A huge number of ninja had gathered around the former Takigakure.
Whatever else they thought of him, an Uchiha who dared found his own country deserved at least a certain degree of respect.
Far from the main force, Mū of the Land of Earth observed the battlefield with his squad.
Between his ability to erase his presence and Dust Release, he was perfectly suited to launching a surprise attack that killed the target instantly.
The Sunagakure and Kumogakure teams didn’t bother watching from a distance.
They had already entered the force under the identities of bounty ninja.
When the former Takigakure leader saw how many people had assembled, his confidence immediately soared.
He ordered the main force to advance on the Nation of a Hundred Clans while the former Frost ninja approached from another direction.
Under ordinary circumstances, this lineup would have been enough to destroy the settlement when its only truly notable defenders were Uchiha Mu and Hyuga Ryono.
Unfortunately for them, Uchiha Mu was not an ordinary Uchiha.
With Ryono’s Byakugan constantly surveying the surrounding region, the defenders knew exactly how the enemy was moving.
The village had already gone on full alert.
The people who had chosen to settle here felt incredibly unlucky.
The orphans Mu had brought back were even more worried.
If Mu lost, they would either become wanderers again or be killed along with everyone else.
They didn’t have to wait long.
Ryono kept her Byakugan active and spoke quickly.
“Mu, the Waterfall ninja are here.
Several of them have large chakra reserves.
The Frost group has reached the other side too, but they’ll probably arrive about half an hour later.
What do we do?”
“Finish this quickly.”
Mu’s eyes changed, forming a pattern made from three interlocking triangles.
“And while we’re at it, let’s make the name Uchiha Mu famous throughout the entire ninja world.”
He vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.
The next instant, Mu appeared directly in front of the advancing ninja army.
Kakuzu took one look at him and threw a shuriken before preparing to charge.
High above the battlefield, Mū floated with young Ōnoki beside him, Dust Release already prepared.
He was waiting for the perfect opportunity to erase Mu in a single strike.
Chiyo of Sunagakure brought out her puppets.
Overall, the coalition remained fairly relaxed.
Most of their army might be rabble, but there were still plenty of experts mixed in.
Mu studied them.
“Hm.
No need for the Complete Body against this lot.
Something around the second stage should be enough.
Same idea as when Madara toys with Mū.”
He had no intention of revealing his Complete Body Susanoo here.
Was he crazy?
If he showed too much strength, the other great nations might stop playing with him entirely.
And then where was he supposed to get legitimate excuses for future invasions?
Mu formed hand seals.
“Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation.”
His Mangekyo ability amplified the jutsu by another full level.
A monstrous wall of fire exploded forward and swallowed the battlefield.
“The range is enormous!
Water Release users, get to the front!”
The Waterfall ninja stared in horror.
What kind of monster were they fighting?
This wasn’t the future era of the Allied Shinobi Forces, where large numbers of ninja could coordinate advanced techniques.
In this period, knowing a handful of ninjutsu already made someone respectable.
Worse, the Land of Water had only sent intelligence gatherers.
There simply weren’t enough Water Release users present to counter a fire technique of this scale.
The stronger ninja found their own ways to survive.
Kakuzu, for example, used Earth Release to sink the ground beneath himself, then raised a rounded earthen platform as a shield.
The moment he saw the scale of the technique, he reached one conclusion.
They were going to lose.
Their numerical advantage didn’t matter.
“Water Release: Water Formation Wall!”
Too little water.
The cannon fodder was wiped out by a single Fire Release technique.
Only the more capable ninja survived.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…”
Mū stared down from the sky at the scene below.
The sight filled him with despairing familiarity.
Uchiha Madara.
Looking more carefully, he finally noticed Mu’s eyes.
That wasn’t an ordinary tomoe Sharingan.
It was the Mangekyo.
“Mū-sama…
what do we do?” Ōnoki swallowed.
Under normal circumstances, Mū would have taken this opening to launch a surprise Dust Release attack.
Instead, he didn’t dare move.
Dust Release was certainly powerful.
But using it would immediately tell Uchiha Mu which village had attacked him.
Originally, they had planned to measure Mu’s strength, then erase him in one shot.
Now Mū no longer believed that was possible.
After the sea of fire passed, Chiyo surveyed the damage.
Her puppets had protected her, but three of them were already destroyed.
She immediately looked toward the other Sand ninja.
The only people she truly cared about were her comrades and her younger brother.
“I’m fine.”
The Magnet Release ninja had combined a mass of sand with Earth Release, allowing the Sunagakure team to survive safely.
“Sister, abandon the mission,” Ebizo said.
“There’s no way we can complete it.”
He wasn’t primarily a combat-type ninja in the first place.
He had come mainly to gather as much intelligence as possible.
“Agreed.
I’ll explain everything to the Kazekage.”
The squad leader stared at Mu in the distance.
“The Uchiha really are an enviable clan.”
One technique.
That was all it had taken to shatter their original plan.
So this was the power of the Uchiha?
For the first time, Chiyo began to understand what the true monsters of this world looked like.
And Mu wasn’t finished.
Before the coalition could recover, he rushed directly into their formation with Izuna’s sword in hand.
The Sharingan granted him absurd dynamic vision.
His taijutsu was elegant.
He moved through the battlefield as if dancing, and every motion harvested another life.
The coalition was a disorganized mob.
People were already trying to flee, and their formation collapsed almost instantly.
Mu checked the time.
He still had plenty before the second enemy force arrived.
But he had grown bored.
Now came the important part: displaying exactly enough power to send the great villages home with the wrong impression.
They needed to understand that he could defend himself.
But they didn’t need to become so terrified that they treated him as an existential threat.
The ideal result was simple.
Make the risk of attacking the Nation of a Hundred Clans far greater than any possible reward.
Mu unleashed the third power of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Susanoo.
A cyan skeletal frame appeared around him and rapidly grew.
Second stage.
Even at that level, the giant figure towered over the battlefield, a massive sword forming in its hand.
“Another Uchiha Madara!
Retreat!”
Mū didn’t hesitate for even a second.
He immediately led the Iwagakure squad in retreat.
This intelligence had to reach the village immediately.
Until Uchiha Mu was dead, they absolutely could not provoke the Nation of a Hundred Clans.
Fortunately, the two small countries he had merged weren’t particularly resource-rich anyway.
Sunagakure made the same decision.
Their squad leader had received explicit orders from the Kazekage.
Failing the mission was acceptable.
Losing the village’s future was not.
“What is that?
Is that really ninjutsu?”
The Magnet Release ninja stared at the enormous cyan Susanoo in disbelief.
If that counted as ninjutsu, then what had they been using their whole lives?
Children’s games?
Chiyo and Ebizo looked back.
The gigantic figure was swinging its sword.
Directly toward them.
“Damn it!”
The Magnet Release ninja poured out every grain of sand he could control.
The team leader used everything he had to reinforce the defense.
Chiyo immediately stepped in front of Ebizo and deployed every puppet she possessed.
The sword descended.
They survived.
Every one of Chiyo’s puppets shattered.
The Magnet Release ninja collapsed in ruin, and their squad leader wasn’t much better.
“Move!”
The leader threw the injured Magnet Release ninja over his back and fled.
Their combined full-strength defense had barely stopped one casual swing.
Once they personally experienced a gap like that, the will to resist disappeared.
They weren’t on the same level of existence.
Kumogakure escaped second fastest.
With its specialized Lightning Release, the Cloud was at least excellent at running.
Naturally, first place went to the Iwagakure squad that could simply fly away.
“How can someone have power that ridiculous?
Is he Uchiha Madara?” Kinkaku asked.
This was even more absurd than the tailed beast they had encountered before.
“Big Brother, could the Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths deal with him?”
“The gap is too large.
The tools wouldn’t matter.”
Kinkaku sounded frustrated.
He was certain that wasn’t Uchiha Madara.
Even the color of Susanoo was different.
Did this world really need to favor the Uchiha Clan this much?