The next day, in a luxurious Japanese-style mansion in the Capital of the Land of Rain, Ōnoki and Hanzo the Salamander sat facing each other across a tea table.
Steam curled up from the millet tea on the table.
"You came?"
"I came."
"You shouldn't have."
"Bang!"
Ōnoki slammed his hand down on the table, cutting off the lofty exchange.
"Why I'm here should be obvious to you, shouldn't it? Hanzō, do you really think you're the god of the Shinobi World?
So many of my men have fallen on your turf. Don't you owe me an explanation?!"
Ever since the second half of last year, Shiba Seika had been working hard to mend relations with Hanzo the Salamander. He'd written to him every so often, showering him with praise and pledging his loyalty, practically presenting himself as a devoted sycophant.
And now, after all that groveling, he'd actually gotten everything he wanted!
For once, Hanzo the Salamander didn't immediately deny any connection and throw the Akatsuki Organization under the bus.
Instead, he narrowed his eyes at Ōnoki and let out a sneer through his respirator mask.
"Ōnoki, you don't look like you came here just to ask for an explanation."
When his bluff failed, Ōnoki was taken aback.
Since when had that spineless old dog, Hanzō, gotten so bold?
Damn it, who'd given him the nerve?!
Huang Tu was just as perplexed.
Earlier, when they'd first entered the Land of Rain, they'd advanced like a hot knife through butter, destroying more than a dozen observation posts set up by the Akatsuki Organization along the way.
Huang Tu had brought a full fifty ninjas with him. Wherever they went, every outpost was shaken down and flattened with Earth Release, and the wooden structures were set ablaze!
In half a day,