His vision went black as his surroundings shifted.
Yako woke up on the small boat, thrust back to the night of the full moon right after they had landed in the Land of Waves.
He adjusted his Fox Mask. The sensation of burning to death in his previous life still lingered.
His face felt fiery and raw, the memory of his flesh melting and charring still fresh in his mind.
"Fox, get off the boat!"
Unlike his previous life, Yako hesitated instead of jumping off the boat immediately, prompting a sharp reprimand from his captain.
Yako remembered clearly—Captain Antelope hadn't said that last time.
While most events would unfold just as they had before his resurrection, any deviations in his own behavior could trigger new, unpredictable outcomes. Yako wanted to avoid that at all costs.
He had to be careful. Until he passed the exact moment of his previous death, he needed to retrace his former steps as closely as possible to maintain his advantage of foresight.
Yako shot Captain Antelope a guarded glance, deeply wary of the man's hidden Fire Release.It was far too insidious. The man had concealed his true abilities, keeping even his own subordinates in the dark.
A squad was supposed to know each other inside and out to cooperate effectively.
If the members didn't know their captain's true strength and skills, they could easily make fatal miscalculations. It was a complete disregard for their lives.
But the Anbu demanded absolute loyalty, and everyone monitored everyone else. Naturally, Captain Antelope was on guard against his own squad.
Captain Antelope glanced back at him. He had only rushed the kid off the boat, so why was Fox looking at him so strangely?
[Arc of the Full Moon activated!
The host possesses one resurrection chance per month. Upon death, you will resurrect on the previous night of the full moon.
Rewarded one draw opportunity:
1- Shadow Clone Jutsu (Beginner);
2- Fire-attribute chakra;
3- Taijutsu Lock Technique (Beginner).]>
The taijutsu lock technique was the same grappling move Captain Antelope had used to pin his arms. It was incredibly powerful and nearly impossible to break free from.
However, he already had the Self-Cursing Binding Seal, so a physical lock was unnecessary.
He didn't need fire-attribute chakra right now, either.
As a pseudo-Chunin, he would be doing well just to master Earth Release.
Until he reached the level of an Elite Chunin, there was no point in developing new chakra natures.
Even if he did unlock fire-attribute chakra, his current chakra reserves couldn't support using it more than a few times.
Ultimately, Yako selected the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
The Shadow Clone Technique created physical duplicates so perfect that sometimes even ocular jutsu couldn't tell them apart.
Captain Antelope was exceptionally skilled at it, frequently using his clones—or the lives of his subordinates—to scout out intelligence.
Its main flaw lay in evenly dividing the user's chakra among the clones.
But for ninjas with exceptionally massive or abysmally low chakra reserves, this wasn't much of a drawback.
If you had massive reserves, half was still more than enough to fight with.
If you had tiny reserves, you barely had any to begin with—how much worse could it get?
For Yako in his current state, splitting his chakra evenly wouldn't be a disaster; at worst, he would just have to rely entirely on taijutsu in combat.
Just as in his previous life, events unfolded predictably, and the squad arrived at the seaside fishing village.
They picked an entry point and slipped into the crawlspace beneath the stilted houses. There, Kakugyu was splattered in the face by flying excrement and, in a fit of rage, detonated an Explosive Tag.
Yako fought a retreat, eventually ducking off to the side.
This time, he knew exactly where Captain Antelope's true body was hiding. Because of this, he was far more careful when forming hand seals for his Sealing Jutsu, ensuring the captain couldn't see him.
The Cloud Ninja hidden among the fishermen made their move. Ultimately, Kakugyu was killed, and Captain Antelope was wounded.
Bursting from the seawater, Yako grabbed the injured captain and hauled him away.
Deep in a coconut grove, Captain Antelope suddenly felt a sharp pain in his ribs.
His scalp prickled with dread; he was certain that Fox was about to finish him off.
He snapped his head down, only to see Fox injecting him with a coagulant.
Captain Antelope let out a breath. Fox wasn't stupid enough to try and strike him down.
Even severely wounded and bleeding from several cuts, he could still easily kill the kid.
The two of them retreated to a natural cave formed by a cluster of coastal rocks and hid inside.
This time, Yako harbored no murderous intent at all. Instead, he meticulously treated the captain's injuries.
There were still over a dozen days until the next full moon. He wouldn't survive that long without Captain Antelope.
Being an Anbu ninja was too dangerous.
Captain Antelope felt Fox's apparent concern. Combined with the fact that Fox was currently his only surviving subordinate, his attitude toward the boy warmed significantly.
He even began to analyze their situation aloud:
"Fox, there were actually two Cloud Ninja squads in our search sector.
"It looks like the Cloud Ninja have entered the Land of Waves in force.
"The mission market share in the Land of Waves has always been fiercely contested between the Hidden Mist Village and Uzushiogakure.
"To support Uzushiogakure, Konoha has fought countless battles against the Mist Ninja, losing many of our own in the process.
"Without Konoha, how could Uzushiogakure possibly stand against the Hidden Mist Village?
"Lately, there have been a lot of complaints circulating back in the village. People are asking why we're shedding blood for an outside village when we could just seize the Land of Waves' mission shares for ourselves.
"And now that the Cloud Ninja have shown up, things just got a whole lot more complicated."
Yako thought for a moment before asking, "Captain Antelope, isn't Uzushiogakure our ally?
"These complaints in the village... did they happen organically, or..."
"Stop right there," Captain Antelope said sharply.
"If you want to survive in the Anbu, you don't pry into things you shouldn't know, and you don't ask questions you shouldn't ask.
"Those complaints about Uzushiogakure obviously sprang up on their own. Did you think the Anbu spread them?"
Despite his captain's denial, Yako was almost certain the Anbu were behind it.
The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Mito, was in rapidly declining health. Yako had even carried out guard duty at the Senju Clan Compound recently.
Uzumaki Mito had married into the Senju Clan, yet she had never changed her surname. In both strength and status, the old lady was entirely unparalleled.
Unfortunately, she was too old.
There seemed to be a fierce rift between the village higher-ups and the Senju Clan regarding the succession of the jinchuriki.
In the past, the Senju Clan had handled all communications with the Uzumaki Clan.
But this time, the village had bypassed the Senju Clan entirely. Danzo had personally visited Uzushiogakure, proving that the village leadership could no longer reach a consensus with the Senju Clan.
Captain Antelope spent five days recuperating before returning to the mission, scouting a designated area for Cloud Ninja.
They managed to locate three Cloud Ninja squads. Fortunately, Captain Antelope didn't order Yako out to probe for intelligence.
Every time they spotted one, they observed from a distance before slipping away unnoticed.
Days passed, and at last, the reassuring night of the full moon arrived once more.
The full moon hung like a silver plate, casting moonlight like a layer of white frost.
Yako crouched atop a coastal reef.
The damp sea breeze washed over his mask.
In the distance, Captain Antelope was busy reporting to the squadron captain.
The ceaseless crashing of the ocean waves drowned out their voices, making it impossible for Yako to hear what the two captains were saying.
He could only watch as Captain Antelope nodded continuously, agreeing to whatever was being said.
Beneath his mask, Yako felt a deep surge of dissatisfaction with his current situation.
This wouldn't do. Remaining a low-level grunt in the Anbu meant he wouldn't even know the details of his own missions; he could only blindly follow his captain's orders.
It left him entirely passive in every operation.
He needed to become at least a squad captain. Only by entering the mission distribution hierarchy could he access more intelligence.
Intelligence was vital—it was the key to survival.
Staring at Captain Antelope's back, Yako plotted carefully.
The man was lucky to have survived their previous encounter.
Still, he needed to kill him quickly.
He pulled up his system panel.
[Host Status:
Chakra Volume: Chunin-level.
Chakra Nature: Earth.
Ninjutsu: Three Basic Jutsu, Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique, Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Taijutsu: Basic taijutsu, basic kunai throwing technique.
Sealing Jutsu: Self-Cursing Binding Seal.
Other: None]
A good cook didn't complain about the ingredients, and a master craftsman didn't blame his tools.
Relying on these abilities, he had to figure out a way to step over Captain Antelope's corpse and claim the title of squad captain for himself.
They were all Anbu, after all. Neither of them could claim to have a clean conscience.