The southern coast of Uzushiogakure was lined with beautiful white beaches and waters as green as jade.
But the northern coast, where Yako stood now, was nothing but jagged black stone.
Craggy reefs stretched along the shoreline, rough and uneven beneath his feet.
Yako carried Hiramekarei across his back, the massive twin-blade sealed tight in layers of reinforced binding tape.
He stood atop the tallest reef, staring out over the ocean.
'Come on… just one of you show up.
You see this outline under the seals? Doesn't it look familiar?
Maybe like a certain blade you idiots lost?'
He was bait. Obvious, open bait.
That was the point.
Suddenly, a thin streak of black sliced through the air.
Yako's eyes lit up.
'Finally.'
A kunai embedded with an explosive tag slammed into the reef below his feet.
A thunderous blast followed.
Smoke surged upward, swallowing both him and the stone.
It wasn't meant to kill.
The Mist-nin were familiar with Copper Fox's dossier.
The explosive tag was a marker—a signal flare for others nearby.
Sure enough, once the smoke cleared…
Yako was still standing.
The kunai had done nothing.
But the shockwave from the explosion did rattle his head a bit.
He looked up—
and saw a tidal wave.
Chakra churned across the sea.
A towering wall of water, nearly thirty meters high, came crashing toward shore.
Atop the crest stood three Mist jōnin.
All three bore the same shark-like fangs.
Yako narrowed his eyes.
'Shark teeth again… What bloodline do you people have?'
Oddly, his mind drifted.
He recalled a joke from his past life:
"Tell a dirty story using only one word."
"Oh."
He looked up at the shark-toothed kunoichi.
…Ouch.
He shook the thought off with a faint smile.
'Yeah. Fang-girls are definitely not waifu material.'
Compared to that, Terumi Mei was a goddess—and she didn't even have the teeth.
Wait, wasn't she older than Kakashi?
She'd still be in the Academy right now…
The three Mist jōnin saw Copper Fox shaking his head from afar and frowned.
Were they being mocked?
They could see the sword on his back had been sealed.
Hiramekarei was unusable for now.
The wave crashed downward.
Water surged inland for hundreds of meters—Mist territory now.
Yako turned and bolted.
He had to drag the Mist-nin onto land.
As long as they had seawater beneath them, they'd always have an escape route.
The wave shattered reef, snapped palm trees, and roared toward him—
but Yako was fast.
The tide couldn't keep up.
Behind the wave came the mist.
Thick, wet, and choking.
Trailing the three jōnin were three full squads—Mist-nin by the dozens.
Yako clicked his tongue.
'Good news: we hooked a whale.
Bad news: it might break the damn rod.'
Once the enemy left the coast, Yako sprinted even farther inland.
He couldn't afford to be caught too early.
It was pitch-black.
The dense fog made visibility worse.
He couldn't just run blindly—he had to make sure the Mist-nin stayed close behind.
Every now and then, he released small jets of water to slow himself down, like laying a trail of crumbs.
Then—
A blade cut through the mist.
It swung for his gut.
Visibility had dropped to under two meters.
He hadn't even sensed the attacker coming.
If not for Copperlight Absolute Defense, that slash would've gutted him.
The sword snapped in three pieces against his stomach.
It didn't hurt him.
But it did stop him.
Two more Mist-nin burst from the fog, hands already forming seals.
Yako's expression hardened.
He feared no blades. No fireballs.
But capture jutsu?
Those were dangerous.
And these hand seals—
Water Prison.
He knew what this was.
Suna had already spread his file around the Hidden Villages.
Mist had clearly planned for how to handle Copper Fox.
"Earth Style: Stone Thorn Spears!"
With just three seals, the ground erupted in a forest of jagged stone, driving the Mist-nin back.
That was when the signal fire lit up.
From deep within the jungle, a dozen fiery glows appeared.
The trap was sprung.
All of Yellow Dog's Fire Release shinobi attacked at once.
And when the squad leader struck—
the entire forest burned.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bullet!"
A thick, fifty-meter-long fire dragon coiled through the trees, roaring toward the heart of the mist.
More than twenty Konoha shinobi followed with Flame Bullets and Great Fireballs.
Their flames tore through the shadows—
and through the outlines of men caught inside the fog.
Yako slammed a Earth Clone Jutsu, disappearing into the ground.
When he re-emerged, he was already dozens of meters away.
The mist was boiling now.
Then—finally—scattered.
The fog lifted.
One of the Hōzuki jōnin, seeing Hiramekarei on Yako's back, shouted in fury.
"There he is—get him!"
He formed a seal.
Another wave surged.
If it engulfed Yako, they could trap him in Water Prison.
And all his defense would be useless.
But—
"Water Style: Severing Wave!"
A scythe of pressurized water split the wave in two—
and sliced through the Mist-nin's chest.
If it had been any other jōnin, he'd be dead.
But this one turned to liquid.
Hōzuki's signature.
His body splashed apart, then reformed in the shallows.
Still, the fear in his eyes was clear.
I would've died…
Since when could Copper Fox use such strong Water Release?
Yako didn't stop.
He kept up the Severing Waves, battering the jōnin back and forcing him to constantly regenerate.
Then—
A shadow struck.
From the trees came another dragon.
A fire dragon.
Yellow Dog.
He timed it perfectly.
The Hōzuki had just reformed—
and the flames swallowed him whole.
The man's scream echoed through the jungle.
A perfect strike.
The timing. The scale. The speed.
Yako had never seen better Fire Release.
That was Yellow Dog.
The strongest Fire Release user he'd ever witnessed.
Even the Uchiha didn't match this.
With one jōnin dead, the tide turned instantly.
Yako and Yellow Dog charged forward, driving the enemy back.
The battle raged from the jungle to the coast.
By the time they reached the shore, the reef was littered with Mist corpses.
One jōnin escaped—
diving into the waves.
A loss. But not a bad one.
Two jōnin dead. Dozens of soldiers down.
The ambush had worked.
—
Out at sea, Kurisame Tsurumaru stood on deck, playing with his wire threads.
"Hah…" he snorted.
"I thought I'd see the next wielder of Hiramekarei in action."
"Turns out I just saw three failures."
"The Hōzuki—trash."
"And that old bastard Genshō? His handpicked champion?
Trash."
"Two corpses.
One half-dead coward."
The last survivor—barely able to reform—collapsed onto the deck, panting heavily.
"We have to tell the clan," he gasped.
"That Copper Fox wasn't alone. There was a Sarutobi jōnin at his side."
"His Fire Style…
I've never seen anything like it.
Not even the Uchiha can match him—"
"Spare me." Kurisame sneered.
"You sound like a jellyfish after high tide."
"Stronger than the Uchiha?
Don't insult me just because you got your ass kicked."