Yako didn't own a single brick or tile in Konoha. He had no family, no home.
After joining the Anbu, he was assigned to handle internal chores, so he simply lived at the headquarters.
Now that he had three days off, he couldn't stick around. If a mission came up and the captain saw him there, his vacation would be ruined.
Changing into casual clothes, Yako slipped out of the Forest of Death—home to the Anbu—looking like a thief as he wandered through Konoha.
He paused and turned his head, looking toward the nearby Hokage Rock.
The enormous stone faces of the Shodaime, Nidaime, and Sandaime loomed above, large enough to trigger megalophobia.
The closer he got to the base of Hokage Rock and the Hokage Building beneath it, the more he could feel the oppressive weight of those giant stone faces.
This village completely lacked the bright, spirited vigor of the original shonen manga. It held only the suffocating gloom brought by death.
Everyone here was just like Kakashi in the original story: they had lost teammates, teachers, and friends. To some extent, everyone suffered from some form of mental illness.
A village where mental illness was the norm.During the second great ninja war, with most ninja deployed to the front lines, Konoha felt somewhat desolate.
After half an hour of aimless wandering, Yako decided to find a cheap inn to stay at.
"Where's my wallet?"
When he reached in to pay, he realized there was no wallet in his ninja pouch.
Thinking it over carefully, Yako figured he could have only left it at the Crane Moon Izakaya.
After observing the Crane Moon Izakaya from a distance for half an hour, Yako spotted the gorgeous proprietress from the night before.
It was already noon. With the Anbu's efficiency, if the proprietress were also a spy, she would have been executed overnight.
It was good that she wasn't a spy.
Since the proprietress was clear of suspicion for now, Yako breathed a sigh of relief and went inside to look for his wallet.
The proprietress had just gone out to dump the trash. Seeing the ninja from last night approaching in the distance, she was so nervous her teeth began to chatter.
'It's over.'
'Has my identity as a spy been exposed after all?'
That handsome young man from last night was no ordinary ninja. He had directly killed her spy comrade.
To prevent leaking intelligence after death, her comrade had never met her and had never seen her face. Why was she still exposed?
'What do I do?'
Pretending not to see him, the proprietress turned around and went back into the izakaya.
Gripping a sharp paring knife tightly, the proprietress sliced lemon slices at the bar.
Seeing Yako sit down in front of her, the proprietress looked up and said, "Another pot of sake?"
"Return my wallet so I have the money to order sake."
"Huh?"
The proprietress stared in surprise at the Konoha ninja before her. Her grip on the paring knife loosened, then tightened, then loosened again.
'He isn't here to arrest me?'
"What are you spacing out for? Return my wallet!"
"Wallet? What wallet?"
'He's here for a wallet?'
The reason was far too absurd to be fake.
After such emotional ups and downs, the proprietress was flooded with a sense of joy, her chest heaving uncontrollably.
Yako hopped off the high stool, stepped to the side, and headed straight for the backyard.
The proprietress stepped in to block Yako.
"Sir! The backyard is under renovation. You can't go in there!"
The proprietress was terrified.
When she woke up last night, there was no one in the room.
Her underground comrade had disappeared, and so had the handsome guest.
She tried using her unique methods to contact her spy comrade, but received no response.
There was a discolored patch on the ground, as if someone had dug something up from underneath and then restored the surface.
Yako brushed the proprietress's hand aside and stepped into the backyard, finding that it really was under renovation.
The floor tiles had all been pried up, though it was unclear what was being repaired.
"I told you it was under renovation. Tell you what, sir—you go up to the second floor and rest first, and I'll go into the backyard to find your wallet." The proprietress wrapped both hands around one of Yako's arms.
"I recognize you now. You're the guest from last night!
Why did I pass out? Why did you leave afterward? Weren't we going to discuss Yin Release and Yang Release?"
"After you fell last night, you hit your head on the floor and passed out. I like a passionate response; I don't like dead weight."
With his arm enveloped by her softness, Yako went up to the second floor and asked, "What's your name?"
"Kyoi."
Sitting in a private room on the second floor, Yako said,
"Kyoi, my wallet had 150,000 ryo in it. You must find my wallet, and you must return my money!"
Konoha ninja were notorious for their meager income.
He had spent a month executing missions in the Anbu, constantly testing the edge of death, yet had only earned 100,000 ryo. The remaining 50,000 ryo was an advance he had demanded from his captain last night.
Kyoi went downstairs to look for it.
She searched the backyard, checked the side rooms, and looked around every table and chair, but couldn't find the wallet anywhere.
Heading back upstairs, Kyoi adjusted her expression and entered the private room with a sultry gaze.
"Lord Ninja, I really couldn't find your wallet. I'm so foolish... Why did I only just realize? You aren't really here for a wallet, are you... While I couldn't find the wallet, I can compensate you with something else."
Hearing that Yako liked a passionate response, Kyoi pulled out all her tricks.
Down in the izakaya's first-floor hall, the first table of patrons came in for lunchtime drinks.
More than ten minutes later, the patrons looked up.
Dust was rustling down from between the wooden floorboards overhead.
The floorboards creaked and groaned.
Over twenty minutes later, the door to the second-floor private room opened.
Kyoi adjusted her strap back over her shoulder, panting heavily as she closed the door.
Yako called out, "You said it yourself! Since you lost my wallet, I get to stay here for three days!"
"I will definitely compensate you for your loss in every way possible."
Supremely satisfied, Yako lay on the bed and rested his eyes.
'Still young and inexperienced,' he mused. 'Last night I actually thought she wasn't soft or bouncy enough. Turns out firm is good. A little firmer is even better.'
Three days later, a heartbroken Kyoi saw Yako off at the door.
This Konoha ninja's lips were sealed tight; after three days, she hadn't managed to coax a single word out of him.
She had even needed to reinforce the izakaya's floorboards once. Were all Konoha ninja this good at keeping secrets?
However, she was certain of one thing: this handsome ninja hadn't come to investigate her.
Under the cover of darkness, Yako returned to the Anbu.
After entering the Anbu, he saw his wallet in his locker!
He picked up the wallet in stunned disbelief. How could the wallet be here?
He was always careful and meticulous. When he left the Anbu three days ago, there was definitely no wallet in his locker!
His captain's voice suddenly came from behind; once again, the captain had appeared without him noticing.
"Fox, I took my 50,000 ryo back and left you the 100,000 ryo reward for your B-rank mission. That means you have 200,000 ryo in your wallet now. Count it."
Whether he counted it or not was irrelevant now.
Yako only wanted to know why Kyoi, the gorgeous proprietress, had been so passionate these past few days... ah... wait?
Hold on. The proprietress had been way too enthusiastic toward him—enthusiastic to an excessive degree.
Could she really be a spy?
Had the Anbu failed to uncover her? Or was she not a spy after all?
Whatever. Spy or no spy, what did it have to do with him? That was Konoha's business, not his.
Even if Konoha was completely destroyed, it had nothing to do with him.
Female spies were great anyway. They required frequent investigation—deep, thorough investigation.
The captain said, "Let's go, time for a mission. The spy we brought in is from the Hidden Stone Village. We're going to follow the vine to get the melon."
Yako put on his Fox Mask and sighed beneath it.
The last squad that went out to "follow the vine" had all died. Any spy daring enough to operate inside Konoha had real strength—it was hard to say who was the vine and who was the melon.
He strapped on his iron Anbu flak jacket and secured his standard-issue ninja sword across his back. After checking every detail, Yako followed his captain and two other teammates, vanishing into the darkness outside the Anbu entrance.
He just hoped this would be a simple C-rank mission.