Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 207 Konohamaru Being Targeted

"Hmph, when did it become your place to speak here?" Ai said with a disdainful look at Takagi Seiwan.

"I was just stating a fact. Is the Raikage so domineering that he won't even let people speak?" Takagi Seiwan said.

Takagi Seiwan was well aware that compared to other properly appointed Kage, his position as the Fifth Mizukage was nothing but a facade. He wouldn't have acted so recklessly in front of the Tsuchikage or even the Kazekage.

However, the Southern Mist Village and the Cloud Village, which supports the Northern Mist Village, are already close to a complete falling out, so he felt that he didn't need to give A too much face. Anyway, in Konoha territory, his Hokage father would definitely protect him.

Sure enough, Ai's fiery temper couldn't stand a clown like Takagi Seiman jumping around in front of him. His muscles, as tough as steel, tensed instantly, and he prepared to teach Takagi Seiman a lesson.

Before he could make a move, Uchiha Touko calmly said from the side, "Hehe, Raikage and Mizukage, could you please give me some face and not start a fight here? After all, in a few days, all the daimyo from various countries will be here to watch the battle. If you two cause too much trouble, it will be difficult for everyone to save face."

Ai glanced at Uchiha Touko, snorted, and sat back down in her seat, picking up a piece of fried chicken and eating it by herself.

Soon, the first opportunity for the circle to shrink arrived, and the scattered teams gradually began to clash.

Most of them remained restrained at this time, and when they encountered other teams, they consciously left themselves a way out. Of course, there were also a few teams that performed particularly well in this process.

Take Shikamaru's team, for example.

On the edge of the survival zone in the eastern part of the map, Shikamaru, under a large tree, used Shadow Binding Technique to completely control three members of the Hidden Mist Squad who were just about to enter the zone. Ino assisted him by using mental interference, while Choji firmly protected the backs of the two who were unable to move due to their clan's secret technique.

This Mist Village squad was forcibly controlled for nearly a minute, just one step away from the safe zone. It wasn't until their bracelet summoning jutsu was triggered, causing supplies to explode all over the ground, that Shikamaru and Ino stopped their jutsu, and then the three of them quickly picked up the supplies.

"These guys have really got a lot of supplies," Ino said after taking stock of the supplies. "We've only searched a few places along the way, and the supplies we've gathered aren't even enough for Choji to eat by himself tonight. But now that we have these, we don't have to worry about food tonight."

"Under these rules, unless you have absolute strength like Sasuke's team, time is the most important thing," Shikamaru explained to his two teammates. "With all teams moving in roughly the same direction, every second you stay outside the circle increases the chance of being ambushed."

"Hehe, the members of this team are ninjas from the famous Ino-Shika-Cho clan of Konoha, right?" Takagi Seiwan said. "Although the three of them are only genin, their trap setup and timing of attack are impeccable. Even our old chunin from Kirigakure are far inferior to them in terms of ninja skills. This is the foundation of Konoha."

Although the team that was eliminated by Shikamaru and his two companions and was trapped outside the circle was from Kirigakure, Takagi Seiwan didn't mind at all. Instead, he praised Shikamaru loudly.

This is not surprising, though. Takagi Seiman did not have any expectations for his village's genin when he came to Konoha. There were a few promising genin in Kirigakure this year, but Takagi Seiman simply left them in the village and did not let them participate in the Chunin Exams.

After all, Takagi Seiwan was also worried that if their Kirigakure genin performed too well, Konoha would reduce their support for them. Without his adoptive father Fugaku, he was no match for Terumi Mei.

Ai's lips twitched slightly. Although he had overestimated Takagi Seiman's shamelessness, Takagi Seiman always managed to redefine his understanding in various ways.

Not only him, but even Onoki was a little flustered at this moment. Looking at the Mizukage Hat placed next to Takagi Seiman's seat, Onoki suddenly felt that it was too embarrassing to be on the same level as this guy.

As dusk fell, the various teams in the venue temporarily set up camp, and everyone in the VIP room went back to rest.

After returning to his residence, Ai left a lightning clone in his room and disguised his main body before sneaking out of the hotel and arriving at a restaurant in the northwest corner of Konoha.

After exchanging the password, Ai was led by a waiter to a secret private room in the restaurant.

Ai waited a short while, and soon a slightly overweight middle-aged man entered the room. Upon seeing Ai, he first bowed and said, "Lord Raikage."

"No need for formalities." Ai nodded, then got straight to the point, "How's the investigation going?"

"Lord Raikage, we have been working on the things you arranged, but the results are not very optimistic," the middle-aged man said, shaking his head.

"Hmm?" Raikage frowned.

"Lord Raikage, since Uchiha Touko took over, the crackdown on spies within Konoha has been much more intense than during Hiruzen Sarutobi's administration. Many of our Kumogakure spies have fallen into the hands of their security forces. As a result, our remaining spies have been on hold for a period of time, and only resumed operations three months ago after receiving your instructions. However, even after sacrificing several spies that the village has trained over many years, the intelligence we have obtained is still very limited."

"Thank you for your hard work. As for the brothers who sacrificed their lives, the village will forever remember their contributions." Ai nodded. This situation was actually within his expectations. After all, compared to Hiruzen Sarutobi, that old man who became more and more useless with age, Tokio Uchiha was definitely much more difficult to deal with. "Give me all the information you have gathered during this period."

"Yes!" The head of the Cloud Village's spy team, who had infiltrated Konoha, nodded and began to dictate the intelligence they had painstakingly obtained over the past few days.

"The Hyuga clan's main branch ninja, including the clan head Hiashi Hyuga, currently numbers nine. However, they are always heavily protected. Only Hinata Hyuga, the eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan head, and the current young clan head Neji Hyuga have no branch branch ninjas protecting them. However, Hinata Hyuga usually travels with Shisui Hyuga, an elite Jonin of the Uchiha clan, making it impossible for us to quickly take her down. As for Neji Hyuga..."

The head of the Cloud Village's spies gave a wry smile when Neji was mentioned: "This kid has only graduated from the Ninja Academy a year ago, but he already has the strength of a Jonin. He's also extremely sensitive to the slightest movement around him. Many of our brothers have fallen to him before. If we attack him, he can easily hold out until Konoha's reinforcements arrive." "If Hyuga isn't an option, what about Uzumaki?" A asked at this moment. He had been very envious of Karin's sealing techniques when watching the match in the VIP room earlier that day.

"The Uzumaki clan..." Upon hearing this, the head of the Kumogakure spy agency shook his head helplessly. "Although the Uzumaki clan leader is currently only a newly graduated genin within Konoha, and there are only a mother and daughter in the clan, it is basically impossible to take action against them."

"Why?" Ai asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Currently, Naruto Uzumaki, the head of the Uzumaki clan, resides in the home of Kakashi Hatake, the captain of the Konoha Police Force. In addition to being a Jinchuriki, he was never short of protection from Konoha's elite troops when he was weak. Now, this kid has grown up. Although he rarely shows his strength, judging from the traces left by our spies in his daily training grounds, this guy is at least a Jonin in strength."

"As for the other two, since there is no Uzumaki clan territory in Konoha at present, the place they are currently living in is the former Senju clan territory, and they live next door to Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin."

Upon hearing this, Ai gave up on pursuing the matter further. Let alone the spies in their village, even he himself wasn't confident of victory against Tsunade, let alone snatching her away right under her nose.

"So, we currently have no chance to seize any of Konoha's bloodline clans, is that right?" Ai gritted his teeth somewhat unwillingly. The last time they planned to take down the Hyuga clan, it was only because they, the Hidden Cloud Village, had hit the jackpot. At that time, the Hyuga clan had lowered their guard considerably due to their comfortable life within the village for many years. In addition, they encountered a weak Hokage like Hiruzen Sarutobi, which gave them the opportunity to obtain the Byakugan. However, this opportunity was also slipped away by the Hyuga clan through their carelessness, who used the method of having a branch clan head die in their place.

Now, under Uchiha Touko's management, Konoha is like an ironclad unit. Despite losing so many spies, Kumogakure has only received intelligence that leaves them with no opportunity to make a move.

As for the Uchiha clan, A didn't even ask. In the present day, there could be gaps in Konoha's defenses anywhere, but the Uchiha clan was the least likely to be vulnerable.

"Well... that's not entirely true," the Cloud Village spy said after a moment's hesitation.

"Hmm?" Ai perked up upon hearing this.

"We haven't found any opportunities with the major bloodline clans of Konoha yet, but we have a very good chance of kidnapping the young master of the Sarutobi clan."

"The Sarutobi clan?" Ai's eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this. Although the Sarutobi clan did not have any special bloodline limit, their physique had an extremely high affinity for chakra. They were born with significantly more chakra than ordinary people, and it was also easier for them to learn ninjutsu. This clan's bloodline had the ability to reliably produce elite Jonin.

Therefore, if the Hyuga and other ninja clans don't give them a chance, it doesn't seem like it's impossible to snatch a member of the Sarutobi clan back with them.

“Tell me more about the opportunity you’re talking about,” Ai said.

"Here's the thing, this young master of the Sarutobi clan is the grandson of the former Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He's currently attending the Ninja Academy, but every day after school, he goes to the Royal Palace of the Land of Fire to play with the current Daimyo of the Land of Fire. Then, he returns to the Sarutobi clan's territory in the northeast of Konoha in the evening. During this time, this kid is only guarded by a tutor with the strength of a special Jonin."

"Only one Special Jonin?" Ai's eyes lit up upon hearing this. Although Konoha's Special Jonin were not exactly weak, compared to the guards surrounding the heirs of the major ninja clans, the guards surrounding this young master of the Sarutobi clan were practically a freebie.

Therefore, after learning this news, Ai immediately began to suspect that this might be a trap set by Konoha.

"We have confirmed repeatedly that the young master of the Sarutobi clan is indeed only protected by one special Jonin. The Sarutobi clan does not provide much protection for its younger members."

After thinking it over, Ai understood why this was happening. With the Hyuga and Uchiha clans in Konoha, whose bloodlines were coveted by everyone in the ninja world, the chances of their Sarutobi clan being targeted were very low. Therefore, the security forces protecting the younger generation of the clan within the village were naturally not as exaggerated as those of the Hyuga clan.

"That's him. Make the arrangements. We'll take action immediately after the Chunin Exams." Ai made the decision.

Konohamaru, who was still arguing heatedly with Minamoto no Yuuki in the palace about whether raising crickets with chakra was cheating, was unaware that in just a short while, he had already been targeted by the Hidden Cloud Village.

……

The next day, after dawn, the leaders of the various ninja villages once again came to the VIP room where they were watching the Chunin Exams.

At this moment, Sasuke and Kurotsuchi had already discussed the specific details of their cooperation and decided on the members of their respective villages' advancing teams, and began to contact their fellow villagers using their own methods.

After learning about the shrinking circle, Shikamaru and his two companions, who had just set up a new trap at the edge of the circle, were startled by a small white snake crawling at their feet. The snake then spat out a miniature scroll and disappeared.

"News about Sasuke?" Shikamaru opened the scroll that the snake had spat out, somewhat puzzled. After reading the contents, his lips twitched, and he sighed. Then he said to Ino and Choji, "Stop bothering us, let's go. Sasuke needs our help."

"Huh?" Choji said in disbelief, "Sasuke and the others are in trouble? But if it's a problem that even they can't solve, then we probably won't be able to help much."

"It has nothing to do with strength; Sasuke is planning to pull off a big surprise in this exam," Shikamaru said.

(End of this chapter)