"Team Antelope! Move out!"
The squad leader wore an antelope mask, so everyone simply called him Captain Antelope.
Besides Yako, the team also included Purple Cat and Horned Ox.
Their true identities were unknown—even if the person behind the Purple Cat mask had been swapped, Yako wouldn't know.
The four-person squad exited the Forest of Death, walking along the outer wall of the Hidden Leaf.
As they walked, Yako felt something off.
This path… was heading toward the main gate?
Were they leaving the village?
That couldn't be good.
Inside the Hidden Leaf, if you run into danger, you can always yell for help.
Calling reinforcements isn't embarrassing.
But if you're outside the village and something happens, screaming your lungs out won't save you.
Team Antelope arrived at the village gates.
They hadn't submitted a departure request. Without slowing down, the four of them passed right through the gate.
One of the gate guards looked on enviously. "The ANBU are so cool. All of them wearing masks, looking all stoic."
"You could apply to join the ANBU. Then you'd get to wear a mask every day too."
"Nah, forget that. In the ANBU, you only get to show your face after you're dead."
Yako was in a foul mood. Why the hell were they leaving the village?
As they ran, Captain Antelope explained:
"Our target this time is an elite Chūnin.
He's already acting as a squad leader, leading a Genin team and delivering supplies near the front lines.
He's suspected of being involved with Iwa-nin spies. We're going to tail and investigate him, gather evidence, and eliminate him if necessary."
Yako grew even more anxious.
In the shinobi world, a gap of two ranks could mean getting one-shot.
The general ranking system went: Genin, Chūnin, Elite Chūnin, Special Jōnin, Jōnin, Elite Jōnin, Kage-level, Super-Kage, Six Paths–level.
An Elite Chūnin could easily one-shot a Genin like Yako—who wasn't even a real Chūnin, just pretending.
On the way, Yako closely observed Captain Antelope and the other two members to assess their strength.
Captain Antelope had to be at least an Elite Chūnin. Otherwise, he wouldn't casually talk about "eliminating" one.
Yako was a Genin. Purple Cat and Horned Ox were probably both Chūnin—only with that average power level could they meet the ANBU's requirement for a Chūnin-level squad.
After leaving the Land of Fire and entering the border region of the Land of Rivers, they had to be constantly on guard.
Captain Antelope soon spotted their target.
Yako used a monocular to watch the distant Leaf squad.
Their surveillance target was a sturdy, sharp-faced man.
His three Genin subordinates: one was from the Akimichi clan, one was a civilian girl with no clan emblem, and the last was a bespectacled civilian boy.
All four of them carried oversized backpacks—who knew what supplies they were delivering to the front?
After just two or three seconds of observation, Yako quickly lowered the monocular.
Was it his imagination, or had the Elite Chūnin just glanced in his direction?
Captain Antelope kept watching through the scope. "Keep a 200-meter distance. Don't get close. Slowly gather intel."
For five straight days, Team Antelope tailed the target squad from afar.
The target team kept moving back and forth between the borders of the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire, constantly delivering supplies.
It had been five peaceful days.
Yako was keeping count.
Three days spent at Crane Moon Tavern, four days to reach the border, and now five days of tailing—that made twelve days total. Just thirteen more days till the full moon.
He hoped the mission would continue quietly like this.
Suddenly, Captain Antelope shouted, "We've got movement!"
Their surveillance target had circled behind a large tree, hiding from his squad.
He shoved a scroll under the tree roots, then swiftly walked away.
"Go! Confirm the scroll's contents. Stick to the plan!"
All four ANBU dashed toward the tree.
Yako ran fast.
He had to—whoever gets there first gets to pick the weakest opponent.
He veered slightly, aiming for the civilian girl in the target squad.
She was just eleven and a civilian—had to be weak.
Captain Antelope reached the tree first, retrieved the scroll, and glanced at its contents.
"He's an Iwagakure spy! Eliminate the target!"
It wasn't easy for Iwagakure to embed a spy, especially one at the Elite Chūnin level.
That meant the spy likely had subordinates. Based on past cases, it was probably one of his students.
The Akimichi Genin definitely wasn't the spy—he was from a ninja clan.
That left the two civilian kids. Either could be the mole.
As for figuring out which one? ANBU standard procedure didn't bother with that.
Yako hurled two kunai at the civilian girl.
One flew straight at her left eye, meant to draw her attention.
The other aimed at her abdomen—for a guaranteed hit.
She instinctively raised her kunai and deflected the one coming at her eye.
But she left her guard open elsewhere, and the second kunai struck her belly.
Blood sprayed.
Yako didn't know if she was really the spy, but he showed no mercy. He kicked her to the ground and pinned both her hands to the dirt with kunai.
The Akimichi Genin nearby lost it the moment he saw her bleeding.
He took a kunai from Purple Cat without flinching and charged at Yako.
Yako stood still, watching the Akimichi come.
Purple Cat was chasing him from behind. With any luck, the Genin wouldn't reach him.
But then the Akimichi suddenly pulled out a secret pill and swallowed it.
Yako didn't even see what color it was.
Crap!
"Human Bullet Tank!"
As expected of a ninja clan heir, the Akimichi transformed into a massive spinning ball of flesh and barreled toward Yako.
Yako jumped backward in a panic.
This wasn't good. If things went sideways here...
The Human Bullet Tank caught him and smashed him against a massive boulder.
At the last possible moment, hidden behind the rolling meatball, Yako quietly formed hand signs and activated Hidden Fish in Earth Technique.
His body vanished, slipping into the stone.
Thank goodness he'd learned that jutsu from the system. Otherwise, he would've died here.
Chunks of rock flew everywhere.
The technique was about to end, so Yako reappeared. He didn't want anyone to know he could use Earth Release.
The Human Bullet Tank was massive—no one could see anything behind it.
To sell it better, Yako deliberately let himself get run over and cracked a few bones in the process.
"That's enough!"
Captain Antelope barked a command.
The Akimichi Genin heard the unfamiliar voice behind him, shrank back to normal size, and turned around.
In the distance, the Elite Chūnin spy was nailed to a tree with kunai.
The female Genin had been stabbed in the chest was quickly finished by Captain Antelope's ninja blade.
As for the bespectacled Genin, Horned Ox had killed him with a kunai.
"Who are you people?!"
The Akimichi Genin was about to say more, but Captain Antelope appeared instantly and punched him in the gut, snapping him out of his frenzy.
"We're the ANBU of the Hidden Leaf. That was an Iwa spy. Calm down and don't cause trouble."
The civilian Genin was dead—no big deal. But the Akimichi boy had a clan backing him. Couldn't just kill him outright.
He crawled over to the girl and wept bitterly.
"I… I never told you that I… I liked you…"
Leaf shinobi mature early. Who knew what kind of feelings had developed between them? But now, the girl was dead, and death cuts off all emotions.
Captain Antelope walked up to Yako, inspecting his injuries.
Yako quickly spoke up:
"Captain! The Will of Fire! We can't abandon our fellow Leaf comrades! I'm just injured, right? You're not leaving me behind, are you?"
"Useless. Now we'll have to waste ten more days so you can heal."
Hearing that the captain wouldn't leave him behind, Yako breathed a sigh of relief.
Then a new thought struck him—ten days to recover?
Wouldn't that drag things out till the next full moon? Wasn't that… actually a good thing?
Horned Ox carried him back to the Leaf. Half a month of recovery later, the full moon finally arrived.
But so did a new mission.
Danzo, the head of ANBU, deployed two full ANBU squads to the Land of Waves and the Land of Whirlpools.
Yako had a bad feeling.
The Uzumaki Clan of the Land of Whirlpools… weren't they about to be wiped out?
A nobody like him… what could he even do in something that world-shaking?