Chapter 54: Hinata enrolling in school.

"So wanna read it? A secret letter from your boss, the Kazekage."

Pakura looked like she had lost her way on the path of life.

In a way she was still a young naive girl.

She didn't even understand the evil in the politics of her village.

If she was in Konoha, she would be sapped dry to the bone.

Hachiro opened the letter and read it out to her.

"I would like to express my deepest apologies to the cloud for my previous actions. They were very much unmannerly and uncouth, as a show of sincerity I have dispatched Pakura, the possessor of the Scorch style kekkai genkai to the south of the Land of Lightning, at Sanki village."

He paused and glanced at her, he saw no reaction.

"I hope that the life of 'the Hero of Sunagakure' is sufficient to erase the bad history between our two countries and start again on a new note. Yours sincerely, Rasa Kazekage."

He threw the letter over to her.

Upon seeing the handwriting and the Fourth Kazekage's unique golden seal, Pakura had no choice but to accept the truth.

"So... they really did give up on me..."

She felt heartbroken.

To a ninja that had sworn loyalty to their birth village, there was nothing more saddening than being betrayed by them.

It was something that Sakumo Hatake realised the hard way.

And now, Pakura was experiencing it as well.

Even if the cloud had sent numerous threats to Rasa, the moment he decided to 'sell' Pakura, she became an outcast.

He lamented to himself and jumped over to her.

"What did you expect. He could even get his brother-in-law to attempt to murder his son, its not really surprising, he was fine with this sort of thing."

Anyone, who had read the original and knew of the Kazekage's motives would think he had some sort of brain damage.

He sent the only person Gaara had wholeheartedly trusted since young to assassinate him.

Like, how did he think that would test if Gaara had the potential the become a perfect Jinchuriki?

He had thought about it numerous times and couldn't understand the first step in his line of thinking.

He decided to just throw him down as a scourge on the same level as Orochimaru.

Hmm~

Hachiro looked at the crying woman in front of him. He didn't have much experience with depressed woman and wasn't sure what to do.

This woman won't stop crying. I liked her better when she looked like she was always wanting a fight.

I'll try this,

"Hey, ugly woman. Stop crying!"

Standing next to him Darui and Genkai looked at him speechlessly,

So merciless...

In response to his provocation, Pakura dried up her tears.

"Will you... stop the attack on Sunagakure?"

He glanced at her in slight surprise, "They used your life as a peace offering. Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself?"

"...It was the Kazekage that betrayed me, it has nothing to do with the others in the village."

Hachiro hummed playfully,

"Well~ I'll consider it if you behave well~"

He turned around and requested for Darui to organise the other shinobi in preparation of returning to the village.

Thinking about the innocent lives of the villagers, Pakura showed determination and followed behind them.

…

…

Two days later, the Cloud's small army withdrew.

The other villages could only speculate that the two sides had reached an agreement behind the scenes.

Konoha, or more specifically the Third Hokage was the most disappointed about this development.

He would have to wait longer to avenge his son and daughter-in-law.

Overall, it was a little anti-climactic.

No one had noticed the Cloud leaving with an extra person.

…

…

On the first day of school term, the gate of Kumogakure's ninja academy.

Many parents were leading their young children along encouraging them and bringing them to attend the school entrance ceremony.

"... and now, we will have the Raikage give a speech."

Killer Bee jumped up on the stage and starting singing a terrible rap.

"Welcome to school, you babes! First of all~ I am the Eight Tailed Killer Bee! Here to give you-"

Boom!

"You idiot, don't make trouble!"

The Fourth Raikage interrupted him mid speech with a flying kick to the face.

After a dry cough, he delivered a speech that was repeated every year, at the opening ceremony with minor variations.

This was the Will of Cloud(?) speech, basically a watered down version of Hiruzen's Will of Fire.

Tutai had tried writing a speech before but the Raikage ended up putting too much passion in the wrong parts, causing it to sound all funky.

This was also the year where the Konoha 12 would enroll.

Or Konoha 11, if you prefer...

In comparison the new blood injected into the Shinobi school seemed very weak.

None of them were especially powerful aside from Hinata, who was holding his hand.

As for potential, he wasn't sure but the only one notable from memory was Karui.

Actually, he only remembered her becoming an elite Jonin, she only stood out because she married Choji akimichi.

Although, he doesn't understand how the two of them got together in the first place.