Being cooped up inside the barrier with Danzo made Yako's skin crawl.
As he was one of Konoha's greatest antagonists, mere proximity to him meant danger.
The Anbu's entire operational style bore Danzo's distinct personal signature.
Ruthless, indifferent to casualties among his own subordinates, and fanatically fixated on loyalty and the Will of Fire.
Squads and squadrons continuously filtered out of the barrier, dispatched on unknown missions.
Yako was in luck; after a few days of waiting, the Black Ape Squadron was finally deployed.
Even at this critical juncture of monitoring Uzushiogakure, the Black Ape Squadron was sent to the port at the mouth of the Naka River.
At last, he didn't have to share the same air as Danzo.
During the mission briefing, the Black Ape squadron captain ordered strict surveillance on all ships arriving from the Land of Waves and the Land of Water over the next few days—paying special attention to any vessels carrying Konoha ninjas.
The squadron scattered, hiding themselves among the cargo crates on the docks to keep a watchful eye on any returning Konoha forces.One Konoha squad disembarked, their faces glowing with the sheer relief and joy of setting foot in the Land of Fire once more.
Missions in foreign territory carried far higher mortality rates than those within their borders; returning to the Land of Fire truly felt like coming home.
Such squads were perfectly ordinary and fell entirely outside the Black Ape Squadron's target parameters.
After three days of staking out the docks, they finally spotted an unusual Konoha squad disembarking.
The two ninjas were panicked, scrambling frantically onto the pier.
They ran blindly, knocking aside several porters as they sprinted desperately in the direction of Konoha.
The Black Ape squadron captain sprang into action, and Yako and the others quickly followed suit.
Deep in the woods outside the port, the two Konoha ninjas raced along the banks of the Naka River.
A lone Konoha ninja stood in the path ahead, blocking their way.
It was Yako. He had already stowed his Anbu mask and donned a standard Konoha forehead protector, disguising himself as an ordinary ninja. A bloodstained bandage was wrapped around his shoulder as he called out:
"Hey! I'm a Konoha ninja too! Could you help me change my dressing? My arm and shoulder are injured, and I can't manage it myself."
The older of the two ninjas replied, "Sorry! We have critical intelligence that must reach the village immediately!
"We spotted several ships out at sea carrying massive numbers of Cloud and Mist ninjas! They're sailing straight for the Land of Whirlpools!
"Uzushiogakure is our ally. They might be in—"
"Gah!"
Several Anbu operatives burst from the waters of the Naka River. Their ninja swords flashed with cold steel, flinging arcs of water as they brutally cut down the two Konoha messengers.
Yako clicked his tongue in silence. They truly were the Anbu, the embodiment of Konoha's darkest shadows—willing to butcher their own comrades to safeguard a hidden agenda.
A mobilization of Cloud and Mist ninjas on such a massive scale could never be kept completely silent; naturally, a few wandering ninjas would stumble upon it.
But the Anbu refused to let word of the invasion reach the village. They couldn't just detain the messengers either, lest a future investigation uncover the truth. Murder was the only tidy solution.
After silencing three separate waves of Konoha ninjas attempting to deliver the intel, the Black Ape squadron captain was finally satisfied. "Move out!" he ordered. "Return to the Land of Whirlpools! We report to Lord Danzo!"
Yako mentally calculated the distance from Konoha to the Land of Whirlpools. Given the current position of the Mist and Cloud fleets, even if the village had received the intelligence today, it would be far too late to mount a rescue.
By the time any reinforcements from the Senju clan could reach Uzushiogakure, the village would already be utterly wiped off the map.
It was deep into the latter half of the night by the time the Black Ape Squadron rushed back to Uzushiogakure.
In the distance, the skies above Uzushiogakure burned a violent, blazing red.
Yako had been about to push forward when he suddenly pulled himself up short.
By all ordinary logic, the treaty between Konoha and Uzushiogakure bound both sides in a mutual defense pact.
Should either village fall under attack, the other was duty-bound to ride to their aid.
But tonight, ordinary logic no longer applied.
"Where are you going? Halt!"
One Anbu ninja, operating on pure ingrained habit, had accelerated toward the besieged village, only for the Black Ape squadron captain to bark him back into line.
The captain redirected the squadron, leading them back into the concealment barrier atop the mountain where they had been stationed days prior.
Stepping inside the barrier, they found it just as tightly packed with Anbu operatives as before.
At the summit, Danzo sat upon a boulder, utterly unfazed. His cold gaze was fixed steadily on Uzushiogakure.
From this high vantage point, the entirety of the village was laid bare before them.
Even from a distance, it was clear that half the village was smothered beneath a heavy, churning mist, while the other half spasmed with violent bursts of lightning that flickered like a dense swarm of fireflies.
Raging fires were already devouring the settlement; the invaders were systematically burning the village to the ground from the outer edges inward.
The slain Konoha messengers had been absolutely correct—a massive coalition of Cloud and Mist ninjas had launched a full-scale assault on Uzushiogakure.
Yako quietly pieced the political puzzle together in his head.
Right now, Konoha was facing its greatest crisis since the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi took power: the transfer of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Even amid the chaos of the second great ninja war, the brutal frontlines in the Land of Hot Water, the Land of Rivers, and the Land of Rain were practically trivial compared to the transfer of the beast.
Losing a local skirmish meant little more than surrendering a smaller nation's mission quotas—territory and contracts that Konoha could easily win back in the future.
But if something went wrong with the Nine-Tails, the entire village could be leveled to ash overnight.
In the original story, the Nine-Tails rampage had inflicted catastrophic casualties upon Konoha, claiming the lives of the Fourth Hokage and countless innocent villagers alike.
That exact disaster was the inciting incident of the entire original plotline.
Uzumaki Mito was simply too old. In her fading years, her physical vitality had dwindled, her chakra reserves had plummeted, and the beast's seal was growing unstable.
To ensure the village's safety, Konoha intended to groom another Uzumaki prodigy—someone just like Mito—to become the next Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
However, the Uzumaki clan had their own ideas.
Ground down by two great ninja wars, Konoha had steadily bled strength. They had suffered staggering losses and could no longer dominate the entire ninja world single-handedly as they had during the First Hokage's reign.
Entrusting their survival solely to an alliance with Konoha was becoming a wildly dangerous gamble.
To safeguard their own bloodline and future, the Uzumaki leadership resolved to wield their unmatched Sealing Jutsu to capture and bind a Tailed Beast of their own.
Securing such a weapon would give the Uzumaki a permanent trump card to deter the Five Great Ninja Villages.
Consequently, Uzushiogakure firmly rejected Danzo's demands and refused to send their Uzumaki princess to Konoha.
That defiance was the first crack in the foundation of their alliance.
Uzushiogakure deployed an elite Sealing Squad, marching Uzumaki Kushina out to seal the wild Three-Tails.
While it was true the Three-Tails currently lacked a host, the beast had always belonged to the Hidden Mist Village; it was merely roaming without a jinchuriki for the time being.
The root of the problem lay with the idealistic First Hokage. He had graciously distributed the Tailed Beasts among the major villages to balance world power, but had deliberately neglected to give one to Uzushiogakure.
Once the Hidden Mist Village caught wind of the Uzumaki plot, they immediately deployed several of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, crushing Uzushiogakure's operation before it could succeed.
But the Mist ninjas were not the type to forgive a slight. They didn't just stop the sealing attempt; they launched a furious, retributive invasion against Uzushiogakure itself.
And the Cloud ninjas had forced their way into the slaughter as well.
The Third Raikage was a monstrously powerful man, and Konoha was already losing ground on the Land of Hot Water front. Had that not been the case, such a massive force of Cloud ninjas could never have reached this far.
The sheer numbers of Mist and Cloud forces converging on the Uzumaki clan were staggering. Both invading villages had fully mobilized as if preparing for a decisive, all-out war with Konoha.
If the invaders wiped out the island, they could plunder Uzushiogakure's closely guarded Sealing Jutsu—the exact techniques they desperately needed to securely control their own Tailed Beasts.
Just as the Nine-Tails was the unshakeable foundation of Konoha's military might, the Tailed Beasts held by Cloud and Mist were the absolute cornerstones of theirs.
It was a pity. Konoha was never going to send reinforcements.
All Konoha wanted was Uzumaki Kushina.
Konoha would never permit the strongest, most gifted Uzumaki princess to become the Three-Tails jinchuriki of a rival nation.
Uzumaki Kushina was Konoha's handpicked successor for the Nine-Tails. They could not afford a single mistake on that front.
For the Nine-Tails, Konoha was willing to sacrifice everything else.
With the Senju clan completely ousted from Konoha's highest echelons of power, no one in command gave a damn about some archaic bullshit treaty. No one cared if the Uzumaki lived or died.
Yako raised his telescope and gazed across the waters toward Uzushiogakure, watching silently as hell descended upon the village.