Mechagodzilla's foot armor hissed open, revealing the intricate mechanics beneath.
CLICK. BOOM.
Blue plasma flames erupted from the soles of its feet, scorching the desert floor into glass.
Simultaneously, the shoulder panels behind its forelimbs unlocked, extending two stabilizers. The auxiliary thrusters ignited with a deafening roar.
Slowly, defying all laws of physics, the behemoth began to rise. The internal anti-gravity engine whirred to life, neutralizing the titan's immense mass. The climb accelerated, and in moments, Mechagodzilla had broken free from the quicksand, ascending high above the desert trap.
"!!"
The resurrected Kage stared, stunned into silence.
'You can play it like this?'
Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, let his jaw drop. "This... it's so heavy, yet it can fly?"
Judging by its displacement and the tremors it caused while walking, the machine weighed at least 10,000 tons. The sight of such a massive object hovering effortlessly in the sky challenged the common sense of these legends from the Warring States Era.
Reto, the First Kazekage, turned to Shamon. "Is this really a puppet?"
Shamon, the bald monk who had just regenerated from being blown to bits, looked dazed. "You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?!"
Onoki snapped out of his shock first. "Kazekages, this is bad! The enemy is attacking!"
High in the air, Mechagodzilla maneuvered, aiming its shoulder-mounted pods at the cluster of Kage.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Hundreds of micro-missiles screamed downward, trailing white smoke like a swarm of angry hornets.
At the same time, the machine's maw unhinged. Energy gathered in its throat, spiraling into a blinding vortex.
Spiral Heat Ray!
The beam fired, piercing through the cloud of its own missiles to strike at the Seven Shadows with overwhelming speed.
"Scatter!"
Onoki, the only living Kage among them, was the most nervous. He couldn't regenerate. He immediately applied the Light-Weight Rock Technique to himself and shot into the sky.
The other Kage, bound by their pride, refused to flee so easily.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A hurricane-force wind erupted, sweeping the missile swarm off course. The explosions scattered like fireworks, harmlessly detonating in the air.
But the Spiral Heat Ray was not so easily deterred. It tore through the wind.
"Earth Release: Mountain Jutsu!"
BOOM! BOOM!
Three towering mountains rose instantly from the ground, forming a titanic shield.
But the heat ray was relentless. It punched through the first mountain. Then the second. Then the third.
It struck the unlucky Rasa, who was standing behind the last peak, and swept across the landscape.
BOOM!
The sweep triggered massive landslides, collapsing the summoned mountains. Rasa looked down to see a gaping, cauterized hole in his chest.
The other Kage stared, sweat forming on their brows. 'This attack power... it's ridiculous.'
Mechagodzilla roared triumphantly from the sky.
That roar offended the Kage deeply. They were legends. They would not be mocked by a toy.
"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!" "Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spear!" "Wind Release: Typhoon!" "Sand Release: Sandstorm Scythe!"
They unleashed a barrage of S-Rank ninjutsu, attacking Mechagodzilla with reckless abandon.
But the most ruthless attack came from the First Tsuchikage, Ishikawa.
"Earth Release: Dropping Lid!"
Two rock giants, each the size of a mountain peak, descended from the sky. Their four massive arms locked onto Mechagodzilla, dragging it out of the air with crushing weight.
Below, the ground had been transformed. A combination of Shamon's desert and Mū's Earth Flow River created a reinforced inescapable trap.
CRASH!
Mechagodzilla slammed into the ground, pinned by the rock giants. It struggled, biting and tearing with its jaws, but the leverage was against it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Kage poured their attacks onto the downed beast. Sparks flew as armor plating was ripped away. The external thrusters were torn off by the rock giants' brute force.
Helpless and damaged, the machine sank.
The swirling sand pit sucked it down like a predator swallowing prey. The mud and sand rose higher—covering the legs, the torso, the head.
Finally, Mechagodzilla was completely buried. The desert surface smoothed over, leaving no trace of the monster.
"Hahaha!"
The Seven Shadows burst into hearty laughter.
Shamon, the bald monk, laughed the loudest. "Haha! Mufasa! What is the use of making such a big puppet?"
"It's useless for anything other than indiscriminate bombing!" Shamon jeered, feeling vindicated. "Such a large frame is just a target. Your puppetry has gone astray, boy! Puppets should be agile! They should be tethered by strings and manipulated by human genius!"
The other Kage joined in the mockery.
Mufasa stood on a distant dune, unbothered.
"Oh dear," Mufasa said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Indeed. We made some mistakes in the design. We didn't have enough practical combat data, which resulted in the combat AI being a bit... stupid."
He looked at the legends with piercing eyes.
"But I see that you are all invincible. No matter how hard I hit you, you just get back up. That makes you the perfect sparring partners to help my puppet evolve."
"Sparring partners?!"
Rasa blinked. "He seems to look down on us a bit."
Onoki's mustache twitched violently. "That's not true. If we are just sparring partners... doesn't that mean he thinks we aren't qualified to fight him personally?"
"Baka! Bastard!" Onoki cursed, floating in the air. "This brat is incredibly arrogant!"
Reto, the First Kazekage, stepped forward. "I'll teach him a lesson."
Mufasa raised a hand. "Wait."
Reto sneered. "What? Are you scared now?"
"No," Mufasa pointed at the ground. "Your opponent hasn't been eliminated yet. How can you switch targets?"
"What do you mean?"
The group froze.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake.
Rumble...
A deep, ominous red glow began to emanate from the sand where Godzilla had been buried. The entire valley trembled.
Sizzle. Sizzle.
Countless beams of red light pierced through the earth, shooting into the sky like lasers. The intense heat vaporized the clouds above.
One slanted beam sliced through Rasa, cutting off the lower half of his recovering body.
BOOM!
The earth exploded. The sand turned to glass instantly.
Mechagodzilla—now in Crimson Lotus Mode—burst forth from the ground.
It roared as it soared into the sky, but it had changed. Its dorsal fins, shoulders, abdomen, and thighs were glowing with the intensity of molten lava. The black armor was now veined with pulsating red energy. It looked like a demon crawling out of hell.
The Seven Kage were stunned.
'How does a machine level up after dying?!'
Their all-out attack had been formidable. It had nearly torn the machine to pieces. But the Chakra Absorption Engine was a masterpiece. It had converted every joule of their ninjutsu into pure thermal energy, pushing the reactor into overdrive.
Godzilla was overflowing with power. The red heat radiating from its skin distorted the air for miles.
Before the Kage could react, Crimson Godzilla unleashed its fury.
It opened its mouth.
BOOM.
A thick, spiraling stream of red plasma erupted. The beam was so intense it looked solid, wreathed in spiraling flames.
It swept across the battlefield like a scythe.
This time, mountains weren't enough. The summoned peaks didn't just crumble; they evaporated.
Ishikawa summoned two more rock giants. But Crimson Godzilla was faster and stronger now. With a single casual swipe of its claws, it tore one giant in half. The massive tail whipped around, shattering the second one into dust.
Seeing the burning spiral beam hurtling toward them, Onoki screamed.
"Everyone! Scatter! Avoid the brunt of it!"
High tactical genius translation: Run away.
The other Kage were seasoned veterans. They knew a death sentence when they saw one. They scattered like birds, flying high and fast in all directions.
Except for Rasa.
Poor Rasa was still lying on the ground, regenerating his legs.
"Damn it!" Rasa screamed, watching his allies flee. "Take me with you!"
It was humiliating enough to be shattered by light once. Now he was going to be incinerated while his son watched.
The burning spiral beam swept over him.
FWOOSH.
Flames rolled over Rasa's mutilated form. The extreme heat vitrified the clay of his Edo Tensei body, making regeneration agonizingly slow. Only half of his head remained, burning in the slag.
Rasa felt like dying again.
The beam continued, chasing the other Kage. It was like a giant brush painting the sky with death. Wherever it touched, destruction followed.
Mufasa watched with a satisfied chuckle. "Now that is firepower."
Onoki dodged a beam by a hair's breadth. "Damn it! This can't go on forever!"
His old heart couldn't take this cardio.
"Everyone, distract it!" Onoki yelled. "I'm going to use Dust Release: Particle Style to blast it into atoms!"
"Idiot!" Mū, the Second Tsuchikage, scolded him immediately. "All you know is how to shoot beams! Can't you use your brain? Particle Style takes too long to charge!"
Onoki didn't dare talk back to his teacher.
"Then what do we do?" Ishikawa shouted.
"Let me handle this," Mū commanded. "You guys bombard it and draw its attention."
The other Kage immediately began flinging high-level ninjutsu at Crimson Godzilla. The attacks bounced off the superheated armor harmlessly, but they served their purpose: distraction.
Godzilla roared, flying forward to crush the annoying insects.
Mū took action.
Dustless Bewildering Cover.
Water vapor condensed around him, bending light and suppressing chakra. He vanished completely. In this state, he was known as the "Non-Person"—invisible to the eye and undetectable by sensory ninjutsu.
He maneuvered silently through the air, flanking the beast.
His plan was simple but deadly: Earth Release: Super-Added-Weight Rock Technique.
Godzilla was already heavy. If Mū could touch it and multiply that weight, gravity would do the rest. It would crush the machine into the earth's core.
Mū approached Mechagodzilla's blind spot within the mist.
Inside the cockpit, Mufasa's HUD lit up.
'Anomaly detected. Thermal variance negligible. Chakra signature suppressed. Switching to multi-spectrum analysis. Radar contact confirmed.'
Mū was invisible to ninjas. He was not invisible to a machine equipped with lidar, sonar, and motion sensors.
Without warning, Godzilla's shoulder pods swiveled backward—aiming at empty air.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Missiles fired at "nothing."
Mū's eyes widened as explosions blossomed around him. 'How?!'
Then, the dorsal fins on Godzilla's back began to glow with blinding intensity.
Sizzle.
Countless purple laser beams erupted from the dorsal spines, arcing wildly into the space behind it, slicing through the air like a phalanx of light.
Mū was forced to reveal himself, dodging frantically. He used the Fission Technique, splitting his body to avoid a direct hit.
Boom! Boom!
Several of his clones were vaporized, but the real Mū grit his teeth and dived through the curtain of fire. He reached out and grabbed Godzilla's massive leg.
Crimson Godzilla ignored the contact.
Mū breathed a sigh of relief. "Got you."
He dumped his entire chakra reserve into the technique.
"Earth Release: Super-Added-Weight Rock Technique!"
In mid-flight, Mechagodzilla suddenly dipped, its thrusters screaming as millions of tons of artificial gravity slammed onto its frame. Its speed plummeted.
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Word count: 1826
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