Fortunately, he had warned Kakashi in advance. Sure enough, he really did discover signs of the Akatsuki.
But in the meantime, Kakashi had already been defeated. If Naruto had truly been left in their care, something terrible might already have happened.
"You can leave now."
Less than a week had passed when Ibiki brought Keiichi good news.
"So soon? What happened outside?" Keiichi asked, rather surprised.
He had already prepared himself to spend several months here. He hadn't expected things to be settled in less than a week.
"Hahaha, Orochimaru finally gave in. He proposed a deal, and we decided it was a good bargain, so we accepted." Ibiki looked rather pleased with himself.
"Can I ask what the deal was? If it's classified, never mind."
"It's nothing much... You know how Sunagakure surrendered a while back? They wanted to ransom their prisoners, but Orochimaru took it upon himself to agree. Now he can't return the prisoners, and he's in a bit of a bind, so he had no choice but to come to us for help."
"You mean those prisoners have actually been under your control all along, and Orochimaru wanted to trade my release for them?"
"Exactly." Ibiki smiled smugly. Seeing Orochimaru get the short end of the stick lifted his spirits.
Keiichi slapped his forehead, feeling utterly exasperated.
These Leaf Jonin really were no match for Orochimaru. He'd outmaneuvered them yet again!
He had spent the past few days turning things over in his mind, and suddenly realized something: Orochimaru had only adjusted his plan after meeting with the Danzo impersonation he'd been playing.
In other words, before that, he hadn't deliberately hidden his involvement. Before sending Kabuto Yakushi to negotiate with Sunagakure, he must have appeared in person to earn the Kazekage's trust.
If