Chapter 17: Some Sacrifices Are Necessary
Earth Release: Fish in Water Reflection Jutsu!
Yoru kept disappearing and appearing. He wasn’t traveling normally, constantly using Earth Release to move.
After arriving under the wooden walls of the town, he created a Shadow Clone and had the Shadow Clone flip out over the wooden walls.
“There’s someone there! It’s an assassin ninja!”
Whirlpool Ninjas and Samurai followed the Shadow Clone out of the town.
Seeing the tactic work, Yoru disappeared again using Earth Release Ninjutsu.
He found a hidden alley, where Yoru panted heavily, slowly recovering his Chakra.
The mission was to kill the noble Town Chief, but Yoru felt it wasn’t enough.
To become an official Squad Leader, he needed to gain the Brown Bear Squad Leader’s trust; he had to do more.
Killing the noble Town Chief was to cut off supplies to nearby Whirlpool Ninjas, so this town likely had prepared supplies.
Destroying those supplies would exceed the mission requirements.
After catching his breath, Yoru entered the Inner City again.
After a brief scout, the Inner City was now like a bird startled by a bowstring, with the tightest defenses at two places.
One was the inner residential area, housing the Town Chief’s family, possibly including the next Town Chief.
The other was a building surrounded by three Samurai Squads, plus one Whirlpool Ninja.
There must be something very important inside, or the Whirlpool Ninja wouldn’t stay here.
In a certain wall corner, Yoru slowly retracted his head and eyes, estimated the distance, and began hand seals.
His body slowly sank down.
Ripples like water waves appeared on the ground.
The Earth Style: Fish in Water Reflection Jutsu consumed a lot of Chakra; this technique injected Chakra into the earth, altering the earth’s density, allowing one’s body to swim through the soil like a fish.
To prevent detection during infiltration, the earth behind couldn’t leave a cavity; it had to be restored with Chakra.
The complex operations and heavy Chakra consumption made this technique’s forward speed not fast.
Yoru had mastered the beginner-level Earth Style: Fish in Water Reflection Jutsu; he didn’t know what it would be like at proficient level.
Infiltrating behind the Whirlpool Ninja, Yoru poked out his head and shoulders.
“Ah!”
The Whirlpool Ninja only felt pain in his ankle; when he turned back, he discovered someone had severed his tendons!
He hurriedly stabbed downward with a kunai.
Yoru’s left hand grabbed the Whirlpool Ninja’s wrist, while his right hand stabbed toward the Whirlpool Ninja’s abdomen.
Though he pierced the Whirlpool Ninja’s abdomen, his own left hand was also stabbed by the Whirlpool Ninja’s kunai.
Ignoring his bleeding left hand, Yoru crawled out from the ground, dodging the Whirlpool Ninja’s dying struggles.
The Whirlpool Ninja had only dragged his severed foot two steps when he immediately realized: “Poison! It’s poisoned! This poison… how is it our village’s poison?”
Yoru thought to himself, it really is your village’s poison; Yuka Uzumaki’s poison wasn’t used up yet, perfect to use on you.
With the Whirlpool Ninja losing combat power, the Samurai rushed up, and Yoru fought them.
Except for the Samurai Captain, the other Samurai had no Chakra; their sword strikes felt soft and powerless.
The Samurai Captain was harder to deal with, with Chakra infused into his muscles for full strength, but poor flexibility.
After killing four Samurai, the rest scattered.
The Whirlpool Ninja lay on the ground, unconscious.
Yoru leaned against the wall, used the Earth Style: Fish in Water Reflection Jutsu, and slowly sank into the wall.
Inside the building, it was indeed a warehouse.
Opening backpack after backpack, they were filled with all sorts of supplies.
He grabbed six kunai and stuffed them into his Ninja Tool Bag.
He shouldered one backpack full of Ration Pills.
Another small backpack surprisingly contained ten Exploding Tags.
He struck gold; Exploding Tags were hard currency, extremely expensive, and only Ninjas proficient in both Sealing Jutsu and Fire Release could make them.
Konoha Village’s Exploding Tags cost 10,000 taels each.
Anbu provided standard vests and Ninja Swords, but not Exploding Tags; they had to be purchased personally.
Selling your life for Konoha and still bringing your own rations—truly tragic.
He put the Exploding Tags into his Ninja Tool Bag, fully satisfied.
The remaining supplies, like tents, sleeping bags, and medicine, he couldn’t carry.
Reluctantly, he took out one Exploding Tag, injected a bit of his Chakra, and stuck it on the other supplies.
He passed through the back wall and walked far away before hand sealing to remotely detonate the Exploding Tag.
In the explosion, the Whirlpool Ninja’s supplies flew into the sky.
Carrying a full backpack of Ration Pills, he left amid the chaos.
After escaping, Yoru didn’t rashly go find the Brown Bear Squad Leader but hid instead.
—
The full moon was like a silver plate, moonlight like white frost.
After the full moon passed, Yoru finally found the Squad Leader at the seaside.
Caution upon caution.
No one else was beside the Brown Bear Squad Leader.
“Squad Leader, I’ve completed the mission: assassinated that Town Chief supporting Hidden Whirlpool Village, and I looted some of his supplies; what I couldn’t carry, I destroyed.”
Yoru set down and opened the backpack, revealing a full pack of Ration Pills.
Additionally, there were 2 Exploding Tags.
He privately kept the remaining 7 Exploding Tags and wouldn’t turn them in.
These two were also given reluctantly; otherwise, he couldn’t explain how he destroyed the supplies.
When acting, do it thoroughly, leave no flaws.
“Very good! Excellent! Your performance far exceeded my expectations. Except for the slow completion speed, everything else was steady. For so long, I thought you…”
Brown Bear didn’t continue.
He had sent Fox to assassinate the noble, originally to pressure the Whirlpool Ninjas into stationing more Whirlpool Ninjas to protect the nobles, thereby easing frontline pressure.
Now, that noble was really dead, and the supplies destroyed.
“Squad Leader, what did you think happened to me?”
“Nothing, I’m very satisfied.”
“Squad Leader, there’s one bad news.”
“What bad news?”
Brown Bear’s eyes turned serious; could the nobles have some backup from Hidden Whirlpool Village?
“The bad news is, Matsu Tori unfortunately sacrificed himself.”
Brown Bear immediately breathed a sigh of relief; he had scared himself.
He said:
“For the village, some sacrifices are necessary. We Anbu are the sharpest blade protecting the village in the darkness; an overly sharp blade is prone to breaking—that’s inevitable.”
Hearing the Brown Bear Squad Leader’s consolation, Yoru felt much more at ease.
Antelope Squad, Azure Wolf Squad, and now his own Fox Squad—all dead except him; he feared the Squad Leader would suspect, but the Squad Leader didn’t care at all.
If Anbu had few casualties, he couldn’t have entered Anbu.
Brown Bear said:
“Keep the Ration Pills for me; that’s supplies we urgently need now. I’ll distribute them to other Ninjas.
As for the Exploding Tags, one each for you and me; I’ll leave one for your self-defense.
You’ve grown into Anbu’s elite in battle, outstandingly and exceeding the mission.
I now officially appoint you as Squad Leader.
Our Squad has heavy losses; next, I’ll try to assign you team members. If no suitable ones, you’ll execute missions alone.”
“In tough times for the Squad, I can execute missions alone.”
Yoru happily pocketed one Exploding Tag; unexpectedly, besides not caring about subordinates’ lives, the Squad Leader was quite generous.
Now he had 8 Exploding Tags—full sense of security.
Nearly 40,000 words already; when can it get signed?
