Once Uchiha Yorin made his decision, Konoha moved at top speed. A Sky Ninja suppression force was assembled and marched straight toward the ruins of the Land of the Sky.
Like every small country whose hidden village had been wiped out and lost its backer, the former "Land of the Sky" was now nothing but broken walls and collapsed stone. Only a few struggling little settlements—already barely worthy of being called "countries"—clung to life there.
That's why, even though ordinary people are full of resentment and hatred toward ninja, they really can't live without them.
A nation without a hidden village to protect it is very easy to destroy.
If it's not destroyed by invasion from other nations, it'll be destroyed by beasts from the wild—don't forget, in the ninja world natural energy is strong, and all kinds of out-of-spec monsters are much more powerful than humans.
Without ninja to communicate and negotiate with these monster clans, they'll happily strip your fields bare and then chew on your grandma as a side dish.
Did you think Manda saying he wanted to eat people was just idle talk?
…
To everyone else, these lands long abandoned by their hidden villages are just "barbarian territory"—ignored, written off.
That's one of the ninja world's peculiarities.
The upside is, if you hide in ruins and no-man's-land, nobody cares. That's how the Sky Ninja survived.
The downside: there are no resources.
The Sky Ninja were pioneers in early scientific ninjutsu. Chakra flight rigs, giant flying fortresses, repairing the man-made tailed beast Zero-Tails—everything demanded a sea of resources, technology, machine components, even electronic parts.
Expensive chakra metal, highly technical computers, specialized ninja tools, and so on…
Up till now, the Sky Ninja's strategy had been like ants carrying crumbs: small-scale raids, slow accumulation, inch by inch.
They believed their flying fortress was supreme, and Zero-Tails was invincible. No matter how long it took or what happened in the outside world, as long as their doomsday weapon was finished, everything could be overturned.
The Sky Ninja would claim the final victory.
But lately, their confidence had been badly shaken.
Because they'd seen Uchiha Yorin's power.
Is power like that really something humans are supposed to have?
Can their "final weapon" actually beat that?
Even if Zero-Tails were fully restored, even if their fortress took to the sky, could they really stand up to Yorin's perfect, terrifying Primordial Titan, or his flying "Takemikazuchi Susanoo" with ridiculous mobility?
Under that kind of anxiety, the Sky Ninja changed course. No more hiding, no more covert operations—they went all-in, fanning out across the world, seeking allies who opposed Yorin and opposed Konoha.
Not just nobles and daimyō—ninja villages, too.
In their eyes, the other four great villages had been forced to bow to Konoha. They must be simmering with resentment. With a little nudging, they'd surely cooperate with the Sky Ninja.
Sky didn't even plan to ask much: just resources. Help them complete their research and finish the fortress…
Of course, given Konoha's current power, their original plan was never going to work.
But that was fine. Zero-Tails was man-made. If someone could create one Zero-Tails, then they could create a second, a third, even more.
Their leader Shinnō had an ambitious, almost terrifying idea.
He'd heard the story: nine tailed beasts can fuse into one—the monstrous Ten-Tails, power on par with the "god of ninja."
If that's so, why couldn't man-made tailed beasts do the same?
He wanted to manufacture nine Zero-Tails and fuse them into a man-made Ten-Tails.
Then what Uchiha Yorin? What perfect Sage Mode? None of them would be a match.
"Kehehehe… hahahahahaha!"
Just picturing it made Shinnō break into a slightly manic laugh.
Unfortunately, what happened next was nothing like what he'd imagined.
No wave of support. No dramatic acceleration of research.
Instead, it was betrayal after betrayal—and Konoha's army, personally led by Yorin, marching on the Sky Hidden Village.
What the hell—why? How did it turn into this?!
When the news arrived, Shinnō felt like he'd just been whacked over the head by Second Brother Ma's iron staff. The dizziness was so intense he nearly toppled over.
His subordinates scrambled to prop him up. The vertigo wouldn't go away, his thoughts were scattered.
But he couldn't not think. All his subordinates were staring at him, waiting for orders.
If he mishandled this, he was liable to end up like Kazahana Dotō—delivered trussed up to Uchiha Yorin by his own men.
He would be a joke.
So the bigger the crisis, the calmer he had to be.
"No problem."
He steadied his voice. "If this were a head-on fight, we Sky Ninja might be a little outmatched. But in terms of mobility, we're number one in the world. If we want to strategically withdraw, nobody can stop us."
At that, the Sky Ninja all exchanged glances and let out a breath.
"Yeah… that's true."
In the last ninja war, they'd been unstoppable. They'd even started thinking about conquering the world—that wasn't just arrogance.
The ninja world has basically no air power. Ninja or summons that can really fly are rare.
So with absolute control of the skies, Sky Ninja had truly been formidable: hit when they wanted, flee when they wanted. No one could catch them.
Even Konoha, the strongest village, could only take them down by ambushing them before they took off.
The Sky ninja had been lying low ever since, but their old speciality—the chakra flight rigs—were still around. If they wanted to run, they really could run.
The problem was…
"Chief, what about the fortress and Zero-Tails if we run?" someone asked.
Zero-Tails wasn't rebuilt yet, and the fortress hadn't launched—it was still stuck on the ground.
Talking about this made Shinnō fall silent.
For years they'd been trying to repair and rebuild their flying fortress.
Were they really going to abandon it just like that?
He was not reconciled to that idea.
If not, though—was there any other way?
Not really…
"…Pack up."
After a long pause, Shinnō made up his mind. This was why he was considered a schemer: he could take it and he could let it go.
While his heart bled, his face stayed calm.
"The most important thing now is preserving ourselves. As long as we're alive, everything can start again."
"But—" Someone still couldn't let it go.
They had no real plan against Konoha's army, but still, the thought of abandoning everything made them want to argue.
Shinnō didn't indulge them. Before the man could even finish, he cut him off.
"Enough, we don't have time for this. Do as I say.
Move fast—we don't have much time left!"
Under his iron command, the Sky Ninja reluctantly obeyed. They packed what they could pack, hid what they could hide, and destroyed what couldn't be hidden—no matter how painful it was—so their cherished tech wouldn't be turned against them by Konoha.
Gritting their teeth, they went to work.
They were still ninja, still a military organization—and one held together by hatred.
Of course, because they were held together by hatred, they couldn't stand the idea of just running.
If they fought Konoha's main army in a straight battle, they weren't confident.
But if they used the thing they were best at—air raids—hit Konoha hard once and then fled before anyone could retaliate? That they liked.
The idea of giving up their longtime base infuriated them. But the thought of swooping down on Konoha from above and metaphorically shitting on their heads thrilled them.
The generation that had actually fought Konoha was mostly gone. This crop of Sky Ninja were raised after the war.
They'd grown up on stories of the old Sky Village, full of awe and reverence, and soaked in hatred. They'd been waiting their whole lives to unleash that hatred on Konoha.
However.
Too bad.
Times had changed.
When the Sky Ninja fired up their chakra flight rigs and dove toward Konoha's formation, dreaming of raining ninjutsu and exploding tags from above onto helpless ground troops—
A massive giant wrapped in purple lightning, with wings spread wide, appeared right in front of them and cut off their path.
Takemikazuchi Susanoo.
While a little weaker than his Primordial Titan form, this mode gave Uchiha Yorin perfect aerial mobility. Combined with Lightning Body Flicker and Flying Thunder God, his speed and maneuverability reached absurd levels.
In other words:
He alone was enough to suppress the entire Sky ninja air corps.
Uchiha Yorin: "Do your best to entertain me, you brats."
He showed them a slightly unhinged, delighted grin.
"I've never had an air battle before—so try your best to make it fun for me, heehee… heehee… heeheehee hahahahaha…"