Arsenal Location

Ten full days had passed since the infiltration.

During these ten days, Team Five had been gathering intelligence continuously.

Yet Hanzō, as expected of the demigod recognized by the ninja world, guarded his war supplies with extreme caution.

There were no written records, no fixed transport routes, and even the lower-ranking Amegakure ninja responsible for transport didn't know the final destination.

They were often only responsible for one leg of the journey, then handed off the supplies to the next group.

This kind of management rendered traditional tracking completely ineffective; the only option was to monitor these people for any slip-ups.

The rainy night stretched on, and today's surveillance had already lasted three hours.

The three of them lay under the eaves, chewing on dry grass roots to stay alert.

"Speaking of which..." Namikaze Minato suddenly spoke up softly, breaking the silence, "If I make it back alive from this mission, I want to give someone a gift."

"To who?" Nishikawa Tetsu asked knowingly, "That transfer student? The redhead?"

Even in the dark, Minato's face could be seen reddening: "Ahem... Uzumaki Kushina, she's been in a bad mood lately, and I want to give her something."

"Give her flowers," Nishikawa Tetsu suggested. "Most women can't refuse flowers."

"Tacky," Uchiha Fugaku interjected coldly from the side.

"Then what would you give, senpai?" Nishikawa Tetsu asked. "To your fiancée—Uchiha Mikoto?"

At the mention of that name, a hint of unnatural softness actually appeared on Fugaku's stern face.

He instinctively touched the inner pocket of his Ninja Tool Pouch, where an unsent jade pendant lay.

"...Uchiha women don't need flashy things," Fugaku said, turning his head away to look at the rain. "As long as I grow stronger and become a man she can be proud of, that's the best gift."

"Eww—" Minato and Tetsu let out a synchronized sound of disgust.

"Too dense, senpai," Nishikawa Tetsu ruthlessly teased. "Save that line for the family motto. Girls prefer something they can hold in their hands."

"Shut up! Quiet! Focus on surveillance!" Fugaku snapped, embarrassed and angry.

Atop a ruined building, one of the few high points in the Lower District, though it leaked wind and rain, the view was excellent.

"Still nothing?"

Uchiha Fugaku leaned against a moss-covered wall, holding a hard Ration Pill in his hand, his brow deeply furrowed. "I just used genjutsu to control a transport squad leader. His memory only had instructions like 'put the boxes at the third drainage pipe outlet.'"

"I've also run through all the warehouses in the Lower District."

Namikaze Minato, drenched, used the Body Flicker Technique to return, shaking water droplets from his blond hair, slightly out of breath. "No signs of large-scale stockpiling."

Three days of returning empty-handed had made the team's atmosphere restless.

If they couldn't find the source before supplies reached the front lines, all their previous efforts would be wasted.

"No, supplies are physical objects. They don't just vanish into thin air, and they don't get scattered into the sea."

Nishikawa Tetsu, who had been squatting on the ground staring blankly at the map of Amegakure, suddenly spoke up.

He held a pen in his hand, drawing countless seemingly random circles on the map—all the intelligence points Fugaku and Minato had brought back over the past three days.

"We made a mistake."

"We were looking for a 'warehouse,' a place to store things. But in a special environment like Amegakure, that way of thinking is wrong."

"What do you mean?" Fugaku looked at him.

"The environment."

Tetsu pointed at the torrential rain outside. "It rains year-round in Amegakure, and what is Hanzō stockpiling? Explosive Tags, Ration Pills, ninja tools."

"Explosive Tags become useless when damp, Ration Pills get soggy, and ninja tools oxidize and rust."

Tetsu's voice grew steadily more certain, carrying a logical beauty unique to a science-minded person:

"To preserve them long-term here, he has to maintain a huge, constant-temperature, constant-humidity dry environment."

"Minato," Tetsu looked up at the blond-haired boy. "In your previous reconnaissance, did you notice any area where the walls were relatively dry? Or any area where the exhaust air from vents was noticeably warmer than the ambient temperature?"

Namikaze Minato was stunned for a moment, his azure eyes rapidly shifting as he recalled every corner he had run through these past days.

Suddenly, his pupils contracted slightly.

"There is!"

Minato pointed to an area in the northwest corner of the map.

"There's a building there that looks like a Sewage Treatment Plant, with very dense pipes around it. And when I passed by there, I did feel it was warmer than other places, and even the moss on the walls was sparser than elsewhere."

"Sewage Treatment Plant?"

Uchiha Fugaku let out a cold laugh, stood up, and the Three Tomoe in his eyes flashed with a chilling light. "A place for hiding filth—perfect for hiding Hanzō's ambition."

"Let's move."

Half an hour later.

The three of them had infiltrated the perimeter of the so-called "Sewage Treatment Plant."

It was a massive gray concrete structure, its exterior dilapidated, surrounded by rusted barbed wire and warning signs reading "Toxic Danger."

Several large chimneys were spewing white steam into the air, blending in unremarkably with the rainy night.

"Doesn't look like anything special," Namikaze Minato said, lowering his voice.

"Not many guards either. Only two Amegakure ninja dozing off at the entrance."

"That's a disguise."

Nishikawa Tetsu lay prone on a suspended pipe, pulling out a homemade thermal imager he'd crafted using the principle of sensing heat through chakra.

Through the lens, the entire building took on an eerie dark red hue.

"The thermal reaction inside is extremely high. There's no way treating sewage generates this much heat."

Nishikawa Tetsu pointed at the ground near the building's base. "And look at those tire tracks."

Behind the building, at a concealed iron door, several deep ruts were pressed into the muddy ground.

"Even though they tried to cover them with mud, the soil compaction doesn't lie," Nishikawa Tetsu analyzed.

"Ruts that deep can only be left by vehicles loaded with heavy metals or high-density cargo. If they were hauling sewage or trash, the tracks would be much shallower."

"And the guards."

Uchiha Fugaku activated his Sharingan, his gaze piercing the rain to lock onto the two seemingly dozing sentries.

"Those two might look relaxed, but the chakra flow inside them is steady and active. That's a state of constant combat readiness. And..."

Fugaku's eyes swept across the surrounding shadows.

"All four corners of this building, plus the water tower on the roof, have hidden sentries. Their chakra levels are all above Chunin."

"A sewage plant with a lax exterior but tight interior, complete with heavy logistics channels and a thermostat system."

Nishikawa Tetsu stowed his device and delivered his final verdict:

"This is Hanzō's arsenal."

With the target confirmed, the three silently retreated to a safe distance.

"How do we handle this?"

"Just break in directly?"

"No."

Uchiha Fugaku shook his head. "If it's an arsenal, the interior is definitely packed with barriers and traps. A frontal assault would alert the enemy. If Hanzō has a self-destruct device set up inside, we'll get nothing."

"Besides, our goal isn't just to destroy it—it's to make it vanish 'completely,' dealing the greatest psychological blow to the front lines."

Nishikawa Tetsu pulled a bundle of specially crafted explosive tags and several sealed canisters of chemical agents from his backpack.

"Since it's a sealed, temperature-controlled environment, it's a natural pressure cooker."

Nishikawa Tetsu looked at the building as if it were a massive experimental specimen.

"We don't need to go in and fight them. We just need to find the vent that maintains the dryness and send our gifts inside."

"Once the ventilation system sucks these gifts into the warehouse..."

Nishikawa Tetsu made an explosion gesture, his eyes glinting dangerously in the darkness:

"Dust, poison gas, explosive tags."

"In that enclosed space, it all becomes the art of destruction."

"Tonight, let's make Amegakure hear a bang."