Mabui's pupils contracted slightly, but she quickly regained her composure.
She lowered her head, wrote the final line in her notebook, then closed it and bowed slightly.
"Understood. I'll send the message at once."
"Go."
Xuandou waved a hand.
Mabui turned and left.
Silence returned to the study.
Xuandou sat in his chair, toying with the Charm Gourd at his waist, unable to suppress the smile on his lips.
The Five Kage Summit...
Ōnoki and Rasa thought this was their opportunity, unaware that they were digging their own graves.
He could easily take them both down in the Land of Iron.
Then the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind would be left leaderless.
Unifying the Shinobi World would simply be a matter of riding the current.
Over the next few days, Xuandou checked the progress of the war preparations while personally pushing forward the construction of Orochimaru's new laboratory.
The Land of Rice Fields' daimyō had long been Orochimaru's puppet.
Xuandou had already sent people to take over the Land of Rice Fields and transport all the laboratory equipment Orochimaru had left there.
Huge cultivation tanks, precision instruments, and crates of research materials arrived at Azure Tide Port by the cartload, then were escorted by the Anbu to the newly built research institute east of the Imperial Palace.
Orochimaru expressed his gratitude for Xuandou's support.
Whenever Xuandou stopped by to inspect the facility, Orochimaru would talk endlessly about his research plans.
From cloning technology to artificial humans, from improvements to the Cursed Seal to analyses of God Tree samples.
Xuandou nodded repeatedly as he listened, then gave Orochimaru his instructions.
"The key to the problem lies in finding the key problem."
"Orochimaru, work hard on your research!"
Outside of official business, Xuandou had also developed a