Who Dared Touch Hidden Leaf's Grain? Crushing Explosive Tags Barehanded
The mournful wailing of the air raid siren tore the snowstorm that raged through the Land of Iron.
Inside the No. 3 underground granary, Naruto stared at the remaining Kamui Uzumaki array on the floor tiles, his azure eyes surging with coldness. There were no Explosive Tag, no explosives, only the chilling aura left by spatial teleportation.
"A diversionary tactic, a double hedging strategy." Naruto sneered, crushing the pool of slimy liquid reeking of rotting plants on the ground with his foot. "On one hand, we'll use this place as a transit point to secretly send White Zetsu to the borders of various countries; on the other hand, that's the real kill."
He turned his head sharply, his gaze as sharp as a knife. "Karin, the No. 1 main grain depot!"
Karin quickly adjusted her glasses, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Just two seconds later, she abruptly opened her eyes, her red hair moving without wind, and cold sweat beading on her forehead. "Found it! An extremely turbulent Chakra surge erupted beneath the main grain warehouse— Chain Detonation Formation! And... there are dozens of living people hidden inside, all civilians who couldn't be evacuated in time!"
"What a ruthless beast!" Tenten gasped. "He tied the civilians, winter rations, and explosives all together. If this batch of food is destroyed, the entire delegation from the Five Great Nations will starve in the snowy mountains, and half the people of the Land of Iron will die!"
Naruto didn't waste any words, and with a backhand motion, he drew a Kunai engraved with Flying Thunder God Formula. "Want to flip the table? You'll have to see if I agree. Let's go!"
A flash of golden light, and lightning ripped through the sky.
The No. 1 main grain warehouse was a full two kilometers away from the No. 3 warehouse. Naruto and the others left afterimages in mid-air before smashing the heavy windproof door of the main warehouse with a bang.
Inside the warehouse, piles of specially made moisture-proof grain sacks resembled small mountains. In a corner, more than thirty civilians from the Land of Iron, dressed in thin winter clothes, huddled together, watching in despair as dark red runes rapidly spread across the ground.
The pungent smell of saltpeter mixed with the nauseating stench of blood permeated every corner.
"The situation is worse than I thought." The moment Hinata landed, veins bulged at the corners of her eyes, and her pure white vision pierced through the ground. "Nine Deep Composite Explosive Tag! All buried deep within the load-bearing pillars and foundation. The Chakra circuits are fully activated. Countdown... less than five minutes!"
"This thing can't be forcibly removed." Tenten glanced at the fuses that had spread to the bottom of the grain sack, her face turning pale. "The rune array is using the grain Chakra conductor. If we forcibly remove any one of the nodes, the remaining eight will instantly explode!"
Escape? They can't take the civilians with them, and they can't save the food.
Demolition? There's simply no way to begin.
"Get out of the way!"
At this critical moment, a loud shout came from the dome ventilation opening. Immediately afterwards, the glass shattered, and an agile figure dressed in red shorts crashed to the ground like a cannonball.
Iwagakure, Kurotsuchi of Ōnoki delegation.
She landed with a somersault to dissipate the impact, rushing straight to Naruto, tossing her neat short hair. "Hidden Leaf, don't get me wrong. My grandfather said that without this batch of rations, even Iwagakure will go hungry. Count me in!"
Naruto glanced at her, a wild smile spreading across his face, "If you don't want to starve, then follow my orders."
"Kurotsuchi, stabilize the foundation, don't let the explosion collapse the house prematurely!"
"Hinata, report the location! Be quick!"
"Tenten, cut off the outer layer interference backflow!"
Without hesitation, Kurotsuchi's ten fingers flew across Kurotsuchi air, turning into a blur before slamming his hands heavily onto the cold rock slab. "Earth Release: Rock Plate Hardening!"
Rumble! A dull wave of earth surged outwards, and the underground rock layers that had begun to loosen due to the activation of the rune array were tightly wrapped by an indestructible layer of hardened Earth Release, forcefully pushing back the load-bearing pillars that were about to collapse.
"Well done!" Hinata shouted, her pupils fixed on the ground. "Three o'clock position, 1.5 meters deep, the two nodes coincide!"
Whoosh whoosh!
Tenten didn't even look back, her hands darting out six Special Kunai like butterflies flitting among flowers. Sealing scrolls were attached to the ends of the Kunai, which accurately pierced the ground through the cracks in the floor tiles. "Open!" she whispered, the scrolls unfurling and forcefully severing the tangled Chakra threads surrounding them.
"The three core Control Array eyes are directly below!" Karin shouted through gritted teeth, her hands Hand Seals. "They're devouring each other; my perception needles can't get in!"
"I'll do it."
Naruto stomped his foot hard, and the ground collapsed, creating a huge crater. He instantly formed a cross seal with his hands, and with three muffled thuds, three Shadow Clone appeared side by side.
The materialized Pure Yang Chakra burned wildly on the surface of the clones like golden flames. Without hesitation, the three Shadow Clone leaped into the deep pit, their hands like iron clamps, pressing firmly against the three main array eyes that flashed with deadly red light.
The terrifying blood and Supreme Yang Chakra of the Sage Body transformed into the most brutal suppression lock, forcibly pouring it into the rune array. It forcefully suppressed the impending explosive shockwave at the critical point.
The red light began to dim rapidly. Countdown, ten seconds left.
The civilians in the corner covered their mouths tightly, tears streaming down their faces, finally seeing a glimmer of hope.
Kurotsuchi let out a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Those from Hidden Leaf, they've got some skills..."
"Don't let your guard down!" Naruto shouted coldly, suddenly looking up at the ten-meter-high roof beam.
The air distorted without warning.
With a sickeningly sharp sound of space tearing apart, Obito, wearing a tiger-skin mask, slowly emerged most of his body from the Kamui Uzumaki. He looked down at the busy crowd below, his undisguised mockery emanating from the single hole in his mask.
"You're as meddlesome as ever, Naruto Uzumaki." Obito's voice was hoarse and nauseating. "These commoners, like ants, are they even worth your energy to save?"
Without a word, Naruto's eyes flashed with killing intent as he prepared to throw a Flying Thunder God Kunai.
But Obito was faster than him.
"Want peace? Then take your food supplies and go to hell with us."
Obito suddenly raised his right hand and pulled hard through the air with his five fingers!
There was no Chakra fluctuation, but he was pulling on spatial threads buried deep within the Leyline, which were completely invisible to the naked eye!
The nine explosive tags, which had been suppressed by Naruto's shadow clones, suddenly erupted like flames doused with hot oil, bursting forth with blinding crimson light. The countdown was immediately reset to zero, and the tag array reached its limit overload in an instant!
"Madman!" Kurotsuchi's expression changed drastically, and he instinctively stepped in front of the civilians.
"Don't even think about it!"
At the critical moment, Naruto's true form burst into laughter in fury. He completely ignored Obito on the roof Obito, instead spreading his arms wide and letting out a roar that was unlike anything in human form.
Click click click!
Nine Chakra Chains, as thick as a wrist and flowing with a dazzling dark gold luster, burst forth from his back! Each chain was wrapped with pure yang energy capable of destroying the world, like nine furious golden dragons, plunging fiercely into the collapsed earth.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains - Five Elements Sealing!"
Boom--!
A terrifying, indescribable thud echoed from the ground. It wasn't an explosion, but rather like an ancient behemoth about to unleash a torrent of fire, only to have its throat forcibly ripped out by an even more savage monster!
Nine dark gold chains intertwined underground to form an impenetrable iron net, trapping the chain of explosions powerful enough to overturn half of the Land of Iron at its core. The raging flames surged left and right, but the moment they touched the ultimate Yang Release, they emitted a piercing shriek, then with a soft "poof," they turned into a wisp of harmless black smoke, drifting away through the cracks in the floor tiles.
The entire grain warehouse was deathly silent.
The only sounds were the soft patter of falling pebbles and the hurried, panting breaths of the civilians who had survived the ordeal.
On the roof beam, Obito's downward gaze froze completely. A deep, undisguised seriousness finally surfaced in his single eye beneath the mask.
"To actually suppress such a high-level chain explosion with Sealing Jutsu out of thin air..." Obito's voice turned completely gloomy, filled with a chilling aura, "To form an array with bare hands, you are a hundred times more troublesome than Kushina Uzumaki back then."
Naruto slowly retracted the nine dark gold chains, shook off the ashes from his fingertips, and looked up to meet Obito's gaze.
A chilling, arrogant smirk played on his lips. His voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a knife. "Trying to test my limits with a pile of worthless paper, this is your so-called ' Eye of the Moon Plan? Listen up, you rat hiding in the gutter, next time you want to play, bring your 100,000 White Zetsu to me. I'll burn them, along with your pathetic ambition, to ashes right before your eyes."
Obito snorted coldly, said nothing, and began to twist his body in the spatial Uzumaki.
"Enjoy the night. This is just the appetizer."
Before he finished speaking, the Kamui Uzumaki closed, Obito's aura vanished without a trace.
"He runs faster than a dog." Kurotsuchi dusted off her hands, let out a long sigh, and looked at Naruto with genuine awe. "In any case, Iwagakure owes Hidden Leaf a favor today."
With the crisis averted, the civilians who had been lying on the ground collapsed finally burst into long-suppressed sobs.
Naruto turned around, about to ask Hinata to make sure the surroundings were safe.
Suddenly, a deafening clap of thunder exploded from the western night sky without warning!
The thunder was so sharp, it sounded like thousands of birds were crying out in anguish at the same time, splitting the thick snow and wind with a dazzling blue-white crack.
"That's..." Hinata suddenly turned her head, her Byakugan fixed on the direction of the western warehouse, her voice tinged with panic, "Chidori! It's Kakashi-sensei's Chidori!"
Karin's face turned deathly pale, and she gripped her clothes tightly. "It wasn't just Chidori! Naruto, two extremely terrifying Sharingan powers erupted over there! One was Sasuke's, and the other... was cold, deathly still, and filled with an extremely terrifying killing intent!"
Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly, and the frost in his eyes instantly solidified into a tangible killing intent.
Was Obito's appearance here just a phantom projected using Kamui?
Who exactly was the true form left in the west warehouse, the one that forced Kakashi to use his Chidori and provoked Sasuke to unleash his full eye power?
Is it Obito? Or is it Itachi Uchiha, the one who secretly left a message and arranged to meet at the Naka Shrine three days later?!
"Interesting. Tonight's getting more and more exciting." Naruto picked up a broken piece of Explosive Tag from the ground, crushed it into powder with his fingertips, and said, "Tenten, stay behind to protect the civilians. The rest of you, come with me!"
Before the words were finished, a golden light ruthlessly tore through the wind and snow, heading straight for the place where the thunder had exploded.