At last, the rain that had poured for months stopped today.
The dark clouds parted, revealing the pale sunlight they hadn't seen in ages. But this wasn't a sign of peace—it was the brief afterglow before the decisive battle.
Hanzo's main force had assembled on the plains outside Amegakure, while Konoha's Allied Shinobi Forces stood ready for battle.
Inside the camp.
"Fugaku, you're staying behind."
Nishikawa Tetsu adjusted his gear as he pressed Uchiha Fugaku back down when he tried to get up. "Your eyes aren't just yours anymore. They're a strategic secret for Konoha. Until your vision recovers, you can't go to the front lines."
Fugaku sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes wrapped in thick bandages.
He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, but eventually let them relax.
"...I know." Fugaku's voice was low. "Don't die. I don't want this blind man having to bury you all in the end."
"Don't worry." Namikaze Minato adjusted his Forehead Protector. His right shoulder was still a little stiff, but after Tsunade's treatment, he could make Hand Seals without difficulty. "We'll fight hard enough for both ourselves and you."
Nishikawa Tetsu said no more. He fastened the last piece of equipment to his left forearm.
It was a bracer with a cold metallic sheen, its intricate structure revealing fine gears and high-strength Chakra Threads within.
"What's that?" Minato asked curiously. "Is it different from the last one?"
"Scientific Ninja Tools 2.0. I call it Bee Sting."
Nishikawa Tetsu raised his left arm and flexed his fingers. The bracer made a faint mechanical clacking sound. "After analyzing Kazama Sousuke's puppet scroll, I extracted the high-pressure energy storage mechanism from Sunagakure puppet cores and combined it with principles from physics."
He picked up a specially made Senbon from the table. It had a spiral groove at the tail. He slid it into the bracer's slot.
"Before, throwing relied on muscle power, so the limit was too low. But this..."
Nishikawa Tetsu focused, feeding a tiny amount of Chakra into the bracer.
"Click."
The internal springs and Chakra Threads tightened at once, storing potential energy until it reached its limit.
"Pfft!"
A faint sound of something cutting through the air rang out, so quiet it was almost imperceptible.
Fifty meters away, a small hole suddenly appeared straight through a solid wooden post holding up a tent.
The Senbon had vanished, apparently piercing the post and continuing farther into the distance.
Minato's pupils contracted slightly.
"That's fast, and you didn't even have to swing your arm."
"Its initial velocity is 400 meters per second—in other words, supersonic." Nishikawa Tetsu's gaze was calm. "At close range, unless you have dynamic vision on the level of the Sharingan, you won't even be able to react. This is the kind of 'science' I'm after."
With this, even when he was low on Chakra, as long as he had enough to activate the Chakra Threads, he could unleash enough firepower to kill a Chunin in an instant.
"Let's go." Nishikawa Tetsu put away the bracer. "The three commanders have already left. Today, we'll witness history."
The battle that would make the Sannin famous!
Central plains of the Land of Rain.
The two armies faced off, their murderous presence making the air feel thick.
On Konoha's side, Jiraiya stood atop the giant Gamabunta, Orochimaru rode Manda, and Tsunade stood on the back of the giant Katsuyu.
The three towering Summoned Beasts exerted an incomparable pressure.
Across from them stood a single man.
Hanzo of the Salamander.
He stood atop a huge salamander whose body streamed with purple poison. Holding a Kusarigama, he faced Konoha's army alone, his imposing presence undiminished.
"You Konoha brats."
Hanzo's voice carried across the battlefield through his mask. "You destroyed my weapons and cut off my supply lines. Today, you'll repay that debt in blood!"
"Save it, Hanzo!" Jiraiya shouted. "The war ends today!"
"Then come and try!"
The battle was about to begin.
Thousands of shinobi crashed into one another like two surging torrents.
Shuriken filled the air, and the glow of Ninjutsu lit up the gloomy sky in a dazzling array of colors.
Nishikawa Tetsu and Minato didn't charge at the front. Instead, they moved along the flank of the battlefield, picking off Rain shinobi who tried to circle around behind them.
"Die!"
A Rain Chunin charged at Nishikawa Tetsu with a vicious grin, raising his long sword high.
Nishikawa Tetsu stood perfectly still, not even making a move to form Hand Seals.
Just as the Rain shinobi thought his opponent had frozen in fear, Nishikawa Tetsu merely raised his left hand a little and gave a slight flick of his fingers.
"Pfft!"
A red dot appeared between the Rain shinobi's eyebrows.
He took two more steps in his charging stance, then toppled straight to the ground. He died without ever understanding what had happened.
"Number twelve."
Nishikawa Tetsu coolly recorded the data. Bee Sting worked even better in battle than he'd expected; it had enough penetrating power to pierce a standard flak jacket.
On the other side, Minato became a streak of golden light. Every time he flashed across the battlefield, he took a life.
Although he hadn't finished developing the Rasengan, his ghostly speed and precise Taijutsu had already made him a battlefield reaper.
An ordinary Chunin? Just a slightly bigger punching bag.
But their advantage on the ordinary battlefield didn't last long.
The key to victory lay in the battle between the handful of top fighters at the center of the battlefield.
"Summoning Jutsu: Ibuse!"
Watching the battle grow increasingly deadlocked, Hanzo finally lost patience.
He stamped down hard, and the giant salamander beneath him opened its dreadful maw.
"Not good!"
Tsunade, standing on Katsuyu, turned pale. "Everyone! Hold your breath! Retreat, now!"
But it was too late.
"Whoosh—!!!"
A thick cloud of poison, almost purple-black in color, erupted from the salamander's mouth like a tsunami.
The poisonous fog covered a vast area and spread at incredible speed. Carried by the wind, it instantly engulfed Konoha's vanguard.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
"Ah! My eyes!"
"Help... I can't breathe..."
The battlefield, which had been filled with fighting moments earlier, became a living hell.
Hundreds and thousands of Konoha shinobi crumpled in agony the moment the poisonous fog touched them. Their skin blistered, foam spilled from their mouths, and they writhed on the ground.
Even the burly Summoned Beasts roared in pain inside the fog, forced to break the summoning and disappear.
"Damn it! It covers too wide an area!"
Nishikawa Tetsu and Minato were near the edge of the battlefield, watching the purple harbinger of death spread toward them.
"Minato! Put this on!"
Nishikawa Tetsu reacted instantly. He pulled two specially made gas masks from his pack, tossed one to Minato, and quickly put on the other.
He'd prepared them when he raided the armory. They were filled with activated charcoal and antidote tailored to Amegakure's poison.
It wasn't that he didn't want to give one to every Konoha shinobi. The main problem was that the materials were hard to come by.
"Get to higher ground! Poison gas is heavier than air. It'll settle in low-lying areas!"
The two quickly used the Body Flicker Technique to reach a rocky outcrop nearby.
The sight from above was utterly despairing.
The entire plain was shrouded in purple fog. Thousands of shinobi, friend and foe alike, had all fallen.
Only three figures remained standing in the very center of the poisonous fog.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru.
Tsunade was using Medical Ninjutsu at full power. Not only was she keeping herself alive, she was desperately sending Chakra and antidote to the two men beside her.
"Is this... the power of a demigod?"
Minato's voice sounded muffled through his gas mask, but he couldn't conceal his shock.
With a single move, Hanzo had taken an entire army out of the fight.
"It's not over yet."
Nishikawa Tetsu stared intently at the center of the battlefield. Though he wore a mask, he could still sense the terrifying Chakra fluctuations coming from there.
The poisonous fog began to clear a little.
Before you continue