"Why'd you stop running? Is this all you've got?
Go on—keep running. I'll even give you another two kilometers. Run as much as you want. Savor the thrill of being hunted."
With his arms folded across his chest, Yako looked ahead and asked lazily,
"Tell me Raikage's aid, Totai… over five hundred Cloud ninja invaded the Land of Hot Water. Ryuuren is dead. Gomoi is dead too. So how does failure feel?"
"How does it feel?"
Totai formed a hand seal, ready to launch a jutsu at any moment.
Then he sneered.
"What am I supposed to feel? Ninja are born to die.
Right now, what I feel is exactly what Sarutobi Shinnosuke felt before he died.
If you want to know what I'm feeling, why don't you go ask Sarutobi Shinnosuke?
Ah, but what a pity… he died so miserably.
Three of us from the Cloud. Three from the Stone.
Six elite shinobi striking together—and we blasted Sarutobi Shinnosuke so thoroughly there wasn't even bone dust left behind.
Such a shame.
You won't even be able to dig through his corpse's brain and learn what his final thoughts were before he died.
Actually…"
Totai grinned viciously.
"I want to ask you something too.
Do you regret it?"
Yako slowly lowered his arms.
The instant Konoha's Fox dropped his hands, every Cloud ninja present visibly stiffened.
Then, in eerie unison, they all took half a step back.
"Heh."
Yako let out a cold chuckle.
"So death really can squeeze out a person's hidden potential.
Totao… in your final moments, you actually managed to piss me off with trash talk.
I'll admit it—you've got a silver tongue.
When it comes to running your mouth, you're unmatched in the entire Hidden Cloud."
His smile sharpened.
"So now, I hope your bones are every bit as hard as your words."
Yako's voice dropped.
"Originally, I was planning to spare one or two of you. Someone had to survive long enough to carry Konoha's message back to the Raikage.
But then you had to go and mock one of Konoha's heroes.
You dared to mock Lord Sarutobi Shinnosuke.
Who in the entire shinobi world doesn't know that I was raised up by Lord Shinnosuke himself?
If Lord Shinnosuke hadn't put Konoha first—if he hadn't sent me away to pursue a missing-nin during a critical moment—
then with just the six of you…"
His eyes darkened.
"How could you possibly have killed him?"
Yako's expression went flat.
"I've changed my mind."
A beat.
"Fuck reason.
You dared mock Lord Shinnosuke.
So now…"
He looked at them like he was looking at corpses.
"You all die."
Kimekōtō felt a wave of sorrow well up in his chest.
Lord Fox truly was loyal.
Truly righteous.
A man of real feeling.
After all, Lord Fox had been Lord Shinnosuke's most loyal subordinate.
How could their bond possibly have been shallow?
Then Yako clapped his hands together.
"Wood Release: Thousand-Hand Wrathful King!"
The world split apart.
A colossal wooden giant, five hundred meters tall, erupted from the earth.
Kimekōtō and the fifty-odd Konoha ninja rose into the air along with it, carried upward as the massive construct climbed higher and higher.
By the time they reached the shoulder of the Thousand-Hand Wrathful King, they were already several hundred meters above the battlefield.
And even standing there, they found the shoulder broad enough to feel almost absurdly spacious.
The surrounding hills and low ridges had shrunk into nothing more than little dirt mounds below.
So this…
This was what the world looked like from the perspective of the truly powerful.
Kimekōtō looked up toward Lord Fox, standing atop the head of the Wrathful King, and his eyes filled with sympathy.
Lord Shinnosuke's death must have wounded him deeply.
Otherwise…
Why would he use such a horrifying, overwhelmingly powerful secret technique just to kill a mere twenty-odd Cloud ninja?
It was honestly overkill to the point of absurdity.
Like using a warhammer to crush a cockroach.
Then Yako's furious roar rolled through the night sky.
"Die!"
"Top Transformed Buddha!"
"Wrathful King: Thousand Hands!"
Hundreds of gigantic wooden fists smashed downward all at once.
Each fist was dozens of meters wide.
Hundreds of them came crashing down in a relentless storm.
Forget Totai—
even if the Third Raikage himself had been standing there, he'd have been beaten half to death by that barrage.
It was too high up.
Kimekōtō couldn't even hear the screams from below.
The rear fists shattered the fists before them, and every wave of impact came down harder than the last.
The violence of it was almost obscene.
At long last, the dust finally settled.
And silence fell over the earth.
Several wooden hands descended and gently lowered Kimekōtō and the others back to the ground.
Then, with a burst of white smoke, the Thousand-Hand Wrathful King vanished.
There wasn't a trace of the Cloud ninja left.
Kimekōtō searched carefully through the ruins.
Eventually, he found a cracked fragment of Lava Release rubber.
He brought it back and said quietly,
"Lord Fox… your great vengeance has been fulfilled. Please, take care of yourself."
Yako didn't answer.
Instead, he lifted his head at a perfect forty-five-degree angle and stared into the night sky, as if lost in remembrance.
Yellow Dog…
Now that you're really dead…
I kind of miss you.
Back when I first entered ANBU, you were already my squad captain.
After all these years, how could there be no feelings at all?
Of course…
Once he thought about how he was now one step closer to becoming ANBU Commander, the pain of that grief eased up considerably.
"Let's go," Yako said at last.
"We're heading back to the Capital of the Land of Hot Water. The pursuit is over."
A few days later, in the Capital of the Land of Hot Water—
inside a luxurious bathhouse—
Yako was enjoying a shared bath with Yakushi Nonō.
Coated in bath soap, Nonō's smooth, slippery body pressed gently against Yako's back as she massaged him.
Yako narrowed his eyes slightly in contentment.
"Nonō, with Sarutobi Shinnosuke dead, I'm confident I can take the position of ANBU Commander.
And with Sarutobi Einosuke dead as well, the intelligence network has lost its head.
You'll need to make a few trips during this period and reestablish contact with the spy leaders in several of the great nations.
Before the others in the village realize what's happening, we'll seize control of the entire intelligence system first.
Once I become ANBU Commander, you'll serve as my assistant—just like Long-Arm Ape did before—handling ANBU's spy network for me."
He paused, then added in a lower voice:
"From then on, when you leave the village and when you stay will be entirely up to you.
All you'll need to do is keep the intelligence flowing in on time.
And the orphanage…"
His tone softened slightly.
"It'll be brought under ANBU protection too.
No one will dare lay a hand on it again."
Emotion surged in Yakushi Nonō's chest.
From behind him, she wrapped both arms around Yako's solid chest and held him tightly.
Yako felt the slick warmth pressing against his back and reached out, pulling her around to the front.
A few minutes later, ripples spread in widening circles across the hot spring water.
Only after half an hour did those ripples finally begin to calm.
Once she had cleaned herself up, Yakushi Nonō reluctantly took her leave to begin taking control of the intelligence network.
Fortunately, she was already extremely familiar with that system.
It wouldn't be too difficult.
Later that night, deep into the second half of the evening, Nara Kyoichi arrived outside the bathhouse in a hurry, carrying a scroll.
Hippo stopped him at the entrance.
"Jonin Kyoichi, Lord Fox isn't wearing his mask at the moment. It would be inconvenient for him to receive visitors. Please wait outside while I inform him."
Nara Kyoichi gritted his teeth internally.
Hippo had once been one of Shinnosuke's direct squad captains.
But now his reaction speed was astonishingly fast.
He had already put on the full look of Lord Fox's loyal hound.
Back in ANBU, Fox had been Shinnosuke's number one loyal dog.
Hippo had been number two.
Now that Shinnosuke was gone…
the pack had a new king.
Kyoichi hated it.
Why could Hippo become one of Lord Fox's trusted confidants—
but not him?
As one of the Nara Clan's key jonin, Nara Kyoichi had access to a great deal of confidential information involving the Ino-Shika-Chō clans.
From what he knew, Yamanaka Riko—known in ANBU as Purple Cat—was Fox's assistant deputy commander and held considerable authority within the organization.
While Fox remained stationed in the Land of Hot Water, it was Purple Cat who had been handling ANBU's daily operations back in Konoha.
And now Hippo had also thrown in fully under Fox's banner.
Only the Nara Clan…
Only they remained not quite close enough to him.
As far as Kyoichi knew, Nara Meika had carried out a few missions alongside Fox before, but they had never developed any especially close bond.
The real problem was that he had been too fiercely loyal to the Third Hokage before.
And once you leaned too hard in one direction, it was difficult to suddenly pivot.
Before long, Fox emerged from the bathhouse.
The group moved into a nearby lounge and sat down together.
As Nara Kyoichi looked at Lord Fox lounging carelessly in his reclining chair, he found himself thinking:
So this is what composure looks like when it belongs to a true monster.
If it had been anyone else stationed in the Land of Hot Water, they would have been tense all the time.
After all, this was the front line of Konoha's conflict with the Cloud.
Not long ago, the Daimyō of the Land of Hot Water had been assassinated without anyone noticing a thing.
And no one even knew whether that terrifyingly powerful murderer had truly left yet.
And yet with Lord Fox here…
He could still find time to soak leisurely in the bathhouse whenever he pleased.
As long as Lord Fox remained in the Land of Hot Water—
the Cloud wouldn't dare act recklessly.
That…
was deterrence.
A man who could beat a Tailed Beast to death…
Of course he was terrifying.
Nara Kyoichi lowered his voice and said,
"Lord Fox… the village has sent a reply."