Two full squads of Leaf Anbu had entered the Land of Waves.
After two months, their supplies were completely exhausted.
Without soldier pills, finding food became difficult — and risky.
Without ninja tools, many Anbu had to scour the battlefield carefully, risking traps hidden inside abandoned tool pouches.
The Uzumaki ninja didn't have such worries.
The Hidden Whirlpools Village always protected the Land of Whirlpools' nobles, who in turn provided them with steady supplies.
To crush the Uzumaki forces, the Leaf had to sever that supply line.
The nobles needed to understand — aiding the Uzumaki now wasn't noble or loyal.
It was dangerous. Fatal.
The target of Yagami's latest mission was one such noble — the town lord most fiercely loyal to Uzushio.
Yagami didn't tell Pine Bird where they were going, or why.
Anbu didn't need to know. They only needed to follow orders.
Once his role shifted to that of a captain, Yagami naturally became the type of superior who didn't care if his subordinates lived or died.
The two quietly advanced toward the town.
They weren't in a rush. Caution mattered more than speed — or survival.
"How old are you, Pine Bird?" Yagami asked casually as they moved.
"Captain Fox, I'm twelve this year."
Just a fresh graduate.
He'd become a Chūnin only because the village had recently lowered the requirements.
Not knowing what else to say, Yagami asked, "What's your dream?"
"My dream?" Pine Bird hesitated, then said,
"My dream is to become like Lord White Fang — to rise through the Anbu, complete missions, and become the strongest ninja there is!"
The Leaf's White Fang was a living legend — a man who grew stronger through countless Anbu missions, mastering his swordsmanship until he almost reached the level of a Kage.
There were three main paths for a Leaf shinobi to learn ninjutsu.
The first was inheritance.
Top-tier jutsu and secret arts were like contagious diseases — they spread only through bloodlines, through family, through birth.
The White Fang's sword techniques were family-taught.
The second path was through trust — earning a mentor or captain's confidence and learning directly from them.
But finding a compatible teacher or captain was rare, like winning a lottery.
The third path was through the Anbu.
Serve the village. Earn merit. Survive long enough.
It required luck — the luck to stay alive.
But it was also the fairest path.
That was part of why the Anbu's loyalty ran so deep.
"Good luck, Pine Bird," Yagami said softly. "You'll become a ninja like White Fang someday."
When they reached the outskirts of the town, Yagami crouched low, raising a telescope to his eyes.
The settlement had around a thousand households, surrounded by wooden walls.
Every few dozen meters, there was a watchtower — each manned by samurai trained under the town lord.
Ordinary samurai trained daily in physical strength and wielded long blades.
Even a low-ranking ninja would need several exchanges to defeat one.
More skilled samurai could mold chakra, enhancing their strength and speed.
They were roughly equivalent to Genin.
Those above that level could only be trained in the Land of Iron itself.
These men were cheap, disciplined, and very expendable.
Yagami and Pine Bird found a blind spot in the samurai's patrol routes.
Slipping past the guards, they vaulted over the outer wall and into the town.
The town was split into an outer and inner district.
The inner district was where the noble lord lived and conducted his affairs.
Bustling nightlife was a luxury only cities like the capital could afford.
Small towns enforced strict curfews for safety.
The streets were deserted, every window shuttered tight.
Civilians here lived in constant fear — of enemy ninja, of rogue shinobi, of the unseen wars fought in the dark.
They clung to the nobles and their hired shinobi for the illusion of safety.
Yagami and Pine Bird crept toward the inner district.
"Careful!"
A patrol of samurai appeared from the side street.
Yagami immediately ducked into a narrow alleyway.
Pine Bird followed close behind.
There were several garbage bins in the alley.
They hid behind separate bins, holding their breath as the samurai passed.
Once the footsteps faded, Yagami whispered,
"Pine Bird, stay alert. Find a weak spot in their defenses — we're going over the inner wall."
The inner walls were fortified like the outer ones — guarded towers, tight patrols.
After climbing over, they pressed themselves flat against a building wall, inching forward slowly along the shadows.
Ten minutes later, they reached the brightest part of the compound.
In the distance stood the lord's study.
Two figures were visible through the window, but it was impossible to tell which was the noble.
Suddenly, the window burst open.
A ninja leapt out.
An Uzumaki ninja!
The lord, standing by the window, froze mid-sentence. Then chaos erupted.
The Uzumaki charged toward one of the corner buildings.
Two more Uzumaki appeared nearby, and samurai rushed over in response to the noise.
The air filled with the whistle of kunai and the clang of armor.
Pine Bird tensed, following Yagami's signal to retreat.
He hadn't expected a Hidden Whirlpools squad to be stationed here.
Kunai slammed into the wooden walls around him with sharp thuds.
One struck his shoulder. Another pierced his foot.
He gritted his teeth, trying to call out to his captain —
But the "Captain Fox" ahead of him took a kunai to the chest… and burst into white smoke.
A clone?
When?
Pine Bird's mind flashed back. During infiltration, there had been a brief moment when the captain disappeared — and later, they hid behind different garbage bins.
He gave a hollow laugh, recalling a lesson from the academy.
Substitution Jutsu worked by switching oneself with a wooden log, hiding nearby, and striking when the enemy's attention shifted.
The key was to find — or create — a blind spot in the enemy's vision.
The Shadow Clone Technique… was simply a more advanced form of substitution.
Captain Fox had used every trick, every ounce of cunning — on himself.
His own subordinate was no different from one of his clones — a disposable decoy meant to die for the mission.
Pine Bird glanced toward the noble's window.
So that was the real goal.
To assassinate the lord.
Sure enough, he saw the captain — somehow already inside the room — raise a kunai behind the noble's back.
The timing was perfect.
With all the samurai and Uzumaki focused on Pine Bird, Yagami's strike went unnoticed.
They would both die in the same second — one as bait, one as the blade.
Back when he was first recruited into the Anbu, Pine Bird had thought it was because he possessed some hidden talent.
That he was chosen. Special. Destined for greatness.
But after months in the Anbu, he'd realized the truth.
He was just a tool.
This morning, the captain had wished him luck — told him to chase his dream, to become like White Fang.
Now, that same captain had built his success on Pine Bird's corpse.
So this is the Anbu…
An Uzumaki ninja crouched beside the fallen Pine Bird, cutting open his mask with a kunai.
Beneath it was a boy's face, still young, twisted in bitterness — though no one knew who or what he hated.
Yagami had given Pine Bird only one instruction: infiltrate the inner compound.
No target, no purpose. No details.
Even if the Hidden Whirlpools recovered the body, there would be no proof of who sent them.
"Damn it! The lord is dead!"
The shout echoed through the courtyard.
The Uzumaki turned in shock, eyes widening —
The noble lay slumped across the windowsill, a kunai buried deep in the back of his neck.
"Shit!" the Uzumaki spat.
All their plans for support… vanished in that instant.
***
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