Cursed Seal and Lightning Blast
On the cliff face on the other side of the broken bridge, the old copper-colored mine shaft resembled a black mouth ready to devour people, spewing out cold winds carrying the metallic smell of rust.
Naruto stepped on a warped piece of broken wood, his gaze piercing through the deep ravine, which was more than ten meters wide, and fixed on the lingering eerie blue lightning at the edge of the mine. The Hidden Cloud group had run away decisively, leaving no one behind or covering their retreat, clearly indicating that there was a large pit that had been dug and was waiting for them to jump in.
"Reorganize the formation." Naruto withdrew his foot and turned to look behind him. "Kakashi, flank and provide support. Sakura, in the center. Karin, stay at the back and keep your Mind's Eye active. Sasuke, you go to the front and set up your wards."
Kakashi pulled down his Forehead Protector to cover his Sharingan, put one hand in his ninja tool pouch, and nodded in agreement. Having just experienced that unreasonable and overwhelming violence, the supervising Jonin very well that the command of this team had long been in the hands of this twelve-year-old Genin, leaving no room for negotiation.
After crossing the deep ravine, the five men plunged into the mine shaft.
The light dimmed abruptly. Footsteps crunched on the aged pebbles, producing a dry, cracking sound. The air was thick with the pungent smell of sulfur and the acrid odor of lightning-attribute slag. The cave walls were pitted and uneven, with a few broken support stakes occasionally protruding from the soil, their surfaces covered in black ash carbonized by high-voltage electric arcs.
After traveling less than a hundred meters, a three-way intersection appeared ahead. Three mine tunnels, one in the left, one in the middle, and one in the right, stretched downwards in complete darkness, their depths impossible to discern with the naked eye.
"Karin, report the location." Naruto stopped in his tracks.
Karin closed her eyes and rapidly Hand Seals. She bit her lip, her brows furrowed tightly, and a fine layer of cold sweat quickly seeped from her forehead. Mind's Eye of the Kagura's Eye perception network had just been deployed when it encountered the exposed Lightning Ore around her, and it was like a piece of paper thrown into a meat grinder, torn to shreds by the omnipresent chaotic magnetic field.
"No." Karin opened her eyes, panting heavily, her face pale. "There's something wrong with this mine. The Chakra flow inside is like a boiling stew, and the lightning-attribute magnetic field has mixed all the scents of living people together. I can't tell which path the Hidden Cloud took; their Chakra remnants are everywhere."
The Raikage's plan was extremely shrewd. Choosing an abandoned Lightning Ore as an escape route was tantamount to putting on a natural anti-sensory camouflage suit, directly rendering Hidden Leaf's most prized tracking system useless.
Naruto remained silent, his gaze passing over Karin and landing on the black-clad boy at the front.
Sasuke a word, Sasuke opened and closed his eyes, and two black Tomoe spun rapidly in his blood-red pupils. The Sharingan can not only see through Chakra, but also has extremely high-precision dynamic and static vision.
He crouched at the crossroads, ignoring the menacing, fake Lightning Release in the air, his Chakra fixed on the physical traces on the ground and the edges of the stone walls, scanning them inch by inch.
"The footprints on the ground are the deepest in the middle of the path, but the spider webs next to it are intact. It's obviously an illusion deliberately created by someone using Wind Release." Sasuke pointed to the middle, speaking very quickly.
He moved to the right-hand passage and reached behind an inconspicuous protruding rock at the base of the rock wall, wiping his fingertip with a very thin layer of dust.
"The wind direction and convection are normal in the left passage. On the back of this rock on the right, there are shallow marks where the rubber edge of a shoe sole just scraped against the ground." Sasuke stood up, his blade pointing directly at the bottomless darkness on the right. "A living person would have gone to the right, and just recently."
Kakashi's single eye curved into a satisfied smile as he casually adjusted his mask. "Not bad. Knowing to use the Sharingan to grasp physical details is unprofessional; just staring at a jumble of Chakra for clues is amateurish. This is the kind of mindset battlefield reconnaissance should have."
Sasuke gripped his Kunai. Hearing Kakashi's assessment and glancing at Naruto's unmoved profile, the pride that had been suppressed within him finally found a moment to breathe. He was about to step into the passage on the right.
Without warning, a tearing pain shot through the back of my neck.
It felt like a red-hot iron nail had been hammered into his cervical vertebrae, drilling down along the nerve plexus. Sasuke's vision went black, his legs went numb, and he fell straight forward.
He slammed one knee heavily against the sharp ore, clutching the back of his neck with his hand, his teeth grinding together, a suppressed groan like that of a wounded beast escaping his throat. The Three-Tomoe Sharingan Cursed Seal that had been lurking deep under his skin was now like a venomous snake that had smelled blood, frantically draining his Chakra and trying to expand outwards.
Orochimaru's pale, sinister face lingered in his mind, accompanied by hoarse whispers, eroding his reason.
Sakura screamed in fright and instinctively tried to pounce on him to use her Medical Ninjutsu.
"Stop! Don't touch him!"
Naruto's voice was icy cold. He took a step behind Sasuke, and without hesitation, his right hand reached out and grabbed Sasuke's nape.
The instant their palms touched, a torrent of Yang Release Chakra poured in without reservation, like a flood bursting its banks.
There were no fancy Hand Seals; it was a brutal crushing of a lower dimension by a higher one. The cold, sticky, and snake-smelling alien Chakra belonging to Orochimaru collided head-on with the extremely yang and powerful Life Field energy within Naruto's body, immediately producing a sizzling and burning sound like boiling oil being poured into a snowdrift.
Golden lines spread outwards from between Naruto's fingers, transforming into tangible chains that forcefully severed all the restless tentacles of the Snake Seal, pressing them firmly back into the deepest part of his marrow.
Naruto's eyes were mocking, but he sneered inwardly, "That Orochimaru secretly implanted a fake virus in Sasuke. I'll do a thorough investigation and uncover all the taxes you evaded. You dared to use my people as a breeding ground; I'll get that interest back sooner or later."
The excruciating pain receded like a receding tide. Sasuke gasped for breath, his black short-sleeved shirt soaked with cold sweat and clinging tightly to his back. He slumped onto the rubble-strewn ground, his vision refocusing.
Naruto released his grip, looking down at him. His blond hair stood out starkly in the dim mine. His azure eyes held no pity, only pure scrutiny. "Can you hold on?"
Sasuke braced himself against the ground with his hands, the rough gravel cutting his palms. Instead of collapsing to rest, he forced himself to stand up, swaying slightly, by the strength of his leg muscles. His Sharingan shone so brightly in the darkness it seemed as if it were about to bleed.
He looked directly at Naruto, gritted his teeth, and squeezed out three words: "I can lead the way."
He even swallowed the rest of the sentence, "Don't treat me like trash." In front of this monster, pride was the most useless consumable; only by keeping up with the other's pace could he prove that he was still qualified to wield a knife.
Naruto's lips curled into a menacing smile. He slipped his hands back into the pockets of his dark blue robe and gestured with his chin toward the depths of the mine. "Lead the way. Every time you fall today, I'll pull you back from the jaws of death, until you slit the throats of those Hidden Cloud Village bastards."
Sasuke didn't reply, but gripped his Kunai and strode into the darkness of the passage on the right.
Kakashi took a deep look at Naruto's retreating figure. This twelve-year-old boy's methods had completely deviated from Hidden Leaf's traditional "Will of Fire" approach of appeasement; he was using pure tyranny and self-interest to reforge the very essence of this team.
The group continued deeper into the area.
The mine tunnel grew narrower and narrower, with the rocks at the top so steep that Kakashi had to duck to barely pass. The acrid smell in the air was so strong it was hard to breathe, and the soil beneath their feet was unusually dry, turning into dusty powder with every step.
Ahead, the space opened up into a relatively spacious underground cave. In the center of the cave, a dozen or so abandoned iron mining carts were piled up haphazardly, and the rails forked here, leading into deeper darkness.
Sasuke had barely stepped half a step into the cave when, in the vision of his Sharingan, the surrounding environment suddenly changed color.
Without warning, blindingly bright blue light burst forth from the bottoms of those seemingly random abandoned minecarts, from the cracks in the rocks overhead, and even from the screw holes in the rails beneath their feet. The twelve points of light were instantly connected by extremely fine threads of Lightning Release Chakra Threads, forming a perfect three-dimensional closed loop that sealed the entire cave tightly.
This is no ordinary trap. It's a specially made Heavy Chain Lightning Blast Array used by the Hidden Cloud Army to destroy mountains.
The Chakra fuse has burned out, and the fuse is fully activated.
"Retreat--!"
Sasuke's voice cracked, and his body instinctively leaped backward, crossing his arms to protect his chest.
Before any commands were given, a blinding flash of lightning, like the detonation of a miniature sun, instantly engulfed everyone's vision. A deafening explosion ripped through the enclosed underground space, and a terrifying shockwave carrying tons of crimson rocks crashed down on the five people.
The ground beneath their feet cracked violently, and the entire abandoned mine collapsed.