Infiltration

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

Nishikawa Tetsu crouched beside a massive square ventilation intake, feeling the powerful suction with his hand.

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

"That means, if I pour something in here, in about ten seconds, it'll be evenly distributed throughout every corner of the underground storage."

Nishikawa Tetsu pulled out a canister of lethal mixed poison and several seemingly harmless packs of silver-gray powder from his backpack.

"Before that, I need to clear the eyes first."

Uchiha Fugaku squatted in the shadows slightly higher up, his Sharingan locked onto a sentry atop a water tower not far away.

That Amegakure ninja was yawning while holding a sniper crossbow, completely unaware that death stood behind him.

"Minato."

"Understood."

Namikaze Minato's figure vanished instantly.

No sound, not even the rain was disturbed.

Just one second later, the sentry on the water tower slumped limply, only a faint, barely visible line of blood at his neck.

Namikaze Minato caught the body, gently laid it flat, then flashed a "safe" hand sign to the two below.

"Cleared. All four corner sentries eliminated."

Namikaze Minato returned to the ventilation intake using the Body Flicker Technique, his breathing steady, as if he'd just taken a stroll.

"Nice work."

Nishikawa Tetsu hesitated no longer, quickly pulling out tools and skillfully removing the protective grille from the intake.

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

He twisted open the canister's valve, and a pungent red smoke was instantly sucked into the fan by the immense draft, vanishing into the bottomless duct.

"This stuff will swell up their respiratory tracts instantly, make tears and snot flow nonstop, robbing them of the ability to form hand signs or communicate."

"Second course: thermite powder and flour."

Nishikawa Tetsu dumped the large packs of powder straight in.

"This is to give them a little warmth."

After finishing that, Nishikawa Tetsu pulled a specially modified Explosive Tag from his Ninja Tool Pouch.

He stuck the Explosive Tag onto a timer device, then attached it to the inner side of the fan blade.

"Timer set for thirty seconds, enough time for the dust to fill the entire space."

Nishikawa Tetsu quickly reinstalled the grille as it was, then waved at the two.

"Retreat! As far as possible! This isn't a joke!"

Without any hesitation, the three turned into afterimages and evacuated toward distant buildings.

Along the retreat route, the rain seemed heavier than before.

The three temporarily crouched in the shadow of a towering water storage tank, about four hundred meters from the arsenal disguised as a sewage plant—a relatively safe observation point and a relay station for this escape.

Nishikawa Tetsu leaned against the rust-covered support, glancing down at his custom watch.

"Twenty seconds left."

His voice was very soft, mostly drowned out by the rain.

In this suffocating countdown, the three, who had been tense the whole time, all let their shoulders relax slightly.

"Phew..."

Namikaze Minato wiped the grime mixed with rain and sewer sludge off his face, revealing that trademark but somewhat tired smile:

"I can't believe we actually did it—shoved poison down the throat of a demigod right under his nose."

He turned his head, his blue eyes sparkling in the darkness: "Tetsu, your plan sounded crazy, but the execution... it was really art."

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

They were cheap lemon candies, the kind sold by an old lady at Konoha's gate for five ryo a bag.

"Replenish some sugar." Nishikawa Tetsu tore one open and popped it into his mouth; the sour taste perked him up. "Next is the escape battle. A sugar-deprived brain gets sluggish."

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

Fugaku was on guard with his back to them; hearing the movement, he turned his head slightly, looked at the cheap candy, and furrowed his brow out of habit.

"I don't eat sweets." Fugaku said coldly. "And we're in the middle of a mission, not—"

"Take it, Captain."

Namikaze Minato had already crunched his candy, grinning through a mouthful as he interrupted: "Tetsu calculated it—this one candy provides about... uh, anyway, enough energy for you to run an extra two kilometers."

"It's 18 kilocalories, enough to sustain high-intensity brain function for five minutes." Nishikawa Tetsu added, his hand still extended. "Fugaku-senpai, this is also tactical resupply."

Uchiha Fugaku looked at those two young faces.

One face was written with rational calm, the other with emotional sunshine.

Over these three months, he had gone from initial disdain and contempt to eventual recognition.

Though he never said it out loud, in his heart, these two boys from civilian backgrounds were no longer just "subordinates"—they were "comrades" to whom he could entrust his back without hesitation.

"...Tch."

Fugaku let out an extremely faint, tsundere snort, reached out to grab the candy, tore open the wrapper roughly, and shoved it into his mouth.

"It's sour," he commented with a frown. "Tastes bad."

"If it tastes bad, you didn't spit it out either," Nishikawa Tetsu teased him, a rare occurrence.

Minato couldn't help but let out a low laugh.

In this bone-chilling Land of Rain, deep behind enemy lines thick with killing intent, this brief laughter felt especially precious.

"Hey."

Fugaku suddenly spoke, his gaze still fixed on the distant Arsenal, but his voice had softened a little, carrying a hint of awkwardness that was hard to detect:

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

"Hm?" Minato and Tetsu both looked at him.

"If... I mean, if this mission gets an S-rank evaluation, and the bonus comes through..." Fugaku paused, as if making a great mental effort, "I'll treat you both to grilled meat. This time, we'll go to that place in the Uchiha clan grounds. It's definitely better than what Lord Jiraiya grilled."

Minato was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "Really?! Grilled meat in the Uchiha clan grounds?! I heard it's incredibly hard to book!"

"I have privileges." Fugaku lifted his chin, still smeared with mud, but that aristocratic young master's pride was back. "Don't embarrass me when we go. At least look decent when you eat."

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

Fugaku looked at the fist, hesitated for a second, then extended his own fist and lightly tapped it.

Finally, both of them looked at Nishikawa Tetsu.

Nishikawa Tetsu looked at their fists, a surge of warmth rising in his heart.

Even knowing what was about to happen, even knowing how cruel the future would be, at least at this moment, this bond was real.

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

Nishikawa Tetsu extended his fist and touched it to theirs.

"For the grilled meat, let's make it back alive."

"Make it back alive."

Just as the three fists touched...

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

Inside the underground Arsenal.

Just as Nishikawa Tetsu had deduced, it was a massive underground space, packed with countless boxes sealed with Talismans. The dry air made it a rare comfortable zone in the Land of Rain.

Dozens of Amegakure Ninja on guard duty were playing cards or resting.

"What's that smell?"

One Amegakure Ninja suddenly sniffed the air. "It's pungent. Like someone's frying chili peppers?"

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

Before they could react, a faint reddish smoke had already gushed out through the ventilation ducts, rapidly filling the entire hall.

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

Screams erupted one after another. The high-concentration irritant gas sent everyone into violent coughing fits, tears streaming, vision blurring, some even clawing painfully at their own throats, unable to focus their Chakra at all.

"Hurry! Turn on the exhaust fans! Reverse the flow!"

The leading Amegakure squad leader roared through the intense pain.

But just as he tried to pull the alarm...

The silver-gray dust in the air, barely visible to the naked eye, had already reached its critical concentration.

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

"Tick."

A tiny spark flickered at the mouth of the duct.

For a sealed space filled with combustible dust, that was the scythe of the Grim Reaper.

"BOOM——!!!"

First came a muffled roar, as if something had exploded deep underground.

Then, the sturdy concrete building swelled like a balloon, walls instantly cracking, all window glass shattering.

And then, a pillar of orange-red flame shot into the sky!

The massive blast force directly blew the roof off the "Sewage Treatment Plant," hurling countless chunks of concrete and twisted steel beams a hundred meters into the air.

The terrifying shockwave, mixed with scorching heat, swept across all buildings within a four-hundred-meter radius.

Even Team Five, who had already retreated to a safe distance, felt their clothes rustle violently in the blast and had to crouch low.

"This..."

Namikaze Minato turned back to look at the massive mushroom cloud blooming in the rainy night, firelight reflecting in his blue pupils, his face etched with shock.

That destructive power was almost comparable to a Tailed Beast Bomb.

"Is this... Scientific Ninja Tools?"

Uchiha Fugaku stared at the towering flames, his throat dry.

He had originally thought Nishikawa Tetsu was just trying to cause some trouble, but this kid had gone and blown up their entire hideout.

Under that high temperature and chain explosion, forget Explosive Tags and Ration Pills—even Chakra Conductive Metal had probably melted.

"Art is an explosion."

Nishikawa Tetsu lay on the rooftop, calmly recording the blast radius and power.

"Heat release meets expectations, dust dispersion rate is high. Looks like Amegakure's ventilation system is very efficient—it helped a lot."

But just as the three were about to slip away in the chaos.

"AAAAHHHH!!"

From the burning ruins, several agonized screams suddenly rang out.

A few Amegakure Ninja, their bodies ablaze and eyes blinded by smoke, rushed out of the sea of fire like headless flies.

They writhed painfully in the mud, trying to extinguish the flames, but the fire mixed with thermite couldn't be put out by the rain.

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

"That's the enemy."

Uchiha Fugaku cut him off coldly, but a deep wariness crept into his gaze as he looked at Nishikawa Tetsu.

This youth, who usually seemed harmless and carried no air of a strong fighter, once he made a move, his methods were so ruthless and efficient they were appalling.

If this person wasn't a teammate, he would be a nightmare.

"Don't watch. Mission complete."

Nishikawa Tetsu put away his notebook, his expression utterly calm.

"With such a big commotion, Hanzo has definitely been alerted. If we don't want to be hunted by a demigod, we need to get out of the core zone fast."

"Let's move!"

Uchiha Fugaku made the call immediately.

The three of them used the chaos of the crowd and the cover of the flames to quickly sneak toward the outskirts of Amegakure.

But what they didn't know was...

Atop the tallest spire in Amegakure.

A muscular man wearing a gas mask, his upper body bare, stood at the peak, coldly overlooking the towering flames below.

Rain fell on him, streaming down the jagged scars on his body.

Hanzo of the Salamander.

"Konoha rats..."

Hanzo's voice was hoarse and low, filtering through the mask with a suffocating pressure.

He slowly raised the sickle in his hand, pointing it toward the direction of the explosion.

"Order a village-wide lockdown. Find those rats... for me."