"Damn Akatsuki!!"
Once Kurotsuchi's massage had restored feeling to Ōnoki's neck, he roared those words with rage bursting through the roof.
He looked as though he hated the Akatsuki even more than Jiraiya and A did.
As for whether he hated them for killing the daimyo and nobles of the two great countries, or because they had not targeted the nobles of the Land of Earth, that was another matter.
In truth, it was because of "distance."
Neither the Land of Lightning nor the Land of Fire was particularly far from the battlefield, but the Land of Earth was much farther away. Combined with the lack of an agreed-upon time to act, that had caused a timing mismatch.
A few hours later, the news Ōnoki had been desperately waiting for arrived.
After learning that the daimyo and nobles of the two countries had met with disaster, the daimyo and nobles of the Land of Earth who had fled Kyoto were likewise assassinated.
"It was Akatsuki!"
"It had to be Akatsuki!"
"We of Iwagakure will never coexist with Akatsuki!"
Ōnoki gave an award-winning performance, vividly portraying a man who had heard of his allies' deaths and was preparing to inherit their will and avenge them.
The key was "inherit their will."
After inheriting their will, inheriting their legacy along the way was perfectly natural too, wasn't it?
His act might have fooled others, but it could not fool the four Kage present.
Even Jiraiya and A suspected that Ōnoki might have sent someone to do it.
After all, this news was somewhat different.
There had been no explicit mention of Reanimation Bodies making a move.
Yet Ōnoki kept insisting it was Akatsuki's doing. That truly invited suspicion.
In fact, Ōnoki had wanted to do exactly that.
But all of Iwagakure's