Yako quickly checked his rewards.
[Arc of the Waning Moon activated!
You may only revive once per month, returning to life on the night of the last full moon.
Reward: One random draw.
1 – Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere (Beginner)
2 – Jōnin-level Chakra Capacity (Stackable)
3 – B-Rank Wind Release: Silent Body Flicker Technique]
Option one, Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere, involved inhaling a large breath, then firing wind bullets from the mouth in rapid succession like a machine gun.
It was a top-tier offensive Wind Release technique.
Its signature form made it a hallmark of the Shimura clan.
But the casting speed was slower than Water Gun Jutsu—not ideal for Yako right now.
Option two, Jōnin-level chakra capacity.
Shimura Kōhi was a standard jōnin, and when defeated, he only yielded jōnin-level chakra.
Elite jōnin chakra was five times that.
So regular jōnin chakra just wasn't worth it.
Better to choose Silent Body Flicker. It would aid in assassination, especially suited for his alias—White Ghost.
The moment he chose the reward, Yako instantly grasped the secret technique.
It was a specialized application of Wind Release chakra.
He extracted Wind chakra and coated it over his body, forming a thin, nearly invisible barrier.
By absorbing the vibrations generated during friction with air, the technique suppressed all sound.
At the same time, the layer reduced wind resistance, boosting Body Flicker speed.
Yako tested forming the wind coating around his body.
He quickly noticed that bulky flak jackets with pouches made the body's outline too complex, interfering with the chakra layer's stability.
So, he donned an ANBU cloak with a hood.
The clear contours of the cloak made Wind chakra much easier to adhere.
To use this technique, you either wore a skintight suit—or a hooded cloak. Outfits with complicated surfaces only made noise suppression harder.
Leaving the underground training area, Yako surfaced.
He vanished with a flicker, heading toward the ANBU HQ.
At least 20% faster than before.
And completely silent.
Upon arriving at Root, Yako compared several hooded cloaks and found that the white uniform of the squad captain was best in quality and wind resistance.
He memorized the texture of the fabric, planning to commission a new one tomorrow with a different design—for White Ghost.
Silent Body Flicker wasn't limited to movement. It could also be applied to regular taijutsu—coating punches and kicks with wind chakra.
Once mastered, even melee moves would become completely noiseless.
After reviving, Yako trained Silent Body Flicker every day to strengthen White Ghost's abilities.
Time shifted again—to the outskirts of the Land of Grass's daimyō encampment.
Uzumaki Yuka and her two companions were drawing the Byakugan guards' attention from the southeast.
Yako, meanwhile, blinked in from the northwest—directly through the Byakugan's blind spot.
With the upgraded Body Flicker, he no longer needed Earth Release to infiltrate. It made the separation between his main and secondary identities even cleaner.
He knocked out a Byakugan guard with one punch, then, within the smoke of a flash bomb, used his own Byakugan to locate the fake jōnin—Shimura Ryō.
Just as Ryō was mid-leap, Yako appeared before him.
Their faces nearly touching through the mask, Yako hit him with Genjutsu: Binding Illusion.
Then drove a kunai deep into Ryō's temple.
Spinning on his heel, he returned to the smoke's center and eliminated two Tokubetsu jōnin of the Shimura clan.
Inside the daimyō's tent, Yako tossed another smoke bomb—then staged a mock assassination attempt on the daimyō of the Land of Grass.
Shimura Kōhi blew the smoke away with Wind Release and saw the assassin—kunai gleaming coldly—pointed straight at the Wind Country's daimyō.
He rushed in with Silent Body Flicker, kunai thrusting toward the assassin's throat.
But this time, Yako had already anticipated it.
His body twisted midair, smooth and serpentine, dodging Kōhi's strike.
In the same breath, his kunai slashed toward Kōhi's throat.
Kōhi's mind reeled.
'How does this assassin know my secret technique?'
Silent Body Flicker—even Lord Danzo had praised it as a top-tier Wind Release technique. Why did this stranger have it?
Yako's kunai tore through Kōhi's chest.
The resistance felt just right—flesh, ribs, sternum—all severed in a single slash.
Kōhi staggered back, grievously wounded.
As he looked up, he saw the killer had already formed a seal.
Fire Release: Dragon Flame Bullet!
Only a few meters away, a stream of fire surged forth.
Shimura Kōhi was instantly engulfed.
He had two objectives—protect the Grass Country daimyō, and survive the shock of seeing Silent Body Flicker used by another.
But in high-level combat, when one side held nothing back and the other hesitated—the outcome was inevitable.
After killing Shimura Kōhi, Yako's body sank swiftly into the ground.
Half of the daimyō's tent had been incinerated by the fire technique.
As the acrid smoke bomb cleared, the daimyō coughed violently.
Panicked, he searched for his guards—first spotting a charred corpse on the floor.
"Someone! Anyone!"
His personally-trained rogue ninja bodyguard rushed to his side.
"Where's Jōnin Kōhi?"
"My lord, Captain Kōhi is dead. Burned alive."
"Kōhi... burned to death? Then why am I still alive?"
The guard, puzzled by the daimyō's reaction, said:
"My lord, I don't believe the assassination was aimed at you. From what I saw—it was targeting Captain Shimura Kōhi."
"Someone dares kill a jōnin from the Shimura clan?"
The daimyō knew all the major shinobi clans in Konoha. The Shimura were among the top-ranking.
Their clan head, Shimura Danzo, held more sway than even Konoha's two advisors—Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.
And now, right in front of him—someone had assassinated one of Danzo's own.
The daimyō muttered, "The stars have reversed their course. All this time it was Danzo making threats and orchestrating assassinations. Now someone's turned the blade on him?"
The shaken guard replied, "The first lesson for a ninja is accepting death as a constant.
Even Shimura Danzo's people... can die just like that.
A flawless infiltration. Two flash bombs. Several Konoha guards dead in an instant. With that kind of power... I bet even Danzo's having nightmares."
After a pause, he added, "My lord, I suggest we leave everything untouched and let Konoha investigate."
"You're right," said the daimyō. "I've heard they have secret techniques to extract memories from corpses. Let them handle the remains."
The guard checked Kōhi's body.
"My lord, his brain is at least seventy percent cooked. I doubt they'll recover any intel."
Hearing that, the daimyō suddenly caught a whiff of roasted meat. Then, realizing the source, he doubled over and vomited.
"F-From now on... only boiled lamb! No grilled meat! No more roasting! No more barbecue—don't even say the word!"
"Understood, my lord!"
Far from the temporary camp, Yako met up with Uzumaki Yuka and her team.
"It's done, Yuka. All four Shimura guards are dead."
Her eyes gleamed with relief and the satisfaction of revenge.
Shimura Danzo was one of the butchers of the Uzumaki clan. Now he could feel the pain of losing kin.
She still held grudges against Kumogakure and Kirigakure—but their invasions had at least been straightforward battles.
Uzushio Village, though… had been betrayed. Their coastal sentry intel had been leaked. The enemy landed undetected.
That betrayal made her hatred burn even deeper.
"Yuka," Yako said, "I discovered something else. When you were migrating from the Land of Whirlpools to the Land of Rain, the daimyō of the Land of Grass captured a medic-nin named Uzumaki Kan.
I'll send you the coordinates. Once you're there, reverse-summon me, and I'll rescue her."
"It's getting late. I'm heading back to Konoha."
With that, Yako vanished in a reverse summoning.
Yuka knew the fox couldn't stay away from Konoha for long.
A deep sadness lingered in her heart.
'When… when will these days of hiding finally end?'