Who Pollutes, Who Governs

Facing Orochimaru's somewhat displeased expression, Houka had his own way of handling things.

"Haha, Orochimaru, are you training your subordinates? My, my, with one of the famed Sannin, Orochimaru himself, personally teaching them, these guys are truly enviable. Orochimaru, you're definitely an outstanding Kage." Houka clapped his hands and offered a few words of praise.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the training ground grew even more awkward.

The corner of Orochimaru's mouth twitched slightly. "Houka, have you come here to...?"

Houka quickly waved his hands. "Orochimaru, you misunderstand. I came here because I wanted to talk to you about something..."

As he said this, Houka gestured with his eyes toward the Genin on the training ground, who had been drilled to the point of exhaustion.

"Come with me," Orochimaru said.

Houka followed Orochimaru to his laboratory before continuing, "Orochimaru, when you left the Land of Snow, didn't you deal with the aftermath involving the Snow Ninja Village?"

The moment Orochimaru heard that, he understood what was going on and snorted. "The Snow Ninja Village's shinobi are nothing more than ants before you. Do you really need me to clean up something like that? If they dare track down Minato Namikaze's whereabouts, just kill them. Or control the leader of the Snow Ninja Village. None of that should be much of a problem for you."

"Sorry, but for certain reasons, I can't act freely," Houka said.

Shisui and the others were monitoring the Snow Ninja right now. The moment Houka made a move, stubborn-minded Shisui would definitely step out to stop him! Besides, following the principle that whoever caused the pollution should clean it up, Houka felt this arduous task should still be left to Orochimaru.

If Orochimaru were accidentally killed by Shisui during the mission...

Though the possibility was