"What did you say?" Mifune was stunned by what he had heard.
His first instinct was not to believe it.
"Was everything you just said true?"
At that, Ichirō curled his lips into a soft smile.
"Why not investigate for yourself and see whether it's true?"
Just then, Orochimaru and the other two approached from a distance.
"Mifune, did you get anything out of him?"
Mifune stiffened slightly, shook his head, then nodded.
He absolutely could not let the Konoha ninja learn what the general had done.
The Land of Iron's affairs should be settled by its own samurai.
After a moment's thought, Mifune decided to tell the three only who those ninja were.
Seeing his reaction, Orochimaru shook his head helplessly. "Never mind. We'll question him ourselves!"
"But..." Mifune hesitated, unsure whether Ichirō would reveal what the general had done.
After thinking it over, however, he nodded.
"In that case, I'll leave it to you..." He gave Ichirō, who was kneeling on the ground, one last look, then walked toward the nearby grass with mixed feelings.
Ichirō probably would not reveal what the general had done.
Seeing Mifune's dejected figure retreat, Jiraiya grew curious.
"Does Mifune have something on his mind?" Jiraiya murmured in confusion.
Then he shook his head and stopped paying attention to him.
What mattered most now was getting some information out of this samurai.
"Will you tell us yourself, or do we have to search inside your head?" Orochimaru asked grimly.
Ichirō's expression froze slightly. He knew that Konoha ninja had ways to search a person's memories.
He thought it over and finally sighed.
"All right, I'll tell you myself!"
"Those ninja..."
Ichirō was just about to continue...
But a sudden disturbance cut him off.
Huge cracks began spreading across the ground beneath him.
Even