Chapter 214: Prelude to War
"Lord Third, please calm down." Inside Konoha, Kakashi was simultaneously mobilizing troops and placating Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had already changed into his battle attire. "The Fifth has already gone in pursuit. With his strength, he can definitely bring Young Master Konohamaru back safely."
"Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down? That boy Asuma has been married for almost two years and still doesn't have any children. Konohamaru is my only grandson." Sarutobi Hiruzen puffed on his pipe, and after a moment, said, "No, I have to go myself. Although Douhuan's strength should be above the Raikage's, he is alone right now."
"But, Lord Third, it's too late for you to rush over alone now. Inuzuka Kaze and his ninja hound, Sumimaru, who are skilled at long-distance travel, are already rushing a Flying Thunder God kunai to the border. If we wait a little longer, having Genma and the other two send us over with the Flying Thunder God Formation might be even faster."
"I suppose that's the only way," Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a long puff of smoke and sighed.
Facing the kidnapping of his own grandson, while Sarutobi Hiruzen was anxious, he also felt a sense of karmic retribution.
Back then, when the Hyuga clan faced a similar situation, he did nothing, watching idly as Hyuga Hizashi died as a substitute.
But now, the one who was kidnapped had been replaced by his grandson.
[Douhuan, he wouldn't abandon Konohamaru, would he...] Sarutobi Hiruzen thought to himself, looking at the now-empty sword rack in the Hokage's office.
...
The Cloud Village envoy, carrying Konohamaru, was desperately fleeing towards the border.
Just at this moment, a large bird flew over their team in the sky, scattering a large patch of clay bombs.
Boom boom boom boom boom! The path ahead of the Cloud envoy exploded one after another, and the various colors of firelight were exceptionally brilliant against the night sky.
However, the members of the Cloud delegation were in no mood to admire the fireworks before them.
"Enemy attack!" The Cloud Village ninja at the very front, who was the temporary commander in A's absence, roared hysterically after narrowly defending against the impact of the sudden explosion.
The impact of the sudden explosions caused heavy losses to the Cloud ninjas at the front. A few with slightly weaker strength were directly buried in the violent explosions. Those with slightly stronger strength were also seriously injured by the impact.
"The enemy is in the sky!" The Cloud commander said through gritted teeth, wiping the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Deidara's figure, standing on the head of the bird, was particularly conspicuous under the illumination of the firelight from the burning trees ignited by the explosions.
However, Deidara had no intention of hiding at all. For an artist like him, he most enjoyed this feeling of the world focusing on him.
Under the gaze of all the Cloud ninjas, Deidara once again took out a large piece of clay from his scroll and began to chew it with his own mouth and the large mouths on the palms of his two hands. Then, another string of explosive clay was thrown out.
"Hahaha, admire my art carefully! Art is an explosion!" Deidara on the giant bird laughed wildly while throwing clay.
The Cloud ninjas, seeing this, could only sloppily use defensive ninjutsu to withstand the aftershocks of the explosions.
At this time, Naruto and the other two also took advantage of the chaos to sneak to the rear of the main Cloud force.
Sasuke bit his finger and, after forming seals, summoned his contract snake.
Unlike Uchiha Douhuan, whose strength and fighting style were already set when he signed the contract with Ryuchi Cave, making the contract snake of little significance, Sasuke could grow and cultivate a rapport with his contract snake partner, thereby integrating the power of the contract snake into his own combat system. Sasuke's talent was beyond doubt. After leaving his name on Ryuchi Cave's contract scroll, Ryuchi Cave also had Aoda, the most talented of their generation of small snakes, become Sasuke's partner.
In the dark of night, a large snake nearly thirty meters long appeared from the center of the summoning circle. However, to avoid being seen, its entire body was pressed against the ground, with only its massive head facing the three of them.
"Young Master Sasuke," Aoda greeted Sasuke first after appearing, then asked, "What are your orders for summoning me?"
"Can you take the three of us, infiltrate from underground, enter the formation of this group ahead, and rescue someone?" Sasuke asked.
"That's simple," Aoda nodded, then motioned for the three to get on his head.
After Sasuke, leading Naruto and Neji, stood firm on Aoda's back, the chakra within Aoda's body began to circulate, and its body slowly sank into the earth.
Not a single Cloud Village ninja noticed the movement here. Not to mention whether these Cloud ninjas, the strongest of whom were at best elite Jonin, even knew about the mysterious sage art chakra, just Deidara in the sky, cackling while throwing bombs, left them with no attention to spare for anything else.
"Damn it, our team doesn't have any ninjas with anti-air capabilities!" The Cloud commander gritted his teeth and looked resentfully at the giant bird hovering in the sky. But facing Deidara in the sky, he was truly powerless.
This Cloud Village unit was composed of several elite Jonin who had followed A out and the spies who had been hiding in Konoha and could only return to the Cloud after their operation. The ninjas A brought out this time were either ninjas who excelled in nintaijutsu or ninjas proficient in defensive jutsu; their long-range attack capabilities were extremely weak. As for those exposed spies from Konoha, it was even more impossible for them to be skilled in long-range attacks. Therefore, facing Deidara's frantic bombing from the sky, they could only frustratingly use defensive ninjutsu to protect their heads.
Fortunately, their Lightning Release ninjutsu had some counter-effect against Deidara's Explosion Release clay. Although they were constantly being bombed and couldn't lift their heads, the overall casualties of the team, apart from the losses in the first wave of bombing due to its suddenness, were not particularly severe.
But before they could be happy for long, the ground in the center of their military formation suddenly began to surge, and a large snake burst out of the earth.
Aoda, who usually ate a rather light diet, didn't make a grand entrance by swallowing a person or two for fun like Orochimaru's Manda. But at this moment, the poisonous mist mixed with sage art chakra that Aoda spewed caused even more terrifying damage than Manda. The parts of the Cloud ninjas' skin that came into contact with this poisonous mist began to petrify in the next second, forcing them to use kunai to cut away the affected flesh. Their decisiveness saved their lives. A few Cloud genin, who hesitated for just a moment, turned into stone statues with scales on their bodies under the corrosion of this poisonous mist.
Aoda perfectly completed his mission. After sneaking the three into the Cloud's formation, he even helped clear an area for them. At this moment, in the entire area, only one Cloud Jonin carrying a sack was left.
Sasuke and Neji said nothing, charging forward with Shiden and the Eight Trigrams Staff.
"Konoha genin?" The man carrying the sack said through gritted teeth while brandishing his sword to block their attacks. This person immediately recognized Sasuke's trio, who had shone brightly in the Chunin Exam. "Have you come here to die?"
"Hmph," Sasuke snorted coldly. Shiden, wreathed in purple lightning, chopped down heavily at the opponent. Upon colliding with the opponent's weapon, the lightning on the blade emitted a piercing screech, like a thousand birds chirping. In the next moment, a bolt of lightning as thick as an arm descended from the sky.
Seeing this, this person could only retreat. At this moment, Neji, stepping in the pattern of the Eight Trigrams, followed up closely, his long staff striking out repeatedly, aiming at the opponent's pressure points, forcing him to retreat sloppily.
At this time, the surrounding people also reacted and gathered to provide support. Sasuke then wiped Shiden's blade with his hand, coating it with a layer of Lightning Release chakra, before plunging it into the ground.
"Lightning Release: Earth Runner."
In an instant, purple lightning rushed out in all directions like a swimming dragon, precisely finding the ninjas who were attempting to provide support.
The current flowing through the ground exploded precisely at the enemies' feet. This one ninjutsu from Sasuke took out two Chunin on the spot.
Seeing this scene, Omoi, not far from here, was also filled with shock. In the joint Chunin Exam, having lost to Sasuke, he had originally thought the gap between him and Sasuke was not large. But now, truly seeing Sasuke's full strength, he finally realized that during the Chunin Exam, Sasuke hadn't used his full power at all.
This was actually not difficult to understand. During the Chunin Exam, the sword in Sasuke's hand was just an ordinary chakra metal sword. Although the quality of that sword was very good, and even many Chunin in Konoha who used swords would need to save money for a long time to afford a similar one, compared to Shiden, which was made from the best chakra metal in the entire ninja world and personally forged by the best swordsmith in the Land of Water, renowned for its swordsmithing techniques, the gap was not just large. During the Chunin Exam, Sasuke still had to consider whether that sword could withstand his chakra and dared not go all out. But now, with Shiden in hand, he could naturally exert his full power.
At this time, the Cloud Jonin carrying the sack was also being steadily pushed back by Neji's fierce offensive. Just Neji's staff technique, which integrated the essence of the Eight Trigrams Palm, was already difficult for the opponent to handle, not to mention that the summoning scroll on Neji's wrist would occasionally pop out some strange ninja tools.
Just as the opponent was being beaten by Neji and couldn't spare any attention, a strong gust of wind swept past from behind him. Naruto, who had been waiting for an opportunity, directly snatched the sack from his back.
"Success!" After getting the sack, Naruto eagerly opened it, wanting to release Konohamaru.
However, at this moment, Neji's Byakugan noticed something unusual and immediately roared, "Be careful, Naruto! That's not Konohamaru inside!"
At this time, within Naruto's seal space, the sleeping Kurama also suddenly woke up and sternly warned, "Be careful, brat! The person inside has malicious intent towards you!"
However, just as their voices fell, a cold glint flashed from the opened mouth of the sack. Inside the opened sack, a short boy who looked to be only seven or eight years old, with a fierce expression, gripped a kunai and stabbed at Naruto's heart.
Naruto, thinking Konohamaru was in the sack, had his guard down. By the time he saw the opponent's attacking motion, he only had time to slightly turn to avoid a vital point. The kunai plunged directly into Naruto's right shoulder, and for a moment, blood flowed freely.
The ambusher, having missed his strike, immediately and decisively took out another kunai and aimed for Naruto's heart again.
After catching the incoming kunai with his left hand, Naruto finally got a clear look at the attacker's face and was instantly filled with disbelief.
The attacker was an eight-year-old child of similar age and build to Konohamaru. And this child was someone Naruto had seen many times in the village.
"I remember, you seem to be the child of the owner of that restaurant two streets away from Ichiraku Ramen..." Naruto said in a daze, looking at the boy before him, whose face wore a ferocious expression that shouldn't appear on a child of this age. "Why are you doing this?"
"My father is the leader of the Cloud spies embedded in Konoha. I have long known that I am a person of the great Cloud Village," a fanatical look appeared on the boy's face. He let go of the kunai gripped by Naruto, took out a new one, and attacked Naruto again. "Go to hell, you damned demon fox!"
However, in the next instant, in Naruto's line of sight, a flash of purple lightning came whistling.
"Sasuke! Don't!" Naruto shouted loudly. However, it was all too late. The child who ambushed Naruto was engulfed by Sasuke's attack in the blink of an eye.
Blood splattered onto Naruto's cheek. Naruto stared blankly at the scene before him.
"What are you spacing out for? This guy is an enemy," Sasuke said with a frown after coming to Naruto's side.
However, the current situation didn't allow Sasuke to think too much. After Neji also arrived, the three stood back-to-back in a defensive posture. Sasuke asked sternly, "Where did you hide Konohamaru?"
The current Cloud commander, struggling to withstand Deidara's attacks from the sky, did not answer Sasuke's question, only turning his head to shout, "Kill these Konoha geniuses! Even if we all die here, it's a net gain!"
"We've been played," Sasuke said coldly, looking at the large Cloud army that was beginning to gather towards them.
"My fault. If I had discovered earlier that it wasn't Konohamaru, this wouldn't have happened," Neji said with some annoyance.
"There's no point in saying this now. Naruto, can you still fight?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto's blood-stained face was somewhat numb. He said nothing, just silently pulled out the kunai embedded in his right shoulder. The wound, deep enough to see the bone, after bleeding a little, healed at an incredible speed.
"Break through from the north. Even if we can't break through their defensive line, we must hold on for as long as possible. The border troops should be on their way after hearing the commotion. It seems we'll have to turn them into prisoners first before we can force out Konohamaru's whereabouts," Sasuke said, the purple lightning on his Shiden flaring up.
...
(End of chapter)
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