Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique!
Yako vanished and reappeared in continuous flashes. He bypassed conventional travel, using Earth Release to move underground instead.
Reaching the base of the town's wooden wall, he created a shadow clone and sent it vaulting over the top.
"There's someone over there! An assassin!"
The Uzumaki ninjas and samurai surged out of the town in pursuit of the clone.
Seeing his diversion take effect, Yako used Earth Release to vanish into the dirt once more.
Slipping into a secluded alleyway, he leaned against a wall, gasping for breath as he slowly recovered his chakra.
His orders were only to eliminate the noble mayor, but Yako knew that wasn't enough.
If he wanted to secure a formal promotion to squad captain, he had to earn Captain Brown Bear's trust. He had to do more.
Killing the noble mayor was meant to sever the local Uzumaki ninjas' supply line, which meant this town likely held stockpiles of provisions.Only by destroying those supplies could he exceed his mission objectives.
After catching his breath, Yako slipped back into the inner citadel.
A brief scouting pass revealed that the inner citadel was on high alert, with its heaviest defenses concentrated around two distinct locations.
The first was the residential manor, housing the mayor's family and likely the next mayor.
The second was a detached building guarded by three samurai squads and a single Uzumaki ninja.
Whatever was inside had to be crucial; otherwise, an Uzumaki ninja wouldn't have stayed behind to guard it.
Tucked in a corner, Yako slowly pulled his head back from the edge of the wall, measured the distance in his mind, and began forming hand seals.
His body sank steadily into the ground.
Ripples spread across the dirt like rings on the surface of a pond.
The Underground Projection Fish Technique drained a tremendous amount of chakra. By infusing chakra into the earth to alter its density, the user could swim through solid soil like a fish.
To prevent his infiltration from being exposed, he couldn't leave a hollow tunnel in his wake; the displaced soil had to be restored with chakra as he passed.
Between the complex manipulation and the heavy chakra drain, his underground progress was painstakingly slow.
Yako had only mastered the technique at a beginner's level. He wondered how it would perform once he grew more skilled.
Surfacing right behind the Uzumaki ninja, Yako poked his head and shoulders out of the dirt.
"Argh!"
The Uzumaki ninja felt a sharp pain slice through his ankle. Spinning around, he discovered someone had severed his tendon!
He immediately lunged downward with his kunai.
Yako snatched the ninja's wrist with his left hand while thrusting his right hand straight toward his abdomen.
Though his strike found the Uzumaki ninja's abdomen, Yako's left hand was pierced by his target's kunai.
Ignoring his bleeding hand, Yako dragged himself out of the earth and sidestepped the dying ninja's frantic struggle.
The Uzumaki ninja dragged his ruined foot forward for two steps before realization hit him. "Poison! It's poisoned! How... how is this our village's poison?"
Yako thought to himself that it was indeed their village's handiwork. Uzumaki Yuka's poison hadn't been fully used up, making this man the perfect target.
With the Uzumaki ninja incapacitated, the surrounding samurai rushed in, and Yako met their charge head-on.
Aside from the samurai captain, none of the other men possessed chakra. When blade met blade, their strikes felt soft and powerless.
The samurai captain proved trickier to handle. With chakra surging through his muscles, his blows struck with immense force, though he lacked agility.
After he cut down four samurai, the rest broke and scattered.
The Uzumaki ninja lay collapsed on the ground, his consciousness fading.
Leaning against the wall, Yako activated the Underground Projection Fish Technique and sank smoothly into the masonry.
Entering the building, he found his suspicions confirmed: it was a storehouse.
He opened backpack after backpack, finding them stuffed with all manner of supplies.
He grabbed six kunai and stowed them in his ninja tool pouch.
He shouldered one of the backpacks, which was filled to the brim with military ration pills.
Inside a smaller bag, he was stunned to uncover ten explosive tags.
He had struck gold. Explosive tags were hard currency and exorbitantly expensive, crafted only by ninjas who had mastered both Sealing Jutsu and Fire Release.
In Konoha, a single explosive tag was priced at 10,000 ryo.
The Anbu provided standard vests and ninja swords, but never explosive tags; operatives had to buy those out of pocket.
Putting your life on the line for Konoha while paying for your own supplies was truly miserable.
He packed the explosive tags into his tool pouch, thoroughly satisfied.
As for the remaining bulk gear—tents, sleeping bags, medical kits—he simply couldn't carry it away.
Wincing at the cost, he pulled out an explosive tag, infused it with a spark of chakra, and slapped it onto the remaining goods.
Slipping out through the rear wall, he put a wide distance between himself and the storehouse before forming a hand seal to detonate the tag remotely.
In a thunderous blast, the Uzumaki ninjas' supplies were blown sky-high.
Shouldering his heavy pack of military ration pills, he slipped away under the cover of the ensuing chaos.
Once he escaped, Yako didn't rush straight to Captain Brown Bear; instead, he concealed himself and laid low.
The full moon hung like a silver disc, casting a frost-like glow.
Only after the full moon passed did Yako seek out the captain by the coast.
Caution above all else.
Captain Brown Bear stood alone on the shoreline.
"Captain, I've completed the mission and assassinated the mayor backing Uzushiogakure. On top of that, I seized a portion of his stores and blew up everything I couldn't carry."
Yako set the rucksack on the ground and opened it, revealing a massive haul of military ration pills.
Beside them lay two explosive tags.
The other seven explosive tags stayed tucked away in Yako's private stash; he had no intention of handing them over.
Even offering up these two had hurt, but without them, he couldn't justify how he triggered the explosion that destroyed the cache.
If he was going to put on an act, he had to commit all the way and leave no flaws.
"Excellent! Outstanding! Your performance far exceeded my expectations. Aside from being slow to finish the job, everything else was handled flawlessly. After so much time, I almost thought you..."
Brown Bear let the sentence trail off.
He had sent Fox to assassinate the noble to pressure the Uzumaki ninjas, forcing them to divert more troops to protect the aristocracy and ease the burden on the front lines.
Now, the noble was dead and the supplies were destroyed.
"Captain, what did you think?"
"Nothing. I am very satisfied."
"Captain, there's also one piece of bad news."
"What bad news?"
Brown Bear's gaze sharpened. Had the nobles hidden some fallback maneuver for Uzushiogakure?
"The bad news is that Matsudori sacrificed his life in the line of duty."
Brown Bear immediately exhaled, relieved he had just been scaring himself.
He said,
"To protect the village, a little sacrifice is necessary. We in the Anbu walk in the shadows as the sharpest blades shielding Konoha. When a blade is overly sharp, it snaps easily—that much is unavoidable."
Hearing Captain Brown Bear's words of consolation, Yako felt his anxiety settle.
Antelope Squadron, Blue Wolf Squadron, and now his own Fox Squad—every member besides himself had died. He had feared the captain might grow suspicious, never imagining the man wouldn't care in the slightest.
Then again, if the Anbu didn't suffer such heavy attrition, he would never have made it into their ranks in the first place.
Brown Bear said,
"Leave the military ration pills with me; we're desperate for supplies right now, and I'll distribute them among the rest of the operatives.
"As for the explosive tags, we'll split them—one for me, and one for you to save your skin.
"Through real combat, you've grown into an elite Anbu operative, completing your mission brilliantly and above expectations.
"I hereby formally appoint you as squad captain.
"Our squadron has taken heavy casualties, so I'll do my best to assign you replacements. If there's no one suitable available, you will operate solo."
"The squadron is facing tough times; I can handle solo operations."
Yako gladly pocketed his explosive tag, pleasantly surprised that aside from his callous indifference toward his subordinates' lives, the captain was actually quite generous.
That gave him eight explosive tags in total—enough to grant him a wonderful sense of security.