The Ninja Split!

Across the Piranha Lake

The chase spills back out of Muscle Tower toward a nearby lake. Murasaki hurls another smoke bomb, and when the haze clears he is padding across the water on snowshoe-like skates he calls the Water Strider Technique. He taunts Goku with a warning about the piranha below, confident the boy will have to swim into their jaws. Goku simply crouches and launches himself in a single arcing leap, landing cleanly on the far bank. Murasaki wonders aloud if his opponent is some kind of frog, while Goku asks whether they can finally fight for real.

Five of a Kind

Instead of answering, Murasaki starts whistling and announces his Art of Division. Four more identical ninjas step out of hiding, surrounding Goku on every side. One flings kunai, another darts in with a katana, and a third pulls a revolver, each attack coming from a different body. Goku lunges after the thrower, only to be cut off again and again. When he complains that every Murasaki looks real, one of the clones laughs and admits the truth: they are not copies at all, but quintuplet brothers who trained as ninjas together.

Afterimages and a Locked Cage

The five siblings close in to carve him up, but Goku slips into his own Afterimage Technique, leaving them slashing at empty air. He cracks one across the skull with the Power Pole, kicks another in the face, and drops the next two before the remaining brother can react. The last Murasaki bolts for a raised platform and skids to a stop in front of an enormous cage. Pounding on the bars, he screams for Artificial Human No. 8 to come out and crush the brat for him. The cage door groans open, and Goku gets his first look at the hulking, patchwork figure the Red Ribbon Army built as Muscle Tower's trump card.