Unleashing Talk no Jutsu on Fugaku!

Leaving Jiraiya's command tent, a chūnin in charge of logistics led the three toward the rest area.

The rain was still falling, and the paths through the tent area were thick with mud.

With the surge in frontline casualties, living conditions were especially tight, and it was common to see several ninja crammed into a single small tent.

"Um... Lord Fugaku."

The guiding chūnin stopped before a relatively spacious, dry, standalone tent, his tone respectful and even a bit ingratiating: "This is the single tent reserved specially for you. As for the two genin, there's still space in the big bunk ahead..."

In Konoha, the Uchiha Clan, as the prestigious family controlling the Police Force, indeed enjoyed certain privileges. Even on the front lines, no one wanted to offend this clan of red-eyed men.

Uchiha Fugaku stopped, glanced at the comfortable single tent, then turned to look behind him at Namikaze Minato and Nishikawa Tetsu, soaked through and silently preparing to head for the big bunk.

"Unnecessary."

Uchiha Fugaku coldly cut off the chūnin's words, arms crossed: "Leave this tent for the seriously wounded. Arrange a three-person tent for us, or... we'll all squeeze into this one."

The chūnin froze: "Huh? But my lord, that goes against protocol."

Uchiha Fugaku glared at him impatiently: "These two newcomers have zero battlefield experience. If we're attacked in the middle of the night, with no one watching them, they'll die horribly. I need to supervise them up close."

"Yes, yes! Understood!" The chūnin flinched, quickly nodding and bowing as he withdrew.

Namikaze Minato looked at Uchiha Fugaku with some surprise, then broke into his trademark warm smile: "Fugaku-senpai, you really don't have to—"

"Shut up."

Uchiha Fugaku didn't give him a chance to hand out a good-guy card. He pushed aside the tent flap and stepped inside, his voice muffled as it came out: "Don't get the wrong idea. I just don't want a teammate's death to lower the mission evaluation. Get in!"

The corner of Nishikawa Tetsu's mouth lifted almost imperceptibly.

Hard-mouthed as he was, this was indeed a reliable teammate.

Inside the tent, space was tight. After the three spread out their sleeping bags, it felt cramped.

The dim oil lamp flickered in the wind, stretching and shortening their shadows.

The atmosphere was heavy for a time, with only the sound of rain pattering against the canvas.

"Now, let's review today's battle."

Uchiha Fugaku sat cross-legged at the innermost spot, holding a polishing cloth as he carefully maintained a kunai. His expression was stern, clearly settling into the role of squad leader.

"Namikaze Minato."

"Here." Minato, who had been organizing his tools, immediately sat up straight.

"Your speed is excellent, and your reflexes are top-tier. But when you attacked that Stone jōnin, you were too impulsive." Uchiha Fugaku criticized without mercy.

"Charging in recklessly without knowing the enemy's abilities is suicide."

"What if he had not only Earth Spear but also Explosive Tags stuck to his body?"

Namikaze Minato scratched his head, his expression sincere: "You're right. When I saw Tetsu in danger, my body moved before my brain. I'll be more careful next time."

"And you, Nishikawa Tetsu."

Uchiha Fugaku turned his gaze to Nishikawa Tetsu, who was using an alcohol lamp to dry out his "spoils of war."

"That science of yours is indeed useful—it saved our lives. But—"

Uchiha Fugaku's eyes sharpened: "That's ultimately an external force. If this had been a battle on open ground, or without that sealed earth fortress, would your little tricks have worked?"

"Your chakra reserves are too low. That's a fundamental weakness for a ninja. Once you're dragged into a war of attrition, you become the squad's biggest liability."

This was the truth, and also Nishikawa Tetsu's biggest pain point at the moment.

Nishikawa Tetsu paused his work, set the dried Stone ninja headband aside, and looked up to meet Uchiha Fugaku's eyes.

"Senpai's criticism is fair. My chakra reserves are indeed a weakness, which is why I use science to compensate."

At that, Nishikawa Tetsu's tone shifted abruptly, a glint flashing in his eyes: "But since senpai brought up attrition, I have a question I'd like to ask."

"Speak."

"The 'Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique' senpai used in the ravine—though impressive in scale—from an energy conversion standpoint, has a waste rate of up to 40%."

The air inside the tent froze instantly.

Namikaze Minato's mouth fell open as he stared at Nishikawa Tetsu in disbelief.

Was this guy insane?

He was actually questioning the Uchiha Clan's fire release? That was their specialty!

Sure enough, a vein bulged on Uchiha Fugaku's forehead, and the polishing cloth in his hand was crumpled into a mess.

"What did you say?"

Uchiha Fugaku's voice was dangerously low, his Sharingan almost activating on its own. "A genin who hasn't even mastered Nature Transformation is teaching an Uchiha how to use fire release?"

"It's not teaching, but data analysis."

Nishikawa Tetsu wasn't intimidated. He pulled a match from his bag and struck it lightly.

Orange-yellow flames flickered at his fingertips.

"Senior, take a look. The color of this flame is about 800 degrees. The Uchiha Clan's Great Fireball, on the other hand, usually burns a deep orange or red. That means incomplete combustion—a lot of carbon particles, basically soot, mixed into the flame."

Nishikawa Tetsu shook out the match and continued.

"Even though this kind of flame looks massive and has an impressive visual impact, its actual heat density isn't very high."

"When you perform the technique, you release too much Chakra in pursuit of range, but you don't fully convert that Chakra into thermal energy. A lot of it just burns off as fuel, wasted."

"For perfect combustion..."

Nishikawa Tetsu pulled out another strip of magnesium left over from the flash bombs he'd made earlier and lit it.

Sizzle!

A blinding white light flared, accompanied by an extremely high temperature.

"See that? Blue or white flames mean complete combustion. With the same amount of Chakra, if you compress the volume and improve the oxygen mixture ratio, the temperature can more than double, and the penetrating power will be much stronger."

Nishikawa Tetsu looked at the stunned Uchiha Fugaku and delivered his final conclusion.

"To be precise, Senior, your Great Fireball is spitting fire, not burning it."

"That's where that 40% of Chakra is wasted. If you can improve this point, even without activating the Sharingan, you'd burn through that Stone Ninja's Earth Flow Wall."

The tent fell into a deathly silence.

Uchiha Fugaku stared hard at Nishikawa Tetsu, but in his mind, he was replaying the feeling of using his Fire Release.

All along, Uchiha teachings had been: more Chakra, bigger fireball, stronger power.

No one had ever told him there was this kind of relationship between flame color and temperature.

If anyone else had said this, he would have kicked them away long ago.

But the boy in front of him had just used a few bags of flour to blow up a Jonin.

Such an outrageous feat gave his theory a strange kind of persuasiveness.

"Compress the volume... mixture ratio..."

Uchiha Fugaku muttered to himself. As a genius, he vaguely grasped a thread of inspiration.

If it really was like Nishikawa Tetsu said, didn't that mean his ninjutsu power could still be raised another level?

A long moment passed.

Uchiha Fugaku let out a long breath. The taut pride in him loosened a little, replaced by a complicated look in his eyes.

"Hmph. Full of nonsense."

He turned around, lay down with his back to the two of them, and pulled up the blanket.

"We have to get up early for training tomorrow. If I try it and it doesn't work, you'd better be ready to get beaten."

Namikaze Minato watched this scene and couldn't help secretly giving Nishikawa Tetsu a thumbs up.

Being able to shut up a proud Uchiha, even making him start doubting himself—that was more impressive than an S-rank jutsu.

Nishikawa Tetsu blew out the oil lamp.

In the darkness, he lay on the hard cot, listening to the rain gradually quieting outside.

Step one: build trust and authority—done.

Next, in this brutal war, keep up with these two future big shots and survive together.