And just like that, Uchiha Ran was unceremoniously drafted.
Truth be told, Uchiha Ruka hadn't originally planned on bringing him along. But fate—or perhaps bad timing—had other ideas. The moment Ran walked right into her line of sight and even greeted her first, things were already decided.
He's calling me "jie," isn't he?
Then how could I not take him along?
Take him.
Absolutely take him.
Ruka decided that this was the perfect opportunity to let Ran witness the heroic elegance of a senior sister on the borderlines.
"Fine," the Third Hokage said after a moment of thought. "Since you've chosen Uchiha Ran as your assistant, make sure you bring him back safely. Otherwise…" He sighed, rubbing his temples. "I really don't want to deal with Orochimaru's expression."
With that, Sarutobi Hiruzen approved the pairing and explained the mission.
The situation was simple on the surface.
The Hidden Sand Village had recently produced a genius named Pakura.
She was not only the wielder of the Scorch Release bloodline, but also renowned as a great beauty of the Land of Wind.
Recently, however, Pakura had been appearing repeatedly near the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire—clearly with a purpose.
The moment this information reached Hiruzen, a spark of suspicion ignited in his mind.
The Sand Village was poor. Infamously so.
There were even rumors claiming that their Kazekage-level shinobi, Rasa, used his Magnet Release to sift gold dust from the desert and sell it to sustain the village.
Whether rumor or truth, such stories made Hiruzen wary. A village that poor, yet still heavily armed, was never something one could afford to underestimate.
Pakura's repeated, unannounced movements along the border were especially troubling.
She wasn't some rookie.
She was an elite jōnin—a pillar of Sunagakure.
Someone of her stature wandering the border without notification was anything but normal.
Hiruzen decided to investigate.
He needed to know Pakura's true objective, and whether Sunagakure was preparing to threaten Konoha.
And since Pakura was a female shinobi, dispatching Uchiha Ruka, another female ninja, was an appropriate choice.
As for Ran…
Well.
He was more of a bonus.
If things went south and tensions flared, maybe a bright, sunny boy like him could strike up a conversation with someone like Pakura.
Maybe.
No further intelligence was provided.
Hiruzen simply waved them off.
In his assessment, while the Land of Wind showed signs of movement, the situation wasn't critical.
After all, they'd only sent Pakura—and even then, she was moving discreetly.
"Damn it! Why am I the one stuck with this mission? Wouldn't Rasa be a better choice?!"
The voice echoed through the endless desert.
In the Land of Wind, a boundless sea of sand stretched to the horizon, barren and unforgiving.
The desert resembled a vast wasteland, dunes rising and falling endlessly beneath the sky.
Sand danced violently in the wind, forming rolling storms that swallowed sunlight and dyed the world in a hazy yellow blur.
Pakura traveled alone through this environment.
And worse—
A sandstorm was approaching.
The howling wind made breathing difficult, flinging razor-sharp grains that sliced against her skin like blades.
Even for an elite jōnin, enduring such conditions was no easy task.
"Ahhh—this is so annoying!" Pakura yelled, clawing at her hair in frustration.
She truly despised this so-called "special feature" of the Land of Wind.
In the great desert, even shinobi had to remain vigilant at all times.
When sandstorms hit, shelter was mandatory—exposure meant death.
Only those who adapted survived.
Those who didn't were swallowed by the sands, erased forever.
Konoha's intelligence network moved frighteningly fast.
Pakura had barely made a brief loop through the Land of Fire, noticed traces of Konoha operatives, and quietly returned to the Wind border—
Yet the report was already sitting on Hiruzen's desk.
Konoha's intelligence shinobi were no joke.
In another era, they would've been night scouts, frontier sentries, the unseen eyes of an empire.
Pakura herself had received a mission of terrifying significance—one that forced her to endure this brutal journey.
The reason?
The Third Kazekage had gone missing.
The man known as the strongest Kazekage in history—
The wielder of Magnet Release, the so-called Magnet Shadow—
Had vanished within the borders of his own country.
It was almost absurd.
The Third Kazekage, master of a near-unique bloodline, possessed overwhelming offensive and defensive power.
Combined with his tactical brilliance, calling him the strongest Kazekage was no exaggeration.
And yet—
He disappeared. Without a sound.
Without a trace.
Though no evidence pointed toward Konoha, Sunagakure still sent Pakura to the border.
After all, among neighboring nations, only Konoha truly had the means, motive, and strength to threaten the Third Kazekage.
Konoha possessed Danzo Shimura, the so-called "Darkness of the Shinobi World," and Minato Namikaze, the fastest shinobi alive with space–time ninjutsu.
Suspicion falling on Konoha was only natural.
What Pakura didn't know was that her deployment also served a deeper political purpose.
The Third Kazekage was likely never coming back.
Soon, Sunagakure would send more jōnin to the borders.
Once word spread—domestically and abroad—that the Kazekage had vanished, ambition would awaken.
The village would enter a state of war readiness.
An emergency council would form.
A temporary Fourth Kazekage would be selected.
And at that moment—
The only Kage-level shinobi left in the village would be Rasa.
With Pakura, Bunpuku, and others stationed away at the borders, Rasa would naturally rise as the acting Kazekage.
This was politics.
A transaction.
A deal Rasa struck with Ebizō and Chiyo.
Bloodline? Strength? Popular support?
None of it mattered without political leverage.
And so—
While Pakura swallowed sand beneath a raging storm…
Uchiha Ran and Uchiha Ruka set up camp in a warm forest, roasting two rabbits over a fire.
They chatted casually, unhurried.
The mission wasn't urgent.
The sandstorms would slow Pakura's advance anyway.
At a steady pace—
They might even reach the border before she did.
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