Hidden Cloud's Secret Operation, Kushina Uzumaki's Crisis

Night hung low, starless and moonless. An isolated estate on the very edge of Hidden Leaf was utterly swallowed by deep darkness.

This was a blind spot in Hidden Leaf's defensive network, as well as a prison the higher-ups used to confine "special vessels." The surrounding walls were covered in intricate sealing formulas; under normal circumstances, even a bird would find it difficult to cross them.

Yet tonight, this supposedly impregnable barrier was like a phantom deprived of its energy supply. After a few faint ripples spread through the air, it vanished without a trace.

"Crackle—"

Several tiny sparks of lightning flashed through the grass. Four burly, heavily muscled black-clad ninjas slipped over the high wall like ghosts and landed steadily beneath a dead tree in the courtyard. The cloud symbols on their forehead protectors, representing Hidden Cloud Village, radiated chilling killing intent beneath the faint night light.

The Hidden Cloud jonin leading them was codenamed Thunder Beast. He narrowed his eyes and warily swept his gaze over the estate, which was unnaturally quiet, before curling his lips into an extremely mocking sneer.

"Are Hidden Leaf's ANBU all blind? They don't even know someone shut down the defensive barrier from within." Thunder Beast lowered his voice, his tone full of disdain. "Looks like the intelligence was right. The power struggle among Hidden Leaf's higher-ups has rotted them to the bone."

"Captain, enough talk. Find that red-haired girl already." A Hidden Cloud elite gripping a short blade urged him on. "Lord Raikage gave us a death order. We have to bring the Nine-Tails' vessel back to the village. This is the ultimate weapon that can change the balance of the ninja world."

Thunder Beast gestured, and the four instantly became four afterimages. They smashed straight through the estate's wooden doors and rushed inside.

Inside the room, Kushina Uzumaki was curled up on the cold floor. She slept lightly. Having been confined like a prisoner for so long had kept her nerves perpetually taut. The deafening crash of the splintering door jolted her awake.

Kushina abruptly sat up, her waterfall of vivid red hair whipping wildly in the night wind. There was none of the usual fear of a young girl in her clear eyes; instead, they held the wildness and stubbornness unique to the Uzumaki clan.

"Who are you?!"

Kushina demanded sharply, swiftly forming hand seals as the immense, violent chakra within her began surging madly. Several golden chakra chains burst from behind her, lashing fiercely at the Hidden Cloud ninja in front with piercing shrieks.

"Adamantine Sealing Chains? So you really are a remnant of the Uzumaki clan." Thunder Beast snorted and advanced instead of retreating. He slammed his hands together, and violent lightning-nature chakra instantly covered his entire body, forming a dazzling suit of lightning armor.

Bang!

The golden chains struck the lightning armor, erupting in brilliant sparks. Kushina was still young, and Hidden Leaf's sealing techniques had long suppressed the Nine-Tails inside her. Her hastily launched attack could not possibly break through the defense of a battle-hardened Hidden Cloud jonin.

Lightning Release: Earth Current!

Seizing the moment, Thunder Beast pressed a palm against the tatami. Blinding lightning raced across the floor like venomous snakes and instantly coiled around Kushina's ankles.

An intense numbness shot straight to her head. Kushina let out a pained groan, and the golden chains behind her lost their chakra support, dissolving into flecks of light. Her legs gave out, and she crashed heavily to the ground. The lightning release made every muscle in her body convulse violently, leaving even moving a finger incredibly difficult.

"Take her!" Thunder Beast showed no mercy. He grabbed Kushina by the collar and roughly slung her over his shoulder.

Kushina bit through her lip, the metallic sweetness of blood spreading through her mouth. Looking out at the still-prosperous lights in the center of Hidden Leaf, she felt an uncontrollable surge of despair and sorrow.

Was this why she had been brought to Hidden Leaf? The higher-ups had imprisoned her here as an emotionless weapon, yet when danger came, the ANBU who constantly preached the "Will of Fire" were nowhere to be seen.

Hidden Leaf was never her home.

As the Hidden Cloud ninjas carried her out through the window, Kushina used every last bit of strength to secretly tear a lock of red hair from her head with trembling fingers, letting it drift down into the night wind.

It was her only signal for help, and her final refusal to submit to fate.

Meanwhile, in a dense forest less than two kilometers from the estate.

Two Hidden Leaf ANBU responsible for the outer patrol finally noticed the anomaly of the barrier's disappearance. Their faces changed drastically as they reached for signal flares in their ninja tool pouches to sound the alarm.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two ghostlike figures dropped upside down from the treetops above them, their icy kunai pressed with perfect precision against the carotid arteries of the two ANBU.

"Who are—" The ANBU ninjas' pupils contracted sharply. Just as they were about to resist, they saw the attackers' pale masks, utterly devoid of markings.

Root!

From deep within the dark forest came the steady, rhythmic sound of a cane tapping against the ground. Shimura Danzō emerged unhurriedly from the shadows, leaning on his cane. His exposed eye gleamed in the moonlight with the cold, venomous light of a snake.

"Lord Danzō! Foreign enemies have infiltrated! The barrier around the Nine-Tails' vessel has failed! Please permit us to report to Lord Hokage at once!" one of the restrained ANBU cried anxiously.

"Silence." Danzō spat out the two words coldly.

He walked over to the ANBU and looked down at him. There was no anger in his voice over the village being invaded, only the cruel calculation of someone controlling the entire situation.

"Delay tonight's alarm for two hours," Danzō ordered.

"But... two hours is enough for the enemy to take Kushina beyond the borders of the Land of Fire! That's the Nine-Tails!" The ANBU ninja's eyes widened in disbelief.

"It is not your place to teach this old man how to act." Danzō suddenly swung his cane and smashed it viciously into the ANBU's abdomen. Accompanied by a dull crack of breaking bones, the ANBU curled up on the ground in agony, unable to make another sound.

Danzō turned and looked toward the northeastern night sky, where the Hidden Cloud team's retreat route lay.

His shriveled lips curled into an incomparably vicious arc.

Of course he knew what the Nine-Tails meant to Hidden Leaf. But he understood even more clearly how great a threat Senju Sosuke—who had recreated Wood Release and acted without restraint—posed to his rule.

Sosuke was on his way back to the village from the western front, and his marching route happened to pass through the northeastern border of the Land of Fire.

The Senju Clan and the Uzumaki clan have been close for generations. Since that little beast Sosuke has awakened Wood Release, he will surely need an enormous amount of chakra to sustain it. The Nine-Tails' vessel will be fatally tempting to him, Danzō calculated coldly.

All he had to do was suppress the information and let Hidden Cloud get far enough away. Once Sosuke's forces drew near, he would leak the news of Kushina's abduction to Sosuke "by accident" through Root's covert channels.

With Sosuke's arrogant and domineering personality, he would absolutely leave the main force behind and pursue them alone.

And this time, in order to seize the Nine-Tails, Hidden Cloud had stationed an entire battalion of elite forces along the border, including even the Raikage's personal guard.

"Go, Sosuke. Show them the glory of the Senju Clan. Go save that Uzumaki clan girl." Madness and killing intent churned in Danzō's lone eye. "Then be torn to pieces by Hidden Cloud's lightning release!"

At the border of the Land of Fire, within a dense primeval forest.

A convoy moved steadily through the night. It was a Hidden Leaf force returning in triumph from the western front.

At the head of the convoy, Senju Sosuke rested with his eyes closed against soft cushions inside an exceptionally spacious and comfortable carriage.

The white haori on his body was spotless. The Yang Release chakra of his perfected Sage Body flowed steadily through his meridians like a rushing river, continuously strengthening his bones and flesh. The fullness of possessing complete control over his own vitality left a faint, composed smile on his refined face.

Outside the carriage, Uchiha Fugaku personally served as the driver. The once-proud Uchiha clan head now had his back slightly bent, both hands firmly gripping the reins. He did not even dare breathe too heavily, afraid of disturbing the man in the carriage who was as terrifying as a god.

Just as Sosuke was considering how to further hollow out the Hokage Building's authority after returning to the village, a crisp, cold mechanical voice suddenly sounded in the depths of his mind.

[ Ding! A special high-dimensional energy fluctuation has been detected. The Special Bloodline Radar has activated! ]

[ Target locked: Kushina Uzumaki (Nine-Tails jinchuriki candidate). ]

[ Aptitude rating: S-rank. ]

[ Current status: Extreme danger (currently being abducted by an elite Hidden Cloud Village force and moving rapidly toward the Land of Lightning). ]

[ Interception mission triggered: Cut off Hidden Cloud's retreat, seize Kushina Uzumaki from the enemy, and bring her body and mind completely under the protection and control of the Senju Clan. ]

[ Mission rewards: Issued according to interception progress and breeding results. Guaranteed reward: Perfect Uzumaki clan constitution fusion / complete collection of advanced sealing techniques. Ultimate reward: Nine-Tails chakra source purification authority. ]

Sosuke's tightly shut eyes snapped open.

In that instant, a cold green bolt of lightning seemed to illuminate the originally dim carriage.

"Kushina Uzumaki... was abducted by Hidden Cloud?"

A supremely dangerous smile slowly appeared on Sosuke's lips. He needed no intelligence analysis. From those few lines from the system alone, he had already seen through every filthy trick of Hidden Leaf's higher-ups.

Hidden Leaf's barrier unit was not just for show. How could they possibly have allowed a few Hidden Cloud ninjas to sneak in unnoticed and take away such a conspicuous living person?

The only explanation was that someone had deliberately left an opening.

And at a time like this, aside from Shimura Danzō, whose mind was full of schemes and conspiracies, no one else had either the motive or ability to do such a thing.

"Old dog, are you trying to use the Nine-Tails as bait and kill me with Hidden Cloud's blade?"

Sosuke lightly tapped his knee with slender fingers. There was not the slightest anger at being plotted against in his eyes; instead, they held the amusement of a hunter watching prey willingly step into a trap.

Danzō's calculations were precise. But he could never have guessed that Sosuke possessed a system beyond this world's dimension. Nor could he have guessed that Sosuke's current strength had long surpassed anything Hidden Cloud elites could contend with.

Since Danzō had thoughtfully delivered an S-rank woman with top-tier aptitude, along with the ninja world's greatest chakra battery, straight to him, would refusing the gift not betray the painstaking efforts of this "Darkness of the Ninja World"?

"Stop."

Sosuke spoke the two words calmly.

Outside the carriage, Fugaku sharply pulled the reins, and the carriage came to a steady halt. The fifty Senju ANBU guards around them stopped at once as well, their movements perfectly synchronized and utterly silent.

"Lord Sosuke, what are your orders?" Fugaku respectfully lowered his head, his voice passing through the curtain.

Sosuke did not answer. He directly lifted the door curtain and stepped down from the carriage. The night wind whipped his white robes, making them flutter loudly.

He turned, his gaze passing over layers of forest to lock onto the northeast, where an exceedingly faint yet beacon-bright special chakra fluctuation shone on the system radar.

"Fugaku, lead the main force back to the village along the original route. If anyone from Root comes to deliver any urgent intelligence, detain them immediately. Do not allow even the slightest word to leak out."

Sosuke's voice was perfectly even, yet it carried an absolute authority that could not be questioned.

Fugaku froze for a moment and instinctively asked, "My lord, you're leaving the group? This area is—"

Before he could finish, the words caught hard in his throat.

Because he saw the hard rocky ground beneath Sosuke's feet instantly turn into dense wooden fibers. Then, an incomparably terrifying chakra, violent to the extreme, erupted from Sosuke's body and shot into the sky.

Boom!

Sosuke's figure vanished from where he stood.

There were no hand seals and no afterimages. He was like a jade-green bolt of lightning that split open the night, tearing through the air ahead at a horrifying speed that completely defied the laws of physics as he shot northeast.

All that remained was a ring of shockwaves violently spreading from the sonic boom, uprooting several towering trees nearby.

Fugaku stared blankly in the direction Sosuke had disappeared, cold sweat instantly soaking his back. He knew that tonight, another group of fools courting death would face that man's physical deliverance.

Meanwhile, deep in a forest dozens of kilometers away from Sosuke.

Thunder Beast, the Hidden Cloud jonin, was carrying Kushina while leaping rapidly from tree trunk to tree trunk. The red hair Kushina had left behind was about to vanish completely into the soil beneath the night wind.

"Captain, there are no Hidden Leaf pursuers behind us," one Hidden Cloud ninja reported.

"Hmph, just as I thought. A bunch of trash." Thunder Beast sneered and drew the short blade at his waist. "Since we're safe, cut this girl's tendons in her hands and feet. We don't need the monster inside her going berserk and causing trouble."

The icy blade gleamed with bloodthirsty light beneath the moon as it slashed mercilessly down toward Kushina's ankle.