"Your mission is to travel to the border of the Land of Lightning, secretly meet with the ninja stationed in Kumogakure, and retrieve the routine intelligence."
The squad leader offered no further explanation.
Amada nodded, though he was a little surprised.
This was his first mission since joining the Anbu, and he hadn't expected to be sent alone, without any teammates to back him up.
Still, he didn't ask any questions.
That was how the Anbu operated—mission details didn't need explaining. The operative just had to complete the mission.
After receiving his orders, Amada set out immediately.
He hurried through forests and over hills, finally reaching the border of the Land of Lightning two days later.
However, he didn't rush to the meeting point.
A covert mission like this demanded extreme caution.
If anything went wrong, Konoha would never acknowledge him. They might even treat him as a disposable pawn.
At a secret Root Division base in Konoha.
A Root Division ninja knelt on one knee and respectfully reported:
"Lord Danzo, that mission has been assigned to Uchiha Amada."
Danzo nodded and replied coldly:
"I understand. You may leave."
"Yes, sir."
The Root Division ninja answered, then vanished in a flash.
Danzo sat in his chair and sneered.
"Hiruzen, I've done you the favor of saving face. But if that brat dies on the mission, it has nothing to do with me. Still, if he actually makes it back alive, he can keep his status in the Root Division."
Meanwhile, after reaching the border of the Land of Lightning, Amada chose to rest in a small village nearby.
He needed time to observe and think, to make sure nothing could go wrong.
The meeting point was in a secluded valley.
Amada hid on high ground in the distance and carefully watched the valley through a pair of binoculars.
After observing for a while, he hadn't spotted anything unusual. The area seemed peaceful.
Even so, Amada didn't let his guard down.
The calmer things appeared, the more likely it was that deadly danger lurked beneath the surface.
"With a mission like this, I can't afford to let my guard down."
There was still some time before the meeting, so Amada decided not to act in a hurry.
He needed more information to confirm that the meeting point was safe.
After considering it for a moment, Amada decided to return to the village for now.
He took off his Anbu uniform and changed into ordinary traveler's clothes. Then he put on a straw hat to hide his face.
After that, he entered a village restaurant and ordered a simple meal,
then sat quietly in a corner, observing the people around him.
The restaurant was busy, and Amada's gaze passed over each person,
until it settled on a target—a middle-aged man who looked rather tired.
After finishing his meal, the man hurried out of the restaurant.
Seeing this, Amada got up and followed him.
He tailed the man until he entered a secluded alley.
Amada quickly closed in. With no one else around, he appeared directly in front of the man.
His Sharingan activated in an instant.
"Dojutsu: Nightmare!"
Before long, the meeting time arrived, and a Kumogakure ninja appeared in the valley.
He stood at the agreed-upon spot and cautiously surveyed his surroundings, as if waiting for someone.
A little while later, a masked ninja dressed in black appeared opposite him.
The ninja walked up to the Kumogakure ninja and made the agreed-upon hand signal.
Once he confirmed it was correct, the Kumogakure ninja nodded, pulled an intelligence scroll from his clothes, and tossed it to the other man.
"Come on, couldn't you at least say something? I'm risking my life here."
The Kumogakure ninja said with a laugh.
The masked ninja didn't respond. He simply took the scroll and turned to leave.
The instant he turned around, the Kumogakure ninja's expression changed.
The Kumogakure ninja swiftly formed a hand seal with one hand. The scroll in the masked ninja's grasp exploded with a deafening boom.
The blast hurled the masked ninja to the ground, where he lay motionless.
Several Kumogakure ninja suddenly appeared around them, quickly surrounding the fallen masked ninja.
Their leader stepped forward and looked down at the unconscious masked ninja with a sneer.
"Has the quality of Konoha's Anbu really gotten this bad? That was too easy."
His voice was full of mockery and disdain. Then he waved to the Kumogakure ninja around him and ordered:
"Take him back and interrogate him thoroughly. We've had a good haul today. We might be able to dig some useful intelligence out of him."
One of the Kumogakure ninja stepped forward, crouched down, and lifted the masked ninja's mask.
Beneath it was the face of an ordinary middle-aged man. He was unconscious, a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.
The Kumogakure ninja frowned, but quickly hoisted the man onto his shoulders and prepared to take him back to Kumogakure.
Watching everything from a distance, Amada's heart pounded.
He hadn't expected there to be a trap on this mission after all.
Luckily, he'd been cautious and hadn't gone to the meeting himself.
Instead, he'd used his Sharingan's dojutsu to control an ordinary person and send him in his place while sleepwalking.
What exactly went wrong?
The mission had been issued directly by the Anbu. In theory, there shouldn't have been a problem.
That meant the source of the problem was most likely the Konoha ninja stationed there. Either Kumogakure had turned him,
or his identity had been exposed—and he might even be dead already.
At the thought, Amada felt a chill run down his spine.
He knew he had to get out of there as soon as possible.
The decoy was just an ordinary person. The Kumogakure ninja would soon realize something was wrong.
Once they figured out the decoy had been controlled by a jutsu, they would realize the real Konoha Anbu operative was still nearby.
Then he'd be facing the full force of Kumogakure's pursuit.
As he fled, Amada couldn't help thinking:
How could the Anbu's very first mission go wrong? Does this count as a failure? It wasn't my fault. The mission itself was compromised, wasn't it?
But before he could think it through, an eagle suddenly appeared in the sky.
It circled above Amada for a while, then quickly flew in the direction of the Land of Lightning.
Amada's expression changed at once.
Oh no! A ninja eagle. My position has been exposed!
He immediately realized that the Kumogakure ninja had pinpointed his location.
Without hesitation, he picked up speed and fled toward the Land of Fire with all his might.
By then, the Kumogakure ninja pursuing him already knew which way he was headed, and they raced after him at full speed.
After running for a while, Amada realized he couldn't keep going like this.
No. I'll be caught if this continues.
As he ran, Amada quickly considered his options.
He glanced around, then suddenly had an idea. He decided to change course.
Without delay, he turned and ran toward the Land of Iron.
The Land of Iron lay between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire. It was a permanently neutral country whose people were primarily samurai.
Amada had little respect for this idea of "permanent neutrality."
As he saw it, so-called "permanent neutrality" was nothing more than a way for the weak to console themselves.
If taking sides offered far greater benefits than staying neutral, they would choose a side without hesitation.
The same went for attacking them. If the benefits far outweighed the costs, who would care whether they were neutral? They'd still be attacked.
But right now, the Land of Iron was Amada's best option.
He could only hope the Kumogakure ninja hadn't set up a blockade along the road there.
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