Chapter 238: One Against Thousands
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the massive defensive wall of Sunagakure. Thousands of Sand Ninja stared down at the lone figure standing calmly amidst the swirling dust raised by his arrival. Uchiha Akira. The Fifth Hokage.
The sheer audacity of his presence, his calm demand for their utter subjugation, hung heavy in the dry desert air.
Then, the silence broke. Not with a command, but with a raw, desperate cry.
"BASTARD!!"
A young Sunagakure Chūnin, his face barely old enough to shave, could no longer suppress the burning humiliation, the terror, the rage boiling in his heart. He let out a hysterical, cracking roar.
"Don't you dare underestimate us!"
His voice, trembling but defiant, seemed to ignite a spark in the tense crowd.
"We are Sunagakure Ninja! Shinobi of the Sand! Even if we die here today, we will never wag our tails and beg for scraps from Konoha's running dogs!"
"KILL HIM!" another voice screamed.
"Let our last drop of blood be shed for the honor of the Hidden Sand Village!"
"OH OH OH OH OH—!!"
Emotions, suppressed to the absolute breaking point by fear and shock, erupted like a long-dormant volcano!
A wave of defiant sound washed over the ramparts.
Countless Sunagakure ninja's eyes turned bloodshot, their knuckles white where they gripped their kunai. They looked like madmen, cornered animals ready to fight to the death.
They roared wildly, desperately, using their collective shouts to try and dispel the icy, paralyzing fear that had risen deep within their hearts because of this single, terrifying man – Uchiha Akira!
Amidst the roaring chaos, a different sound emerged. Laughter.
"Haha…"
It started low, choked.
"Hahahahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, standing at the forefront of the wall, suddenly threw his head back and let out a frantic, almost unhinged laugh that cut through the defiant cries of his men.
He lowered his head, his eyes, usually cold and calculating, now burning with a desperate, wild fire. He looked directly at Akira.
"Uchiha Akira…" he spat the name.
"Did you hear that? Did you hear the voices of my shinobi?"
"This is the Hidden Sand Village's answer to your arrogant demand!"
Rasa spread his arms wide, embracing the roaring wind, the defiant shouts, the very essence of his village.
"Surrender? Become the 'Sand Clan' of Konoha? Bend the knee?"
He laughed again, bitterly. "What ridiculous, insulting charity!"
"I'm telling you, Uchiha! Our Hidden Sand Village, from its very establishment generations ago, has struggled in this barren, unforgiving land! We have fought and clawed for survival against sandstorms! Against famine! Against drought! And against all enemies who dare to look down on us, who think us weak because of our hardships!"
"We may be poor compared to your rich Land of Fire! We may be militarily weaker, lacking your vast resources!" Rasa's voice rose, filled with an absolute, unbending, desperate resolve.
"But the spines of Sunagakure's ninja… they have never bent! Not once!"
He pointed a trembling, gold-dust-coated finger at Akira. "You want to wipe us out? Erase our name from history?"
"Then COME AND TRY!"
"Let's see if you die first under our desert sun, or if the blood of every last Hidden Sand Village warrior runs dry defending our homes!"
Uchiha Akira looked up at the thousands of ninja lining the barrier wall. He saw their faces, contorted with rage, fear, and a desperate, suicidal defiance. They looked like madmen, ready to throw their lives away.
He chuckled softly, a cold, dry sound that carried easily over their roars.
"It seems," he mused, almost conversationally, "you all wish to dance after all."
His eyes, the swirling purple Rinnegan, narrowed slightly. "Very well."
The amusement vanished from his voice, replaced by an icy, absolute finality. "Perhaps only by breaking your spines, inch by inch, will you finally learn how to kneel properly."
The moment his chilling voice fell…
On the barrier wall of the Hidden Sand Village, thousands of ninja simultaneously, instinctively, began forming hand signs! A whirlwind of flashing fingers and shouted jutsu names!
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" (Fūton: Daitoppa!)
"Wind Release: Wind Blade Barrage!" (Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu - Ranbu!)
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!" (Fūton: Shinkū Taikyoku!)
BUZZ—! WHOOSH! SCREECH!
The very air let out an ear-piercing shriek as thousands of individual Wind Release ninjutsu began to converge!
Compressed air blasts, sharp wind blades, concussive vacuum spheres... they merged, twisted, and amplified each other, forming a single, visible, colossal white storm of pure cutting wind and concussive force!
This was Sunagakure's home-field advantage! Masters of Wind Release, fighting in their element!
A man-made natural disaster, created by the combined, desperate efforts of nearly a thousand enraged ninja!
In the face of this overwhelming, collective power, any single individual, no matter how strong, seemed incredibly, hopelessly small!
However.
Uchiha Akira, standing directly in the path of the oncoming maelstrom, remained utterly expressionless. Unmoved.
He simply raised one hand slowly.
"Fire Release…" he began, his voice calm, almost meditative.
He took a deep, slow breath. His chest swelled visibly, drawing in a massive amount of air. Chakra gathered, condensed, superheated within him.
Then, he unleashed it.
"Great Fire Annihilation!" (Katon: Gōka Messhitsu!)
[Inorin's Note: Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation (Katon: Gōka Messhitsu) is a devastatingly powerful S-rank Fire Release ninjutsu, famously used by Madara Uchiha. It creates a massive, wide-ranging sea of flames.]
BOOM—!!!
It wasn't just a fireball. It was a tsunami of fire.
A terrifying, rolling sea of incandescent flames, easily over a hundred meters in diameter, erupted from Akira's mouth! It painted the sky orange and red, instantly evaporating the desert moisture, sucking the air towards it.
The two colossal forces – the white wind storm and the crimson sea of fire – quickly collided in mid-air between Akira and the village wall.
A huge, deafening roar ripped through the desert! Steam exploded outwards as the superheated air met the cooler wind currents!
For a few, tense seconds, the two forces seemed locked in a stalemate, a raging vortex of wind and fire dominating the sky!
But only for a few seconds.
The terrifying sea of fire, fueled by Akira's immense chakra and amplified by his unique dōjutsu, easily, inexorably began to overwhelm the combined ninjutsu released by the Sunagakure ninja!
The wind blades were incinerated. The vacuum spheres collapsed under the heat. The Great Breakthrough became fuel for the inferno.
Akira's fire consumed their wind.
Then, the sea of fire continued its terrifying momentum, crashing fiercely, unstoppably, against the Hidden Sand Village's thick defensive barrier!
HISSSSSSS—! CRACKLE!
The sturdy barrier, constructed of magically reinforced rock and compacted sand, didn't stand a chance. It instantly melted in the face of the terrifying, overwhelming sea of fire! Rock turned to lava, sand turned to glass!
Hundreds of Sunagakure ninja, those standing brave (or foolishly) in the front row of the barrier wall, directly in the path of the flames… they didn't even have time to scream.
They were instantly incinerated. Turned to ash and smoke before they could even register the heat.
After the flames finally, slowly, subsided…
Silence returned. A shocked, horrified silence.
The desert landscape directly in front of Uchiha Akira had completely disappeared.
In its place was a smooth, black, mirror-like expanse of obsidian glass, easily over five hundred meters in diameter! It shimmered unnaturally in the harsh sunlight.
[Inorin's Note: This is a realistic effect of sand being instantly melted by extreme heat (like a lightning strike or massive fire jutsu) and then rapidly cooling, forming fulgurite or volcanic glass.]
It was a strange, terrifying sight – a permanent scar carved into the desert floor by a single jutsu.
And the Hidden Sand Village's vaunted defensive barrier… now had a massive, gaping hole blown directly through it. A breach over a hundred meters wide.
The area around the gap was scorched black, stone still glowing faintly red, sand fused into grotesque shapes.
The army of supposedly eight thousand defenders... under this single, overwhelming attack... instantly had nearly a thousand members simply evaporated from existence.
"..."
Everyone was stunned. Frozen.
Both the remaining Sunagakure ninja on the wall, staring in disbelief at the impossible destruction...
And the two thousand Konoha ninja watching from their hidden position miles away.
One strike.
Just one strike.
It completely shattered the combined offensive created by the desperate, unified efforts of a thousand enemy ninja!
And then, it turned around and killed nearly a thousand of those same Sunagakure ninja in the very next instant!
What... what kind of power was this?
Was this... was this power that humans could possibly possess?
"M-Monster…"
A Sunagakure Jōnin, one who had miraculously survived the inferno near the edge of the blast, felt his legs go soft. He collapsed directly to the ground, his body shaking uncontrollably. A foul, dark stain spread rapidly across the crotch of his trousers.
He had been scared so badly he had wet himself. And he wasn't the only one.
"R-Run… Run! Run quickly!" someone screamed, their voice cracking with pure terror.
"We can't win! We can't possibly win against that! He's not human!"
The defiant will to fight to the death, so fiercely proclaimed just moments ago, was utterly crushed into dust in the face of such absolute, overwhelming, inhuman power.
Panic, like a virulent plague, spread wildly, instantly through the remaining Sunagakure army formation!
The ninja still standing on the wall no longer held the fearless, suicidal determination they had just moments before.
On their faces, there was only the most primitive, instinctual fear. The fear of annihilation.
A surviving commanding Jōnin was the first to react, his training kicking in despite the terror. He used all his strength to shout hoarsely, his voice barely audible over the rising tide of panic:
"DISPERSE!!"
"EVERYONE DISPERSE! SCATTER! IN SQUADS, CREATE DISTANCE!! FALL BACK INTO THE VILLAGE!!"
"DON'T GATHER TOGETHER! HE CAN WIPE US OUT!"
The moment the desperate order was given, the already crumbling army formation completely fell into utter chaos.
Ninja abandoned their positions, abandoned their formations, abandoned their heavy armor and weapons. They turned and frantically fled, scrambling over each other, deeper into the village, scattering in all directions like frightened insects!
High above on the Kazekage tower, watching the carnage unfold, Rasa stared blankly at the huge, smoking gap in his defenses, at the panicked flight of his shinobi. His body trembled violently, uncontrollably.
His Magnet Release Gold Dust... it would probably be instantly melted, rendered utterly useless, in the face of that level of fire...
Just as the Sunagakure army's morale completely collapsed, as chaos reigned...
Uchiha Akira moved.
Whoosh!
Not with lightning speed. Just a simple, almost casual, flicker step.
Uchiha Akira transformed into a barely visible afterimage, actively, calmly rushing towards the massive, burning gap he had personally blasted open in their defenses!
"He… he's coming!" a lookout screamed.
"HE'S ENTERING THE VILLAGE!"
"STOP HIM!! AT ALL COSTS!!" Several commanding Jōnin shouted hoarsely, desperately trying to rally their terrified troops.
However... no one dared to step forward.
Most of the remaining Sunagakure ninja had been completely, utterly terrified, broken by that single, world-destroying strike!
Their hands, holding kunai, trembled so badly they could barely maintain their grip. Their feet felt like lead, rooted to the spot by fear. They couldn't move.
Uchiha Akira's figure passed easily, unhindered, through the gap. He entered the sovereign territory of the Hidden Sand Village.
One person. Entering the formation of thousands.
He stopped just inside the broken wall, looking at the terrified, scattering ninja before him.
"Since you won't make a move," Akira stated calmly, his voice easily carrying over the panicked shouts.
"Then it's my turn."
The moment his voice fell.
SIZZLE—! CRACKLE!
Blinding, intense blue electrical light suddenly erupted from Uchiha Akira's body! It was far brighter, far more violent than before!
Lightning Release Chakra Mode! Full Power!
Blue electrical arcs, thick as ropes, wildly leaped and danced across Akira's body surface, scorching the sand around his feet!
Uchiha Akira's figure instantly disappeared from its original spot. He didn't just move fast. He vanished.
Pfft!
A Sunagakure Jōnin, standing frozen in fear at the very front of the disorganized crowd, suddenly had a spray of bright red blood erupt violently from his chest.
He widened his eyes in shock. Slowly, mechanically, he lowered his head. He looked down at the clean, cauterized hole that had appeared, piercing straight through his chest plate and his heart.
Until the moment his consciousness faded, until his death... he didn't even see how the enemy had attacked. He felt nothing.
"He's over here!"
"FIRE! FIRE EVERYTHING!"
Dozens of nearby ninja finally reacted, spotting the blue blur. A desperate deluge of kunai and shuriken, like black raindrops, instantly covered that position! Explosive tags were hurled!
Clang, clang, clang, CLANG!
A dense, high-pitched sound of metal violently colliding rang out.
Uchiha Akira simply stood there, reappearing amidst the storm of projectiles. He allowed the shuriken and kunai to harmlessly hit his body.
His body, now completely covered in the impenetrable Lightning Release armor, was nigh indestructible to conventional weapons!
All the desperate attacks… they couldn't even scratch his defense. They simply bounced off.
The next second, Akira once again transformed into a pure blue bolt of lightning and charged into the terrified crowd!
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Slice! Thud!
The raw power and blinding speed enhanced by the full-power Lightning Release Chakra Mode reached an absolutely incredible, terrifying level.
In the eyes of the panicked Sunagakure ninja, they could only see a single, unpredictable blue lightning bolt constantly weaving, flashing, appearing and disappearing through their crumbling ranks.
Each blinding flash was accompanied by a crimson bloodline shooting up into the sky and another lifeless Suna body collapsing silently to the ground.
They couldn't see Akira's movements. They couldn't track him.
They didn't even have time to scream before their lives were extinguished.
Then, the blue blur paused for a fraction of a second in the center of a dense cluster of retreating ninja.
Akira extended a single, open hand.
"Banshō Ten'in!" (Almighty Pull!)
[Inorin's Note: Banshō Ten'in is a Deva Path Rinnegan ability that allows the user to manipulate gravitational forces to pull matter towards them.]
An invisible, irresistible, terrifying gravitational force suddenly erupted from his palm!
Dozens of the surrounding Sunagakure ninja screamed as their bodies were violently, uncontrollably sucked towards Akira's position! They flew through the air like rag dolls caught in a powerful vacuum!
What awaited them... was a brutal, efficient, one-sided slaughter. Lightning-fast strikes. Precise, fatal blows.
Blood rained down, staining the yellow sand crimson.
Dismembered limbs and shattered corpses splattered everywhere. It was a massacre.
Just as Akira prepared to pull in another group...
Clack! Clack clack clack!
A new sound entered the battlefield. The sharp, distinctive clacking of wooden joints.
"Puppet Technique: Machine Light Shield Seal!" (Kugutsu no Jutsu: Kiko Junbu!)
Elder Chiyo, her face a grim mask of fury, finally recovered from her initial shock! She had appeared on a nearby rooftop, her fingers dancing, manipulating dozens of nigh-invisible chakra threads!
[Inorin's Note: Chikamatsu Monzaemon was the first and most legendary puppet user, said to have created techniques allowing one to control ten puppets at once (one per finger). Chiyo inherited and mastered these techniques.]
Ten intricate, menacing puppets, gleaming with a dull metallic luster under coats of poison, descended rapidly from the sky! They landed heavily between Akira and the retreating Suna ninja, instantly forming an impenetrable, interlocking shield wall!
"The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu!" Chiyo roared, her voice filled with ancient power.
Akira stopped, looking at the formidable wall of masterwork puppets, then up at the legendary elder controlling them. A faint smirk touched his lips.
"Old woman," he drawled, his voice dismissive. "Your toys... they should have been retired decades ago."
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