Pakura left Sabaku Port by ship and came ashore at a small harbor somewhere in the Land of Whirlpools.
Carrying the peace agreement, she moved carefully along the coastline.
When she drew near the meeting point, she left the shore behind and headed inland.
The Land of Whirlpools was a long, narrow peninsula nation, surrounded by sea on three sides.
At night, the country was shrouded in unusually thick mist.
The destination was a gorge. High cliffs rose on both sides, trapping the moisture and lowering visibility even further.
Anything connected to Mist ninja was an ill omen. A sense of unease crept into Pakura's heart.
She truly hoped the exchange would go smoothly and the conflict with Kirigakure would finally end.
If that happened, she could go do the things she actually wanted to do.
Teach Maki, for one... and...
Pakura bit her lower lip.
She had met Miqū again. That man was still as mysterious as ever. He had only kissed her, then vanished.
And he had even bitten her lip...
He really was impossible to understand.
Back during the Second Shinobi World War, when she met him in Crescent Oasis, the whole encounter had already been filled with mysteries. Looking back now, it only felt stranger.
While she was lost in thought, three shadows emerged from the dense fog ahead.
"Sand ninja. Did you bring the peace agreement?"
Pakura took out the scroll from her pouch.
"Advisor Rasa sent me to exchange the agreement with you."
The Mist shinobi said, "Good. At least your side showed some sincerity, sending only one person with it.
At Sabaku Port, we can call it a draw.
If that mysterious person hadn't interfered, the port would already belong to Kirigakure.
Now let's exchange the agreements."
Pakura thought to herself that the mysterious person the Mist had mentioned was probably Miqū.
He really was strong. Just ordinary taijutsu and Body Flicker Technique had been enough to force the Mist back.
Pakura raised her scroll and held it out.
The Mist shinobi did the same.
But then the Mist shinobi suddenly accelerated, shoving the scroll toward her.
A steel needle shot out from the wooden core of the scroll handle.
Pakura had never expected the Mist to attack her here. The needle pierced her abdomen.
Shock slammed through her. She had just begun to react when traps erupted all around her.
Kunai. Shuriken. Countless weapons flew toward her.
Pakura tore free from the Mist ninja and leaped, but it was already too late.
She dodged a few kunai in midair, only to be struck by the relentless follow-up attacks.
Dozens of seconds later, Pakura crashed to the ground.
She had not even had time to release her Scorch Release before the Mist ambush cut her down.
"What a waste. Such a beautiful back, and now there are more than twenty kunai stuck in it."
"And it wasn't just her back. Look at that neck. Long, pale, beautiful... and now even that's full of kunai."
"Sunagakure really didn't know how to treasure a woman like that. They actually sent her here to die."
"Didn't you hear? Lord Gensui left the village and went to the Land of Waves to meet some important figure."
"Yeah. He told us that the moment this was over, we had to send him the result immediately."
The Mist shinobi chatted idly among themselves.
What they didn't know was that Pakura's pupils, pressed against the ground, were trembling without stop.
She should have died.
Her consciousness had vanished.
And yet now it drifted in a strange place.
Ahead of her stood three colossal statues, each hundreds of meters tall, reaching into the heavens.
A thick gray mist drifted over the ground to the left.
To the right was a pool of dense, sticky blood.
"Come here, Pakura..."
That voice was so familiar.
Pakura looked forward.
At the feet of the central statue stood a blood-red silhouette in the shape of a man.
She walked toward it, her left foot stepping into the gray mist, her right into the blood pool.
The mist around her left foot was icy cold.
The blood around her right was warm.
"Miqū... is that you?"
Pakura stared hard at the blood-colored silhouette.
"Yes," Yako said. "Just as I expected, Pakura. In the end, you still died because of Rasa's betrayal."
A bleak sorrow rose inside her.
For years she had studied desperately, trained desperately, carried out mission after mission for the village, and treated Sunagakure as her everything.
And yet one of that village's leaders—Rasa—had sold her to Kirigakure.
She murmured in despair and pain, "Why, Miqū? Why did it turn out like this...?"
Yako said, "Because Sunagakure wants to reconcile with Kirigakure and join the anti-Konoha alliance.
Rasa believes that if Sunagakure joins that alliance, the village can become great again and survive the low point caused by the Kazekage's disappearance.
Offering a powerful bloodline shinobi like you as a gesture of goodwill is exactly the kind of thing Kirigakure would accept as proof of Sunagakure's sincerity. It would keep the conflict from escalating.
And you became the political sacrifice."
An alliance of four villages was far too large to remain perfectly hidden.
The spy network managed by Yakushi Nono had already passed on reports about the unusual movements of several villages.
Yakushi Nono herself had returned to fieldwork and was now gathering intelligence inside Kumogakure.
What Yako needed to do was start with Sunagakure and weaken this alliance from within.
Pakura had known nothing of the secrets among Sunagakure's leadership. She had never imagined the truth would be this cruel.
She, Pakura, was simply the token Rasa had handed to Kirigakure to seal their alliance.
"Miqū... is this hell? Is this where the souls of the dead come?"
"This is not hell," Yako said. "This is the Hall of the Three Gods.
The Wrathful King, the Shinigami, and the Evil God built this temple together.
This is a forbidden zone of life, the resting place of the dead.
Pray to the Three Gods with sincerity, and they will grant you the power of immortality.
In their name, I welcome you into the Three Gods Faith.
Sunagakure and the Land of Wind have already abandoned you. From this moment on, those are your past.
Fulfill the will of the Three Gods, and you too will become one of the Calamity Organization."
"The Calamity Organization?"
It was the first time Pakura had heard that name. It sounded powerful, something tied to the Three Gods and to immortality itself.
"Yes. The Calamity Organization," Yako said.
"I am its leader. You may call me Thunder. You are Fire.
Thunder, Fire, Wind; Blade, Plague, Famine. The Calamity Organization will have six members in total.
In time, you will meet Plague.
The organization has two tasks for you.
The first: return to Sunagakure and stop it from joining the anti-Konoha alliance.
If Sunagakure places itself opposite Konoha, it will only meet destruction.
The second: work with Plague to spread the faith of the Three Gods."
Pakura nodded and memorized the two orders.
Yako continued, "Pakura, use your immortal body to return to the world of the living... and kill the Mist shinobi who attacked you."
"All right."
Then Pakura asked, "Miqū... Thunder... will I be able to see you again?"
"Of course," Yako said.
"The first shrine of the Three Gods Faith has already appeared in Sabaku Port. Once you return there, pray to the Three Gods, and I will naturally appear before you."
Pakura watched as Thunder's blood-silhouette slowly faded, then vanished.
At the same time, the gray mist at her left foot and the blood at her right surged toward her together.
Pakura suppressed the instinct to run and allowed the mist and blood to swallow her soul whole.
Miqū would never harm her...
Back in the real world, Pakura's pupils suddenly flashed with life.
She had really come back.
The Three Gods truly stood above death.
Even with dozens of kunai embedded in her back, even with more lodged in her throat, she still had not died.
The pain was real, though.
She was not dead, but every wound still hurt.
Pakura slowly pushed herself up from the ground.
The Mist shinobi on both cliffs stared in stunned disbelief as she rose.
Two of them leaped down at once, one from each side.
One sword pierced in through Pakura's left shoulder and came out through the right side of her abdomen.
The other stabbed in through her right shoulder and exited through the left side of her abdomen.
Every Mist shinobi there thought the same thing.
Two more blows. That had to be enough to kill her.
And yet—
Pakura raised her hand.
Two blazing Scorch Release spheres slammed down onto the heads of the two Mist shinobi.
Their heads shriveled instantly, like dried persimmons.
Pakura looked up at the Mist shinobi on the cliffs and thought to herself that her immortality had to remain secret.
No one could be allowed to know.
So she would leave no survivors.