#49

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One by one, deafening explosions echoed across the heavens.

Thick smoke billowed, swallowing the sky in a swirling haze. When it cleared, the sight that emerged left every warrior below frozen in shock.

They looked up, mouths agape.

Thousands of massive, floating eyes—each the size of a basin—hovered around Mufasa. Their white, metallic shells gleamed in the sunlight, red pupils glowing ominously at the center. The sheer number of them was overwhelming.

Large ones. Small ones. An ocean of glaring, unblinking eyes filled the sky.

Mufasa stood at their core, suspended in mid-air like some divine entity peering down upon mere mortals.

Power aside, the sheer psychological weight of the sight was paralyzing.

Ten thousand eerie, crimson eyes watching your every move, blocking out the sun itself, casting a massive shadow over the land...

It was terrifying.

Kakuzu's hands trembled slightly. The scene before him reminded him of something—

Hashirama Senju's Thousand-Armed True Form.

That legendary jutsu had conjured a thousand hands.

Now, Mufasa had ten thousand eyes.

In truth, only 3,000 of them were actual drone puppets, meticulously crafted by Orochimaru. The remaining 7,000 were merely electromagnetic projections.

For reasons unknown, Orochimaru had an odd fascination with the Sharingan's design. When Mufasa requested something that would make him look more "intimidating," the scientist had turned his drone puppets into massive floating eyes.

Each eye housed a nature chakra engine and an electromagnetic core. The outer rim contained specialized summoning scrolls that stored ninja tools and weapons. During battle, nature energy activated the engine, causing the sealed weapons to be launched directly from the red pupils—each imbued with elemental energy.

They resembled something straight out of a nightmare.

Mufasa called them the "Eyes of Judgment."

The battlefield had gone silent. The warriors below could barely process what they were seeing.

Inside Roshi, Son Goku spoke again, his voice filled with unease.

"What the hell is that?"

Roshi exhaled slowly. "I don't know. But it's bad news. Give me your chakra."

The Four-Tails obliged. A surge of molten-red chakra erupted from Roshi, forming a blazing tail behind him.

He was ready.

And he wasn't the only one.

The experienced shinobi among the enemy ranks began preparing defensive jutsu. If Mufasa was deploying something this massive, then he wasn't bluffing. Something big was coming.

Mufasa smiled.

"Alright. It's starting."

He took a deep breath.

"Everyone... good luck."

In that instant—

A flurry of voices rang out across the battlefield.

"Lava Release: Volcanic Eruption!"

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"

"Earth Release: Mudflow Barrier!"

"Earth Release: Great Wall of Stone!"

A chaotic orchestra of red, yellow, and blue energy erupted from every direction. The battlefield blazed with defensive formations, desperate attempts to withstand the unknown devastation about to unfold.

But for the unfortunate bandits, rogue warriors, and mercenaries—those without defensive ninjutsu—there was nothing to be done. Their only defenses were crude armor and shields.

They stared at the sky, at Mufasa, at the ten thousand crimson eyes watching them.

Then, in a deafening explosion—

The heavens roared.

The battlefield trembled.

Lightning flashed.

The sky itself seemed to shatter as an unrelenting storm of destruction rained down from above.

Mufasa controlled the 3,000 Natural Eyes and unleashed a relentless barrage on the ninja army below.

Boom!

Boom!

Clang! Clang!

It was no simple kunai and shuriken. This was an all-out assault.

Explosive tags.

Lightning-infused senbon.

Chakra-charged projectiles.

Massive shuriken, glinting in the sunlight.

A rain of destruction fell from above, completely blotting out the sky.

The ninja army looked up in horror, their faces drained of color. The once bright sky had vanished, replaced by a ceiling of lethal ninja tools descending upon them.

"What the fuck?! Where did the sky go?!"

Panic set in. The mercenaries, bandits, and rogue warriors among them, who lacked advanced ninjutsu defenses, were the first to crack.

"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

But it was already too late.

BOOM!

CRASH!

The first wave hit the ground like the wrath of the gods.

The sheer force of the impact sent shockwaves through the battlefield. The ground within a two-kilometer radius was instantly reshaped—leveled, cracked, and broken. Fortifications crumbled. Walls shattered. Earth jutsu defenses split apart.

Water Release: Water Formation Wall—pierced through and torn apart.

Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall—riddled with cracks before collapsing.

The unlucky ones, unable to summon defenses in time, were simply obliterated—crushed beneath the relentless hailstorm of ninja tools.

The true victims, however, were the wandering samurai and bandits. With no defensive jutsu to rely on, they were impaled alive, bodies skewered into the ground like broken dolls.

And then—

BOOM.

BOOM.

The secondary detonations began. Some of the ninja tools carried explosive tags, and as their fuses burned out, they erupted in a chain reaction of destruction. Fire, smoke, and shockwaves tore through the camp, reducing it to an apocalyptic wasteland.

"My hand! Where's my hand!?"

It was pure chaos.

Limbs and armor flew in every direction. The air was thick with screams and the acrid scent of burning flesh. The once-mighty ninja battalion had been reduced to a battlefield of fire and rubble.

Among the survivors, Heiru clung to life under the protection of his elite bodyguards—but his face was pale, and the wet stain on his pants betrayed his fear.

Kakuzu, the veteran bounty hunter, wiped blood off his forehead and scowled up at Mufasa.

"Damn brat. This bounty isn't worth the trouble."

Ao even considered running.

Meanwhile, in the heart of the destruction, Roshi emerged, unscathed thanks to Lava Release: Granite Armor. He sneered.

"Tch. That's all? Just a flashy light show."

Not everyone shared his confidence.

Gaara's eyes gleamed with fascination. This... this ninja technique is incredible. He had to study it. Perhaps even replicate it.

Sasuke, ever ambitious, had a different thought. I wonder if I can buy a set for myself... maybe even control ten thousand of them at once.

Kiba, Shino, and Hinata had no words. They sat still, pale and shaken.

If that had hit us directly...

Kiba clenched his fists. "Even Akamaru wouldn't outrun that..."

Shino, usually composed, adjusted his glasses. "My insects would be overwhelmed instantly. There's no countermeasure."

Hinata swallowed hard. Not even the Eight Trigrams Rotation could withstand such an attack...

As Mufasa surveyed the battlefield, a satisfied smirk curled his lips.

Perfect.

Then, just as the survivors began catching their breath—

His voice rang out again.

"Alright... let's continue!"

The chilling words sent another wave of panic through the battlefield.

"Truth: Ten Thousand Rounds—FIRE!"

The sky roared again as another wave of three thousand Natural Eyes unleashed another devastating volley.

Mufasa was relentless.

He didn't stop. He didn't hold back. This was no mere battle—it was a declaration of power.

It didn't matter how many ninja soldiers there were.

They would never have as many ninja tools as he did.

And he would prove it by burying them in steel and fire.

Clang Clang Clang!

Boom! Boom! boom!

The second barrage rained down, hammering the ground layer by layer, deepening the crater of destruction.

The very earth seemed to sink under the sheer weight of devastation.

Within the inferno of explosions and shrapnel, the Judgement Eyes suffered damage—some engines overheated, casings cracked, and scroll mechanisms jammed. But Mufasa's unscientific ninja tool system had a solution.

Function 3: Auto-Reinforcement.

If it looks like it should still work, then it works.

That was the system's logic. That was the rule.

So even as his drones took damage, their firepower never wavered.

The battlefield outside Arashi-jō Town was now a storm of fire and metal.

The ground trembled. The sky burned.

Even from twenty miles away, the daimyo Hideman stood atop the city walls, watching in horror as explosions and earthquakes rattled his fortress.

"How many ninja did the Hidden Sand Village send?! How is this level of destruction even possible?!"

The final round of ninja tools rained down, then stopped. Silence fell over the battlefield.

Mufasa surveyed the wreckage.

Three hundred thousand ninja tools fired in seven minutes.

What was left... wasn't an army.

It was a mass grave.

Piles of ninja tools lay scattered like tombstones.

The once-mighty ninja camp had been buried alive.

No movement.

Mufasa narrowed his eyes.

That's it? That's all it took?

It was hard to believe. Some of them had to have survived.

And then—

BOOM!

A sudden explosion rocked the field.

From beneath the mountain of ninja tools, a purple-black Tailed Beast Bomb blasted upward, obliterating the wreckage in its path.

Mufasa's eyes locked onto the source.

There, standing amidst the devastation, was Roshi—now in a half-tailed beast form.

Dark red chakra, the Tailed Beast Cloak, covered his entire body.

He had endured it all.

And now, he was fighting back.

With a wild roar, Roshi launched the Tailed Beast Bomb straight at Mufasa.

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Word count: 1472