"It's me, Fox."
Hearing that familiar voice behind him, Yagami relaxed.
He didn't turn around. He bowed his head and spoke as if to himself.
"Yuka, Princess Kushina has already been taken by Senju Rinki, so you don't need to worry about Kushina's safety.
The Uzumaki clan's Book of Seals is in Senju Rinki's hands now.
The Anbu have learned that the Mist-nin intend to seize the Uzumaki elder's sealing scroll.
The Land of Waves lies too close to the Land of Fire and the Land of Water — it's dangerous. Leave this place as soon as you can.
Head north to other countries. They may not be perfectly safe either, but they're not as dangerous as the Land of Waves."
A long silence answered him.
Yuka asked slowly, "Fox, the Uzumaki clan was wiped out. What role did the Hidden Leaf Anbu play in that?"
Yagami fell into silence for a long time.
He didn't know how to explain. The tragedy of the Uzumaki clan was a tangle of causes.
With the death of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, the Leaf was weakened. The Uzumaki sought a way to protect themselves by sealing the Three-Tails, and that clashed with the Leaf's choice for the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. The dispute escalated, and finally all three great villages developed murderous intent.
Sympathy aside, Yagami didn't want to make things worse by stirring up debate here.
"It's not clear yet. I'm still investigating," he said.
Uzumaki Yuka tossed him a scroll.
"Fox, this is my summoning scroll. It contains a contract seal and a summoning jutsu.
I want to share the long-beaked heron summon with you. That way we can pass messages."
Yagami accepted the scroll and tucked it away carefully.
Later, the heron could return the scroll to Uzumaki Yuka.
The herob couldn't be used openly; learning two seals — a contract seal and a summoning jutsu — was a small gain.
By coincidence, the investment Uzumaki Yuka had made in him paid off.
"Yuka, don't contact Princess Kushina for now," Yagami warned. "There will be eyes everywhere around her. Anyone who touches her will be discovered by the Hidden Leaf Anbu.
Go. The Land of Waves will soon be flooded with enemies."
"Take care, Fox."
"You too, Yuka."
A faint rustle of leaves answered them.
Among the daimyō of the Land of Waves, some of the guardian shinobi were Uzumaki. If they wanted to escape, they had channels to do so. Besides, the Yatagarasu could carry away quite a few people.
Not long after, a group arrived in the distance — Captain Yak's unit.
The platoon split into several directions and entered the woods.
Black Ape's power had dropped after losing an arm, so he and Yagami brought up the rear together.
A brief, fierce skirmish erupted inside the forest.
Both sides implicitly avoided large-scale ninjutsu, relying on taijutsu instead.
Captain Hippo's unit killed several Mist-nin and captured a squad leader.
A muffled groan came from the trees. Hippo himself questioned the captured Mist-nin leader.
Half an hour later, Hippo wiped blood from his hands on a leaf and gathered the squad leaders.
"Interrogation worked. The Mist-nin led us to a key person — the head of the daimyō's guardian shinobi.
After the Uzumaki remnants fled to the Land of Waves, they relied primarily on that guardian shinobi captain's protection.
That captain is an Uzumaki anbu-level shinobi. Kyoto already harbored many Uzumaki. They've gone into hiding.
The guardian captain must be killed. Only then can we force them to hand over the sealing scroll."
Many of the Land of Waves' missions had been assigned to Eddy Village for years. That was one of the Leaf's biggest grievances.
Some Uzumaki had lived permanently in the Land of Waves — especially couples where both spouses were Uzumaki shinobi. They had settled there long-term.
Hippo spoke next.
"The eight Uzumaki kunoichi who escaped Eddy — according to the intelligence the Anbu got, there are forty-eight Uzumaki permanently residing in the Land of Waves or currently on missions when the clan was destroyed.
That's 56 Uzumaki in total. The Mist-nin killed three, so at most 53 remain.
Our task is to find the guardian shinobi captain before the Mist-nin do."
Eddy Village was truly pitiful. All their intelligence had been shared with the Hidden Leaf. The Leaf knew the Waves' Uzumaki down to the last digit.
They had been sold out without even knowing it.
Black Ape said, "Hippo, I think the priority now is cutting off the Land of Waves' support for the Uzumaki shinobi.
Go straight to the daimyō's castle and offer to take over the daimyō's defenses. Convince him to give up the Uzumaki guardians."
Hippo's eyes lit up, then narrowed in doubt.
"Negotiations at that national level usually need the foreign affairs advisor Mitokado Homura himself. If we go, will the daimyō accept our proposal?"
Black Ape replied, "You don't need the daimyō's full agreement. You only need to make the daimyō aware that the Uzumaki clan has been annihilated. Make him stop fully backing the Uzumaki guardian captain.
The daimyō has twelve guardian shinobi. Eight are Uzumaki, and the remaining four are Leaf shinobi.
Those four plus our forces will be enough to shift the Land of Waves toward the Hidden Leaf.
With the Uzumaki clan destroyed, we cannot allow the Land of Waves' mission shares to fall to the Hidden Mist Village."
Hippo nodded repeatedly.
The two captains made their decision: Black Ape would enter the daimyō's tenshu and persuade the daimyō.
Black Ape took only Yagami with him and met the Leaf's guardian shinobi outside the castle keep.
"Yamanaka Kairi, jōnin. I'm Anbu platoon captain Black Ape. I'm here to inquire about the Uzumaki guardian shinobi."
Yamanaka Kairi — a man with pale-gold hair — answered, "It's tragic. The Uzumaki, such a powerful clan, were exterminated by the combined strike of the Mist and the Cloud.
We arrived at the Land of Waves' border too late. By the time we reached the area, the Uzumaki clan had already been wiped out.
The eight Uzumaki guardian shinobi lost their will to guard. They kept disappearing. At first they submitted leave notices to the daimyō, then they simply vanished. The daimyō is furious and has complained to me twice. I've already notified the village. We'll negotiate with the daimyō and send new guardians to replace the Uzumaki guardians.
Bring them back to the Hidden Leaf. The intelligence says Princess Uzumaki is in the Leaf. If we slowly develop this, maybe the Uzumaki can become a small allied clan of the Hidden Leaf."
Yagami thought to himself: the ordinary Leaf shinobi had no idea what the Anbu had done.
The Uzumaki would never become a small Leaf clan. The Leaf wanted Kushina Uzumaki to be wholeheartedly the village's jinchūriki.
If the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki harbored loyalties to another clan, how could the Leaf leadership ever trust them?
Black Ape didn't comment on Yamanaka Kairi's suggestion. Instead he said, "After the Uzumaki were annihilated, the Anbu learned that some Uzumaki were plotting revenge.
They still wear the facade of being allies to the Hidden Leaf. Their vengeance could push the Land of Waves' daimyō toward the Hidden Mist Village.
Feeling pity for the Uzumaki is one thing. But mission shares for the Land of Waves are another.
Yamanaka, jōnin, the Anbu's goal is to remove the Uzumaki guardian shinobi from the daimyō's side. Don't let them influence the daimyō."
Yamanaka Kairi frowned. He sensed a hidden meaning in Black Ape's words. The Anbu's attitude toward the Uzumaki didn't sound very supportive.
Could it be that the village didn't back the Uzumaki's revenge?
Yamanaka Kairi suddenly said, "Wait — you're… I've heard your voice before within the clan."
"Yes. Kairi, it's me."
Yamanaka Kairi glanced at Yagami's fox mask but didn't name Black Ape aloud.
"Your left arm?"
"Not important." Black Ape waved it off.
Yamanaka Kairi considered for a moment and then said, "I understand. I understand what the Anbu want. Tell me how far you want me to go, and I'll make a plan."
***
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