A few days later.
When Kusana received Konoha's letter, his face immediately filled with surprise. "I didn't expect it to happen so quickly! I thought we'd have to haggle with Konoha for a while!"
After all, Kusagakure had screwed Konoha over quite a few times.
So he had assumed Konoha would carefully consider any cooperation with Kusagakure.
Especially given the Third Hokage's indecisive personality. He probably wouldn't make a decision without agonizing over it for a month!
Yet unexpectedly... they had made up their minds after only a few days?!
Of course, they were not acting as Konoha's representatives. Instead, they had put forward someone to serve as an agent.
Perhaps they believed that this way... if something really went wrong, they could minimize their losses, or even shout that it was for Konoha's sake before pushing the man out to take the blame!
"Actually, the Third Hokage was conflicted at the time. Quite a few people even openly refused. But because the Land of Grass and the Land of Rain are in such special positions, the Third Hokage probably didn't want to reject us outright," Mujie said matter-of-factly from beside him. "Maybe he was worried that if they pushed us away, we'd go looking for other ninja villages again!"
Just like with the Ninja Vest deal.
Back then, Kusagakure had acted on the belief that they were as close as lips and teeth with Konoha.
Thinking that any benefits should go to their allies first, they had approached Konoha before anyone else.
But... they had been rejected. Konoha had believed that cheap goods were never good goods. Then, after they approached Sunagakure, Konoha came running back...
"But they were also worried that us Grass ninja might pull something again. I heard that when the Third Hokage was about to