Chapter 100: The Hero Declared Dead
Ebizo leaned on his cane, stepping through the deep mud with uneven strides, followed by two attendants responsible for carrying the agreement documents.
He didn't dare look up at the expectant eyes of the captives, especially Pakura's trusting gaze, which made the skin on his face burn with pain.
"This is the final agreement."
Ebizo walked to a simple square table and handed over the document, which bore the Kazekage's Seal and his own bloody thumbprint.
Kakuzu stood under a black umbrella and took the document. He didn't speak, but instead, like a precise scanner, flipped through the pages to confirm every clause and every figure.
A full five minutes passed.
"The procedures are in order." Kakuzu closed the folder and nodded to Konan behind him. "Release them."
"First batch, Grandmother Chiyo."
Konan's cold voice pierced through the curtain of rain.
Several Rain Ninjas unlocked the Chakra Seal on Grandmother Chiyo. The elderly woman, over seventy years old, stumbled forward a few steps. Ignoring her aching joints, she immediately rushed to Ebizo.
"Ebizo!" Chiyo grabbed her brother's arm, her eyes searching the group of captives urgently. "Quick! Get that girl Pakura over here first! She suffered the heaviest injuries to cover the main force! And that child named Maki..."
Ebizo's body stiffened. Keeping his head low, he murmured, "Sister... go rest over there first. The process must be followed step by step."
"Hmph, still with these red-tape formalities when we're going home," Chiyo grumbled, but she let go and stood to the side, her eyes filled with motherly affection as she watched the children who were about to regain their freedom.
"Second batch, the Sunagakure Puppet Unit, totaling one thousand and three people."
Konan continued reading the list.
As the Seal was released, a large number of Sunagakure Ninjas cheered and rushed across the boundary line. Some knelt on the ground weeping, while others embraced each other tightly.
Pakura stood at the very back of the line, smiling as she watched the scene. She tidied her messy bangs, straightened her back, and waited expectantly for her name to be called.
She was the deputy commander. According to custom, high-ranking officials were often the last to be released to ensure their subordinates' safety first.
She had always firmly believed this.
Time passed minute by minute.
The Sunagakure captives in the clearing grew fewer and fewer, while the group behind Ebizo grew larger.
Until the last Puppeteer returned to the ranks.
Konan closed the black folder in her hand with a crisp "snap."
The sound wasn't loud in the rain, yet it was like a thunderclap striking everyone's hearts.
The scene fell into a deathly silence.
The smile on Pakura's face froze. She stood alone on the empty, muddy ground, surrounded by the falling rain, with the silent Amegakure Ninjas in front of her and her reunited comrades behind her.
Her name was not there.
"What's going on?" Grandmother Chiyo suddenly turned around and stared intently at Konan. "Finished reading? Are you joking? Where's Pakura?! She's the hero of this operation! Why isn't her name on there?!"
Konan looked at Chiyo expressionlessly, her tone indifferent. "We are releasing people according to the final ransom list provided by your side. Pakura is not on the list."
"Impossible!"
Chiyo roared and rushed in front of Ebizo, her hands gripping her brother's collar tightly. Her withered hands had veins bulging from extreme anger. "Ebizo! Are you so old and senile that you missed it?! Is this about the forty million Ryo? Even if the Village has to sell everything, we aren't short of that forty million! I'll write to Rasa right now..."
"Sister!"
Ebizo suddenly erupted with a hoarse roar.
He violently threw off Chiyo's hands, his whole body like a snapped bow. He didn't dare look into Pakura's eyes, which had instantly turned from expectation to shock and finally to dead silence. He could only shout the long-prepared lie toward the Amegakure side and to all the Sunagakure Ninjas behind him.
"This... this is the Kazekage's decision!"
Ebizo's voice trembled, yet it carried clearly across the field. "Our funds are limited! For the survival of the Village, we must prioritize retaining the Puppet Unit, which has the capacity to rebuild our strength!"
"As for Pakura..."
Ebizo took a deep breath and closed his eyes, as if pronouncing a death sentence.
"Regarding the prisoner of war Pakura, the Hidden Sand Village officially confirms her as...'succumbed to heavy injuries, killed in action on the battlefield'."
"She is not included in this ransom list!"
A pale bolt of lightning streaked across the sky at that moment, illuminating Pakura's face, which had instantly lost all color.
Killed in action?
Pakura stared blankly at the high-ranking official of the Village she had served all her life, at the elder she regarded as family.
I am standing right here.
I am standing right here, alive!
I even have wounds on my body from protecting the Village; my heart is still beating, and my blood is still warm.
How could you... how could you look me in the face and declare that I am already dead?!
"You're lying!!!"
Grandmother Chiyo tried to rush back to grab Pakura like a madwoman, but Ebizo signaled several trusted aides to hold her back firmly.
"Take Advisor Chiyo away! Go, now!" Ebizo didn't dare stay for even another second. He was afraid that if he looked at that lonely figure one more time, he would be consumed by guilt.
"Go! For the Village! That's an order!"
Under Ebizo's hysterical urging, the main Sunagakure force began to retreat.
The young Ninjas who had just been ransomed all lowered their heads and quickened their pace in shame. They didn't dare look back, didn't dare look at the hero who had been "sacrificed" by them.
Because they knew that the price of their regained freedom was Pakura's life.
"Don't go... I beg you..."
Pakura subconsciously took a step forward, reaching out her hand to grab onto something.
But the only response she received was the sight of her comrades' backs as they fled in panic, and the splashing mud.
Cold rainwater slid down her cheeks and into her mouth, tasting so bitter it made her want to retch.
In just a few minutes, she had gone from a respected hero to a lonely ghost forgotten by the world.
The edifice of her faith collapsed with a crash at that moment... Atop the high cliffs at the edge of the massive crater.
Yahiko held a black umbrella, looking down from above at the figure swaying in the rain, his eyes as calm as if he were watching a play whose ending was already known.
"What a wonderful performance."
Orochimaru stood in the shadows behind him. His long tongue licked the corner of his mouth, and his golden vertical pupils were full of appetite, as if he were looking at a freshly plated main course. "To be thrown away like trash by the Village she swore to protect... the taste of a Soul fermenting in such despair must be wonderful."
"Yahiko-kun, is she mine now?"
Yahiko did not answer immediately.
He looked at the woman who had once been as hot as fire but was now as silent as dead ashes, and spoke indifferently:
"This is the 'cost-effectiveness' of the great nations."
"In the eyes of those politicians, a living, disobedient hero is never as useful as a corpse named 'martyr'."
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