Encountering the Enemy

Nine figures moved like ghosts through the dense jungle, their feet wrapped in chakra to tread silently through the muddy water.

Uchiha Fugaku led the way, Namikaze Minato and Nishikawa Tetsu close behind, Hyuga Hiroshi positioned in the middle for coordination, while the five newly joined chunin handled rear guard and flank cover.

Though the advance was quiet, the atmosphere in the team carried a subtle tension.

"Hey, I'm just saying..."

At the rear, a chunin named Kaito with a scar across his face lowered his voice to whisper to the comrade beside him: "I can stomach having an Uchiha as captain—it's a prestigious clan, the strength is there. But why is all the critical tactical gear on that genin brat?"

His gaze locked onto the large backpack on Nishikawa Tetsu's back ahead, which held nearly all the team's Explosive Tags and special ninja tools.

"Shh! Keep it down." His comrade nervously glanced at Uchiha Fugaku at the front. "That's Lord Jiraiya's order."

"Lord Jiraiya probably wants to train the new blood, but this is an S-rank mission!" Kaito fumed. "If that kid gets scared stiff or soaks the Explosive Tags, we all die here."

"And that Namikaze Minato too—two fresh genin. I don't know what the commander was thinking, calling them the brain and fangs."

The chunin exchanged glances, not saying it outright, but their dissatisfaction and contempt were plain to see.

In their eyes, the battlefield was a place where strength spoke. Letting two green kids hold core positions was practically gambling with their lives.

If it weren't for the fear of Uchiha Fugaku's cold Sharingan and the Uchiha Clan's fearsome reputation in the Police Force, they'd have protested on the spot.

Uchiha Fugaku heard every whisper behind him clearly.

His steps didn't falter, but a cold smirk curled at the corner of his mouth.

Doubt? That was normal.

In the world of shinobi, only strength shut people up.

He didn't turn to scold them, because he knew those two youths would teach these men a lesson through action.

"Stop."

Just then, Hyuga Hiroshi at the center of the team suddenly called out in a low voice.

Uchiha Fugaku raised his hand instantly, and the entire team halted like a precision machine, everyone quickly hiding behind trees and rocks.

"What is it?" Uchiha Fugaku looked at Hyuga Hiroshi.

Hyuga Hiroshi formed hand seals, veins bulging at his temples—a sign of the Byakugan operating at full power.

His vision pierced through layers of rain and trees, locking onto the distance.

"Two o'clock, approximately one point five kilometers."

Hyuga Hiroshi's voice was calm and mechanical: "Detecting chakra signatures, twelve people. The front four are sensory ninjas, escorting in the middle... several disguised carts? No, puppets. That's the vanguard of Sunagakure's Puppet Force, clearing the path."

"Not only that." Hyuga Hiroshi's brow furrowed slightly.

"There's chakra flow underground as well—likely an earth-style ninja scouting ahead."

"Puppeteers plus earth-style reconnaissance? Cautious."

A cold glint flashed in Uchiha Fugaku's eyes, and he turned to Nishikawa Tetsu: "Hear that, Nishikawa Tetsu? If it were you, how would you fight?"

The chunin behind immediately cast doubtful looks at Nishikawa Tetsu.

Kaito couldn't help but interject: "Captain, the enemy has sensory ninjas and underground scouts even the Byakugan can barely detect. Just attack head-on! Before they notice us."

Uchiha Fugaku shot him a cold glare. "Did I ask you to speak?"

Kaito froze, pinned by those Three Tomoe Sharingan eyes as if his heart were being squeezed. Cold sweat poured down, and he immediately shut his mouth.

Nishikawa Tetsu seemed unfazed by the pressure. He pulled out a simple notebook and quickly calculated.

"A head-on assault isn't wise. Sunagakure's puppeteers excel at poison gas; a direct engagement would slow our pace, and if that earth-style ninja escapes, Hanzō's main force will be alerted."

Nishikawa Tetsu pointed at a low-lying swamp area ahead: "Hyuga-senpai, is there a large flow of water veins underground in that direction?"

Hyuga Hiroshi looked and nodded in surprise: "Yes, that's a junction of underground rivers. The soil is very soft."

"Then it's simple."

Nishikawa Tetsu pulled several specially made metal rods from his backpack and handed them to Namikaze Minato: "Minato, I'll have to trouble you again."

"What are these?" Namikaze Minato took the rods.

"High-Frequency Vibrators, decoys." Nishikawa Tetsu explained. "Earth-style reconnaissance ninjas detect enemies by sensing ground vibrations. Minato, quickly circle to their flank and plant these at the swamp's edge. They'll generate vibration frequencies similar to a large force marching."

Then, Nishikawa Tetsu looked at Uchiha Fugaku:

"When the enemy senses the vibrations, they'll think our main force is on the flank. The earth-style ninja will inevitably surface to confirm or ambush. And that swamp..."

Nishikawa Tetsu pulled out several bottles of purple liquid from his bag—a neurotoxin he'd refined from poisonous plants in the Land of Rain.

"Just pour this into the swamp, combined with lightning release to conduct the current."

Nishikawa Tetsu looked at the bewildered chunin, pointing at one carrying a lightning-attributed chakra blade: "Senpais, beating a drowning dog shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Uchiha Fugaku listened, and a cruel smile finally crept onto his lips.

"Feint to the east, strike to the west. Lure the snake out of its hole, then catch them all in one net."

He looked at the still-stunned chunin, his tone icy:

"Did everyone understand that? Follow his deployment. Anyone who lags behind will face military discipline."

"Yes, yes!"

Several chunin, still muttering inwardly about whether this kid's tactics were reliable, had no choice but to steel themselves and move under Uchiha Fugaku's orders.

Ten minutes later.

Sunagakure's advance squad was moving cautiously through the rain forest.

"Halt!" The leading Suna puppeteer suddenly raised his hand. "The ground reports back—there's heavy vibration toward the swamp, two hundred meters to the right. Suspected Konoha main force!"

"Two hundred meters? That close?"

"Hurry! Send the Earth Style Squad to confirm. If it's an ambush, we're in trouble!"

As the order came down, the ground rippled, and four mounds of earth swiftly shifted toward the swamp.

But just as those four Earth Style ninjas poked half their heads out of the swamp to observe—

"Now!"

Nishikawa Tetsu, lurking in the treetops, swung his hand sharply.

The Lightning Style chunin, already in position, was full of doubt but still instinctively blasted his Lightning Style ninjutsu into the swamp.

"Lightning Style: Earth Run!"

"Zzzzzz—!!!"

Blue electricity exploded instantly across the swamp, which was mixed with poison and sewage.

On a normal day, this level of Lightning Style wouldn't kill Earth Style ninjas. But now, they were submerged in highly conductive poison water, and just as they'd poked their heads out, the current paralyzed their entire bodies.

"Aaaaah!"

The screams cut off as soon as they began.

The neurotoxin Nishikawa Tetsu had refined invaded through the wounds torn open by the electricity. The four Earth Style ninjas couldn't even form hand seals. Their eyes rolled back, and they floated up like dead fish, their bodies purple all over.

"What?!"

The distant Suna puppeteer was horrified. "The recon squad wiped out in an instant? There's an ambush! Retreat! Release poison smoke!"

"Trying to run?"

An icy voice rang out above his head.

Uchiha Fugaku had somehow already stood atop the canopy, his crimson Three Tomoe gleaming like a demon in the darkness.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Claw Red!"

Countless flames wrapped around shuriken rained down from the sky, instantly sealing off all of Suna's escape routes.

"Move out!"

At the commander's order, the Konoha ninjas, who had been holding back their frustration, surged forward all at once.

Watching the one-sided slaughter ahead, the chunin Kaito, who had harbored doubts, swallowed hard. He glanced at Nishikawa Tetsu, who was calmly recording data beside him, and a chill ran down his spine.

Without using a single soldier, relying only on a few metal rods and bottles of poison water, he had crippled the enemy's most troublesome underground recon force.

This genin... was this really his first time on a battlefield?