The(questionable) burdens of leadership of a troll Emperor by Noodlehammer

Chapter 15

Ra was concerned. He would never admit it, but he was.

The sudden drop off in raids from the unknown enemy was oddly disturbing. It should have come as a relief, but all it did was give him a sense of uneasy anticipation...as if something big was coming.

That they had never managed to find anything at all about whoever was attacking them had long been a point of frustration, but there was no helping it. The tenuous alliance the System Lords had formed to combat this new threat had dissolved when it became obvious that they wouldn't find the enemy. The Goa'uld had long since returned to their ancient feuds, once more fighting among themselves for territory and resources.

This inability to retaliate was far more troubling than the actual thefts. It had fueled the creation of disturbing legends among the Jaffa and even the slave populations. Legends of invincible demons that lurked in the dark, waiting to steal away the unwary.

Granted, there had been some benefit to this, as the Goa'uld were able to spin it in a way that portrayed those taken to have been unfaithful.

Of course, that would only work for so long as the enemy stayed out of sight. If they struck openly, that illusion would shatter, which was what bothered Ra most of all.

There was a chink in the armor of the Goa'uld Empire and Ra did not like knowing about a weakness and being unable to do anything about it.

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In a different part of the Galaxy, Naruto was also contemplating the metaphorical armor of the Goa'uld Empire.

However, Unlike Ra who saw only that one vulnerability, he saw nothing but weakness.

The Goa'uld had always been weak. They had built a weak empire on a weak foundation and protected it with weak half-measures. The only reason they hadn't been toppled by someone else thus far was a series of lucky breaks.

The Ascended shackled themselves with silly rules and refused to do anything about the mess they had left behind.

The Asgard were too far away and busy with their own things, they couldn't spare the manpower to truly take care of it.

The Tok'ra didn't have the manpower or military capacity to do it and had to content themselves with trickery.

The handful of advanced human civilizations were isolationists and preferred to mind their own business.

There were a few other sapient races in the galaxy with advanced technology, but they were too small and lacked the means to mount an effective strike. The Goa'uld could bury them with the sheer numbers of their silly pyramid ships. They had buried more than one already.

Honestly, the Goa'uld were not as much of a threat as they might at first seem.

They had built their Empire on slaves, which naturally meant that they were constantly surrounded by enemies without even knowing it. The illusion of divinity was often the only thing keeping revolts from happening and it didn't always work either.

Their soldiers were deceived into thinking that they were carrying out a divine agenda, but they had no real respect for those they served. If the lie was exposed, the Jaffa would very quickly become resentful of their masters.

The armor of the Goa'uld Empire that Ra thought was strong was in reality little more than a haphazard mess held together by fragile threads made of the lie of Goa'uld godhood. Take that away and it would crumble.

Even if that were ignored, they left so many weaknesses exposed that Naruto had honestly been uncertain which one he should strike at first.

He was almost worried that this would be boringly easy.