"Alright!"
"All departments, take your positions!"
"Lighting, sound, and special effects teams, final confirmation!"
"Countdown!"
"Three, two, one!"
The director waved his hand abruptly.
"Action!"
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Countless fireworks shot into the sky, exploding in the pitch-black night.
Crimson, golden, and emerald lights intertwined, illuminating Kozuki City in a kaleidoscope of colors.
Meanwhile, hiding backstage, Suigetsu Hozuki curled his lips in reluctance and formed hand seals with an unwilling expression.
"Water Release: Hiding in Mist Technique—Stage Modification!"
A dreamlike white mist spread from the base of the stage, shrouding the floor like a sea of clouds and creating an ethereal atmosphere.
Immediately after, Haku pressed his palms together, and countless tiny ice crystals condensed in the air.
Under the refraction of the spotlights, the ice crystals seemed to turn into countless tiny prisms, forming a magnificent artificial aurora above the stage.
"Wow!!!"
Amidst the deafening cheers of tens of thousands, the lifting platform slowly rose.
Princess Koyuki Kazahana stood in the center of the light, wearing a gorgeous sequined gown like a goddess stepping out of the aurora.
Looking at the glow sticks waving like an ocean beneath the stage, she suppressed her nervousness and revealed the perfect smile she had practiced for so long.
"The cold wind will eventually pass, and spring is right before us—"
Her beautiful, ethereal singing voice spread through the amplification equipment across the night sky of the entire Northern Territory, soothing the hearts of the people in this bitterly frozen land.
At that exact same moment.
On the cold snowfield, amidst the same loud noises, deadly fireworks were blooming as well.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
These were not the explosions of ascending fireworks, but rather dull launching sounds resembling heavy hammer strikes.
Yugito Nii, who had been marching rapidly, suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Her keen intuition made the hairs on her body stand on end.
"Above us!"
Without any warning, dense clusters of crystal balls filled with a pale blue liquid suddenly fell from the pitch-black sky.
"Enemy attack!"
"Scatter!!"
Yugito's warning had barely left her lips when hundreds of crystal balls simultaneously hit the ground and shattered.
Crack.
A massive amount of extreme cold air erupted from the crystal balls.
Countless sharp, dense ice spikes began to spread rapidly in all directions, resembling a wildly growing forest of thorns.
Yugito reacted extremely quickly.
Almost the exact moment the crystal balls shattered, she rushed out of the range of the spreading ice spikes.
But the Kumogakure ninjas behind her were not so lucky.
Although they were all elites, quite a few were still a beat too slow under this kind of sudden, large-scale saturation attack.
"Ahhh!!!"
The shrill screams rang out before abruptly ceasing.
Over a dozen Kumogakure chunin were swallowed by the spreading ice crystals.
Some were frozen directly into lifelike ice sculptures, their faces still retaining expressions of terror.
Others were pierced through the body by the rapidly rising ice spikes, their blood freezing before it could even flow out.
The most miserable were those who were heavily injured but not dead.
They twitched in pain from the extreme cold, blood loss, and hypothermia, eventually dying a slow death.
"Damned bastards!"
Yugito landed on a towering ice rock, looking at the chaotic team below with eyes that practically spat fire.
This sudden first wave of sneak attacks had instantly wiped out nearly one-tenth of her squad!
Although most of them had used the Body Flicker Technique to dodge, this was undoubtedly a hard slap to her face.
"Rats hiding in the shadows!"
"Get out here!"
Yugito spat out a huge, deep blue fireball that smashed fiercely toward a raised snow mound in the distance with terrifying heat.
"Fire Mouse Ball!"
Boom!
The flames exploded, and the high temperature instantly vaporized the snow into a sky full of white mist.
However, the white water vapor soon dissipated.
The Kumogakure ninjas, who had originally drawn their weapons and prepared to charge, all halted their steps in unison.
A row of tall figures stood quietly in the snowstorm.
These were twenty-four steel giants covered entirely in off-white heavy armor.
In this era of ninjas where only leather armor and chainmail existed, the style of this group of monsters seemed completely out of place.
They were generally over two and a half meters tall, their heavy shoulder and chest armor covered in a metallic sheen.
The tactical visors on their faces emitted a chilling red light.
They were not holding any kunai or shuriken in their hands.
In their left hands were huge, six-barreled ice crystal projectors that were still emitting white smoke.
In their right hands were large, 1.5-meter-long blades emitting a cold glint.
"Are these... puppets?"
A Kumogakure jonin looked at the row of metal creations in front of him with disbelief, his throat feeling dry.
He found it hard to believe that anyone could wear such a huge lump of metal to fight.
Just how strong of a physique would one need to carry that?
One or two might be fine, but there were more than twenty of them!
How was this possible?
That suffocating pressure made cold sweat seep from the palms of his hands as he gripped his ninja blade.
"They're not puppets."
Yugito stared intently at those steel monsters, feeling a strong sense of crisis.
"There are people inside them."
Just then.
Standing at the very front, the burliest steel giant, whose paint and style were slightly different, slowly took a step forward.
Hiss—
As a burst of steam was expelled from the air vents, the helmet's visor automatically opened.
It revealed a head of orange hair and a face with a calm expression.
However, his eyes were filled with bloodlust and madness.
It was Jugo.
At this moment, he had fully activated his Cursed Seal.
But he did not turn into an ugly monster like usual, nor did he fall into a mindless killing rampage.
Through the collaboration of Naruto, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and others, they had used various technological and pharmacological means to arduously help him open the third-level Gene Lock.
At this moment, Jugo was at a critical point where calmness and fury perfectly coexisted.
The biological stratum corneum covering his skin had perfectly merged with the outer armor, as if this armor was a part of his very body.
In this state, Jugo possessed both the terrifying power of Sage Mode and the chakra enhancement of the specialized power armor.
Yet he still retained a clear human consciousness while simultaneously being in a fanatical, belligerent state of excitement.
This was the perfect killing machine—a true living weapon.
"Kumogakure—"
Jugo looked at the panicked ninjas before him.
His originally gentle eyes held only indifference, while the corners of his mouth curled into an irrepressible, ferocious grin.
He raised his arm, pointing the large blade, which was mixed with a large amount of chakra metal, forward.
As a large amount of chakra was injected, the large blade instantly lit up with a blinding white light.
"Lord Naruto has given an order."
"Kill!"
As Jugo's order fell, the twenty-three heavily armored warriors behind him began to sprint simultaneously.
This group of heavily armored warriors abandoned all flashy hand seals and gave up on long-range ninjutsu exchanges.
They relied purely on the terrifying amplification of their physical strength and their chakra engines.
Like runaway trucks, they charged at a terrifying speed that completely defied their massive size.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
The earth trembled, and the accumulated snow flew up into the air.
"Lightning Release squad!"
"Defend!!"
"Quick!"
"Stop them!!"
Yugito's shrill command rang out, and for the first time, her tone carried a hint of terror.
Immediately after, nearly a hundred Kumogakure ninjas began to form hand seals rapidly.
Countless dazzling lightning flashes lit up the snowfield, attempting to block the pace of this group of monsters.
However, they did not know.
The traditional rules of war had been rewritten at this very moment.