The more he looked, the more similarities he saw.
Dodai had witnessed the Fourth Raikage master Lightning Release Chakra Mode with his own eyes. Uchiha Sora looked a lot like the mode in its early stages.
His flames didn't cover his whole body.
Now that he thought about it, the kid's strength and speed were abnormal too. They must have been enhanced...
The wariness in Dodai's eyes deepened.
A ninjutsu that enhanced every aspect of its user's abilities was no easier to learn than a Kekkei Genkai.
Even more frightening...
Dodai was certain Konoha had never had a technique like this before...
This technique... the kid had developed it himself!!
Dodai stifled his rage at the death of his subordinates and forced Uchiha Sora to turn around with a single strike, sending him crashing toward the wall of fire.
He had to get word about this kid to the Raikage!
Bang!
Dodai gritted his teeth and grunted as he threw himself against the wall of fire.
Ignoring the flames scorching his shoulder, he tried to force his whole body through.
Hmm...
This was easier than he'd expected. Was it because that technique required too much chakra, leaving little for the Barrier Ninjutsu?
As if he'd read Dodai's thoughts, Uchiha Sora spoke.
"Uchiha Flame Formation is a barrier of hellfire amplified through the earth as its medium. It doesn't take much chakra to maintain."
Dodai ignored him and forced half his body through.
That demonic voice rang out again.
"If I hadn't wanted another addition to my collection, the hellfire would've burned you to ash the moment you touched the wall."
Swish--
Uchiha Sora raised his hand, then brought it down.
Dodai had just begun to think he'd escaped when a sharp pain shot through his waist.
The blazing hellfire suddenly turned into an invisible guillotine, slicing him in two!
Sizzle--
The heat vaporized his flesh in an instant, filling the air with the nauseating stench of charred meat.
Hellfire immediately engulfed Dodai's lower half, and the charred remains fell with a shower of sparks.
His upper body hit the ground as well.
The towering wall of fire faded, leaving scattered limbs and carnage across the ground.
Uchiha Sora walked slowly toward Dodai.
"Cough..."
Being cut in half hadn't killed Dodai. He coughed up a mouthful of dark blood and stared fixedly at Uchiha Sora.
"From the beginning... this was your... killing move?"
As he spoke, he kept one hand behind his back, seemingly writing something.
Uchiha Sora shook his head and said mildly, "There's no such thing as a killing move. I was just testing my ninjutsu."
"In terms of overall strength, you're definitely better than me."
"Why did you lose, then? Simple."
"You forgot that when facing the Uchiha one-on-one, you have no chance of winning."
"Everything you do is useless before these eyes."
Shhk!!
Uchiha Sora dug out Dodai's Ketsuryūgan and held it in his palm.
Instead of crying out in pain, Dodai smiled.
"All that talk... did the message get through?"
The smile froze on Dodai's face.
Holding the bloodstained eyeball, Uchiha Sora leaned closer and smiled like a demon.
"Thanks for your effort. I'll end your suffering now."
Swish--
His blade flashed, and Dodai's head fell. His eyes quickly went unfocused.
Behind his body, the smoke from the summoning technique had just dissipated.
He'd used his last bit of chakra to send the message to Kumogakure.
Shisui walked over and looked at Dodai's corpse. "I still don't understand. If we let the Raikage know we've left Konoha, won't he come after us?"
"Especially since we killed Dodai."
Uchiha Sora wrapped the Ketsuryūgan in a handkerchief and tucked it away. He was quite interested in its ability to control blood.
"The Raikage only looks like a hothead. If he really let anger cloud his judgment, he'd have led Kumogakure into a fight with Iwagakure long ago."
"Konoha is covering up the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and his wife. Until the Raikage figures that out, he won't make any big moves."
Shisui furrowed his brow. "Konoha can't hide this for long. If the Raikage finds out... what if he takes advantage of the chaos and attacks Konoha?"
He still cared a lot about Konoha and didn't want it to face a crisis.
"More importantly... if he understands what happened, couldn't he still come after us?"
Uchiha Sora smiled faintly.
"Then we'll fight."
"You really think Konoha hasn't come after us all this time because it's kindhearted?"
"The Uchiha don't currently have enough power to stand against a great nation."
"But any great nation that dares attack us had better be ready to be shattered!"
Uchiha Sora returned the short blade to Shisui and picked up a Ninja Blade from Kumogakure to take with him.
"Shisui, you think too much."
"All your worries come from not being strong enough. Instead of fretting about this and that, focus on getting stronger as fast as you can."
Shisui mulled over those words, then came around a moment later.
"Sora, you still haven't told me why you wanted him to send that message."
"Didn't I? Oh, I thought you would've figured it out. I overestimated you."
Uchiha Sora chuckled. "Of course it's to stir things up a little. The Third Shinobi World War is almost over."
"It can't end so soon..."
The Five Great Nations had maintained the same balance of power for years. They'd started wars time and again, but whenever things had gone far enough, they pulled back, preserving their overwhelming advantage over the smaller nations.
War was a means, not an end.
Put bluntly, they fought to reduce the ever-growing number of shinobi. The number of missions was fixed, after all. The more shinobi there were, the fewer missions each one could get.
Konoha was an exception.
Konoha had never started a Shinobi World War. Was it because they loved peace?
No...
It was because the Land of Fire was the most prosperous territory in the Shinobi World, with the most missions.
Konoha was also the village with the most secret techniques, and it produced one genius after another.
The four great nations targeted Konoha because if they gave it time to grow, it could easily beat the other countries. It was the only village with a chance of unifying the Shinobi World.
Uchiha Sora hadn't given it much thought.
If Dodai hadn't shown up, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to send information to Kumogakure.
He'd simply gotten the idea on a whim.
After the Nine-Tails Night, Uchiha Sora had come to understand something.
Training was like making preparations for the Fire Festival, while battles where life and death hung in the balance were the fuse that lit the festivities.
If things followed the original timeline, the Shinobi World would remain relatively peaceful for the next decade or more, leaving few opportunities to fight.
How boring.
Whether from his own nature or the influence of his bloodline, Uchiha Sora craved conflict and enjoyed battle.
He understood that this joy was the key to awakening his Mangekyō, not emotions like pain.
After fastening the Ninja Blade he'd picked up, Uchiha Sora was about to say something when he suddenly stopped, his expression shifting.
Ding--
This was the first time he'd heard a notification before completing a repayment task.
A mechanical voice sounded in his mind.
"User meets the requirements for lending. Would you like to register as a lender?"
A lender...
Could he respond to other people's summons and lend them power, like Rayquaza?
What a pleasant surprise!
Uchiha Sora accepted without the slightest hesitation.
After a brief pause, the mechanical voice spoke again.
"Registration complete... conducting assessment..."
"Based on the user's power level, the user is classified as Black Iron Grade."
"There is an existing loan request suitable for the user. Completion will earn 95 reputation points."
"Appendix: The platform charges a five percent transit fee."
Uchiha Sora started doing the math.
So, of the 1,000 reputation points I paid, Rayquaza only got 950?
I'm a new user and got double the benefits. So who covered the 450-point shortfall?
In the end, what do these reputation points represent, and why is the platform collecting them?
Before he could figure it out, the voice went on.
"Please decide promptly whether to lend. Failure to respond in time will be treated as a refusal."
"Appendix: The flow of time will not affect the user during transit. Upon return, the user will still be at the same point in time."
"Appendix 2: This platform guarantees the lender's safety. If an uncontrollable event threatens the lender's life, the loan will be forcibly terminated, and the lender will return an instant before death."
"Appendix 3: By accepting the loan, the lender must do their utmost to fulfill the borrower's request. If the lender abandons the task for any reason other than a threat to their life, no reputation points will be awarded."
"Appendix 4: ..."
A long string of terms flashed through Uchiha Sora's mind. He wasn't patient enough to read them all, so he skimmed the general idea and confirmed that he would lend.
Whatever. He'd try it first and see what happened.
In an instant, the world spun upside down before his eyes.
Before you continue