Scientific Ninjutsu!

"Don't be ridiculous! They're just a few genin!"

On the rock wall, the scarred jonin peered through the firing hole at the three Konoha brats below, who seemed to have given up resistance and were whispering among themselves. Yet an inexplicable sense of unease swelled in his heart.

"Quick! Activate Rock Avalanche! Bury them!"

With his roar, the four Stone Ninja's hand seals accelerated abruptly. The entire canyon's rock face began to emit teeth-grinding cracking sounds, as if a massive mouth was slowly closing shut.

Just at this critical moment.

"Minato, now!" Nishikawa Tetsu barked in a low voice.

Without a shred of hesitation, Namikaze Minato trusted this teammate who had graduated from the Ninja Academy alongside him.

The golden figure once again transformed into a streak of light, charging headlong toward the solid semicircular earthen fortress, defying the rubble tumbling down from above.

"Looking for death!"

The scarred jonin sneered, manipulating the spikes on the Earth Flow Wall to meet the attack.

But this time, Namikaze Minato didn't close in for close combat. Five meters away from the fortress, he suddenly flicked his wrist, and three bulging paper bags shot out like thrown weapons, threading precisely through the narrow firing hole.

Immediately after, a kunai flew faster, overtaking the bags and slashing them open midair.

"Puff!"

Gray-white powder exploded inside the sealed earthen fortress, spreading like thick fog, rapidly filling every corner.

"Cough, cough! What is this? Poison smoke?"

"No... it smells like flour? And there's a rusty odor?"

Coughing voices of confusion and alarm came from within the fortress.

They had assumed it was Explosive Tags or poison gas bombs, never expecting a cloud of choking dust.

The moment he threw the paper bags, Namikaze Minato had already forcibly twisted his trajectory, using the Body Flicker Technique to retreat explosively back to the Safe Zone.

"Right now, senior!" Nishikawa Tetsu's voice was cold, almost ruthless.

No reminder was needed. Uchiha Fugaku, who had been poised and ready, flashed a sharp glint in his eyes.

That shuriken with an Explosive Tag attached was infused with Chakra and flung using the unique Uchiha-style shuriken jutsu.

The shuriken traced an eerie arc through the air, dodging the falling rocks, and like a serpent slithering into a burrow, it shot with pinpoint accuracy into the firing hole still spewing white dust.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze.

Inside the fortress, the scarred jonin stared at the Explosive Tag flying in with sparks, and the high-concentration mixture of Aluminum Powder and flour filling the air. His pupils shrank to pinpricks.

As a battle-hardened jonin, he didn't understand science, but instinct screamed the scent of death.

"Defe—"

He only managed to shout one word.

The Explosive Tag detonated.

A tiny spark, in the confined space, instantly ignited every microscopic particle of dust suspended in the air.

What had been a gentle burn of dust now triggered a chain reaction. The heat from the rapid combustion made the air expand hundreds of times in an instant. The sealed fortress became a pressure cooker, then exploded at the breaking point.

"BOOM——!!!"

A thunderous roar, several times louder than the earlier "Rock Avalanche," shook the entire canyon.

The indestructible "Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall" wasn't broken from the outside—it was blown apart from within like a balloon!

Orange-red firelight mixed with a shockwave instantly shredded the rock defense. A massive blast of air, laced with searing heat, flung the four Stone Ninja out like ragdolls.

The terrifying temperature instantly vaporized the surrounding rain, forming a huge white mushroom cloud of steam.

Even the three standing dozens of meters away could feel the scorching wave of heat rushing toward them.

"This..."

Uchiha Fugaku instinctively raised a hand to shield his face. His usually composed and proud expression was now etched with shock.

He stared at the fortress, now leveled to the ground, and the Stone Ninja scattered across the earth, charred black, their lives hanging by a thread. His throat went dry.

This power was more fearsome than a B-rank or even A-rank Fire Style jutsu.

And this was just from a few bags of powder and a single Explosive Tag?

The smoke gradually cleared.

Nishikawa Tetsu stepped out from behind the rock, dusting off his clothes, a kunai already in hand.

"That's a Dust Explosion."

He walked toward the fallen Stone Ninja, explaining calmly, as if summarizing an experiment report.

"In a confined space, when combustible dust mixes thoroughly with air and meets an open flame, a violent oxidation reaction occurs. Add in the Aluminum Powder and iron oxide I mixed in, and the explosion triggers a Thermite Reaction, reaching temperatures over 2000 degrees."

As he spoke, Nishikawa Tetsu reached the scarred jonin.

The man was tenacious. Though severely burned all over, his prized hardened skin blasted into raw flesh, he still twitched faintly, his eyes filled with extreme terror and confusion.

"Des...picable." The scarred jōnin forced out two words from his throat.

"This is war, not a duel."

Nishikawa Tetsu expressionlessly raised a kunai and drove it precisely into the other's heart.

"Pfft."

Blood splattered in the rain.

Then, suppressing the churning storm in his heart, he expertly searched the corpse, pocketing the enemy's ninja tool pouch and intelligence scrolls with movements as practiced as a veteran bounty hunter.

Namikaze Minato also walked over, watching Nishikawa Tetsu's actions with a complicated look in his eyes, but more admiration than anything else: "Back there, how did you calculate all of that?"

"Observation." Nishikawa Tetsu stood up, handing a bloodstained scroll to Namikaze Minato. "If I hadn't used the terrain and their defensive mindset, we'd have been buried just now."

At that moment, Uchiha Fugaku approached.

He looked at the four corpses on the ground, then at Nishikawa Tetsu wiping his kunai, and fell silent for a long time.

The earlier contempt and disdain vanished without a trace in that instant.

Though Nishikawa Tetsu's chakra reserves were still pitifully small and his taijutsu still mediocre, the tactical deployment he'd shown in that split second and that spine-chilling "knowledge" made Uchiha Fugaku realize this boy was no burden.

In fact, he was more dangerous than most chūnin who only knew how to blast each other with jutsu.

Tacticians all had dirty hearts!

"Hey."

Uchiha Fugaku spoke up. His tone was still a bit awkward, but the lofty arrogance had receded considerably: "Is that also ninjutsu?"

Nishikawa Tetsu looked up, meeting those black eyes that had already deactivated the Sharingan, and the corner of his mouth curled slightly:

"No, senpai. That's science."

Uchiha Fugaku's mouth twitched, as if he wanted to argue, but looking at the brutal results before him, he just snorted and turned his head away.

"Don't get cocky. You did well this time."

He paused, lowering his voice until it was somewhat muffled:

"That command back there... wasn't bad."

For a proud Uchiha, that was already the highest praise.

Nishikawa Tetsu smiled, not calling out the tsundere senpai's attempt to cover his tracks.

"Cleanup's done. We need to leave fast. With that much noise, other enemies will be here soon."

"Mm."

Namikaze Minato nodded, a new layer of trust in his gaze toward Nishikawa Tetsu. Though both had graduated from the Ninja Academy, honestly, they'd had no prior connection.

But even if this was their first time working together, this temporary Team Five had quietly forged something called bonds through the trial of life and death.

The rain kept falling, but the three of them walked with noticeably lighter steps than before.

Only Uchiha Fugaku would occasionally sneak a glance at the ninja tool pouch on Nishikawa Tetsu's back, muttering inwardly: What the hell else does that guy have stashed in there?