Underground

After leaving the Daimyo's Residence of the Land of Rice Fields, Qi's heart felt heavy.

He had never wanted to deal too much with these nobles, but Konoha currently had limited manpower in the Land of Rice Fields and still needed to rely on these local powers.

He had never expected that something he had once given up searching for would appear at this moment.

What kind of world was this now? The five great powers were eagerly clearing away every obstacle that might hinder their future division of territory. The citizens of those nations might not have felt much yet, but their ninja villages could feel it deeply. Even a second-rate powerful village like Amegakure had only avoided further encroachment by Iwagakure and Sunagakure because of Konoha's support.

Now that such a huge prize had appeared, there was no way the other great villages could restrain themselves! Ordinary ninja might not know its value, but the ninja clans certainly did.

Orochimaru had been the first to discover it, but he had only discovered it. He had failed to enter.

"How many people from the former Otogakure are still in the Land of Rice Fields?"

As he strode swiftly along, Qi asked the clansman beside him.

"Not many. There are only enough to guard the transportation hubs of the Land of Rice Fields."

"Forget it. Let's keep moving."

He said.

This time, he had brought Root's most battle-hardened group. These hundred-odd people were enough to wipe out more than a thousand ordinary ninja, and this was already the limit of the resources he could mobilize within such a short time.

But he believed his opponents were the same. They could not mobilize too many people in a short period. If that still was not enough, then he would probably have