Ending Update, Death Postponed

A common enemy closes the distance between people.

Without realizing it, the look in Pakura's eyes when she gazed at Shiba Seika was no longer so crazed.

She wasn't stupid; she could guess Shiba Seika's goal. "You have a grudge against Konoha's Root too, don't you? You're using me to deal with them!"

But Shiba Seika didn't care at all that she'd seen through this layer of intent. He replied coolly.

"Don't use such an ugly word as 'using,' Miss Pakura. I'd rather call it mutual benefit, a win-win cooperation."

Win-win—meaning I win twice. No problem there.

Pakura let out a cold snort, but she had already calmed down and didn't argue.

Her heart was undoubtedly shaken.

Just as Shiba Seika had said, this was her only way out now.

Returning to the village directly was a dead end. She had no other choice.

"Kid, do you have any more intel on Sasori and Konoha's Root?"

"Not for now, but we can leave each other a means of contact for exchanging information in the future.

Even more, if Miss Pakura ever kills an important Root member in the future, you can seal the corpse and send it to the Land of Rain. Our Akatsuki Organization is willing to pay to acquire it. The price is negotiable."

There were two purposes for this: first, to further encourage Pakura to go head-to-head with Root, and second, to subtly fund her and slowly close the distance between them.

Who knows? Maybe in the future, they'd really have a chance to recruit Pakura into Akatsuki?

Shiba Seika looked forward to the day when this tall, elegant woman would grit her teeth in hatred yet still submit and work for him.

After a brief exchange, Pakura left.

She promised she would leave the Land of Rain as soon as possible, wouldn't linger, and wouldn't target Akatsuki again.

Shiba Seika was cautious. He didn't trust her outright. Instead, he stood within the safety perimeter he'd set up and waited silently for another ten minutes.

Only after repeatedly confirming that Pakura had truly left, and hadn't lost her mind enough to stay and ambush him, did he finally move out to rendezvous with Sister Nan and the others.

When they met, Sister Nan immediately came up to him, anxiously looking Shiba Seika up and down, her eyes brimming with concern that almost overflowed.

"Are you alright, Seika? Are you hurt?"

Compared to a few weeks ago, Konan's attitude toward him had changed drastically.

"I'm fine, Sister Nan. Pakura isn't the reckless type of ninja. The Exploding Tags you gave me were also crucial—they helped a lot."

Konan let out a relieved breath, then smiled gently. "The Exploding Tags I gave you were just a safety net. It was mainly your own wisdom, Seika, that made all this happen."

Konan's admiration for Shiba Seika was growing deeper by the day.

This time, encountering the famed Pakura of Sunagakure, he had come up with a countermeasure in just one day.

Though Konan didn't know exactly how he'd done it, the result was obvious: they had just successfully taken out the remaining two members of Sunagakure's squad without suffering a single casualty!

In their eyes, this was nothing short of a miracle!

Ajisai pouted, annoyed that her angelic sister was constantly fussing over Shiba Seika.

But when she thought about how this guy had just single-handedly dealt with Sunagakure's Pakura, she lost the nerve to go over and interrupt.

How had he actually resolved things with Pakura? The more Ajisai thought about it, the more curious she got. The more curious she got, the more she imagined. The more she imagined, the more frightened she became.

So much so that when Shiba Seika looked her way, she blurted out what was on her mind.

"I'm sorry, Big Brother Seika! I used to talk to you way too loudly! Please don't use that hypnotic sorcery on me!"

Shiba Seika was speechless.

What hypnotic sorcery did he have?

Did this little girl really think he'd controlled Pakura with hypnosis?

If he actually had that kind of ability, would he still be in this situation?

Konan walked over and lightly tapped Ajisai on the head, stopping her from spiraling further.

"Don't talk nonsense. Seika doesn't have any such evil technique. He relied on his mind and intelligence."

Ajisai muttered, "Sister Nan, why do you trust him so much now?"

You weren't like this before, she added silently in her mind.

Konan paused for a moment, then smiled in relief. "Because he's never let us down. And because... he's our comrade."

Without realizing it, trust and bonds had already taken root.

Shiba Seika's recent string of efforts hadn't been in vain!

Afterward, they packed up and returned.

Once back, Shiba Seika took the initiative to write another letter, reporting the mission's progress and results to Hanzo the Salamander.

Of course, he concealed the details of his alliance with Pakura against Root.

He even generously packaged up the two Sunagakure ninja corpses that Konan and the others had brought back and sent them to Hanzo.

Intel could be extracted from a ninja's brain, but Shiba Seika didn't need it. He already knew more than anyone.

Might as well do him a favor, gift the corpse to Hanzo as a present, and throw in a show of loyalty while he was at it.

This time, Hanzo's reply came much faster than the last. Between the lines, it was clear he was very pleased with the recent changes in the Akatsuki Organization.

To a leader who had lost all drive for progress, a subordinate's loyalty and submission pleased him far more than any grand ambition or lofty ideal.

Shiba Seika was not surprised by this outcome.

What did surprise him was that Yahiko still seemed unable to grasp the truth of it. After receiving the reply, he stood there excitedly spouting naive words.

"Great! Lord Hanzo has finally accepted and understood us! I'll write him another letter right away, lay out our ideals for him! Mutual understanding between people can definitely be realized in the Land of Rain!"

Shiba Seika watched from the side, silently shaking his head.

Talk to Hanzo about that? What the hell would he understand?

Still, he didn't stop Yahiko.

Letting Yahiko keep busy was fine—otherwise, how would he smoothly sideline him?

At that moment, a stray thought crossed his mind: Was this current move of his essentially using Yahiko to command the Akatsuki?

Meanwhile, over these past few days, Shiba Seika had been quietly waiting.

Waiting for the system to update its deduced outcome.

Last time, going to the Land of Grass to implant a weakness in Nagato might have only been a side quest. But this time, after returning, he first stabilized Hanzo, then sent a gift to Danzo—no matter how you looked at it, this was a solid mainline action, right?

He waited for the system to update the outcome, to verify whether the path he was walking was correct.

Perhaps because the trust signal from Hanzo the Salamander needed to be released bit by bit, the system took two days before updating the outcome for him.

This time, after reading it, Shiba Seika finally let out a long breath.

Judging by the deduced outcome, the direction of his efforts was not wrong!

The probability of dying of old age had further increased to 1.7%, and the overall outcome probabilities had shifted backward.

The chance of him not surviving a year and a half had now dropped to about 60%. The remaining 40% or so meant he could at least live another five or six years in Konoha.

His fated death had been significantly delayed!

His efforts were slowly changing the flow of the River of Fate!

At the same time, this change once again allowed the system to steal power from fate, reeling in a new reward for him.

[Acquired: Fire Release Ninjutsu Training Insights (to be distributed in the form of dreams)]

[Acquired: Wind Release Ninjutsu Training Insights (to be distributed in the form of dreams)]

[Acquired: Summoning Technique Training Insights (to be distributed in the form of dreams)]

[Acquired: Lost Summoning Technique Scroll (to be distributed in the form of an event)]