The corners of Konan's lips curled up slightly in a cold smile. She truly had not expected Sarutobi to be so foolish, to personally hand them the blade that would kill him.
Although they were not skilled in using Fire Release ninjutsu, the raging flames triggered by the explosive tags were enough to instantly devour those Fire Release constructs and reduce them to ashes.
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi himself had likely never expected that this move, which he had carefully planned, would become the stone thrown back at himself.
The reason he had chosen the "Ash Pile Burning" technique to obscure others' vision was not merely because it was the Sarutobi Clan's secret technique.
More importantly, the rolling black smoke could not only effectively block their view but also exert a powerful deterrent effect on opponents.
However, Hiruzen Sarutobi had never imagined that this power, originally meant to intimidate enemies, would one day turn against him.
"Wait!" Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly shouted, a trace of panic in his voice.
"There's still room for negotiation. There's no need to kill us all!" he hurriedly explained, trying to ease the tense atmosphere.
"Besides, your teacher was my disciple. In terms of our master-disciple relationship, I'm your grandmaster!"
He added urgently, hoping to use this to draw closer to Konan and the others.
Having been displaced since childhood, and because they had originally held a somewhat favorable impression of Konoha, they did not know how to face the current situation after learning that Nagato's parents had been killed by Konoha and that their own teacher had also been a Konoha ninja.
Yet Hiruzen Sarutobi's current actions were directly exploiting their weakness to pressure them.
Konan had actually considered this possibility before. In her mind, if it had been Jiraiya-sensei, he would have chosen to show