Half a month later, Gisei Shiraishi finally completed all the preparatory work.
In total, he created more than thirty rocks, divided into five distinct sizes.
Fifteen were twenty meters in diameter, five were fifty meters, and three were a hundred meters. He even went overboard and crafted a super-massive rock with a diameter of over five hundred meters—literally twice the size of the one Madara Uchiha summoned during the war.
It took a hell of a lot of effort, leveling half a mountain just to make the damn thing.
The rest were all smaller rocks, roughly ten meters in diameter. Since this was high-altitude throwing, he needed some "pebbles" to test the waters and practice his aim before bringing out the heavy artillery.
After carving summoning formulas onto all of them, Gisei decided to test the summoning process.
The ten-meter ones were effortless. The twenty-meter ones weren't difficult either. But the fifty-meter rocks? Those were strenuous.
The hundred-meter ones drained his own chakra reserves completely in a single go.
Gisei scratched his head, staring up at the massive five-hundred-meter monstrosity, lost in deep thought.
How much damn chakra would it take to actually summon this thing?
There was no other way; he'd have to unseal ten acupuncture points just to test it.
"..."
There was no reaction whatsoever.
Gisei decided to stop playing around. He entered fusion mode with Shiro, opened all his acupuncture point seals, and tried again.
There was a reaction this time, but in just a moment, Gisei was so terrified by the drain that he hurriedly canceled the technique.
The consumption was astronomical. Just attempting to summon it consumed the equivalent of five acupuncture seals. If he actually went through with it, at least twenty seals' worth of chakra would be wasted instantly.
After sinking all the rocks into the ground for storage, Gisei smacked his lips. "In the future, I should just make more fifty-meter ones. They're a bit small, but flying higher should compensate for the impact."
As for the five-hundred-meter behemoth? He didn't plan on making another one unless he had full seals and felt like burning chakra for fun.
Since the preparations were done, it was finally time for fireworks.
He wondered if this fireworks show would bring the results he envisioned.
I'm really looking forward to this!
...
At nine in the evening, Shibuki, the leader of Takigakure, walked out of his office after finishing a long day's work.
He glanced first at the village, which had already fallen into darkness, and then looked up at the sky.
Stars twinkled above, and moonlight gently dusted every corner of the village. He took a deep breath, then suddenly exhaled a mouthful of stale air. It felt as if the fatigue in his body was expelled along with it. He felt much lighter.
Leaning against the wall, he suddenly remembered the night view he had once seen in Konoha.
It was a completely different world from here.
Brightly lit, voices bubbling over with life; Konoha wouldn't quiet down until the latter half of the night. Takigakure, on the other hand, was both closed off and backward.
After the villagers finished their work, they might find a small tavern for a drink, but there was no other entertainment. It was only nine o'clock, yet looking out, there were only a few scattered lights in the entire village. Most of the villagers were likely already in dreamland.
With that thought, Shibuki straightened up, looked at the sky one last time, and prepared to head home.
Suddenly, something flickered in the night sky, flying rapidly toward Takigakure.
Shibuki frowned as he watched the point of light descending from the darkness.
The light vanished abruptly at a height of about two hundred meters above the village.
"A shooting star?"
Shibuki muttered to himself, shook his head, and resumed his journey home.
Five thousand meters above Takigakure, Gisei scratched his head. "Failed again."
He had already burned through most of the ten-meter rocks. At first, he could claim he was practicing, but now that he had the direction dialed in, he realized the ten-meter rocks were burning up from air friction before they could even hit the ground.
Fortunately, thanks to that last probe, he had found the correct coordinates.
Next up: the twenty-meter rock.
"Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!" (Ninpo: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!)
The rock, summoned at high altitude, began to plummet rapidly. Gisei curled his lips. Initially, he wanted to add wind and fire nature transformations to the rock, but after thinking about it, he gave up.
Adding nature transformation would definitely increase the power of the impact, but it would also tip off the Takigakure ninja that this "natural disaster" was actually man-made.
Not necessary. He was just throwing rocks, not doing anything evil.
At most, it could be considered high-altitude littering. Hmm, keep throwing, keep feeling good.
Although he knew quite a few people would lose their lives under these rocks, wasn't that just the way of the world? Even in the glamorous Konoha, ninjas were required to abandon personal feelings—let alone ninjas from other villages.
A ninja's job is killing.
The only difference between him and others was that they killed for their country, while he killed for himself.
Besides, Takigakure ninjas weren't pushovers. Gisei estimated that even if he threw a hundred-meter rock, they would find a way to resolve it.
Shibuki, who was walking home, stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky again.
A bright point of light was getting closer and closer to the village. When it reached an altitude of two hundred meters, Shibuki could clearly see the massive rock inside the light.
His expression changed drastically. He abandoned the thought of going home and leaped onto the nearest roof, sprinting toward the predicted impact zone.
Three seconds later, the rock—wreathed in flames from atmospheric friction—slammed directly into Takigakure.
First, a brilliant flash illuminated the entire village, followed instantly by an earth-shattering boom that blasted through the silence.
Shibuki, who was still rushing toward the site, was blown backward by the shockwave before he could even get close.
After steadying himself, he looked at the impact crater, the skin on his face twitching uncontrollably.
With the landing point as the center, all houses within a radius of nearly two hundred meters had been flattened or overturned. Intermittent, miserable howls and groans from the villagers began to ring in his ears.
A shrill alarm finally sounded in the village.
In fact, it wasn't just Shibuki who had seen it. The personnel on duty had sounded the alarm almost immediately, but the sound had been completely drowned out by the deafening crash of the rock.
Several figures began moving with extreme speed through the village. Spotting Shibuki on the roof, they rushed to approach him.
Before they could get close, Shibuki's shrill voice pierced the air.
"Go get Fu! Go! Go quickly!"
The figures turned and left without hesitation.
Shibuki looked up at the sky again. Another bright light was appearing, and a trace of despair crept into his eyes.
Fortunately, before the second rock could land, a red figure flew up with extreme speed to intercept it.
A high-density chakra ball formed in mid-air and was swallowed whole by the red figure.
A moment later, the figure opened its mouth, and a Tailed Beast Ball blasted out with a deafening bang!
The flaming rock was instantly blasted into powder by the high-density chakra cannon.
Seeing this scene, Shibuki finally breathed a sigh of relief.
In a dark corner of the village, someone watched the figure flying in the sky and revealed a smile.
"Finally came out... the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki!"