The mechanical Godzilla rose from the ground like a monument to destruction, and the Iwa shinobi watching its emergence fell into stunned silence.
An old veteran—someone who'd fought in the Third Shinobi World War—stared at the metal colossus, his pupils constricting. "It's more powerful than the one before. The oppressive force alone is—"
He didn't finish. Words felt inadequate.
Three giant beasts had been terrifying enough. But this? This made even the tailed beasts look docile.
Jiraiya's jaw tightened as he surveyed the field. Whatever technique Seiran had unleashed, it came with a price. Every power of this magnitude did. And he couldn't let the kid face three behemoths alone.
"Not so easy!" Koseki's sneer cut through the tension as Earth Style: Rock Fist erupted toward him. Surrounding jonin closed in, coordinated and relentless.
Jiraiya gritted his teeth. If he broke through now, they'd swarm him before he made ten steps.
Then—a buzz like angry wasps filled the air.
Densely packed black parasitic insects surged forward, cutting off the Iwa shinobi's advance. Jiraiya's gaze snapped to the robed figure that materialized through the swarm.
"Go support Seiran," Shibi Aburame said calmly, manipulating his insects with practiced grace. "I can hold them here."
Jiraiya didn't hesitate. He nodded once and bolted toward the heart of the battlefield.
---
Chaos erupted across torn earth.
Three behemoths surrounded the mechanical Godzilla like predators circling prey. Kokuo attacked first, steam venting from its hindquarters as it galloped forward, horns lowered. Another sliding tackle—the thing was relentless.
Seiran smirked. Godzilla's metal tail whipped around with brutal force, catching Kokuo mid-charge and hurling it sideways like a discarded toy.
The crack of breaking horn pierced the air.
One of Kokuo's remaining four horns shattered.
"AAAHHH!" The tailed beast roared, rage and pain bleeding through.
At the same moment, Son Goku moved with sudden purpose. Direct combat with a mechanical giant was suicide. Instead, it slammed its palms into the ground.
"Lava Release: Flower-Fruit Mountain!"
The earth convulsed. Massive volcanoes erupted beneath Godzilla's feet, lava surging upward in a blazing tide. Seiran's eyes narrowed—metal couldn't withstand that heat. Godzilla retreated, dancing between the molten flows with unexpected grace.
"I'm here!" Jiraiya's shout cut through the chaos.
He bit his finger, slammed it against the ground. White mist exploded outward.
"Hey! You called?" Gamabunta emerged from the haze, pipe clenched in his mouth, exuding the confidence of one of Mount Myoboku's mightiest summons. Then he took in the scene—four behemoths, two tailed beasts, and a metal Godzilla the size of a small mountain.
His eyes went wide.
"Gamabunta, move!" Jiraiya barked.
The giant toad didn't waste energy asking questions. He locked onto Son Goku and unleashed a torrent of water bullets. They crashed against the volcanic chakra, creating towering clouds of steam that obscured half the battlefield.
"Abominable!" Son Goku's snarl cut through the mist. Its lava technique was meant to trap Godzilla, not waste energy on water. It opened its maw and spat fireballs the size of boulders.
Gamabunta leaped across the scarred ground, water and fire colliding in violent explosions.
Meanwhile, Seiran's attention snapped backward as Godzilla's waist absorbed a punishing blow. An Iwa shinobi giant—enlarged and reinforced with Earth Style—drove a fist into the mechanical beast's flank.
Seiran turned and studied the attacker with contempt. "Using Added-Weight Rock Technique for extra impact? Where's your honor, Ōnoki?"
Godzilla pivoted and delivered a return punch that shattered the rock giant's head into fragments. Ōnoki used Light-Weight Rock to slip free by inches, the massive metal fist passing close enough to graze stone.
His body reformed quickly, but his breathing came harder now. And his eyes burned with something worse than fear—jealousy.
Only one person had ever made him feel this small. Only one.
Madara Uchiha.
Battles he'd fought tooth and nail, gambling his life for marginal victory, had been toyed with. Played with. Seiran wasn't there yet—but given time, this kid would make the entire shinobi world kneel.
Sharp pain exploded in Ōnoki's chest, cutting his thoughts short. His hand flew to his sternum, fingers pressing against flesh that felt like it was tearing from the inside.
"What did you—?!" he gasped.
"Looks like it didn't work," Seiran said, shaking his head slightly. "Shame. Otherwise I could handle you all at once. That would be tedious."
He'd tried to manipulate the iron ions in Ōnoki's blood with electromagnetic pulses—to destroy him from within. But something had blocked the connection. The Tsuchikage's chakra was too dense, too potent.
Ordinary shinobi wouldn't have that problem, though.
Seiran's gaze swept toward the massed Iwa troops below.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Dozens of heads burst in synchronization, a grotesque bloom of scarlet that painted the ground. Plasma and matter rained down on the battlefield. The horror of it froze everyone.
"No!" Ōnoki's scream tore through the silence, eyes bulging with bloodshot rage. Hundreds of his best shinobi—the backbone of Iwagakure—erased with a single technique.
"I will kill you!" he roared, his voice raw. "I WILL KILL YOU!"
The rock giant took massive strides and drove a heavy punch toward Godzilla.
At the same moment, Kokuo rose to its feet. While Seiran was engaged, it opened its maw. Black and purple chakra condensed, agitated, building into that signature sphere.
A Tailed Beast Ball.
Inside Son Goku, Roshi's awareness spiked in horror. At this distance, the blast would catch even Ōnoki in the fallout.
The sphere erupted toward Seiran's position.
Godzilla's tail flicked out almost casually, deflecting the Tailed Beast Ball skyward. It traced a parabola through the air and crashed into the Iwa support troops far behind the front lines.
The explosion bloomed like a second sun.
Roshi's eyes nearly cracked. That stray blast would devastate hundreds more of the rear forces.
Son Goku vented its rage on Gamabunta with renewed fury. The giant toad dropped to one knee, his long blade barely holding the line, muscles screaming.
"Jiraiya—I can't hold much longer!" Gamabunta panted.
"Understood, fall back!"
White mist swallowed the toad as the summoning broke.
Jiraiya's expression hardened as he surveyed the remaining battlefield. "Seiran, I can only do this much. Everything else rests on you."
"Pull back!" Koseki's command echoed across the Iwa lines. "Fall back!"
Whether it was the massacre moments ago or the Tailed Beast Ball that followed, the casualties were mounting into catastrophe.
Jiraiya gave his own order, and both armies retreated in sequence. The shinobi watched in awed silence as the ground itself convulsed with each collision between titans—a power that transcended human strength, beyond the realm of mortal combat.
Four figures. Four beings. Their battle would decide the war.
Rin Uchiha's fists clenched so tightly her nails drew blood from her palms.
"Don't worry." Shibi Aburame's calm voice cut through her anxiety. "Seiran chose this fight to protect us. Interfering would only hold him back."
Rin exhaled slowly, forcing her hands to relax. She understood the logic. And yet her heart remained clenched in a vice, watching the distant flashes of catastrophic power, trusting in someone she could barely see.
---