uchiha.
Blonde hair, black pants, dressed in a white kimono, with a blue haori on top of it, Kadoya Senju.
Crimson hair, with a black sleeveless shirt, blue pants, golden chains coming out from his back, Kadoya Uzumaki.
Orange-red hair, shirtless with a single black left sleeve, large baggy pants, holding a single katana blade and resting it on his shoulder, Kadoya Muramasa.
Slick back blonde, shirtless, with golden red leggings, holding a simple katana blade, Kadoya Pendragon.
And the last one had long black hair, crimson cape, black military uniform with a matching hat, Kadoya Nobunaga.
The Iwagakure shinobi all tensed up, seeing Kadoya Uchiha standing with five other people.
This is one of the Jutsu he developed using his [Chakra Manipulation], by categorizing his abilities, traits, look, and personality into different versions of himself.
The clone body is sturdy and similar to Hashirama's Wood Clone, letting them function almost as good as a real person.
The upside to this ninjutsu is that each clone takes on an identity he has created over the years, and each one focuses on a particular skill set, letting them fully utilize their sets without being overwhelmed by too many options.
Even with his limitless potential, Kadoya still decides to focus on a particular set of skills first before practicing anything else, so that he would have a main combat style instead of knowing bits and pieces about everything but not being powerful at anything.
Muramasa tilted his head. "This feels like overkill," he said bluntly, eyes scanning the shinobi force before them. "One of us could flatten them alone."
The Iwa shinobi flinched at the remark, not because of the arrogance, but because it felt true.
"You're not wrong, Aibo," Pendragon replied with a smirk, casually polishing his blade.
Aibo = partner.
"Then who's stepping back?" Senju asked.
"I'm out. I'm more of a crafter anyway," Muramasa shrugged and dispersed in a puff of smoke.
"These insects aren't worthy of seeing Ea," Pendragon declared as he followed suit.
"I'm better suited for warfare than mop-up duty," Nobunaga added, vanishing as well.
That left only three.
Uchiha. Senju. Uzumaki.
A sudden rumble cut through the air, a massive Tailed-Beast Ball shot toward them, darkening the sky.
"Pathetic." Kadoya Uchiha's Mangekyou spun.
Shunkan Teishi. The Tailed-Beast Ball halted.
Rei no Ketsugō. It reversed, flying back with equal force.
Onoki and the remaining elites narrowly dodged, but the retreating Iwa shinobi weren't so lucky. The blast tore through their ranks, killing dozens more.
"You-!" roared the Five-Tails and its Jinchuriki.
But a figure was already standing atop its head.
Chains of pure golden chakra shot out, binding the beast like a net of divine punishment.
"Ever cosplay a wrecking ball?" Kadoya Uzumaki grinned. "Let me show you how I do it."
Golden chains spread out from his body, wrapping themselves around the Five-Tails.
The Five-Tails screamed and thrashed, but the chains tightened, bone blades stabbed into its flesh, draining its chakra.
"Free the Five-Tails!" Onoki yelled. "We can't let it be captured!"
His command was cut off as a massive wave slammed into him and his elites, tossing them back.
"Did you forget about me?" Kadoya Senju's voice rang out with disdain. His hand raised, and from the surging waters, a Leviathan and Water Dragon emerged.
With a signal, the watery beasts lunged forward, tearing into the battlefield, their forms wrapping around the bound Tailed-Beast, amplifying its agony as they siphoned away its chakra.
Onoki's panic spiked. His team, thirteen elite jōnin strong, had been reduced to just seven in minutes.
"Earth Style: Rising Earth Fist!"
Several Iwa shinobi dove beneath the water and struck the earth, launching a massive fist of stone at Kadoya Uzumaki, aiming to free the Five-Tails.
But it never reached him.
A colossal magenta skeletal hand intercepted it mid-air.
Onoki's heart dropped. He recognized that shape instantly.
Susanoo.
Kadoya Uchiha's voice rang out, mocking: "Onoki brat, you dare attack my Aibo?"
The Susanoo's full form rose, horned, demonic, towering. Its arms opened wide.
Inside, all three Kadoyas stood, Uchiha in the center, Senju in the left hand, Uzumaki in the right.
Blood ran down Uchiha's face, then reversed, flowing back into his eyes like it never happened.
The Susanoo grabbed the chains holding the Five-Tails, swinging it like a wrecking ball into the remaining Iwa forces. The Water Leviathan and Dragon coiled around its massive limbs, amplifying its strikes.
The battlefield descended into chaos and carnage.
Faced with annihilation, Onoki, the proud Tsuchikage, the veteran of past wars, could only watch.
Then he did the one thing he swore never to do again.
He fell to his knees, the cold water soaking through his robes, his forehead bowing low.
"Please…" his voice cracked, hoarse and hollow. "I, Onoki of Both Scales, Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, surrender. I beg you… Spare my people…"
The reflection of the kneeling man rippled beneath him, an echo of the boy he once was, powerless before another Uchiha.
Madara Uchiha.
History, it seemed, was repeating itself.