"Earth Style: Hidden Fish in Earth Technique!"
Yako kept vanishing and reappearing, not traveling in the usual way, but moving constantly through Earth Release.
Once he arrived beneath the wooden walls of the town, he created a Shadow Clone and had it leap over the wall.
"Someone's there! It's a killer shinobi!"
The Uzushio ninja and the samurai all charged out of the town after the clone.
Seeing the tactic succeed, Yako once again vanished into the ground using Earth Release.
He found a concealed alley, panting heavily as he slowly recovered his chakra.
The mission was to assassinate the noble mayor. But Yako didn't think that was enough.
If he wanted to become a proper squad leader, he had to earn Captain Brown Bear's trust—he had to do more.
Killing the noble was meant to cut off the Uzushio ninja's supply line nearby. Which meant... this town likely held stored supplies.
Only by destroying those could he go above and beyond the mission.
After catching his breath, Yako re-entered the inner city.
After a quick reconnaissance, he found the inner city as tense as a taut bowstring. Two locations were under especially heavy guard.
One was the residential quarters, likely housing the mayor's family—possibly the next mayor.
The other was a house surrounded by three squads of samurai, plus one Uzushio ninja.
There had to be something important in there—otherwise, the ninja wouldn't be stationed there.
From the corner of a wall, Yako slowly pulled back his head after confirming the distance and began weaving hand seals.
His body gradually sank into the ground.
The surface rippled like water.
The Hidden Fish in Earth Technique consumed a huge amount of chakra. It worked by infusing chakra into the earth, altering its density so the user could swim through it like a fish.
To avoid detection while infiltrating, the ground behind couldn't be left hollow—chakra had to refill it.
Such complexity and chakra cost made the jutsu slow.
Yako had only mastered the basic form of the technique. He wondered what a true expert could do with it.
He surfaced behind the Uzushio ninja, just his head and shoulders peeking out.
"Ah!"
The ninja felt a sharp pain in his ankle. Turning around, he saw someone had slashed his Achilles tendon!
He immediately stabbed downward with a kunai.
Yako grabbed the ninja's wrist with his left hand and drove his right-hand blade into the man's stomach.
Though he stabbed the ninja, his own left hand was also slashed by the kunai.
Ignoring the bleeding, Yako pulled himself fully out of the ground, dodging the dying ninja's last flailing attack.
The ninja staggered a few steps forward and then froze. "Poison! I'm poisoned! This… this is our village's poison?"
'You're right,' Yako thought. 'It is your village's poison. I haven't used up all of Yuka's stash yet—figured I'd use it on you.'
The ninja collapsed, completely disabled. The samurai rushed in, and Yako was thrown into the fight.
Besides the squad leader, the samurai didn't have chakra. Their sword swings felt soft and weak.
The captain, though, was harder to deal with—he infused chakra into his muscles for real strength, but it came at the cost of mobility.
Yako cut down four samurai before the rest fled in chaos.
The Uzushio ninja lay twitching on the ground, consciousness fading.
Yako leaned against the wall and once again used the Hidden Fish in Earth Technique, sinking slowly into the structure.
Inside the building—it was indeed a storeroom.
Opening one bag after another, he found them packed with supplies.
He grabbed six kunai and stuffed them into his tool pouch.
Then he slung a backpack full of soldier pills onto his back.
One small bag even had ten explosive tags.
Jackpot. Explosive tags were hard currency—extremely expensive, and required both Fire Style and sealing jutsu to create.
In Konoha, one tag went for 10,000 ryō.
ANBU provided standard vests and swords, but not tags. You had to buy those yourself.
Risking your life for Konoha and you still had to bring your own gear—pathetic.
He packed the tags into his tool pouch, fully satisfied.
As for the remaining supplies—tents, sleeping bags, medicine—he couldn't carry them.
With a pained look, he pulled out one of his explosive tags, infused it with chakra, and stuck it to the remaining goods.
He phased through the back wall, walked a long distance away, then weaved hand seals and detonated the tag from afar.
A fiery blast sent Uzushio's supplies flying into the sky.
With a pack full of soldier pills, he used the confusion to escape.
After fleeing, Yako didn't rush to report to Captain Brown Bear. He went into hiding.
The full moon hung like silver in the sky, its light like frost.
Only after the moon had passed did Yako head to the coast and find the captain.
Caution, caution, and more caution.
Captain Brown Bear was alone.
"Captain, mission complete. The mayor supporting Uzushio Village has been assassinated. I also seized some of the town's supplies. What I couldn't carry, I blew up."
Yako set down his pack and opened it—inside was a full bag of soldier pills.
And two explosive tags.
The other seven he'd kept for himself—no way he'd turn those in.
These two were reluctantly offered—he needed them to explain how he'd blown up the supplies.
If you're going to put on a show, do it thoroughly.
"Excellent! Very good! You've exceeded all my expectations. Other than being a bit slow, everything else was handled perfectly. I'd honestly started thinking you were..."
Brown Bear didn't finish the sentence.
He'd originally sent Fox to assassinate the noble just to put pressure on the Uzushio side, forcing them to station more ninja there and ease pressure on the front line.
But now… the noble really was dead. And the supplies destroyed.
"Captain, what did you think I was?"
"Nothing. I'm very pleased."
"Captain, I also have some bad news."
"What bad news?"
Brown Bear's eyes sharpened. Could the nobles have been hiding a secret Uzushio backup?
"The bad news is… Pinebird was killed in action."
Brown Bear let out a sigh of relief. He'd scared himself for nothing.
Then he said:
"For the good of the village, a bit of sacrifice is necessary. We of the ANBU are the sharpest blade protecting the village from the shadows. Blades that are too sharp break easily—it's inevitable."
Hearing this, Yako felt much more at ease.
Antelope Squad, Blue Wolf Squad, and now his own Fox Squad—all but him were dead. He had feared the captain might grow suspicious. But the man didn't care at all.
If ANBU casualties weren't high, someone like him wouldn't have made it in.
Brown Bear said:
"Leave the soldier pills with me. We desperately need those right now. I'll distribute them among the others.
"As for the explosive tags—let's split them. One each. Keep yours as a lifesaver.
"You've already proven yourself a skilled ANBU through combat and outstanding work.
"I now officially promote you to Squad Leader.
"Our platoon has taken heavy losses. I'll try to assign teammates when I can. If no one fits, you'll work solo."
"If the platoon's struggling, I can take missions alone."
Yako cheerfully pocketed the explosive tag. Who would've thought the captain didn't care about his men—but was generous?
That made eight explosive tags in total.
He felt much safer now.