The purplish-black poisonous fog resembled an unyielding mass of ink.
Driven by the northwest wind, it rolled across the dry riverbed.
Like a thick veil, it silently shrouded the perimeter of the Konoha Industrial Town.
Chiyo stepped on a rough pine branch.
She crouched on a branch ten meters high in the tree. The old bark pressed against her knees.
She couldn't feel any pain.
A pair of eyes, full of withered wrinkles, were fixed on the searchlights of the factory area in the distance.
The toxic fumes spread rapidly.
I squeezed through the three-meter-high barbed wire fence and into the factory building through the ventilation louvers on the roof.
They also disappeared into the green belts on both sides of the patrol road.
The wild grass, contaminated with the toxic fumes, withered and turned yellow and black instantly. Its leaves curled up and rotted into the mud.
Chiyo's chapped lips twitched upwards.
Several yellowed dentures were visible.
This was the culmination of half a month of hard work. She used the venom sacs of three desert vipers, plus the juice of Gelsemium elegans.
Just one breath into your lungs.
The trachea will turn into bloody fluid. The person will roll on the ground, tearing their own throat.
She is waiting.
Waiting for those heart-wrenching coughs. Waiting for the screams that filled the factory area like a complete mess.
The wind blew through the woods, and the leaves rustled and whispered.
Five minutes passed.
Ten minutes passed.
The town of Konoha ahead was brightly lit.
The sound of heavy stamping presses slamming against steel plates inside the factory still echoed rhythmically.
"Clang! Clang!"
The blast furnace chimney was still spewing out white steam.
Faintly, one could still hear the shouts of the workers inside.
"This furnace isn't hot enough! Add two more cartloads of coal!"
"Push the steel bars aside! Don't block the way!"
Chiyo's sinister smile froze.
My dentures on my lower jaw loosened and hit my lip, causing a slight pain.
She frowned, her face crinkling into a deep wrinkle.
His withered fingers dug into the tree trunk, his fingernails filled with pine shavings.
No one screamed.
No one vomited blood or collapsed.
The toxic fog has clearly engulfed the entire southern factory area, so why hasn't the sound of hammering stopped at all?
"Something's not right," Chiyo said in a hoarse voice.
It feels like there's a lump of phlegm stuck in my throat.
She stood up and leaped down from the tree branch.
Both feet landed, and a dry, crisp crack came from the kneecaps.
She turned her head and looked at the fifty elite Sunagakure behind her, all wearing cloth masks.
"Come with me. Let's see what those Konoha dogs are up to."
Chiyo made a hand gesture.
Fifty men, their backs bent, crept towards the factory's barbed wire fence under the cover of darkness, stepping on the withered grass.
The further they went, the thicker the purplish-black poisonous fog became.
Visibility dropped to less than five meters.
Chiyo held her breath.
She walked up to the barbed wire. A layer of purple, poisonous dew clung to the cold wire.
The beam of the searchlight swept across from a distance.
Chiyo suddenly crouched down and hid behind a piece of abandoned cement pipe.
The beam of light was moved away.
She peeked out through the diamond-shaped mesh of the barbed wire.
Looking into the factory area.
My gaze pierced through the swirling purple mist.
Chiyo's shriveled eyes suddenly widened.
The crow's feet at the corners of his eyes twitched violently twice.
Ten paces behind the barbed wire fence.
Three Uchiha Jōkan were standing there.
He didn't vomit blood, didn't lie down and writhe, and certainly didn't try to lick his throat.
They carried jujube wood sticks in their hands, their backs ramrod straight.
He was wearing a large gray rubber suit.
And on their faces.
He was wearing a strange black thing.
His entire face was completely encased in a rubber mask. His eyes were covered by two thick, round pieces of glass.
At the mouth area.
A large, cylindrical iron can was hanging there. Several ventilation holes were cut into the bottom of the can.
It looks like a pig's nose covered in black hair.
This is Konoha's first-generation industrial gas mask.
The work safety products were created by Orochimaru based on the blueprints of Shu Shiraishi.
Steel mills produce sulfur dioxide. Chemical plants produce waste gas.
Konoha's heavy industry emits toxic gases every day.
Without gas masks, those ninjas who were reduced to ashes wouldn't last a month.
Everyone in the Konoha factory area was issued one of these. The filter canisters were filled with activated charcoal and Chakra antidote.
The toxic fumes hit the rubber suits of the Jōkan.
Not even a white spot was left.
The filter canisters around their necks made a dull "whoosh, whoosh" sound.
It filters out toxic gases and only sends clean air into the lungs.
Chiyo squatted blankly behind the cement pipe.
Her prized compound poison was a top-secret weapon in Sunagakure.
The people of Konoha filtered it out as if it were ordinary exhaust fumes from a factory.
Inside the barbed wire fence.
The Uchiha Jōkan in charge turned around.
Separated by two pieces of shatterproof glass.
A pair of black eyes coldly locked onto Chiyo outside the barbed wire fence.
There was no fear in his eyes, only mockery for the country bumpkin.
The Jōkan raised his hand.
He tapped the barbed wire twice with the jujube wood stick in his hand.
"Clang. Clang."
The barbed wire fence rattled and swayed.
"The old woman outside."
The Jōkan's voice came through his mask, muffled and reverberant.
"You've been squatting for so long. Aren't your legs numb?"
Chiyo's heart skipped a beat.
My palms instantly broke out in a cold sweat. I almost slipped and lost my grip on the concrete pipe.
The Jōkan poked at the drifting purple smoke with his stick.
"This smoke is really pungent."
The Jōkan scoffed.
"Your Sunagakure is so poor you can't afford dry firewood? You're burning wet leaves, aren't you?"
That sentence felt like a slap in the face.
He slapped Chiyo hard Chiyo her orange-peel-covered face.
It hurts like fire.
She opened her mouth wide.
My head is buzzing.
The hope of the entire Sunagakure village. A surprise attack that the Kazekage scraped together by selling everything he owned.
He couldn't even trick a single worker into sneezing in front of this group of workers wearing pig noses.
Her withered fingers trembled violently.
He wanted to reach into his sleeve for Kunai.
Before she could even touch the hilt of the knife.
On the tall communications tower in the center of the factory area.
The red warning lights flashed without warning. The blinding red light tore through the purplish-black poisonous fog.
"Waaaaah--!"
The piercing sound of air raid sirens rang out.
The night sky vibrated and buzzed.
A loud mechanical grinding sound came from the factory.
"Creak!"
The two large iron roller shutter doors of Workshop No. 3 were suddenly pushed open from the inside.
The iron gate slammed against the scroll, making a loud clanging sound.
A group of men charged out.
The leather boots stomped heavily on the concrete, making a loud rumble.
Konoha Biochemical Brigade.
He was completely wrapped in a thick green hazmat suit and wore an upgraded full-face mask.
They did not carry swords.
Fifty men, each carrying a large brass flamethrower.
He carried two tin cans, each as tall as a person, on his back. Pipes were connected to the muzzle of a gun.
The can was filled with high-pressure solidified gasoline and chemical cleaning agents.
The biohazard team leader strode to behind the barbed wire fence.
He pulled out the metal pin from the flamethrower.
With a "click".
A small blue flame flickered at the muzzle of the gun, dancing in the night wind.
The captain lifted the heavy copper pipe.
Through the barbed wire fence, it pointed directly at the mound of earth where Chiyo was hiding.
He took a deep breath of the filtered, clean air.
The sound boomed through the megaphone in the mask, echoing across the forest.
"Capture that old woman alive!"