"Summoning Technique!"
A puff of white smoke exploded—revealing… three donkeys?
Each donkey stood over three meters tall, massive and muscular. All the Uzumaki ninja mounted up immediately.
Half an hour later, Yagami wanted to slap himself. Why had he ever underestimated giant donkeys?
These beasts could run.
Their four hooves thundered across the barren desert, kicking up clouds of dust as they galloped at full speed.
What was worse, their speed didn't drop in the slightest. Their stamina was terrifying.
The giant donkeys didn't seem to tire at all. Their huge bodies stored enough fat to last days without food or water—almost like camels.
Mist-nin pursued right behind the donkeys, while the Leaf-nin chased the Mist in turn.
Yagami's job was to leave chakra marks for the two following Anbu squads to find their trail.
But as he ran, his expression suddenly froze—he saw one of his own earlier marks.
Wait… did they just circle back around?
Which meant the donkeys had been leading both the Mist and the Leaf Anbu in circles.
The endless desert stretched without borders. Who could possibly outrun these monsters?
Even when the Mist-nin went all out to catch up, the donkeys only ran faster.
And whenever a Mist-nin captain managed to close in, one Uzumaki ninja would stay behind, trading his life for the pursuer's.
Days passed in this endless chase. Yagami spotted several of his own marks again, each pointing in a different direction. The pattern grew so chaotic that even he had to carefully think to keep the marks connected.
The donkeys could keep running endlessly, while the Mist and Leaf ninjas were forced to stop every few hours to rest, hydrate, and eat ration pills.
The Uzumaki guards, familiar with the desert terrain, deliberately chose the harshest routes—barren lands with no food, no water, no plants.
The Mist-nin managed to kill two rear guards, but after that, they could no longer catch up.
It looked like those giant donkeys could run for several more days and nights.
After three more days, Yagami was certain he was going to get scolded by his captain.
He had been following the donkeys while marking signals, but the trail kept looping. The code marks were now so confusing that not even he could find his way out of the desert.
Under the moonlight, the desert gleamed silver-white, like it was covered in frost.
Before he knew it, another full moon night had arrived.
From far away came the faint bray of a donkey—deep, long, and echoing.
Yagami finally understood. The Uzumaki guards were buying time for the rest of their clan to escape.
After listening to his advice, Uzumaki Yuka and the other survivors should have already left the Land of Waves by now.
A few days later, the two Leaf Anbu divisions finally caught up.
To Yagami's relief, Captain Hound didn't scold him for the messy trail marks.
He observed that both Leaf divisions were still at full strength, which meant Captain Hound hadn't split off forces to pursue Uzumaki Yuka. Maybe she'd already escaped before the Anbu even reached the Land of Waves.
The Mist and Leaf forces were now evenly matched—two divisions each.
The Leaf and the Hidden Cloud were fighting in the Land of Steam.
The Hidden Mist were also engaged in battle with the Hidden Sand, unable to spare many troops.
At the southeastern tip of the Land of Wind, a small stretch of coastline had become a battlefield—Mist and Sand shinobi slaughtering each other endlessly for control of a single pier.
When the Uzumaki guard captain saw the Leaf Anbu, his eyes dimmed slightly.
He turned to the few Uzumaki ninja beside him. "Well? Are you ready?"
One of them nodded. "We've been ready. Our clan is hunted by every hidden village, but as long as even one of us survives… there's still hope."
The captain gave a quiet nod. "Time. We just need more time."
With four divisions closing in, the donkeys' escape routes grew smaller and smaller.
One by one, the summoned donkeys fell, until the last of them was killed by both sides.
The Mist and the Leaf circled around from east and west, moving in perfect, deadly rhythm.
Whenever one side closed in, the other would advance as well.
The Uzumaki were given nothing but despair.
Each time an Uzumaki was killed, both Anbu forces would fight madly over the corpse.
Their numbers dwindled rapidly, until only one was left standing.
The guard captain watched his final comrade's body being sealed into a corpse bag.
They had done everything they could.
He opened his ninja pouch. Inside lay one last kunai—and a sealing scroll.
Drawing the kunai, he began walking slowly toward the Leaf Anbu.
On the opposite side, the Mist-nin grew tense and rushed forward immediately.
Captain Hound didn't give any order right away.
The guard captain understood exactly what the Leaf were worried about. He slowed his steps deliberately, waiting for the Mist to catch up.
The three sides drew closer… and closer.
In the final instant, the guard captain crouched low, gathering all his chakra into his legs.
He leapt high—over ten meters into the air—landing right in the middle of the Leaf Anbu formation.
Captain Hound looked up as the man sailed over his head and fell behind their lines.
The Mist-nin panicked. The sealing scroll couldn't be allowed to fall into Leaf hands—they charged immediately.
Yagami was toward the rear when, suddenly, someone appeared right in front of him—
the guard captain!
Without thinking, he raised his sword to block.
By pure luck, his blade deflected the kunai. The strike missed his heart and only stabbed into his shoulder.
Surrounded by Anbu, there was no chance to play dead.
Yagami grabbed the kunai, pretending to heroically restrain the enemy's arm.
The guard captain didn't want to waste time. He kicked Yagami hard in the chest, sending him flying.
Yagami's stomach churned violently. Thank goodness he'd only been eating ration pills—otherwise he'd be vomiting inside his mask right now.
As he tumbled back, Yagami actually felt relieved.
Getting kicked away was great—it meant he didn't have to fight anymore.
He tried to get up, but halfway through, a glint of steel flashed across his vision.
A thin wire.
Following it with his eyes, he saw its owner—Kurisame Kushimaru, wielder of the Longsword: Nuibari!
What—?! The Mist had already flanked around?
Kushimaru tugged lightly on the wire.
A long, needle-like blade shot forward, piercing through Yagami's chest before he even realized it.
It was Nuibari's signature attack.
Yagami and two other Anbu were skewered together, hanging like roasted locusts.
Dead—the attack was too fast to even see.
Darkness swallowed everything.
When Yagami opened his eyes again, he was back—five days earlier, on the night of the full moon.
Damn it… the full moon had just passed, and he'd already died.
He was still in the desert, still being dragged in circles by the giant donkeys.
[Moon Arc Activated!]
The host has one resurrection opportunity per month. Upon death, they will revive on the night of the previous full moon.
Reward: One lottery draw.
1. Reflex Breakthrough (One-time boost)
2. Chūnin-level Chakra (Stackable)
3. Wire-Control Shuriken Technique (Beginner)
After the brief gloom faded, Yagami's eyes lit up.
Here it was—the lottery chance.
***
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