That night, Uchiha Itachi searched for Uchiha Shisui but could not find him, so Konoha Village remained in an eerie state of calm.
However, someone had already infiltrated the village. In a place as large as Konoha, anyone who searched carefully enough could always find a vulnerability. Even though Obito Uchiha, while pretending to be Tobi, would not provide any help, Orochimaru was, after all, a shinobi born in Konoha. It might be a stretch to say that returning to Konoha was like returning home to him, but snakes were certainly good at burrowing through holes.
Konoha was indeed heavily guarded inside and out, but there was a difference between the two. Most of the manpower had been deployed around the Uchiha, while the outer defenses relied mostly on barriers. It was not that there were no shinobi patrolling the perimeter or handling security work, but the number of personnel assigned to those duties had not actually increased.
Given enough time, Orochimaru could naturally pass through layer after layer of barriers. No matter how dense a barrier was, sometimes it still could not compare to a shinobi's eyes... Of course, there was another side to the matter: if anyone happened to spot Orochimaru, they would very likely "disappear" for no reason.
After infiltrating Konoha, the two kept a low profile—but not completely. The main problem was that Tobi's mouth never stopped moving.
"This is Konoha, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Truly magnificent, spectacular, awe-inspiring, and... Uh, it doesn't seem all that impressive inside. Ordinary. So ordinary."
Konoha was only about the size of an ordinary town, with buildings in an ordinary town's style. Even the village's sole wonder, Hokage Rock, was not particularly wondrous. Its exterior was extremely ordinary, leaving Tobi with nowhere to lavish praise.
Naturally, Orochimaru