Chapter 8: Danzo In His Prime
Hidden Whirlpool Village is nestled among the mountains, divided into northern and southern parts by a great river.
What shocked Yoru was the rear of Hidden Whirlpool Village, that moving mountain!
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a massive turtle, a turtle as enormous as a small mountain.
Yuka Uzumaki was on Yoru’s back, lying on Yoru’s ear explaining:
“That’s our village-protecting summoning beast, Lord Spirit Turtle.
The Uzumaki Clan excels in sealing jutsu. During the Warring States Period, they sealed monsters for various daimyo and nobles, thus accumulating many summoning beasts.
There are also many underwater summoning beasts in that great river in the middle.
Our squad’s mission this time is to go to the Land of Waves to seal a rampaging large ninja beast, but it was targeted by Cloud Ninja and failed.”
A high-pitched bird cry echoed overhead.
Yoru looked up and saw the summoning beast he had seen in the original story, Nagato’s three-legged giant-beaked Yatagarasu.
So that’s how it is—this is the correct use of sealing jutsu.
Seal powerful summoning beasts to help oneself in battle.
However, why didn’t the Uzumaki Clan get a tailed beast for themselves?
With their powerful sealing jutsu combined with a tailed beast, wouldn’t they be able to create perfect jinchuriki?
Uzumaki Clan ninja came to the village entrance and took Yuka Uzumaki to the hospital.
Yuka Uzumaki finally looked at the fox with a reluctant gaze.
What a pity, she only remembered the fox’s voice and didn’t know the fox’s name.
After returning, she would inquire who the Senju Clan’s spy in Anbu was.
If it were before, Anbu obeyed Lord Tobirama and it wouldn’t be so troublesome.
It was said that after Hiruzen Sarutobi took power, he first conducted a brutal purge of Anbu, adding a large number of new recruits and cleansing many of Lord Tobirama’s subordinates.
Antelope Squad entered deep into Hidden Whirlpool Village and arrived at the village leader building.
Above the village leader building was a massive Uzumaki Clan emblem, just like the emblem on the back of Konoha ninja vests.
After waiting a long time, a group of people approached from afar.
Leading them was Danzo, followed by his assistant.
Danzo at this time was in his prime, with both eyes and arms intact, showing no abnormalities.
The cross-shaped scar on his chin, paired with his extremely small pupils and four-white eyes, made him exceptionally sinister.
Those four-white eyes swept over, instilling fear in people.
Danzo went up to the village leader building, the captain and advisor assistant followed, while the squad leader, Antelope Captain, and other squad leaders guarded downstairs.
Ordinary Anbu like Yoru disappeared into the woods behind the village leader building.
Yoru stood in a tree, together with the horned ox, watching the back of the village leader building, always on guard against anyone harming Danzo.
Danzo was both a high-level advisor and Anbu Minister, holding an extremely high position.
Yoru and the horned ox had no communication, nor did any of the Anbu; everyone was like machines.
After an unknown amount of time, Danzo came downstairs and headed outside Hidden Whirlpool Village with his assistant.
It was unknown what Danzo said to the Uzumaki Clan Head, but Danzo’s expression was very ugly, as if things had not gone smoothly.
Danzo’s gaze wandered, lost in thought about something.
The captain assigned tasks to the squad leader, and the squad leader assigned tasks to the squad leaders.
Antelope Captain found the fox and the horned ox, leading the two northward.
Antelope Captain revealed that they were heading to the Land of Waves.
Yoru didn’t know the mission details and guessed wildly—perhaps to investigate the Cloud Ninja appearing in the Land of Waves.
Konoha’s main battlefield with Hidden Cloud Village was on the northern border of the Land of Hot Water, so logically, there shouldn’t be many Cloud Ninja in the Land of Waves.
This was during the Second Ninja War, with every village on high alert, impossible to dispatch so many extra personnel unless it was a major event.
Antelope Captain got a boat at the seaside, and the three used transformation jutsu to disguise as fishermen, rowing toward the northern Land of Waves.
Yoru transformed into a dark-skinned young boy.
Hunching over the boat’s edge, he wanted to use the seawater’s reflection to see if he looked like his previous life’s self.
The boat’s side stirred up white waves, seeing nothing.
Rowing was tiring; Antelope Squad collected information from nearby fishing boats, searching for suspicious ships at sea.
For Yoru, rowing was fine; the speed was slow, and unknowingly, several days passed.
By the time they reached the coastline, more than ten days had gone by.
Yoru finally welcomed another full moon, a new resurrection opportunity.
He was almost unable to eat the ration pills anymore.
The captain wouldn’t let them grill sea fish, and Yoru didn’t know which sea fish could be eaten raw, so he had to keep eating ration pills.
Ration pills wouldn’t let one starve to death, but provided no satiety; his stomach stayed empty for long periods, aching and cramping.
After landing on the Land of Waves’ soil, the squad reverted to their Anbu appearance and slipped into the coconut grove by the shore.
Yoru estimated that Anbu was conducting a blanket search; their squad kept circling one area.
After 7 days, Antelope Captain found signs of a fight.
There were no corpses on the ground; the soil was blackish-red, and from the bloodstained soil, the battle had occurred within two days.
Additionally, there were scattered kunai and ninja swords in the bushes.
The ninja sword was a standard Cloud Ninja long sword.
Antelope Captain said: “Everyone pick up a Cloud Ninja long sword for easy disguise as Cloud Ninja.”
Yoru picked up a sword and carefully wiped off the bloodstains.
Disguising as Cloud Ninja to do bad things would conveniently frame Cloud Ninja.
With this fight site as the center, Antelope Squad began searching for the enemy.
During the search, Yoru sighed— no wonder Kakashi made almost no progress in his ten years in Anbu.
Anbu missions took up all time, leaving no room for training.
Most missions involved traveling, searching, and lurking, extremely time-consuming.
Just like in his previous life, leaders had that insensitivity to the lives of those below.
He had once thought to rely on his extraordinary effort and comprehension to make a name in this ninja world.
They wouldn’t give him that opportunity.
Antelope Captain was experienced and found many clues, tracking them to a fishing village.
In the nighttime fishing village, most fishermen’s homes had lights on.
Antelope Captain pointed to a pitch-black house and waved his hand.
Yoru and the horned ox sneaked from two directions, approaching the wooden house.
For moisture and tide prevention, seaside wooden houses had elevated ground floors, very convenient to enter from below.
The horned ox on the other side suddenly wiped his face.
Yoru, having studied some architecture knowledge in his previous life, judged that one side of the small window might be the toilet, so he had chosen the other side of the large window early.
Poor horned ox—hopefully what splashed on your face was just water.
If it was free-flying, you’d have to endure; this was a mission.
Yoru lay under the floor, ear pressed to the wooden floor, listening to the movements above.
A sword suddenly stabbed down through the floor!
Fortunately, Yoru was alert enough to dodge the sword.
The blade grazed his scalp, cutting off a lock of Yoru’s hair.
The ninja sword was very long and extremely sharp, clearly a standard Cloud Ninja ninja sword.
Battle erupted instantly!
Thumping footsteps came from the wooden floor above.
The horned ox raged and directly attached an exploding tag under the floor.
Yoru cursed inwardly—damn it, the crawl space is very low; getting out takes time.
In the narrow space, the explosion’s shockwave was so concentrated, more likely to injure.
Had the horned ox really been hit by the ‘flying’ spray head?
In the explosion, Yoru rolled and crawled out.
The wooden house exploded from inside, and several Cloud Ninja rushed out.
In an instant, ninja sword gleams flashed on the beach.
