Joint Anbu Mission, the Higher-Ups Killing with a Borrowed Knife

At Konoha Village's entrance, dawn had not yet fully broken.

Five people stood at the assembly point inside the gates. Fugaku had a ninja blade strapped to his back and his arms crossed over his chest. He only gave Nawaki, who was thirty seconds late, a sidelong glance.

"Everyone's here. Move out."

"What's the rush?" Tsunade's voice drifted over from behind them.

She wore an outer robe she had thrown on carelessly, her hair only half tied up, and her face practically screamed that she had not slept enough. Kushina followed behind her, holding a cloth bundle in her arms.

Tsunade walked up to Fugaku. There was nearly half a head's difference in height between them, but Fugaku instinctively stepped half a pace back.

"Fugaku Uchiha."

"Lady Tsunade."

"If my little brother loses even a single strand of hair—" Tsunade tilted her head and glanced toward the distant police headquarters, "I'll tear that building down. Believe me?"

Fugaku's temple twitched.

He did not answer. It was not that he did not want to, but because he knew Tsunade would do exactly what she said. Last week, she had punched a hole through the outer wall of the Hokage Building, and it still had not been repaired.

"Big sis." Nawaki walked over, took the cloth bundle from Kushina, and gave it a lift. "What's this?"

"Rice balls. I got up at four to make them." Kushina glared at him. "You have to finish them."

Nawaki opened it and took a look. Six rice balls, wrapped in chili leaves and lined up neatly.

"Six?"

"Three meals' worth! Two each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!"

Nawaki smiled. He reached out and ruffled Kushina's red hair. This time, she did not dodge.

At the back of the group, Mikoto stood quietly with a ninja tool pack on her back. She glanced at the scene before quickly looking away.

"Move out." Fugaku spoke again, his tone noticeably harsher than before.

The five of them filed out of the village.

Two unfamiliar Anbu members walked at the rear, their masks pulled low. Neither said a word from beginning to end.

The mountain roads along the northwestern border of the Land of Fire were difficult to traverse.

After six straight hours of high-speed marching, Fugaku kept their pace at the limit for elite chunin. It was not especially fast, but for twelve-year-old trainees, the intensity was brutal.

Nawaki remained in the middle of the group, breathing as evenly as if he were taking a stroll through a park.

The stamina of the Sage Body was an overwhelming advantage at this level of marching. He even had spare energy to observe the terrain—the rock layers along the cliff to the left were schist, prone to collapse; the dense forest on the right held traces of scattered wild animals, but no abnormal chakra signatures.

Mikoto ran three paces ahead of him.

Her stride was steady, and she distributed her stamina efficiently. It was obvious she had received systematic training. But around the fifth hour, her pace began to slow slightly.

Fugaku did not slow down.

He even sped up a little.

Nawaki accelerated and ran alongside Mikoto.

As they passed beneath a cluster of low-hanging branches, one as thick as an arm swept toward Mikoto's face. Nawaki raised a hand and pressed his palm against it. With a surge of chakra, the branch bent aside on its own.

Mikoto turned to look at him.

"Save your strength," she said.

"If I don't even have the strength to block a branch for you, I might as well quit being a ninja."

Mikoto said nothing more, but her pace steadied.

At dusk, the group stopped beside a mountain stream to resupply.

Mikoto crouched by the stream to wash her hands. The current was swift, and the rocks were covered in moss. As she stepped onto a protruding stone to collect water, the sole of her shoe suddenly slipped—

An arm came across her waist and held her firmly in place.

The sensation of weightlessness ended before it even began.

Nawaki's voice sounded beside her ear, far too close. "Careful. The Uchiha Clan's rose can't be broken here."

Heat rushed to Mikoto's ears. She pushed Nawaki's hand away and steadied herself, lowering her voice.

"I didn't ask you to help."

"Should I wait until you call for help next time? By then, it'll be too late."

Mikoto fell silent.

On a rock across the stream, Fugaku slowly rubbed a whetstone along the edge of his ninja blade. His gaze crossed the water and settled on the spot where Nawaki had held Mikoto's waist for two seconds.

The whetstone's scraping grew sharper.

Midnight.

The entrance to the gorge.

The target outpost lay deep within the gorge, surrounded by sheer cliffs on three sides, with only one route in or out.

Fugaku raised a fist, and the group stopped. He crouched at the cliff's edge and used the faint light to examine the outpost defense map on the reconnaissance scroll.

"Intelligence says thirteen chunin, no jonin." His voice was very low. "I'll break in from the front. The two Anbu will flank from the left. Senju and Mikoto will support from the right."

Nawaki leaned against the rock wall and broke off half a rice ball, stuffing it into his mouth.

"The mission briefing said it was a C-rank bandit purge. When did it become a Hidden Stone spy outpost?"

"The intelligence was updated two days ago." Fugaku did not look up. "Got a problem with that?"

Nawaki chewed his rice ball. "No. It just seems like quite a coincidence. Sending a near-elite jonin to lead a C-rank purge is a bit of overkill."

Fugaku closed the scroll and stood.

"Move."

The five split up and entered the gorge.

Nawaki and Mikoto circled along a hidden path by the right cliff wall, advancing roughly three hundred meters.

Then he stopped.

The Sage Body's sensory range spread at full force through the night, like an invisible net blanketing the entire gorge.

Nawaki's smile slowly vanished.

"What is it?" Mikoto asked.

"Thirteen chunin?" Nawaki's tone changed, stripped of every trace of humor. "Sense it yourself."

Mikoto closed her eyes. Three seconds later, her Sharingan activated abruptly.

The red glow of her pupils flashed in the darkness, then quickly faded.

Her face went pale.

"...At least fifty."

"Fifty-three," Nawaki corrected. "There are two jonin-level chakra sources in the cave at the end of the gorge. They aren't bandits. They're Hidden Stone regular forces."

Mikoto pressed herself against the rock wall, her chest heaving twice.

"This is—"

"A trap. Someone sold us out."

Before the words had even faded—

The ground beneath their feet exploded.

A formation of explosive tags ignited at once through buried fuses, and the entire right side of the gorge was instantly swallowed by orange fire. At the same time, Earth Release: Rock Prison closed in from the three sheer cliffs. Hidden Stone ninja chakra markings lit up densely, like dozens of eyes opening in the dark.

Nawaki kicked Mikoto away and slapped both hands against the ground.

"Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall!"

A wooden wall rose an instant before the explosion, taking the full force of the explosive tags' shockwave. Shattered stone and flames howled past on either side.

From the front came Fugaku's furious roar and a dense burst of clashing metal—he had been surrounded as well.

The left flank—

Nawaki's Sage Body senses swept across it.

The chakra traces of the two Anbu vanished the instant the Earth Release barrier activated. They had not been killed. They had withdrawn. There were no signs of battle, no traces of blood.

They had run.

As if it had all been rehearsed.

"Root operatives," Nawaki muttered.

Mikoto heard him, and her teeth clenched.

There was no time to think. More than fifty Hidden Stone ninja closed in from three directions, waves of Earth Release jutsu blasting the gorge apart and sending rubble flying everywhere.

Nawaki grabbed Mikoto by the wrist and retreated to Fugaku's side. The three stood back-to-back, facing the sea of enemies surging toward them.

Fugaku's Sharingan was fully active, his breathing heavy. His left arm had been cut by shrapnel in the explosion, blood running down from his elbow.

"The intelligence was wrong," Fugaku said.

Nawaki did not answer.

This was not bad intelligence.

This was a death trap Danzō had bought with real money. He had sold Nawaki's life to Hidden Stone in exchange for some kind of political leverage.

And Fugaku—Nawaki glanced sideways at him—this guy had known before they entered the gorge.

Otherwise, there was no explanation for why he had deliberately drained the team's stamina during the march.

Otherwise, there was no explanation for why he had assigned Nawaki and Mikoto to the same route.

Two birds with one stone. If Nawaki died, Mikoto could also avoid marriage as a "mission casualty." Fugaku would get rid of a political rival and a marriage he did not want, cleanly and completely.

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun in the darkness. Fugaku rapidly scanned the battlefield and made his judgment.

"We break through from the front." Fugaku's voice was cold. "Someone needs to hold off the encirclement from the left and right."

He turned toward Mikoto.

"Mikoto."

Mikoto looked up.

"Use your Fire Release to hold the enemies on the left. I'll open a gap in front."

Mikoto froze for a second.

The left flank—more than twenty Hidden Stone ninja, plus one jonin.

He wanted her Fire Release to hold them back alone.

Nawaki's gaze slid from Fugaku's profile to the loose strands of hair at Mikoto's temple.

Outside the classroom, he had once said something to Mikoto.

"If there comes a day when you don't want to endure anymore, you'll have somewhere to go."

Nawaki straightened up from the wall.

"Fugaku."

Fugaku turned his head.

Nawaki smiled.

The smile was incredibly gentle.

"Did you forget—who the monster on this team really is?"