Inside the tent, the air was filled with the faint scent of metal and smoke.
Nawaki sat cross-legged, watching with furrowed brows as three Kadoyas, Shadow Clones, moved with mechanical precision, forming hand seals and crafting small explosive tags. They carefully packed the tags into shells.
Meanwhile, the real Kadoya sat calmly on the edge of the bed, crushing a handful of kunai and shuriken into raw metal.
"What are you even doing?" Nawaki finally asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
Without looking up, Kadoya summoned a few more materials from a scroll with a faint puff of smoke. "Making something that might kill you." His voice was disturbingly casual.
"W-What?!" Nawaki stiffened, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Kidding." Kadoya smirked, molding the metal and shells into sleek, armor-piercing bullets. "I can kill you even without these."
"...You bastard." Nawaki muttered, deadpan. Then louder: "Damn you, Evil Uchiha! Are you seriously trying to start a fight right now?!"
"I don't think dropkicking a toddler qualifies as a real fight," Kadoya replied calmly, inspecting a bullet before moving toward another one.
"You son of a-!" Nawaki climbed onto the bed in frustration, pointing a dramatic finger down at Kadoya. "You think the Senju are easy to bully or something!?"
"Yes." Kadoya didn't even blink.
The answer landed like a slap.
It wasn't even said with arrogance, just cold, logical certainty. And in truth, he wasn't wrong. The Senju Clan had been in decline for years. Pure-blooded Senju were rare, and besides Tsunade, there were no other known Jonin-level shinobi actively representing the clan. The Uchiha, however, still had strength in numbers and power.
Tsunade was strong, yes, but not enough to carry a clan alone.
Kadoya glanced sideways at Nawaki.
Before Nawaki could erupt again, the flap of the tent rustled open.
A tall figure stepped in, holding an oil-paper umbrella. His arrival instantly silenced the room.
"Orochimaru-sensei!?" Nawaki blinked, startled. "What are you doing here? Weren't you busy?"
Orochimaru set the umbrella aside, sharp yellow eyes scanning the tent's interior. His gaze lingered briefly on the Kadoya clones working diligently at the back, then shifted to the real one seated on the bed.
"There's not much left to do at the moment," Orochimaru said smoothly, his voice low and unreadable.
After sitting down, Orochimaru spoke. "In the coming days, Tsunade and I will be extremely busy. We won't have time to take you around the battlefield anymore."
"Even though you've killed before and completed an A-rank mission, that mission was unique. Most importantly, even though your combat power surpasses many ninjas, you're still lacking in battlefield command experience."
Orochimaru hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Because of this, Tsunade and I discussed it. She believes you need more training and should be tested on the battlefield. In fact, she even suggested sending you on a mission where life and death don't matter, she wanted you to assassinate Hanzo."
Saiguu: "Huh!?"
Kadoya: "Heh!?"
Nawaki: "Alright!"
The three of them pause, looking at Nawaki with a disbelieving gaze.
Orochimaru let out a quiet sigh. "I still think it's too dangerous. I tried talking her out of it, but she wouldn't budge. In the end, I managed to settle on a relatively safer mission for you."
As he spoke, he pulled a folded document from his pocket.
"This contains a map of the region, where your team would be patrolling."
Kadoya took the file and skimmed through it. "The mission focuses primarily on intelligence gathering, with secondary orders to eliminate any enemy shinobi encountered."
He gave a short nod and continued reading.
Once Kadoya finished, Orochimaru stood up from his seat. "I'm appointing you as captain of the first team. You'll be leading Nawaki Senju and Saiguu Hyuga."
"Understood."
"Good. That map should help you navigate the area and avoid any direct contact with the main enemy forces." Orochimaru turned to leave, then paused at the tent's entrance.
He glanced back. "Don't blame Tsunade. She's doing this for your sake."
Nawaki was genuinely moved by the comment. Once Orochimaru departed, Kadoya returned to the mission brief, committing every detail to memory.
Before long, Kadoya, Saiguu, and Nawaki packed their gear and set out for a remote sector in the eastern region of the Land of Rain, moving like shadows, covert operatives on a classified assignment.
Though the mission carried a degree of danger, Kadoya remained unfazed.
Saiguu, too, showed no hesitation. As long as she was by Kadoya's side, that was enough.
Nawaki, on the other hand, was practically buzzing with excitement. He'd already bragged about it to half his extended relatives before they even left.
Naturally, Tsunade had no intention of sending them anywhere near the frontlines. What they needed was experience, not a death sentence.
And during wartime, even taking out a few enemy stragglers and completing minor objectives was often enough to earn a promotion to chunin, with no exam required.
They followed the beaten path often used by Konoha's shinobi. Rain drizzled steadily, mixing with the mud and masking the terrain beneath. As they moved through the slippery ground, Nawaki suddenly stepped on something, a thin, almost invisible string hidden beneath the filth and water.
Kadoya's instincts roared to life.
Before his mind could even register what was happening, his body moved on its own. He elbowed Nawaki hard, launching him backward. In the same motion, his momentum carried him into Saiguu, knocking her out of the blast radius, just as the ground erupted in a violent explosion.
A wave of fire and shrapnel swallowed Kadoya whole.
"KADOYA!!" both Nawaki and Saiguu screamed in unison.
But then, through the fading blaze and settling smoke, Kadoya emerged, flame clinging to his shoulders, a deeply annoyed expression on his face. Not a single scratch was visible on his body.
"Oh, thank the Sage of Six Paths, you're okay," Nawaki exhaled, relief washing over him. He didn't exactly like Kadoya, but they got along decently enough.
He respected Kadoya's strength, his presence as a leader. Compared to him, Nawaki felt like a second-rate shinobi trying to play in the big leagues.
His taijutsu didn't hold up. His ninjutsu was weaker. He knew zero genjutsu, fūinjutsu, or kenjutsu. Honestly, his whole combat toolkit looked like a half-empty box next to Kadoya's arsenal.
Still, after spending time with the guy, Nawaki had started to understand him a little. Kadoya Uchiha: arrogant, sharp-tongued, and irritatingly smug, but also unshakably reliable when it mattered.
Even now, after Nawaki had triggered a trap that could've killed them all, Kadoya didn't hesitate to take the blast head-on for his team.
Nawaki wanted to say something, maybe thank him, maybe apologize, but Kadoya spoke first.
"I should've tied you up and shipped you back to the Land of Fire," he muttered, brushing off the lingering flames on his shoulder with irritation.
They hadn't even been on the battlefield that long, and Nawaki had already almost died three times, all thanks to explosive tags.
Nawaki: "…"
Suddenly, Nawaki wanted to take back every good word he said about Kadoya.
Well… thinking it over, he realized he hadn't really said anything good about Kadoya to begin with. So technically, there wasn't much to take back anyway.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" a rough voice called out.
The trio turned to see a group of Amegakure shinobi emerging from the misty rain, circling them like wolves.
"A bunch of Konoha genin brats."
"So the intel was right."
"An Uchiha, a Senju, and... a pretty little Hyuga, too. Looks like we hit the damn jackpot."
One of the men let his eyes linger on Saiguu, his lust barely concealed behind a crooked grin.
"I'd suggest you three come quietly," another shinobi sneered. "Cooperate, and you might just get out of this alive."
"There's nowhere to run, brats. We've got you surrounded."
Nawaki tensed, panic rising in his chest as he realized they were boxed in from every direction. His fingers instinctively moved, ready to form hand seals.
Saiguu's expression hardened. Her Byakugan activated with a faint pulse, veins spreading beneath her eyes like roots.
Kadoya, on the other hand, simply stood still, calm, unreadable, before a smirk crept across his lips. He chuckled quietly at first.
The laughter grew, building into something louder, darker, more unhinged. Even as rain hammered down on him, he didn't stop. If anything, it made his laughter sharper, like a blade in the storm.
"You think you've got us surrounded?" he asked, voice dripping with mockery. "Take a closer look... you're the ones being surrounded by me."
None of the Amegakure shinobi noticed until it was too late; all their shadows were already connected to Kadoya's.
He slowly raised his left hand to his face.
Every single enemy shinobi mirrored the movement.
A spinning Sharingan formed in each of their palms, staring back at them, an impossible sight. They froze, caught in the grip of a genjutsu so seamless, none of them had time to react.
One by one, they dropped to their knees, trembling, hyperventilating, their limbs unresponsive.
Kadoya approached with a silent, fluid grace, a blade of water forming in his hand.
"Kadoya, what the hell just happened?" Nawaki asked, eyes wide in disbelief, as Kadoya calmly walked past him, executing each kneeling shinobi with quiet efficiency.
"I surrounded them," Kadoya replied flatly, slicing down another enemy.
Nawaki: "..."
Saiguu: "..."
Neither of them had any idea how things flipped so fast. One moment, they were cornered; the next, their enemies were cornered by Kadoya.
It didn't make sense.
Saiguu, however, didn't question it. Not out loud. Kadoya was strong; that was enough. If she stayed by his side, she'd become strong too.
Nawaki glanced at her, expecting her to say something... but when she remained silent, he wisely chose not to speak either.
Kadoya finished off the last of the Amegakure shinobi, then turned toward his teammates, waterblade dissolving into mist.
"Nawaki, clean up these bodies with Earth Release. Let's move."
They both nodded, falling in step as the trio continued their reconnaissance mission.
"Nawaki, stop," Saiguu said sharply, her hand shooting out and grabbing his shoulder hard.
"Ow- what now?!" he yelped, recoiling.
"You almost stepped on another explosive tag," she said coolly, her Byakugan still active.
Nawaki: "..."
Kadoya: "..."
Nawaki let out a sigh of relief while Kadoya didn't know what to say at this point.
Damn, is this Nawaki's curse? Destined to die from explosive tags?
If this goes on, even sending him back into the village won't be safe; the village might get blown up by explosive tags because of him. Kadoya now believes that the only way to protect Nawaki from these explosive tags is to send him into the Pure World; that right, explosive tags can't blow him to death if he is already dead.
Exhaling sharply, Kadoya quickly gave out his command. "Change of formation! Saiguu will be in the front, acting as the team's eye. I'll be in the back, making sure none of you suddenly gets lost or attacked from behind. Nawaki, stay in the middle and don't step on any more explosive tags."
Saiguu simply nodded.
Nawaki: "..."
...
Team 7 continued their march through Amegakure, encountering enemy shinobi along the way, none of whom made it back to report. Like many of them who suspected Team 7 was a lowly genin team that has accidentally slipped into the battle, they didn't take Team 7 seriously, and in the end they were all killed and body disposed.
Their reason for death was that they let their guard down, thinking that they had found easy prey, not knowing that it was a trap.
During their time in the field, Saiguu's Byakugan had evolved significantly. Her precision and awareness had sharpened to the point where she could detect hidden traps from nearly twenty miles away, well before they were ever in danger. Nawaki, for his part, had also improved. He trained diligently, refining his ninjutsu and, most importantly, his trap awareness.
Still, their reconnaissance mission had effectively failed. Their current location hadn't been compromised, but their presence in the battle had, likely due to the one-eyed bandit back in Konoha. Yet rather than retreating back to the Konoha encampment, Kadoya chose to press on. Too many enemy patrols blocked their return path, and with Saiguu and Nawaki in tow, he couldn't afford to drag them into a full-scale fight.
If he were alone, he wouldn't have hesitated to "dance" with anyone that came near.
That evening, it was Nawaki's turn to scout.
After confirming he wasn't being followed, he returned and slipped quietly into the cave.
The once-empty hideout had become a makeshift home. In one corner were bags of stolen grain, hastily stacked. Pots and pans cluttered the ground near the firepit. At the center of it all sat a rickety wooden table where Saiguu silently prepared dinner.
Kadoya was sprawled across the table, eyes locked on a large map, marking out route after route, all of them blocked by enemy forces.
"How's it look out there, Nawaki?" Kadoya asked without glancing up.
"No signs of any Konoha shinobi," Nawaki reported, sighing as he scratched the back of his head. "Still nothing from our side."
Kadoya nodded, unsurprised. They were just genin, after all. If they died out here, it would barely make a ripple. Besides, with Danzo gunning for them, the chances of anyone organizing a rescue were slim.
Luckily, Kadoya had already dispatched Katsuyu and Shirohebi with messages to Tsunade and Orochimaru to confirm they were still alive.
Nawaki took a seat, but Kadoya suddenly paused, his eyes narrowing.
Nawaki noticed immediately and stiffened. "Enemy?"
Kadoya shook his head. "No... something else."
A moment later, faint footsteps echoed at the cave entrance.
A girl stepped inside.
She looked like a ghost, ragged, soaked by rain, and half-starved. The firelight flickered across her silhouette, casting long shadows over her face. She stopped just outside the warmth of the flames, her expression tense and unreadable.
Her cheeks were drawn tight with nerves. Her lips trembled slightly as she stared straight ahead, unmoving.
Then, at last, in a fragile, whisper-soft voice, she asked:
"Um… could you ninja-sama… share some food with us?"