"Still no news?"
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
Inside the Kazekage Tower of Sunagakure, Rasa stood by the window, his brow deeply furrowed as he listened to the report.
The pressure bearing down on him was immense.
Iwagakure to the north.
Kirigakure to the east.
For the sake of the village, a choice had to be made.
Kirigakure was distant, their supply lines long and unreliable. Iwagakure, however, was a direct rival—border disputes, competing interests, real and immediate threats.
Rasa had chosen without hesitation.
Negotiate with Kirigakure.
Confront Iwagakure head-on.
But Kirigakure's asking price was obscene.
One of their demands was Pakura.
And now—after being dispatched on a mission—Pakura had vanished.
Worse still, the battlefield traces suggested a brutal engagement. Several Sand reinforcement squads had disappeared as well.
Those were trained shinobi.
Combat power.
Money.
Years of investment.
All gone.
"…Increase the search efforts," Rasa said after a long silence, his voice low.
"Keep looking."
He turned to the man standing before him—his brother-in-law, Yashamaru.
"I suspect Kirigakure may have taken her," Rasa continued, "but if that assumption is wrong, the consequences would be far worse."
He paused, then added coldly:
"Find her. Alive or dead—it doesn't matter."
Even a corpse still had value.
"…Understood, Kazekage-sama."
Yashamaru hesitated, then asked quietly,
"Should we involve Elder Ebizō? With ANBU assistance, the search may proceed faster."
"Ebizō…"
Rasa frowned, then nodded.
"Yes. Use the ANBU. Efficiency matters now."
His gaze hardened.
"I have only one requirement. Bring her back."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
Meanwhile—
Inside the ruined village deep in the desert.
"This is such crude provocation," Pakura scoffed, the mockery on her face deepening.
"I expected better than this."
Hand me over to Kirigakure?
As if the village would ever do something so insane.
Pakura loved Sunagakure. Fiercely. Unconditionally.
A few words of speculation would never shake her loyalty.
"Believe whatever you like," Ren replied calmly.
"I'm simply stating my judgment."
He never expected a few sentences to break her resolve.
But he knew one thing for certain—
When the betrayal finally came, the hatred she would feel toward her own village would burn deeper than anything he could provoke now.
"If that's all you have," Pakura said coldly, "this interrogation is pointless."
Shisui frowned slightly and stepped forward.
"…What exactly do you mean?" he asked.
"Your reasoning feels incomplete."
"Because we've been thinking like shinobi," Ren said, shaking his head.
"Not like a village."
He spoke deliberately, as if guiding them through a puzzle.
"Let me ask you something. How much strength do Kirigakure's shinobi really have here?"
"Very little," Yugao answered without hesitation.
The Land of Wind was a wasteland of sand and drought. Water was precious beyond measure.
Kirigakure shinobi specialized in Water Release, raised in a land of seas and constant mist. Their techniques—and their infamous Hidden Mist Technique—thrived in humid environments.
This desert crippled them.
"Exactly," Ren nodded.
Shisui's eyes sharpened.
"So they're far from home, undersupplied, and operating at a disadvantage."
"Yes."
Yugao frowned.
"Then why persist? Why would Kirigakure keep harassing Sunagakure under such conditions?"
Good question, Ren thought dryly.
Considering who was really pulling Kirigakure's strings at this time—
Uchiha Obito.
Suddenly, everything made perfect sense.
"I don't know their full reasoning," Ren said aloud.
"But I know how a village would respond."
His gaze slid back to Pakura.
"With Kirigakure weakened, the Kazekage's priority would naturally shift to Iwagakure—the real threat."
"And to remove Kirigakure from the equation…" Shisui murmured, understanding dawning.
"…Negotiation," Ren finished.
Yugao stiffened.
Negotiation.
The word alone carried weight.
"Do you remember," Ren continued softly,
"what happened between Konoha and Kumogakure a year ago?"
Silence fell.
That incident was a scar.
A fabricated accusation. A threat of war.
And in the end—
A life sacrificed to preserve peace.
"…You're saying," Yugao whispered,
"she—"
Ren nodded.
"We keep looking at this from a shinobi's perspective. Loyalty. Honor. Duty."
"But villages don't think that way."
He met Pakura's eyes directly.
"For a village, achieving the greatest benefit at the lowest cost is not cruelty—it's logic."
"The Hyūga clan was a pillar of Konoha," Ren continued evenly.
"And yet when the time came, even the Third Hokage did not hesitate."
Pakura's expression finally changed.
Just a little.
"And if sacrificing you buys peace with Kirigakure, stabilizes the front, and frees Sunagakure to confront Iwagakure…"
Ren's voice dropped.
"…then tell me."
"In the eyes of your village—"
"What do you amount to?"
The room fell deathly silent.
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