Welcome the Hero, Then Kill the Hero!

Pakura heard those words, and her tense shoulders finally relaxed.

She let out a long breath of stale air.

Her chest heaved violently.

The unease that had weighed on her heart these past few days dissipated by more than half at that moment.

The village had not abandoned her.

Rasa and Elder Chiyo still cared about her, a Sunagakure hero, after all.

Everything Qian Ye had said in the camp about conspiracies had merely been an attempt to drive a wedge between her and the village.

Pakura stepped forward and headed toward Rasa and Chiyo.

Her pace noticeably quickened.

Just as she took her third step.

Violent chakra fluctuations suddenly erupted from the reddish-brown cliffs on both sides of the canyon.

Four dark-purple pillars of light shot up from the ground.

The pillars pierced Kong and converged in midair.

A massive dark-purple barrier descended like an overturned bowl, sealing off the center of the entire canyon.

"Four-Sided Sealing Formation."

Minato's expression changed drastically.

He immediately circulated his chakra and sensed the Flying Thunder God markers he had left outside the canyon.

The spatial anchors, usually crystal clear, now seemed trapped in a swamp, their responses intermittent.

The Flying Thunder God formulas left outside the barrier had stopped responding.

"An ambush!" Minato shouted sharply.

Pakura stopped in her tracks.

She stared blankly at the pillars of light rising around her.

Her mind went completely Kong.

A hoarse, piercing sneer reached her ears.

Elder Chiyo sat cross-legged atop a circular platform of sand and dirt, the wrinkles on her face squeezed together.

Her smile carried undisguised mockery.

"Yellow Flash of Hidden Leaf, did you really think this old woman would hand over a gold mine just like that?"

Pakura immediately turned to look at "Rasa," who stood in the center of the