The sky was an endless blue.
The clouds were thin and scattered.
Twenty Sky-nin circled rapidly around the "Royal Fortress."
"The fortress suddenly activating must mean the leader has successfully captured the Zero-Tails and is using it as the core energy source. In that case… is the leader cooperating with us?"
The Sky-nin captain pondered for a moment, then his expression turned grave as he issued the order:
"Annihilate them. Open fire!!"
At the command, the twenty Sky-nin's faces hardened. Mid-flight, they raised their kunai rifles, aiming at the massive form of Shinya, and pulled their triggers.
Swish—
Sharp, pitch-black kunai shot out, descending like a storm of steel, swift and unrelenting.
Orochimaru silently observed the kunai rifles. He was already certain—if these weapons were placed in the hands of ordinary genin, as long as they trained their aim, they could easily achieve the same level of throwing accuracy that most jonin only mastered through years of effort.
After all, with just a pull of the trigger, the weapon fired kunai with uniform power.
It could even fire in bursts, or in controlled shots, making it far more efficient than a shinobi's traditional kunai throwing.
Uchiha Yu, faced with the terrifying storm of steel, appeared utterly calm. His attention was focused elsewhere.
"Hmph, such cheap tricks are only good for scratching my back!" Garaga's single serpentine eye gleamed with a sinister light. With a cold sneer, the giant snake suddenly whipped its massive body.
As the dark cloud of kunai rained down, Garaga's tail lashed out with a speed far greater than the projectiles, swinging violently upward.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The storm of kunai clattered against the armored scales of the serpent's tail, sparks flying with every impact.
One Sky-nin, unable to dodge in time, was swatted mid-air by the tail and reduced to a mangled mess of flesh, bursting into a cloud of blood.
"Explosives!!"
The Sky-nin captain glanced back at the blood mist. Realizing the rifles were useless against the massive serpent, he roared the new order.
At once, the remaining Sky-nin dove fearlessly toward Garaga. When they were within only a hundred meters of the colossal serpent, they pulled the safety pins on the oval-shaped bombs strapped to their flight rigs and hurled them downward.
"What are those things now?" Orochimaru studied the falling oval bombs with curiosity.
"You can think of them as specialized explosive tags," Uchiha Yu explained.
Just like in the movie version—the weapons, the technology—it was all about showcasing another possibility within the shinobi world.
"Specialized explosive tags…"
Both Tobirama and Hashirama were baffled after hearing the explanation.
The first bomb hit near Shinya's body—
BOOM!
The blast erupted in flames and smoke, making the giant serpent's body tremble slightly.
Immediately, one after another, more bombs rained down. Explosions followed in quick succession, their thunderous roars shaking the air.
In no time, thick smoke engulfed the colossal serpent, acrid and choking.
"The power is indeed much stronger than a single explosive tag," Orochimaru remarked after the smoke began to clear.
"Mhm."
Uchiha Yu nodded.
Once he claimed the Royal Fortress, all of this technology would belong to him.
High above, the Sky-nin peered down in astonishment—
After enduring a full round of concentrated bombardment, the one-eyed serpent was completely unscathed.
"Hiss—"
Garaga's single crimson eye glanced at the scorched patch of scales along its body. The once-red armor had been charred black by the flames, and this greatly displeased him.
"Continue!"
The Sky-nin leader again issued the bombing order.
This squad had been sent out merely to probe the enemy's strength.
But as they dove down a second time, each face changed at once—horror and dread spreading across them.
The royal serpent Garaga suddenly opened its gaping maw; huge fangs flashed coldly as it sprayed out a curtain of dark, viscous mucus into the air like rain.
High above, nineteen Sky-nin tried with all their might to dodge, but each of them still ended up smeared to some degree by that sticky slime.
"This is—"
One Sky-nin looked down at the back of his right hand, now coated in the dark goo.
With mounting terror he realized it was turning to stone, bit by bit, spreading up his forearm… his arm…
When he looked back at his teammates, despair hit him.
One after another, the other Sky-nin petrified mid-air, became stone sculptures, and plummeted to the ground, smashing into rubble.
This was one of Garaga's killing techniques.
A petrification jutsu!
As the Royal Fortress rose, Uchiha Yu—who stood atop Garaga's head—took in the widening view and could now see past the lake. That distant area was where his attention truly lay.
Because the fortress had risen, war-submersibles and oddly shaped submarine carriers began breaking the surface beyond the lake.
These naval war machines appearing in the shinobi world were like a navy that had crossed in from another realm—an utterly startling sight.
They sorted themselves and anchored in the deep outside the lake, seemingly awakened by the fortress's ascent.
Seeing that scene in the distance, Orochimaru, Tobirama, and Hashirama's perceptions were jolted once again.
What they were witnessing was a future in which the shinobi world had taken another path.
One after another, the submarine-carriers launched Sky-nins toward the Royal Fortress.
Bzzzz—
The hum of aircraft filled the sky.
This time the Sky-nins poured out like an entire hive. Uchiha Yu glanced over the dark, cloud-like mass of flying shinobi and estimated there were at least a thousand.
He guessed that, with the logistics crews and commanders aboard the carriers, the old Sky Village—wiped out by Konoha in the Second Great War—had likely rebuilt to around three thousand in the twenty years since.
Most of those Sky-nins were probably recruited or conned by Shinno or cobbled together from small village conscripts. After a village-annihilating battle, the Sky Village alone wouldn't be able to produce so many shinobi in only two decades otherwise.
"If they're allowed to grow unchecked, they are indeed a hidden danger!" Orochimaru sneered. "Konoha didn't finish the job back then."
Uchiha Yu replied, "Old habit."
If Konoha's shinobi had been truly merciless in that war, there wouldn't have been a Pain problem later on.
Bzzzz—
Over a thousand Sky-nins flew in from the high sky—an astonishing spectacle.
"Uchiha Yu, I finally understand why you prize that village so much," Orochimaru said with a grin. "The shinobi world has never valued the aerial domain. If you take the Sky Village's flight tech and refine it even slightly, it will overturn the entire war model of the shinobi world!"
Tobirama now agreed. If that flight apparatus were improved under his hand, he believed a new class of shinobi who dominated the high altitude would inevitably appear.
Too bad such a gift would most likely fall into the hands of this damn evil brat.
Uchiha Yu stared straight at the incoming Sky-nins, then glanced sideways at Shinya.
Shinno, who had activated the Royal Fortress—returned in a wooden, mechanical manner and stood respectfully to the side.
"Let's go. Enter the Royal Fortress and have a look inside," Uchiha Yu said, leaping down from Garaga's head.
Orochimaru followed close behind.
Garaga's golden, vertical pupil regarded the Sky-nins descending from the sky and asked without holding back:
"Master, shall I handle these fellows?"
Uchiha Yu shook his head. "I'll handle it myself."
Right now, the New Shinobi Village was in urgent need of manpower. If these thousand Sky-nins were handed over to Shinya to deal with, each one killed would be one less asset. Even if they were small fry, once controlled they could still be put to use.
"Yes—"
Garaga responded respectfully.
°°°
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