The Anbu had been lying in wait within the barrier for over ten days, all for this one opportunity.
They launched their assault the moment Uzushio Village was at its weakest—when all its forces were battered and bloodied.
Behind the mask, Yako furrowed his brow.
That bastard Danzo didn't even lead the charge. He was hiding at the back.
No wonder the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, never let Danzo become Hokage. His Will of Fire was pathetic. He didn't know the meaning of sacrifice for his comrades—only how to send others ahead to scout and die while he reaped the rewards.
Leading the charge was the Yellow Dog Unit Captain, putting Yako close to the front line.
It was a night that seemed endless. Finally, the Uzumaki shinobi saw Konoha's forces!
From their point of view, it looked like the Konoha shinobi had just crested the hill and were now storming down it.
In the ancestral shrine, the elderly and children sobbed until their eyes were red. At long last—Konoha reinforcements had arrived.
But after watching for a while, they realized something strange: only a handful of Konoha shinobi were visible.
Where were the rest?
Why were there so few? Weren't there supposed to be over a thousand Konoha shinobi engaging the allied forces of the Mist and Cloud?
Yako followed the Yellow Dog Captain into Uzushio Village. Corpses were strewn across the ground.
Some had died from suffocation inside Water Prisons, others were sliced apart by Cloud shinobi blades, and still others drowned by Mist Water Release techniques.
As they passed a wall, Yako saw what looked like a paper-thin human.
It was a civilian crushed flat by Water Release—flattened like a pancake.
Their head was a misshapen oval. Their chest pressed against their back, broken ribs sticking out from the side.
The Water Release was incredibly powerful—dense and precise. It resembled Water Dragon Jutsu in form.
Many of the houses nearby had their roofs burned off, yet the ground was soaked, thick with mud from lingering Water Release.
Fire and water. Total chaos.
As they charged across the central river, Yako turned his head toward where the Third Mizukage had fallen.
The Mizukage was dead. Three squads of Mist shinobi stood guard over his corpse.
As for the Uzumaki clan leader's body, it had been nailed to the side of a ship by Mist shinobi—a humiliating display.
The weak suffer. The fallen are dishonored.
A Konoha squad rushed toward the Mizukage's corpse, intending to take down the Mist guards and retrieve the body.
There could be secrets in that corpse—secrets behind some powerful technique.
The Uzumaki clan leader's body was also of great value, possibly holding clues to their sealing jutsu.
Everywhere the eye could see—flesh and blood. Rivers of it. It was horrifying.
Yako continued charging forward with Captain Black Ape.
Once they reached the north bank, Uzumaki corpses became more numerous.
These shinobi, like those from Konoha, bore the Uzumaki crest on their backs.
So many red-haired corpses, all dead here. The Uzumaki clan was once a mighty force in the Land of Whirlpools, numbering in the thousands.
The Konoha Anbu had reached the north bank, yet the Mist shinobi still hadn't responded. They were in a frenzy, hunting down Uzumaki like madmen.
The Cloud shinobi, seeing this, quickly adjusted their formation—preparing to defend their rear against Konoha.
The Yellow Dog Captain formed hand seals and unleashed a massive Fire Release.
A colossal fireball engulfed over a dozen buildings.
That kind of Fire Release… Yako suspected the Yellow Dog Captain might be from the Sarutobi clan.
Cloud shinobi in the center leapt away, frantically dodging the flames.
On either side, two Anbu squads flanked the enemy and engaged directly, giving the Yellow Dog Unit a chance to break through.
Following the fireball, they charged through the middle of the Cloud formation.
Yako looked left and right. They were moving too fast—deep behind enemy lines already.
Soon, the Yellow Dog Unit reached the gap between the Cloud and Mist forces.
But the Mist still didn't care. They kept slaughtering the Uzumaki in blind vengeance for their Mizukage.
This allowed the Yellow Dog Unit to close in on the Four Violet Flame Formation.
"Fox! Rear guard!"
At Captain Black Ape's command, Yako had no choice but to fall back to the rear of the squad.
Behind him, the Cloud shinobi gave chase.
With a solid grasp of kenjutsu, Yako was able to read their movements and react in time.
After cutting down two Cloud shinobi, he caught the eye of one of their squad leaders.
He hadn't expected to find such a skilled kenjutsu user among Konoha's forces.
The Cloud squad leader rushed in, slashing down from above.
Yako quickly raised his blade to block.
But the expected clash never came.
The Cloud shinobi's shoulder, elbow, and wrist all twisted with incredible speed—turning the downward slash into a sudden horizontal strike!
Yako's lower abdomen tightened.
His iron vest split open, his skin and flesh sliced clean through.
Blood flowed down from the wound, muscles torn apart.
Terrifying kenjutsu.
This Cloud shinobi's blade technique was bizarre and deadly.
This wasn't beginner-level kenjutsu—he had clearly mastered some advanced technique.
Another horizontal sweep came from the Cloud leader.
Yako hurriedly raised his blade to block again.
Once more, the man's joints and muscles forced the blade to change course—this time turning the sweep into a sudden thrust.
Yako's thigh was pierced. Blood sprayed out over a meter.
After three exchanges, Yako made a grim realization: he hadn't even touched the enemy's blade.
In the final strike, his throat was pierced. Yako died atop a rooftop.
Staring up at the sky, his back arched over the ridge, he saw an upside-down world.
The ruined Uzushio Village. The wavering Four Violet Flame Formation. Corpses young and old littering the streets...
He was one of them now.
Danzo walked leisurely down the street, not even noticing that one of his fox-masked Anbu had just died beside him.
Everything went black. The world shifted.
Moonlight reflected in Yako's eyes, which changed from dazed to focused.
His consciousness returned—he was back inside the Invisibility Barrier atop the mountain near Uzushio Village.
In his previous life, he had crouched here for ten days, only to be killed in seconds by that Cloud squad leader during the final charge.
[Arc of the Waning Moon activated!]
You may revive once per month under the full moon, returning to that night.
You have earned a reward draw:
-Chakra Nature: Lightning
-Chūnin-Level Chakra Reserves (stackable)
-Cloud-Style Kenjutsu (Beginner)
Chakra Nature: Lightning was easy to rule out. The other two were tempting.
Chūnin-level chakra reserves—he needed that badly.
With more chakra, combat would go much smoother.
But Cloud-Style Kenjutsu... he remembered it from the original story. The style Omoi used—famous for its deceptive movements.
In his last life, that Cloud shinobi had killed him before he could even touch his blade. Every strike had torn into his body.
After thinking it through, Yako chose Cloud-Style Kenjutsu.
In an instant, he grasped the entire style.
Lying prone on the ground, observing Uzushio Village through binoculars, Yako felt the changes in his muscles and joints.
Cloud-Style Kenjutsu—just as he'd guessed—was a unique form of swordplay.
During each swing, the user twists their waist, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, changing the blade's trajectory to confuse the enemy, bypass their guard, and strike their weak points.
Once mastered, the user's arms flow like clouds—thus the name: Cloud-Style Kenjutsu.
With this style, he might at least survive a bit longer on the battlefield.
Even now, after learning it, his joints felt noticeably more flexible.