It had been ten full days since they went undercover.
Throughout those ten days, Team Five had been gathering intelligence.
However, Hanzō truly lived up to his reputation as the Shinobi World's recognized demigod. He was extremely cautious about protecting his war supplies.
There were no written records, no fixed transport routes, and even the lower- and middle-ranking Amegakure shinobi responsible for transportation had no idea where the supplies were ultimately headed.
They usually handled only one stretch of the journey before handing the supplies over to the next group.
This system rendered traditional tracking completely useless. All they could do was watch these people and hope to spot a weakness.
The rainy night dragged on. They had been keeping watch for three hours already.
The three of them lay beneath the eaves, chewing on dry grass roots to stay alert.
"Speaking of which..." Namikaze Minato suddenly whispered, breaking the silence. "If we make it back alive from this mission, I want to give someone a present."
"Who?" Nishikawa Tetsu asked, though he already knew the answer. "That transfer student? The redhead?"
Minato's face turned red, even in the darkness. "Ahem... Uzumaki Kushina. She seems to have been in a bad mood lately, so I wanted to give her something."
"Give her flowers," Nishikawa Tetsu suggested. "Most women can't resist fresh flowers."
"Corny," Uchiha Fugaku cut in coldly.
"Then what would you give your fiancée, Uchiha Mikoto?" Nishikawa Tetsu asked.
At the sound of her name, a hint of uncharacteristic softness appeared on Fugaku's hard face.
He unconsciously touched the inner pocket of his Ninja Tool Pouch, where an unsent jade pendant was tucked away.
"...Uchiha women don't need anything flashy." Fugaku turned away and gazed at the rain. "As long as I become strong and a man she can be proud of, that'll be the best gift."
"Ew!" Minato and Tetsu both made a sound of disgust.
"That's so hopelessly dense, senpai," Nishikawa Tetsu teased mercilessly. "Save that line for the clan's ancestral teachings. Girls prefer something they can actually hold."
"Enough! Shut up and focus on keeping watch!" Fugaku snapped, flustered and angry.
The roof of an abandoned building was one of the few high points in the Lower District. It was exposed to the wind and rain, but offered an excellent view.
"Still haven't found it?"
Uchiha Fugaku leaned against a moss-covered wall, gripping a hard ration pill in his hand. His brow furrowed. "I just used a genjutsu to control a transport team leader. The only instruction in his memories was to leave the boxes at the third drainage pipe."
"I've searched every warehouse in the Lower District, too."
Namikaze Minato returned with a Body Flicker Technique, soaked through. He shook the raindrops from his blond hair, slightly out of breath. "I didn't find any signs of large-scale stockpiling."
Three days of coming up empty had made the team restless.
If they couldn't find the source before the supplies reached the front lines, all their efforts would have been for nothing.
"No. The supplies are physical objects. They can't just vanish into thin air, and they weren't dumped into the sea."
Nishikawa Tetsu, who had been crouching on the ground and staring at a map of Amegakure, suddenly spoke up.
He held a pen and had drawn countless seemingly random circles on the map. They marked all the intelligence points Fugaku and Minato had found over the past three days.
"We made a mistake."
"We've been looking for a 'warehouse'—a place where things are stored. But in a place with an environment as unusual as Amegakure, that's the wrong way to think about it."
"What do you mean?" Fugaku looked at him.
"The environment."
Nishikawa Tetsu pointed toward the torrential rain outside. "It rains all year in Amegakure. And what is Hanzō stockpiling? Explosive Tags, ration pills, and ninja tools."
"Explosive Tags stop working when they get damp. Ration pills get damp, and ninja tools oxidize and rust."
Nishikawa Tetsu's voice grew more certain, revealing the distinctive logical elegance of a science-minded person.
"To store these things here for a long time, he has to maintain a huge, dry environment with constant temperature and humidity."
"Minato." Nishikawa Tetsu looked up at the blond boy. "During your scouting, did you notice any area where the walls were unusually dry? Or anywhere the air coming out of the vents was noticeably warmer than the surrounding air?"
Namikaze Minato paused. His bright blue eyes darted as he recalled every place he'd visited over the past few days.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted slightly.
"I did!"
Minato pointed to an area in the northwest corner of the map.
"There's a building there that looks like a sewage treatment plant. The pipes around it are very dense, and when I passed by, it really did feel warmer than the surrounding area. There was even less moss on the corners of the walls."
"A sewage treatment plant?"
Uchiha Fugaku sneered and stood up. A cold glint flashed in the Three Tomoe in his eyes. "A place for filth and refuse would certainly be suitable for hiding Hanzō's ambitions."
"Let's go."
Half an hour later.
The three of them had infiltrated the perimeter of the supposed "sewage treatment plant."
It was a huge gray concrete building that looked dilapidated from the outside. Rusted barbed wire and "Danger: Poison" signs surrounded it.
Several enormous chimneys belched white steam. In the rainy night, they didn't look out of place.
"It doesn't look like anything special," Namikaze Minato whispered.
"There aren't many guards, either. Just two Amegakure shinobi at the entrance, dozing off."
"That's a disguise."
Nishikawa Tetsu lay atop a suspended pipe and took out a homemade, makeshift Thermal Imager. It worked by using Chakra to sense heat.
Through the lens, the entire building appeared a strange dark red.
"The heat signature inside the building is extremely high. Treating wastewater couldn't produce this much heat."
Nishikawa Tetsu pointed to the ground beneath the building. "And look at those tire tracks."
Several deep ruts marked the muddy ground in front of a concealed iron door at the back of the building.
"They tried to cover them with mud, but you can't fool the soil's level of compaction," Nishikawa Tetsu explained.
"Ruts that deep could only have been made by vehicles carrying heavy metals or other high-density cargo. If they were hauling wastewater or garbage, the tracks would be much shallower."
"And the guards."
Uchiha Fugaku activated his Sharingan and fixed his gaze on the two guards who appeared to be dozing in the rain.
"Even though their postures are relaxed, the flow of Chakra inside them is steady and active. They're ready to fight at any moment. And..."
Fugaku's gaze swept over the surrounding shadows.
"There are hidden sentries at all four corners of the building, as well as inside the rooftop water tower. They all have at least Chunin-level Chakra."
"A sewage plant that's lax on the outside but tightly guarded within, with a heavy-duty freight passage and a Thermostat System."
Nishikawa Tetsu put away the device and gave his final conclusion:
"This is Hanzō's armory."
After confirming their target, the three of them silently retreated to a safe distance.
"What should we do?"
"Go in head-on?"
"No."
Uchiha Fugaku shook his head. "If it's an armory, the inside must be full of Barriers and traps. A direct assault could alert them. If Hanzō set up a Self-Destruct Device inside, we'd get nothing."
"Besides, our goal isn't just to destroy it. We need to make it disappear 'completely' and deal the biggest possible psychological blow to the front lines."
Nishikawa Tetsu took a bundle of specially made Explosive Tags out of his backpack, along with several Sealed Canisters filled with Chemical Agent.
"If it's a sealed environment kept at a constant temperature, then it's a natural pressure cooker."
Nishikawa Tetsu looked at the building as if it were an enormous experimental specimen.
"We don't need to go inside and fight them. We just need to find the ventilation shaft that keeps the place dry and deliver our gifts through it."
"As long as the ventilation system draws these gifts into the armory..."
Nishikawa Tetsu made an explosive gesture. His eyes looked especially dangerous in the darkness.
"Whether it's dust, poison gas, or Explosive Tags..."
"In that enclosed space, they'll all become an art of destruction."
"Tonight, we'll make sure all of Amegakure hears this."
Before you continue