Watch and Wait

Hashirama Senju had intended to give the Tailed Beasts to each village, but Tobirama Senju was unwilling.

Give them away?

Impossible. Even if they were sold, each village's strength had to be weighed. They couldn't sell all the strongest Tailed Beasts to a single village.

That was also the fundamental reason the Seven-Tails had been sold to Takigakure.

The First Raikage had wanted to take both the Eight-Tails and Seven-Tails in one package rather than buy the Two-Tails, but Tobirama Senju had refused.

Unable to obtain the Seven-Tails, the First Raikage could only settle for the next best thing and choose the Two-Tails.

When the news reached Ōnoki's ears, he was so furious that he smashed several tables. The people around him were scared stiff, and even Kitsuchi, his rebellious son who loved arguing with Ōnoki, no longer dared to call him Father and obediently addressed him as Lord Tsuchikage.

That showed just how badly Ōnoki had been enraged by Roshi being captured by the Third Raikage.

In Konoha, Jingyi and Tsunade were both somewhat surprised when they learned the news.

Well, damn!

They had thought the Third Raikage would continue using Konoha to intimidate Iwagakure, but instead, he had pulled a feint behind their backs. Without a word, he had gone to the Land of Earth and hauled away the exposed Roshi.

Kumogakure's intelligence gatherers really were impressive.

"Do you think Ōnoki will obediently submit?"

The Third Raikage's purpose in deliberately releasing the news was obvious: he wanted to force Ōnoki's hand.

Either admit defeat in the war, or let the Four-Tails belong to Kumogakure from now on. Either way, Kumogakure would not lose out.

"Hard to say."

Jingyi did not know what Ōnoki was thinking either.

"Roshi is too extreme in temperament, but that also says something from