The glow from the Armory was left far behind. Darkness, like a cold giant beast, swallowed Mizuki Han and Haku in an instant.
The air in the underground maze seemed even thinner and more foul than before. It reeked of rust, rotting sludge, and some unknown chemical agent. Every breath reminded them that the silent feast of death was drawing ever closer.
"Fifty-eight hours until the poison gas is released."
Mizuki Han's voice rang through the narrow passage, devoid of emotion, stating only a cold fact. The huge scroll on his back, packed with High-Explosive Improved Type Explosive Tags, was as heavy as a small mountain, forcing him to expend extra strength with every step.
Haku stumbled along behind him, two ninja tool pouches, also packed with Explosive Tags, hanging at her sides. They nearly dragged her small frame to the ground. She gritted her teeth, not daring to complain, and fixed her eyes on the figure steadily moving through the darkness ahead, as if he were the only beacon she had in this hell.
Mizuki Han didn't take a straight path, nor did he follow the shortest route marked on the map. Like a spider familiar with every inch of its nest, he moved through the maze of pipes, fissures, and abandoned tunnels. His mind was the most efficient processor, overlaying and combining three different structural diagrams to build a dynamic, three-dimensional route in his head.
"Stop."
At the first target, the perimeter of the B-3 support pillar cluster, Mizuki Han suddenly raised a hand. They instantly pressed themselves against the damp rock wall. From not far ahead came the steady rhythm of footsteps and low voices.
"...Still haven't found them? Those two vanished into thin air."
"Captain Hozuki is missing too. The higher-ups are furious. They ordered us to search every rat hole we can crawl into!"
A three-man Anbu patrol slowly passed the corner, the light from their torches casting wavering shadows on the tunnel walls.
Mizuki Han held his breath, deliberately slowing even his heartbeat. He released a faint trace of chakra and coated himself and Haku in a thin layer of frost, lowering their body temperatures until they nearly matched their surroundings.
Only after the patrol's footsteps had completely faded into the depths of the tunnel did he slowly exhale.
"Move quickly. We have only thirty seconds."
He didn't let his guard down for a moment. In a flash, he reached the support structure formed by three enormous stone pillars. Like three silent giants, they supported half the foundation of the main Anbu office building above.
Without hesitation, Mizuki Han drew a dozen Underwater Specialized Type Explosive Tags from the scroll on his back. He didn't stick them directly to the dry surfaces of the pillars. Instead, he formed Hand Seals with one hand and called out, "Ice Release: Water Drawing Technique!"
The moisture in the air and the groundwater seeping through cracks in the rock seemed to be drawn by an invisible force. They formed thin streams of water that silently wound around the pillars, then quickly seeped into the nearly imperceptible gaps where the pillars met the foundation.
Then he precisely placed the Explosive Tags one by one where the water had gathered. Bound by chakra, the papers adhered firmly to the damp rock.
"Thirty-six-hour delay." Using the chakra at his fingertips, he set a countdown, precise to the second, on the trigger formula of each tag.
Haku watched, her heart pounding. She didn't understand why they weren't detonating them right away, why they had to wait so long.
"The power of simultaneous detonation and the destructive force of a chain reaction are two different things," Mizuki Han explained coldly, as if he had read her thoughts. "I want a domino effect. Once the first one falls, the rest won't get to decide for themselves."
After preparing the first trigger point, he didn't pause for a moment. He immediately led Haku into an even narrower sewage tunnel that reeked of filth.
"Forty-five hours until the poison gas is released."
The second target, support pillar C-5, lay directly beneath the Anbu Interrogation Department and the prison. The conditions here were even worse. Knee-deep black water gave off a nauseating stench, and unidentifiable filth floated on its surface.
Mizuki Han paid it no mind. He stepped through the slippery sludge and approached the massive pillar, which was nearly half submerged. Its surface was covered in a thick layer of slick moss and grime, making it impossible for ordinary Explosive Tags to stick.
"Ice Release: Frost Peel."
He placed his palm against the pillar, and an icy surge of chakra instantly spread across it. The grime and moss in that area froze at a visible rate, turned brittle, then cracked away with a sharp snap, taking a thin layer of stone with them and exposing the relatively dry, solid core beneath.
He took out more Explosive Tags and repeated the same process, placing them precisely and setting the countdown.
Time slipped away second by second.
They were like two ghosts walking along the edge of death, silently and efficiently carrying out their mad plan in the vast underground maze.
Every placement brought them within a hair's breadth of a patrol.
Once, just after they had placed a delayed Explosive Tag at a ventilation shaft junction, they heard metal scraping overhead. A squad of shinobi walked directly over the duct where they were hiding, their military boots clanging against the metal panels and shaking dust loose. Mizuki Han pinned Haku beneath him and created a blind spot with Ice Release. They were separated from death by no more than a thin sheet of metal.
Haku's nerves were stretched to their limit. Fear and exhaustion battered her fragile resolve in turn. But whenever she was about to give in, she only had to look at Mizuki Han's eyes, always calm and unruffled, to feel a surge of strength and force herself to keep going.
"Twelve hours until the poison gas is released."
When Mizuki Han said the number, they finally reached the last and most critical demolition point—the F-9 composite support structure.
This was where the underground base's Energy Hub was located. The air was no longer cold and damp, but carried a hint of dryness and heat. A deep, steady thrumming, like the heartbeat of a giant beast, came from within the rock layers. It was the sound of the chakra reactor running.
The sight before them was far more complex than the support pillars they had encountered earlier. This was no simple column, but a composite structure made of more than a dozen metal and stone pillars of varying sizes, cast together like a grotesque steel tree growing upside down, supporting the most vital area above.
"This is the heart of the entire plan." A hot gleam flickered in Mizuki Han's eyes.
From the scroll, he took out the last and most terrifying Explosive Tags of all: the High-Explosive Improved Type. They were larger, their inscriptions more complex, and they radiated an unnerving surge of energy.
He had to place each tag at the points marked on the diagram, with centimeter-level precision. He also had to connect them all with Chakra Threads to ensure a synchronized detonation with zero delay at the final moment.
The work demanded extreme precision. Not a single mistake was acceptable.
Mizuki Han took a deep breath and focused completely on this final stage. His fingers flew across the complex structure as he attached the Explosive Tags one by one, then drew nearly invisible threads of ice to connect each tag to the one before it.
Sweat ran down his temple, but he didn't notice.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
As he picked up the last Explosive Tag and prepared to place it at the energy feedback node at the very core of the structure—
His movements suddenly stopped.
An ice thread he had set as an alarm line at the entrance to a passage hundreds of meters away, a route they were bound to pass through, had snapped.
The sensation of its breaking was like the faintest electric current. It traveled along the web of ice threads spread through the maze, perceptible only to him, and reached his fingertips in an instant.
Something had come in.
And it was moving incredibly fast! Almost immediately after the thread snapped, it had already breached the second and third alarm lines he had set. This wasn't the slow movement of a patrol. This was...the charge of an apex predator!
Mizuki Han's pupils contracted to the dangerous point of a needle.
He didn't turn around or warn Haku.
There was no time.
An indescribably heavy pressure, as crushing as a mountain, descended upon the space without warning! It wasn't killing intent, but the absolute suppression of one life form over another. It was as if a dragon had silently appeared behind two ants.
The air around them froze.
At that moment, even the deep rumble of the energy reactor seemed impossibly distant.
Mizuki Han slowly turned his head, inch by inch.
Less than five meters behind him and Haku stood a figure who hadn't been there a moment ago.
The man wore a Mist Anbu uniform, but his was of far finer make. A special flame-shaped insignia on his shoulder marked him as a squad leader. He wore no mask. His hard, weather-beaten face bore several scars, and his eyes were as sharp as a hawk's as he watched them impassively.
He seemed to have stepped out of the shadows. There had been no footsteps, no breathing, not even the slightest ripple of chakra.
He simply stood there, as if he had become one with the darkness.
An elite jonin!
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