Sorry, I'm Undercover

"Back then, you clearly told me it would be three years. Then three years passed, and another three years after that, and then another three years!"

"It's almost been ten years, Boss Yagura!"

On the rooftop, the young man in a gray Konoha combat uniform rested both hands on the railing. His brows were tightly furrowed as he spoke, his emotions so agitated that he could barely control his volume, and his movements unconsciously grew more animated.

Standing beside him was a half-grown boy half a head shorter than him, seemingly only twelve or thirteen. A deep stitched scar ran across his face, and he looked equally displeased.

"Could you watch your attitude?"

"Right now, I'm the only person in all of Mist Village who knows your identity. If I go back and burn your files, you can be a Konoha Ninja for the rest of your life, and I won't have to worry about you anymore!"

"Then what do you want me to do?" He slapped the railing and pointed at the forehead protector on his head, suddenly raising his voice. "Remind myself every day that I'm a Mist Village ninja? Follow the Will of Water even in my dreams?"

He pointed at Karatachi Yagura before spreading all five fingers. "Five years old! I was five years old! Just that big, and you sent me to Konoha as an undercover agent. I spent less time in Mist Village than I did infiltrating this place. I can barely even remember what my parents looked like anymore. What kind of attitude do you expect from me?"

Karatachi Yagura seemed to want to explain. "That was because you matured early and had stable emotions. At the time, the entire village's selection—"

"If I failed the selection, I had to die. Do you think my emotions were stable?"

"..."

Karatachi Yagura was immediately left speechless.

The Bloody Mist had not been built in a day. Even before that, there had been plenty of baffling operations that could only be described as inhuman. Selecting child spies was nothing particularly extreme; even the tiniest honey traps, tailored for very specific targets, had appeared before.

However, Karatachi Yagura was a Jonin of the village and this man's superior. Even though he also hated the village's demands, he could not show the slightest hint of it here.

Thus, unwilling to continue staring each other down, the two turned away in unspoken agreement and looked toward the distant streets of Konoha.

Silence fell once more.

Ten years.

Karatachi Yagura took a piece of candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and put it into his mouth. He silently chewed over that number, his heart inexplicably growing heavy.

At only twenty years old, Karatachi Yagura had already become one of Mist Village's top rising Jonin. He was the third direct liaison officer assigned to the Mist Village deep-cover agent before him.

Unfortunately, the first two had not survived this rather legendary hidden operative. One had died at the hands of Konoha's Anbu, and the other at the hands of the Uchiha Police Force. That was why this promising Mist Village newcomer had taken over their task.

Likewise, it was only before taking office that Karatachi Yagura learned from the Mizukage's confidential archives that the village had such a spy buried deep within Konoha's heart.

Deep Sea Code: 004

Current Name: Sahara Mizu

Age: Fifteen

Abilities: Proficient in Taijutsu and Water Release

Position: Konoha Chunin, Intelligence Agency of the Jonin Corps, Second Rank Advisor

Infiltration Period: Ten years.

In a world where ninjas formed the primary military force, infiltration, espionage, honey traps, and torture were all basic methods.

No one found it strange for a spy to be young. A kunai thrown by a four-year-old ninja was just as lethal as one thrown by a fourteen-year-old ninja.

Perhaps even more lethal.

Yet even in this world, where all manner of dirty tricks dazzled the eye, deep-cover agents like Sahara Mizu, who had infiltrated steadily and continuously since childhood, were exceedingly rare.

After all, personal ability could be forced into a child's mind through coercive means. Loyalty to the village could also be instilled through nonstop brainwashing, Fuinjutsu, and training. But mature intelligence and stable values could not be mass-produced.

In most cases, "child laborers" like Sahara Mizu were disposable tools. Only a small fraction had the chance to flee an enemy village after completing their missions—and for children that age, that was already an extraordinary feat.

Yet what the man before him had done was even more unbelievable.

Not only had he successfully completed his mission after infiltrating Konoha, but by some unknown means, he had even evaded Konoha's first wave of searches. Using the advantage of his age, he had taken root in the village, entered the Ninja Academy, and become a "genuine" Konoha Ninja.

Over the past ten years, he had continuously sent all manner of intelligence back to Mist Village.

From that day onward, Sahara Mizu's personal file had been classified as top secret and placed in the Mizukage's confidential archives. At any given time, he was permitted direct contact with only one representative of Mist Village's upper ranks.

A sharp blade lodged in Konoha's heart like him was extremely rare even throughout the entire Ninja World.

Especially now, in the third year of the Second Great Ninja War.

The spring of Konoha's thirty-ninth year remained turbulent.

This war, ignited by Sunagakure and continuously escalated by the Five Great Nations and Amegakure, had gradually dragged the entire Ninja World into a bloody vortex.

Even Mist Village, isolated overseas, had no choice but to face threats from both Konoha and Cloud Village at sea.

For the unstable Third Generation Mizukage and Mist Village's constantly feuding upper ranks, this was undoubtedly an enormous burden.

They had to find a way to weaken Konoha further.

Crack.

The hard candy shattered with a crisp sound.

Karatachi Yagura finally ended the meaningless silence. Lowering his head, he helplessly called the man's true name and pleaded.

"Ren."

"No matter what, there are some things only you can accomplish."

Only then did Sahara Mizu turn to look at him.

Though it might have seemed insignificant from an outsider's perspective, for someone like him, who still needed to survive in the cracks, Karatachi Yagura's concession represented many things.

He was silent for a long time. When he spoke again, all of his previous agitation had suddenly vanished from his voice.

The overly abrupt shift instead made him seem somewhat cold.

"Because the previous missions were too aggressive, Konoha's Anbu has been conducting increasingly strict internal investigations lately. Root has also begun operations outside, and at least two search teams are specifically looking for traces of me."

"So the village's missions must be reduced to at least once every six months."

"And contact with me should be minimized as much as possible."

"Also, your predecessor was killed before he could settle the reward for my previous mission. Please don't forget that."

"..."

Karatachi Yagura stared at him without speaking. Sahara Mizu was in no hurry either, merely meeting his gaze quietly.

After a long while, Yagura finally took a scroll from his clothes and handed it to him.

"I will report your words to Mizukage-sama."

"After you complete this mission, no one will come looking for you for at least three months."

"Afterward, your mission reward will also be delivered to you as soon as possible."

Only then did Sahara Mizu accept the new mission scroll from him.

The conditions he had proposed had always been pressed against the upper limit of what they could accept. Whether they agreed or not would not have been surprising.

More important than the request itself was making his stance clear and fighting for benefits. That had been the true focus of this meeting.

In any case, until the war ended, those above would not make a move against him lightly.

As for afterward, they likely would not be the ones to decide.

Opening the scroll, Sahara Mizu swept his eyes over it a few times and committed all its contents to memory before handing it back.

Then, with a bang, Sahara Mizu's figure vanished from the rooftop.

Karatachi Yagura remained where he was, looking at the spot where Sahara Mizu had stood. Instinctively, he replayed every expression and movement the man had shown just now, his gaze complicated.

Before he had left the village, Lord Genji had actually given him another task—to investigate exactly how the previous two direct liaison officers had been exposed.

Clearly.

At least in the minds of the village's upper ranks, the countdown on Sahara Mizu's "service life" had already begun.

Ninjas did not need evidence.

Being untrustworthy was reason enough to kill someone.

After the war ended, they would probably make their move against him.

Even though he had brought the village countless pieces of intelligence.

A "hero"?

Without realizing it, Karatachi Yagura suddenly felt an indescribable sense of powerlessness and weariness toward this hopeless world.

In the end, he let out a long breath.

"I'm sorry."

Hokage Building, third floor.

Jonin Corps Office.

Sahara Mizu was bent over his desk, proofreading a logistics allocation sheet. Then, like someone who had accidentally sat on a hemorrhoid after sitting too long, his entire body jolted as though shocked by electricity, and the pen strokes on the paper abruptly paused.

He adjusted the way he was sitting.

The memories transmitted back from his Shadow Clone flooded into his mind.

They changed people again?

Unfortunately, this time it was someone difficult to handle.

The Fourth Mizukage...

Sahara Mizu thought as the paused stroke of his pen became smooth again. Multitasking, he began considering the effects Karatachi Yagura's appearance might bring.

Just as he had said, Sahara Mizu had been selected as the spy buried deepest within Konoha because of a maturity beyond his years.

But that was not some talent. It was because he was a transmigrator with several decades more life experience than others.

When he had first realized he had transmigrated into Mist Village, a place barely touched on in the original work, Sahara Mizu had wanted to use that advantage to enter the upper ranks' field of vision and survive until the plot began. Yet he had accidentally made things worse.

Did he catch their attention?

He absolutely caught their attention.

It was just that the kind of attention he caught was not quite right.

Who in their right mind played Infernal Affairs in the Ninja World?

Leaving ninjas aside, did anyone in Infernal Affairs get a good ending?

No!

They all died horribly!

So this kind of life could not last long.

Even a cunning rabbit had three burrows. People needed a way out even more.

That was why Sahara Mizu's greatest wish now was to immediately escape this exhausting life of constantly outwitting Konoha's Anbu, return to Mist Village as a hero, and then use his abundant merits to retire at top speed before the Bloody Mist began.

He would wash his hands of everything, live peacefully in the Land of Water as an ordinary wealthy man with three palaces and six courtyards, focus on preserving his health, and wait for the pair of saviors personally chosen by the Sage of Six Paths to turn the tide.

After all, as long as one did not get involved in Princess Kaguya's family melodrama, life in the Ninja World could still be lived properly!

However, judging from Karatachi Yagura's attitude today, Mist Village would probably cause him a great many more troubles.

It was not as though Sahara Mizu had never considered resisting, defecting, or simply joining Konoha.

However, he knew of at least three seals placed on his body—on his brain, heart, and tongue. There were also countless other Sealing Jutsu formulas branded onto him when he was five years old.

Just as he could use his identity to easily keep Mist Village's upper ranks in check at a crucial time like the war, Mist Village had countless methods of controlling him if they truly became ruthless.

Furthermore, the Five Great Nations remained in a state of barbaric conflict. There were no prisoner-of-war treaties at all, and every possible method was used against captured spies.

Being killed with one slash while fleeing would be considered merciful. Otherwise, there were forced brain searches, thirty-six kinds of whipping, seventy-two tortures, and one hundred and eight interrogation methods. Only after squeezing out every last drop of value would they throw the captives into laboratories as human test subjects and physically use them up.

Under such circumstances, could Sahara Mizu take that risk?

Obviously, no!

The only thing worth celebrating was that he had not arrived in this world without any support.

It should activate today, right?

As Sahara Mizu thought this, the speed at which he proofread the documents increased even more.

Once he finished the last stack of papers, he immediately slapped down his pen, hoisted his bag over his shoulder, and sprang out through the window.

"Hey! Sahara-kun—!"

His pineapple-haired superior sitting opposite him suddenly widened his dark-circled eyes. He grabbed another stack of documents that had just been delivered to the office and shouted toward the window.

That brat was actually skipping work?!

Right in front of him?!

Damn it, I haven't had a day off in eighty-seven days over the past three months either.

You're actually running off to rest by yourself. How is that any different from getting cuckolded right in front of me?

"Lord Shikaetsu, I'm taking leave tonight! I'll make it up tomorrow—"

From the distant end of the street came Sahara Mizu's slightly distorted voice.

Nara Shikaetsu watched the receding figure outside the window and could not help but collapse into his office chair, looking as though he were about to become paralyzed.

Looking at the documents stacked half a person high on his desk, he practically wanted to die.

Damn it!

Tomorrow, I'll make that brat work himself to the bone! I'll stuff him full of work until he turns into a cream puff!

Nara Shikaetsu picked up his pen and viciously copied down figures as he thought resentfully.

"I'm home!"

Sahara Mizu pushed open the door and strode into the living room.

"Huh?"

The half-grown girl busying herself in the kitchen was startled. She turned to look at him, and surprise immediately appeared on her face.

"Onii-san! You're back!"

The bean-sprout-thin girl wore a household apron as she hurried up to him. "You're home really early today. Work must have been tiring, right?"

"Do you want to eat first, take a bath first, or eat—"

Knock.

His knuckles tapped against the girl's fair forehead with a crisp sound.

Sahara Mizu pretended to be angry. "Adults get arrested by the Uchiha Police Force for making a move on children. Are you trying to frame your dear older brother, Miss Yukie?"

"Hehehe." Sahara Yukie was not angry at all. She took the bag from his hand and followed closely at his side. "Onii-san came home so early today."

"Could it be that you already knew I managed to get the limited beef at the market?"

"Or maybe you even knew we're having sukiyaki tonight—"

"Huh? That lavish?"

"What a shame, but today's a little inconvenient." Sahara Mizu pressed his palms together and interrupted with a pained expression. "Yukie can eat by herself. Onii-san has a new Ninjutsu he needs to test."

Though it was not obvious, there was still an unintentional sense of distance in his tone.

"I see..."

Before Sahara Yukie could ask anything else, Sahara Mizu had already quickly gone upstairs to his room.

Clearly, this was his "real little sister."

Sahara Yukie, twelve years old, an ordinary genin who had graduated from the Ninja Academy just a year ago.

Although the Second Great Ninja War had dragged on for a long time, unlike the next war ten years later, Konoha still possessed the substantial reserves accumulated during the Second Generation's era. Genin like her, who had only recently graduated, were still being led by capable chunin instructors as they quickly familiarized themselves with ninja work. The day they would be sent to the front lines was still far away.

Though Sahara Mizu was clearly an infiltrator, he had kept a little burden at his side for a simple reason.

For an outsider to fully integrate into Konoha required an extraordinarily cumbersome assortment of procedures and processes.

If one wanted to send a child to the Ninja Academy, one had to cooperate with stringent background checks and multiple mental examinations.

But if he could directly become the eldest son of a family that had settled in Konoha twenty years ago, whose parents were both dead and whose only remaining members were himself and a younger sister, then, with such a rich and genuine social network, the difficulty of becoming a "Konoha local" would instantly drop to nothing. At the same time, the chances of drawing suspicion would plummet.

Conversely, atomized individuals lacking family ties—widows, widowers, orphans, and the lonely—were the primary suspects in the village's first wave of manhunts. Many orphans were even watched by Root due to the ambiguity of their identities.

People without weaknesses were very dangerous.

There was no difference, no matter what kind of regime it was.

Fortunately, in the year Sahara Mizu infiltrated Konoha, he had been lucky enough to find just such a suitable family.

The parents had died on some vast battlefield. The young older brother had been caught up in Ninjutsu during fighting within the village, buried beneath a collapsed wall, and crushed to death alive. Only a little sister remained, blocked beside a baby carriage, wailing at the top of her lungs.

A perfect identity.

From that day onward, he had become Sahara Mizu.

Naturally, he had also raised this younger sister, three years his junior, with his own two hands.

But Sahara Mizu had not become naive enough to trust her, or try to entrust anything to her, just because of that.

He would leave this place eventually.

Sahara Mizu thought so instinctively.

He did not notice the fleeting disappointment in Sahara Yukie's eyes as he turned away.

After returning to his room, Sahara Mizu first checked all the mechanisms as usual. Only after confirming that no one had searched the room and that there were no Fuinjutsu or surveillance devices did he sit cross-legged on the bed again, striving to suppress the faintly surging excitement in his heart.

He closed his eyes and silently said:

"Panel."

Almost the instant the thought crossed his mind, a countdown appeared on the empty panel.

Time until Minor Mode Is Disabled

00:00:09

Yes.

The hilariously absurd Minor Mode.

No matter how many times he saw that prompt, Sahara Mizu could barely suppress the urge to curse his mother out.

Though he had started training, killing, infiltrating, and being brainwashed long ago.

Because our cheat was rated 15+ according to national standards, children couldn't activate it whenever they wanted!

It was utterly unreasonable!

Before his transmigration, he had been a standard greasy middle-aged man. Who the hell knew who this age restriction was supposed to protect?

Thankfully, the time had finally come.

As Sahara Mizu entertained these chaotic thoughts, the countdown in the prompt box reached its end.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Three, two, one!

Cheat God, activate!!!

In that instant, Sahara Mizu's entire field of vision was swallowed by blinding white prompt boxes.

Almost at the same time, a gentle female voice hummed softly into his mind, faint and distant, like forest wind and spring melodies, soothing the heart.

"Are you my Master?"

"Yes."

Sahara Mizu's consciousness involuntarily sank deeper as he instinctively cocked an ear to listen.

The next moment, she began in the standard intonation of a poetic recitation and uttered her first inhuman words.

"Oh~ wonderful!"

"You've only just transmigrated, yet you've awakened the greatest, most incredible Sahara's Book of Friends System! What do you have to fear now? What do you have to fear!!"

"Punch Hashirama with one fist, kick Madara with one foot, hold Otsutsuki Kaguya down and make her get up and go thump-thump-bang-bang."

"I'm going to fill the whole fucking world with cream puffs all by myself, y'know—!"

"Sahara Mizu, when will you become number one in the Ninja World? (monotone)"

"Today! (immediate reply)"

It rang like a great bell, thundered like shattered pots, and resounded with sonorous force.

At that moment, Sahara Mizu's eyes abruptly went from shining brightly to utterly vacant. His ruddy complexion turned iron-blue, and in a gray-white state of profound brokenness, he quietly listened to the entire opening speech.

The silence in the room was deafening.

".?"

He had a bad feeling about this.

New author, new book. Please take care of me!

Qidian's recommendation system has changed now, and it takes lots of follow-up reading and votes to get a recommendation slot. I hope everyone will support it.

—Chiu White Tiger!