Infiltration

On the roof of the armory disguised as a sewage treatment plant, three figures clung close to the slippery tiles, moving slowly like geckos.

Nishikawa Tetsu lay beside a huge square air vent and tested the powerful suction with his hand.

This was the "intake," responsible for drawing fresh air from outside into the sealed underground storeroom to maintain a constant temperature and humidity.

"So, if I pour something in, about ten seconds later it should be evenly distributed throughout every corner of the underground warehouse."

Nishikawa Tetsu took from his backpack a canister of mixed toxin in a lethal dose, along with several packets of seemingly harmless silver-gray powder.

"Before that, we need to clear out the eyes."

Uchiha Fugaku crouched in the shadows a little higher up, his Sharingan locked onto a sentry on top of a nearby water tower.

The Rain ninja was yawning as he cradled a sniper crossbow, completely unaware that the Reaper was already standing behind him.

"Minato."

"Got it."

Namikaze Minato's figure vanished in an instant.

There was no sound; even the raindrops weren't disturbed.

Just a second later, the sentry on the water tower crumpled to the ground, a faint, thin line of blood at his neck.

Namikaze Minato caught the body and gently laid it down, then gave the two below an "all clear" signal.

"All clear. The sentries at all four corners are taken care of."

Namikaze Minato used the Body Flicker Technique to return to the air vent, breathing evenly, as if he'd merely gone for a walk.

"Nice work."

Nishikawa Tetsu wasted no time. He quickly took out his tools and skillfully removed the protective grate from the air intake.

"First course: a mixture of high-concentration capsaicin and tear gas."

He opened the canister's valve. A cloud of pungent red smoke was instantly sucked into the fan by the powerful airflow and disappeared into the seemingly bottomless duct.

"This stuff will make their airways swell in an instant. Their eyes and noses will pour, leaving them unable to form Hand Seals or communicate."

"Second course: thermite powder and flour."

Nishikawa Tetsu shook the large packets of powder directly into the vent.

"This is to give them a little warmth."

Once he'd finished, Nishikawa Tetsu took a specially modified Explosive Tag from his Ninja Tool Pouch.

He attached the tag to a timer, then stuck it to the inside of one of the fan blades.

"Thirty-second timer. That should be enough for the dust to fill the entire space."

After finishing, Nishikawa Tetsu quickly put the grate back in place and waved to the other two.

"Retreat! As far away as possible! This is no joke!"

The three didn't hesitate. They instantly became blurs as they fled toward the distant buildings.

Along their escape route, the rain seemed heavier than before.

The three temporarily took cover in the shadow of a towering water tank, about four hundred meters from the armory disguised as a sewage plant. It was a relatively safe observation point and a midway stop along their retreat.

Nishikawa Tetsu leaned against the rust-covered support frame and glanced down at his specially made watch.

"Twenty seconds."

His voice was quiet, mostly drowned out by the rain.

As the suffocating countdown continued, the three of them, their nerves taut until now, all let their shoulders relax a little.

"Phew..."

Namikaze Minato wiped the muck of rainwater and sewer sludge from his face and flashed his trademark, if somewhat weary, smile.

"I can't believe we actually did it. Right under the demigod's nose, we shoved poison down his throat."

He turned his head, his bright blue eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Tetsu, your plan sounded crazy, but the way you carried it out... it really was a work of art."

"It's science," Nishikawa Tetsu corrected him, pulling three slightly damp candies from the innermost pocket of his Ninja Tool Pouch.

They were cheap lemon drops, the kind an old woman sold at the entrance to Konoha, five ryō a bag.

"Have some sugar." Nishikawa Tetsu unwrapped one and popped it into his mouth. The sour taste gave him a jolt. "We've got an escape battle ahead. Low blood sugar makes your brain sluggish."

He handed one to Minato, then offered the last to Uchiha Fugaku.

Fugaku was keeping watch with his back to the other two. Hearing them, he turned his head slightly and looked at the cheap candy, his brow instinctively creasing.

"I don't eat sweets," Fugaku said coldly. "And we're on a mission, not..."

"Take it, Captain."

Namikaze Minato had already bitten into his candy with a loud crunch. He interrupted Fugaku with a muffled laugh. "Tetsu calculated it. This one candy can give you enough energy to run... uh, anyway, it'll let you run another two kilometers."

"It has eighteen kilocalories. That's enough to keep your brain operating at high intensity for five minutes," Nishikawa Tetsu added, still holding it out. "Senior Fugaku, it's a tactical ration, too."

Uchiha Fugaku looked at the two young men.

One face held a calm, rational expression; the other radiated sunny warmth.

Over the past three months, he'd gone from looking down on them and finding them irritating to accepting them.

He never said it aloud, but in his heart, these two boys from civilian backgrounds were no longer "subordinates." They were "comrades" he could entrust with his back.

"...Tch."

Fugaku let out a barely audible, haughty snort, snatched the candy, roughly tore open the wrapper, and shoved it into his mouth.

"It's so sour," he said with a frown. "Awful."

"You didn't spit it out, though," Nishikawa Tetsu teased him, an unusual move for him.

Minato couldn't help chuckling softly.

In the bitter cold of the Land of Rain, deep in enemy territory and surrounded by danger, that brief laughter felt especially precious.

"Hey."

Fugaku suddenly spoke. His eyes remained fixed on the distant armory, but his voice had softened, with an awkwardness that was hard to detect.

"Once we get back to the village..."

"Hm?" Minato and Tetsu looked at him at the same time.

"If... I mean, if this mission gets an S-rank evaluation, once the reward comes in..." Fugaku paused, as if working up to something difficult. "I'll treat you both to barbecue. We'll go to that place in the Uchiha Clan Compound this time. It'll definitely taste better than the barbecue Lord Jiraiya makes."

Minato froze for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "Really?! Barbecue in the Uchiha Clan Compound?! I heard it's really hard to get a reservation!"

"I have privileges." Fugaku lifted his chin. Mud still smeared his face, but the haughty pride of a young master from a prestigious clan had returned. "Don't embarrass me when we go. Mind your table manners."

"It's a deal!" Minato held out his fist.

Fugaku looked at the offered fist and hesitated for a second before lightly bumping it with his own.

Finally, the two looked at Nishikawa Tetsu.

Nishikawa Tetsu looked at their fists, warmth welling up inside him.

Even knowing what was coming, even knowing how cruel the future would be, at least in this moment, their bond was real.

"If someone's treating, I'm definitely coming."

Nishikawa Tetsu held out his fist and bumped it against theirs.

"Let's make it back alive for the barbecue."

"Let's make it back alive."

Just as the three fists touched.

"Time's up," Nishikawa Tetsu said softly.

Inside the underground armory.

Just as Nishikawa Tetsu had predicted, it was a vast underground space packed with countless boxes bearing sealing tags. The dry air made it one of the few comfortable places in the Land of Rain.

Dozens of Rain ninja assigned to guard the place were playing cards or resting.

"What's that smell?"

A Rain ninja suddenly sniffed. "It's so pungent. Is someone frying chili peppers?"

"Cough, cough! My eyes! They're burning!"

Before they could react, pale red smoke poured through the ventilation ducts and rapidly spread throughout the hall.

"It's poison gas! Enemy attack! Cough, cough, cough!"

Screams broke out one after another. The highly concentrated irritant gas made everyone cough violently, their eyes streaming as their vision blurred. Some even clawed desperately at their throats, unable to focus their Chakra.

"Quick! Turn on the exhaust fans! Run them in reverse!"

The Rain ninja captain in charge forced himself to shout through the pain.

However, just as he tried to pull the alarm...

The nearly invisible silver-gray powder in the air had already reached its critical concentration.

Inside the ventilation duct, the timed Explosive Tag hit zero.

"Beep."

A tiny spark lit up at the mouth of the duct.

In an enclosed space filled with combustible dust, it was the Reaper's scythe.

"BOOM—!!!"

First came a muffled roar, as if something deep beneath the earth had exploded.

Then the sturdy concrete building swelled like an overinflated balloon, its walls instantly cracking and every window shattering.

Then came an orange-red pillar of fire soaring into the sky!

The tremendous explosion blew the roof off the "sewage treatment plant." Countless chunks of concrete and twisted rebar were hurled a hundred meters into the air.

The terrifying shockwave, accompanied by intense heat, swept over every building within a four-hundred-meter radius.

Even the three members of Team Five, already at a safe distance, were buffeted by the blast, their clothes snapping in the wind as they were forced to crouch low.

"This..."

Namikaze Minato looked back at the enormous mushroom cloud blossoming in the rainy night. Flames were reflected in his bright blue eyes, and his face was full of astonishment.

That destructive power was practically on par with a Tailed Beast Bomb.

"Is this... Scientific Ninja Tools?"

Uchiha Fugaku stared at the blaze soaring into the sky, his throat dry.

He'd thought Nishikawa Tetsu only wanted to cause a little damage. He hadn't expected the kid to blow their entire hideout sky-high.

Under that intense heat and the chain of explosions, never mind Explosive Tags and Ration Pills—even Chakra Conductive Metal would probably have melted.

"Art is an Explosion."

Nishikawa Tetsu lay on the roof, calmly recording the blast's range and force.

"The heat release is within expectations, and the dust dispersal rate is high. Amegakure's ventilation system is very efficient. It helped a lot."

However, just as the three were preparing to flee amid the chaos...

"AAAAAH!!"

Several harrowing screams suddenly came from the burning ruins.

A few Rain ninja, their bodies on fire and their eyes seared blind, staggered out of the flames like headless flies.

They rolled in agony through the muddy water, trying to put out the fire, but the flames mixed with thermite couldn't be doused by rain.

"That's..." Namikaze Minato turned his head away, unable to bear the sight.

"They're the enemy."

Uchiha Fugaku cut him off coldly, but a deep wariness had crept into his gaze toward Nishikawa Tetsu.

This boy usually looked harmless, with no trace of a strongman's arrogance. But when he struck, his methods were so ruthless and efficient that they were almost appalling.

Someone like that, if he weren't an ally, would be a nightmare.

"Don't watch. The mission's complete."

Nishikawa Tetsu put away his notebook, his expression unchanged.

"With that much commotion, Hanzō must have been alerted. If we don't want the demigod hunting us down, we need to get out of the central district."

"Move!"

Uchiha Fugaku made the decision at once.

Taking cover amid the panicked crowd and the glare of the flames, the three quickly slipped toward the outskirts of Amegakure.

However, they didn't know that...

Atop the tallest tower in Amegakure...

A muscular man with a bare upper body and a gas mask stood on the tower's peak, coldly looking down at the blaze shooting into the sky.

Rain ran down his body, tracing the ridges of his hideous scars.

Hanzo of the Salamander.

"Rats from Konoha, are they..."

Hanzō's voice was hoarse and low, muffled by his mask and laced with a suffocating pressure.

He slowly raised the sickle in his hand and pointed it toward the direction of the flames.

"Give the order. Seal off the entire village. Find those rats... and bring them to me."