Not long before.
In a rather femininely decorated bedroom, Kurotsuchi lay on her bed, gently swinging her lower legs as she read the information in the Diary confirming that Luo Mang was coming.
When he was close to arriving, Luo Mang had written about it in the Diary, intending to see whether anyone else in Iwagakure possessed a Diary.
For instance, would Ōnoki come straight over to suck up to him? Unfortunately, the fantasy was lovely, but reality was harsh. He did not.
But that worked out nicely for Kurotsuchi.
It let Kurotsuchi know in advance that he was coming. Once she confirmed the information, she practically sprang off her bed.
She went to a fairly ordinary drawer and took out a small bottle in luxurious packaging.
Then she gently applied it to her face and sniffed after she finished.
Sniff.
"It smells so good..."
Yes, that was right. This was a small portion of scented balm she had bought with her private savings.
Resource-starved Iwagakure was hardly any better off than Sunagakure.
Resources were pitifully scarce, though that did not mean they had none. They still had money, but the rarer something was, the more expensive it became. Anyone looking to make money would naturally raise the price.
The nobles had driven the prices up to a truly, truly outrageous level.
That made buying these things quite a strain.
A simple calculation showed that the same money could buy plenty of kunai, or even Explosive Tags.
Not to mention food and vegetables.
For that very reason, they were not worth much to people, and nobody wanted to buy them. But without any skincare, even a face made of iron could not stand up to all that wind and sand.
So this little bit had cost Kurotsuchi a great deal