The Land of Frost was a place where the world seemed to have forgotten the concept of warmth. It was a jagged, crystalline landscape of permafrost and biting winds that could strip the skin from a man's face in minutes. For most shinobi, this was a graveyard of stamina; for Kaito, it was merely a cooling system for the miniature star burning inside his chest.
Kaito stood at the prow of a Konoha war-vessel as it cut through the ice-choked waters of the northern coast. He was eight and a half years old, but he stood with a presence that made the seasoned Jonin on deck instinctively give him a wide berth. His new black tactical vest was open, exposing a mesh shirt that hummed with a faint, golden heat.
Hiss... Haaaa...
The Total Concentration Breathing: Constant had evolved into something Kaito now called Solar Saturated Breathing. Every cell in his body was now a furnace, his 7.5% Integration with the Sun Breathing laws making the sub-zero temperatures around him feel like a pleasant spring breeze.
"You know, for a land called 'Frost,' it's surprisingly lacking in actual personality," Kaito remarked, his voice a clear, arrogant chime that carried over the crashing of the ice. He turned to the three individuals standing behind him—the disciples of the Hokage, who were now officially his subordinates for this mission. "Jiraiya-san, you're shivering. It's a bit unseemly for a 'hero,' don't you think?"
Jiraiya pulled his fur-lined cloak tighter, his teeth chattering despite his best efforts to use chakra for warmth. "Kaito, it's forty below zero. Normal people—you know, the ones made of meat and bone—tend to get cold. Why aren't you even wearing a coat?"
"Because the sun doesn't need a coat, Jiraiya-san," Kaito chirped, his grin wide and predatory. He stepped toward the railing, the wood beneath his sandals beginning to steam. "Observation Haki tells me our 'guests' are already here. Two massive signatures. They smell like Nine-Tails chakra and ancient arrogance."
Orochimaru stepped forward, his yellow eyes narrowing as he looked toward the white horizon. "The Gold and Silver Brothers. Kinkaku and Ginkaku. They possess the Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths and enough Kurama-chakra to level a small nation. Are you truly going to face them with just your hands, Kaito-kun?"
"Hands? Orochimaru-kun, you wound me," Kaito laughed, a ruthless, joyful sound. "I'm going to face them with a smile. It's more demoralizing that way."
The Descent of the Brothers
The attack came as a localized apocalypse. A massive blast of red, corrosive chakra tore through the mists, vaporizing the sea-ice and sending a tidal wave of boiling water toward the Konoha ship.
"Brace!" Kagami Uchiha roared, but Kaito was already in the air.
He didn't use Soru to dodge; he used it to move into the blast.
"Sun Breathing... Third Form: Burning Sun!"
Kaito swung his arm in a circular motion, his Armament Haki coating his limb in a deep obsidian that caught the golden-red fire of the Hinokami Kagura. He didn't just deflect the chakra blast; he purified it. The solar heat of his breathing stripped the malice from the Nine-Tails' energy, turning the lethal beam into a harmless spray of warm mist.
He landed on the frozen shore, the permafrost shattering under his Steel Bone Density.
Standing before him were two giants wreathed in the bubbling, crimson chakra of the Tailed Beast. Kinkaku and Ginkaku. They looked at the eight-year-old boy and let out a roar that shook the glaciers.
"A child!?" Kinkaku bellowed, raising the Bashosen fan. "The Leaf sends a toddler to face the heirs of the Sage!?"
"Toddler is a bit much, don't you think?" Kaito asked, casually dusting off his shoulder. "I prefer 'The Unavoidable Conclusion'. Now, are you going to give me those fancy tools, or am I going to have to take them from your smoking remains?"
The Sovereign's Coating
The brothers didn't waste time. Ginkaku lunged with the Shichishiken, the blade glowing with an intent to sever Kaito's very soul.
Kaito didn't move. He closed his eyes and reached deep into the core of his Integration. He felt the Conqueror's Haki—the raw, absolute "Will" of a Sovereign—and instead of flaring it outward, he compressed it.
> [System Prompt: Skill Evolution]
> Integrating [Conqueror's Haki: Coating].
> Cost: 2,000 Points.
> Warning: Physical strain at 92%.
>
Black-and-red lightning began to crawl over Kaito's obsidian-coated fists. The air around him didn't just vibrate; it began to crack, the spatial reality of the Land of Frost unable to contain the pressure of his presence.
"Hey, Ginkaku," Kaito chirped, his eyes snapping open—now glowing with a terrifying, golden-red intensity. "Do you know what happens when a king meets a pretender?"
"Hinokami Kagura... Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance!"
Kaito moved. It wasn't speed; it was a teleportation of sheer will. He appeared in the center of the brothers' guard. He didn't use a dagger. He used his bare fist, coated in the black lightning of the Sovereign's Coating.
BOOM.
The impact didn't just make a sound; it created a vacuum. The shockwave of the Black Flash combined with the Haki-coating pulverized the Tailed Beast's chakra armor as if it were glass. Ginkaku was launched three hundred meters into a glacier, the ice mountain collapsing on top of him in a spray of white powder.
Kaito turned to Kinkaku, who was staring in mute horror at the "child" who had just dismantled a pseudo-Jinchuriki with one punch.
"One down," Kaito said, his smile cheerful, ruthless, and utterly confident. "You're next, Kinkaku. Make it interesting, will you? I'd hate for the world's 'top brass' to be this boring."
The World's Terror
As the battle raged, the sensory units from Kumo, Iwa, and Konoha watched from the distance, their instruments literally melting from the thermal output of Kaito's Sun Breathing.
The report that would reach the Raikage that evening was simple:
The Sun has come to the North. And the Frost has no choice but to melt.
> [System Status: Integration 8.5%]
> New Skill Unlocked: [Conqueror's Haki - Coating].
> Current Status: The Unstoppable Sovereign.
> Points Awarded: 4,000.
>
Kaito stood in the center of the molten crater, laughing as he prepared to deliver the final blow. He was no longer a boy. He was a force of nature that the world would have to learn to live with—or die against.