As he fell, Ōnoki raised a hand, and a stone spike instantly pierced his palm. He tried to use the pain to ease his fear of that man.
Blood splattered, and Ōnoki's trembling body finally recovered somewhat.
His falling body also stopped in midair in an instant.
Hovering in the air with an ugly expression, Ōnoki did not know for a moment whether he should still go to the Land of Grass.
Logically speaking, even if he harbored some fear of Madara Uchiha, he should not have reacted like this.
His current state could only have been caused by those memories of nearly ten thousand humiliations. Those memories... had magnified his original fear of Madara Uchiha yet again, and that... was why he felt this way.
"That Uchiha brat..."
Hovering in midair, Ōnoki's eyes brimmed with murderous intent and a trace of fear he could hardly conceal.
In the end, after agonizing in the air for a full two and a half hours, Ōnoki finally found some excuse to convince himself and flew toward Iwagakure.
"There's no need for me to act. That old bastard Sarutobi and that scheming old bastard definitely won't let an Uchiha like this off the hook. But... I need to spread some news ahead of time.
"I'm not the only one who doesn't want someone like Madara Uchiha to appear. It looks like this war... needs higher stakes."
His murmured words faded in the air, and Ōnoki's figure vanished with them.
"What do you mean you ran into Ōnoki!!!! Why didn't I receive any intelligence?? No, wait, Ōnoki can fly straight through the sky, and there aren't any frogs up there to pass the relevant intelligence to me.
"No, the point is, you ran into Ōnoki and actually came back unscathed?? Even if I