The Name Spoken by the Survivor

The biting wind, carrying ice shards, lashed wildly against the snow-capped mountain cliffs.

Naruto stood on the assassin leader's broken sternum, his gaze sweeping across the swirling snow, fixed on the direction of the Land of Iron. There, a chilling, sinister Chakra was relentlessly tearing at the sky.

"This aura..." Kakashi pulled down his Forehead Protector with one hand, his Sharingan spinning wildly. "It's not ordinary Tailed Beast Chakra. This pure malice and oppressive feeling even surpasses Pain."

Sasuke gripped the Kusanagi Sword tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand. The Lightning Release Chakra within him was actually agitated uncontrollably by the resonance with the aura from afar.

"Who cares what era this antique is from?" Naruto sneered, casually stuffing the intercepted letter into his ninja tool pouch. The assassin leader at his feet, whose memories had been forcibly read by the <Great Evolution Divine Soul Art>, was now completely crippled, his eyes rolling back and foaming at the mouth.

"Now that the situation up there's resolved, we still need to clean up the rats down there." Naruto turned his head to look at the bottomless Snow Valley. "We can't let those few who jumped down get away."

Before he finished speaking, a golden light flashed at his fingertips. The Flying Thunder God Formula was activated, and the three figures instantly disappeared from the cliff top.

Half an hour later.

The deepest part of the Snow Valley.

The light here was extremely dim, and the surrounding area was all steep frozen rocks. There was no deafening avalanche sound, only howling wind blowing through the room.

"Creak--"

Naruto's combat boots shattered a pile of ice. Not far ahead of him, beside an icefall, three wandering assassins who had tried to escape were frozen in a contorted position within a half-meter-thick layer of ice.

A chilling aura pervaded the air, and the surface of the ice still bore the unique sealing runes of the Uzumaki Clan.

"This is... Haku's Ice Release?" Kakashi stepped forward, carefully examining the patterns on the ice.

"Before setting off, Haku insisted that Karin assign several Uzumaki guards to deploy along the route in advance." Naruto placed his hand on the ice, Yang Release Chakra emanated from his body.

With a few crisp cracking sounds, the ice block trapping the three shattered. The assassins collapsed to the ground like dead dogs, their bodies turning blue, their teeth chattering wildly.

"You're quite efficient at your work, but too stubborn." Naruto looked down at the three of them, his tone flat. "Tell me, who paid you to put on this lousy show?"

One of the slightly more lucid assassins frantically shrank back, shouting in terror, "We're just doing this for money! The middleman said that as long as we make a commotion outside the snow line, stall you, and kill those caravans... the remaining payment will be deposited into our black market account!"

"Just to sabotage the talks?" Sasuke sneered, casually twirling his Kusanagi Sword as the tip precisely sliced open the assassin's tattered sleeve.

"Bite."

A metal plaque the size of a coin fell onto the hard, frozen ground with a crisp sound.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, and he quickly bent down to pick up the metal plaque. The plaque was badly worn, but a dark red auspicious cloud pattern was still clearly visible.

"The Akatsuki's contact emblem." Kakashi frowned. "But this is the old version. Years ago, when the Akatsuki was still in the mercenary business, their contacts on the black market used this kind of token."

"That son of Obito, is he so poor now that he can only hire these low-class scum from the black market?" Naruto stroked his chin.

"No." Kakashi shook his head, calmly analyzing, "If Obito wasn't short of money or manpower, he could have easily sent White Zetsu. He deliberately used this insignia with the Akatsuki mark to create a smokescreen. Even if these people die and their bodies are discovered by the samurai of the Land of Iron, the blame will fall on the Akatsuki, or... on Hidden Leaf, which has been investigating the Akatsuki."

Upon hearing this, Naruto pulled out the intercepted letter tube from his waist. He crushed the seal with one hand and poured out the forged secret order inside.

The parchment was of excellent quality, and the Hokage seal on it was so realistic it was almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Naruto held the parchment up in the air, and in the dim light of the snow, a faint watermark of a crossed double blade could be seen at the edge of the paper.

"Kakashi-sensei, take a look at this." Naruto handed over the paper.

Kakashi took it and his face darkened completely. "The watermark of the Land of Iron, a major trading company in the Mikawaya Trading House. This special anti-counterfeiting paper is only used by high-level business dealings in the Land of Iron."

"This is getting interesting." Naruto's lips curled into a dangerously smirk.

He took a step forward, grabbed the assassin by the collar, and lifted him into the air.

"That masked bastard Obito not only obtained a fake seal from Hidden Leaf, but also got his hands on special parchment from the core trading guild of the Land of Iron." Naruto stared into the assassin's terrified eyes, his voice chillingly cold. "Your backer isn't some black market middleman, but someone from within the Land of Iron, right?"

The assassin trembled violently, his lips quivering, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

Naruto tightened his grip on his wrist, the creaking sound of bones grinding together jarringly in the quiet valley, "Think carefully before you answer. I can not only kill you, but also extract your soul, roll it into a ball, and hang it on the Hokage Building as a sky lantern."

Extreme fear finally broke down the assassin's last psychological defenses.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with ice crystals, his voice hoarse and desperate. "I don't know who he is... but when that person handed over the deposit, he said... there are already people waiting for you in the venue!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the assassin suddenly opened his eyes wide and made a strange "gurgling" sound from his throat.

Immediately afterwards, a strange black pattern spread rapidly from his neck to his entire face.

"Watch out!" Kakashi shouted.

Sasuke reacted extremely quickly, instantly enveloping his entire body in lightning Chakra and pulling Naruto backward.

"Bang!"

The assassin's head exploded in mid-air like a crushed watermelon. A sticky, red and white substance splattered all over the ground, emitting a nauseating stench.

The other two accomplices, frozen stiff, didn't even utter a scream before their heads exploded, killing them instantly.

"Self-destruction of the Cursed Seal." Sasuke glanced at the headless corpse on the ground and disgustedly flicked the blood off his Kusanagi Sword. He was all too familiar with this despicable method; it was exactly the same way Orochimaru used to control his subordinates.

However, this Cursed Seal is much more brutal, and is entirely intended to silence witnesses.

Naruto brushed the snow off his clothes, his expression unusually calm.

He looked at the metal plaque on the ground bearing the Akatsuki's insignia, and then at the forged secret order bearing the watermark of the Iron Country Merchant Association.

"Using Jinchūriki as bargaining chips, ordinary people as human shields, and now they've dragged the organizers from the Land of Iron into this mess." Naruto sneered. "Obito is trying to overturn the table and completely shatter the trust between the Five Great Nations and the neutral countries."

Kakashi carefully put away the secret order and insignia, his expression grave. "If what this person says is true, and there are already people within the Land of Iron colluding with Obito, then we are now completely isolated and helpless. Once we step into the meeting hall, we may face not only the difficulties from the other four Kage, but also the deadly attack from the Land of Iron turf."

"Alone and helpless?" Naruto scoffed.

He turned around and looked up at the snow-covered canyon above.

In the distance, the vast and chilling Chakra still raged, as if announcing the return of some terrifying being to the entire Shinobi World.

"Hidden Leaf never relies on the charity of others to gain a foothold." A faint golden light emanated from Naruto's body, Yang Release Chakra dispelled the approaching chill.

"Since they think they can break the rules at will, then we'll teach them how the Uzumaki Clan establishes its rules."

Sasuke walked to Naruto's side, the crimson light of his Sharingan particularly dazzling in the dim valley.

"Lead the way. I'm also curious to see which fool is waiting for us inside."

Naruto nodded and quickly Hand Seals.

Just as the Flying Thunder God Technique was about to unleash its power, Sasuke, who had been silent all along, suddenly covered his left eye and let out a suppressed groan.

"What's wrong?" Naruto stopped what he was doing and frowned as he looked over.

Sasuke lowered his hand, and the three Tomoe in his Sharingan had somehow connected to form a complex pattern, which was now spinning wildly out of control.

"I'm fine." Sasuke gasped for breath, staring intently in the direction of the Land of Iron fortress, his voice revealing an undisguised tremor and madness.

"But... that Chakra makes my blood feel like it's burning."

Naruto followed Sasuke's gaze, a fleeting purple-gold light flashing in his eyes.

The wind and snow intensified, obscuring the sky and the sun.

The steel fortress, at this moment, resembled an ancient ferocious beast with its jaws wide open, silently awaiting the arrival of its prey.

What awaits them in the venue—is it Obito's conspiracy, or the Uchiha ghost that has crawled back from hell?

Naruto grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth.

"Let's go, let's smash this up."