Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole!
Yagami's figure flickered in and out of sight as he advanced, vanishing into the earth again and again. He wasn't traveling normally — instead, he was moving underground using Earth Style.
When he reached the wooden walls of the town, he created a shadow clone and had it leap over the barrier.
"There's someone there! It's a killer ninja!"
The Uzumaki ninja and samurai immediately charged after the clone, leaving the area in pursuit.
Seeing that his plan had worked, Yagami sank back into the ground, disappearing once more.
He surfaced in a hidden alley, panting, slowly recovering his chakra.
The mission had been to assassinate the noble town lord. But Yagami thought — that wasn't enough.
If he wanted to be promoted to official squad captain, he needed the trust of Captain Brown Bear. He had to do more.
Killing the noble was meant to cut off the Uzumaki's supply lines.
That meant this town likely contained stockpiled provisions.
Destroying those supplies would go beyond the mission's requirements — and impress his superior.
After catching his breath, Yagami entered the inner district again.
He scouted briefly. The entire area was tense and on edge — but two places were especially well-guarded.
One was the residential compound housing the noble's family — possibly his heir.
The other was a building surrounded by three samurai squads… and guarded by one Uzumaki ninja.
There had to be something important inside. The Uzumaki wouldn't guard it otherwise.
At the corner of a wall, Yagami carefully retracted his head after peeking, gauged the distance, and began forming hand seals.
His body began to sink slowly.
The ground rippled like water as he vanished.
The Hiding Like a Mole technique consumed a great deal of chakra.
It worked by infusing chakra into the soil, altering its density, allowing the user to swim through it like a fish through water.
To avoid detection, the soil behind him couldn't be left hollow — it had to be sealed and restored with chakra.
Such delicate control burned through energy fast, making progress slow.
Yagami's mastery of the technique was only at the beginner level. He could only imagine how much smoother it would be once perfected.
He emerged silently behind the Uzumaki ninja guarding the building, his head and shoulders rising from the earth.
"Ah—!"
The Uzumaki suddenly screamed as pain shot through his ankle — his Achilles tendon had been severed!
He instinctively stabbed downward with a kunai.
Yagami caught the ninja's wrist with his left hand and drove his own kunai into the man's stomach.
He hit the target — but the Uzumaki's kunai sliced into Yagami's left hand in return.
Ignoring the blood, Yagami hauled himself completely out of the ground and dodged the dying ninja's frantic thrashing.
The Uzumaki staggered forward a few steps, then froze.
"P-poison…? Our village's poison?"
Yagami sneered inwardly.
That's right. It's yours. I just borrowed some of Uzumaki Yuka's poison — might as well put it to use on you.
The Uzumaki collapsed, completely incapacitated.
The nearby samurai rushed in, blades flashing.
Yagami engaged them head-on.
Most of them had no chakra at all — their swings were slow and weak, like dull wind.
Only the captain was a real threat, his chakra-enhanced muscles giving him heavy, crushing strength — but at the cost of speed.
Yagami cut down four of them before the rest broke and fled.
The Uzumaki lay twitching on the ground, delirious.
Yagami leaned against a wall, formed hand seals again, and sank into the earth — disappearing through the wall into the guarded building.
Inside, he found exactly what he'd suspected.
A storage room.
He opened pack after pack — each one filled with supplies.
He grabbed six kunai, stuffing them into his own tool pouch.
Then he slung one backpack over his shoulder — a full bag of soldier pills.
Another smaller pack held ten explosive tags.
Jackpot.
Explosive tags were hard currency — expensive and invaluable. Only those skilled in both sealing and Fire Style could create them.
In the Hidden Leaf, one tag cost ten thousand ryō.
The Anbu provided standard-issue vests and blades — but not tags. Those had to be bought with one's own money.
Risking our lives for the Leaf, and we still have to bring our own supplies... pathetic.
He slipped the tags into his pouch, feeling a rare flicker of satisfaction.
Tents, sleeping bags, medicine — all too bulky to carry.
With a grimace, Yagami pulled out one explosive tag, infused a bit of chakra into it, and stuck it to the remaining supplies.
Then he sank into the wall again and left the building.
Once he was far enough away, he formed another seal — and triggered the explosion remotely.
A thunderous boom shook the night sky.
The Uzumaki's stored supplies went flying in flames.
Yagami hefted his heavy pack full of soldier pills and slipped away amid the chaos.
After escaping, he didn't immediately seek out Captain Brown Bear.
He hid, waiting.
Watching.
...
The full moon hung like a silver plate in the sky, its light pale and cold as frost.
Only after the moon had passed full did Yagami finally approach the shore — and find his captain waiting.
Caution, always caution.
Captain Brown Bear stood alone.
"Captain," Yagami said, bowing his head. "The mission is complete. The noble supporting the Hidden Whirlpools has been eliminated. I also seized some of the town's supplies — the rest I destroyed."
He set down his pack and opened it, revealing a large bundle of soldier pills.
He also took out two explosive tags.
He'd hidden seven others — these two were the ones he was willing to hand over.
He needed them as proof, to make his story believable.
If you're going to fake something, you might as well do it perfectly.
"Excellent!" Captain Brown Bear said, his tone genuinely pleased. "Better than I expected. A little slow, perhaps, but steady. For a while, I thought you…"
He stopped himself.
When he'd first sent "Fox" to assassinate the noble, his intention was only to pressure the Uzumaki — to force them to station more ninja on guard duty, easing the burden on the front lines.
But now the noble was actually dead.
And the supplies destroyed.
"Captain, what did you think?" Yagami asked quietly.
"Nothing," Brown Bear said, smiling. "You did well."
"Captain, there's… one bad piece of news."
"Oh?" His expression hardened. "What bad news?"
Was there a counterattack? A trap?
"Pine Bird was killed in action."
Brown Bear exhaled in relief. For a moment, he'd imagined something worse.
Then he said calmly,
"For the sake of the village, a little sacrifice is necessary. The Anbu are the sharpest blades that protect the village from the shadows. And the sharper a blade is, the easier it is to break. It can't be helped."
Yagami listened to his captain's reassuring tone, and the tightness in his chest eased slightly.
Antelope Squad, Green Wolf Squad, now Fox Squad — all wiped out except for him.
He'd feared Brown Bear might grow suspicious.
Instead, the captain didn't care at all.
If the Anbu didn't lose people like this, I'd never have been promoted in the first place…
Brown Bear continued,
"The soldier pills will go to me. They're vital supplies right now, and I'll distribute them among the remaining ninjas.
As for the explosive tags — you take one, I'll keep the other. You've earned it for protection.
You've grown into an elite of the Anbu — competent and efficient, even overachieving.
I'm officially appointing you as a squad captain."
He added,
"Our unit's taken heavy losses. I'll assign you subordinates when I can. If none are available, you'll operate alone."
"I understand," Yagami replied. "If the unit's in trouble, I can handle solo missions."
He smiled faintly as he tucked away the single tag he'd been "given."
So the captain may be heartless — but at least he's generous.
That made eight explosive tags in total.
Enough to make him feel truly safe for the first time in weeks.
***
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