With a thunderous BOOM, Mechagodzilla—the Modified Version—made its dazzling debut.
A gigantic monster materialized before the gathered Kage. It stood over 100 meters tall, its imposing figure towering over the valley like a mountain of black steel.
It possessed thick thighs, short but powerful forelegs, and a massive tail that dragged heavily across the ground. A dorsal fin resembling jagged coral ran from the back of its head to the tip of its tail. Covered in dark, uneven scales that gleamed with menace, it looked particularly ferocious.
It opened its mouth wide, revealing rows of gleaming, razor-sharp teeth.
ROAR—!
The bellow created a physical shockwave. A gale-force wind slammed into Ishikawa, Reto, and the others, forcing them to brace themselves against the pressure.
Fortunately, Mechagodzilla ran on clean energy—chakra and electricity. Had it been biological, the sheer intensity of its breath attack alone might have suffocated them.
Ishikawa, the First Tsuchikage, stared up in disbelief. "Is this a Tailed Beast? Why have I never seen it before?"
The other resurrected Kage were equally puzzled. What was this thing? Its terrifying aura and sheer size rivaled even the strongest Bijuu.
Onoki, floating nearby, grimaced. "This is a mechanical puppet made by the Sand Village."
Shamon, the Second Kazekage, exclaimed in astonishment. "This... is a puppet?!"
As the originator of modern puppetry, Shamon stared at the behemoth with professional scrutiny. He looked it over from head to toe, dissecting its structure with his eyes. It didn't look like a puppet at all. Its body was covered in what looked like organic scales and flesh; it moved like a living creature.
Mufasa hovered above Godzilla's head, looking down at the bewildered group of legends. He laughed heartily.
Things were different now.
Back in the day, when his "company" had just opened, he had to scrounge for ryo. Even if he managed to assemble a Mechagodzilla back then, it would have been a hollow shell made of cheap sheet metal.
But now? Sunagakure was rolling in money.
They had crammed every piece of high-tech wizardry they could find into this beast. Money was no object. The best steel, the rarest alloys, the most advanced chakra engines—all of it went into this modified beast.
The core was mechanical, but the exterior was coated in bio-organic flesh capable of absorbing chakra and natural energy. Any ninjutsu that hit it would be absorbed and fed directly into the engine.
For an average person, absorption was limited by their chakra coils. Like a balloon, if you blew too much air in, it would pop. But Godzilla was different. Its potential was massive. Its most notable trait was its thick skin and absurd durability.
"Gentlemen," Mufasa called out, his voice amplified. "Do you want to surrender? My Godzilla is quite ferocious."
On the other side, the Seven Kage—ranging from the elderly Onoki to the resurrected legends—were stumped. They knew nothing of mecha-technology. They were like prisoners released after decades, staring at a smartphone in confusion.
But that didn't stop them from drawing analogies based on their past experiences.
Mechanical Godzilla? Hmph. It was just a man-made Tailed Beast.
'We fought Tailed Beasts back in the day,' they thought collectively. 'We're not afraid of you!'
Reto, the First Kazekage, scoffed. "Hmph, Mufasa. Who are you trying to scare? I suppressed the One-Tail Shukaku back then. I can suppress this monster today."
"I'll do it," Shamon volunteered, stepping forward. "I am the originator of puppetry. I have experience dismantling puppets."
Shamon rushed out first. The other Kage held back, letting the "expert" take the lead. After all, they were Kage; they had dignity. Ganging up on one opponent immediately would look bad.
Shamon clapped his hands together.
Puppet Technique: Secret White Secret - Hundred Puppet Performance!
Hundreds of puppets erupted from the scrolls on his back. He extended chakra threads from a single hand, connecting to the entire army.
Manipulating hundreds of puppets with one hand—this feat would have been impossible for him in life. But now, in an Edo Tensei body with unlimited chakra, Shamon felt invincible.
"Haha, Mufasa! Do you see this?" Shamon shouted, drunk on power. "This is the pinnacle of puppetry!"
Mufasa looked unimpressed. He shook his head. "I have a subordinate who can control a hundred puppets. It's nothing special."
Shamon's bald head bulged with veins. "Asshole! How dare you look down on me!"
He summoned another hundred puppets. Over two hundred wooden warriors filled the sky, blocking out the sun.
"Is this even possible for you?!" Shamon roared.
Mufasa looked at the swarm. Two hundred puppets was indeed a lot. They were packed together like sardines.
"No," Mufasa admitted. "It's impossible."
Shamon laughed triumphantly. "Hahaha! Of course! I am the progenitor of the art! How could your puppetry surpass mine?"
Mufasa sighed, looking helpless. "No, I mean... it's impossible to be that stupid. Your formation is so dense, it's basically a target range."
Shamon raged. "You bastard! You're asking for it!"
He stepped onto a cloud of sand, controlling the swarm to charge forward.
Mufasa spoke a single command. "Mechagodzilla. Start it up."
Mechagodzilla's small eyes glowed a menacing crimson. Its internal AI whirred to life, scanning the battlefield.
ROAR.
Its massive jaws unhinged. A blinding light gathered in its throat.
Atomic Breath!
A beam of superheated radiation swept across the sky.
Sizzle. Sizzle. Pop.
The puppets exploded one by one, popping like balloons under the intense heat.
Shamon's eyes widened. He hadn't expected such devastating firepower.
"Sand Style: Sand Wall!"
He quickly erected a wall of sand to block the beam. But Mechagodzilla's breath was far hotter than normal fire; it melted the sand into glass instantly and punched through.
The beam hit Shamon.
His Edo Tensei body melted into a puddle of debris in mid-air.
Suddenly, Mufasa sensed movement behind him.
The bald Shamon reformed behind him, grinning menacingly.
"I am a ninja who crawled through mountains of corpses!" Shamon hissed. "My experience in war far exceeds yours, boy. As long as the puppeteer is killed, the puppets fall. I know this rule better than anyone!"
The two hundred puppets were just a distraction. This was the real killing blow.
Shamon raised his hand, sand condensing into a lethal spear aimed right at Mufasa's heart.
Mufasa shrugged, not turning around. "Your method is effective, sure. But..."
"You might want to look down."
Shamon glanced down.
The shoulder panels of Mechagodzilla had opened up, revealing rows of round-headed missiles.
Shamon paused, confused. "Hey... where are your puppet strings?"
Mufasa smiled bitterly.
"Puppet strings? That's ancient history. What are you? A boomer? Oh, right... you are!"
"Chakra strings are ancient history?!"
The veins on Shamon's bald forehead bulged dangerously.
"Backward? You ungrateful wretch!" Shamon roared, his pride as the Second Kazekage wounded. "Do you have any idea how advanced the technology of chakra threads is? The ability to project stable, linear chakra over long distances is a masterpiece of control! To manipulate a puppet's complex joints with mere strings is the pinnacle of artistry! And you dare call me backward?!"
Back in his era, he was renowned across the Five Nations for revolutionizing puppetry. The accusation stung more than a physical blow.
"Go to hell!"
Shamon's face turned a brilliant shade of crimson as he thrust a spear of condensed sand straight at Mufasa's chest.
Whoosh.
Mufasa merely glanced at him.
In an instant, the world blurred. Space twisted.
Shamon found himself staring at empty air. His position had been instantaneously swapped with Mufasa's.
Now, Mufasa stood behind the bald monk.
"Too slow," Mufasa deadpanned.
Before Shamon could comprehend the disorientation, Mufasa drove a heavy kick into the center of his back.
"Get down."
The force of the kick sent the Second Kazekage hurtling downward—straight into the firing arc of Mechagodzilla's rear blind spot.
The mechanical titan's shoulder panels hissed open, revealing honeycomb-like missile pods.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Over a hundred micro-missiles screamed out of the tubes, locking onto the falling monk.
Shamon, still reeling from the sudden teleportation, couldn't mount a defense in time.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sky lit up with a chain of violent explosions. Shamon was swallowed by a sphere of fire and shrapnel, turning the air into a chaotic display of fireworks.
The other resurrected Kage watched the brutal display with varying degrees of shock.
"If this were the old days," Reto, the First Kazekage, muttered, "I would have followed up with Wind and Fire Release to amplify the blast."
Ishikawa, the First Tsuchikage, crossed his arms. "If this were the old days, he would already be dead."
Mū, the Second Tsuchikage, narrowed his eyes, his bandaged face turning toward the sky. "Are we ignoring the technique Mufasa just used? That displacement..."
The Third Kazekage, his iron-sand-infused hair flowing like a lion's mane, nodded gravely. "Judging by the chakra signature, that was Space-Time Ninjutsu."
Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, and Onoki stood stunned.
"Space-Time Ninjutsu?" Rasa whispered. "When did he learn that? He never showed aptitude for it before."
High above, the smoke cleared. Half of Shamon's head had been blown away, and his torso was a ruin of paper and ash.
"That... was... bizarre," the monk's remaining jaw mumbled.
Reto sighed and waved a hand, using a gentle Wind Release vortex to gather Shamon's scattered debris. "Didn't you say you were the originator of puppetry? That you had experience?"
"Shut up," Shamon grumbled as white dust swirled around his wounds, knitting his body back together. "Who knew that ungrateful brat would build a puppet without strings? It was... a cheap ambush."
Being an Edo Tensei had its perks; in a few moments, he would be fully regenerated.
High above, Mufasa smirked from his perch on Mechagodzilla's head. "It's impolite not to return a gift. Since Shamon attacked, it's my turn."
BOOM!
Mechagodzilla took a step forward.
The valley groaned under the weight. The 100-meter-tall behemoth was like a black mountain that had suddenly sprouted legs. Its thick thighs and massive tail crushed boulders into dust, and the coral-like dorsal fins glowed with ominous energy. It was a terrifying fusion of biology and steel.
But the Kage were not ordinary men. They were legends who had tamed the Tailed Beasts.
"A big, useless target," Ishikawa scoffed. "Easy to clean up."
Reto gestured politely. "After you, Lord Tsuchikage."
"Then I won't be polite."
Ishikawa clapped his hands together, channeling the infinite chakra of his reanimated body.
"Earth Release: Rock Dragon!"
The ground split open. A colossal dragon made of bedrock, hundreds of meters long and thick as a fortress wall, erupted from the earth. It let out a silent roar and surged toward Mechagodzilla.
In the narrow valley, there was no room to dodge.
But Mechagodzilla didn't try to dodge.
Inside the cockpit, Mufasa watched the data scroll across his HUD.
'Incoming Earth Release construct. Estimated structural damage: 20%. Chakra absorption yield: 40% growth. Profit.'
"Take the hit," Mufasa ordered.
Godzilla stood its ground. The massive stone dragon slammed into its midsection with earth-shattering force.
CRASH!
The titan slid back several steps, carving deep trenches into the valley floor. Its abdominal plating tore open, revealing the horrific fusion of bleeding flesh and gleaming steel machinery beneath.
"See?" Shamon pointed, fully regenerated. "I told you! It's a puppet! There's metal inside!"
But the Second Tsuchikage, Mū, sensed something wrong. "Wait... look at the wound."
The gaping tear in Mechagodzilla's stomach wasn't bleeding out. It was eating.
The stone dragon was being sucked into the wound like noodles into a vacuum. The mechanical beast stood still, absorbing the dense earth chakra without a flicker of pain.
"Its skin..." Onoki murmured. "It's turning red."
A crimson glow began to pulse at the base of Godzilla's dorsal fins. This was Crimson Mode—a system designed to convert absorbed damage into pure thermal energy.
The stone dragon vanished completely, digested by the machine.
"Oh no," Reto realized, his eyes sharp. "Look at the flesh. It's recovering."
Visibly, the torn flesh on Mechagodzilla's stomach began to writhe. Tendrils of bio-organic matter lashed out, stitching the wound shut in seconds.
"Holy crap," someone muttered. "What kind of monster is this?"
Onoki exploded with rage. "Mufasa! You shameless bastard! You built a self-regenerating monster?!"
Mufasa laughed, his voice amplified by the mech. "Says the zombie! You guys are literally immortal right now. If anyone is shameless, it's the group of unkillable old men ganging up on me!"
Ishikawa gritted his teeth. "My all-out attack... absorbed? Fine. Then I'll hit it again."
"Stop," Reto interjected, stepping forward. "Direct energy attacks are useless. It feeds on chakra. We need to use something it cannot absorb."
The First Kazekage performed a rapid string of hand seals.
"Sand Release: Desert Funeral!"
If the beast absorbed energy, he would simply bury it alive.
The solid bedrock beneath Mechagodzilla instantly disintegrated into fine, shifting sands. The 10,000-ton machine lurched as the ground vanished, sinking rapidly into the churning yellow ocean.
The sand began to spin, forming a massive vortex designed to drag the behemoth down into the crushing depths of the earth.
Mufasa glanced at the sensors.
"Gravity manipulation? Cute."
"Mechagodzilla," Mufasa commanded. "Engage anti-gravity thrusters. Boosters on."
The beast's eyes flashed crimson.
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Word count: 2196
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