Watching Sakumo's gaze grow increasingly hostile, Orochimaru showed nothing on his face, but he became all the more convinced that the rumors about Sakumo were true.
Still, he had not been deliberately provoking Sakumo. He had merely mentioned it in passing, testing the waters while he was at it.
Making connections was a skill in itself. Even if most ninja wanted to pull strings, their lack of ability would leave them wasting most of their lives in positions of little consequence.
After all, in the world of ninja, assigning someone to a position beyond their abilities was not a promotion at all. It was setting them up.
Take his own village, Konoha, for example. Leaving aside Shimura Danzō, who had honed his skills in the Anbu, his teacher Hiruzen was only one of the reasons Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu had become advisers to the Konoha High Command at their age.
The most important reason was that Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu were formidable fighters, just like Danzo.
Without strength, no amount of pulling strings could have landed those two positions as High-Level Advisors.
Every position in the ninja world was deeply tied to strength.
The fact that Sakumo could draw on such connections meant that the Land of Night's leadership held his abilities in extremely high regard.
In a sense, being allowed to get so close to the Land of Night's princess and win her favor without anyone intervening was as good as telling everyone that Sakumo was frighteningly powerful.
Once outsiders grasped the key point, they could easily see that the Land of Night's princess was marking a dangerous individual.
That was undoubtedly a good thing.
It spared the other villages the steep cost of testing the Land of Night.
"My purpose here is simple. I'd like to