“Tch.” Pakura clicked her tongue as she looked at the dead bodies in front. “These were just a decoy.” She turned to look toward Shack City’s general direction.

“Sensei!” Just as she was planning the next course of action, her disciple came close. “I see that you finished.”

“What took you so long, brat!?” She shouted at him. “I’m dying out of boredom!”

“Oi! You left me against chunins!” Was the child’s answer, causing Pakura to snort.

“If you got power by making excuses, you’ll already be sitting in the Kazekage office,” She shook her head as she once again turned towards Shack City.

“What now?” Pushing down his wishes to protest, Daisuke asked his overly serious sensei.

“There’s a mole… no…” She shook her head before glaring at no one in particular. “There ARE moles in Suna.”

“Huh? Moles?” Daisuke frowned, thinking for a while. “You mean… those ones?”

“Yes,” Pakura nodded, her chakra almost flaring at the idea of some bastard plotting to weaken Sunagakure. “The blockheads are playing a dangerous game now…”

“Ha…” Daisuke frowned. “Could it be… that they were the ones prying for your death?”

“The probability isn’t non-existent,” Pakura answered shortly. ”But knowing those old raccoons, they probably just took some bribes from Kirigakure, though… the bribes could also come from Iwa… ha… I still can’t fucking believe this shit,” Pakura held her nose’s bridge as she furrowed her brows.

“Well… now what?” Daisuke asked as he looked at the silently fuming Pakura.

“We need to get to Shack City,” Pakura said as she looked at Daisuke sternly. “I wanted to be wrong, but it seems the Iwa-nins at Shack were receiving constant information from our moles, and today, one of the counselors parted towards them with important info.” She said as she started to run towards Shack City.

“Are they stupid? Who would trust a traitor?” Daisuke frowned, following right behind her.

“He’s from a clan, the clan’s head, actually,” Pakura said, while Daisuke could feel her chakra flare up even more, no matter how much she tried to keep it under control.

“That’s even worse… why would a clan head try to affect the village?” He asked with a frown. Both of them finally make it out of the forest, and into the desert.

“Suna… it’s not in a good spot,” She sighed. “The wars have taken their toll on us… right now we’re getting just enough money to barely sustain the village, let alone make it prosper.”

“So that’s it? They just jump ships?” He scoffed. “Then what about his clan? Doesn’t he care?”

“It’s not that big of a clan… the clans in our village are not as big as those from other villages, after all.” She said. A slight pain could be felt in her voice.

“Ha… no matter how big or small the clan is… doing this is just throwing whatever remaining member the clan has left into a really bad position…”

“We need to stop him from actually leaving the country,” Pakura said. “That way, at least, we could diminish the damage made to the village.”

“What about the other moles?” Daisuke asked.

“Those are low priority. The Kazekage should be able to take care of them with the provided proof.” Pakura said, while Daisuke only nodded back.

Soon they managed to reach Shack City, it was a relatively medium city in the Land of Winds, as it was on the coast, it bloomed with good trade thanks to the maritime routes and a great fishing market. Quickly sneaking their way into the city, both Pakura and Daisuke quickly moved toward the hiding spot of the enemies.

“We can’t attack them while they stay in the city.” Pakura whispered to Daisuke, to which he nodded. They finally reached the hiding spot, but it was completely empty. “Shit!” Pakura cursed as she looked into the empty place.

“It must be the reason why they didn’t care to let that info stay with the decoys…”

“Yeah…” Pakura sighed. “Something you can track?”

“I’m not a freaking dog…” Daisuke snorted but started looking around. Closing his eyes, he tried to feel any remaining chakra, but whatever was left was too small, and it dispersed through different directions. “Ha… it seems they separated to evade any sensor to try and track them…”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re doing it the old ways, let’s go.” Pakura said as she turned towards the Bear Country’s general direction before shooting forward while looking for any clues on the way that might tell on their position. “They can’t be that far, the closest way they have to escape is through Bear Country.”

They quickly went out of the city, and just as they rushed towards the forest that was adjacent to the border, an eagle flew down towards them. Both of them stopped to receive the message from the desert eagle.

“...” Pakura started to read the small scroll, only to nod, sending the eagle away, before immediately resuming their way. “They’re halfway there, but their speed is quite slow.”

“Why?” Daisuke frowned.

“Apparently, the clan head’s kids are basically obese children that have been forced to be on the run for quite a while. They’re exhausted. While his wife is a civilian that has been too tired to continue.”

Daisuke snorted. “They’re with some shinobi, can’t they just carry them? Heck, the clan head itself ”

“Looks like they only have one guard, the rest of the ninjas from Iwa slowly moved out of Shack City one by one in order to avoid suspicions.” She shook her head, finally entering the forest.

“Why just leave a single guard?”

“They probably had more, but seeing as we got closer fast, they probably separated on the way to distract us.” Pakura shrugged.

“That didn’t work too well for them if we apparently caught their tails already.”

“Well… they could also leave on a boat, so in a sense, they going through land makes things easier for us.”

“I still feel there’s something else going on here…” Daisuke muttered.

“Whatever it is, brat, we’ll just have to face it head-on. We can’t allow that fucking rat to escape.” Pakura growled at the mere thought of the traitor, and it didn’t take long for her to reach the deserters, along with a single Iwa jonin.

“Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!” as soon as they were in range, Pakura shot a dragon-shaped fire toward the group, scaring the children and the wife. Only to be stopped by the Iwa-nin who pulled up an earth wall to defend everyone.

“Hasty, are we?” The Iwagakure shinobi smirked as part of the wall crumbled by the fire. ‘Damn bitch, she’s too strong for her own good…’

“Tch. Shut the fuck up, you damn blockhead.” Pakura said as she stood in front of the group, looking at the traitor once the wall dispersed. “You bastard… was it money?” She growled at the clan head who summoned a large puppet, that looked anything but fragile.

The councilman snorted. “That’s not your business.”

“Is that so?” Pakura kept glaring at him. “Well, too bad. You’re not making it out of this country alive.”

“Oh, I beg to disagree,” The councilman smirked. And as if backing him up, Iwa shinobi started appearing out all around the group, facing the lone Pakura. “You see… I’m quite liked in Iwagakure-”

“You talk too much shit.” The jonin that was defending them suddenly decapitated him, under the shocked gaze of the traitor’s family. “Dispose of them.” Immediately after, a few shurikens pierced the councilman’s family.

“...” Pakura just looked at this with a cold glare, not caring at all about what happened.

“As you may say, he completed his purpose,” The jonin shrugged with a mocking smirk. “Not only did we get some good stuff from him, but now we have the chance to dispose of the famous Pakura of the Scorch Release. I guess it’s my birthday today.” He chuckled as the shinobi around laughed.

“Mm…” Pakura raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think you and your group of brainless idiots can kill me?”

He snorted. “We’re more than a hundred, against a single kunoichi. Sadly for you, there’s no escape. Finish her!” He shouted as the hundreds of shinobi threw their weapon, some forming hand seals to attack with water jutsus in case she decided to counterattack.

“Fire Release-” Pakura started forming hand seals, but before she could finish, she was engulfed by the enemy attacks.

“That was easy.” The jonin smirked.

“-Blazing Column!” But proving him wrong, a different Pakura appeared from above them spewing a giant fireball that rushed towards the jonin, who quickly evaded.

“You bitch!” He shouted at her, slightly glancing at the spot she was before, only to find a diminishing flare. ‘Shit! She used a scorch clone to substitute herself!’

And just as the other shinobi pointed their attacks toward Pakura, the giant fireball touched the ground. It spun at high speed before creating a burning tower of spinning and raging fire that quickly expanded, getting closer to the shinobi who started to avoid the flames, some of them opting to use Water Release to turn the fire off.

Although, before they could even finish their hand seals, someone else interrupted the fight. “Great Sickle Weasel Technique!” shouted Daisuke as he blew a large number of air currents toward the raging fire tower.

The instant the two techniques impacted, the already raging fire tower turned into a blazing infernal tornado with compacted fire blades that shot in multiple directions as Pakura controlled the direction it started moving.

“ARGH!” Screams of pain could be heard from inside and around the tornado that quickly grew in size from the already terrifying 10 meters into a blazing hell expanding a full hundred meters around the place, calcinating a lot of Pakura and Daisuke’s enemies, including the jonin that was originally protecting the deserter.

The remaining shinobi tried to put down the fire, while others directly rushed towards Pakura and Daisuke.

“KILL THAT BASTARD!” An enraged shinobi shouted before shooting toward Daisuke. The latter simply grabbed his sword, forming one-hand seals and covering it in a gale of wind, right in time to intercept the chunin attacking him.

Meanwhile, Pakura was already using her flares to defend and attack, while also using the fire tornado to evade some of the long-ranged attacks.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” A jonin shot towards her, sword on hand, only to end up embraced by her moments before Pakura turned into a scorching clone that calcinated the jonin. From below a choked chunin, two hands broke the ground, pulling him down at the same time Pakura jumped out of the ground, finishing him with a kunai to the forehead.

“Wind Release: Faithful Wind Blade!” Daisuke kicked a chunin aside, cutting another at his right, while the gale covering his sword condensed on the blade, extending a newly-formed wind blade tens of meters as he flash-stepped close to the fire tornado, swinging the wind blade through the raging fire, dispersing it and covering his wind blade with an extra layer of fire, before cutting and burning through a few unsuspecting shinobi that were focused on attacking Pakura while she was distracted with three jonin.

“Fucking brat!” The previously kicked chunin appeared from behind Daisuke, aiming his kunai at his neck. “DIE!”

Looking behind him over his shoulder, Daisuke clicked his tongue before blowing air at his side, pushing his neck out of the range of the kunai, that ended up being trusted in his shoulder. “Grr…” He gritted his teeth, as he spun his sword, dissipating the wind and fire, he then strongly grabbed the hand of the chunin and pulled him a little bit forward, before thrusting back the sword, piercing the enemy’s chest, and turning quickly to cut his throat.

“Scorch Release: Mummifying Omen of the Earth!” As Daisuke heard Pakura’s shout, sweat quickly rushed down his forehead. ‘O-Oi! I’m still here!’ He thought, in shock, as he desperately jumped as high as possible, forming hand seals as he jumped up from branch to branch, ignoring the projectiles thrown towards him, even allowing one to cut his cheek. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for him, geysers of steaming hot vapor started breaking up from the ground, targeting a wide area around Pakura.

“Water Release: Streaming Water Barrier.” He quickly finished the hand seals as he crouched down on a branch, spewing a torrential stream of water that quickly formed a barrier around him, the water flowing at high speed and hissing as it entered in contact with a residual gust of the vapor.

Moments later, the vapor surrounding the whole area dispersed, leaving mummified corpses all around, and a panting Pakura that was kneeling on one leg in the middle of the battlefield. She had some injuries and was even bleeding.

“Ha… finally…” Daisuke sighed as the water forming his barrier fell down, while he took a seat on the branch. ‘I thought I would die by friendly fire!’ He complained in his heart. But just as both of them relaxed, a grinding sound reached their ears, especially Pakura’s ears, as the earth behind her broke and a hand holding a kunai shot toward her.

‘SHIT!’ Both Pakura and Daisuke thought, but before the kunai could reach Pakura’s back, another kunai cut the enemy’s hand causing him to drop the weapon, right before tens of other kunais pierced the Iwa-nin whose body was already going out of the ground.

“Are you okay, Pakura-sama!?” Souzi, as well as a group of Suna ninjas, reached the place, with Souzi’s puppet being responsible for saving Pakura from the surprise attack.

“Y-Yes…” Pakura sighed, plopping down to rest. “I just need to rest… I’ve wasted too much chakra…”

“Right…” Souzi nodded, looking around at the mummified corpses as a creeping chill rushed through his back. ‘I hope I won’t ever have to fight against Pakura-sama…’ He prayed inwardly. “Please take care of Pakura-sama, she is hurt!” He then asked a few of the assisting shinobi, some of which had some medical training.

“Hey, Daisuke!” Souzi then greeted Daisuke, who was already walking towards them with an exhausted face. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah…” He nodded. “I almost died…”

“You did good, surviving the ambush…”

“The ambush wasn’t the problem…” He answered back, a slight glare locked on Pakura. “I almost died by friendly fire…” Daisuke muttered, giving even more conviction to Souzi to never fight against Pakura, who could only give a hollow chuckle.