Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 299 May you die because of your clumsy genjutsu skills, Uchiha Tokō!
“I know what you’re worried about,” Uchiha Touko smiled helplessly as he looked at the group of village leaders gathered in his office. “With my strength, they can’t do anything to me.”

"Lord Hokage, we are not questioning your strength," Fugaku Uchiha said from the side, "but who knows what kind of conspiracy Onoki and A have in store for you? To be frank, don't forget how the Second Hokage died."

Hidden in the shadows of the Hokage's office, Tobirama Senju: ...

Although he wanted to dissuade Uchiha Tokō from taking risks, he still couldn't quite hold back when he heard Uchiha Fugaku use him as an example.

“Of course I know there might be an ambush here, but this is also a good opportunity to end the war directly,” Uchiha Touko said. “The current progress of the war is still too slow, and we don’t have enough time.”

"Are you in such a hurry?" Kakashi asked.

“If possible, I would even like to end the war today. The enemy that appeared on the battlefield in the Land of Earth that day was an extremely difficult opponent. We cannot waste our current strength on internal strife within the ninja world,” said Uchiha Touko.

"So, Lord Hokage, are you planning to negotiate with them?" Inuzuka Kotetsu asked.

"We can talk if they want to, but if they want to fight, then Konoha is ready to fight to the bitter end," said Uchiha Touko.

……

A day later, Uchiha Touko and his hastily formed Shadow Guard embarked on their journey to the Land of Iron.

His Shadow Guard, led by the recovered Neji, is probably the youngest in terms of average age among all the Hokage. In this Shadow Guard, all 12 Konoha members except for the original Team 7 are present. Naruto is still wandering around the ninja world, Sasuke is still traveling in the heart of the Land of Lightning, and as for Sakura, with Tsunade and Shizune each in charge of a field hospital on a battlefield, the task of training medical students in the village falls on her frail shoulders.

Following Uchiha Touko's instructions, the group did not choose to travel quickly, but instead took their time traveling by carriage towards the Land of Iron. Regardless of the other party's motives, this approach would put immense pressure on them. After all, Konoha currently held the upper hand on the battlefield, and the longer Uchiha Touko dragged things out if they wanted to negotiate, the greater the pressure on them would be.

Of course, the same applies if this is a trap. You should know that when you ambush someone, especially an enemy who is stronger than you, the psychological pressure on the ambush party will increase as time goes by.

Five days later, Uchiha Tokō's Hokage chariot, carrying a full ceremonial procession, arrived at the border of the Land of Iron. As soon as they arrived, the border was decorated with lanterns and colorful banners, and hundreds of samurai dressed in their most formal ceremonial armor lined up to welcome Uchiha Tokō's convoy.

"The chakra fluctuations are unusually high; this shouldn't be an ordinary samurai," Karin warned from within the mental space constructed using the Yamanaka clan's secret technique.

"The shape and location of the calluses on their hands don't look like those of samurai who hold swords all year round. Instead, they look more like the calluses that grow on hands that hold kunai and ninja swords," Hinata said at this moment.

"This is troublesome. In other words, they're up to no good," Shikamaru said.

"Hehe, now we are the ones who have arrived," Neji said, while also getting ready.

"Your Excellency, Grand Minister of the Land of Fire, welcome to the Land of Iron. I am Kawamura Teruyuki, the Left Minister of the Land of Iron. My Lord Daimyo of the Land of Iron has prepared a banquet in the castle ahead. I humbly request Your Excellency to attend."

"Oh? A banquet hosted by the Daimyo?" Uchiha Touko keenly noticed that the other party was inviting him, the Grand Minister of Fire, not the Hokage. In other words, this was an invitation for him to attend the banquet alone.

"Even Mifune is involved with them? Is it our actions of annexing the Land of Water that made him uneasy?" Uchiha Touko thought to himself, but he still nodded without changing his expression.

However, this is just right. If the Land of Iron continues to remain neutral, then Uchiha Touko would have to bear some pressure from public opinion in the ninja world if he wanted to take action against the Land of Iron. After the war, it would also take a lot of time and effort to directly bring the craftsmen of the Land of Iron under his control. But now that Mifune has given up his neutrality, then he can't be blamed.

“Since it is His Highness the Daimyo who has invited me, then I will accept the invitation without hesitation,” Uchiha Touko said with a smile.

After Uchiha Touko finished speaking, he followed the other person's footsteps. Neji and the others saw this and were about to follow, but at this moment, the Left Minister of the Land of Iron named Kawamura Teruyu blocked their way. He then turned to Uchiha Touko and said, "Your Excellency, the banquet is attended by civil officials. Would you mind having your Shadow Guard wait a moment? Of course, His Majesty the Daimyo has also prepared a fine feast for them."

"Is it just a banquet for civil officials?" Uchiha Touko nodded, then looked at Neji, "Then you can all go over there for the banquet."

"Teacher?" Neji frowned upon hearing this, but after seeing Uchiha Touko's reassuring look, he said nothing more and followed the rest of the Shadow Guard.

"Wait a minute." Uchiha Touko suddenly called out to Neji.

"Could you please keep my sword for me for now?" Uchiha Touko tossed the Swift Lightning sword at his waist to Neji, then looked at Kawamura Teruyuki and chuckled, "After all, it's a daimyo's banquet, so it would be a bit impolite for me to bring my sword, wouldn't it, Minister of the Left?"

"It's wonderful that you think that way, Grand Minister of State." A fleeting hint of joy crossed Kawamura Teruyuki's face, but he quickly concealed it.

Uchiha Tokō swaggered in with Kawamura Teruyuki to the castle lord's mansion. When Uchiha Tokō arrived, Mifune was already waiting at the door.

"Hehe, thank you for gracing us with your presence, Grand Minister of State," Mifune said with a smile.

“Since His Highness the Daimyo has invited me, I naturally have no reason not to come,” Uchiha Touko replied with a smile.

"Grand Minister of State, please!"

"Your Highness, please go first."

After exchanging polite refusals, the two entered the banquet hall together. Several burly, scholarly-looking men were seated there. Upon seeing the two enter, they all rose and said, "Greetings, Your Highness the Daimyo, greetings, Grand Minister of State of the Land of Fire." Uchiha Touko nodded to the crowd before turning to Mifune and chuckled, "The Daimyo's scholars are indeed all quite robust. Even we in the Land of Fire are far inferior in this respect."

"Grand Minister, you jest. My Land of Iron is a land of warriors. Before they entered the court, they were all warriors, so naturally they have such physiques. I envy your Land of Fire, which not only has such a powerful shadow, but also such an outstanding civil official."

After exchanging pleasantries, the two took their seats and began toasting each other.

The air was filled with the aroma of sake and the smell of food, and as the banquet progressed, a subtle, tense atmosphere grew stronger.

The banquet was getting into the swing of things, and the atmosphere seemed to have eased a bit.

Midway through the banquet, as the host, Mifune rose to raise his glass, preparing to deliver a toast, when suddenly, an unexpected event occurred!

Two metal cubes were tossed into the banquet hall from a corner.

At the same time, Mifune flicked his wrist, and the gesture that seemed to be raising a cup instantly turned into a sword-drawing and charging posture. He drew a short sword from his waist and aimed it directly at Touko's side, trying to block Uchiha Touko's evasion route!

The two metal cubes suddenly disintegrated in mid-air, turning into countless tiny, shimmering blue metallic dust particles that instantly spread out, completely enveloping Uchiha Touko! The dust particles made a faint "hissing" sound upon contact with the air, and a powerful and eerie force field was instantly formed!

The next instant, Uchiha Touko felt the scene before him violently distort and peel away! The luxurious and bright banquet hall disappeared, replaced by a gloomy and terrifying forest of bones.

The crimson moon cast its light, making the countless jagged bone trees appear like menacing claws. Beneath his feet lay soft, sticky, decaying earth, reeking of a nauseating stench of blood. Countless twisted, tormented phantoms of souls wailed and darted through the bone forest, their cries piercing the depths of his soul, attempting to shatter his will. The illusion itself carried a powerful mental impact, trying to directly paralyze his nerves and freeze the flow of his chakra.

This is the cutting-edge scientific ninja tool developed by Amado, the genius scientist currently residing in Kumogakure—"Nightmare of the Forest." It doesn't require the user to be proficient in genjutsu; simply injecting chakra to activate it instantly creates a composite genjutsu space that combines mental shock and sensory deprivation, powerful enough to trap a Kage-level ninja! They are betting on Uchiha Touko's vulnerability due to the well-known information in the ninja world that he is "not good at genjutsu"!
Seeing Uchiha Touko frozen in place, A, who had appeared, laughed wildly: "Hahaha, as expected, using genjutsu to deal with Uchiha Touko is indeed feasible!"

Having said that, Ai gritted his teeth and glared at the figure before him who had brought him endless humiliation. "Uchiha Touko! Die at your clumsy genjutsu skills! One-shot shojin!"

Ai transformed into lightning, his metal prosthetic limb crackling with thunderous electricity, and charged towards Uchiha Touko.

At this moment, in the center of the terrifying illusion, Uchiha Touko showed no panic. Facing the wailing ghosts rushing towards him and the abyss that suddenly cracked open beneath his feet, from which countless bone hands reached out, he simply closed his eyes calmly.

"A boring trick."

When he opened his eyes again, those dark eyes had changed!
Against a crimson backdrop, three jet-black tomoe rapidly rotated and transformed into a tomoe composed of three lightning bolts. Silver Sage Mode eyeshadow appeared at the corner of the eye—Mangekyou Sharingan: Mizusou no Mikoto!

The Mirage Eye Technique is activated!
In Dou Guang's vision, the blood moon that blotted out the sky, the gloomy forest of skeletons, the wailing souls, the abyss beneath his feet... all the illusions were like reflections on water after a stone has been thrown in, violently fluctuating, distorting, and then shattering into pieces! The chakra flow that constituted the illusion, the energy nodes, and the faint metallic signal sources of the two scientific ninja tools hidden at the core of the illusion were presented to him in perfect detail, like beacons in the night. His eye technique, awakened because of his doubts about the reality of this world, could "see through" the root and essence of all illusions.

The illusion collapsed in an instant!
In the real world, only a moment has passed.

The azure dust field enveloping Uchiha Touko vanished like shattered glass! He remained seated in his original position, his posture unchanged, only his crimson Mangekyou Sharingan with its lightning bolt pattern staring ahead like an abyss.

Ai's sinister smile froze instantly, replaced by utter shock and disbelief: "What?! Impossible!"

The momentum of the three ships suddenly came to a halt, and the samurai's intuition made him feel a great crisis!
"Lord Mifune," Touko's voice was terrifyingly calm, yet carried a chilling edge that could freeze the soul, "is this the entertainment you prepared for the banquet? And these two are the actors you hired?"

Before he could finish speaking, Uchiha Touko moved!

Uchiha Touko's body vanished from the spot like a ghost, leaving a faint afterimage behind. When he reappeared, he was already beside Raikage A!
Seeing this, Ai roared and his whole body burst with violent blue lightning. His metal prosthetic limbs were wrapped in destructive lightning, tearing through the air and slamming straight into Dou Guang's face!

The pitch-black Susanoo skeleton instantly appeared, its giant hand grabbing Ai Ci's metal prosthetic limb, and then azure lightning crackled in its hand.

On the other side, Onoki clasped his hands together, and a blinding white light rapidly condensed and expanded between his palms!

Dust Release: Particle Style! A massive, semi-transparent cube instantly materialized and shot towards Uchiha Touko!

While holding A's metal prosthetic arm, Uchiha Touko turned to look at Onoki, smiled, and then the lightning in his hand instantly erupted, causing an explosion in front of A's eyes. At the same time, Uchiha Touko's figure disappeared from Onoki's sight.

When Uchiha Touko reappeared, he was already beside Onoki. His speed was so fast that Onoki didn't even have time to react. A ball of lightning that had almost solidified into liquid transformed into a blade and slashed toward his face. Onoki hurriedly dodged, but how could Onoki, whose speed had greatly decreased due to his age, keep up with Uchiha Touko's speed?

Seeing that the space for dodging had been completely blocked, Onoki had no choice but to temporarily condense a Dust Release Cube and block in front of the Lightning Blade.

The moment the raging lightning collided with the Dust Cube, the energy surged outwards. The figures of the civil officials disguised as elites from the two villages, who had just stepped forward to help them at the banquet, were instantly swept away by this energy. A group of people were slammed heavily against the palace walls one after another, and the banquet hall of the city lord's mansion in this border city of the Iron Kingdom collapsed at that moment.

Uchiha Touko quietly left the center of the explosion, but at that moment, a cold light suddenly flashed, extremely fast, and silently slashed towards Touko's neck!
The three ships have moved!

(End of this chapter)