The door to the Supreme Elder's office had broken again and again and again.
This time, no one had kicked it down. Kakuzu, that old money-grubber, had cried the seams apart.
Rumor had it that Lord Yoru had brought back another vicious-looking S-rank rogue ninja with an enormous appetite. The old man had been so heartbroken over the food expenses that he wailed outside the door for half the night.
In Iwagakure, this was no longer news.
Nowadays, when villagers saw strange figures in black robes patterned with red clouds walking down the streets, they could not even be bothered to look up.
After all, their Supreme Elder had a taste for this sort of thing.
He specialized in taking in other villages' unwanted trash... no, talent.
The villagers were used to it.
But one person's lips were puckered enough to hang an oil bottle from them.
Bang!
The newly replaced alloy blast door was brutally kicked open.
Yoru was leaning back in his executive chair, reading intelligence reports. The commotion made his hand tremble, and he nearly spilled tea all over his pants.
"Come on, little lady, can't you put some thought into it and come in through the front door?"
Yoru looked up at the short-haired girl standing at the door with her hands on her hips, cheeks puffed out in anger, and felt a headache coming on.
After not seeing her for several years, Kurotsuchi had grown into an even more striking young woman.
She was tall and slender, with a pair of long, straight, well-proportioned legs. Only her temper remained the same—a firecracker that went off at the slightest spark.
"I would have loved to use the front door, but those two new gatekeepers of yours have to let me in first!"
Kurotsuchi's brows rose sharply