The Tragic Maiden, Pakura

"Peace Negotiation Proposal?"

Long Ye and Shisui exchanged a glance, both seeing the surprise in the other's eyes.

But neither of them asked any unnecessary questions. Obedience was the most important quality for a ninja; there were things they did not need to know the details of.

Long Ye thought to himself:

The Third Shinobi World War. After a year of every side exhausting its strength, they're finally beginning to return to reason. The initial all-out brawl is shifting into alliances and maneuvering. This will undoubtedly hasten the war's end.

In the ten years after the Second Shinobi World War, the five great nations had all recovered their strength. When the Third Shinobi World War began, every nation had been confident in itself, so none had expected to need allies.

But as their strength was rapidly depleted, forming alliances had become nearly inevitable as long as the war continued.

Of course, Long Ye did not know whether this so-called negotiation was a sincere attempt to seek an alliance or merely an effort to stabilize the two nations.

He accepted the scroll from the Hokage.

At the place where the scroll had been opened, he could see a spiral-shaped seal.

This was the most common type of sealing technique, used to seal scrolls. If anyone tried to force one open, the scroll would be destroyed instantly.

The two of them left the Hokage Office.

"If I remember correctly, this is the first time we've been sent on separate missions in the year we've worked together."

As they walked side by side, Shisui Uchiha suddenly spoke.

"Indeed!"

Long Ye nodded. "It seems you have something to say to me."

Shisui smiled, propping both hands behind his head as he gradually walked away.

Only after he had gone some distance did his voice drift back. "Be careful. Don't die out there. I'd hate to lose such a good partner."

Watching his back, Long Ye seemed to think of something and said meaningfully, "People who are too outstanding often attract prying eyes. I have nothing worth prying into, but you're different."

Shisui did not seem to take his words to heart. He merely raised a hand to show that he understood.

Long Ye watched him disappear into the distance, his heart growing somewhat heavy.

In the history of the Shinobi World that Long Ye knew, Shisui's fate had been extremely tragic. But history had already changed, so he did not know whether everything would still happen.

"It probably won't happen anytime soon. Shisui's crisis takes place after the Third Shinobi World War, and after he awakens the Mangekyō Sharingan. There's still a long time before then."

At the mention of the Mangekyō Sharingan, Long Ye felt somewhat puzzled.

History did not seem to record how Shisui had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.

He shook off the tangled thoughts in his mind and left the village...

"Kirigakure isn't an easy place to deal with. Half a year ago, I killed a Kirigakure Jonin in the Divine Tree Forest. Mei Terumi knows about it. If I go there this time, I might be deliberately harassed."

As he sped along, Long Ye muttered inwardly.

On the second day of his journey,

Long Ye entered the territory of the Land of Water.

The first thing to greet him was a vast expanse of pale, impenetrable fog.

Entering the Land of Water was equivalent to entering a sea of fog. His vision was severely obstructed, which put him even more on guard against sudden attacks.

While rushing forward, Long Ye suddenly stopped.

He held his breath and focused, listening intently.

But by then, everything had fallen silent. Not the slightest sound came again.

"Strange! Did I imagine it? I clearly heard a dense whistling just now, as if countless objects had sliced through the air."

Based on his experience, he could accurately tell that it was the sound of countless Kunai shooting from all directions toward the same target.

Yet the attack seemed to have consisted of only a single volley. Once it passed, everything instantly fell silent.

Long Ye surveyed his surroundings.

He was currently in a ravine, with towering rocks on either side and only two possible paths: forward and back.

Following his principle of neither fearing trouble nor provoking it, he continued forward.

After walking for another three to five minutes,

a blurry figure gradually emerged through the mist ahead.

The ground around the person's feet was covered in Kunai—at least a thousand of them. Another person lay sprawled on the ground, their body bristling with Kunai. They appeared to be dead.

But for some unknown grudge, the standing man gripped a Samurai Sword in both hands, holding it high with the tip pointed downward. He was about to drive it through the person on the ground with all his strength.

Seeing this, Long Ye reconstructed what had happened moments earlier.

The person on the ground had clearly been ambushed and killed. Even after death, the murderer still had no intention of sparing the corpse.

He suddenly released a barrier.

The person in the distance had just raised his sword to strike when he suddenly fell into the barrier, his expression changing drastically.

The man reacted quickly. Rather than looking toward the newcomer, he immediately flashed away to guard against a sneak attack from the uninvited guest.

Since Long Ye had decided to intervene, he naturally would not let him escape. He used the Devil Fruit Power "Fatal Injection."

Moving faster than the Body Flicker Technique, his body was sliced through the instant the man formed the thought of dodging, and he fell to the ground in two halves.

Seeing the lower half of his own body, the man screamed in terror.

What terrified him even more was that although he had been cut in half, he felt no pain and did not seem to be dead. It completely shattered his understanding of the world.

"Who are you? Come out!"

There was no need for him to shout. Long Ye had already passed through the dense fog and was walking over at an unhurried pace.

"You're from Konoha!"

The man, now left with only his upper body, saw the forehead protector on Long Ye's brow.

Long Ye ignored him. He walked to the brutally slain person and turned her body over.

"A Sand shinobi!"

What appeared before Long Ye was a female ninja wearing a Sand Shinobi Village forehead protector. She was extraordinarily beautiful, with traces of blood still at the corner of her mouth.

Just as Long Ye lamented the waste of such a life, the woman's body gave a faint tremor.

Seeing this, Long Ye checked her pulse.

Her pulse was extremely weak, almost imperceptible. Although she still had a breath left, she clearly would not survive.

He decided to try the impossible and used the Mystical Palm Technique to treat her.

Over the past year, the Mystical Palm Technique was the third practical ninjutsu Long Ye had learned, after the Shadow Clone and Chakra Scalpel.

"Hahahaha, stop wasting your effort! I pierced her heart. Even an immortal couldn't save her."

The man split in two laughed hideously.

"Who is she, and what deep grudge does she have against Kirigakure?" Long Ye asked, looking at him.

"Who is she? She's Pakura of Sand Shinobi Village. She used Scorch Release to cruelly desiccate and kill more than a thousand of our Kirigakure shinobi. Our hatred runs as deep as the sea." The man's eyes were bloodshot.

"Pakura!"

Long Ye suddenly understood.

"So she's Pakura. Even though history changed, her fate remained the same."

In the history of the Shinobi World, Pakura was considered a tragic figure.

To seek peace negotiations over a war with Kirigakure, Kazekage Rasa had decided to sacrifice her.

Pakura had killed too many people from Kirigakure, making the hatred between Kirigakure and Sunagakure irreconcilable. To ease the hatred between the two sides, Kirigakure had demanded that Pakura be killed with their own hands.