A small town near the border of the Land of Hot Water.
The members of the Fox Squad flickered into view, arriving in unison.
Inside a noble's manor, six corpses lay beneath white sheets.
An elderly noblewoman, her hair white as snow, was being supported by servants as she hobbled unsteadily toward Yako.
The others were all clad in black cloaks, only Yako wore white — making him stand out instantly.
"You're from Konoha, aren't you? Isn't the Land of Hot Water under your protection?!" The old woman wept bitterly, voice shaking. "My son was assassinated! My five grandsons too!"
"How can you be so useless?! So useless! If only we'd sided with the Land of Lightning like the Land of the Moon did!"
Yako thought to himself, 'That's a bit unfair. If you'd sided with the Land of Lightning, we'd have been the ones sent to assassinate your son and grandsons.'
And in the end, would it really have changed anything?
The dead deserve respect. He wasn't about to argue with this grieving old woman.
All along the long border of the Land of Hot Water, the Cloud shinobi had been harassing and sabotaging nonstop. Hatake Sakumo was commanding four Konoha battalions, barely able to keep up.
It was a long, grueling tug-of-war.
In such prolonged engagements, both sides would occasionally gather overwhelming force to ambush or surround. Taking out a single enemy battalion could drastically shift the balance.
Yako glanced at the row of kneeling servants in the courtyard and gestured to White Ram to begin a sweep.
White Ram and the others began examining each servant for any signs of shinobi training.
In Konoha, even civilians had a shot at becoming shinobi.
In the Land of Fire or other countries, civilian life was far harsher.
The lucky ones became hired farmers. The unlucky ones—like those here—weren't even considered civilians. They were serfs.
White Ram completed his inspection and shook his head. "No anomalies among the servants."
Antelop checked the bodies and reported, "Captain, they've been dead for less than three hours."
Blossom Deer came back with a scouting report: "Captain, the assassin fled northeast. There are shattered leaves from a Body Flicker along that route, and sparse footprints further out."
Yako nodded. "Blossom Deer, have your squad go airborne with gliders. White Ram, use your Parasitic Insects to pick up the trail. Track them down."
The subordinates vanished in a series of flickers.
Yako turned to the old noblewoman and said simply, "My condolences."
Then, before she could unleash another tirade, he flickered away.
Twenty minutes later, he crossed into the Land of the Moon.
The gliders were fast, far quicker than any shinobi traversing mountainous terrain on foot.
After an hour, Blossom Deer spotted a Cloud shinobi squad through her spyglass.
Whether or not they were responsible for the assassination didn't matter.
By tomorrow, they wouldn't be alive to deny it.
Blossom Deer sent Leaf Monkey back to inform the squad and continued shadowing the enemy.
From his high altitude, the Cloud shinobi could barely see him — just a speck in the sky, like a circling vulture.
The Cloud squad, exhausted, stopped to rest on a hillside.
Their assassination mission had gone smoothly.
A noble of the Land of Hot Water and all his heirs were dead — enough to create significant political chaos.
If enough key figures were eliminated, the Land of Hot Water would pressure Konoha to retaliate. That, in turn, could lure Konoha's forces into traps, giving the Cloud a chance to strike decisively.
The squad leader sat down, took a swig from his canteen—
Suddenly! A piercing sound ripped through the air!
A high-frequency whistle intertwined with the gurgle of rushing water.
A water thread pierced his canteen, exploding its contents onto his face.
Behind him, three sharp cries echoed.
He wiped his face and turned, only to see three subordinates lined up — all with holes punched clean through their chests.
"Ambush!"
The Fox Squad burst from the treeline.
Every team within the squad had their own combination ninjutsu.
Fire and Wind. Water and Lightning. Their combined long-range jutsu overwhelmed the Cloud squad instantly.
The Cloud leader's heart sank — these techniques weren't just average. They were all at special jōnin level!
Yako emerged from the forest, nodding approvingly.
Under his careful guidance, the Fox Squad had suffered fewer casualties and was growing rapidly.
Gone were the days when they struggled with ninjutsu. Now, every team had dual combination jutsu — one offensive, one defensive — drastically boosting their combat power.
Three volleys of combined jutsu later, the hillside was scorched by flame and gale. Water surged across the ground, crackling with lightning.
Yako said to White Ram, "When fighting Cloud shinobi, avoid using Water-Lightning combinations."
"They have high resistance to electricity. It's not very effective."
White Ram saw the enemy shaking off the paralysis faster than expected and nodded repeatedly.
After the barrage, with most of the enemy dead or dying, the battle shifted to close-quarters combat — time to clean up.
The Cloud squad leader saw the white hood… and the fox mask beneath it.
Terror filled his face.
"It's the Copper Fox of Konoha — the one who took a direct hit from the Third Raikage and survived!"
They didn't know how Copper Fox had fared on the River Country front, but everyone in the Cloud Village had heard about the time he took four Hell Stabs from the Third Raikage and got back up like it was nothing.
That kind of story… it was like a ghost tale — absurd and chilling.
A single Hell Stab could pierce a mountain. And he tanked four?
Now, seeing him up close, the Cloud captain knew: he was dead.
He turned and fled, but just as Yako was about to Body Flicker after him, he forced himself to stop.
The Silent Flicker Technique had already been passed down to little White Ghost. He couldn't use it with this identity.
Instead, he formed a hand seal.
A high-pressure water line erupted from his fingers and cleaved the captain in half midair.
The battle was now one-sided. The Fox Squad swiftly annihilated the rest.
Yako captured one alive and used the Curse Seal of Inevitable Retribution to bind him.
"White Ram, stay here and clean up. I'll interrogate this one."
With a flicker, Yako disappeared with the prisoner.
Deep in the woods below the hill, he opened a scroll.
He wrote:
Return to the Cloud base camp.
Plant this coded message.
Never reveal my identity.
He bit his thumb, then traced a blood line across the text.
"Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal!"
The scroll and blood merged into a seal, crawling onto the captive's skin, burrowing into his mouth… and finally embedding in his brain.
The prisoner's tongue now bore the intricate sealing pattern of the Curse Seal — a technique that etched commands directly into the soul, with terrifying binding force.
Yako sighed.
'In the end… I've become the very thing I once despised.'
Still… Danzo's technique was disturbingly effective.
"I've carved a seal into you. Go back to the base and plant this code."
Yako wanted to meet Nonō Yakushi — and this was how he'd get updated intel.
"No! I'll never help a Konoha ANBU plant a message!"
Yako raised his hand and activated the seal.
The Cloud shinobi convulsed violently, writhing on the ground.
"Complete the mission, and you won't be tortured again. Otherwise, this seal will trigger every six hours. Look at yourself — already in agony. Even with a steel body, how many times can you endure it?"
He drew the coded message on the ground.
"Memorize this. Complete the mission, and you'll be free from pain."
Then, without another glance, Yako flickered away.