"It's strange that I showed up? Hmm~~ You all seem rather afraid."
He waved a hand and burst into laughter. "Since you chose to defect, you should at least show the courage a defector ought to have. Being this timid, you'll never accomplish anything big."
"Uchiha Ronglin!!!"
Danzō stared at Ronglin's smiling face, his expression frighteningly grim.
He had miscalculated again. His fears had become reality. Ronglin had not stayed in Konoha training as the intelligence reports claimed; instead, he had secretly brought people to Kumogakure.
The clothes worn by Ronglin's group of three made it obvious how they had gotten here.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk~~ Don't look at me like that. You're scaring me."
Looking at Danzō, whose eyes brimmed with resentment, Ronglin clasped his hands behind his back and took two steps forward. Yet that alone frightened the Shimura Clan's rogue ninja into hastily retreating several steps.
Other than Danzō, nearly everyone else had been frightened.
How humiliating!!!
This cowardice before the battle had even begun made Itachi and Kimimaro deeply disdainful of them.
They had utterly disgraced themselves. With guts this small, why had they followed Danzō in making trouble in the first place?
They had known that defecting meant facing Konoha's pursuit, facing Ronglin's pursuit—so why had they still run away with Danzō?
"Spineless cowards!!!"
Even Ronglin had not expected that merely taking two steps forward would scare these Shimura clansmen who had defected with Danzō into scrambling backward. The smile slowly vanished from his face as he snorted coldly. "Sure enough, there's nothing good in the Shimura Clan. Keeping you alive is nothing but a waste of food. Since you defected while I was in office, then I'll be the one to end you!!"
"Kimimaro, Itachi, kill them. Leave none alive!! Record it all—these lives can