Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 216 Prelude to the War
"Third Hokage, please calm down." Inside Konoha, Kakashi was reassuring Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had already changed into his battle suit, while also mobilizing troops. "The Fifth Hokage has already gone after him. With his strength, he can definitely bring Konohamaru back safely."

"Calm down? How can I calm down? Asuma has been married for almost two years and still doesn't have a child. I only have Konohamaru as my grandson." Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed on his pipe for a while, then said, "No, I have to go there myself. Although Touko's strength should be above the Raikage, he is alone right now."

"But, Third Hokage, it's too late for you to go there alone now. Inuzuka Kaze, who is good at long-distance raids, and his ninja dog Sumimaru are already heading to the border with Flying Thunder God kunai. If we wait a little longer and let Genma and the other two use the Flying Thunder God Formation to send us there, it might be faster."

"That's all we can do," Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed, exhaling a long puff of smoke.

When faced with the kidnapping of his own grandson, Hiruzen Sarutobi was anxious, but he also felt that there was a sense of retribution in the situation.

When the Hyuga clan faced this situation, he did nothing and watched helplessly as Hyuga Hiashi died in his place.

But now, the person who has been kidnapped is his grandson.

[Doukaku, he probably won't give up on Konohamaru, right...] Hiruzen Sarutobi thought to himself, looking at the empty sword rack in the Hokage's office.

……

The Cloud Village delegation, carrying Konohamaru, is desperately fleeing towards the border.

Just then, a large bird flew across the sky in front of their team, scattering a large amount of clay bombs.

With a series of booming sounds, the road in front of the Cloud Hidden Mission exploded one after another, and the colorful flames were particularly dazzling against the night sky.
However, the people of Kumogakure had no interest in appreciating the fireworks in front of them.

"Enemy attack!" The Cloud Village ninja at the forefront, who was temporarily in A's absence, shouted in anguish after narrowly avoiding the sudden explosion.

The sudden explosion caused heavy losses to the Cloud Village ninjas at the forefront. Several of the weaker ones were killed in the violent explosion, while the stronger ones were seriously injured.

"The enemy is in the sky!" The Cloud Village commander wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said through gritted teeth.

Deidara's figure, standing atop the bird's head, was clearly visible in the firelight ignited by the explosion.

However, Deidara made no attempt to hide it; for an artist like him, the feeling of having the world's attention on him is the most enjoyable.

Under the watchful eyes of the Cloud Ninja, Deidara pulled out a large chunk of clay from the scroll and began chewing it with his mouth and the large mouths in his palms. Then, another string of exploding clay was thrown out.

"Hahaha, appreciate my art! Art is an explosion!" Deidara on the giant bird laughed loudly, throwing clay at the sky.

Seeing this, the Cloud Village ninjas could only awkwardly use defensive ninjutsu to block the aftershocks of the explosion.

Meanwhile, Naruto and his two companions took advantage of the chaos to sneak up behind the main force of the Cloud Village.

Sasuke bit his finger, formed hand seals, and summoned his contracted snake.

Unlike Uchiha Touko, whose strength and fighting style were already fixed when he signed the contract with Ryuchi Cave, Sasuke could grow and develop synergy with his contracted snake partner, thus integrating the power of the contracted snake into his own fighting system. Sasuke's talent was undeniable. After leaving his name on the contract scroll of Ryuchi Cave, Ryuchi Cave also made the most talented blue snake among their generation of snakes Sasuke's partner.

In the darkness, a giant snake nearly thirty meters long emerged from the center of the spirit communication array. However, to avoid being seen, it lay flat on the ground, only its enormous head facing the three of them.

"Young Master Sasuke." After appearing, the Green Snake greeted Sasuke first, and then asked, "What brings you here?"

"Could you take the three of us and sneak in from underground to rescue them from their ranks?" Sasuke asked.

“It’s very simple.” The green snake nodded, then gestured for the three of them to come up on his head.

After Sasuke, carrying Naruto and Neji, stood firmly on the back of the blue snake, the blue snake's chakra began to circulate, and its body slowly sank into the earth.

Not a single ninja from Kumogakure noticed the commotion. Putting aside whether these Kumogakure ninjas, whose strongest were only elite Jonin, knew about the mysterious Sage Chakra, the sight of Deidara laughing and throwing bombs from the sky completely distracted them.

"Damn it, we don't have any ninjas with anti-air capabilities in our team!" The commander of Kumogakure gritted his teeth and glared at the giant bird hovering in the sky, but he was truly powerless against Deidara flying in the air.

This Cloud Village unit consisted of several elite Jonin who followed A and spies who had infiltrated Konoha and had to return to Cloud Village after their mission. The ninjas A brought with him were either skilled in ninjutsu or defensive ninjutsu, and their ranged attack capabilities were extremely weak. As for the spies who had been exposed and were hiding in Konoha, they were even less likely to be good at long-range attacks. Therefore, faced with Deidara's barrage of attacks from the sky, they could only helplessly use defensive ninjutsu to protect their heads.

Fortunately, their Lightning Release ninjutsu was somewhat effective against Deidara's Explosion Release Clay. Although they were constantly bombarded and unable to lift their heads, the casualties of the entire team were not particularly severe, except for the casualties caused by the suddenness of the first wave of bombardment.

But before they could celebrate for long, the ground in the center of their army suddenly began to surge, and a large snake burst from the earth.

The Blue Snake, which usually eats a relatively bland diet, didn't make an appearance like Orochimaru's Manda, who would at least devour two people for fun. But at this moment, the poisonous mist mixed with Sage Chakra that the Blue Snake spewed out caused even more terrifying damage than Manda. The Cloud Village ninjas whose skin touched the poisonous mist began to petrify the next second, forcing them to use kunai to cut away the flesh and blood that had been contaminated by the poisonous mist. Their decisiveness saved their lives. Several Cloud Village genin, who hesitated for a moment, were corroded by the poisonous mist and turned into stone statues with scales on their bodies.

The Green Serpent perfectly completed its mission. After leading the three into the Cloud Village's formation, it even cleared out an area for them. At this moment, only a Cloud Village Jonin carrying a sack remained in the entire area.

Sasuke and Neji said nothing, wielding their Purple Lightning and Eight Trigrams Staff, and charged forward. "Konoha's genin?" the man carrying the sack said through gritted teeth, parrying their attacks with his sword. He immediately recognized Sasuke and his two companions, who had shone brightly in the Chunin Exams. "Are you here to die?"

"Hmph," Sasuke snorted coldly, and his Purple Lightning, crackling with purple electricity, slashed heavily at his opponent. After colliding with the opponent's weapon, the electric sparks on the blade emitted a series of ear-piercing shrieks, like a thousand birds singing. The next moment, a bolt of lightning as thick as an arm descended from the sky.

Seeing this, the man had no choice but to retreat. At this moment, Neji, using the Bagua Step, followed up, thrusting his long staff repeatedly at the opponent's pressure points, forcing him to retreat in a disheveled manner.

At this moment, the people around also reacted and gathered around to provide support. Sasuke then ran his hand over the blade of the Purple Lightning sword, imbuing it with a layer of lightning-attribute chakra, before plunging it into the ground.

"Thunder Escape·Earth Walk."

In an instant, purple lightning bolts surged in all directions like dragons, precisely targeting the ninjas who were trying to provide support.

The electric current flowing through the ground exploded precisely beneath the enemy's feet; Sasuke's ninjutsu instantly took down two Chunin.

Seeing this, Omoi, who was not far away, was also shocked. He had lost to Sasuke in the Chunin Exams and thought that the gap between him and Sasuke was not that big. But now, seeing Sasuke's full strength, he finally realized that Sasuke had not shown his full strength in the Chunin Exams.

This isn't hard to understand. During the Chunin Exams, Sasuke only wielded an ordinary chakra metal sword. Although the sword was of very good quality—even many Chunin from Konoha who used swords would need to save up for a long time to afford a similar one—it was still far inferior to the Purple Lightning, which was made from the best chakra metal in the entire ninja world and forged by the best swordsmith in the Land of Water, renowned for his sword-making skills. During the Chunin Exams, Sasuke had to consider whether the sword could withstand his chakra and dared not go all out. But now, with the Purple Lightning in hand, he could naturally unleash his full power.

Meanwhile, the Cloud Village Jonin carrying the sack was also being pushed back by Neji's fierce offensive. Neji's staff technique, which incorporated the essence of Baguazhang, was already difficult for the opponent to defend against. Moreover, strange ninja tools would occasionally pop out from the summoning scroll on Neji's wrist.

Just as the opponent was preoccupied with Neji's attack, a gust of wind swept past him from behind, and Naruto, who had been waiting for the right moment, snatched the sack from the opponent's back.

"Success!" Naruto couldn't wait to open the sack after getting his hands on it, wanting to release Konohamaru.

However, at this moment, Neji's Byakugan noticed something unusual and immediately shouted, "Watch out, Naruto! It's not Konohamaru inside!"

At that moment, within the sealed space inside Naruto's body, the sleeping Kurama suddenly awoke and sternly warned, "Kid, be careful! The person inside is hostile towards you!"

However, before they could finish speaking, a cold glint flashed from the open sack. Inside, a short boy who looked no more than seven or eight years old held a kunai in his hand and thrust it toward Naruto's heart with a fierce expression.

Thinking the sack contained Konohamaru, Naruto was caught off guard. When he saw the opponent's attack, he only had time to slightly dodge to avoid a vital spot. The kunai pierced Naruto's right shoulder, and blood gushed out immediately.

The attacker, having missed his target, immediately and decisively drew another kunai and aimed it at Naruto's heart.

After catching the kunai with his left hand, Naruto finally saw the attacker's face and his expression turned to disbelief.

The attacker was an eight-year-old boy, similar in age and build to Konohamaru, and Naruto had seen this boy many times in the village.

“I remember, you seem to be the son of the owner of that restaurant two blocks away from Ichiraku Ramen…” Naruto stared blankly at the boy in front of him, whose face bore a fierce expression that shouldn’t be on a child his age, and said, “Why would you do something like this?”

"My father is the captain of the Cloud Village's spy team, infiltrated into Konoha. I've known for a long time that I'm from the great Cloud Village." A fanatical look appeared on the boy's face. He released the kunai that Naruto was holding, picked up a new one, and launched another attack on Naruto. "Die, you damned demon fox!"

However, the next moment, a purple bolt of lightning streaked through Naruto's vision.

"Sasuke! No!" Naruto shouted, but it was too late. The child who had ambushed Naruto was overwhelmed by Sasuke's attack in the blink of an eye.

Blood splattered on Naruto's cheek, and Naruto stared blankly at everything before him.

"What are you standing there for? This guy is the enemy." Sasuke said with a frown after arriving next to Naruto.

However, the current situation didn't allow Sasuke much time to think. After Neji arrived, the three of them stood back to back in a defensive stance, and Sasuke asked sternly, "Where did you hide Konohamaru?"

The current commander of Kumogakure was preoccupied with fending off Deidara's attacks from the sky and did not answer Sasuke's question. Instead, he turned around and shouted, "Kill these geniuses from Konoha! Even if we all die here, it's still a sure win!"

"We've been tricked." Sasuke said coldly, looking at the Cloud Village army that was beginning to gather around them.

"It's my fault. If I had realized sooner that it wasn't Konohamaru, this wouldn't have happened," Neji said with some annoyance.

"There's no point in saying all this now, Naruto. Can you still fight?" Sasuke said.

Naruto's blood-stained face was somewhat numb. He didn't say anything, but silently pulled out the kunai stuck in his right shoulder. The deep wound, which exposed bone, healed at an incredible speed after bleeding a little.

"Break out from the north. Even if we can't break through their lines, we should hold out for as long as possible. The border troops should be on their way after hearing the commotion. It seems we can only get the information about Konohamaru's whereabouts by taking them prisoner first." Sasuke said, his hand crackling with purple lightning.

……

(End of this chapter)