Yongye stopped and looked up, his gaze sweeping across the four pillars of light in turn. He studied them as though they were decorations of passable craftsmanship, then the corner of his mouth lifted in casual disdain.
Tsunade was nowhere near as calm.
She sprang from where she stood, her toes scraping a short, shallow mark across the flagstones as she leaped into the air like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
She flipped halfway over and landed on the flagstones outside the corridor exit. Her sharp gaze swept the edges of the four pillars before snapping toward the figure ahead.
Mifune stood in the open space between the pillars. The dark Kurenai light cast a dull, bloodlike sheen over his Iron-gray armor.
His right hand rested on the sword at his waist, fingertips hooked against the edge of its cord-wrapped hilt. He met Tsunade's gaze calmly, neither looking away nor lowering his head.
Tsunade roared in fury:
"Mifune, have you lost your minds? You helped them set a trap! Your Land of Iron is supposed to be neutral!"
Mifune's mouth moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something. Before he could, another figure stepped out of the shadows behind him.
Long silver-gray hair fell over his shoulders. His pale skin looked unnaturally cold beneath the dark Kurenai glow, and his golden slit pupils narrowed in the daylight as his mouth curved into a thin smile.
Orochimaru.
He stood beside Mifune, glanced briefly at Tsunade, then looked past her shoulder to the figure behind her, who still had both hands in his pockets.
He extended his tongue and slowly licked his lips, leaving a glistening trail. His voice was hoarse and slick with easy confidence:
"General Mifune followed the Great Toad Sage's guidance and made the right