People's hearts were fickle. Moriyue had always believed that, but he also knew that given A's influence in Kumogakure, the villagers held him in extremely high regard.
This incident was riddled with strangeness. For instance, why had Hoshikage's people come to attack Kumogakure? What did they stand to gain? And even if he helped Kumogakure resolve this crisis, the villagers might not necessarily accept Moriyue.
The acceptance in question was the kind where they had to choose between A and him.
Naruto had clearly lost his mind as well. After leaving on his own, what exactly had he gone through?
And why had they suddenly attacked Kaede before?
Everything about this was unusual, but when he saw Orochimaru, Moriyue instinctively felt that this was all that guy's doing.
It was just a feeling, not necessarily accurate, but considering Orochimaru's character, he could not say for certain.
Seeing Moriyue drive back the enemies, the surrounding civilians cheered in unison. The sound was not particularly loud or orderly. Some merely nodded faintly, including villagers who had previously disliked him. Yet when he looked at A, he could clearly sense the suspicion in the other man's eyes.
"You brat... you came at just the right time."
A stretched his body. He had been suppressed by those three earlier, but given enough time, he still believed he could have handled them.
Yet Moriyue had returned at precisely this moment. It was impossible for A not to be suspicious.
"Yeah."
Moriyue nodded. He did not know how to explain it either, but since things had come to this, he might as well go with the flow. Whether there was anything suspicious about it or not, he would deal with the urgent matters first.
"Forget the Daimyos' wanted notices. I need the position of Raikage now."