Two days later, in the Land of Lightning, deep within a valley.
Obito stood atop a mountain peak with Terumi Mei and Pakura, his eyes fixed on the Cloud Village logistics base in the distance.
"The batch of chakra armor from the Polaris Chamber of Commerce was delivered here,"
White Zetsu explained, pointing toward the compound. He leaned over Obito's shoulder to glance at the map in his hand.
"I've already marked the other Cloud logistics bases further ahead. Each one is garrisoned with about a hundred shinobi, but more than half are just genin."
"Good."
Obito folded the map with a nod, then turned to Mei and Pakura behind him.
"We move after dark."
"Understood." The two women answered in unison, their expressions calm but sharp.
By the time night fell, the Cloud logistics base was still bustling with activity. Despite the hour, sentry posts had been set up all around, shinobi keeping watch under the moonlight.
"Hey, if we put on that chakra armor and fight against Konoha… don't you think we'd crush them instantly?" one guard muttered.
"Hard to say. That armor is powerful, no doubt, but there aren't many sets. Maybe a few dozen. They'll save it for critical battles."
"Still, if they strike at the right time, Konoha could be caught completely off guard."
The guards chuckled, but their voices faded as a faint mist began to curl around the outpost.
"…Huh? Fog?"
At first it was thin, almost unnoticeable, but within moments the mist thickened, creeping across the base. A faint sour smell wafted through the air.
The oldest among them stiffened, eyes widening.
"This… this isn't ordinary fog. We're under attack!"
"Send the signal—!"
But it was already too late.
The mist boiled around them, the air suddenly heavy with heat as though the entire base had been plunged into scalding water.
"Gaaahhhh!!"
Screams tore through the night as flesh blistered and skin corroded. The shinobi collapsed one after another, their bodies festering under the acidic haze.
From his vantage point, Obito watched coldly as the Cloud guards writhed in agony. The fog spread quickly, swallowing the entire camp until every corner of the base echoed with shrieks of pain.
If anyone had been watching from afar, they would have seen the entire logistics base vanish beneath a suffocating shroud of dense, corrosive mist.
"Zzzzzila—"
The sound of melting echoed within the fog, relentless and merciless.
A moment later, as the screams gradually faded, several figures burst out of the suffocating fog, their bodies flashing with lightning chakra.
The instant they emerged, three silhouettes stood waiting for them.
At the front was a graceful woman with long brown hair, both hands clasped together as she spewed out the thick, corrosive mist that blanketed the base... Terumi Mei.
Behind her stood a masked man whose crimson eye glowed faintly in the darkness, and beside him a striking woman with thick curves, her stance calm and unshaken... Pakura.
"Damn it, it really is Boil Release!" one of the Cloud shinobi snarled, realizing the source of the acidic fog.
"Who the hell are you to attack a Cloud base?!" another demanded furiously.
Under the mask, Obito's Sharingan glinted coldly.
"So they noticed. Looks like they sent out their elites."
His gaze shifted toward Pakura.
"I'll leave this to you."
Pakura gave a short nod. "Understood."
The next instant, her figure blurred and vanished. When she reappeared, she was behind the group of Cloud shinobi.
Three glowing spheres of blazing heat hovered around her...white fireballs with a faint orange-red core, spinning lazily like miniature suns.
"Scorch Release: Heat Haze!"
The Cloud shinobi froze in shock.
"Scorch Release?! But they said that kekkei genkai was already wiped out!"
"Boil Release and Scorch Release… who the hell are these people?!"
But they had no time for answers.
Pakura's scorching fireballs shot forward with a hiss, arcing toward her enemies.
Some burst into searing waves of heat, others floated close to her like shields, vaporizing the very air.
She weaved between them with deadly precision, her movements blurring as she closed in for the kill.
Any Cloud shinobi who dared step within reach never lasted more than a heartbeat—their bodies withered and shriveled, skin and muscle evaporating until they collapsed as dry husks.
"Zzzzzzzt—!"
The sound of flesh searing filled the night.
Moments later, one shinobi tried to flee, sprinting toward the treeline. A fireball curved sharply, slamming into his back.
His scream was cut short as his body dried up in an instant, falling to the ground with a dull thud.
"Uh…"
Obito's eyes twitched as he stared at the rows of dried corpses scattered across the ground.
Pakura's Scorch Release had evaporated everything...their water, their blood, even their cells.
"…Can these even made into evolution items anymore?" he muttered, lips tightening beneath the mask.
It was a problem. If he wanted to harvest nutrients from future targets, letting Pakura use Scorch Release might make them… unusable.
He gave a helpless sigh.
"Fine. These Cloud grunts were just small fry anyway."
After a few minutes, Obito sensed no remaining traces of life inside the base. He lifted a hand toward Mei.
"Stop."
"Hu… huhuhu…"
Terumi Mei finally released her technique, staggering slightly as her breathing turned heavy.
Her Boil Release acid mist could devastate entire battalions, but maintaining such a wide-scale jutsu consumed an enormous amount of chakra.
Obito formed rapid hand seals.
"Wind Release: Breakthrough!"
A sharp gale roared outward, sweeping across the valley. The choking mist scattered, dissolving into the night.
With the air finally clear, Obito led Mei and Pakura inside the ruined base.
The further they walked, the more corpses they passed, shriveled husks and melted remains that barely resembled human beings.
Obito's eye twitched again. Compared to Pakura's clean "dry corpses," Mei's were… equally terrifying.
"Seriously… one dries them, the other melts them, both of them…" he sighed, shaking his head in mock helplessness.
From now on, Mei's Boil Release is also off-limits on anything I want to collect…
They reached the warehouse.
"…Ah."
Terumi Mei blinked, a guilty look crossing her face as she saw the shelves. The once-pristine chakra armor and crates of supplies had been corroded into warped, useless scrap.
"That… might've been me," she admitted sheepishly.
"Move." Obito stepped past her, voice flat.
He scanned the ruined gear, unimpressed. "These were just spare stock anyway. Trash, all of it. No loss."
After a quick inspection confirmed there was nothing worth salvaging, the trio turned to leave.
Before departing, Obito made one last gesture igniting the compound in flames.
The fire spread quickly, crackling into the night sky until the entire base was swallowed by blazing inferno.
From the distance, under the cover of darkness, only the pillars of fire remained...lighting the night like a silent warning.
---
Not far away, Obito turned back one last time, watching the blazing inferno devour the logistics base. The flames rose high, painting the night sky red.
Then he raised his hand and opened the vortex of Kamui.
"Let's go. Next."
The three figures vanished without a trace.
When the second logistics base fell, Obito changed tactics. He no longer had Terumi Mei blanket the entire compound in her acid mist.
Her chakra reserves couldn't take that kind of large-scale expenditure for too long.
Instead, Obito split into four wooden clones, each forming a Purple Flame Formation. The fiery barriers sealed the base shut, trapping every shinobi inside with nowhere to run.
"Now… no one escapes," Obito said coolly.
The three of them stormed in head-on, cutting through the defenders like a whirlwind.
Pakura unleashed her Scorch Release again. Her orbs of searing heat drifted through the battlefield like suns, vaporizing the Cloud shinobi with elegance that belied its brutality.
To the weak, her attacks were inescapable, one brush and they collapsed into shriveled husks.
Meanwhile, Obito used the Cloud troops as test dummies, experimenting with the vast collection of ninjutsu he had stolen from the great villages.
Fire, wind, water, earth, he cycled through them with ease, watching their effects with a detached interest.
He had been bored before, memorizing entire arsenals of techniques. Now he had a playground to practice them.
The defenders stood no chance. Within moments, the base was silent, its soldiers slaughtered to the last man.
Obito warped the warehouse into his Kamui dimension, stripping it bare of supplies.
As before, the trio left only fire behind, flames roaring into the sky until the entire base was nothing but smoldering ruins.
And so it continued.
One after another, every logistics base they struck was annihilated. Not a single survivor escaped to raise the alarm.
By dawn, five Cloud logistics bases had been erased from the map.
Though these bases seemed minor in peacetime, in war they were lifelines.
Supplies were shipped from Kumogakure and across the Land of Lightning to these hidden depots, then routed to the frontlines along multiple paths.
It was the only way to keep the army supplied diverse routes ensured the enemy couldn't choke their logistics with a single strike.
But now, in the middle of wartime, those stockpiles had vanished overnight.
The rations, weapons, medical supplies, and experimental chakra armor, all of it had been seized by Obito and burned in flame.
And Kumogakure still didn't even know it had happened.
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