The Rules Are Mine! Team 7 Heads to Lightning Cloud Gorge!
Sasuke drew his sword. Karin gasped for breath, her chest heaving violently.
The corridor door was pushed open. Naruto strode in and precisely grabbed Sasuke's wrist as he drew his sword.
Golden Yang Release Chakra seeped into his palm, forcefully suppressing the restless Mangekyo Sharingan power in Sasuke's left eye.
"Lightning Cloud Gorge." Sasuke's eyes were still bloodshot, his voice hoarse. "Itachi is waiting for me there."
"That's a setup." Naruto released his grip, his gaze chillingly calm. "We just established rules at the meeting during the day, and then the monsters in our lair moved to another location tonight. They're trying to throw us into disarray. If we split up to chase them now, we'll just be walking into their trap."
He turned to Karin: "Keep a close eye on that monster's Chakra remnants."
Karin pushed up her glasses forcefully. "It moves very strangely, like it's traveling along the Leyline, and it's too fast. It's not ordinary Earth Release."
"Let him get away. Obito all that trouble to lure us away; he must have a backup plan." Naruto turned and walked towards the door. "Go to the hall. See if our ally has been scared out of his wits."
Outside, a fierce snowstorm raged. Inside the hall, a cold draft seeped through the dilapidated dome.
The Five Kage were arguing heatedly around the newly unfolded sheepskin map, trying to figure out the logistics and defense line.
"Iwagakure's supply lines are too long; we have to go through the Land of Fire!" Ōnoki slammed his fist on the table, his thin fingers carrying a powerful force.
"Passing through is fine, but stationing troops is not!" Tsunade refused to budge an inch, slamming down her palm and causing the map to jump.
Just then, the Chakra chandelier on the ceiling suddenly flickered twice.
"Smack."
The entire hall was plunged into complete darkness.
The sound of warriors from the Land of Iron drawing their swords rang out in unison, their cold glints shimmering in the darkness.
"Step back," Mifune ordered in a deep voice, his hand remaining on the hilt of his sword.
In the very center of the hall, above the cobbled-together round table, ripples of dark light emanated from the space.
Like a reflection on water, a figure dressed in a red cloud-patterned black robe and wearing an orange Spiral Mask slowly appeared in mid-air. It had no physical form, no temperature, only extremely cold remnants of spatial Chakra.
"Gentlemen, still arguing so late?" Obito's voice, distorted by his mask, carried a harsh, metallic quality. "You actually want to cooperate? How disappointing."
"Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop!"
Boom!
A streak of azure lightning shot up from the ground. Raikage A didn't bother with any words; his ferocious hand strike, crackling with destructive lightning, cleaved Obito's phantom in two.
Lightning pierced through the phantom and shattered the solid wooden table below, sending splinters flying everywhere.
But the masked man in mid-air, like a wisp of smoke that had been disturbed, reformed with each breath.
"Still got that temper, Fourth Raikage." Obito, unharmed, looked down at the entire scene. "Don't waste your energy. This is just a spatial projection transmitted through the roots of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path."
Raikage landed, crushing the stone slab beneath his feet, and the veins in his neck bulged.
Obito chuckled, his laughter echoing in the empty hall. "I came only to see how ridiculous the alliance treaty you signed really is."
"Protecting Jinchūriki? Intelligence sharing? Joint sanctions?" Obito slowly read out the contents of the treaty, his tone full of mockery. "Ōnoki, when you hired Akatsuki to carry out assassination missions to save money, you didn't talk about any alliance or morality. Terumi Mei, weren't those lives in the Bloody Mist Village Hidden Mist's own people?"
Ōnoki's face twitched, but he didn't refute. Terumi Mei's red lips tightened, and her eyes turned cold.
Obito then turned his criticism towards Tsunade and the Raikage: "Hidden Leaf and Hidden Cloud are even more ridiculous. Back then, in order to quell the border conflict, the Konoha High Command personally delivered Hizashi Hyuga's corpse to Hidden Cloud. Your peace was built on the corpses of your own people."
Every word is piercing to the heart.
The air pressure in the hall plummeted. Kakashi's hand, pressing against his Forehead Protector, trembled slightly. Old grudges being brought up are always the most hurtful.
"Admit it. The history of the Five Great Nations is a mess of mutual betrayal, Kekkei Genkai plunder, and Tailed Beast robbery." Obito spread his hands, as if declaring a verdict. "You are sitting here today not because of trust, but because of fear. This peace pieced together with fear is just a piece of paper that can be torn apart at any moment."
Silence. The older generation of shadows all have something to hide.
"Thud."
A crisp snap of fingers rang out in the darkness.
A brilliant golden Kakkō suddenly shone, dispelling the chill emanating from the projection.
Naruto dragged a chair over and swaggered Earth Flow the center of the hall, sitting down directly beneath Obito's projection.
He looked up, his azure eyes devoid of any emotion, only pure mockery.
"Whether the paper tears or not depends on who's wielding the knife." Naruto leaned back in his chair, his voice steady yet incredibly penetrating. "You, a rat who doesn't even dare show your face and can only hide in the sewers at night playing with projected slides, dare to comment on someone wielding a knife?"
Obito's single eye, hidden beneath his mask, narrowed slightly. "Naruto Uzumaki, your sharp tongue can't change the facts."
"The truth is, you got desperate." Naruto held up a finger, the tip of which pulsed with the purest and most powerful Senjutsu Chakra. "During the day, you placed tree roots at the north exit, trying to ambush civilians and establish your authority, but the five of us joined forces and chopped off your claws. At night, you discovered that we had signed the agreement and formed an alliance, and your pathetic plan was about to fail, so you hastily brought over a holographic image to wage psychological warfare."
Obito's Chakra card was exposed in public.
"Don't bring up the past. I don't care how they killed us in the past." Naruto stood up, and golden light burst forth from his body.
Nine dazzling golden Chakra Chains shot out from behind him, like nine raging dragons, instantly piercing the void surrounding Obito's projection.
Instead of creating physical entities, we can directly lock down the spatial Coordinates of this area!
Obito's projection began to distort violently, emitting a piercing hiss.
"But from today onwards, I'll make the rules!" Naruto stared at the distorted mask. "Anyone who dares to harm civilians, anyone who dares to Jinchūriki as a bargaining chip, I, Naruto Uzumaki, will be the first to wipe out their entire family. If your 100,000 White Zetsu dare to show their faces, I guarantee I'll burn them all to ashes to build roads for the Land of Iron!"
Arrogant and domineering. No lengthy pronouncements, only an ironclad promise backed by absolute power.
Ōnoki let out a long breath. The Raikage's tense shoulders slumped slightly. This kid's spine was so strong it gave people a sense of security.
"You will pay the price for your arrogance today." Obito's voice was broken due to the spatial blockade, and the projection was about to collapse. "Three days later, I will let you see with your own eyes just how fragile this piece of paper is."
A black sheepskin map drifted down from the collapsing projection.
Obito's figure vanished completely.
Naruto reached out and caught the map.
On the map, several circles were drawn in bright red cinnabar. One of the red circles was particularly striking— the Land of Lightning, Lightning Cloud Gorge.
This is precisely where Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B currently hiding.
The Raikage's eyes instantly turned red when he saw that location. "Bhikage! This bastard has targeted the Eight-Tails!"
"He's playing a calculated game." Shikamaru stepped forward from behind, his brow furrowed, quickly analyzing the situation. "He's openly telling us his target. If we go to rescue him, it's like following his lead, and we might fall into a trap; if we don't go, once the Eight-Tails is captured, Akatsuki's power will increase significantly, and the newly formed alliance will collapse immediately."
The atmosphere in the hall grew heavy again. To save them or not? How many people should be sent?
Just then, Sasuke, who had been standing in the shadows by the door, stepped out.
He walked to Naruto's side, glanced at the map, and the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his left eye instantly transformed into a complex six-pointed star pattern.
"It's not just the Eight-Tails." Sasuke's voice was as cold as ice. "He wants to lure Hidden Leaf's forces there as well."
Naruto pulled out the black Space Nail that Obito had left behind during the day from his ninja tool pouch and slammed it onto the location of Lightning Cloud Gorge on the map with a "snap".
"What a coincidence." Naruto's lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile. "Sasuke's intelligence network also points to this place."
He raised his head and looked around at the Five Kage.
"Old man Tsuchikage, old man Raikage," Naruto said, his usual casual tone turning cold and menacing, "This is no longer your petty, village-level schemes. Obito wants to use Lightning Cloud Gorge as a graveyard to bury the entire alliance."
"Then let's go along with him. Using this place, let's dig out all his trump cards, including that so-called 100,000-strong army!" Naruto tapped his finger heavily on the table. "Since he wants to fight, let's turn his stronghold into his burial ground."
Raikage slammed his fists on the table. "Fine! I'll go myself!"
"No, the Raikage will stay behind to guard the command center." Naruto refused decisively. "The Five Kage must remain here to prevent him from using a feint attack. If he sends that coffin covered in tree roots to launch another sneak attack, we'll have to rely on you to hold him off."
Tsunade walked to the table. "You're going to Lightning Cloud Gorge yourself?"
"The missing-nin that Hidden Leaf provoked, Hidden Leaf should deal with them themselves." Naruto turned to Sasuke and Kakashi, "Team 7, get ready to get to work."
Sasuke gripped the Kusanagi Sword tightly, a resolute glint in his eyes. "Itachi, this time, I won't let you bear those dirty secrets alone again."
Outside, the snowstorm in the Land of Iron intensified. Deep in the darkness of the earth, the crimson coffin engraved with the character "Madara" was silently sliding towards the border of the Land of Fire at an incredible speed. A vast net covering the entire Shinobi World had finally revealed its sharpest fangs.