Asuma, currently draped over the back of the multi-headed hound and feeling very much like he was about to "dog-die," stubbornly craned his neck. Despite the agonizing pain in his chest and abdomen, he refused to close his eyes, desperate to track the flow of the battlefield.
He was the Third Hokage's son, but he had to admit: his classmate Ui truly deserved the terrifying reputation he'd earned in the Land of Wind. In terms of raw power, the gap between them was immense.
In his vision, he saw Ui's clones closing in from both sides to assassinate Pakura. From Asuma's angle, he couldn't see Pakura's face, but he felt as if he could sense the famous kunoichi's panic. Faced with an unexpected, sudden, and lethal strike, who could truly maintain their composure?
The Hero of the Sand killed by the White Yaksha of the Leaf...
For Konoha, would this be good news? For Suna, undoubtedly bad. But regardless of the news, even if it leaked, it likely wouldn't change the course of history. As Pakura herself had said: would the two great villages, having just achieved peace, restart a world war over this?
No. Regardless of who killed whom, it was just one ninja. The "Big Picture" of peace would remain unbothered.
So, Ui felt free to kill without restraint. Perhaps he had realized this from the start, or perhaps he hadn't thought that far ahead—either way, since the battle began, he had been giving it his absolute all.
However, battlefields are defined by the unexpected—the sudden variables that turn a certain future into a hollow illusion.
If the duel had continued for even one more second, Ui's clones might have severed the hero's head, or Pakura might have unleashed a prepared counter to dissipate the clones. Neither happened.
Pakura did not die at Ui's hand.
This was because of a sudden, overwhelming intrusion.
The Paper Storm
Shuriken began to rain down, blotting out the sky. First came the flickering shadows of their forms, then the high-pitched whoosh of air being torn apart. It was a massive carpet-bombing of projectiles, as if multiple users had simultaneously cast the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu.
The shuriken thudded into the dirt and clattered into the trees.
Ui's reflexes were instantaneous. He launched himself upward like a fish leaping from water, his back parallel to the ground. With a powerful push from his arms, he flipped mid-air and landed gracefully on a thick branch several meters up.
His clones, however, were forced to abandon their strike. Pakura's soft neck had been right there, but the window of opportunity vanished in a heartbeat.
Ui's two clones and Pakura retreated in three different directions. Even the Rain Ninjas paused their assault. A third party had entered the fray, and the battlefield fell into a momentary, heavy silence.
Half-kneeling on the branch, Ui immediately dispelled his clones. In an uncertain situation, recovering even a fraction of his chakra was the logical choice—every drop increased his odds of surviving what came next.
He gripped the tree trunk and peered down. From his height, he was looking directly at the newcomers.
There were fifty of them. Every single one wore a Rain headband, but their attire was completely different from the standard Amegakure forces.
At their head stood three figures.
One with orange hair. One with purple hair. And one with deep red hair, just like Kushina's.
It seems the ninja world's colorful hair palette is the result of a century of superior hair-care products—it certainly makes for easy identification. Seeing that red hair usually meant one thing: the Uzumaki clan, long since stripped of their home.
The dense cloud of shuriken hadn't been made of steel. They were made of paper. As for the speed and volume? That was the result of a coordinated combo:
Paper Shuriken Jutsu enhanced by Wind Style: Gale Palm.
The attack hadn't been meant to kill; it had been a tactical intervention designed to force Ui and Pakura apart.
Considering their location and the features of the three leaders, their identity was glaringly obvious.
The Akatsuki.
And their leaders: Yahiko, Konan, and... Nagato.
Ui could make this judgment with certainty. While Yahiko and Nagato's facial features differed slightly from his memories of their older selves, Konan's iconic paper-style attacks were unmistakable to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the major players in this world. Once her identity was confirmed, the others fell into place.
To actually see the first Child of Prophecy here... and those eyes belonging to the Sage of the Six Paths...
This was the Akatsuki in its infancy, led by three idealists with somewhat naive dreams.
Could I take them out here?
The thought flickered through Ui's mind, but he suppressed it immediately. That was insane. He had no idea how far Nagato had developed the Rinnegan. Moreover, even the "softer" Konan was the kind of person who could eventually prep 600 billion explosive tags. She could blow him up fifty times over without breaking a sweat.
Ui was still struggling with basic Water Style training, while Nagato, thanks to those eyes, had mastered all five nature transformations instantly. He was a walking cheat code.
Ui didn't move a muscle. He stared at the red hair—specifically at the "ripple" eyes beneath it—and chose caution.
Under his mental command, the Multi-Headed Hound began to reabsorb its clones. Once whole again, it stopped attacking and began to back away slowly, carrying the three Konoha ninjas into the dark shadows of the forest.
Ui was on high alert, but he was the only one who knew who these people were. Pakura didn't recognize the leaders of a small, local insurgent group. Seeing the Rain headbands, she naturally assumed they were more reinforcements for the enemy.
"Like maggots on a corpse!" she spat, her Scorch orbs glowing brighter.