Land of Sky · Sky Fortress.
A gigantic steel monster hovered high in the sky, using the clouds as cover to evade the Konoha Ninja searching below.
"General Hummingbird, you've done very well."
A kindly face appeared on the screen in the central control room.
The man on screen looked to be in his sixties. His hair and beard were white, and he wore a brown hat. With his easygoing smile, he looked like an ordinary farmer.
But as the highest-ranking leader of the Sky Fortress, General Hummingbird bowed deeply before the "farmer" before him, his expression reverent.
"Lord Shinnō, your guidance has shown us the way."
Shinnō was pleased by his subordinate's respect. He narrowed his eyes, laughed heartily, and asked, "Is everything ready? We have only two days before the attack on Konoha.
"This battle is the crucial first step toward reviving the Land of Sky and uniting the Ninja World."
The people who had attacked the towns of the Land of Fire came from a fallen country—the Land of Sky.
The Land of Sky had been renowned for its various flying devices and tactics, and had used them to establish the "Sky Ninja Village." Its leader at the time had been Shinnō.
Back then, though, Shinnō hadn't been an old man. He had been a middle-aged man in his prime, not yet forty.
When the Second Shinobi World War broke out, Shinnō saw the great nations at war, using the conflict to seize wealth and technology.
Unable to suppress his own ambition to conquer the world, Shinnō sent the first Sky Ninja Legion to attack Konoha.
And then...
The Sky Ninja Village became the only village in the Second Shinobi World War to be nearly wiped out. Countless Sky Ninja died, while Shinnō, the one who had