Naruto: We Agreed on a Simulation, But They Actually Came to Life?

Chapter 144: Chapter 144: Lost

Pakura’s footsteps drew closer.

As she turned toward the cabinet to stand up, Kitahara Kaede had already silently shifted his position, pressing his back firmly against the cabinet wall.

A sliver of a gap in the door remained to his right.

Pressed sideways, he could see nothing—only a single line of light filtering through that narrow crack.

Three steps.

The light in the gap dimmed slightly.

Two steps.

It dimmed further.

One step.

The last flicker of light was completely blocked.

She was standing directly in front of the cabinet door.

Kitahara Kaede held his breath, his mind racing.

If she pulled the door open, his first instinct would be to shove it outward, slamming into her. In the moment she recoiled, he would yank the hem of his clothes over his face to mask his identity and bolt for the balcony.

He couldn’t let her see what he looked like.

Once his plan was set, he looked back at the gap.

Silence.

It was too quiet.

She was standing right there, yet she didn’t open the door, nor did she leave.

Kitahara Kaede could almost feel Pakura’s gaze piercing through the gap, sizing up whatever might be inside.

One heartbeat.

Two.

Then, he heard it.

A hand lifted, landing on the door handle.

’Stop right there,’ he thought desperately.

Kaede’s body tensed. One hand pressed silently against the inside of the door, while the other gripped the bottom hem of his clothing.

Just then, a bird chirped outside the window.

Two short calls, separated by a brief pause—it sounded like a coded signal.

Pakura’s hand loosened on the handle.

Kaede heard her center of gravity shift away from the cabinet, leaning toward the window.

Pakura had reacted to the birdcall.

Something that would trigger a reaction like that... a Sunagakure contact signal?

Was she leaving?

The knot of tension in Kaede’s chest loosened halfway, but he remained motionless.

A series of crisp sounds drifted in from outside.

The buckles of a ninja tool pouch were undone and then tightened; a cloak was snatched from the back of a chair, the fabric rustling as it was thrown over her shoulders.

Pakura was packing up.

Footsteps moved toward the door.

The handle turned.

Then, the door clicked shut.

Silence returned.

Kitahara Kaede slowly shifted his body.

He peeked through the gap and saw that the room was indeed empty.

Still, he wasn’t entirely convinced and decided to wait a bit longer.

Sure enough.

Before long, the lock turned again.

Pakura pushed the door open.

From his angle, Kaede could only vaguely see a shadow pause at the entrance, seemingly scanning the entire room.

Then came a faint metallic friction.

Was she back to retrieve the bell she had wedged in the doorframe?

Two heartbeats later, the door closed again.

This time, Kitahara Kaede waited another three minutes.

Only when there was absolutely no further movement did he slowly push open the cabinet door and step outside.

The room was empty.

Pakura had taken everything with her.

Standing in the center of the room, Kaede reached up to touch his forehead; it was covered in a thin layer of cold sweat.

He wiped it away.

That had been far too close.

If that birdcall had come a second later, Pakura would have opened the door. He could only imagine how awkward it would have been to find themselves face-to-face.

He had to leave, now.

Kaede vaulted over the balcony railing, dropping directly into the shadows of the back alley.

He scanned the surroundings; nothing was out of the ordinary.

Once he confirmed it was safe, he blended in with the scattered pedestrians and headed toward the town exit.

His mind drifted to other matters.

If the intelligence on the scroll reached the Third Hokage, Konoha would certainly deploy defenses around Mount Kikyo in advance.

The surprise element of Sunagakure’s ambush would be gone, making it questionable whether the battle would even happen.

And if the Battle of Mount Kikyo never took place?

Kaede narrowed his eyes.

If it didn’t happen, Konoha wouldn’t suffer such heavy casualties, even though they would have eventually won.

Then there were Sunagakure and Kirigakure. After Sunagakure’s defeat at Mount Kikyo, Kirigakure had taken advantage of the chaos to attack them.

Pakura had caused massive casualties for Kirigakure during that period. Later, when Sunagakure sought peace terms, one of Kirigakure’s conditions was the surrender of Pakura.

To secure the ceasefire, the Sunagakure high command had sold her out as a sacrificial pawn.

If the battle never happened, Kirigakure might not have found the opportunity to strike.

Without that, there would be no premise for using Pakura as a bargaining chip.

Her line of fate might actually shift.

Kaede paused in his tracks as the thought occurred to him.

Of course, there were too many variables in the tide of war for him to be certain.

But the probability existed.

Moreover, back on the stairs, Pakura had genuinely hesitated when she heard the name "Kitahara Kaede."

If she truly had some form of memory feedback, she would be more guarded against the Sunagakure leadership.

With Pakura’s strength, as long as she had a warning, she wouldn’t be sent to her death without any way to fight back.

Kaede pushed these thoughts aside.

First, he had to finish the task at hand.

Less than two hundred meters past the town exit, a flash of gold caught his eye by the forest path.

Minato was standing by a tree trunk, his gaze fixed on the town.

Kurenai Yuhi stood half a step behind him.

Seeing Kitahara Kaede approaching, Minato gave a slight nod.

Kaede quickened his pace and lowered his voice as he reached them.

"Lord Minato."

Minato scanned the perimeter, then turned and led the way deeper into the forest path.

"Let’s talk as we walk."

Once the three of them had left the town entrance and entered the sparsely populated woods, Minato looked back over his shoulder.

"How did it go on your end?"

Kaede didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he asked, "What about those three?"

Minato shook his head. "They were Konoha’s own patrol squad."

Kurenai added, her voice tinged with frustration, "We circled the perimeter of Mount Kikyo afterward. Some traces had been deliberately scrubbed, but we couldn’t find anything decisive."

She paused and looked at Kaede.

"What about you?"

Kaede reached into his cloak, pulled out the small scroll, and handed it to Minato.

"I ran into a Sunagakure ninja in town. I got this from her."

Minato took it, untied the string, and unfurled the scroll.

His expression grew solemn.

He stared at the notations for several seconds. The marching routes of the three squads, their coverage areas, and the retreat deadlines all pointed clearly toward a single location.

Mount Kikyo.

Minato rolled the scroll back up and looked at Kaede.

"Kaede, thank you. You’ve done a great service."

His tone was heavier than usual.

"This information is incredibly important for Konoha."

Kaede withdrew his hand. "As long as I could help."

Standing to the side, Kurenai shifted her gaze from the scroll to Kaede’s face.

She and Minato had spent half the night circling Mount Kikyo and had come back empty-handed.

Kitahara Kaede had gone into town once and returned with something of this magnitude.

Minato tucked the scroll into the inner pocket of his chest. His tone was decisive.

"No more scouting. We return to the village immediately."

The three of them pivoted and accelerated their pace back toward Konoha.

***

In the forest on the other side of town.

The Sunagakure rendezvous point was hidden behind a low rocky hill, where the members of the three squads had all gathered.

Pakura stood before the eight shinobi, completing the roll call.

All three squads were present; no one was missing.

The reports were consistent: no large-scale Konoha reconnaissance forces were detected on the perimeter, and there were no anomalies within the cleared zone.

Pakura nodded.

The mission was complete—clean, efficient, and without incident.

She prepared to issue the retreat order and reached into the inner pocket of her shinobi gear to retrieve the scroll and distribute the retreat routes.

Her hand met only empty fabric.

Pakura froze.

She checked again.

Nothing.

The scroll was gone.

Pakura’s expression darkened.

She remained silent, her hands hanging at her sides, clenching into fists.

’When did it disappear?’

Her mind raced, rewinding the sequence of events.

It was still there when she entered the inn. She remembered it clearly; when she was undressing for her bath, she had felt the scroll tucked inside her clothes. She had folded her garments and placed them on a chair before entering the bath. Once she had dressed and received the rally signal, she had gathered all her belongings and left immediately.

She hadn’t come into contact with anyone in between.

That meant it had vanished while she was bathing.

But the bell at the door hadn’t triggered, and there had been nothing out of the ordinary in the room when she stepped out.

A vein throbbed in Pakura’s temple.

The balcony.

She hadn’t set any defenses there. Someone had slipped in through the balcony and rifled through her clothes while she was in the bath. While she was bathing, someone had committed an unforgivable act with her intimate attire.

Pakura grit her teeth, a surge of fury rising in her chest. In all her years, she had never felt such shame.

"Everyone, hold your positions."

Pakura’s silhouette vanished into the night, racing back toward the town at full speed.

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