"Purple Cat!"
The moment she heard Yako's shout, Purple Cat knew exactly what the fox was planning.
That strategy... it was do-or-die. Risky as hell. For both of them.
If it failed—if even a single part of it slipped—both their lives would be forfeit.
Yako dashed in the direction White Ram had pointed, moving like he meant to take Kato Dan down with him.
Purple Cat stared at his retreating back, then immediately cast the Mind Body Switch Technique, hurling her soul into Yako's mind.
Yako offered no resistance. He let her in without a fight.
Now there were two souls in one body.
Purple Cat seized control of his movements and burst forward using the Body Flicker Technique, a silver flash slicing through the rain.
Yako was gambling.
He was betting Kato Dan would strike the moment he saw someone charging his hiding spot.
He was also betting that one plus one really could be greater than two. That two souls—his and Purple Cat's—could stand against a man like Kato Dan.
Then—his foot struck the earth wrong.
His body faltered.
And behind him, Purple Cat went deathly pale.
The color drained from her neck where it peeked out beneath the mask.
Her soul had just collided with another inside Yako's mind.
A third presence.
Her consciousness flickered and failed.
Right before she blacked out, she had only one hope—that she had at least drained something from the enemy.
Two souls were already a massive burden on one brain. Three crashing into each other?
No one walks away from that untouched.
Even Kato Dan, with his formidable spirit, found himself rattled. It was the first time he'd encountered something like this—two separate souls embedded in the same mind.
His own soul surged forward… only to be met with resistance. Not total resistance, but enough to shake his edge.
He already knew the fox's soul was different. Strange. Too bright. Brighter than it should be.
Inside Yako's mind, the sensation was bizarre.
Since being hit by the Mind Body Switch Technique, he couldn't feel his own limbs. His control over his body was gone.
Between him and his physical self was a thick fog. Purple Cat's soul.
Then another fog shoved its way in—blunt, crude, invasive.
A third soul.
All three clashed like storms meeting in the dark.
Purple Cat's soul was the first to suffer, shredding itself as it scraped against Kato Dan's.
But the moment she fell back, Yako's true soul surged out from beneath the haze—furious and foreign.
He wasn't from this world. His spirit didn't obey its rules.
'You want to say your forbidden techniques beat mine? Fine. I'll give you that.But you dare say your soul is stronger than mine? I refuse.'
Yako rammed his soul into Kato Dan's like a battering ram.
Once.
Twice.
And then—Kato Dan's soul cracked, dissipating into nothing.
Purple Cat's consciousness limped back to her own body, wounded.
Yako felt like a spike had been driven through his skull.
He stumbled to a halt, then turned and ran back to the squad.
White Ram had only given him a direction before he died, not a distance. For all he knew, Kato Dan could've been miles away—already recovered, already setting another trap.
That attack was never meant to be decisive. It was just to buy an opening.
'Next time, Kato Dan... we are enemies to the death.'
Back at the squad, Yako hoisted Purple Cat onto his back.
"Run! Out of the Land of Rain! Head toward the Fire Country!"
Purple Cat lay slumped across his shoulders, her breathing faint, her limbs limp.
Kato Dan's Soul Separation Technique didn't just control minds—it killed them.
And now Yako, walking the razor's edge between the Senju and the ANBU, was paying the price.
He'd stopped Danzo from seizing the Uzumaki sealing scroll. Stopped the ANBU from being shackled by his seals.
But it hadn't been the ANBU who came to kill him.
It was the Senju.
Because they were close to the truth.
They suspected the fall of the Uzushio Village and the events of the Nine-Tails Sealing Night weren't just tragedies—they were operations. Orchestrated from above.
And the Senju—furious and ruthless—acted.
More than twenty ANBU had died to Kato Dan already.
Yako felt like he'd handed them the blade.
'I've done so much for the Senju. I practically led them to salvation.If it weren't for me, they'd have lost all 900 of their shinobi that night.'
Before he died, White Ram had warned him—Captain Yellow Dog was beginning to suspect.
Yako couldn't explain anything. Not now.
He couldn't risk exposing his true identity, or where he really stood.
He had to disappear for now. Bury the doubt. Make Yellow Dog forget.
Only then, maybe, could he reach out to the Senju again.
Or... maybe he'd just kill Yellow Dog.
Being my enemy is dangerous.Being my superior? Deadly.
Suddenly, Yako remembered something.
He left behind a Shadow Clone.
"I'll have the clone cover our retreat! Keep running!"
Once the team was safely away, the clone approached White Ram's body.
Without hesitation, it drove a kunai into his skull.
Rain continued to fall, washing away the blood beneath the corpse.
This was a cursed country. A place that never stopped weeping.
No one could be allowed to find information on that body. No one could learn that White Ram had told Yellow Dog to suspect the fox.
He was sorry—but the corpse had to go.
The clone completed its mission and vanished. Memories surged back into Yako's mind.
He exhaled in relief.
With someone like Yellow Dog watching, there was no such thing as too careful.
Women and children could afford mistakes.
ANBU couldn't.
As soon as they crossed into the Fire Country, Yako signaled for aid.
A flare rose into the sky.
Not long after, another of the same color answered from the trees.
Thank god. ANBU nearby.
He needed backup. He needed a Medical-nin. Purple Cat's soul had been torn.
They weaved through the trees, fast and silent.
Then, just past two trunks—they saw them.
Three shinobi on a tree branch, waiting.
Yako froze.
Danzo was standing in the center.
Bandages over one eye. The other cold and unreadable.
"You look like hell," he said to his subordinates. "Who did you run into?"
Yako swallowed.
"Lord Danzo. Our squad was tasked with investigating the recent ANBU deaths. In the southwest of the Land of Rain, we found a suspect."
He was already calculating in his head.
Could he pit one beast against another?
Could he feed the wolf to the tiger?
Time for a report—nine truths, one lie.
"Lord Danzo. We encountered three Konoha shinobi under powerful Genjutsu. One Jōnin, two Tokubetsu Jōnin. I believe the one behind it is the killer."
"Only a Genjutsu of that level could've taken down so many ANBU."
He continued, voice calm, eyes sharp.
"As we tried to investigate, more and more of my team fell under his control. We turned on each other."
"Captain Leaf Monkey. Captain White Ram. Several others. All dead."
"I only managed to pinpoint the general area. I never got close."
He was careful.
He blurred Uchiha Madara and Kato Dan into one.
He knew both. Danzo knew neither.
None of his teammates had the intel. And Danzo wouldn't question what didn't exist.