Watching Orochimaru fire off the Fire Release bullet, Senju Haruto suddenly remembered something from before he crossed into this world.
Back then, he had played a side-scrolling game called Dungeon Fighter Online.
In that game, there was a class called the "Launcher" or Ammunition Specialist.
According to the lore, they were humans from the Celestial Realm. Because their magic had been sealed away by a dragon named Bakal, they developed a special kind of technology—bullets infused with different effects to enhance their destructive power.
One of their signature moves looked almost identical to Orochimaru's Fire Release bullet.
"If I recall… it was called the Infernal Flame Round."
But that wasn't the point.
The real point was—Orochimaru had actually developed this technology in reality.
"Besides Fire Release, I've also created Wind Release and Lightning Release variants," Orochimaru explained.
From the very beginning, he had experimented with infusing bullets with all five elemental chakra attributes. But in practice, Water Release and Earth Release turned out to be underwhelming.
Both were defensive by nature, and so their offensive application was limited. A Water Release bullet, for instance, only splashed out a puddle of water—far less impressive than the devastating impact of Wind, Fire, or Lightning.
As he spoke, Orochimaru reloaded with Wind and Lightning bullets to demonstrate further.
Wind Release enhanced the sharpness of a bullet, making it act like an armor-piercing round—similar to the Ammunition Specialist's penetration shot from that old game.
"And this," Orochimaru said with a gleam in his eye, "is my personal favorite."
He took a deep breath, aimed at the clearing nearby, and pulled the trigger.
Rumble!
Instead of a bullet, what shot out of the black barrel looked like pure lightning. It struck the ground in an instant, and visible arcs of electricity spread outward, forming a crackling Lightning Release field.
The high-voltage discharge could instantly kill an ordinary person. Even powerful shinobi would be paralyzed by the lightning's effect, leaving openings they couldn't afford.
This Lightning field covered a radius of at least five to six meters.
"If I had mastered this technology back then, unifying the ninja world would never have needed Senju Haruto's involvement."
Without a doubt—
This was a weapon capable of elevating ninja combat to an entirely new level.
The ninja era had changed.
Orochimaru couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.
And what he had just demonstrated was only with the most basic handgun.
In his laboratory, he had already modified submachine guns, sniper rifles, and more.
Not only did these extend range and increase rate of fire, but the larger the weapon, the bigger the bullets it required—and the greater the destructive power became.
With a sniper rifle, for instance, Fire and Lightning Release bullets could cover an area twenty meters wide.
Twenty meters!
The sheer scale of it was staggering.
Even Konoha's highly trained ANBU squads would be powerless against such weapons.
After all, a standard Fireball Jutsu only had a diameter of three meters.
"The key lies in range," Orochimaru said with a sharp intake of breath. That was one of the reasons he was so fascinated by sniper rifles.
A sniper rifle's effective range could exceed two thousand meters.
Two thousand meters!
"Even the Byakugan of the Hyūga clan couldn't detect an attack from that distance. The enemy wouldn't even know they were being targeted before they were killed with a single shot."
The more Orochimaru spoke, the more exhilarated he became. He almost wished he could go back in time to the Second Shinobi World War with this kind of weapon and fight it out all over again.
Hanzō of the Salamander, the five great nations of Wind, Water, Earth, Lightning, and Fire—none of them would have stood a chance.
"True enough," Haruto nodded slightly, agreeing with his assessment.
After all, the Naruto world had always been one of high offense and low defense. Against sudden barrages of Fire, Lightning, and Wind Release bullets, ordinary ANBU operatives would never have the time to react.
In fact, Haruto thought to himself, even Thanos's Black Order would struggle against this fusion of chakra and firearms.
"How many weapons and bullets have you prepared?" Haruto asked, shifting the conversation.
His next goal was to completely take Wakanda.
For that, he would need enough manpower and enough firepower.
Strictly speaking, Orochimaru didn't need to mass-produce the weapons themselves—not right now.
On his last trip to the Ten Rings base, Haruto had acquired a massive arsenal, which he had already transported back to the Land of Fire.
Even conservatively estimated, there were tens of thousands of firearms.
Orochimaru's role was simply to modify them so they could handle chakra-infused ammunition.
"There are about ten thousand submachine guns, five thousand pistols, and two thousand sniper rifles ready for use," Orochimaru reported.
"As for bullets—it's more complicated. Infusing chakra into them is troublesome, and the quality of the bullet varies depending on the chakra source."
"For rounds with effects on the level I just demonstrated, we have about eighty thousand in stock."
Orochimaru knew very well why Haruto had brought back all those weapons.
It wasn't for display.
It was for war.
So in the past days, he had been pushing production at full speed.
"If you give me seven more days, I can increase the number of effective rounds to a hundred and fifty thousand," Orochimaru added.
If it was war they were preparing for, then thorough preparation was essential.
"Good," Haruto nodded, now with a clear sense of the scale of their arsenal.
"By the way—how many prisoners are currently in your research facilities? And what about the Sound shinobi you've been training?" Haruto asked after a moment's thought.
For this attack on Wakanda, he wasn't planning on using the Land of Fire's own shinobi.
They were his true living assets, and it was too soon to spend them recklessly. They needed more time to be cultivated.
Instead, he decided Orochimaru's prisoners would be more suitable. After all, they were already his experimental subjects.
"There are about two thousand in each base, and roughly fifteen hundred shinobi from the Sound Village—though most are only genin-level," Orochimaru answered without hesitation.
Altogether, across four bases, that meant about ninety-five hundred combatants.
"Less than ten thousand, huh…" Haruto thought for a moment. "Still, that should be enough to take Wakanda."
"You're planning to use them?" Orochimaru frowned slightly.
He hadn't expected Haruto to rely on the experimental subjects. He had thought Haruto would mobilize ANBU, or perhaps Root.
But instead, Haruto had chosen the prisoners.
"They can learn from scratch," Haruto said calmly. "Besides—there's also this."
He reached into his system's inventory and withdrew the Heart-Shaped Herb. After processing it into a potion, he handed it over to Orochimaru.
"Find a prisoner," he instructed.
The liquid looked suspiciously like poison. Even Orochimaru's eyes flickered with doubt.
Still, he motioned to Kabuto, his assistant, who promptly went to fetch a test subject.