[Send powerstones please]
The vote had been decided.
Pakura’s future continued playing across the screens.
Throughout the shinobi world, everyone watched closely, unwilling to miss a single detail about what was still to come.
[In the forest—
Pakura looked at Maki.
“I was traded away to Kirigakure.”
“For the sake of the village, they…”
Before she could finish, the Kirigakure kunoichi beside Maki spoke in disbelief.
“That’s horrible…”
Pakura’s eyes immediately turned cold.
“So there’s a Mist shinobi here too.”
Ruka quickly responded.
“That was the Kirigakure of the past!”
“Under the Fifth Mizukage, our village has entered a new era!”
Pakura’s anger only deepened.
“And that erases everything Kirigakure did?”
“All the bloodshed?
All the schemes?
All the people your village killed?”
“Does calling it a new era suddenly make the past disappear?”
“Pakura-sensei, please stop.”
Maki stepped forward.
“If you have to hate someone, shouldn’t it be the village that betrayed you?”
“Sunagakure praised you as a hero, then discarded you the moment sacrificing you became convenient.”
Maki’s expression tightened.
“After hearing the truth, I don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel anymore.”
“But I know one thing.”
“Wanting revenge is one thing.
Killing shinobi who had nothing to do with your death is another.”
“That would be wrong.”
Pakura swept one hand aside.
“Nothing to do with it?”
Maki didn’t back down.
“Sensei, you haven’t seen the world as it is now.”
“Before joining the Allied Shinobi Forces, I used to judge people entirely by which village they came from.”
“I hated Kirigakure.”
“But after fighting beside shinobi from other villages, talking to them, depending on them…”
“I realized we can understand one another.”
“We can fight together.”
Pakura glared at her.
“Then what am I supposed to do with all this anger?”
“Who answers for what happened to me?”
“Are you telling me there was nothing anyone could do, so I should simply accept it and move on?”
Maki fell silent.
She had no easy answer.
Pakura’s voice grew harsher.
“Don’t ask me for that.”
“And besides—”
She looked down at her reanimated body.
“I’m trapped by the Impure World Reincarnation.”
“Whether I want to or not, I’m going to be forced to fight the Allied Shinobi Forces.”
Several blazing spheres of Scorch Release formed around her.
Maki’s eyes widened.
“Move!”
Her hands flashed through a seal.
“Hiding in Cloth Technique!”
A wide sheet of cloth swept around Maki and her two companions.
In an instant, all three disappeared from sight.
Pakura watched without moving.
“Good judgment.”
Then the burning spheres around her surged outward.
“But how long do you think you can hide?”
The flames converged into a massive sphere of heat.
A moment later—
BOOM!
A vast section of forest, stretching hundreds of meters around Pakura, was scorched away under the overwhelming heat.
Maki immediately wrapped the group in a protective dome of cloth, and Ruka soaked it with Water Release just in time.
Steam exploded around them as the drenched cloth absorbed the brunt of Pakura’s Scorch Release.
They survived.
Barely.
Then a voice came from behind them.
“There you are.”
The three froze.
Pakura stood directly behind them.
A faint smile crossed her face.
“So you can’t beat me…”
“And you can’t outrun me either.”]
…
The future footage immediately sparked another heated debate.
To many viewers, Pakura seemed completely different from the hero Sunagakure once celebrated.
Her desire for revenge had consumed her.
She was even willing to attack her own former student.
But others found it difficult to condemn her so easily.
After all—
Pakura had been betrayed by her village, murdered by another, and then dragged back from the dead as someone else’s weapon.
…
[Live Chat Group One]
[Ao: I told you.
Continuing the video was only going to destroy the image of the hero you all remembered.
She’s become completely consumed by revenge.]
[Kurotsuchi: Can you really blame her?
Look at what happened to her.
I don’t agree with everything she’s doing, but I can understand why she’s angry.]
[Chojuro: I think Maki is right.
Pakura has every reason to hate the people who betrayed and killed her, but taking that anger out on shinobi who weren’t involved isn’t right.]
Kakashi remained silent for a moment before responding.
[Kakashi Hatake: It’s easy to tell someone to forgive when you’ve never suffered what they have.]
[Kakashi Hatake: We can disagree with Pakura’s choices without pretending her anger is unreasonable.]
Maki sighed.
[Maki: At this point, we Sunagakure shinobi are probably the last people who have any right to lecture her.]
Naruto refused to give up.
[Naruto Uzumaki: I still don’t believe she’ll become completely heartless!]
[Naruto Uzumaki: She was once willing to risk everything for Sunagakure.
That part of her can’t have disappeared completely!]
Sasuke answered coldly.
[Sasuke Uchiha: You’re naive.]
[Sasuke Uchiha: After being betrayed and murdered like that, revenge is exactly what most people would choose.]
[Sasuke Uchiha: Anyone who simply forgot about it would have to be out of their mind.]
Shikamaru looked thoughtful.
[Shikamaru Nara: Maki’s pretty persuasive.]
[Shikamaru Nara: She keeps giving Pakura reasons to reconsider instead of just condemning her.]
[Shikamaru Nara: Maybe she actually has a chance of getting through to her.]
…
[Live Chat Group Two]
Minato focused on one part of Maki’s words in particular.
[Minato Namikaze: Maki confirmed it.
Shinobi from different villages really did form an Allied Shinobi Forces in the future.]
[Minato Namikaze: They’re fighting side by side against the same enemy.]
[Minato Namikaze: Experiences like that could change how the villages see one another.
If people who once hated each other learn to trust one another in battle…
perhaps lasting peace really is possible someday.]
Mū immediately disagreed.
[Mū: A temporary alliance against a common enemy isn’t the same thing as peace.]
[Mū: Once the threat disappears, the villages will eventually return to competing with one another.]
Gengetsu Hozuki laughed.
[Gengetsu Hozuki: I hate to admit it, but the bandage-covered bastard has a point.]
[Gengetsu Hozuki: I certainly can’t imagine you and me ever getting along.]
[Mū: The feeling is mutual.]
Madara turned his attention toward Hashirama.
[Madara Uchiha: Looks like I win our little bet, Hashirama.]
[Madara Uchiha: I’ve lived longer than you and seen far more of what people are capable of.]
[Madara Uchiha: Pakura choosing revenge is hardly surprising.
Most people would do the same.]
Hashirama didn’t concede.
[Hashirama Senju: No.]
[Hashirama Senju: She hasn’t completely lost herself.]
[Hashirama Senju: If she had, she wouldn’t still be arguing with Maki.
She would have attacked without hesitation.]
[Hashirama Senju: I don’t believe she’ll willingly kill her own student and spend the rest of her existence regretting it.]
Pakura finally lost patience with both of them.
[Pakura: That’s enough!]
[Pakura: I don’t need either of you deciding what kind of person I am.]
[Pakura: Whether I forgive them or take revenge is my decision.]
There was a brief pause.
Then she added defiantly—
[Pakura: And what if I really do decide to kill them?
What then?]