After setting a time with Orochimaru, Nagi left the Village Hidden in the Sound. Before he departed, he made a point to ask Orochimaru about a specific location: the Sky Ninja Village.
That's right. Nagi planned to go to the Sky Ninja Village and seize their Sky Fortress. And let's not forget, they also had another piece of black technology: a personal flight device. It would be a shame to miss out on something so good; he probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
The leader of the Sky Ninja was a man named Shinno. Their small country had been destroyed during the Great Ninja War—by Konoha, of course. That was why later, when the Sky Ninja developed their personal flight devices, they didn't go after any other country; they focused all their efforts on bombing the Hidden Leaf. Faced with an enemy that could fly, Konoha's counterattacks were few and far between, because there were very few ninja in the village who could fly.
Shinno, meanwhile, had managed to get on Konoha's good side by posing as a doctor and treating their wounded, then he had run off. It was unclear what he had been doing in Konoha.
And besides being a doctor on the surface, Shinno was actually a scientist just like Orochimaru. Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation jutsu had been traded from him. Of course, what Orochimaru had gotten was only an incomplete version. Just like with the Second Hokage's Edo Tensei, Orochimaru had completed it himself. Later, after Orochimaru's hands were sealed, he sent Sasuke to find Shinno, hoping to get the complete version of the jutsu to solve his problem.
It was no exaggeration to call Shinno a genius scientist, because he had created a Tailed Beast from scratch through his own research: the Zero-Tails. This beast fed on people's negative emotions to generate a massive amount of chakra, its power comparable to that of a true Tailed Beast. But that fool Shinno had used the Zero-Tails as a battery for the Sky Fortress, completely overlooking the fact that the Tailed Beast itself was a powerful living weapon.
And he had sealed the Zero-Tails into a girl named Amaru, constantly cultivating its growth. Finally, to bring the Zero-Tails to maturity, he had directly destroyed his own village, causing Amaru, who had grown up there, to generate immense negative emotions, which in turn supplied the Zero-Tails with the power to reach its complete form.
"Tsk, tsk. The people of the ninja world are so obsessed with the power of the Tailed Beasts that it's become a perversion. First, the ultimate summoning beast, then the Zero-Tails, and the pseudo-Nine-Tails..." Nagi mused, sitting on the back of the giant eagle.
The pseudo-Nine-Tails... was in Chiriku's temple. He was a pseudo-jinchuriki created from the Nine-Tails' chakra and some of its cells that had been collected during the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha. His name was Sora, wasn't it? But Nagi looked down on him. Because he was a pseudo-Nine-Tails, not only could he not achieve a full Tailed Beast transformation, but his Tailed Beast cloak could only reach three tails. His potential was limited. Although he wasn't as powerful as a true jinchuriki, perhaps he could be useful in bolstering his own ninja village... But Nagi wasn't Orochimaru; he didn't know how to brainwash people. How to trick Sora into willingly following him would be a problem.
"Found it."
Nagi narrowed his eyes. He circled above the once-destroyed Sky Ninja Village. In the distance was another village. It seemed that in the decade or so of peace in the ninja world, the civilians and ninja of the Sky Ninja Village who had fled or survived had gradually returned. Soon, under the leadership of Shinno, they would arrogantly fly to Konoha to launch their air raid...
Although he couldn't see the Sky Fortress, Nagi was certain it was buried underground.
Nagi leaped off the eagle and infiltrated the village, searching for Shinno.
After sneaking into the village, Nagi noticed that some of the craftsmen were working on some unknown machinery. It was probably their personal flight devices. It was no wonder. For a destroyed nation with no basic resources or funding, being able to handcraft a few hundred flight devices was already impressive. Mass production was just a pipe dream. Even the Sky Fortress buried underground... Nagi suspected it wasn't Shinno who had built it, but that it had already been completed before the Sky Ninja Village was destroyed. Shinno had just solved its power problem.
He randomly grabbed someone and used a genjutsu. He discovered that Shinno was not in the village, but in the Sky Fortress buried underground. After getting the location of the entrance, Nagi knocked the person out. He didn't want to damage the Sky Fortress, which was why he had chosen to sneak in. And the fortress's most important power source, the Zero-Tails, was still in an unknown location. That little girl, who was about the same age as Naruto, was probably only eight years old right now. He didn't know if Shinno had made her the Zero-Tails' jinchuriki yet.
After silently avoiding the villagers, Nagi quietly made his way to a mountainside. The entrance to the fortress was hidden in a cave. And Shinno was hiding inside, conducting his research.
With Nagi's skills, aided by his Mangekyo's genjutsu and the Flying Thunder God, infiltrating a village was like walking through an empty field. He casually tossed a kunai, then teleported to it, perfectly avoiding all the traps, and began to explore the fortress buried beneath the earth.
"There should be a main control room here somewhere. Where is it..." Nagi frowned. The Sky Fortress was indeed huge. Without a map, it was like a maze inside. In the ninja world, building such a fortress was incredible. After all, it was a world that hadn't even gone through an industrial revolution. But chakra made black technology pop up everywhere. If the Hidden Mist could build stacks of hundred-story skyscrapers, then it was reasonable for the Sky Ninja to have a Sky Fortress.
Hmm? Found it.
After turning another corner, he finally found the main control room. Nagi constructed a three-dimensional map in his mind. The control room was probably located on the outer layer, likely to make it easier for the controller to see the terrain. But since it was buried underground, it was hard to find. If it were on the surface, the control room would be visible at a glance.
"Who's there?" A burly man was in the control room, examining a little girl on an operating table. He suddenly seemed to sense something and turned to look in Nagi's direction.
"Impressive intuition. How did you find me?"
Since he had been discovered, Nagi no longer bothered to hide. He walked out openly. He wasn't here to assassinate Shinno, but to capture him alive. After all, he hadn't yet gotten his hands on the means to control the fortress.
"Who are you? To come to my Sky Ninja Village... are you a spy from Konoha?" Shinno's face was grim. It was not a good feeling to have someone sneak into your lair, especially inside your own base. If a fight broke out and the Sky Fortress was damaged, wouldn't his dream be shattered?
Shinno didn't know that Nagi was also afraid of damaging the Sky Fortress, because he already considered it his own.
Mangekyo Sharingan!
Nagi's first move was his most lethal genjutsu. Shinno, unsure of which village Nagi belonged to since he wasn't wearing a uniform or a forehead protector, accidentally looked into his eyes and was instantly trapped in the illusion.
Seeing Shinno fall into the genjutsu, Nagi breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't like fighting indoors either. If he couldn't end it quickly and the base was damaged, it would be a problem. Although he already had two overseas bases, neither of them was combat-oriented. They were fine for research or training ninja, but this Sky Fortress was a combat-type base.
"Tell me, how do you control this base?" Nagi walked up to Shinno and asked in a low voice.
Shinno's eyes were glazed over. He lowered his head and said, "The main way to control this base is..."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Nagi's sixth sense screamed a warning. He subconsciously teleported away, dodging Shinno's fatal surprise attack.
BOOM!
The wall he had just entered through was smashed open by Shinno. At the same time, an evil, dark chakra emanated from Shinno's body.
I see. Jinchuriki. The Zero-Tails is still inside him. The child on the operating table... was he just about to transfer the Zero-Tails to her to make her a jinchuriki?
Nagi mused. It seemed he had arrived a step too early. Shinno hadn't yet extracted the Zero-Tails from his own body, so the two different chakras were interfering with each other, allowing him to easily break the genjutsu.
"It seems you won't surrender without a fight."
"Hmph! You dare to have designs on the Sky Ninja Village's fortress? You're asking for death!" Shinno glared at Nagi, his muscles beginning to bulge.
Then, he did something that surprised even Nagi.
"Eight Gates, First Gate, open!"
"QAQ...!?"
It had been too long; Nagi had completely forgotten that this Shinno also knew the Eight Gates. The expression on his face was priceless. Was this another taijutsu specialist like Might Guy?
However, the moment Shinno charged over and they engaged, Nagi knew. He was all form and no substance. This guy was a far cry from Guy.
"Blazing Qi Manifestation!"
With a single move, Nagi cut off Shinno's arm. His divine Nichirin Blade, Raikiri, without the enhancement of the sun outside, didn't produce its flame effect, but its special burning attribute still sliced through Shinno's arm as easily as cutting tofu, and even thoughtfully cauterized the wound to prevent excessive bleeding...
"You... your sword is a ninja blade!" Shinno clutched his severed arm, backing away in terror.
Shinno was not unaware that there were divine ninja tools in the world forged from heavenly materials. The most famous were, of course, the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist, because they appeared most often. Next were the treasured tools of the Sage of Six Paths from the Land of Lightning, but the Land of Lightning was very low-key and rarely used them, even during the Great Ninja Wars. But Nagi's sword had truly caught him off guard. This was not any of the divine weapons he knew of in the ninja world.
"It seems... I have no choice but to use my full power," Shinno said, his gaze heavy.
But Nagi wasn't going to give him that much time. He raised his Nichirin Blade and charged forward. Shinno, seeing this, was terrified. He spat out a string of words like a machine gun:
"Second Gate of Healing, Third Gate of Life, Fourth Gate of Pain, Fifth Gate of Limit, Sixth Gate of View, Seventh Gate of Wonder, Eighth Gate of Death—Open!"
"The Gate of Death!?"
What the hell!
This time, it was Nagi's turn to be shocked. Kishimoto, are you kidding me? I can't even go out without running into someone who can open the Gate of Death?