Earth Release: Fish in Earth Reflection Technique!
Yōkō continuously disappeared and reappeared. He didn't travel normally, instead constantly moving using earth release.
Upon reaching the town's wooden wall, he created a shadow clone and had it climb over the wall.
"There's someone! It's the assassin ninja!"
The Uzumaki ninja and samurai followed the shadow clone out of the town.
Seeing his tactic work, Yōkō used the earth release jutsu to disappear again.
Finding a hidden alley, Yōkō gasped for breath, slowly recovering his chakra.
The mission objective was to kill the noble town chief, but Yōkō felt that wasn't enough.
To become a formal squad leader, he needed to gain Squadron Leader Brown Bear's trust and do more.
Killing the noble chief was to cut off supplies for the nearby Uzumaki ninja. Therefore, this town likely had prepared supplies.
Destroying those supplies would allow him to exceed the mission requirements.
After catching his breath, Yōkō entered the inner city again.
After some reconnaissance, the inner city was now like a startled bird. Two places had the tightest security.
One was the residential area, housing the chief's family, possibly including the next chief.
The other was a certain building, surrounded by three squads of samurai and one Uzumaki ninja.
That place must contain something very important, otherwise the Uzumaki ninja wouldn't stay.
At a corner, Yōkō slowly retracted his head and eyes, estimated the distance, and began forming hand seals.
His body slowly sank.
The ground rippled like water.
The Fish in Earth Reflection Technique consumed a lot of chakra. This technique injected chakra into the earth, changing its density, allowing his body to swim through it like a fish.
To prevent exposure during infiltration, the path behind him couldn't leave a cavity; it had to be restored using chakra.
The complex operations and massive chakra consumption made this technique's travel speed rather slow.
Yōkō only had the beginner level of the Fish in Earth Reflection Technique; he didn't know how it would perform with greater proficiency.
Infiltrating behind the Uzumaki ninja, Yōkō raised his head and shoulders.
"Ah!"
The Uzumaki ninja only felt a sharp pain in his ankle. When he looked back, he found someone had severed his Achilles tendon!
He quickly stabbed downward with his kunai.
Yōkō's left hand grabbed the Uzumaki ninja's wrist, while his right hand stabbed towards the ninja's abdomen.
Although he stabbed the Uzumaki ninja's abdomen, his own left hand was also wounded by the ninja's kunai.
Ignoring his bleeding left hand, Yōkō climbed out of the ground, avoiding the Uzumaki ninja's dying struggles.
The Uzumaki ninja, dragging his injured foot, chased a couple of steps but immediately realized: "Poison! It's poisoned! This poison... how is it our village's poison?"
Yōkō thought, indeed it's your village's poison. He hadn't finished Uzumaki Yuka's poison, so he used it on you.
With the Uzumaki ninja incapacitated, the samurai charged. Yōkō fought them.
Except for the samurai captain, the others had no chakra. Clashing blades with them felt soft, lacking power.
The samurai captain was tougher to deal with; chakra infused his muscles, making his strikes powerful but less agile.
After killing four samurai, the rest scattered.
The Uzumaki ninja lay on the ground, delirious.
Yōkō leaned against the wall, used the Fish in Earth Reflection Technique, and slowly sank into the wall.
Entering the building, he found it was indeed a storage room.
Opening various backpacks, they were all filled with supplies.
He grabbed six kunai and stuffed them into his own tool pouch.
He slung one backpack containing a full load of Military Ration Pills.
Another small backpack surprisingly contained ten Explosive Tags.
Strike it rich! Explosive Tags were hard currency, extremely expensive, and could only be made by ninja proficient in both sealing techniques and fire release.
The price in Konoha was 10,000 Ryo per Explosive Tag.
The Anbu provided standard flak jackets and ninja swords but not Explosive Tags; those had to be purchased personally.
Fighting for Konoha and having to bring your own supplies... how miserable.
He put the Explosive Tags into his own tool pouch, feeling satisfied.
The remaining supplies, like tents, sleeping bags, and medicine, he couldn't take.
Gritting his teeth, he took out one Explosive Tag, infused a bit of his chakra, and stuck it onto the other supplies.
Exiting through the back wall, he walked a good distance away before forming seals and remotely detonating the Explosive Tag.
In the explosion, the Uzumaki ninja's supplies flew into the sky.
Carrying a backpack full of Military Ration Pills, he took advantage of the chaos to leave.
After escaping, Yōkō didn't rashly seek out Squadron Leader Brown Bear but hid instead.
—
The full moon was like a silver plate, the moonlight like white frost.
Only after the full moon passed did Yōkō find the Squadron Leader by the seaside.
Caution, caution, and more caution.
Squadron Leader Brown Bear was alone.
"Squadron Leader, I have completed the mission, assassinated that town chief supporting Uzushiogakure, and moreover, I seized some of the town's supplies and blew up what I couldn't carry."
Yōkō put down the backpack and opened it, revealing it was full of Military Ration Pills.
Additionally, there were 2 Explosive Tags.
The remaining 7 Explosive Tags, Yōkō kept for himself; he wouldn't hand them over.
These two were also handed over reluctantly; otherwise, he couldn't explain how he destroyed the supplies.
If you act a part, do it thoroughly, leaving no flaws.
"Excellent! Splendid! Your performance far exceeded my expectations. Aside from the slow mission completion speed, everything else was very sound. After such a long time, I thought you might have..."
Brown Bear didn't finish.
When he sent Fox to assassinate the noble, his initial thought was to pressure the Uzumaki ninja, forcing them to station more ninja to protect nobles, thus relieving pressure on the front lines.
Now, that noble was actually dead, and the supplies destroyed.
"Squadron Leader, you thought I what?"
"Nothing, I'm very satisfied."
"Squadron Leader, there's also bad news."
"What bad news?"
Brown Bear's eyes turned serious. Could the nobles have hidden some backup plan from Uzushiogakure?
"The bad news is, Pine Bird unfortunately sacrificed himself."
Brown Bear immediately relaxed; he had scared himself.
He said:
"For the village, some sacrifices are necessary. We Anbu are the sharpest blade protecting the village in the darkness. Overly sharp blades are prone to breaking; it's unavoidable."
Hearing Squadron Leader Brown Bear's consolation, Yōkō felt much more at ease.
The Antelope Squad, the Blue Wolf Squad, and now his own Fox Squad – besides himself, all were dead. He was afraid the Squadron Leader would suspect him, but he never expected the Squadron Leader wouldn't care at all.
If Anbu casualties weren't high, he probably wouldn't have been able to join the Anbu in the first place.
Brown Bear said:
"Leave the Military Ration Pills with me; these are supplies we urgently need now. I'll distribute them to other ninja.
As for the Explosive Tags, we'll take one each; keep one for self-defense.
You have grown into an Anbu elite through combat, completing missions excellently and exceeding expectations.
I now formally appoint you as a Squad Leader.
Our squadron has suffered heavy losses. I will try to assign you squad members going forward. If no suitable members are available, you will perform missions alone."
"The squadron is facing difficulties; I can perform missions alone."
Yōkō happily put away one Explosive Tag. He never expected the Squadron Leader, aside from disregarding his subordinates' lives, to be quite generous.
So now he had 8 Explosive Tags; his sense of security was full.
(End of Chapter)