Chapter 4: Total Waste
“Antelope Squad! Depart!”
Yoru’s captain wore an antelope mask, and the team members all called him Antelope Captain.
Besides Yoru, the squad also had Purple Cat and Horned Ox.
Their true identities were unknown; even if the person behind Purple Cat’s mask had changed, Yoru wouldn’t know.
The four squad members left the Death Forest and walked along the Konoha Wall.
As they walked, Yoru felt something was off.
This direction—was it heading to the Konoha Main Gate?
Were they going to leave the village?
Leaving the village wasn’t a good idea.
If they encountered danger inside Konoha Village, at worst they could shout loudly.
Calling for backup wasn’t shameful.
But if they left the village and encountered danger, shouting until their throat broke wouldn’t help.
Antelope Squad arrived at the Konoha Main Gate.
Without submitting a village departure application, without slowing down, the four Antelope Squad members passed through the Konoha Main Gate.
One of the gate guard squad members said with envy: “Anbu are so cool; they all wear masks and have that cold, stern look.”
“Then you can apply to join Anbu; you can wear a mask every day too.”
“Nah, forget it. Doing Anbu with a mask means you only see the light on the day you die.”
Yoru felt terrible; how did they end up leaving the village?
Antelope Captain said while running:
“This time, the surveillance target is an elite chunin.
He has already become a squad captain, leading a genin squad to complete a transport mission near the front line.
That elite chunin is suspected of being connected to Stone Ninja spies. We are going to track and investigate him, gather evidence, and strike to cleanse him at any time.”
After hearing this, Yoru felt even more guilty.
In the ninja world, two levels higher could instantly kill.
Ninja levels were roughly divided into: genin, chunin, elite chunin, special jonin, jonin, elite jonin, Kage Level, Super Shadow Level, Six Paths Level.
An elite chunin could instantly kill a genin, like Yoru’s pseudo chunin or a real genin.
Along the way, Yoru carefully observed Antelope Captain and the two other teammates, wanting to confirm their strength.
Antelope Captain’s strength was at least elite chunin level; otherwise, he wouldn’t say things like ‘cleanse an elite chunin.’
He himself was genin level; between Purple Cat and Horned Ox, they were likely both chunin, so the average strength could meet Anbu’s chunin squad requirements.
After leaving the Land of Fire and entering the front line Land of Rivers, they had to be careful everywhere.
Antelope Captain quickly found the reconnaissance target.
Yoru looked at the distant Leaf squad through the telescope.
The reconnaissance target was a burly man with a resolute face.
His three student subordinates: one was an Akimichi Clan ninja, one was a civilian girl with no clan emblem on her, and the last was a civilian male ninja wearing glasses.
All four carried huge backpacks, transporting some supplies to the front line.
After just two or three seconds, Yoru quickly lowered the telescope.
He wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but the elite chunin seemed to glance in the direction where he was.
Antelope Captain was still observing with the telescope: “Keep a distance of two hundred meters, don’t get close, slowly gather information.”
For five straight days, Antelope Squad followed the target squad from afar.
The target squad moved back and forth between the Land of Rivers border and the Land of Fire Border, continuously transporting supplies.
These five days were relatively peaceful.
Yoru counted the days.
He enjoyed 3 days at Tsuruzuki Izakaya, took 4 days to reach the border, tracked for 5 days; 12 days had passed, and in 13 more days it would be the full moon.
Yoru looked forward to just quietly monitoring like this.
Antelope Captain suddenly shouted: “Situation!”
The reconnaissance target turned behind a big tree, avoiding his teammates.
He stuffed a scroll under the tree root, then quickly left.
“Action! After confirming the scroll’s contents, proceed according to plan!”
The four Anbu quickly rushed toward that big tree.
Yoru rushed very fast.
He had to be fast; only by rushing fast could he pick the soft persimmon.
He slightly shifted position and rushed toward the target squad’s female ninja.
At 11 years old, and a civilian, she must be very weak.
Antelope Captain reached under the big tree first, took out the scroll, opened it, and glanced at it.
“It’s a Hidden Stone Village spy! Cleanse the target!”
It wasn’t easy for Hidden Stone Village to plant a spy, and one at elite chunin level.
This spy certainly had offline contacts; based on past experience, it was most likely his students or disciples.
The Akimichi Clan genin definitely wasn’t the spy; he was a ninja clan ninja.
The remaining two students could both be spies.
As for how to distinguish… Anbu’s convention was not to distinguish.
Yoru threw two kunai at the civilian female ninja.
One went straight for the left eye to attract the target’s line of sight.
One went straight for the abdomen to ensure a hit.
The civilian female genin instinctively raised her kunai, blocking the one aimed at her eye.
She guarded the head but not the tail; the other kunai hit her abdomen.
Blood sprayed out.
Yoru didn’t know if the girl in front of him was really a spy, but he showed no mercy; after kicking her down, he nailed both of her hands to the ground with kunai.
The nearby Akimichi Genin saw his companion girl’s miserable state and went berserk on the spot.
He took a hit from Purple Cat’s kunai and charged at Yoru.
Yoru stood in place, quietly watching the charging Akimichi Genin.
Purple Cat was chasing him from behind; unless something unexpected happened, the Akimichi Genin wouldn’t reach him.
However, the Akimichi Genin directly pulled out a secret medicine pill and swallowed it in one gulp.
Yoru didn’t even see what color the pill was.
Bad!
“Human Boulder!”
As expected of a ninja clan ninja; the Akimichi Genin turned into a massive meat bullet and rolled toward Yoru at high speed.
Yoru hurriedly jumped backward.
Oh no, a situation arose; he couldn’t fail here, right?
He was caught by the Human Boulder and pinned hard against a boulder.
In the nick of time, Yoru hid behind the massive meat ball, secretly formed hand seals, and used Earth Release: Fish in Water Reflection Jutsu.
His figure disappeared, infiltrating into the boulder.
Good thing he learned a ninjutsu from the System; otherwise, he would have died here.
Stones flew everywhere for a moment.
As the Human Boulder was about to stop, Yoru quickly appeared, not wanting others to discover he knew Earth Release Ninjutsu.
The Human Boulder was big enough that others couldn’t see anything.
To make it realistic, he deliberately let the Human Boulder crush him, breaking a few of his bones.
“Enough!”
Antelope Captain shouted sharply.
The Akimichi Genin heard the unfamiliar voice behind him, shrank his body, and turned to look.
In the distance, the Hidden Stone Village spy elite chunin was pinned to a tree with a kunai.
Antelope Captain’s ninja sword pierced the female genin’s chest.
As for the glasses-wearing genin, he was stabbed to death by Horned Ox with a kunai.
“Who are you people!”
Before the Akimichi Genin could say anything, Antelope Captain body flickered in front of him and punched his abdomen, interrupting his frenzy.
“We are Konoha Anbu, handling Hidden Stone Village spies. Calm down and don’t make trouble!”
Civilian ninjas could die, but this Akimichi Genin had a ninja clan background; it wasn’t easy to kill him directly.
The Akimichi Genin crawled toward the pretty civilian female ninja, sobbing bitterly.
“I haven’t told you yet that I… I like…”
Leaf Ninjas matured early; who knew what emotional entanglements there were between the two. The female genin was already dead, and death severed all emotions.
Antelope Captain came to Yoru, looking at Yoru’s injuries.
Yoru quickly said:
“Captain! Will of Fire! We can’t abandon any Konoha companion! I’m just injured; you can’t abandon me, right?”
“A total waste; going back to recover will take another ten-plus days.”
Hearing the captain’s meaning, he wouldn’t abandon him; Yoru breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he thought, recovering could take ten-plus days?
That wouldn’t it drag until next month’s full moon? Was there such a good thing?
Carried back to Konoha on Horned Ox’s back, after half a month of recovery, Yoru finally waited for the full moon.
However, a new mission also arrived.
Anbu Minister Danzo dispatched 2 Anbu Battalions to the Land of Waves and Land of Whirlpools.
Yoru felt uneasy.
The Uzumaki Clan of the Land of Whirlpools—wasn’t it about to face clan annihilation?
A small fry like him, in a earth-shattering major event like the Uzumaki Clan annihilation, what could he do?
