Naruto: Konoha Spring of the Uchiha Prodigies

Chapter 217 Hell on Earth

As the Cloud Village ninja swarmed forward, a thunderclap suddenly exploded in the night sky. Sasuke's purple lightning drew deep purple arcs, forcing three Cloud Village ninjas back five meters away.

"A kunai track appeared at the twelve o'clock position!" Neji's Byakugan gleamed with a blue light in the darkness, and he wielded his Bagua staff with great force, forcing back those who tried to break through from his side.

In Sasuke's Sharingan, three tomoe swirled in the crimson light. A Cloud Ninja directly in front of him was instantly caught in Sasuke's genjutsu. The next second, purple lightning sliced ​​through the neck of the Cloud Ninja blocking his way like a hot knife through butter. The scorching lightning instantly turned the wound black. Not a single drop of blood flowed until the Cloud Ninja clutched his neck and collapsed helplessly.

After the three rushed out for dozens of meters, sixteen bolts of lightning descended from the sky like a cage. Chains wrapped in lightning intertwined in the tree canopy, trapping the three in a circle of scorched earth with a radius of ten meters.

Eight Cloud Village Jonin emerged from the shadows, their Lightning Release chakra pulsating across their skin like flowing armor.

"That's enough, you Konoha brats," the leading Cloud Village Jonin said, forming the Snake Hand Seal, the lightning on the chains suddenly intensifying, "Pay the price for your arrogance."

Purple plasma surged between the iron chains, and the air was filled with the smell of ozone from ionized air.

As the encirclement tightened, Sasuke threw seven shuriken. The metal and lightning collided, creating blinding flashes. "A lightning release barrier? Too bad I'm not like my teacher, able to control the enemy's lightning release at will."

Neji planted his Eight Trigrams Staff in the ground, pushed out with both palms, and the chakra vortex of the Rotation Technique deflected all the incoming lightning arrows. His Byakugan veins bulged, and he turned to Sasuke, "The core of the barrier is on the female ninja in the northwest corner, the one with the headband around her neck! Her chakra is maintaining the barrier's balance!"

"Can I give her a go?" Sasuke asked.

"I'll give it a try." The summoning seal on Neji's right wristband lit up, and a uniquely shaped sniper rifle appeared in Neji's hand. After Neji infused it with chakra, he fired a shot, and a chakra bullet whistled towards the opponent.

However, just as the bullet was about to hit, the barrier in front of the opponent suddenly condensed into a bolt of lightning that collided with the bullet, bursting into a blinding white light in the air.

"No, it will take a long time to charge up if we want to break through the barrier's defenses." Seeing this, Neji put the chakra sniper rifle that Tenten had developed for him back into the scroll on his wrist, and then shook his head and said.

"Then leave it to me!" Sasuke, wielding his Purple Lightning Blade, charged towards the direction Neji had pointed, the Chidori shrieking as it tore through the night sky.

Purple lightning tore through the night, and the Sharingan precisely locked onto the chakra pathways pulsating beneath the headband. However, four bolts of lightning suddenly cut off the path—the reinforcements from Kumogakure had arrived.

Three ninjas wearing lightning beast masks descended from the sky, their lightning blades carving scorched grooves in the ground. Sasuke was forced to turn, and the purple lightning collided with the lightning blades, creating blinding arcs of electricity.

Fortunately, at that moment, Neji suddenly entered the battle, his Bagua staff darting out like a serpent, striking the Lightning Blade Ninja's vital point on his waist. In the instant the chakra was blocked, Sasuke's left hand instantly condensed a Chidori that pierced through the opponent's right shoulder, and blood mist rose amidst the lightning.

Seeing this, the Cloud Village Jonin who controlled the barrier sneered and slammed his palms heavily on the ground: "Lightning Release: Earth Walk!"

Yellow electric snakes rapidly spread towards the three of them along the damp moss.

"Naruto!"

"Understood," Naruto nodded heavily, his hands quickly forming hand seals. Three howling gusts of wind swept in all directions, instantly shattering the incoming lightning snakes.

However, the next moment, five lightning arrows suddenly came from the side, aimed directly at Naruto. At the critical moment, Sasuke threw out a steel wire that wrapped around Naruto's lower back and pulled hard, allowing Naruto to barely avoid the fatal attack by relying on the trajectory predicted by his Sharingan.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke couldn't help but yell at him, "Concentrate during the fight!"

"I'm sorry..." Naruto said apologetically.

"Hold them off for me, I'll go take care of that guy." Sasuke didn't say anything more when he saw this.

"Alright." Naruto took a deep breath, and with his spirits lifted, he surrounded himself with wind-style chakra. Together with Neji, he approached the remaining two lightning blade ninjas who had appeared to intercept Sasuke.

Sasuke, on the other hand, put away his Purple Lightning and gathered violent electric current in his hands, the sharp explosion sounding like a thousand birds singing in unison.

"Chidori!" Sasuke transformed into lightning, his hand crackling with purple electricity as he charged towards the female ninja who was maintaining the barrier's stability. Although Sasuke had mastered Chidori long before, after learning Uchiha Touko's more advanced Lightning Release ninjutsu, he only used a simplified version of it as a finishing move in close combat. He hadn't used the full version of Chidori for a long time. However, at this moment, the piercing power of the full version of Chidori, and the speed that would allow him to further increase while in Lightning Release ninjutsu mode, were exactly what Sasuke needed.

At that moment, the female ninja who was maintaining the barrier only saw a blinding white light flash before her eyes. The next instant, Sasuke had already pierced her chest, and the Cloud Village female ninja, with her chest pierced, fell helplessly to the ground.

"Asayi!" Upon seeing this, the companion of the person killed by Sasuke shouted in disbelief.

Sasuke shook his hand expressionlessly, the lightning in his hand drying the blood on his skin. With the person maintaining the stability of the barrier's chakra gone, the barrier blocking the three's path disappeared. Neji used the Heavenly Rotation to repel the Cloud Village Jonin who was entangled with him and Naruto, and then shouted, "Now's the time to go!"

The two accelerated one after the other and met up with Sasuke, rushing towards the edge of the encirclement. At this moment, Deidara, who was flying in the air, also timely dropped a series of explosives, delaying the Cloud Village ninjas from reorganizing and encircling them.

However, after the barrage of attacks, Deidara's chakra was almost depleted. After several rounds of bombardment, seeing that his three little brothers still hadn't managed to break through, he decided to lower his flight altitude and take them with him. But, just as he descended a little, shuriken accompanied by lightning flew in like a rainstorm, forcing Deidara to take off again.

Just as the encirclement by the Hidden Clouds was about to close again, suddenly, a green signal flare exploded in the night sky to the northeast.

The howls of the Inuzuka clan pierced through the thunder, and the swarms of insects from the Aburame clan obscured the moonlight like dark clouds.

"Our reinforcements have arrived!" Sasuke finally breathed a sigh of relief after shattering the lightning chains that were wrapping around him with a single strike.

The nearest border troops rushed over immediately after hearing the commotion.

Seeing this, the commander of Kumogakure had no choice but to temporarily abandon the encirclement and killing of Sasuke and his two companions, and gritted his teeth to meet the Konoha ninja army that came to their aid. Under the cover of night, the two sides clashed instantly.

"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique!"

The raging flames illuminated the entire night sky, and a huge fire dragon roared as it attacked the Hidden Cloud Village. The Hidden Cloud Village's formation quickly developed a gap under the impact of this violent fire dragon. At this moment, a team of Hyuga clan members, led by three branch family Jonin, broke into the Hidden Cloud Village's formation.

Then, a group of Uchiha clan ninjas, led by their Jonin, charged in. Under the onslaught of the two clans, the Cloud Village's formation quickly began to crumble.

It's hard to imagine that the two families with eye techniques, who were considered sworn enemies in the village just a few years ago, are now cooperating so well.

The ninja tool that Tenten developed, which shared vision, displayed its special power at this moment. The Hyuga clan's Byakugan's super-wide field of vision and the Uchiha clan's Sharingan's ability to capture movement trajectories were shared at this moment. The assault team composed of the two clans moved through the Cloud Village formation as if it were empty, and after eliminating the enemies along the way, they arrived in front of Sasuke and his two companions.

"Young clan leader."

"Young clan leader."

The members of the two clans' assault teams nodded to their respective young clan leaders, and Sasuke naturally took over command of the team. "Let's go together, with our comrades outside, and take care of these people!"

"Yes!" Neji and his clansmen nodded together.

Only Naruto stared blankly at everything around him, the blood and fire of war so close to him at that moment.

Compared to the previous battles, the brutality of war was demonstrated to Naruto in just a few minutes after the two armies began to clash.

Burning trees twisted into fiery snakes in the night wind, and screams rose and fell from the thick smoke.

A Konoha ninja, half his body scorched by lightning release, was still mechanically stabbing the ground with kunai; a Kumogakure ninja had a gaping hole in his abdomen, but he simply stuffed his intestines back in and roughly stitched them up with chakra threads before continuing to charge at the Konoha ninja in front of him with his sword.

Kunai and lightning wove a deathly tapestry through the forest. The third wave of Cloud Ninja charged over the trench, stepping over the charred corpses of their comrades. Suddenly, the steel wire mesh pulled by the Konoha ambush squad sprang up from the decaying leaves, instantly slicing twelve Cloud Ninja assault team members into pieces. However, the splattering blood and flesh conveniently concealed the hand seals of the Lightning Release team behind them—seventeen lightning snakes lashed out along the wire, burning five Konoha ambush soldiers in the treetops into charcoal sculptures.

At this moment, the ninjas on both sides seemed to have transformed into ruthless killing machines. Stimulated by the blood and fire of this battlefield, almost everyone lost their minds, with only the enemy in front of them in their eyes.

The Inuzuka clan's ninja dogs sensed the disturbance underground. Just as the seven ninja dogs howled in warning, the Cloud Village's explosive tag squad rushed out from underground, and hundreds of explosive tags exploded in the center of Konoha's army.

The explosion obliterated the bodies of twenty-three ninjas, including this suicide squad. The shockwave slammed eight medical kits into tree trunks, and flying scalpels pierced the throats of three Cloud Village ninjas who were forming hand seals.

“This…this…” Naruto looked at the battlefield in front of him, which had been transformed into a living hell in just a few minutes, his hands trembling slightly.

Chapter 218 Hostages

"Kid, calm down!" At this moment, the Nine-Tails inside the sealed space also noticed that Naruto was now completely surrounded by negative emotions.

If he wanted, he could use this negative emotion to break the seal on his body at any time. After the Fourth Hokage and Kushina's chakra dissipated, Naruto had no backup plan. However, Kurama looked at Naruto, who was huddled in front of the seal gate and trembling slightly, and gave him a stern reminder.

“Kurama…” Naruto turned around blankly, looking at the Nine-Tails inside the sealed space.

At that moment, two Cloud Village ninja noticed Naruto's unusual behavior. They burrowed underground to Naruto's feet, then rushed out with their ninja swords, aiming directly at Naruto's vitals.

However, at that very moment, two dark red chakra arms suddenly extended from Naruto's body, grabbing the attacking Cloud Village members one by one and crushing them into a pulp.

Blood and flesh fell around Naruto. Naruto looked at the surrounding hell. From the moment that eight-year-old child attacked him, Naruto suddenly began to not understand this world.

Naruto wasn't entirely without killing anyone. After graduating from the Ninja Academy, whether it was a mission in the Land of Waves or a few later missions to clear out bandits for practice, Naruto had personally killed enemies. However, those enemies at that time simply died in clean and efficient ninja battles, and they were indeed notorious villains. Therefore, Naruto had no psychological burden about killing them.

But at this moment, the screams all around him, whether from friend or foe, were provoking Naruto's already fragile heart, which was on the verge of collapse.

At this moment, Neji and Sasuke had to focus on the enemy in front of them and had no time to think about anything else.

The stench of blood and burnt flesh kept filling Naruto's nose, and Kurama sighed when he saw this.

Judging from the current situation, this kid definitely can't continue fighting. The next moment, dark red chakra mixed with gold threads appeared on Naruto's body, and five red tails also appeared behind him. At this moment, Kurama took control of Naruto's body.

The Five-Tails state is currently the limit that Kurama can achieve while controlling Naruto's body without causing him any injury.

Normally, Jinchuriki cannot fully unleash the power of a Tailed Beast because the Tailed Beast is uncooperative. However, the current Kurama is willing to let Naruto enter the perfect Jinchuriki state, but Naruto is obviously unable to cooperate well with it, so Kurama has to do it alone.

However, even such power was beyond the capacity of the Cloud Village in this area to withstand. When Naruto in his Five-Tails form charged into the enemy ranks, he moved as if he were in an empty field, tearing apart the body of a Cloud Villager with a mere wave of his hand. Meanwhile, the Cloud Villager's attacks were completely unable to penetrate the Nine-Tails' chakra defense.

"The Nine-Tails has gone berserk?" Sasuke noticed Naruto's situation immediately and was shocked. He stepped on lightning and sneaked over, intending to use genjutsu to calm Naruto down.

"Uchiha brat, Naruto is in no condition to fight right now. If you don't want him to die on this chaotic battlefield, then stop your genjutsu." Kurama used Naruto's body to turn his head and say to the approaching Sasuke.

"You...you are the Nine-Tails?" Sasuke asked, his face showing surprise.

"Who else could I be?" Naruto, covered in a layer of scarlet chakra, grinned. For Kurama, who could accurately sense malice, the aura of death shrouding this battlefield made it very uncomfortable. Therefore, he was not so polite when facing Sasuke.

“Alright.” Sasuke nodded. “Then I’ll leave Naruto in your care.”

As time went on, the battle situation gradually became clearer. In particular, after Inuzuka Jacques and Aburame Shiki worked together to kill the temporary commander of the Cloud Village army, the Cloud Village army fell into chaos without a leader and was defeated one by one by the Konoha army.

This army of Kumogakure was quickly annihilated, leaving less than 20 men, who were surrounded by the remaining Konoha ninja.

"Tell me, where did you hide Konohamaru?" After surrounding the enemy, Aburame Shiki gave the order to temporarily stop, since their main objective was to find Konohamaru.

"I won't tell you. You Konoha should just wait to start a war with us, Kumogakure!" A Kumogakure ninja who had lost his right arm gritted his teeth as he clutched his bleeding arm, which had only received simple bandaging.

"If you want war, then let's fight. We, Konoha, have never been afraid of war," Inuzuka Jacques said with a gloomy expression.

Just then, a messenger insect flew down from the sky and landed on Aburame Shiki's shoulder.

“A large number of Cloud Village troops have appeared on the border of the Land of Hot Water.” Aburame Shiki said to Inuzuka Jacques beside her with a solemn expression. “If I’m not mistaken, the same should be the case on the Land of Rice Fields where you are stationed.”

"Do we...should we go back now?" Inuzuka Jacques asked.

"Not for now. Kakashi and the Third Hokage have already been sent to the border by Genma and the others. With him in charge, there won't be any problems at the border. However, it seems that the war is really about to begin," Aburame said with a slightly solemn expression.

"In that case, let's use their heads as a sacrifice first. As for Konohamaru, let the Yamanaka clan use their secret techniques to extract information from him," Inuzuka Jacques said coldly.

The next moment, the Konoha ninja present picked up their weapons again, and the Cloud Village ninja who were surrounded also showed a look of fearlessness on their faces.

"Brothers, let's fight them! Lord Raikage will avenge us!"

Just as the battle was about to break out, from the northeast, an elderly man who was not particularly tall was rushing towards them at a speed that seemed completely out of character for his age.

Before long, the sensory ninjas in the Konoha formation also noticed the figure approaching at high speed.

"Someone is approaching, this chakra fluctuation... Third Hokage?" a sensory ninja said in surprise.

Soon, Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived at the scene.

"Third Hokage." The Konoha ninja present bowed in unison. Although Hiruzen Sarutobi had retired and had almost no control over Konoha, he was still a figure of respect, so they had to give him some face.

"Have you found Konohamaru?" Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't say much, but asked anxiously.

"I'm sorry, Third Hokage, we haven't found any trace of Konohamaru." Sasuke said at this moment.

"Tell me! Where did you take Konohamaru!" Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi turned and glared fiercely at the group of Cloud Villagers, unleashing his killing intent without restraint. Although he had been a slacker in Konoha for several years, he didn't mind letting these Cloud Villagers show him the strength of the legendary ninja hero of the past since they dared to kidnap his grandson.

"Hmph, that brat can just wait to be buried with us!" the temporary commander of Kumogakure declared defiantly. "Lord Raikage will avenge us!"