A narrow strait lay between the Land of Waves and the Land of Fire, narrow enough to be crossed by Shuzuo Bridge.
Though it was clearly closer to the Land of Fire, the Land of Waves' mission allotment had always belonged to Uzu Hidden Village.
After crossing the strait and entering the Land of Fire, Captain Commander Yellow Dog had someone find Yagami.
Captain Commander Yellow Dog sized Yagami up and down before saying, "Brown Bear Squad only has you left. You aren't strong enough to serve as a squad commander yet, so you'll be assigned to Kurozaru Squad."
Yagami nodded. He observed squad commander Kurozaru, who was tall and exceptionally burly. One look told him that the man was skilled in taijutsu. He wondered what ability he could draw from squad commander Kurozaru.
He had drawn the Shadow Clone Technique from Captain Antelope and the Body Flicker Technique from Brown Bear Squad Commander. ANBU were full of good stuff.
Upon joining Kurozaru Squad, squad commander Kurozaru first had Yagami operate alone.
Yagami was a squad leader, so it was difficult to assign him to another team. The other teams had suffered severe losses and were unwilling to spare any members for him.
The group continued onward.
As they walked, the water mist around them grew thicker and thicker.
"Captain Kurozaru, is this naturally occurring fog, or...?"
"This is the Land of Fire. Even if Mist Ninja have come, we have absolute confidence in defeating them."
Yagami turned to look at the battered remnants around them, unable to understand where squad commander Kurozaru got such confidence.
Uzumaki Yuka summoned a large White Spear Heron, ready at any moment to have it carry Uzumaki Kushina away.
The atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive.
Within the thick fog, visibility was only two or three meters.
Yagami adjusted his mask so that his vision would not be restricted by its eyeholes.
He could see trees two meters away. Beyond that was nothing but a vast white expanse.
The damp water mist made everyone feel miserable.
A whistling sound suddenly came from behind his head!
The back of Yagami's scalp tingled as he threw himself forward.
A Kunai grazed his hair and embedded itself in the tree trunk across from him.
Yagami hurriedly adjusted his posture on the ground, then turned to stare into the dense fog behind him.
However, nothing could be seen in the fog.
This time, the Mist Ninja did not use the Silent Killing Technique to engage in close combat. Instead, they used Kunai from afar to harass them.
With visibility limited to two or three meters, there was simply no time to dodge after seeing a Kunai.
Rather than relying on their eyes, they might as well rely on their hearing.
Screams rang out around them. They were cries of pain from Uzumaki Ninja struck by Kunai.
Compared to the Uzumaki Ninja, Konoha ANBU had better discipline and tougher mouths. Even if they were stabbed into porcupines, they would not make a sound.
Boom!
Now it was no longer a matter of whether their mouths were tough. The Mist Ninja had begun using Exploding Tags!
Kirigakure, whose forces mainly consisted of Water Release ninja, had brought out their precious Exploding Tags. They were getting desperate.
Amid the Exploding Tag blasts, an Anbu ninja was swallowed by fire and smoke before crashing down in front of Yagami.
He had died horribly. Everything below his thighs had been blown away, leaving shattered bone exposed at the cross-sections of his severed legs.
At that moment, Yagami suddenly felt a chill.
It was the chill carried by the wind.
Then came terrifying wind pressure!
Yagami could no longer worry about anything else. He turned and pressed himself tightly against the large tree behind him.
The tree across from him was not sturdy enough and was blown apart, about to crash down on him.
Yagami hurriedly formed Hand Seals and sank underground.
When he emerged from the ground again, all the dense fog around him had already dispersed.
A single Wind Release had actually blown away several hundred meters of dense fog?
All the trees around them that were not sturdy enough had been toppled by the gale.
Yagami looked into the distance and saw Shimura Danzō, who had just lowered his Hand Seals.
Danzo had arrived with two assistants to provide support.
Good heavens.
Shimura Danzō actually gave him such an overwhelming sense of security.
Danzo's Four-Tomoe Sharingan had tiny pupils as he stared at the group of Mist Ninja in the distance.
Juzo Biwa and Munashi Jinpachi of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen saw that Danzo had arrived and immediately left without looking back.
Danzo swept his gaze over the two ANBU divisions, both reduced by more than half and in a miserable state, but did not order a pursuit.
The ANBU leaped up from the scattered mess of broken tree stumps and gathered behind Danzo.
The two Captain Commanders, Yellow Dog and Blue Sparrow, stood behind Danzo and waited for his reprimand.
The Uzumaki Ninja also hurried over.
The Sealing Squad Leader looked relieved. "Minister Danzo, I never expected you to come personally to rescue us. In all of Konoha, only you could deal with the large-scale dense fog jointly created by the Mist Ninja."
Danzo nodded and looked at Uzumaki Kushina. "Uzumaki Princess... she doesn't look like a Jinchuriki. Did you fail?"
The Sealing Squad Leader nodded. "There were many Mist Ninja sentries around the Wild Three-Tails. We sacrificed many people, yet still failed to seal the Three-Tails."
Yagami stood behind the Anbu ninja, pretending to rest as he crouched halfway to the ground.
Through the figures before him, he saw Danzo's clenched fist, its knuckles white.
It seemed Danzo was not as calm inside as he appeared. He was furious.
He always wore the expression of a dead man, never revealing joy or anger. Before he erupted in rage, no one could tell.
If Uzumaki Kushina became the Three-Tails' Jinchuriki, all of Konoha's arrangements concerning the Nine-Tails would come to nothing.
The Nine-Tails was one of Konoha's foundations. A covert operation by Uzu Hidden Village had nearly caught Konoha completely unprepared.
For several seconds, Danzo remained silent.
No one dared speak.
The young Kushina hid behind Yuka. She found this gloomy middle-aged man terrifying.
Danzo slowly said, "The remnants of the two ANBU divisions will continue escorting the Uzumaki Princess back to Uzu Hidden Village."
With that, Danzo turned and left with his assistants.
Yagami was somewhat puzzled. Konoha was determined to obtain Uzumaki Kushina, so why did they not seize her now?
Did they want Uzumaki Kushina to enter Konoha willingly?
The two ANBU divisions continued onward, escorting the Uzumaki Princess to the Land of Whirlpools Peninsula.
Along the way, Uzumaki Yuka occasionally observed the ANBU. Each time, she could accurately find Fox.
She would quickly shift her gaze away to avoid being noticed by the ANBU.
Fox hid himself well, utterly inconspicuous among the Anbu ninja.
If the two ANBU divisions had not been reduced to just over forty people, Fox would have hidden even better.
The spies chosen by the Senju Clan were of high quality.
As the group approached Uzu Hidden Village, Yatagarasu flew out from the village.
The massive Yatagarasu howled overhead, frightening the small White Spear Heron on Uzumaki Yuka's shoulder into hunching its neck.
"Don't be afraid. That's our village's guardian Summoned Beast. It won't do anything to you."
After escorting the Uzumaki Ninja to the village gate, the Anbu ninja did not enter. They left after a brief farewell.
Yagami breathed a sigh of relief.
This trip had taken far too long. He wanted to return to the village, and preferably never come out again after that.
It's dangerous outside. I want to go home.
After leaving Uzu Hidden Village, Yagami realized something was wrong with their direction.
Captain Commander Yellow Dog led the ANBU to a tall mountain near Uzu Hidden Village.
Four ANBU Squad Commanders used a barrier technique.
A transparent barrier enveloped the mountaintop.
From outside, it still looked like an ordinary mountaintop, but the four Squad Commanders had vanished, hidden from sight.
The Anbu ninja entered the barrier and disappeared behind it one after another.
An Invisibility Barrier?
Yagami entered the barrier as well.
Captain Commander Yellow Dog began assigning tasks to the squad commanders. Squad commander Kurozaru then summoned three Squad Leaders under him, including Yagami.
"Three shifts. Watch Uzu Hidden Village through telescopes from inside the Invisibility Barrier!"
Yagami was assigned to the first shift.
Lying behind a boulder, Yagami watched Uzu Hidden Village in the distance through a telescope.
The full moon was like a silver platter, its light like white frost.
Yagami had finally awaited the night of the full moon.
Three days later, Danzo brought a fully staffed ANBU division into the Invisibility Barrier as well.
Advisor Danzo stayed within the barrier for several days. He was exceptionally patient, sitting quietly on a rock without hurry or impatience, and no one knew what he was waiting for.
The ANBU within the barrier were all under Danzo's watchful eye, and everyone grew increasingly nervous.
It seemed the Uzumaki Clan's great calamity was unavoidable.
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