Nagato felt no dissatisfaction with Orochimaru's attitude. After all, he had never expected Orochimaru to help with their village's affairs in the first place.
As long as Orochimaru did not cause trouble, Nagato would already be immensely grateful.
Now that Orochimaru had told him about this, he was deeply moved.
As for the matter itself, Nagato was still thinking about how to tell Yahiko.
Looking at Yahiko's happy expression in front of him, Nagato truly felt unable to get the words out.
Meanwhile, after leaving Amegakure, the group from Kumogakure headed straight toward Iwagakure without stopping.
They had no intention of invading Iwagakure outright. After all, they were at a severe disadvantage in numbers.
All they wanted to do was launch ambushes.
By ambushing Iwagakure's ninja and injuring them, they would whittle down the village's fighting strength.
Their top priority was to keep themselves safe so that they could continue this mission over the long term.
So the group stopped at Iwagakure's border.
They went no farther, because every village had people responsible for sensory detection.
If they forced their way in, they would certainly be discovered.
Following their instructions, they each concealed themselves and waited for ninja to leave Iwagakure on missions.
After all, every village's ninja needed to carry out missions to maintain their income. For now, all they had to do was lie in wait.
Their stakeout proved effective. By evening, they spotted a small squad from Iwagakure heading out on a mission.
They dispatched the squad cleanly. Their attack was so unexpected that they barely even startled any birds.
Over the next two days, the Kumogakure group eliminated nearly twenty people from Iwagakure at the border, all of them chunin or even jonin.
At first, no one in Iwagakure paid much attention. Missions took time, after