In an instant, everyone felt the blazing sunlight from above suddenly grow weaker.
The light dimmed.
The temperature dropped.
A strange coolness appeared out of nowhere.
There was no wind.
The Sunagakure army was retreating.
The Leaf army was pursuing.
The Iwagakure army was moving in to intercept.
They finally met at the base of a massive dune.
For a moment, the Sunagakure ninja were stunned.
"It's Iwagakure!"
"They're cutting us off!"
"Those damn Stone bastards — how did they get here? Did Lady Chiyo's forces get crushed? That's impossible!"
"We're trapped between two armies! What do we do now?"
"Damn it! If we're going to die, we'll take as many of them with us as we can!"
"Fight them to the death!"
...
The Leaf shinobi's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Perfect! Iwagakure showed up and surrounded them! Sunagakure has nowhere left to run!"
"Wipe them out! This is our best chance to finish them for good!"
"Don't let a single one escape!"
...
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed.
"Was I wrong after all?"
"Is Sunagakure really this weak?"
"They really aren't a match for us? They're actually retreating for real?"
"No trap? No scheme?"
"Could it really be this simple?"
He called over another Hyuga scout.
But the answer was the same — nothing unusual detected.
The Iwagakure forces were thrilled.
"Kill the Sand rats and earn glory!"
"Let's team up with the Leaf and wipe these trash out!"
"Slaughter them all!"
One Iwagakure ninja laughed excitedly. "They're trapped between us and the Leaf! They've got no fight left in them. This is free merit — too easy!"
Another added, "We should thank Konoha. They paid the price to drive Sunagakure right into our arms."
"But we're taking at least half the credit for these kills."
"Half is too generous. Konoha already fought a big battle. Their forces are worn out. We're fresh and ready."
"Those Leaf bastards must be pissed right now."
"But they should be grateful."
"Without us, they never would've caught them."
"The ones who are really screwed are Sunagakure."
One Stone ninja snorted coldly.
"Ever since they beat the Hidden Mist, they've been acting like they're invincible. But they're not that strong — Mist was just that weak."
"Look at Mist now. They're not even a great village anymore."
"We're nothing like those Mist weaklings!"
Suddenly—
Click!
It sounded like some kind of mechanism activating.
The ground began to shake violently.
The entire massive dune trembled.
Then a beam of light shot out from inside the dune.
Two beams. Three. Dozens. Hundreds.
They poured down in a dense rain of light, covering the entire area and targeting every single Iwagakure ninja.
Shunk!
Shunk!
Shunk!
One after another.
"Aaaah!"
Screams rang out across the battlefield.
"What the hell is this?! Who's attacking us?!"
"Where's it coming from?!"
Iwagakure ninja dropped like flies. Every beam of light struck with perfect accuracy. Whoever it hit died instantly.
No one could block it.
Chunin. Jonin. It didn't matter.
In just moments, over a thousand Iwagakure shinobi had fallen.
"No!"
Finally, the Stone forces saw what was happening.
As the sand on the dune slid away, the hidden structure was revealed.
A building.
A massive, towering structure.
The bottom half was a perfect cube. The top half was a huge, perfectly round sphere.
The sphere hovered in midair.
"What the hell is that?!"
"Is that thing attacking us?!"
"It can fire that many beams… and they're that powerful?!"
"What kind of ninja tool is this?!"
One Iwagakure jonin's face turned deadly serious.
"That's the Sun Disk!"
"This is the Sun Disk Sunagakure has been secretly building! No wonder they poured so many resources into it. This power… it's insane."
"No one can block it."
"And it's too fast. You can't even dodge."
The light continued to rain down.
More and more Iwagakure ninja fell.
One Stone jonin stared at the bodies with blood-red eyes.
"This is too much!"
"Damn Sunagakure!"
"This was a trap! A trap aimed specifically at us! They deliberately placed the Sun Disk here and waited for our army to walk into it!"
"The killing power is insane!"
"In just a few minutes they've already wiped out over a thousand of our people!"
"Those bastards!"
Kitsuchi's face went pale with panic.
On one hand, the situation had spiraled far beyond anything he had imagined.
On the other hand, he had made this decision without consulting Ōnoki. The opportunity had seemed too good to pass up, and asking his father would have taken too much time.
But he never expected this.
He thought he was about to earn massive glory and finally earn everyone's respect.
Instead, he had walked straight into a catastrophic failure.
He had just gotten over a thousand Iwagakure shinobi killed.
How was he supposed to explain this?
How was he supposed to face his father?
His father was already disappointed enough in him.
The Iwagakure forces had gone from the peak of confidence straight into the abyss.
Meanwhile, the Sunagakure shinobi were cheering wildly.
"That thing isn't attacking us! It's only targeting Iwagakure!"
"This is Sunagakure's secret weapon?!"
"It's amazing! It's incredible!"
"With something like this, how could we possibly lose?!"
"We're going to win this war!"
"Victory!"
"Victory!"
Their voices merged into a thunderous roar.
On the other side, a Hyuga scout finally spotted the massive structure.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
"What… what is that thing?!"
Orochimaru frowned.
"What's going on?"
The Hyuga snapped out of his shock.
"Lord Orochimaru — this is bad!"
"Sunagakure revealed some kind of giant structure! It's firing beams of light that can somehow tell friend from foe. They're hitting only the Iwagakure forces!"
"And the power is terrifying!"
"Chunin, jonin — it kills them all in one hit!"
Orochimaru's pupils shrank sharply.
"What?!"