Chapter 344: Sage Art: Yin Release – Phantom Form! Hypnotizing Ten Thousand People!
Just as the Kumogakure forces suddenly caught sight of Uchiha Ci's trace and the young A was about to give the order to open fire—
On the other side, in the western part of the inner city.
Here was the location of the barrier squad dispatched by Kumogakure, responsible for maintaining the sensory barrier. At that moment—
Sitting cross-legged before a massive water orb,
The current captain of the barrier squad, an elderly man in a white uniform with a fully white beard and hair, suddenly opened his eyes.
"Strange... Was that just my imagination? What was that disturbance?"
And in the very next instant,
His vision blurred—and then he saw it.
A specially-shaped kunai was already pressed against his neck. Before him stood a youth with golden hair and a stern expression who had appeared silently, as if from thin air.
He instinctively swallowed.
"Y-You're... the Yellow Flash!"
The barrier squad captain cautiously raised his head, and the moment he saw the intruder's face, his eyelids twitched and his scalp tingled with fear.
Since the outbreak of the Third Great Ninja War, an unspoken rule had circulated among all major hidden villages:
"If, during a mission, you encounter Konoha's 'Yellow Flash,' you are permitted to withdraw immediately—and it won't be considered a mission failure!"
By that logic, since he had now come face to face with the Yellow Flash, the barrier captain technically had reason to abandon his duty.
But—
The place where he was stationed directly concerned the safety of nearly ten thousand people—all of them his comrades and juniors.
That thought alone made him grit his teeth. He tried to reach out toward the water orb in front of him, determined to use even the last of his strength to transmit the urgent message that the Yellow Flash had appeared here!
However, just then—
A hand clad in a blue wrist guard shot out faster than his own and firmly grabbed his outstretched hand.
"Please, quietly step aside."
Namikaze Minato's gaze fell on the hand reaching toward the orb. Then, in a calm voice, he said:
"I haven't come here as a Konoha ninja. I have no intention of provoking war."
"My only objective is to disable the sensory barrier in this city. Afterward, I'll seal your memory. You won't be held accountable."
"Disable the barrier?"
The barrier captain was momentarily stunned by the statement. Then he shook his head and replied through gritted teeth:
"Even if you did disable the barrier, it would be meaningless."
"Besides, a barrier of this scale takes far longer to dismantle than you imagine. This is a massive technique derived from the Uzumaki clan's 'Regeneration Barrier.'"
"Namikaze Minato, the patrol unit checks in on me every five minutes. If they find you here, it will be considered an act of war between our two nations!"
"You'd better think this through!"
"That's something to worry about later." Minato shook his head, restrained the man's hands behind his back, placed a sealing tag, and tossed him aside.
Then, raising his head, he looked toward the massive water orb still bubbling before him.
For a brief moment—
It was as if he could see the scene from six days ago when Uchiha Ci suddenly turned on him and knocked him out cold.
Minato took a deep breath, his fists trembling from frustration, but his expression hardened with resolve.
As someone who had once fought side by side with him, Minato knew full well—
Uchiha Ci was without a doubt incredibly powerful.
If he could break through the Raikage's defenses and defeat Killer Bee during the Battle of Hell Valley,
Then this assassination mission—taking place under the Raikage's protection—might actually succeed.
But what would happen after the assassination?
Facing a Kumogakure army tens of thousands strong, in an unfamiliar land riddled with traps, while the A-B combo and the Third Raikage were both present—rather than taking turns as they had in the Battle of Hell Valley—
Even with the strength Ci had back then, he would very likely be killed on the spot. Let alone now—when he no longer had a Tailed Beast and his ability to sustain combat was critically weakened.
And that... was why Minato had come here.
"I must disable this barrier before he breaches the inner city. Otherwise, he may never see Jiraiya-sensei—meaning I won't be able to teleport him away using the Flying Thunder God Technique."
"My time is short. I only have three minutes. This is my only shot."
At that thought, Minato raised his palm, performed a series of hand signs, and pressed his hand against the water orb.
"Uchiha Ci…"
"This time—"
He raised his head, his gaze unwavering.
"I won't let my guard down again!"
"Even if I have to break your arms and legs, I'll drag you back to Konoha!"
—
At the same time, on the other side—
The northern gate of Yunming City.
After completing his training on the fifth day and riding the Turtle Island to the Land of Frost, Uchiha Ci had retraced his path and returned once again to the Land of Lightning.
This place... was now familiar.
Unlike the last time, when he'd slammed down a whole mountain and breached the inner city without encountering any resistance—
In the six days since, Kumogakure had reconstructed the city.
Through the Sharingan, he could clearly see the massive barrier stretching before him, covering the city, the retracted drawbridge, and the murky moat in a single sweep.
But—
"This is... the Regeneration Barrier?" Uchiha Ci stared at the chakra flows within the barrier, his expression turning amused.
He chuckled.
Back when he had first left his village, he had learned this exact technique from Kumogakure's future barrier squad captain, Moroi.
The Super Death Battle Barrier.
It was a sealing technique derived from the Uzumaki clan's Regeneration Barrier.
And Kumogakure had actually used this technique as their city's first line of defense?
Ci couldn't help but laugh silently.
But it wasn't exactly coincidence. After all, every enemy he'd trapped with the Super Death Battle Barrier had ended up dead. The few survivors had been allies. The only person who had seen it—Rasa—had been too far away to identify the jutsu beyond recognizing it as a sealing technique.
Since then, Ci had largely stopped using the technique because it was ineffective against Kage-level enemies—rendering it somewhat obsolete.
And Kumogakure... was famously poor. Aside from their unique taijutsu and Lightning Release techniques, most of their ninjutsu had been acquired through theft. After the fall of the Land of Whirlpools, they had only managed to steal a few sealing techniques.
The Regeneration Barrier was already one of the highest-level techniques they had. Their Jinchūriki were still using the old-fashioned Iron Armor Sealing method, after all.
Through a twist of fate, this gap in information had now created the current situation.
Kumogakure had deployed their most advanced Regeneration Barrier specifically to counter Uchiha Ci—
But they had no idea that he already knew the technique.
"Well then, I suppose it's the perfect way to say hello."
Looking at the enormous barrier before him, Ci revealed a slight smile. Then, raising his hand, he pressed it against the barrier.
From his heart, strange symbols began spreading out, flowing along his arm and landing on the barrier in an instant.
And then, following the workings of the Regeneration Barrier, he began flooding it with an enormous amount of natural energy!
Suddenly—
Ci paused. Through the spreading natural energy and the barrier's reactive fluctuations, he sensed something happening on the other side.
"Huh? Someone's trying to disable the barrier?"
"That chakra—Minato?"
"So he sensed me... hmm, he's..."
Ci's eyes lit up.
What he was doing now and what Minato was doing... were essentially the same. Both of them were releasing chakra to locate and seize control over the core of the barrier.
The only difference was—
Ci was using a reckless and extravagant method: flooding the barrier's entire structure with an overwhelming amount of natural energy, hoping to locate the core in the process.
Minato, however, was already at the core, using his chakra to spread through the sealing formula as quickly as possible.
Ci lacked access to the core; Minato lacked time.
Their goals aligned perfectly.
And the moment Minato sensed Ci's chakra, he immediately switched tactics—
He began assisting Uchiha Ci in seizing full control over the barrier!
"In that case…"
Ci's eyes lit up even further.
"Maybe... I can use this barrier, which covers the entire city, to perform that technique!"
"Sage Art: Yin Release – Phantom Form!"
"A genjutsu to hypnotize ten thousand people!"