The Avengers of the Uzumaki Family

The same applies to Sasuke.

In my future plans.

Sasuke will inevitably play a very important role. Every choice Menma makes and every step he takes needs to be carefully considered and cautious.

Besides, even if I tell Sasuke all that now, he might not believe me.

Especially when it involves Itachi Uchiha.

That's Sasuke's Achilles' heel.

These things need to be done step by step.

We need to take it one step at a time.

Watching the pockmarked figure gradually disappear into the distance.

Sasuke, who remained in place, also gently exhaled a breath of stale air.

"Mangekyou Sharingan, Itachi, I will definitely gain the same power as you in the shortest time, and then I'll send you to hell so you can repent!"

Sasuke clenched his fists slightly.

Immediately afterwards.

He also strode away.

The ever-changing ninja world.

As time goes by.

The impact of the Konoha Crush plan launched by Sunagakure and Otogakure is gradually fading away. This is due to Konoha's timely and effective response, as well as Iwagakure and Kumogakure's inaction.

The three previous Shinobi World Wars were all started by the five great ninja villages.

Moreover, just like dominoes, once pushed, it will trigger a chain reaction throughout the entire ninja world. Originally, there was a high probability that this would be the same as the previous three ninja world wars.

However, under Tsunade's leadership, Konoha quickly renewed its alliance with Sunagakure, thus losing this opportunity.

In just two or three months.

The leaders of the other small ninja villages in the ninja world experienced a rollercoaster of emotions, going from high to low.

Only now can I say that I can finally relax.

This can be seen from the reduction in troop strength along the borders of the five major powers.

Since there's no chance left, there's definitely no need to continue stockpiling troops in the border region, as that would put immense pressure on a ninja village.

Spending money is terrifying, like water flowing out of a bucket.

Even the wealthy and powerful Konoha might not be able to withstand it, let alone other ninja villages. Even the arrogant Fourth Raikage, after seeing no chance, decisively ordered the withdrawal of most of his border troops.

Tsunade, far away in the heart of the Land of Fire, in Konoha Village, also breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the news.

Whether the standoff continues and the conflict drags on, or a full-blown battle breaks out, it would be the worst possible outcome for Konoha.

That's all for now.

It can be considered that they cut their losses in time.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 193 Another Transfer

However, as mentioned before.

After temporarily abandoning his covetousness for Konoha, the Fourth Raikage, A, turned his full attention to the massive manhunt for Asa, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, dispatching search teams comprised entirely of elite Chunin.

After all, it's a nine-tailed fox.

Even if it's just 12 years old.

Ai still treated him with the highest level of care.

The search team had just the right number of Jonin, and the person in charge was Darui, the strongest representative of the younger generation of Kumogakure. His superb Lightning Release skills and his extremely destructive Storm Release made Darui a Kage-level fighter.

To deal with a 12-year-old Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

The Fourth Raikage, A, felt that it was more than enough.

Moreover, he himself was always ready to personally take action at any time. Therefore, in the past month or so, the traces of Cloud Ninjas have been found all over the small countries located in the core area of ​​the continent, such as the Country of Fields, the Country of Waterfalls, the Country of Rivers, the Country of Grass, and the Country of Rain.

Even within the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind, a small number of Cloud Ninja have infiltrated.

The Fourth Raikage, A, had essentially given the order to obtain the Nine-Tails at any cost.

In A's own words, the Nine-Tails was the last and most important piece of the puzzle that laid the foundation for their Hidden Cloud Village's dominance.

The Cloud Ninja's domineering behavior.

Apart from the Land of Earth, where they faced a full-scale counter-investigation and extermination by the Iwa ninja, they almost always chose to remain silent in other countries.

Let's not even mention Sunagakure.

In the Konoha Crush plan, the village had just suffered a major blow when Tsunade released Gaara, the Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast.

Otherwise, Sunagakure would face the most embarrassing situation in its history—without a single Kage-level fighter to maintain order.

After all, their Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, died directly at Orochimaru's hands.

Chiyo and Ebizo were at their peak as ordinary Kage-level beings, or perhaps even just near-Kage level. Now, at their advanced age, they are at most elite Jonin to near-Kage level.

If there is no tail.

The position of Sunagakure among the five great ninja villages would become extremely awkward.

In addition, there are the hundreds of Sand Ninja who died in battle.

These people are all elite individuals at the Chunin level or above.

Among them were dozens of Jonin.

With their own power greatly diminished, they still had to face the Hidden Cloud Village, which was much stronger than them to begin with. Currently, the Sand Village Jonin Council, led by Maki, who was temporarily holding the power of the Kazekage, relied on the support of Chiyo and Ebizo. After some not-so-rigorous discussions, they simply chose to tacitly approve the situation, only managing to hold onto a few key areas. In any case, it was just a small-scale infiltration by the enemy, which was just a form of self-consolation.

If Sunagakure is like this, then the situation in other small ninja villages is even more dire.

It should even be said that this has been the practice for the past few decades.

The ninjas of the five great nations are free to move about in other small countries at will. They are the ones who threaten and warn others, and these small ninja villages never have a say in the matter.

The situation in Konoha is rather unique.

In Tsunade's words, she didn't want to further provoke the Hidden Cloud Village. They had already taken the initiative to back down and withdraw their main force from the border. The crossing of a few people was nothing to worry about; they just needed to hold onto some key positions.

What Konoha needs now is a smooth transition.

This idea truly gained the approval of Hokage advisors Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, and once again sent the Hidden Spirit of Konoha into a frenzy. He almost lost control of himself. However, during this period, Danzo was indeed unable to act. His Root organization, which was under constant surveillance by the Hokage's direct ANBU, could not easily leave Konoha to carry out special missions.

We can only suppress it for now.

The ninja world also entered a period of relative stability, which can be described as a short time.

Of course, this only refers to the absence of war between countries.

For the person directly involved, the situation was far from calm.

After all, both Konoha's tracking force and Kumogakure's search force were troublesome. The former might be a little easier, as Tsunade wasn't as brutal and direct as the Fourth Raikage, A, and the number of tracking personnel she dispatched was quite limited.

Tsunade largely left the issues of Menma and Orochimaru to Jiraiya. Overall, the threat level wasn't really that high. It must be said that Menma was truly fortunate to have the granddaughter of the First Hokage as the Fifth Hokage.

He was given the necessary time to develop.

If Danzo were to take over directly, Menma could foresee that for some time to come, and for a very long time to come, he would face endless encirclement and pursuit by the Hidden Leaf Village.

That would inevitably take up a lot of his time and energy.

Let alone being able to cultivate and conduct experiments in peace, whether one can even stay in a certain place for an extended period of time is a big question mark.

This is exactly the situation that Menma is most happy to see.

Konoha did not officially launch a full-scale manhunt.

They became 'temporary' allies with Iwagakure.

The expected attack by Obito did not occur.

It can be said that Menma now only has one real enemy to face: Kumogakure.

And a hidden village called Cloud Village.

When unable to unleash his full power and only able to utilize limited strength, Menma, with Orochimaru's forces as support, has nothing to worry about.

"Oh? This is the third batch already? It seems this Fourth Raikage is really going all out, so eager to find me in such a short time."

The Land of Grass, still in that underground base exclusively for Orochimaru.

It was December of Konoha Year 60, nearing the end of the year.

Over the past month or two.

After a large-scale search, the Cloud Ninja's search team finally located this area in the Land of Grass.

Moreover, scouts from other ninja villages, like sharks smelling blood, slowly gathered around.

Orochimaru's guards had already killed three groups of Cloud Ninja scouts, killing more than ten Cloud Ninja.

"Yes, Menma-kun, this base has been almost exposed, so Lord Orochimaru has ordered that it be abandoned and relocated in the next few days. He specifically asked me to inform Menma-kun."

Kabuto, still dressed in his usual attire, looked at Menma with a smile and said...

"Oh, I see. I understand. I'll pack my things as soon as possible."

Mianma nodded knowingly.

It's about changing bases.

This was something Mianma could have predicted long ago.

Both he and Orochimaru were rogue ninjas; he was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and Orochimaru had betrayed both Konoha and the Akatsuki organization.

Being chased and killed was a common occurrence for them.

To avoid being detected, frequently changing your base of operations is one of the best approaches.

(End of this chapter)