A Killing Spree with Bountiful Rewards

Outside Konoha, Sunagakure in the Land of Wind also turned down the two nobles from the Land of Rain who had hired them.

After being rejected by two of the great Shinobi Villages in succession, the two noble families were dissatisfied, but also grew a little anxious.

If no major Shinobi Village was willing to take the job, it would be difficult to carry out the next stage of their plan against Nagato.

Fortunately, the people they had sent to Iwagakure in the Land of Earth brought back good news. Iwagakure had accepted the job and was already arranging for shinobi to come.

Iwagakure had agreed to take on the two contracts mainly at Ōnoki's direction.

Ōnoki might not have hated Nagato for making a name for himself at his expense, but he certainly held a grudge.

As a wily old fox with a wealth of experience, Ōnoki was rarely swayed by personal feelings in his decisions. Still, if the right opportunity came along, he was happy to go with the flow and teach the young Nagato a lesson.

Ōnoki had no desire to go to war with Amegakure or Nagato at that time.

But he was more than happy to help the nobles of the Land of Rain take on Nagato.

Why not earn the bounty while stirring up internal conflict in the Land of Rain?

Ōnoki wasn't worried about making an enemy of Nagato over this. He had lost to Nagato last time partly because of his own age and frailty, and partly because he'd lacked information. He knew nothing about Nagato.

But if they clashed again, even if Ōnoki couldn't defeat Nagato, Nagato and Amegakure together still wouldn't be a match for Iwagakure.

The gap between a great nation and a small one couldn't be bridged by