Orochimaru glared at the monitors, watching the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki, detonate clone after clone against the mecha.
His snake-like eyes narrowed in pure, unadulterated fury. His precious experiments had been delayed because of this dead fool.
"My lord, let me kill him," Orochimaru hissed.
Mufasa chuckled lightly. "Oh? You just want to kill him? I thought you were going to suggest building a giant steam engine and locking him inside to generate unlimited power."
Orochimaru's pale face lit up with twisted joy. "Is that possible?!" he gasped, genuinely thrilled by the idea.
Mufasa shook his head, feigning absolute seriousness. "Of course not. We are the good guys, Orochimaru. We can't do such inhumane things."
Orochimaru blinked, utterly bewildered by the sudden morality.
"How can you be so pedantic?" he complained. "We should absolutely lock them up for free power! Unlimited energy, my lord! Think of the possibilities!"
The other researchers in the command center murmured in eager agreement.
Gengetsu generating infinite steam explosions? The reanimated Raikage running on a giant hamster wheel for electricity? It was the ultimate perpetual motion machine.
But Mufasa immediately shot the idea down.
'Energy is conserved,' he thought dryly. 'Smiles don't disappear; they just transfer from one person's face to another's.'
He refused to believe the Reanimation Jutsu could casually break the laws of thermodynamics. The stronger the medicine, the worse the side effects.
Messing with Edo Tensei zombies as a power source was like building a nuclear reactor with duct tape. One mistake, and the blast radius would wipe Sunagakure off the map.
There were still too many unknown variables tied to the jutsu.
He wasn't about to stuff a bunch of immortal, explosive zombies into Metroplex's engine room. If they somehow broke containment, the mecha would be blown apart from the inside out.
He already held the winning hand. There was no need to get flashy.
'Just play it safe and steady,' Mufasa reminded himself.
He sighed, realizing he needed to educate these bloodthirsty shinobi yet again.
"The world isn't just about fighting and killing," Mufasa lectured, pacing the command room. "War is just a bloody extension of politics."
He leaned against the main console. "Unless we plan on exterminating every living soul on the continent, we have to share this world with them. If you push people into a corner, the hatred never dies."
"You'll spend every day looking over your shoulder, waiting for a kunai to the back. Even if you're the strongest, that's no way to live."
'Even the superpowers back home couldn't stop desperate people from crashing planes into buildings,' Mufasa thought grimly. True strength lay in control, not just mindless slaughter.
"That's why peace remains our ultimate goal," Mufasa said aloud. "Once this battle is over, the allied forces will finally understand Sunagakure's true power."
"After that, they'll sit at the negotiating table and agree to our terms."
The researchers exchanged blank looks. They didn't fully grasp his modern political theory, but it sounded authoritative enough to nod along.
"For now, relax," Mufasa ordered, gesturing to the glowing monitors. "Let's sit back and enjoy the show."
Outside, the massive cloud of superheated steam finally cleared.
Gengetsu Hozuki hovered in the air, his jaw dropping in sheer disbelief. Metroplex's wrist joint was completely unscathed.
In fact, the intense steam bath had pressure-washed the desert grit away, leaving the metal plating shiny and gleaming.
The Second Mizukage's pencil mustache twitched with violent rage.
'Did I, the legendary Mizukage, just give this thing a free car wash?!' Gengetsu thought, humiliated.
Furious, he gathered his chakra, preparing to detonate another relentless wave of clones.
Suddenly, four deafening thunderclaps ruptured the air behind him.
"Gengetsu! Get the hell out of the way!"
The Mizukage glanced back to see all four generations of the Raikage hurtling toward him.
They were coated in blinding Lightning Release Chakra Armor. Their fingers were thrust forward, channeling the legendary Hell Stab technique.
They condensed high-voltage electricity into a single, piercing point, aiming straight for Metroplex's armored joint. The four Kage tore through the sky like human railgun slugs.
Gengetsu cursed and immediately dispersed into water, barely dodging the lethal charge.
If those meatheads had hit him, he would have been instantly vaporized.
With a blinding flash, the four Raikages slammed their Hell Stabs directly into the mecha's wrist joint.
Inside the Right Arm Sector, Sunagakure's tactical operators sprang into action.
"Impact assessment complete! The combined Lightning Release and kinetic force will inflict six percent structural damage to the joint!"
"Deploying countermeasures!" the captain ordered. "Channeling Wind Release to the localized plating to neutralize the Lightning Release! Damage will be reduced to one percent!"
"Activating Wind Release sealing scrolls on the interior hull!"
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Heavy reinforced glass panels slid into place along the inner walls, completely plastered with Wind Release scrolls.
It was a localized, anti-ninjutsu defense grid, functioning exactly like explosive reactive armor on a modern battle tank.
Outside, the four Raikages' fingers dug into the metal joint. Blinding blue lightning exploded in every direction, violently arcing across the hull.
The Kage pushed desperately, their muscles bulging as a hairline crack finally appeared on the armor.
But the moment the metal fractured, the reactive seals detonated.
WHOOSH!
A localized, hyper-compressed hurricane erupted directly from the mecha's surface.
The violent Wind Release instantly snuffed out the lightning chakra. The shockwave blew the four Raikages out of the sky, sending them tumbling helplessly backward.
Thanks to the memory-alloy, the tiny crack sealed itself in a matter of seconds.
"Dammit!" the Raikages roared in unison as they plummeted toward the desert floor.
Down below, amid Hashirama's sprawling forest of ancient trees, the Sannin prepared their own desperate assaults.
Tsunade slammed her hands into the earth. "Summoning Jutsu!"
With a massive puff of smoke, Katsuyu, the giant slug of Shikkotsu Forest, materialized.
"Lady Tsunade," Katsuyu asked softly, her antennae twitching. "What is the situation?"
Tsunade glared up at the apocalyptic titan blocking out the sun.
"There's a bastard up there playing god, and I'm going to smash his new toy to pieces," she growled.
"I'm definitely going to break a few bones doing this, so I need you on standby for medical support."
She rolled up her sleeves, chakra violently flaring around her fists, preparing to launch herself at the steel behemoth.
Katsuyu tilted her eyestalks upward, utterly dumbfounded by the sheer scale of Metroplex.
"Lady Tsunade... are you certain?" Katsuyu asked hesitantly. "That thing seems exceptionally large."
"Don't look down on me!" Tsunade barked. "I'll smash it into scrap metal!"
With a powerful leap, Tsunade blurred up the side of a massive tree trunk, hurtling straight toward the titan's descending fist.
Nearby, Jiraiya bit his thumbs and slammed them down, summoning the two Great Toad Sages, Fukasaku and Shima.
He needed Sage Mode, and he needed it now.
As the smoke cleared, the two ancient toads looked up and completely froze.
'What in the world is that mechanical monstrosity?!' Shima croaked in absolute terror. "Pa... shouldn't we inform the Great Toad Sage about this?"
Fukasaku swallowed hard, equally horrified by the scale of the mecha. "Yes, Ma. I think I'll head back and do just that."
Jiraiya face-faulted, shouting frantically at the retreating toads. "Hey! Are you seriously bailing on me right now?!"
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Word count: 1415
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