They could practically be called the two strongest shinobi clans in Konoha at present.
The other shinobi clans had truly feared that the Fifth Hokage would use this as a pretext to continue interfering in their internal affairs.
But subsequent events proved...
That those shinobi clans had suffered nothing more than a false alarm after all.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
That day, Uchiha Minamoto received a "toad message" from the Land of Wind.
Jiraiya had sent intelligence:
Orochimaru had finally let his "snake tail" show!
Chapter 361: Old desert affairs! The Kazekage assassination operation!
Time moved back a little.
Over a month earlier, on the eve of the Five Kage Summit.
Fourth Kazekage Rasa accepted the invitation and led his subordinates to the Land of Iron to attend the Five Kage Summit.
Then, unsurprisingly, those Sunagakure representatives ran into trouble.
Shortly after Rasa and his party left Sunagakure, just as they entered the vast desert of the Land of Wind.
The Fourth Kazekage and his two subordinates encountered three missing-nin in red cloud black cloaks who had been waiting there in advance.
Through a Sunagakure insider, Sasori of the Red Sands had obtained the route the Fourth Kazekage and his party would take ahead of time;
Orochimaru had fled all the way from the Land of Fields to the Land of Wind and was preparing to keep running west when he received a secret letter from Sasori of the Red Sands;
Then there was Kakuzu, the veteran S-rank missing-nin who cared only about money, not people. He accepted employment from Sasori and Orochimaru and joined the operation.
The Fourth Kazekage and his two attendant guards.
Kakuzu, Orochimaru, and Sasori of the Red Sands, three S-rank missing-nin and former members of the Akatsuki.
Three against three,