Orochimaru's Ingenuity

After learning of Nadare Rōga's death, Kazahana Dōtō felt little sorrow. That treacherous bastard deserved to die!

In any case, he had long since brought the Snow Ninja Village under his control. At worst, he could simply replace its leader; it would not affect his power in the slightest.

Nor would it affect his cooperation with Orochimaru!

That day, Kazahana Dōtō's subordinates finally delivered definite intelligence—and two reports at once!

After reading them, Kazahana Dōtō let out an odd laugh and went straight to Orochimaru's room, handing him the two reports. "Orochimaru, we have news!"

Orochimaru picked up the reports with great interest. After reading them, a cold smile crept across his lips. "Interesting."

"It shouldn't be a coincidence, should it?" Kazahana Dōtō had murdered his brother and usurped the Land of Snow's rule, so he was naturally no mediocrity. The moment he received the two reports, he knew that one of them had to be fake!

"The opponent cannot be underestimated. But to think they could lure me over with such a method... Hmph, how naive."

Kazahana Dōtō asked curiously, "You've already seen through it?"

Orochimaru stood up. A map of the Land of Snow hung on the wall behind him.

The Snow Ninja Village's location was clearly marked, and one of the locations in the reports was extremely close to it—at most four or five days away.

After Nadare Rōga died, information about a summoned Snow Eagle surfaced here. Uchiha Houka...

Who did he think he was fooling?!

Orochimaru raised his eyelids and looked toward the location in the second report.

It was located among the mountains farther north in the Land of Snow.

"Where is this?" Orochimaru asked, pointing at it.

"It is our country's largest snow mountain range. It stretches for hundreds of miles and contains