A ripple in space-time, and an Origami Crane carrying a message.
This was one of Snake Aunt's lairs, after all. She controlled everything here and could detect even spatial fluctuations the instant they appeared.
Sure enough, the moment the Origami Crane appeared, Snake Aunt's dragon claw stopped just inside the skin of Sakon's neck. Had she eased off even a fraction later, his head would have parted from his body.
Sakon trembled. Faced with death, he could neither resist nor resent her, because he did not dare.
"Is this what being dead feels like? It doesn't seem as cold as I imagined."
Sakon still thought he was already dead.
Yet when he tried opening his eyes, he actually managed it. His eyes opened.
"I'm... not dead?"
By then, Snake Aunt had already left the Sound Four behind. At the sight of the familiar Origami Crane, she had snatched the letter out of the air before it could land.
With trembling hands, Snake Aunt unfolded the Origami Crane message. A familiar, slightly flippant voice immediately rang through the laboratory.
"Hey, little beauty. What have you been busy with lately? Judging by the time, Kimimaro and the others should have returned to report by now, right?"
That familiar voice, that familiar tone, that familiar man... had returned.
For a moment, Snake Aunt wanted to scold him loudly, to rage at him.
Yet somehow, by the time the words reached her lips, her scolding had dropped several hundred decibels.
Knowing how this strange letter worked, Snake Aunt gave a wry smile and spoke to the envelope. "They all came back, but they nearly left again just now."
Rustle-
A second Origami Crane appeared immediately afterward and landed in Snake Aunt's hand.
"Huh? What happened? Was Otogakure attacked? Why would they leave again right