Avengers of the Whirlpool Family

To deal with a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki who is only 12 years old.

The Fourth Raikage thought that was more than enough.

Moreover, he himself is always ready to go out in person. Therefore, in the past month or so, a series of small countries in the core area of ​​the continent, such as the Land of Fields, the Land of Taki, the Land of Rivers, the Land of Grass, and the Land of Rain, are all filled with traces of Cloud Ninjas.

Even in the territories of the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind, a small number of Cloud Ninjas have infiltrated.

In order to obtain the Nine-Tails, the Fourth Raikage Ai has almost given the order to do so at any cost.

In Ai's own words, the Nine-Tailed Fox is the last and most important piece of the puzzle for their Hidden Cloud Village to establish its hegemony.

And the Cloud Ninja behaved in such a domineering manner.

Except for the Land of Earth, where they were subjected to the full-scale counter-search and strangulation by the Iwagakure ninjas, almost everyone in other countries chose to accept it.

Let’s not talk about the Sand Village.

In the Konoha collapse plan, Konoha had just been severely damaged, and Tsunade released Gaara, the One-Tailed Jinchuriki.

Otherwise, the Sand Village will face the most embarrassing situation in its history - there will be no Kage-level fighter to support the situation.

After all, their Fourth Kazekage Rasa died directly at the hands of Orochimaru.

In their prime, Chiyo and Ebizo were just ordinary Kage-level people, or even quasi-Kage who were infinitely close to the Kage level. Now that they are so old, at best they are just elite jonin or quasi-Kage.

There is no word at the end.

The position of the five major ninja villages of Sand Village will become extremely awkward.

To this must be added the hundreds of Sand Ninjas who died in the battle.

These people are all elite beings above the level of Chunin.

Among them there are dozens of senior ninjas.

In the face of heavy losses in their own forces, they had to face the Hidden Cloud Village, which was originally much stronger than themselves. The Sunagakure Village's Jonin Council, headed by Maki, who currently relied on the support of Chiyo and Ebizo and temporarily held the power of the Kazekage, chose to acquiesce after some not very rigorous discussions and only defended a few key areas. Anyway, the infiltration of the other party was only a small force, so they just took it as self-consolation.

This is the case for the Sand Village, let alone other small ninja villages.

It can even be said that this has been the norm for the past few decades.

The ninjas from the five major countries can move freely within the territories of other small countries. They can only threaten and warn others, and these small countries' ninja villages never have the chance to speak.

The situation in Konoha is rather special.

In Tsunade's words, they were unwilling to further provoke the Hidden Cloud Village. They had already taken the initiative to make concessions and withdraw their large border troops. There was no need to worry about the crossing of a few people. They just needed to guard some key locations.

What Konoha needs now is a smooth transition.

Such an idea was completely recognized by the two Hokage advisors, Mito Kado En and Utane Koharu, and it once again made the dark energy of Konoha rise to the sky, and he almost couldn't control himself. But no matter what, during this period of time, Danzo was indeed unable to do anything. His Root, which was fully monitored by the Anbu directly under the Hokage, could not easily leave Konoha to carry out special missions.

I can only hold it back for now.

The ninja world also ushered in a short period of time that could be called stable.

Of course, this only means that there is no war between countries.

As for the person involved, Menma was not in a stable state at all.

After all, Konoha's tracking team and the Hidden Cloud Village's search team are both troublesome things. The former may be better. Tsunade is not as rough and direct as the Fourth Raikage Ai, and the number of tracking personnel sent out is also very limited.

Generally speaking, Tsunade left the issues of Menma and Orochimaru to Jiraiya to deal with. Generally speaking, the threat factor was really not that great, and it must be said that Menma was really glad that the granddaughter of the First Hokage served as the Fifth Hokage.

Give him the necessary time to develop.

If Danzo really took the position directly, Menma could fully foresee that during this period of time, and for a long time to come, he would face endless encirclement and hunting by the Hidden Leaf Village.

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

Not to mention being able to practice and conduct experiments in peace, whether you can stay in a certain place for a long time is a big question mark.

The current situation is what Menma would like to see most.

Konoha did not formally launch a full-scale manhunt.

The Iwagakure Village became a "temporary" ally.

The expected attack from Obito did not happen.

It can be said that the only real enemy Menma needs to face now is the Hidden Cloud Village.

And a Hidden Cloud Village.

In a situation where he is unable to exert his full strength and can only use partial strength, Menma does not need to worry as he has the power of Orochimaru to assist him.

"Oh? Is this the third batch? It seems that the Fourth Raikage has really invested a lot of money to find me in such a short time."

In the Land of Grass, or in the underground base that belonged to Orochimaru alone.

It is already December of the 60th year of Konoha, close to the end of the year.

In the past month or two.

After a large-scale investigation, the Cloud Ninja search team finally locked onto this area of ​​the Grass Land.

Moreover, the investigators from other ninja villages were slowly gathering together like sharks smelling blood.

The garrison personnel under Orochimaru have already killed three groups of Cloud Ninja scouts and more than ten Cloud Ninjas in total.

"Yes, Menma-kun, this base has almost been exposed, so Lord Orochimaru ordered to abandon this base and move in the next few days, and specifically asked me to inform Menma-kun."

Still wearing his usual attire, Kabuto Yakushi looked at Menma with a smile on his face and said.

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

Menma also nodded in understanding.

Change base.

This was something Menma had anticipated long ago.

He and Orochimaru are both traitorous ninjas. He is the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and Orochimaru betrayed Konoha and Akatsuki successively.

Being chased is a common occurrence.

If you want to avoid being searched, changing your base frequently is one of the best ways.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 194 The Opportunity to Arrive

If you say relocate, you relocate.

Under Orochimaru's orders, the ninjas in the base quickly made all preparations for relocation. Except for some personnel who still needed to stay in the Land of Grass, they went to other locations to establish new bases.

The rest of the people also left the Grass Kingdom in batches and headed towards the southern part of the continent.

Menma was among the first group of people to leave.

He followed Orochimaru and left the Land of Grass the day after the order was given, heading south.

When arriving at the southernmost area of ​​​​Kawakuni.

They even left the continent by boat and headed towards the southern sea.

Destination.

Before setting off, Menma had learned from Kabuto Yakushi that in order to obtain a more stable environment as much as possible, Orochimaru had sent a considerable number of personnel with necessary supplies, materials, and information to the Tea Country on the southern sea border after the failure of the Konoha collapse plan.

Strictly speaking.

This is not an island country.

Because in the most extreme area extending towards the northeast, there are one or two small countries that are connected to the southeastern corner of the Fire Country.

But the Tea Country is indeed located in the southernmost part of the entire continent.

Except for the only narrow land passage.

Surrounded by the sea on three sides.

In addition, this country is not a very wealthy country, so it can be said to be isolated from the world. Orochimaru used some tricks to control the high-ranking nobles and politicians of this country, and established his own base in the southwest corner of this country. This time, he took Menma, Sasuke and others to avoid the core area of ​​​​the continent and came here to temporarily avoid the "limelight".

"It's really a great place. As expected of Orochimaru-san, every step is so carefully planned."

Stepping down from the ship, at a location close to the coast is the base established by Orochimaru in the Land of Tea.

Of course, this is just an outpost.

As a base with greater depth.

Orochimaru obviously spent a lot of effort to avoid enemy tracking and attacks, but it cannot be said that all strongholds are the kind that can be abandoned and replaced at any time. If not necessary, some important strongholds still need to be maintained for a long time.

Just like the stronghold that Karin, Guren and others were in charge of in the original work.

Orochimaru still needs to build some fixed hiding places.

"Haha, after all, it's also forced by reality, what do you think, Menma-kun?"

Orochimaru licked his lips and said with a smile in that hoarse voice.

"That is indeed the case, but I believe that this day will eventually pass. Orochimaru-san should also have the same thoughts, right?"

Menma smiled softly, looked directly at Orochimaru, and said meaningfully.

"Things are unpredictable, nothing can be predicted, Menma-kun."

Orochimaru raised his eyebrows and answered without comment.

"Well, that's true."

Menma replied calmly.

Following from that.

The group headed towards a deeper area in the hinterland.

This stronghold.

It is obviously newly built, but the interior space is extremely spacious. In addition to the conventional underground facilities, there is also a very large space for additional facilities above the ground.

It was obvious that Orochimaru wanted to use this place as his main base for a long period of time.

The number of subordinates who came with Orochimaru also exceeded one hundred.

Among them is Tayuya, the only remaining one of the Four Sound Ninjas, and Guren, who only appeared in the original work in Shippuden, possesses Crystal Release, is equally loyal to Orochimaru, and even feels unwilling and annoyed that she cannot become Orochimaru's vessel.

Oh, and there's a little white-haired guy.

She is the one from the Hozuki clan, the one who later partners with Sasuke in the original work. With her talent and gifts, she can be called a genius.

It must be said that Orochimaru's subordinates are indeed full of talented people. Each of them possesses the strength or potential to be from an elite jonin to a quasi-kage level, or even higher.

Including Kimimaro who was sacrificed before.

As for Jūgo, who is currently imprisoned in a special location, let alone Kabuto Yakushi, it is no exaggeration to say that if Orochimaru was given more time, he might really be able to build a sixth largest ninja village from scratch.

As long as Orochimaru's own personal strength can be further improved.

However, Orochimaru's ambition is obviously not here.

Supreme power and immortality.

This is Orochimaru's true intention.

He created his power and trained these people only to serve these two goals.

Menma knew this best.

In the original work, even until the end, Orochimaru never gave up his ideas, he just took a slight turn in the choice of path.

This is also the reason why Menma is happy to continue cooperating with Orochimaru.

Orochimaru took this path.

He is his best partner, at least until his core interests are touched and they really fall out.

Menma also hopes to avoid such situations in the future.

However, it is obviously quite difficult.

After all, the problem of Sasuke is unavoidable. Fortunately, there are still more than two years before the deadline, so Menma has plenty of time to take his time.

At this stage.

Menma still needs to focus on his plan.