Akatsuki of the Land of Rain—Ōnoki had hired them several times before.
He had hired them to carry out missions that he did not want the other ninja villages to discover had been orchestrated by Iwagakure.
But as a ninja village, under normal circumstances, if they had sufficient manpower, they would not hire another ninja organization.
What a joke—why had the major ninja villages besieged Konoha?
Wasn't it all because of mission shares?
They were barely scraping by themselves. Under normal circumstances, where would they find spare money to hire other ninja?
Besides, as one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, Iwagakure had tens of thousands of ninja. With so many mouths crying out to be fed, the financial pressure was obvious.
Thus, after that, he had never paid any further attention to Akatsuki of the Land of Rain, nor had he wanted to hire them again.
But the defeat in this war had caused Iwagakure's morale to plummet to an absurd degree.
The Will of Stone...
had been utterly crushed!
This caused the lower- and middle-ranking ninja to begin drowning themselves in indulgence.
Furthermore, the Battle of Kannabi Bridge and the battle to besiege the Third Raikage had claimed many Jonin, resulting in a shortage of high-level combat power within the village as well.
But in Ōnoki's eyes, all of that could be set right.
It would only take some time.
However, Konoha's recent events—Uchiha Yuzhen's rapid growth, along with that new wielder of Susanoo—had put Ōnoki on edge.
Iwagakure had to stir up some trouble. Otherwise, with Konoha's strength continuing to expand, how could they possibly enjoy peaceful days in the future?
At a time like this, Iwagakure lacked the strength to cause trouble.
Wouldn't Akatsuki be perfect for a long-term contract?
After all, their combat power...
Having