"Oh? Surely you're joking. How could a mere Kusagakure possibly frighten a giant like Konoha?"
Looking at the Konoha ninja hanging upside down, Hada Kazune smiled faintly and spoke with a trace of chill in her voice.
She showed no guilt whatsoever over having been overheard discussing cooperation with hostile forces—something the other party had explicitly brought up.
Instead, her face was full of dissatisfaction and anger.
Watanabe Kensei? At a time like this...
At the same time, both Hada Kazune and Hada Ichiba had the same suspicious thought flash through their minds.
Their momentum... hasn't weakened at all? On the contrary, we're the ones whose weakness has been seized.
And there are two of them...
At that moment, as the two watched him, a thought flashed through Watanabe Kensei's mind.
His heart was filled with bitterness.
He had originally thought that his abrupt opening would make the two of them waver slightly, allowing him to gain a certain advantage and seize the initiative for the negotiations—or rather, the explanation—to come.
Yet he had not expected them to remain completely unmoved. This Hada Kazune had even struck first, fully displaying her dissatisfaction with Konoha and directly seizing the initiative.
It was even possible that these two—no, Hada Kazune in particular—had already noticed his presence earlier. Everything they had said about defecting had been deliberately said for him to hear.
"Please don't joke, Lady Kazune. Kusagakure is currently Konoha's most important ally. Konoha will never abandon Kusagakure, so please do not be so hasty in your judgment."
However, although bitterness filled his heart, Watanabe Kensei's expression remained as amicable as ever. Nothing had changed, and he appeared utterly unconcerned by what Kazune had just said.
Whether it was the fact that Kazune had said things she should not have said, or