Hello, Transport Captain

Over the next few days, Retsuo continued training inside Hokage Rock.

After a period of recuperation, Uchiha Retsuo was certain he had been overthinking things.

So what if Obito came? Being spied on was no big deal. Even if Obito's intelligence was only 2, he wouldn't gouge out my eyes right now.

The first thing Obito needed to consider was probably how to stimulate him enough to awaken the Mangekyo safely.

Considering that no one in Uchiha Clan history had ever awakened the Mangekyo while under Genjutsu, the alarm over being controlled by Obito's Genjutsu could temporarily be lifted as well. Surely, under Uchiha Madara's careful tutelage, Obito couldn't make such a basic mistake.

Of course, driving him away would be even better. Let him sink into deep suspicion.

However, one night, the temporary site where Uchiha Clan's archives were stored caught fire. Not only did Fugaku fly into a rage, but the village also intervened to investigate.

Konoha was on edge now. It couldn't tolerate the slightest mishap.

Outwardly, the village was undertaking massive construction and rebuilding in full swing. Inwardly, Sarutobi Hiruzen summoned all the Jōnin for a meeting, announced Minato Namikaze's death, prepared a grand memorial ceremony, and simultaneously released word to sound out the major Ninja Clans' attitudes.

The people rushing around handling all these matters probably didn't know that the mastermind behind Konoha's destruction had also been busy in the village yesterday, coming and going as if he were visiting friends.

Retsuo arrived especially early today. Tenma and Shinji had not arrived yet, and the spacious interior of Hokage Rock was quiet.

This was an artificially excavated space. The eyes of the successive Hokage's faces were actually openings, through which mottled light spilled onto the ground. It was not dark inside.

Retsuo slowly walked along the surrounding mountain walls, then concentrated Chakra in the soles of his feet and climbed the walls using the same method as tree climbing and water walking.

Carefully and meticulously, he searched inch by inch.

He was looking for Explosive Tags.

According to history, a war had broken out in the Land of Mountains twenty years ago. Konoha had played dirty and destroyed Kagerō Village while its main forces were away. Gen, a master of mechanisms from Kagerō Village, came seeking revenge, but his merely decent Taijutsu was clearly no match for Konoha, which was filled with experts.

So Gen changed his appearance and worked for Konoha as a carpenter. As a high-quality migrant worker, he earned a large salary in Konoha Village, then spared no expense to lay a vast number of Explosive Tags in ambush. The core area was inside Hokage Rock.

Once Hokage Rock exploded, the vital part of Konoha built along the mountains would be buried.

This was no easy task. Gen believed that revenge could wait ten years and did not seek to accomplish everything in one stroke. Instead, he came to Konoha to work for a while every few years, gradually perfecting his Explosive Tag formation.

Relying on his mastery of mechanisms, Gen easily won the favor of Konoha's head construction foreman. He then scrimped and saved, entering the cycle of work—buy Explosive Tags—work.

This was... Five big words surfaced in Retsuo's mind: Transport Captain?

Gen's Genjutsu for concealing the Explosive Tags was not particularly profound. Its strength lay in its lasting concealment. Its purpose was to catch Konoha completely off guard.

That was also one of the reasons Retsuo had chosen this place as his training ground. Today was the day the Third Hokage was holding a memorial ceremony, so Retsuo had deliberately waited until today to come harvest the Explosive Tags.

Either way, this would save him a lot of trouble—or solve a lot of trouble.

Searching inch by inch, he soon found an Explosive Tag and took it in his hand. In the middle of the rectangular talisman paper was a large "explosion" character, surrounded by nothing but incomprehensible scribbles.

"Ha!" Retsuo thought, This is a windfall. Explosive Tags were the C-position among standard weapons, the hardest of hard currencies. They were also a more reasonable unit of large-scale value than something like Asuma. They were practically banknotes that could catch fire and explode.

In other words, the inside of Hokage Rock was plastered with money!

Even as a source of combat power, the amount was astonishing.

The Forbidden Jutsu developed by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju—Mutual Destruction: Explosive Tag Technique—was a Forbidden Jutsu that struck terror into anyone who heard of it. At present, no one in Konoha could use it.

The hardest person in the entire Shinobi World to kill, Uchiha Obito, had once been killed by Konan using Explosive Tags.

Even Nagato Uzumaki, who proclaimed himself a god, had both legs crippled by Hanzō of the Salamander's "Explosive Flame Formation," leaving him unable to walk properly ever since. This showed just how high the upper limit of damage Explosive Tags could inflict was.

Speaking of which, the Shinobi World had countless strange formations. Combining Ninja Tools with formations made for a truly unique experience.

However, to injure a Kage-level fighter, one needed an enormous quantity.

For example, this wall's worth might be barely enough to kill Danzo.

Retsuo scratched his head.

It was not because there were too few to kill Danzo, but because feeling around inch by inch was simply too slow. More importantly, it was not safe.

These were Explosive Tags, and they were invisible. If he touched the wrong place by accident, they would explode.

If he had the Byakugan, opening his eyes would presumably reveal everything at a glance. Unfortunately, the Sharingan did not have that function.

Suddenly, Retsuo had an idea. He held up the Explosive Tag and stared at it for a while, then put his hands on his hips and began laughing uproariously. "Hahaha—hahaha—"

The emotions he had spent a day brewing transformed into surging Yin Release Chakra. His barrier unfolded, and the Explosive Tag immediately reacted.

"I knew it!"

Retsuo thought, This barrier's reflection against Genjutsu is really sensitive. It repels any Genjutsu, and even the tiny residue left on the Explosive Tag couldn't escape. It's practically a Genjutsu early-warning radar.

Just as he was basking in satisfaction, red light suddenly flashed across the Explosive Tag.

Retsuo hurriedly threw it away and retreated as fast as he could. With a loud bang, the Explosive Tag detonated in midair, blasting Retsuo until he was covered in soot. Its power was considerable.

"Could the Yin Release Barrier trigger the explosion?" Retsuo could not understand it. Over the past few days, while testing his Yin Release Barrier, he had already tried it and found that it could not make Explosive Tags detonate...

"Could it be... because these Explosive Tags already have Genjutsu attached to them?"

Explosive Tags generally had two uses: active and passive.

The active method was to bind the Explosive Tag in place, such as tying it to a Kunai, then tear off the seal on the talisman paper. It was equivalent to a grenade: throw it together with the Kunai and blow up the enemy.

However, a single Explosive Tag had very limited effect, roughly the killing power of a stun grenade. At the beginning of Shippuden, Sakura Haruno used her face to take an Explosive Tag head-on in order to disperse poisonous smoke, yet emerged completely unharmed.

Therefore, this method was usually not meant to maximize damage, but to delay the enemy or even muddy the waters.

The passive method was to arrange them as traps, following the principle of land mines and waiting for the enemy to trigger them.

This usually required burying dozens more Explosive Tags to create a chain detonation and kill the target in one blow.

But there was an even more advanced method: detonating them remotely. When the prey entered the trap, they would not trigger immediately. Instead, the user would wait for the right moment and detonate them through hand seals or a similar technique.

Retsuo plucked off another Explosive Tag and tested it slightly. His eyes immediately lit up. Sure enough, it was not a pressure-triggered mine.

Moreover, the threshold for making it explode was not low. Triggering it required the Yin Release Barrier to exert force. He had simply used too much force by accident just now, which was why it detonated.

That meant... if all the invisible Explosive Tags throughout this mountainside could be detonated remotely, then he deserved extra pay!

Retsuo spread out his steps and began searching along the mountain wall. He soon discovered that Gen was truly something else. This space inside the mountain was densely packed with Explosive Tags—there had to be several thousand of them.

This was ridiculous! Hey—what should he do if his Ninja Tool Pouch was not big enough? He would have to bring a Sealing Scroll next time.

Then again, without this quantity, it would probably be impossible to collapse Hokage Rock. After all, it was an entire mountain.

After filling his Ninja Tool Pouch, Retsuo had intended to pause his harvesting. He had brought quite a few targets and pieces of equipment today, enough to set up a proper training ground and practice fancy Shuriken throwing.

But a new idea soon popped into his mind. Since these Explosive Tags had been discovered by the Yin Release Barrier, he did not need to dispel the Genjutsu on them before removing them.

What if he spread them across the ground...

Once the idea came to him, he acted on it.

Before, Retsuo had first used Chakra to erase the Genjutsu on each Explosive Tag before removing it. This time, he proceeded cautiously, first enclosing each tag with his barrier and confirming its position, then removing it blindly.

In reality, it was not that difficult. He had already removed a pouch containing several hundred. He knew their size, and even the adhesive strength was nearly predictable.

Soon, Retsuo removed the first one. Holding it in his hand felt strange. The Genjutsu on it seemed like camouflage. Resting in his palm, the entire Explosive Tag turned flesh-colored, making for a rather bizarre sight.

Explosive Tags in this state were definitely unsuitable for storing in a Ninja Tool Pouch. For one thing, it was impossible to distinguish the front from the back. They were also prone to accidental friction and inconvenient to retrieve.

Once spread across the ground, the ink on the talisman paper gradually changed color, soon blending into the earth.

Nice! This Genjutsu had great value as something to learn from.

If the Explosive Tags were toys, they had suddenly become much more fun at this moment.

While Tenma and Shinji had yet to arrive, Retsuo swiftly removed more than a hundred and spread them throughout the training ground, watching them vanish from sight.

This was the feeling he wanted—the sensation of pairing a Yin Release Barrier with Genjutsu-hidden Explosive Tag traps, of laying down an entire field of traps where only the hunter knew where to step.

The feeling of possessing power.

Even a tiny amount of power was still power.