Yako had the corpses of the Cloud ninja unit brought into the assassinated noble's manor and personally soothed the grieving mother. Once everything was settled, he led his team back to the main camp.
Upon entering Hatake Sakumo's command tent, the first thing he noticed was a map.
It depicted the border between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of the Moon.
Red and blue circles were scattered across the area.
Red marked confirmed sightings of Cloud forces. Blue indicated where Konoha had engaged them.
Yako gestured for White Ram to mark their recent skirmish.
Once the mark was placed, Yako stepped forward to stand before Hatake Sakumo.
Most of their truly important conversations happened through the ninken, Pakkun. This one, however, was a standard mission debrief.
Hatake Sakumo spoke first. "Captain Fox, the current Cloud tactics are troublesome. They're not aiming to kill large numbers of Konoha shinobi. They're targeting the nobles of the Land of Hot Water. Assassinations. I can't scatter our forces thin across two hundred kilometers of border just to guard aristocrats. At any moment, a squad might be struck and retreat before we can respond."
His eyes narrowed.
"I want to locate their main camp as soon as possible. If we can strike with elite forces, just once, we might be able to end this conflict with the Hidden Cloud altogether."
Yako blinked.
'The conflict's only just begun, and you're already thinking of ending it?'
'You finally pried the commander's seat from Orochimaru and haven't even warmed it yet… and you want to call curtains?'
'Don't you know what "feeding the enemy to grow your own strength" means? This is textbook political capital-building!'
'If the Cloud keeps underperforming, I'll be tempted to throw on a Cloud uniform myself just to give Konoha a few bruises.'
'Sakumo, you're not a bad man—but if you're going to hold the supreme command, you've got to at least ride it out for three months. Otherwise, how are you going to build prestige or nurture loyal subordinates?'
Though a thousand thoughts raced through Yako's mind, his words were measured:
"I'll keep tracking their movements. If we locate the main camp, I'll report it immediately."
Sakumo nodded repeatedly. Fox was a reliable ANBU, after all.
"We did get a location through interrogation once," Sakumo said. "But the camp kept moving. We estimate it's about fifty kilometers north of the Land of the Moon's border. By the time we get there, they might already be gone—or have set a trap. That uncertainty makes any assault risky."
'Exactly. If you charge their HQ now, I might just leak them the warning myself.'
Just then, a Konoha squad entered the tent, clearly excited. Yako stepped aside to let them report.
The team leader spoke. "Lord Sakumo, we've completed three missions. You said in the pre-battle meeting that three B-rank completions qualified our team for a ninjutsu reward."
"Indeed," Sakumo replied. "I'm implementing the Jutsu Merit System during this conflict. Any genin who hasn't discovered their chakra nature can collect chakra paper from the operations officer. Yamashiro is in charge of ninjutsu rewards. He'll advise you accordingly."
Yamashiro stood nearby, patiently waiting for the genin to test their chakra nature.
Many genin and chūnin were still struggling—some had taijutsu at a chūnin's level but still didn't know their elemental affinity. Just like Naruto in the original story: fifteen years old, and only then learning his chakra nature was Wind.
Once they'd completed the test, Yamashiro unrolled a scroll, revealing the list of available jutsu, and helped them select a fitting technique.
With grateful bows, the squad thanked Yamashiro and Sakumo, and left in high spirits.
After they were gone, Yako turned back.
"Lord Sakumo, if we do go for a strike, it should target their living strength—but ending this in the short term seems unrealistic."
He turned to leave.
"Fox…"
Sakumo's voice gave him pause.
Yako looked back, puzzled.
Sakumo hesitated, then waved it off.
"Never mind. I was going to say something, but it slipped my mind."
"Oh. That's happened to me too—right on the tip of your tongue, then poof."
After Yako left, Moonlight Kento entered the tent and approached Sakumo.
"Some of the shinobi bringing supplies to the front mentioned the situation in the Land of Grass," Kento said.
"Recently, four members of the Shimura clan were killed—two jōnin, two tokubetsu jōnin. All of them were bodyguards for the Daimyō."
'Targeted hits. Every one of them Shimura.'
"Orochimaru led the investigation personally, but no results were released. Seems the perpetrators are politically… complicated. The village can't go public with it. So the Shimura clan sent four new bodyguards to replace the fallen."
Sakumo wasn't well-informed on internal matters. He knew no more than the average shinobi about what was happening in the Land of Grass.
He had wanted to ask Fox about it earlier… but thought better of it.
'What if he really is involved?'
After all he'd been through, Sakumo had learned one thing: know your place.
Some things, even if you suspect, you let lie.
Later that night, Sakumo returned to his quarters to find Moonlight Kento waiting at the entrance.
They went inside together.
"We've been lucky, Sakumo," Kento said. "The Shimura deaths are tragic, but with Danzo Advisor tied up in trouble, no one's got the bandwidth to pressure us right now. I've been keeping an eye out—other than Fox's squad, there's no other Root or ANBU in our camp. No one breathing down our necks. Feels good, doesn't it?"
Sakumo nodded.
At the jōnin council earlier that year, he'd clashed with the village elders over the nomination quota. Now that Danzo had his own fires to put out, the heat on Sakumo had cooled considerably.
He was commanding four frontline battalions, and the Jutsu Merit System was rolling out smoothly.
Many lower-ranking shinobi had already earned powerful new techniques.
Kento continued. "The frontline's intense, no doubt, but rushing an assault on the Cloud camp is risky. And honestly, ending this too fast doesn't help us draw in more allies—"
"No," Sakumo cut him off. "If I can, I will end this quickly."
"Our gains aren't what matter. The last war ended just half a year ago. Konoha doesn't need to drown in blood again. This conflict with the Hidden Cloud started because I pursued information on the Two-Tails' Jinchūriki, Ryuuren. I began it. I must end it."
"If even one less Konoha shinobi dies because of that… it'll be worth it."
Kento wanted to object—but what could he say?
This, after all, was why he trusted Sakumo.
Because Sakumo valued his comrades.
Elsewhere, in his own tent, Yako suddenly sensed the familiar chakra pulse of his ninken, Pakkun.
After summoning him, Pakkun relayed Sakumo's message: he would not prolong the war to consolidate personal power.
Yako replied, "Got it."
In one ear, out the other.
'I get it. I just don't agree.'
Back in Konoha, the village was still in turmoil.
If Sakumo ended this war too early, he'd become a convenient target when he returned.
Better to stay here.
The Cloud's base isn't that easy to strike anyway.
And if Sakumo stumbled—if he suffered defeat—it would ruin him.
The higher-ups had survived countless failures.
But Sakumo?
One was all it would take for them to destroy him.