The Job Is Hidden Leaf's

The wind and snow hadn't stopped. The acrid smell inside the warehouse was shattered by the cold wind.

Naruto had only taken two steps out of the gate when Kakashi's voice came from behind the pile of rubble.

"A discovery has been made."

Kakashi pulled a scroll of oiled paper with a steel wire attached from the wall crevices that Kurotsuchi had just kicked down. The seal was printed with the Iron Country Merchant Association's signature pattern.

Mifune walked back quickly, and Ōnoki and Raikage A also stopped in their tracks.

Kakashi hand, his gaze sweeping rapidly over the scroll's contents. His right eye, visible outside his mask, narrowed sharply into a slit. "Mifune, you'd better take a look at this."

Mifune took the scroll, read only two lines, and the veins on the back of his hand, which was gripping the hilt of his samurai sword, instantly bulged.

"What did you write?" Raikage urged impatiently in a deep voice.

"If a bloody conflict breaks out between Hidden Leaf and Hidden Cloud due to the assassination incident, immediately detonate the No. 3 underground granary of the Fortress City." Mifune's voice was as cold and hard as frozen iron in winter. "This would cut off the winter food supply for tens of thousands of people in the Land of Iron and the delegations from various villages, forcing half of us to die on the snowy plains first."

Ōnoki snorted coldly, slamming his cane heavily on the ground. "What a ruthless scheme. Without food, none of us can get out of this snowy mountain. They're trying to suffocate us all in this tin can."

"Raikage," Mifune turned to A, "If it weren't for this young lady from the Hyuga Clan noticing the wound, if our two sides had clashed in the streets tomorrow over this corpse, and this granary had exploded, the Land of Iron would have fought you to the death."

Raikage A clenched his fists tightly, and azure lightning flashed wildly across his body. "You sneaky rat! If you dare stand in front of me, I'll twist your head off with a single Lariat!"

Kurotsuchi pursed her lips, walked to Naruto's side, and crossed her arms. "Hey, Naruto Uzumaki. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to curry favor with Hidden Leaf. I'm just worried about not having enough to eat for the next few days. Are you guys taking this job?"

Naruto glanced at her, a cold smile playing on his lips, "If you want to keep your job, talk less and do more."

He turned to Hinata: "Locate the granary."

"Byakugan, activate!" Hinata's eyes bulged with veins, her pure white vision piercing through the thick snow and earth. "Grain warehouse number three is two hundred meters underground on the east side of the Fortress City. The Chakra detonation circuit is already semi-activated; there are... nine array eyes in total."

"Karin, Tenten, come with me. Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, stay here and keep an eye on these old foxes." Naruto left these words behind, his figure instantly leaving a golden afterimage as he tore through the wind and snow towards the east.

Hinata followed closely behind, while Tenten and Karin unleashed a burst of Chakra beneath their feet, and the three of them caught up with Naruto's pace.

Underground Grain Warehouse No. 3.

In the cold, damp air, piles of specially made moisture-proof wooden crates contained the very foundation for the Land of Iron to survive the winter.

"Southeast corner, three meters deep, the first array eye!" Hinata moved at high speed while keeping her eyes fixed on the spiderweb-like stream of Chakra light spreading underground.

Tenten didn't even slow down. Her right hand swept across her ninja tool pouch at her waist, and three Special Kunai with Explosive Tag attached were precisely driven into the cracks in the stone slab that Hinata had indicated.

"Burst!"

With a dull thud, the stone slab shattered, and the Chakra circuit of the detonation rune hidden at the bottom was prematurely destroyed, causing the light to dim instantly.

"Number two, inside the load-bearing column in the northwest corner! Number three, directly below the floor tile in the center!" Hinata's vision was sharper than the most sophisticated searchlight in this darkness.

Tenten's hands moved like butterflies flitting among flowers, unfurling sealing scrolls one after another. Rows of specially made Shuriken precisely severed the Chakra threads buried in the shadows.

"This is too rough. This level of formation wouldn't even pass the Konoha Ninja Academy graduation exam." Tenten complained as she deftly put away the scroll and dusted off her hands.

Karin pushed up her slipped glasses, her red hair billowing in the chilly air, her expression grave. "Don't let your guard down. The outer perimeter is just a decoy; the real danger lies deep within. I sense it—an extremely cold Chakra, carrying the stench of rotting corpses, over there!"

Karin pointed directly to a solid steel door at the deepest part of the granary.

The surface of the gate was covered with dense black runes, like venomous snakes crawling across the metal surface, frantically devouring the surrounding air.

"The control talisman is behind the door." Hinata stopped, her pure white pupils constricting. "These incantations are absorbing the Chakra Leyline. If we forcefully break down the door using physical means, it will immediately trigger a massive explosion. The power would be enough to overturn the entire Land of Iron."

Naruto walked to the door, his palm covered with a thick layer of pure Yang Release Chakra.

Instead of forcibly demolishing the door, he placed his palm on the cold steel door and closed his eyes.

The Great Evolution Divine Soul Art is activated.

A powerful divine sense seeped back into those black incantations.

One second. Two seconds.

Naruto suddenly opened his eyes, a chilling killing intent flashing in his azure pupils.

"No wonder the fuse was so crudely made," Naruto sneered. "So this wasn't a detonation array at all."

"Not an explosive array?" Tenten was stunned, the Kunai she was holding hanging in mid-air.

"Behind the door is a miniature space-time transfer technique. These incantations that absorb the Chakra of the Leyline are for charging Space-Time Ninjutsu." Naruto's palm shone brightly with golden light, and the violent Pure Yang Chakra poured into the steel door like a devastating force.

Those originally arrogant and rampaging black runes emitted a piercing shriek the moment they came into contact with the ultimate Yang Release, and were instantly scalded to ashes like ice cubes thrown into boiling oil.

"Click." The lock inside the steel door snapped with a crisp sound, and Naruto kicked the door open.

Inside the door, there were no mountains of explosives, nor any array of Explosive Tag.

There was only black slime covering the floor and a strange Uzumaki pattern carved into it.

At the center of the Uzumaki, a faint spatial fluctuation still remained.

Naruto was all too familiar with that chilling, discontinuous feeling that seemed to distort even the light.

Kamui.

Obito's exclusive space- Dōjutsu.

"The Masked Man was just here." Naruto stared at the Uzumaki pattern on the ground, his voice chillingly cold. "He never intended to blow up the granary; he was using it as cover to move things."

Karin leaned closer, sniffed, and her face immediately turned extremely pale. "Such a strong smell of blood. And a... rotten plant smell that's extremely similar to the one from the sealed White Zetsu."

Naruto's mind flashed back to the intelligence he had gathered on Turtle Island, and the 100,000 White Zetsu army that Obito had hidden at the bottom of the Land of Lightning.

"A diversionary tactic." Naruto abruptly turned his head, his gaze sharp as a knife. "The Land of Iron is just a smokescreen to draw attention. His real purpose is to silently spread a large number of White Zetsu along the borders of the Five Great Nations through the natural caverns and teleportation arrays beneath the Land of Land of Iron!"

The Five Kage Summit has pinned down the elites and highest-ranking officials of all the major ninja villages here, leaving the rear areas of each village extremely vulnerable.

If 100,000 White Zetsu were to infiltrate the heartlands of various countries at this time, it would result in widespread slaughter once war broke out.

"Naruto!" Hinata suddenly covered her eyes, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her eye from overusing her Byakugan. But she gritted her teeth, refusing to close her eyes. "Underground... deep beneath this granary, there's an incredibly vast Chakra Leyline! It's being frantically drained by something!"

She endured the stinging pain in her eyes and pointed directly below the Uzumaki pattern. "That Chakra... it's from the same source as the monster's body we sensed at the bottom of the Land of Lightning!"

Naruto's pupils suddenly contracted.

The roots of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path have silently extended into the underground of the Land of Iron!

Obito's retreat was not due to fear of the Five Kage joining forces.

He intends to use the shadows of the Five Great Nations as nourishment, locking them up in the Divine Tree Breeding Grounds he had already prepared!

"Buzz--!"

Just then, an extremely piercing air raid siren suddenly blared from above the thick rock wall above everyone's heads.

A crimson beam of Chakra pierced through the wind and snow, illuminating half the night sky in a blood-red hue.

Enemy attack alert!

Naruto looked up at the dome, a cold smile full of ferocious fighting spirit curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Fine. Since you're in such a hurry to overturn the table, let's settle the accounts tonight."

Naruto flipped his right hand, and a Special Kunai engraved with the Flying Thunder God Formula fell into his palm.

At the same time.

Sasuke, who remained in the west warehouse, suddenly let out a muffled groan of pain.

He covered his left eye tightly with one hand, and bright red blood seeped through his fingers.

The newly awakened Six-Pointed Star Mangekyō Sharingan seemed to sense some kind of fatal destiny, and was throbbing wildly in its eye socket.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi grabbed his shoulder.

Sasuke abruptly raised his head, his bloodshot eye fixed on the tower deep in the snowstorm, his voice hoarse as if two pieces of sandpaper were rubbing together:

"He's here... I can feel those eyes... He's right there!"