Saving Someone Who Was Supposed to Die

Long Ye never imagined that he had inadvertently gotten involved in a transaction between Kirigakure and Sunagakure—one that traded human lives for peace.

He suddenly thought of the mission that had brought him here.

Wasn't his own mission, like Pakura's, also to come to Kirigakure for peace talks? Sunagakure was clearly doing the same thing with Konoha.

His gaze fell on the woman.

A kunai had pierced through her heart. For an ordinary person, there was indeed no saving her, but for him...

Long Ye's heart skipped a beat.

With his current Op-Op Fruit abilities, even transplanting a Kekkei Genkai was no problem, let alone a human heart.

As that thought crossed his mind, he glanced over at the man with only half his body left.

The reason Long Ye had kept him alive until now was to ask him a few questions. As for his fate, Long Ye had long sentenced him to death—and he had to die.

If he let this man live, then once they returned to Kirigakure, he might poison the Mizukage's ears against him. The peace talks Long Ye had come for would very likely fail, and he himself might even be hunted down.

Rather than leave behind an unforeseen variable, it was better to make him disappear.

But before he disappeared, perhaps he could still be of some use.

Long Ye walked over to him.

"Y-you, what are you trying to do? I'm a Tokubetsu Jonin of Kirigakure, highly valued by Lord Mizukage. If you dare harm me, Konoha won't be able to bear the consequences."

Faced with death, the man looked terrified.

"Don't worry. I just need to borrow something from you," Long Ye said unhurriedly.

"W-what?"

The man did not relax, because Long Ye's smile made his skin crawl.

"Your heart!"

As soon as he spoke, Long Ye formed a Chakra Scalpel in his hand and stabbed it into the man's heart.

A diamond-shaped opening appeared where the man's heart had been. A beating heart, sealed within a fist-sized cubic barrier, appeared in Long Ye's hand.

Seeing his own heart being removed, the man screamed in terror.

Yet strangely, despite having his heart removed, he felt nothing unusual. He did not even feel the slightest pain, just as he had not when his body was cut in half.

Long Ye came before the dying Pakura.

He looked at the woman's raised chest and hesitated slightly. After all, there was still the matter of propriety between men and women.

He laughed at himself. "I was a surgeon in my previous life. Isn't this the most normal thing in the world? To think I'd still have such feelings."

He pulled open the woman's clothes...

With the Devil Fruit ability in hand, the operation was ten thousand times simpler than it had been in his previous life. He removed the punctured, irreparable heart, then transplanted the new one.

After completing everything, Long Ye activated her blood flow throughout her body with an electric current.

Next were the external injuries. Those could be treated with the most basic Mystical Palm Technique.

"Impossible... It can't be..."

The man lying on the ground with only half his body left witnessed his heart being perfectly transplanted. He kept shaking his head in shock, muttering to himself as though he had seen a ghost.

"How can such an ability exist in this world? I don't believe it..."

His understanding of the world had been overturned. His face was filled with terror as he stared blankly and muttered.

"If you don't believe it, then die! Letting you witness my ability before your death at least lets you die understanding why."

Without even turning around, Long Ye waved his hand. With a crackle, a bolt of electricity shot from his palm and passed through the man's body.

Then, with a boom!

The electric current contained the power of Explosion Release, blasting the man into ash.

The man had vanished from the world. No matter how skilled the ninjutsu, no one would be able to find him.

Long Ye had been this thorough precisely to eliminate any future trouble.

There was a technique in the Shinobi World called Impure World Reincarnation. Though this man might not be important enough for anyone to use it on him, it was better to be safe than sorry.

With the man completely gone, even if someone wanted to revive him, there would be nothing they could do. Naturally, the identity of his killer would remain a mystery.

An hour later.

Pakura, who had been in a deep coma, woke up.

"Who... are you?"

Her voice was extremely weak as she struggled to rise.

Although her injuries were no longer life-threatening, her body had previously been riddled with kunai and she had lost a great deal of blood. She was still severely weakened.

"I'm a medical ninja from Konoha. I was passing by and saw that you were badly hurt, so I saved you. What happened to you? Were you attacked?"

He had to keep up the act. He still needed to ask the questions anyone normally would, even though he knew exactly what had happened.

At Long Ye's question, Pakura's expression changed. She swept her gaze over the area and, seeing no sign of the person who had ambushed her, assumed they had left after succeeding.

Hatred flashed in her eyes. She lowered her head and said nothing.

Seeing her expression, Long Ye had already guessed that she must have learned that Kazekage Rasa had sold her out to Kirigakure. As a political sacrifice, she could not help but be filled with hatred.

Until today, she had been Sunagakure's hero. She had once fought more than a thousand Kirigakure ninja alone. It could be said that without her, Sunagakure might have been breached long ago, with blood flowing like rivers.

The loyalty she had shown her village had been repaid with betrayal.

Pakura struggled to her feet and staggered toward the way she had come.

"Where are you going?" Long Ye asked when he saw her leaving.

"Revenge!" Pakura's voice was resolute.

Long Ye was startled by what he heard.

He could not let her cause trouble for Sunagakure at such a critical moment. Konoha and Sunagakure were about to form an allied army to attack Iwagakure together.

If she interfered, Sunagakure would certainly be thrown into chaos. That might delay the allied army's assault on the Iwagakure ninja.

He knew very well that Pakura's Scorch Release possessed formidable large-scale killing power. In an instant, it could evaporate the moisture from the bodies of more than a thousand people, leaving behind nothing but dried corpses.

"Forgive my bluntness, but if I were you, revenge would be the last thing on my mind right now. I would focus on surviving. Not to mention that your body is currently extremely weak—even if you were at your peak, could you defeat Kazekage Rasa? Going there would only be throwing your life away..."

"Instead of doing that, why not hide first and let everyone think you're dead? Secretly build up your strength, then someday stand before Sunagakure and make them all face death. Only then will they understand what regret truly means!"

Long Ye knew that if he wanted to persuade her, he had to consider things from her perspective. She was bent on revenge and seeking justice for herself, so he could only tell her how to take that revenge.

Pakura stopped in her tracks. After pausing for a moment without saying a word, she continued staggering away.

"You saved my life, so I owe you one. Someday, I will repay you."

Long Ye smiled faintly. "Since you know you owe me your life, don't throw it away so easily. I may be able to save you once, but I might not be able to save you twice."

"You don't need to tell me. I know what I need to do."

Pakura gradually walked farther away, soon vanishing into the depths of the dense mist.

"Another person falling into darkness! Saving someone who was supposed to die... history should change again."

Watching her disappear, Long Ye murmured to himself.