Rasa's aide spoke with unmistakable relief in his voice.
"Lord Rasa, that was terrifying. More than a thousand Iwa ninja appeared in the distance, but after your negotiation with the enemies in the sky, they withdrew. Lord Rasa... did you frighten them off yourself?"
Rasa thought to himself that there was no way he could claim he had scared off the Tsuchikage and the Third Raikage.
Those two had acted under pressure from Konoha—one hand wielding military threat, the other offering persuasion.
Rasa said, "Let's go. The intelligence was wrong. Iwagakure has no interest in the oasis towns in the northwest of the Land of Wind."
His aide and subordinates were deeply confused, but since the Iwa ninja really had retreated, none of them dared ask more.
People in the village all said that Advisor Rasa was ruthless.
Those who served under him knew the rumors were true.
For the sake of the village, Advisor Rasa would sacrifice even his own family.
The moment he returned to the village, Rasa had the latest intelligence from Sabaku Port brought to him.
"Oh? So Pakura drove back Fuguki Suikazan and Hōzuki Mangetsu working together? And both the nobles and the surviving Sand ninja are calling her a war hero?"
Rasa thought to himself that this only made it easier to offer Pakura to the Mist.
If that ended the conflict with Kirigakure and allowed Sunagakure to join the alliance under the will of Ōnoki and the Raikage, then it would be the course that best served the village's interests.
When Pakura returned to Sunagakure, Rasa summoned her.
As she entered the Kazekage conference chamber, Pakura lifted her eyes toward the three towering Kazekage statues at the far end of the room.
Beneath them stood a long oval table, with Rasa seated at one end.
Pakura approached the other end and noticed a scroll lying on the table.
Rasa said, "Pakura, you did very well. You drove back the Mist elite force.
Kirigakure has already sent a letter seeking peace. Our conflict with the Mist is over.
However, a representative must be sent to exchange the peace agreement.
The Mist wanted us to go to the Land of Water. I insisted that they come to the Land of Wind. Since neither side would yield, we settled on a neutral location—Uzushio Village—where the agreement will be exchanged in secret.
Remember this well. Uzushio Village is a vassal of the Land of Fire, and many Konoha ninja are active there. If you operate in Uzushio, be very careful of Konoha shinobi."
Pakura nodded and picked up the peace agreement from the table.
As she turned to leave, Rasa sneered inwardly.
Foolish women really were easy to deceive.
The shinobi world was full of danger. Rasa thought back to just a few days ago—if Ōnoki had not wanted to gather more allies, then when he and the Third Raikage joined forces in the sky, Rasa would have died without question.
If even those two feared Fox so much, then just how strong was Fox really?
In the Second Shinobi World War, Fox had only begun to show his edge on the Land of Rivers front. Yet only a few years later, his strength had become so terrifying that even Ōnoki was forced to seek alliances because of him.
When Pakura reached the village gate, she found her student, Maki, waiting there.
"Sensei, won't you be able to spar with me anymore?"
Pakura gently patted the girl's head.
"Since the Kazekage disappeared, everyone in the village has been busy.
I'm no exception. I have to keep carrying out missions for the village and help it through this crisis.
This time I'm going somewhere far away. Maki, don't slack off. When I come back, I'll be checking your homework."
Maki nodded quickly.
Amid wind and sand, Pakura left Sunagakure behind.
Maki stood there watching her teacher's back grow more distant, until the blowing sand on the horizon warped the light and swallowed her from view.
At Sabaku Port, Hidan walked through the ruins with Sail, who had mostly recovered.
Stepping around the wreckage of a ship, Hidan grumbled, "This is more than eight hundred meters from the shoreline, right? I seriously don't get how the Mist managed to drag a whole ship all the way out here."
Sail thought to himself that it had to be some massive flood-like Water Release.
Behind the wrecked hull, the nobles' officials were organizing men to pull corpses out from inside the ship.
One body after another had drowned in Water Release. Their swollen faces looked like bloated demons.
After a few steps, Hidan noticed Sail had stopped following. He turned and saw the boy staring at several pale corpses.
"Hey, hey. Is someone here someone you knew?
You're lucky. You earned Lord Evil God's favor. Most people never get that kind of fortune."
Sail pulled his gaze away.
"There are too many corpses I recognize. But they're dead now. Whatever relationships they had while alive have all been reset to zero."
Hidan nodded repeatedly.
"No wonder you managed to complete the ritual. You've got some talent."
At that moment, shouting in the distance drew both their attention.
Several boatmen were kneeling before a noble, begging him to reduce their loans.
During the Mist attack on Sabaku Port, the fishing boats they had bought with borrowed money had been sunk. They could no longer repay what they owed.
The noble's face remained cold as he refused them.
"The nobles' households aren't rolling in spare money either. The Mist sank your boats—does that mean I didn't suffer losses in this disaster too? You want compensation for your losses from me? Then who do I go to for mine?"
Hidan's eyes lit up with excitement. He lowered his voice and said to Sail, "That's the one. I was just worrying I couldn't find anyone suitable, and one shows up on his own."
The two followed the noble all the way back to his home.
The noble sat before a table full of seafood and fine wine, too troubled to eat.
Hidan kicked open the brick wall behind him, hooked his scythe into the man's shoulder blade, and dragged him backward.
Sail rushed in at once and clamped a hand around the noble's throat.
The samurai guards had long since fled. No one was left to protect him.
Together, they dragged the noble outside the city to a reef.
This reef was unusual. The exposed rock only rose to knee height above the ground, but beneath the surface it extended more than ten meters deep.
Hidan took out a kunai and began carving a shrine into the stone.
He gouged four or five centimeters into the surface, shaping three rough divine figures.
They looked nothing like the clear forms of the Wrathful King, the Evil God, and the Shinigami in the great temple. At most, you could vaguely tell that all three wore cloaks.
"Come on. Time for the sacrifice. This is our shrine of the Church of the Three Calamities."
The two of them performed the offering with full reverence.
They offered the noble's soul to the Three Gods. The Three Gods bestowed divine power, and using the noble's soul as a medium, transformed the stone into a shrine of their faith.
On the shrine, Yako's Flying Thunder God formula flashed for an instant and disappeared.
From now on, this place would serve as one of his coordinates. He could appear here at any moment with Flying Thunder God.
The Flying Thunder God Technique really did deserve the word "god" in its name. Its power rivaled that of deities from other worlds.
After finishing the prayer, Hidan declared, "We're going to build shrines in every town and every corner of the shinobi world!
We're going to spread the faith of the great gods!"
Sail said nothing. He only lowered his head and looked at the shrine of the Church of the Three Calamities.
Hidan's craftsmanship was awful. The figures of the Three Gods looked like little more than stacked ovals.
But the divine power was real.
"Come on, Sail. We're going to the hospital in Sabaku Port."
When they arrived, Hidan stared up at the top floor of the hospital ward building.
"See that, Sail? The third floor of that inpatient building is where all the noble wounded are staying.
You don't know any jutsu yet, so I'll give you a mission.
Sneak up there and steal the bloodied bandages the noble patients have already used. Then use the blood on them to offer sacrifices to the great Evil God.
Once you've sacrificed ten souls, I'll reward you by teaching you how to refine chakra."
Sail asked in confusion, "Lord Hidan, the doctrine says all evildoers must repent.
How do we judge which of those noble patients on the third floor have done evil and which are good people?
What if we sacrifice a good person by mistake?"
Hidan snorted.
"What do you know?
I once asked the great Evil God the same thing. I really wanted to sacrifice nobles, but I was worried I might wrongly kill a kind one.
Do you know how Lord Evil God answered me?
He said the evil of nobles has nothing to do with whether they're personally good or bad.
Their very status as nobles is evil.
As long as someone is a noble, they naturally benefit from the exploitation of servants and laborers.
So there's no need to sort them into good nobles and bad nobles. Sacrifice them all.
They're born evil."
Hearing that, Sail nodded, all doubt gone from his heart.
If this was the guidance of the Three Gods, then there was nothing left to question.
Several days later, Yako's eyes suddenly snapped open.
Hidan and Sail had worked efficiently. They had already sacrificed another ten souls.
Yako turned his gaze toward the Land of Waves, wondering how Pakura was doing there.