Tsunade looked up at him.
"You even thought of that?"
Kakashi smiled with his eye. "Because I also think this idea is a little dangerous, but it does seem like it would work."
Koharu imdiately said unhappily, "Both of you are really bold with your words. What do you an, 'a little dangerous'? If sothing like this is actually made, one loss of control and who knows whether it'll blow up the enemy or ourselves!"
Chizumi looked at her.
"That's why we test it outside the village first, not inside."
"That still—"
"And we won't mass-produce it," Chizumi interrupted. "At least not in the early stage. We'll make a small amount first, in a smaller form, just enough to verify whether it works."
Homura asked in a deep voice, "Where do you intend to use it?"
Chizumi tapped several points on the map.
"Gorges, bridge entrances, supply convoys, temporary troop-gathering points."
The more Tsunade looked at those locations, the deeper her frown beca.
"You're not just thinking about cutting off supplies."
"It was never just about cutting off supplies." Chizumi raised his eyes. "Blowing up the granary only delays them. The Allied Forces won't collapse just because they lost one warehouse. They'll pause for a while, then regroup."
For a mont, no one in the office spoke.
Because his words were too direct—and too accurate.
Shizune pressed her lips together. "Then last night's attack…"
"Was to buy ti," Chizumi said. "If it slows them for a month—even half a month—that's enough for Konoha to do a lot."
Tsunade stared at him. "You already calculated that they'll co again?"
"They will," Chizumi said without hesitation. "And they won't delay for long. The daimyo of the three nations have already made such a big show of it. There's no way they'll simply stop now. Last night's strike will only make them lose more face, and make them want to regain it even more."
Kakashi slowly nodded.
"I think so too."
Homura asked, "Then how long do you estimate it'll take them to set a new date?"
"One month at most."
After a mont of silence, Tsunade suddenly said to Shizune, "Go call over the heads of the Sealing Division, Ninja Tools Division, and Intelligence Division. Also have the storeroom send over any old chanisms, explosive test pieces, and old Sand Village scrolls we can still use."
Shizune imdiately nodded.
"Yes."
She turned to leave, but couldn't help pausing. She looked back at Chizumi.
"Are you really not going to rest first?"
"In a while."
The look in Shizune's eyes clearly said, I don't believe that for a second, but she still went out to handle it first.
Once the door closed, Tsunade looked back at Chizumi.
"Last night, you said we'd move again in three days. From the look of it now, you're planning to fill up all the days in between too."
"Yes."
"You really don't want to let anyone breathe."
"When we're breathing, the enemy is breathing too."
Tsunade's temple twitched at that line. After a long while, she let out a cold laugh.
"I'm wasting my breath talking to you about this."
Kakashi leaned against the window, looking sideways at the sky slowly brightening outside.
"But he's right. What we need most right now isn't results. It's ti."
Koharu frowned. This ti, she finally didn't argue back, though her expression still looked awful.
"That still doesn't an we can turn the village into an explosives depot."
"We won't," Chizumi said calmly.
"You'd better keep your word."
"Mm."
Tsunade looked at him and suddenly felt her headache coming back.
"Go sit over there for five minutes. Stop pacing in front of ."
Chizumi glanced at her.
"Why?"
"Because when you stand there, I feel like the next thing you say is going to piss off even more."
Kakashi couldn't help letting out a low laugh.
Chizumi didn't argue. He really went and sat beneath the window.
But once he sat down, he didn't close his eyes to rest. Instead, he casually picked up several border maps and defense records from the corner of the table and continued reading.
When Tsunade saw that, the veins on her forehead jumped.
"Can't you even pretend?"
Chizumi turned a page.
"Pretend what?"
"Pretend you're a little tired."
"I am a little tired."
"…Then rest!"
"Isn't this resting?"
Kakashi finally laughed out loud.
"Lady Tsunade, I recomnd you don't get caught up on this with him. You'll only get more tired."
Tsunade took a deep breath and forced down the urge to hit soone.
Soon, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door again.
Shizune returned very quickly, bringing several people with her. An older ninja from the Sealing Division carried scrolls, the head of the Ninja Tools Division held a long wooden case, two people from the Intelligence Division carried newly organized reports, and behind them followed a pale-faced researcher who had clearly just been dug out of bed.
"Lady Tsunade, they're here."
Tsunade gave a sound of acknowledgnt and pointed to the front of the desk.
"All of you, co here."
Those people had still looked confused when they entered. But when they saw Chizumi was there too, their expressions changed to varying degrees. The middle-aged man from the Ninja Tools Division, in particular, set down the wooden case with noticeably greater caution.
Tsunade got straight to the point.
"There's sothing we need you to start working on imdiately. Listen first. Don't interrupt. Ask questions after."
Everyone in the room lowered their heads at once. "Yes."
Chizumi pushed over the paper he had drawn earlier.
"This. Can it be made?"
The old man from the Sealing Division took it first. After only two glances, his eyes changed.
"This is… linking explosive tags into a chained formation?"
"Yes."
"Using chakra-conductive wires as relays?"
"Yes."
His brows imdiately tightened. "In theory, it isn't impossible, but it would be extrely easy for the chain to misfire. If the chakra impact from the first tag is too strong, the wires behind it won't be able to withstand it and will snap. But if the wires are too thick, they'll distort the direction of the first layer's blast, and the power will scatter instead."
"That's why we need buffer segnts," Chizumi said.
He took the brush and added another short section of formula to the paper.
"Add sealing here. Add a return path here."
The old man's eyes grew brighter the longer he looked, and he couldn't help dragging the paper closer.
"Wait… if it's done this way, then it might not be completely impossible."
The Ninja Tools Division head leaned in as well and said in a low voice, "But what material do we fix the chakra thread onto? Ordinary paper tags burn too fast. Once the thread is exposed, it'll break before the second layer connects."
"Change the base," Chizumi said.
"Change the base?"
"Replace the paper base with thin wood fiber or a heat-resistant cloth layer."
The researcher, who had only just woken up, was suddenly fully alert. He blurted out, "Then writing the seal surface will beco much harder. Chakra penetration will be uneven, and the detonation threshold will deviate—"
Halfway through, he realized who he was interrupting, and his face instantly paled.
Chizumi didn't mind. He only looked at him.
"So do you think it can be solved?"
The researcher froze, then quickly said, "We can try, but we need to make small samples first. We'd need to test at least three base materials, two types of conductive wires, and four detonation sequences. Otherwise, there's no way to asure it properly."
Chizumi nodded. "Then test them."
Tsunade watched the roomful of people suddenly start discussing around that sheet of paper and rubbed her temple.
"Let's be clear. Testing is testing. The test site is outside the village, with full distance, and the Barrier Team follows the whole process. If anyone dares set sothing like this off inside the village, I'll set them off first."
Shizune quietly added from the side, "And the dical Team will be on standby."
The Ninja Tools Division head nodded repeatedly. "Understood."
But the old man from the Sealing Division was still staring at the diagram, muttering under his breath. "If the ink lines between the primary and secondary tags are offset by one more layer… no, that isn't right, the interference would be too strong… what if the thread is made into a loop…"
Kakashi leaned by the window, watching as these people went from cautious and hesitant to gradually being drawn into the state of discussion by that paper and Chizumi's few sentences. The smile in his eye deepened.
That was the most troubleso thing about Chizumi.
He wasn't soone who only knew how to fight.
Once he seriously started thinking about sothing, it beca hard for the people around him not to follow him down that path.
Even if that path sounded insane at first.
By the ti the sun rose a little higher, even more scrolls and tools had been piled up in the office.
Shizune brought tea twice. The third ti, she simply placed a whole kettle of hot water and a plate of rice balls by the table.
Tsunade looked at the light outside and finally slapped the table.
"That's enough for now."
Everyone stopped.
Tsunade lifted her chin. "List what can be done first: test site, materials, manpower. Give it to within half an hour. Then all of you go eat. Whoever can sleep, sleep for half an hour. First round of testing starts this afternoon."
The Sealing Division elder clearly still hadn't had enough.
"But if we follow this line now—"
Tsunade glanced at him.
"If you keep following that line, what explodes this afternoon won't be the test piece, it'll be the ground."
The old man coughed dryly and quickly swallowed the rest of his words.
After everyone gradually withdrew, the office finally emptied out a little.
Shizune closed the door, turned around, and saw Chizumi still sitting by the window.
She endured for a mont, but in the end couldn't help herself.
"Can you finally sleep for a while now?"
"I'm going to the training ground in a bit."
Shizune's vision nearly went black.
"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
Tsunade propped her forehead up with the back of her hand, her voice sounding a little light-headed.
"Shizune, stop talking to him. You'd be faster knocking him out and carrying him to bed."
Shizune froze, then seriously considered whether that was feasible.
Chizumi raised his eyes. "You can try."
Shizune imdiately gave up.
"…Forget it."
Around noon, the empty field on Konoha's west side normally used for high-risk experints was quickly cleared out.
The Barrier Team began setting up the outer periter.
The Sealing Division, Ninja Tools Division, and researchers moved materials back and forth. Wooden boxes were opened, revealing explosive tags of different specifications, experintal paper, old chanism parts, and rolls of chakra-conductive thread so fine they were nearly transparent. So people spread scrolls on the ground and drew formations. So fixed test plates onto stands. Others gathered around a large temporary diagram and argued until their faces turned red.
"The primary explosive tag has to be on the central axis, or the shockwave will skew!"
"The central axis will crush the entire second layer. It has to be offset by half an inch!"
"Half an inch is too much. It'll scatter!"
"Then a quarter!"
"What, are you cooking now? A quarter?"
A gust of wind blew through, flipping the papers on the ground with a loud rustle.
The Sealing Division elder slamd a hand over the diagrams and turned to yell at the researcher, "Don't just talk! Draw it!"
The researcher shrank back from being shouted at and hurriedly crouched down to redraw the lines.
Not far away, Shikamaru and the others had also arrived.
The mont Kiba saw the scene, his eyes widened.
"Wait… they're really making it this big?"
Shikamaru swept his eyes over the piles of equipnt and the layers of barriers spread out around them. His eyelids twitched.
"I knew anything he calls 'research' usually isn't small."
Neji stood beside them, his gaze moving over the nearly invisible transparent threads between the explosive tags.
"Those are chakra threads?"
Shino adjusted his sunglasses.
"They don't look like normal puppet threads. They're thinner, and more fragile."
Tenzō said quietly, "Fragile ans higher conductivity. But it also ans they're harder to control."
Kiba couldn't help clicking his tongue. "If that thing is linked into a chain and blows up in the middle of an enemy crowd…"
Shikamaru said lazily, "Don't worry about the enemy yet. Worry about yourself first. If soone stands in the wrong spot during the test, we'll be the first ones blown away."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chizumi walked over from the other side.
Kiba looked at him.
"Did you sleep at all?"
"I closed my eyes for a bit."
"That's not sleep, is it?"
"Close enough."
Kiba had nothing to say.
Kakashi followed slowly behind, holding a book in his hand, though the pages hadn't turned once.
"First round is to test the structure, not the power," he said, looking at the test plates. "Let's make sure the chain can detonate first."
Chizumi nodded and walked to the temporary long table.
Three groups of test pieces had already been laid out on it.
The first group was the simplest, only five explosive tags linked in a line.
The second group had nine tags, arranged in a folded pattern.
The third group was a small loop, with the primary tag in the center and three outer layers of secondary tags. The lines were dizzying to look at.
When the Sealing Division elder ca over, he still had a fine brush dipped in ink in his hand.
"The first group is the most stable. The second might break. As for the third… honestly, I don't think it'll work on the first try."
Chizumi looked at him. "Then detonate the first group first."
From a distance, soone from the Barrier Team raised a hand to signal. "The range is sealed."
Tsunade hadn't co personally, but she had sent Shizune to keep watch. Shizune stood behind the safety line with a clipboard in hand, looking more nervous than ever.
"Confirm one more ti before starting. Everyone is behind the line?"
"Confird."
"dical Team?"
"Standing by."
"Backup barriers?"
"Two layers are active."
Only then did Shizune nod and draw a breath. "Then… begin."
The first test piece was placed on a thick stone slab in the distance.
The one in charge of detonating it was none other than the young researcher who had interrupted earlier. He was clearly so nervous that his hands were stiff. When chakra gathered at his fingertips, even his voice was tense.
"I-I'm activating it."
Chizumi stood behind him. "Don't rush. One clean pass."
The researcher swallowed, nodded, and sent chakra into the first primary explosive tag.
In the next instant, a thin circle of white light glowed around the edge of the tag.
The first tag detonated.
Bang!
The sound wasn't loud, and a gray cloud burst over the stone slab.
But almost imdiately after the first explosion, the connecting thread flashed. The second, third, and fourth tags were triggered in sequence. The explosions looked as if an invisible hand had pushed them along a fixed path. They really didn't scatter randomly in every direction, but ford one connected line of impact.
When the final tag exploded, even one corner of the stone slab had been cracked off.
The field went silent for a mont.
Even the researcher himself froze. "It… it worked?"
The Sealing Division elder's eyes lit up, and he imdiately lowered his head to take notes.
"It connected. It really connected!"
Kiba's eyes widened behind them. "That was only five tags?"
Even Shikamaru's lazy expression faded a little.
"The power was much greater than five separate tags."
Tenzō said quietly, "The blast center was pulled into a line. They're no longer exploding independently."
Chizumi looked at the cracked stone slab without much change in expression.
"Second group."
~~~
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