I Choose You, Samehada!

Uchiha Yashiro nodded, his tone turning serious. "One last thing. I have a mission for you."

"Go rendezvous with Yoiichi Kumade, who's on an espionage mission in Kirigakure. Make sure you bring him back safely."

As he spoke, he took a scroll from his desk and handed it to Aragaki Yasushi.

"Yoiichi Kumade?"

Aragaki Yasushi accepted the scroll, frowning as he murmured the name, then unrolled it to take a look.

He wasn't unfamiliar with Yoiichi Kumade. They'd been in the same class at the Ninja Academy.

The guy wasn't much good at anything else, but he was excellent at gathering intelligence. After making Chunin, he stopped going on missions with small squads.

Instead, he joined the village's intelligence department with Yamashiro Aoba and the others, becoming a full-time intelligence ninja.

Aragaki Yasushi remembered that in the original story, the guy seemed to have died at the hands of Momochi Zabuza.

He seemed to be a throwaway character Kakashi had casually mentioned while explaining Zabuza to Naruto and the other two kids. He hadn't expected him to still be alive.

Being sent to rendezvous with him probably meant a run-in with the Hidden Mist Anbu. In theory, it was extremely dangerous.

But danger meant more points!

Aragaki Yasushi replied at once, "All right. Our squad will get ready to leave right away."

Uchiha Yashiro waved a hand to stop him. "It's best if you go alone."

"According to the last message Yoiichi Kumade sent back, he's been exposed and is being hunted by the Hidden Mist Anbu."

"Can't your Paper Style fly? I want you to get there as quickly as possible. He's carrying intelligence the village urgently needs, and we can't afford to lose him."

Aragaki Yasushi readily agreed. "All right, no problem."

"Alone it is. I guarantee I'll bring Yoiichi Kumade back safely."

At the same time, a system prompt suddenly appeared before Aragaki Yasushi.

[Mission: Rendezvous with Yoiichi Kumade]

[Reward: +800 points]

A system mission had been triggered!

Seeing the reward, Aragaki Yasushi was a little surprised.

800 points?

That was more than he'd expected.

But after thinking it over, he understood.

It made sense. This mission would require him to face the Hidden Mist Anbu head-on, so it was bound to be dangerous.

He might even run into quite a few Hidden Mist jonin.

Half a day later, Aragaki Yasushi beat his wings and quickly reached the Land of Water. He landed beside a village on an island.

He took out the intelligence scroll Uchiha Yashiro had given him and studied it, confirming the meeting place.

According to Yoiichi Kumade's last message, the agreed meeting place was a tavern in this village.

If all went well, Yoiichi Kumade would arrive by tomorrow morning, and the two of them could meet at the tavern.

But if Yoiichi Kumade didn't show up on time, things probably wouldn't end well for him.

There was a good chance the Hidden Mist Anbu had caught him.

If that happened, Aragaki Yasushi would have no other way to find him.

After all, Yoiichi Kumade was constantly on the move to evade pursuit. He might not even know where he'd be headed next.

The only thing Aragaki Yasushi could do now was wait here and hope Yoiichi Kumade showed up.

Aragaki Yasushi used the Transformation Technique to disguise his appearance, entered the tavern, and quickly scanned the room.

After confirming that Yoiichi Kumade hadn't arrived early, he slipped back out and hid in a narrow alley beside the tavern, keeping a close eye on the entrance.

Waiting was terribly dull, and Aragaki Yasushi found himself thinking about something he'd wondered before.

Would Poke Balls from the Pokemon world work in the Naruto World?

He decided to find out. He took an ordinary Poke Ball from his system inventory, then brought out Samehada.

He pointed it at Samehada and gently pressed the Poke Ball's button.

The next second, the Poke Ball snapped open with a click. A flash of white light streaked past, and Samehada was sucked inside.

The Poke Ball dropped to the ground, rocked gently twice, then came to a stop with a soft chime.

Aragaki Yasushi immediately picked up the Poke Ball, grinning from ear to ear.

It really worked!

Samehada had actually been recognized as a Pokemon!

That meant he might be able to catch Tailed Beasts too!

But Aragaki Yasushi soon calmed down.

Samehada hadn't put up much resistance, so even an ordinary Poke Ball had been enough to catch it.

Tailed Beasts wouldn't be so easy to deal with. They all had explosive tempers. He'd probably need a Master Ball to handle one.

Besides, even if he really could catch a Tailed Beast, he might not be able to control it.

Poke Balls didn't change a Pokemon's mind. When Ash Ketchum first got Pikachu, Pikachu resisted him at every turn. Ash couldn't control him either.

Even so, capturing a Tailed Beast had too many benefits to pass up. No matter how difficult it was, Aragaki Yasushi was determined to do it!

That evening, the tavern lights went out one by one. The owner locked up and called it a night.

Aragaki Yasushi showed no sign of leaving. He didn't even consider getting a room at an inn and enjoying a good night's sleep. He stayed tucked away in the narrow alley.

Yoiichi Kumade was still fleeing for his life, and there was no telling whether he might arrive early that very night.

Aragaki Yasushi had to keep watch and couldn't let his guard down for even a moment.

If Yoiichi Kumade went to all the trouble of reaching the meeting place only to find Aragaki Yasushi off sleeping, the poor throwaway character would really be done for.

More importantly, Aragaki Yasushi would lose his 800 points too. That absolutely couldn't happen.

Fortunately, his wait wasn't entirely fruitless.

Yoiichi Kumade still hadn't shown up, but late that night, Aragaki Yasushi made another unexpected discovery.

The Hidden Mist Anbu!

Aragaki Yasushi followed a faint sound and looked in a certain direction.

Moonlight fell across the village rooftops. Two shadows moved lightly, rushing forward at high speed.

Aragaki Yasushi's heart skipped a beat.

Could Yoiichi Kumade already be dead?

Had these Hidden Mist ninja found the meeting place on him and come here specifically to lie in wait?

Yoiichi Kumade was an intelligence ninja who'd received professional training. He should have been able to withstand torture, but the Hidden Mist Anbu had plenty of methods at their disposal.

Even if someone was dead, they could still extract information from the body.

A competent ninja would try to destroy their body upon death to prevent information from leaking.

Kisame, for example, had summoned sharks to eat him before he died, leaving not even a bone behind.

But sometimes things happened too suddenly for anyone to cover their tracks. It was common for a ninja to be killed instantly before they could do anything.

With that in mind, Aragaki Yasushi stopped hesitating and quietly followed them.

Why not capture one and interrogate him? Then he'd know everything.

Besides, the more Aragaki Yasushi thought about it, the more he felt that things might not be so bad.

If Yoiichi Kumade had really died, the system would probably have already told him the mission had failed. It wouldn't have let him wait around here for nothing.

Since there'd been no failure notice, that meant the throwaway character was still breathing, at least—and could still be saved.

What was more, the two Hidden Mist Anbu weren't heading toward the tavern.

It looked like they'd simply come to search the village at random, without any particular target.

Maybe Yoiichi Kumade had already hidden somewhere in the nearby waters, and the two Anbu were just searching the area to make sure nothing had been left behind.

Having sorted it all out in his head, Aragaki Yasushi sprang into action.

I choose you, Samehada!