The Third Hokage's reaction could hardly be blamed.
It had already been nearly twenty-five years since Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had died. In that time, the nature of shinobi combat had evolved, but only in small, incremental steps.
For twenty-five years, battles had been fought within familiar limits.
B-rank jutsu versus B-rank jutsu. A-rank versus A-rank.
Even the Third Hokage's most powerful technique, the Five Elements: Great Shinobi Barrage, was no exception. By using four shadow clones to release all five chakra natures, it could produce devastating force, but its effective range was still only a few dozen meters.
And that was the problem.
No matter how refined, this level of power was still far from something that could erase an entire village in an instant.
The ranking system of ninjutsu had always implied limits on scale.
But now, standing before a meteor-like barrage falling from the sky, the Third Hokage felt something he had not felt in a long time.
Helplessness.
Long-range techniques?
That was wishful thinking.
Most jutsu only reached a few dozen meters at best. By the time those meteors entered range, even destroying a few would not matter. The falling debris alone would be enough to wipe out Konoha.
"Then why not have Hayashi use the Flying Thunder God Technique to evacuate everyone?" Orochimaru said quietly from the side.
It was a practical suggestion. Hayashi had previously used that technique to teleport Konoha shinobi across the battlefield.
But it meant abandoning the village entirely.
Still, that was preferable to total annihilation.
The Third Hokage nodded, about to issue an order.
At that moment, chakra erupted nearby.
Hayashi slammed both hands onto the ground.
Black barrier markings exploded outward in all directions from his palms, spreading across the terrain like ink flooding through paper.
"Such massive chakra…" the Third Hokage muttered, standing closest to him.
He had always known Hayashi possessed an enormous chakra reserve, far beyond that of an ordinary Uchiha.
But this was on another level entirely.
Even Uzumaki Kushina might not have matched this purely in terms of raw chakra output.
It was overwhelming.
High above, Fugaku also sensed it clearly.
As a wielder of the Mangekyo Sharingan, his chakra had already been enhanced significantly. Yet even he found the scale of Hayashi's eruption difficult to accept.
At the same time, every sensory-type ninja in Konoha picked up the fluctuation.
The black barrier pattern continued to expand, spreading across kilometers in an instant.
Compared to the vast scale of the village, it was still not enough for a normal defensive barrier.
But it was enough for what was coming.
"Seal."
Hayashi's voice was calm as he brought his hands together.
A faint light emerged at the edges of the spreading markings.
That light rose upward, forming a translucent dome that expanded rapidly until it enveloped the entire village.
A massive bowl-shaped barrier now covered Konoha.
At that moment, the meteors arrived.
Dozens of giant boulders fell at once.
As expected, the village barrier left behind by Uzumaki Mito activated first, attempting to intercept them.
It held for only a brief moment.
The impact slowed the boulders slightly, enough to reduce their momentum for an instant, but not enough to stop them. Their mass and velocity were too great. They continued downward with unstoppable force.
Less than a hundred meters remained between the meteors and the village.
Each boulder was over ten meters tall and weighed tens of tons. If even one struck the ground, it would erase entire blocks of Konoha.
But before they could land, all of them struck the black barrier markings.
The moment of contact was like throwing massive stones into a still lake.
Ripples spread outward instantly.
And then, one by one, the boulders vanished.
"…"
Fugaku's expression tightened.
He had not expected this.
He had seen teleportation techniques before, even the Flying Thunder God Technique. He knew it could move people instantly across space.
But this was something else entirely.
It was teleporting an entire ninjutsu.
All of his preparation, everything he had spent a year setting up, was erased in a single moment.
A dull pressure built in his chest.
"Tch…"
He clicked his tongue in frustration.
His eyes narrowed sharply.
---
Far away, in the desert of Roran, something unexpected occurred.
Dozens of giant boulders suddenly appeared in the middle of the desert, scattered across the sands.
They landed with heavy impacts, shaking the ground but causing no major destruction due to the reduced fall distance.
Still, the disturbance was enough to alert the kingdom.
Queen Sara arrived with her attendants shortly afterward.
Even at night, she came directly to investigate.
"Report, Your Majesty," an elderly scholar said, adjusting his glasses as he examined the stones. "These appear to be relics of a prehistoric civilization."
"Prehistoric civilization?" Sara repeated, confused.
The scholar nodded seriously. "More precisely, something from the era of the Sage of Six Paths, far older than the Warring States period. Look at their size. Fifteen meters at the tallest, weighing fifty to sixty tons. No shinobi could create something like this."
"Oh…" Sara responded slowly, still trying to process it.
"Then why would they appear here?"
"That… is unclear."
Sara ignored the man and turned to her attendants. "Who found this first?"
An elderly couple stepped forward.
"We did."
Sara walked over and asked, "Aside from these stones, anything else unusual happens around here?"
The woman thought for a moment. "Yes. Things fall from the sky here often."
"What kind of things?"
The woman called over a camel and opened its pack.
Inside were kunai, ninja tools, and something round.
On its surface were engraved words: Uchiha Clan Compound Exclusive Manhole Cover.
"…"
"Uchiha…" Sara murmured, eyes lighting up slightly. "Could it be related to Konoha?"
She looked up and shouted into the sky.
"Hey! Come out!"
No response came.
After a moment of silence, she let out a small sigh and turned away, leaving with her attendants.
In later years, the strange stone formations outside Loulan would become a famous landmark, often compared to the Valley of the End in the Land of Fire.
People would even give it a name.
Stonehenge.
A popular novel would also circulate across the shinobi world titled Hey, Come Out.
And rumors would spread that Sunagakure shinobi had a strange habit of stealing Uchiha manhole covers.
---
Back in Konoha, Fugaku's expression darkened further.
But the attack was not over.
In the forest outside the village, another group watched the battlefield.
Black cloaks with red clouds marked them clearly.
Akatsuki.
"Impressive…" Biwa Jūzō said, gripping Kubikiribōchō with visible excitement. "These newcomers really are monsters."
Before he could continue, the meteors simply vanished into the barrier's space-time transfer.
An awkward silence followed.
The Akatsuki members had come because "Madara Uchiha" had informed them of a planned joint attack with Fugaku. Some were here to observe, others to clean up afterward.
But things were already not going as expected.
Biwa Jūzō scratched his head. "Uh… where are Sasori and Kakuzu?"
From the shadows, the masked leader spoke calmly.
"They left early. They should already be inside Konoha."
Biwa Jūzō stiffened slightly and fell silent.
Even without visible emotion, the leader's tone carried dissatisfaction.
Poor coordination would not be tolerated.
Jūzō adjusted his collar quietly.
It seemed safer to keep his distance from Sasori and Kakuzu in the future.