There was a narrow strait between the Land of Waves and the Land of Fire—so narrow that a single bridge could span it.
Despite being closer to the Land of Fire, the mission quota for the Land of Waves had always belonged to Uzushio Village.
After crossing the strait and entering the Land of Fire, Captain Yellow Dog ordered someone to find Yako.
Captain Yellow Dog looked Yako up and down, then said, "You're the only one left from the Brown Bear Unit. You're not strong enough to be a squad captain. I'll reassign you to Captain Black Ape's unit."
Yako nodded. He glanced over at Captain Black Ape—tall and built like a tank. Definitely a taijutsu powerhouse. Yako wondered what ability he might extract from him.
From Captain Antelope, he had extracted Clone Technique. From Captain Brown Bear, Body Flicker Technique. ANBU always had good stuff.
Upon joining the Black Ape Unit, Captain Black Ape ordered Yako to operate solo.
As a sub-captain himself, Yako wasn't suitable for joining any of the smaller teams. And with the squads heavily depleted, no one wanted to spare men to form a new one for him.
The group continued forward.
As they walked, the surrounding mist grew denser.
"Captain Black Ape, is this naturally forming fog, or…"
"This is the Land of Fire. Even if the Mist come, we're confident we can defeat them."
Yako turned and looked at the ragged survivors around them, wondering where Captain Black Ape got his confidence from.
Yuka Uzumaki summoned the massive Longspear Egret, ready to have it carry away Princess Kushina at any moment.
The atmosphere grew more and more stifling.
In the thick fog, visibility dropped to just two or three meters.
Yako adjusted his mask to keep the eyeholes from limiting his view.
He could see the tree two meters away—beyond that was a field of white.
The damp mist clung to him, making him uncomfortable all over.
Suddenly—whoosh!
A sharp sound sliced through the air behind his head!
The nape of his neck tingled. Yako instinctively lunged forward.
A kunai grazed his hair and embedded itself in a tree trunk ahead.
He quickly adjusted his stance on the ground, turning to stare into the fog.
But there was nothing to be seen.
This time, the Mist ninja hadn't used Silent Killing Technique for close combat. Instead, they were harassing from a distance with kunai.
With only a few meters of visibility, there was no time to dodge after seeing the weapon.
Better to rely on hearing than sight.
Screams rang out nearby—Uzumaki ninja, crying out in pain after being hit by kunai.
Compared to them, Konoha's ANBU were much more composed. Even when turned into pincushions, they stayed silent.
Boom!
Now it wasn't about keeping silent—the Mist had started using explosive tags!
For a village that mainly trained Water Release shinobi, deploying rare explosive tags meant they were getting desperate.
In the blaze and smoke of an explosion, one ANBU ninja was thrown at Yako's feet—limbs mangled, legs gone, exposed bones jutting from the stumps.
A gruesome death.
Just then, a chill swept over Yako.
A chill brought by wind.
And then—an overwhelming pressure of air!
Yako didn't think—he turned and hugged tight to the tree behind him.
The tree across from him, too thin to hold, was snapped in half and hurtled straight toward him.
Yako quickly formed hand seals and sank into the ground using Hidden Fish in Earth Technique.
When he emerged again, the thick fog around him had vanished.
A single Wind Release had blown away mist across hundreds of meters?
Trees that weren't thick enough had all been felled by the gust.
Looking into the distance, Yako spotted Danzo Shimura, just lowering his hand after completing a jutsu.
Danzo had arrived with two assistants, here to support them.
Unbelievable.
Danzo of all people had become a symbol of safety.
His Four White Eyes were cold and narrow, locked onto the group of Mist ninja ahead.
Juzo Biwa and Munashi Jinpachi, two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, turned tail the moment they saw it was Danzo and left without a word.
Danzo glanced over the two half-decimated ANBU units, but gave no order to pursue.
The ANBU leapt from the shattered tree stumps and gathered behind him.
Captain Yellow Dog and Captain Blue Sparrow stood at attention behind Danzo, awaiting orders.
The Uzumaki ninja soon caught up as well.
The Sealing Division Leader looked visibly relieved. "Lord Danzo, I didn't expect you to personally lead the rescue. No one in Konoha but you could disperse such a vast, combined fog formation from the Mist."
Danzo nodded, turning his gaze to Princess Kushina. "The Uzumaki Princess… this doesn't look like a jinchuriki. Did the ritual fail?"
The Sealing Division Leader nodded. "There were too many hidden scouts around the wild Three-Tails. We lost many trying, but couldn't seal it."
Yako crouched behind the ANBU, pretending to rest.
Through the silhouettes ahead, he could see Danzo's clenched fist, knuckles bone-white.
It was clear that beneath his calm exterior, Danzo was furious.
His expression rarely changed—a death mask—but when enraged, no one could tell.
If Kushina had become the Three-Tails' jinchuriki, all of Konoha's preparations for the Nine-Tails would have been in vain.
The Nine-Tails was one of Konoha's foundations. This stealth mission by Uzushio Village had nearly caught them off guard.
Danzo remained silent for several long seconds.
No one dared speak.
The young Kushina hid behind Yuka, intimidated by the eerie man.
Danzo finally said, "The remnants of both ANBU units will continue escorting Princess Kushina back to Uzushio Village."
With that, he turned and left with his assistants.
Yako frowned. Konoha clearly wanted Kushina—so why didn't they just take her now?
Could it be they wanted her to enter Konoha willingly?
The two depleted ANBU units continued the mission, escorting the princess to the peninsula of the Land of Whirlpools.
Along the way, Yuka Uzumaki kept a keen eye on the ANBU, always able to precisely spot the spy called Fox.
Each time, she quickly looked away to avoid drawing suspicion.
Fox was well-hidden, indistinguishable among the ANBU.
If not for the fact that the combined ANBU force had dwindled to just over forty, he'd be even harder to find.
The Senju Clan truly trained their spies well.
As they neared Uzushio Village, a giant Yatagarasu flew overhead.
Its massive form whooshed through the sky, causing the Longspear Egret on Yuka's shoulder to duck its neck in fear.
"Don't be afraid. That's our village's guardian summoning beast—it won't harm you."
At the village gate, the ANBU didn't enter. After a brief farewell, they turned and left.
Yako let out a long breath.
This mission had dragged on far too long. He just wanted to go home now—and hopefully never come back out.
The outside world is too dangerous. I want to go home.
But after leaving Uzushio, something felt off—the direction wasn't right.
Captain Yellow Dog led the ANBU up a nearby mountain.
There, four ANBU sub-captains began setting up a barrier technique.
A transparent barrier covered the mountaintop.
From the outside, it still looked like an ordinary mountain peak—but inside, the four captains had vanished.
They had turned invisible.
One by one, ANBU members entered the barrier and disappeared from view.
An invisibility barrier?
Yako stepped in as well.
Captain Yellow Dog began distributing missions to the sub-captains. Captain Black Ape called over three sub-leaders, including Yako.
"We'll rotate in three shifts. Keep surveillance on Uzushio Village using binoculars from inside the barrier!"
Yako was assigned to the first shift.
Lying behind a rock, he watched Uzushio Village through binoculars.
The full moon hung like silver, casting a pale frost of light.
The night of the full moon had arrived.
Three days later, Danzo returned with a fully staffed ANBU unit and entered the invisibility barrier.
Danzo sat quietly for days inside, unnaturally patient, unmoving atop a rock.
No one knew what he was waiting for.
With all the ANBU inside the barrier under his watchful eyes, the tension rose.
It seemed the great calamity of the Uzumaki Clan was now inevitable.