Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 210 The melee begins

As the second circle shift began today, the safe zone slowly moved, and the remaining teams in the arena began to gather together.

"They're here." Hinata, who was in charge of reconnaissance, immediately spotted the nine ninjas rushing towards them with her Byakugan. "They're all wearing Kumogakure headbands."

"So it seems the Hidden Cloud Village has also joined forces?" Shikamaru's voice rang in everyone's ears through the Yamanaka clan's secret technique. "But why are there only nine people? Does the Hidden Cloud Village only have three teams left?"

"Never mind that for now. Kiba and I will lure them towards Trap 8. You guys be ready to provide support." Shino said, raising his hands and sending a swarm of insects flying out of his sleeves.

"Understood, Sakura. Go to the nearby trap number 6 and prepare to detonate the explosive tag. Choji, go to the west cave and wait for orders—remember to put away the potato chip bag."

"Understood." The two voices came through the channel.

"Naruto, you're closest to them. Once they're in the trap, the main battle will be yours. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata will assist you. Try to take them down within three minutes," Shikamaru said, sketching on the map.

"Three minutes is enough for me to take them all out," Naruto said, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

"Don't underestimate them. This could very well be just an advance team from the Cloud Village. We must take care of this Cloud Village team as quickly as possible."

"Understood," Naruto said.

As the three teams of white ninja from Kumogakure rapidly advanced into the safe zone, a swarm of insects, darkening the sky, surged forth from the surrounding dense forest. The sunlight, already somewhat blocked by the forest, was completely obscured by the insects.

"Get out of the way!" Each of the three Cloud Village squads formed hand seals, attempting to use lightning release to drive away the terrifying swarm of insects.

"Lightning Release? Then let's try out the effects of the half-finished Lightning-Eating Insects that the clan cultivated using the Hokage's Lightning Release chakra."

For insects, the high temperature of Fire Release or the explosion of Lightning Release should be fear etched into their DNA. However, the swarm of insects released by Shino became as excited as if they had seen food when they saw the Lightning Release ninjutsu released by the Cloud Village genin. They pounced on it and devoured the Lightning Release ninjutsu as soon as it took shape.

"This... how is this possible?" The Cloud Village genin, whose ninjutsu had been absorbed, looked on in disbelief. The current situation was clearly beyond his comprehension.

"It seems the problem isn't with the family's training methods, but rather that the Hokage and Kakashi's Lightning Release chakra is too unique," Shino muttered to himself after sensing the message transmitted back by the insect.

As one of the core families of Uchiha Toko's interest group, the Aburame family was aware of some of Uchiha Toko's long-term plans. Knowing that a war would be fought in the future, they had already begun research on insects using Lightning Release and Earth Release chakra against Kumogakure and Iwagakure.

The cultivation of insects targeting Earth Release chakra is progressing very smoothly. When a member of the Aburame clan's insect master has sufficient supplies, the Rock-Eating Insects he releases are able to directly destroy a combined Earth Release technique released by a ten-person Iwagakure Allied Ninja Team. This is the result of a secret test on the battlefield of the Takigakure conflict.

However, things didn't go so smoothly with Lightning Release. Compared to Earth Release, Konoha had far fewer Lightning Release ninjas. Apart from the current top two figures in Konoha, there weren't even double-digit numbers of Jonin skilled in Lightning Release. Therefore, the experimental materials used by the Aburame clan to cultivate Lightning Insects were always provided by Uchiha Tokō and Kakashi.

The results of the experiment were self-evident. Uchiha Tokō's Lightning Release chakra had long been intertwined with natural energy. Even if the insects raised by the Aburame clan could withstand the power of Lightning Release chakra, they would be corroded by natural energy. As for Kakashi's chakra, after learning Uchiha Tokō's training methods, the lightning he created with his Lightning Release chakra had begun to resemble the lightning properties of nature. The Lightning-Eating Insects raised by the Aburame clan could consume the chakra within them, but they could not withstand the physical properties of this lightning.

However, when facing the ninjas of Kumogakure, the insects cultivated by the Aburame clan, which cost a huge amount of research funds every year, finally showed their true strength.

"Damn it, use swordsmanship!" Surrounded by the swarm of insects, the Cloud Village genin gritted his teeth and drew his sword. He swung it so hard that water couldn't get through, and only then did he barely manage to carve a path through the overwhelming swarm of insects. However, before they could get very far, a white whirlwind came crashing down on them.

"Fang fang!"

The Cloud Village members, who had just survived the ordeal, were caught off guard and hit by this move. The white-haired Cloud Village leader was knocked back several meters away. Although he was tough and resilient due to years of physical training, the attack did not cause much real damage. However, after he stopped, a small dog was still clinging to his butt.

"Akamaru, let go, we should go!" At this moment, Kiba Inuzuka also appeared, caught Akamaru who fell from the other's buttocks, and then ran away.

"Damn Konoha ninja!" Veins bulged on the forehead of the Cloud Village ninja. Kiba Inuzuka's attack didn't do much damage, but it was extremely humiliating. If the villagers knew that he had been bitten on the butt by a dog during a mission, would he still be able to hold his head up in the village?

"Chase after him!" The ninja who had been bitten on the buttocks shouted, ignoring the bleeding wound, and then drew his sword to catch up with Kiba Inuzuka.

"They seem angry," Kiba Inuzuka said gleefully in the channel. "Naruto, get ready!" With that, Kiba formed a hand seal, and in an instant, his figure split into six, running off in different directions.

After the instructor of Team 8 was changed from Kurenai Yuhi to Shisui Uchiha, the strength of Team 8 became much stronger than in the original timeline. After all, the arrangement of Kurenai Yuhi, a ninja specializing in genjutsu, to lead the reconnaissance team was more out of the Third Hokage's idea of ​​paving the way for his own son. After all, everyone could see that Kurenai Yuhi couldn't teach the three of them anything.

After Shisui became their teacher, the three of them were Shisui's first group of disciples, and Shisui devoted himself to teaching them.

The first ninjutsu Shisui taught them wasn't a powerful technique, but rather an escape method.

After all, as a reconnaissance squad, bringing back the intelligence they obtained alive is far more important than inflicting casualties on the enemy.

Therefore, Shisui simplified his signature Body Flicker Technique and taught it to them. Now, Kiba Inuzuka, who used this technique, really caused great trouble for the pursuing Cloud Village.

“The amount of chakra hasn’t decreased, so it’s not a shadow clone.” The Cloud Village ninja, while keeping a close eye on Kiba Inuzuka, quickly calculated in his mind, “But which one is the real body? Why do all six of them look like the real body?”

"Captain, what should we do? Should we split up and chase them?" A Cloud Village member threw a string of shuriken at one of Kiba Inuzuka's figures, but the opponent easily dodged them, and asked.

"No? We can't split up. The enemy's situation is unclear. If we rashly split up, we might be picked off one by one." Although Kiba Inuzuka was furious and wanted to tear him and his dog to pieces right now, he still maintained his basic composure.

"The enemy has entered the trap's range," Hinata said, who had been observing the situation with her Byakugan activated.

"Sakura!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Understood!" Upon hearing Shikamaru's command, Sakura divided her chakra into portions and precisely injected them into the remote detonation technique of the explosive tags in front of her.

A series of explosions rang out around them. They hurriedly dodged, but found that no matter how they dodged, they could not escape the range of the explosive tags. They could only rely on their ninjutsu to withstand the damage.

At this moment, the chakra injected into each of Sakura's techniques was just enough to detonate the explosive tags. There were nearly a hundred long-range detonation techniques in front of Sakura. The detonation sequence of each technique was carefully designed by Shikamaru in advance. If it were anyone else, it would take at least three people to make the trap work perfectly. But Sakura managed to complete the task with her precise control and super memory.

"Sakura is amazing!" Ino couldn't help but exclaim in the channel.

"Hehe, this level of procedure is nothing compared to complex surgery," Sakura said with a dry laugh.

"Naruto, you can go and clean up the mess now. Choji, you stay where you are. If there are any survivors, you're in charge of dealing with them."

"Yes!"

"Finally, it's my turn!" Naruto, who had been waiting for a long time at the top of a big tree, finally heard Shikamaru's order for him to attack. After rubbing his wrists, he looked down at the area shrouded in smoke and dust from the explosion and shouted, "Kurama-nii-san, lend me some chakra!"

The Nine-Tailed Fox, lying in the sealed space, raised its eyes to sense the strength of its opponent, and then cursed, "My power is not for you to use to deal with such trash."

"Big brother, please help me out. This smoke won't dissipate anytime soon. I need your chakra sensing ability to pinpoint their location." Although Naruto said this, he had already leaped up from the treetop.

"Hmph, troublesome brat." The Nine-Tails in the sealed space pouted, changed its position and continued sleeping. However, the next moment, a faint golden layer also appeared on the surface of Naruto's body as he descended from the sky.

"The art of multiple shadow clones!"

Naruto formed hand seals in mid-air, and dozens of figures appeared one after another amidst the smoke. The wisp of chakra provided by Kurama accurately located the positions of the nine Cloud Village members who were still within the area affected by the explosion.

……

(End of this chapter)