While Uchiha Sasuke was arguing with the Anbu beside him, the Kumogakure ninja not far away were fine-tuning a weapon.
The weapon's original design appeared to be a Chakra Cannon, but after all sorts of modifications, it had become exceptionally menacing.
Arcs of electricity flickered over the hulking barrel. The Kumogakure ninja surrounding it were not studying the weapon, but continuously applying seals.
Beneath the weapon lay the sacred artifact Kumogakure had originally used to seal the Eight-Tails. Against this weapon, however, it did not seem particularly effective.
When did technology develop fastest? During war? No! War brought only fear and death. The technologies that emerged in wartime were products useful to the immediate situation.
The true age of technological flourishing was the long period of fear after a war ended!
Precisely because people understood war's brutality and had witnessed the threat of death, they pursued strength at any cost.
It was this fear that had driven Kumogakure to create a weapon that frightened even its own people.
This weapon contained the chakra of eighty percent of Kumogakure's ninja. If fired, even in the best-case scenario, Kumogakure would be caught in the blast. It might even disappear entirely.
That was why, within Kumogakure, this thing was guarded even more strictly than the Eight-Tails had once been. It was reinforced with multiple layers of Cursed Seals and Sealing Jutsu, with large numbers of ninja guarding the perimeter.
Even so, Uchiha Sasuke had managed to sneak in. And he had brought an Anbu with him...
"Sasuke, without orders from Lord Hokage, our mission is only reconnaissance... If you take action, even if you succeed, you'll make the situation far more serious," the Anbu accompanying Uchiha Sasuke explained.
No matter what, he had to stop Uchiha Sasuke from acting on his own. Although