Falsifying Battlefield Traces and the High-IQ Cleanup of a Perfect Frame-Up

Flying Thunder God formula.

Baishi stared at the black, bird-like markings on the inner side of Venom Fang's shattered mask, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks.

The wind in the canyon, thick with the stench of blood, poured into his nostrils. He had no time to marvel at Namikaze Minato's deep-seated schemes; his brain shifted into absolute rational tactical deduction mode within a tenth of a second.

Minato's chakra sensory range was immense. Once the ambush in the Redwood Forest concluded, or if Minato sensed the abnormal calm of the chakra fluctuations in this direction, he could teleport to this coordinate at any moment.

The time left to him might be ten minutes, or perhaps only thirty seconds.

The countdown began.

Enduring the numbness and excruciating pain in the left side of his body, Baishi grabbed the half-mask and threw it into the charred mud pit created by an Explosive Tag. He turned, dragging his toxin-eroded left leg, and limped toward the corpse of the Iwagakure jonin.

Scattered beside the body were several fragments of rock infused with high-density Earth Release chakra. Baishi picked up a sharp stone weighing several dozen pounds with his right hand, walked to the edge of the deep pit, and smashed it down hard onto the mask.

"Bang!"

The rock crushed the mask and the Flying Thunder God formula beneath it, driving them deep into the mire.

Physical destruction. This was the safest method. If he used his own chakra to erase it, he would inevitably leave traces. Now, it would simply look as if the Iwagakure jonin's Earth Release ninjutsu had inadvertently struck Venom Fang's mask during the battle.

But this was far from enough.

Baishi turned toward Venom Fang's corpse. There were two fatal wounds: the throat slit by a kunai and the heart shredded by a blade. These wounds were too clean, too concentrated—they were clearly the marks of an assassination technique, completely inconsistent with the logic of a head-on clash against an Iwagakure elite.

He had to cover it up.

Baishi walked to the remains of the Iwagakure Wind Release ninja he had killed with a Substitution Jutsu, rummaging through the man's ninja tool pouch to find a specialized Fuma shuriken with serrated edges. A faint trace of Wind-attribute chakra still lingered on the blade.

He returned to Venom Fang with the shuriken, raised it expressionlessly, and hacked brutally at the gaping wound on Venom Fang's neck.

"Squelch—"

Flesh tore and bone snapped. The serrated edge mangled the once-neat incision, forcibly disguising it as a jagged tear caused by a close-range Wind Release weapon.

Next, Baishi walked back to the Iwagakure jonin's corpse. Before dying, that man had used the Super Weighted Rock Fist; his right arm was completely petrified and incredibly heavy.

Gritting his teeth, Baishi used his only remaining hand to grab the heavy, petrified severed arm and dragged it to Venom Fang. He took a deep breath, hoisted the arm high, and slammed it down with all his might onto Venom Fang's chest!

"Crack!"

A sickening sound of shattering ribs echoed through the air. Venom Fang's entire chest cavity caved in under the immense force, and the kunai wound at his heart was pulverized into a pulp of flesh.

A perfect scene of mutual destruction.

Venom Fang had fought to the death to kill the Wind Release ninja, only to have his throat slashed by the enemy's final Fuma shuriken, and then his chest crushed by the enraged Iwagakure jonin's Super Weighted Rock Fist.

Baishi dropped the petrified arm and gasped for air. Sweat mixed with blood flowed into his eyes, stinging intensely.

Next was the most critical step—himself.

As a low-level cannon fodder survivor of a meat-grinder battle involving eight Iwagakure elites and an ANBU captain, if he only had one poison wound, Minato and the Third Hokage would definitely be suspicious. He had to fake a fatal wound, as if he had been desperately saved by his captain and nearly lost his life.

Baishi looked down and picked up the ANBU-issue blade that Venom Fang had dropped.

The blade was cold and sharp, reflecting his own pure white mask stained with mud.

He gripped the hilt, pointing the tip toward his own right abdomen. In his mind, he quickly simulated a safe cutting path that would avoid his liver and intestines.

Without a moment's hesitation.

"Pfft!"

The tip pierced his armor and sank into his flesh.

"Ugh—" Baishi let out a muffled groan, the veins on his forehead bulging. He gripped the hilt with both hands and, instead of pulling it out, jerked it outward along the grain of his muscles!

Blood surged out like a broken dam, staining a large portion of his uniform. The wound was extremely deep, the everted flesh looking gruesome and terrifying, less than two centimeters from a lethal organ.

The extreme pain caused Baishi's vision to black out in waves, but he forced himself to stay conscious.

He pulled out the blade, shoved the hilt into Venom Fang's stiff right hand, and pointed the tip diagonally toward the direction he had been standing. Then, he used a kunai to carve a deep, raised trail of earth in the mud in front of him.

The logic loop was closed.

The Iwagakure jonin had used Earth Style: Earth Rising Spears to try and impale Baishi from underground; Venom Fang had thrown his blade before dying, severing the tip of the Earth Rising Spears to save Baishi, but the deflected blade had inadvertently sliced open Baishi's abdomen.

Baishi leaned against a rock, scanning the area one last time with the corner of his eye.

Lightning Release!

When he had killed the Iwagakure jonin, he had used max-level Lightning Release, leaving obvious traces of high-temperature carbonization on several rocks. This level of Lightning Release was definitely not something a cannon fodder genin could perform.

Baishi gritted his teeth, pulled the last two Explosive Tags from his pouch, and precisely attached them to the scorched rocks.

He stepped back and performed a one-handed seal.

"Bang! Bang!"

Two consecutive explosions. The shockwaves shattered the rocks, and the thick smoke and the distinct burnt smell of the Explosive Tags perfectly covered the traces of the Lightning Release.

Everything was ready.

Baishi fished out a low-quality Soldier Pill and shoved it into his mouth; he didn't even have the strength to chew, swallowing it whole along with the blood. The medicinal power, meant to overdraw his potential, dissolved in his stomach, barely squeezing out a trace of extremely weak chakra.

He tore off a strip of cloth, tied it tightly around his abdominal wound, and pulled the damaged mask back onto his face.

Dragging his numb left leg and clutching his bleeding abdomen, Baishi staggered toward the exit of the canyon. He had to leave as soon as possible to meet the Konoha reinforcements and cement his miserable persona as the "sole survivor."

The canyon returned to a deathly silence, with only mud mixed with blood slowly seeping into the ground.

Half an hour later.

A subtle spatial fluctuation suddenly streaked across the sky in the direction of the Redwood Forest.

"Swish!"

A golden flash descended without warning onto the edge of the cliff above the canyon.

Namikaze Minato crouched on a tree trunk, gripping a specialized three-pronged kunai in his hand. A few drops of undried blood stained the hem of his white haori, clearly indicating he had just emerged from a brutal skirmish.

Minato's gaze swept over the devastated canyon below, his usually gentle blue eyes instantly hardening.

Corpses littered the ground.

The terrain had been altered by large-scale Earth Style jutsu.

And the air was thick with an inescapable, cloying scent of blood.

"Venom Fang Squad... wiped out?" Minato's brows furrowed tightly. With a flicker of movement, he instantly appeared in the center of the quagmire.

He went straight to Venom Fang's body. Looking at the horrific state of the collapsed chest and the torn throat, Minato's eyes grew razor-sharp.

He knelt down, his fingers pressing lightly against the edges of the wounds.

"Traces of Wind Style lacerations... and the crushing destruction of an Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Fist." Minato muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping over the ninja sword clutched in Venom Fang's hand and the mark of the severed Earth Style: Earth Rising Spears not far away.

The logic of the battle at the scene was crystal clear. This had been a desperate encounter; Venom Fang had perished alongside the Iwagakure elite to cover his subordinates.

Minato stood up and walked toward the deep pit created by the falling rocks. The Flying Thunder God coordinate he had originally left on Venom Fang's mask had vanished completely at this very spot.

He reached out to push aside the rubble and saw the shattered remains of an ANBU mask.

"Destroyed by the collateral damage of the Earth Style, then..." Minato mused.

Everything appeared seamless, perfectly logical.

Yet, deep in his heart, a faint, nagging sense of dissonance pulsed frantically. He closed his eyes, his powerful sensory perception spreading outward like ripples in water, attempting to capture any lingering chakra trails.

Iwagakure's Earth Style... Wind Style... and the remnants of Explosive Tag detonations.

Minato walked slowly to a rock shattered by an Explosive Tag. He knelt, extended his slender fingers, and pinched a bit of the charred soil that still held a trace of warmth.

He brought the soil to his nose and sniffed gently.

The next second, Namikaze Minato's pupils contracted sharply, and his knuckles tightened around the dirt.

Beneath the pungent smell of the Explosive Tag's gunpowder, there was a trace of a scent—extremely faint, yet highly distinct.

It was the unique, scorched odor produced by the combustion of potassium nitrate mixed with lightning-attribute chakra, a byproduct of using Lightning Release chakra to moisture-proof the Explosive Tags.

This obscure and highly difficult chakra control technique was something he had only ever smelled on one person.

Earlier that morning, in front of Ichiraku Ramen.

That low-ranking ANBU who had been held back by Kushina, the one who carried the scent of nitric acid—Baishi!