Dawn in the Land of Water came cold and wet, the kind of chill that bit straight through bone.When the first villagers cracked open their doors, the mist slapped their faces like a damp funeral cloth. They shivered, muttered curses, and trudged into another day of survival.
Inside the inn, the Kiri kunoichi Tobika had interrogated the night before shivered too. Her eyes slowly regained awareness. The room was empty. The bed neatly made.The man and cat… gone.
She checked her reflection, stripping her clothes off and inspecting every inch of skin.No bruises. No cuts. No burns.
But she remembered the pain.Her mind recoiled."…Genjutsu?"
A knock sounded.
She dressed, opened the door, and found a familiar partner standing there: short black hair, headband angled left, face wrapped in cold bandages, and shark-sharp teeth.
He looked her over. "I sensed a spike of chakra. Ringo Ameyuri—did someone attack you?"
"No," she answered quickly.
"Good. We have the intel on the Evil God cult. Mission complete. We move out."
She nodded. But her gaze drifted away, guilt flickering behind her calm mask.
Last night, she'd talked. Not everything—but enough.But it had been information about Terumi Mei, not about normal Kiri shinobi.Bloodline bearers didn't count.That was the twisted rule she'd decided on to justify her own fear.
She clenched her fists.
And remembered the way that Uchiha had looked at her—quiet pity, as if she were already a dead woman.
Her chest tightened. "Am I… sick?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Meanwhile, Tobika was staring at Fuyu as if the cat had told him the moon was cheese.
"Her name is Terumi Mei?"
"Mm." Fuyu nodded solemnly. "That's what she said."
Tobika tried, and failed, not to picture the future Fifth Mizukage as a skinny, sharp-toothed girl."…I'm pretty sure Mei didn't have fangs," he muttered. "Her problem wasn't the teeth—it was the tongue."
Fuyu butted his head against Tobika's arm, stretching. "Anyway, you said she's dying. Why?"
Tobika shrugged. "Terminal illness. Still dormant. Won't last long."
Fuyu's whiskers twitched with real sympathy. "Rough."
Then he lifted his nose, sniffing the air lightly before pointing northeast.
"With what we learned and that faint chakra signature? Yakura's there."
"Good." Tobika's chakra flared under his soles and—
He vanished.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━The valley entrance swallowed Yakura whole.
The mist here was thick enough to drink. High cliffs rose on both sides like stone jaws, and the fog churned between them like milk poured into water.
Yakura frowned.A negotiation site this deep in Kirigakure territory?It wasn't just remote—it was a trap built out of geography.
She adjusted her weapons pouch, placed her kunai within easy reach, and stepped into the fog.
Only her footsteps existed.Even sound died here.
Then—A faint scuff ahead.
Yakura stopped. "Sunagakure envoy Yakura, requesting entry."
"Scorch Style Yakura-san," a voice replied smoothly.
A silhouette stepped closer, face and posture deferential, smile polite.A Kiri shinobi.
Kiri had really sent a greeter.
Fully in view, he bowed."You may call me Mitani. It is an honor to escort you. The village assumed you weren't familiar with our terrain."
"Crossing a valley doesn't require a guide," Yakura replied coolly.
Mitani laughed, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Ah—of course, of course. Still, please allow me."
He stepped aside, giving her space to pass.
The moment her back crossed his reach—His hand flashed.
A kunai punched through her back, the blade sinking deep near her heart.
"—!"
White pain stormed her senses. Her breath choked off. Each heartbeat made the agony bloom sharper.
She turned her head slowly.Mitani's polite smile had twisted into a feral, triumphant snarl.
"You… why…" Yakura gasped.
"Why?" He rammed the kunai deeper. "Because Sunagakure sold you out."
Yakura staggered forward and fell hard.The pain swallowed everything.Kunai rained down from both ridgelines—she heard them before she felt them.
Thud.Thud.Thud.
Her nerves could no longer register each wound individually. The agony of her failing heart drowned everything.
Mitani walked toward her, crouched, and tilted her chin up with a finger.
"Don't misunderstand. Kiri's hatred for you doesn't vanish with your death. But it's a start."His smile widened cruelly."The Suna elders who handed you over believe the same thing. You are the offering on which this temporary peace is built."
Sold out.Sacrificed.Traded away for negotiations.
Yakura understood.
They betrayed me.
She had given everything to Sunagakure. Never wavered. Never failed.
And they traded her life for a treaty.
Her mind drifted.Faces and memories flashed like lanterns sinking underwater.
Will I die here?
Her gaze drifted past Mitani, toward the valley entrance—the direction she had come from.
West.Toward Suna.
Toward… a shadow that flickered through the fog.
A familiar silhouette.
Impossible.Tobika should have been on his way back to Konoha by now, drowning in welcome ceremonies.
But the figure didn't vanish.
It stepped forward.
Her heartbeat slowed.
"…It really looks like him," she thought weakly. "Now I kind of want to hear the rest of that story.'A young bloodline ninja who died without ever falling in love'…He wanted to tell me that, didn't he?"
If there was a next life—Maybe she—
Darkness swallowed her.