"Shion at one location, Haku at one, Yakumo at one, Toneri at one, Sasuke at one, Naruto at one, Neji and Kimimaro at one, Ryūsetsuna and Chiyo at one, plus Karin guarding the core node. That makes nine people to guard the nine nodes!"
After reviewing the assignments, Shinji let out a sigh of relief.
By cobbling together this team, he had not only just managed to cover all nine critical nodes, but also kept Uchiha Hikari and Kaguya Otsutsuki—two fighters at the Kekkei Mōra level—in reserve.
"With two Kekkei Mōra-level fighters in reserve, even if something goes wrong on Orochimaru's end, we should be able to stamp it out quickly!" After a pause, Shinji added, "Still, it would be best to find Orochimaru and deal with him before the great battle!"
Shinji hadn't overlooked Orochimaru as an unknown factor. On the contrary, although he seemed to be running all over the Shinobi World without doing anything about Orochimaru, he had actually been searching for traces of him the whole time. Orochimaru had simply managed to evade his senses.
And because Orochimaru had evaded his senses time and again, Shinji was certain something had happened to him that Shinji didn't know about. That also helped narrow down the possibilities, since only two powers could currently evade Shinji: the Overlord of Fear and Otsutsuki Shibai.
For that reason, Shinji had even gone to the Research Institute to examine Otsutsuki Shibai's remains.
They were just remains, with no trace of life and no chance of reanimation. That was Shinji's final conclusion.
So Shinji suspected that the Overlord of Fear had done something to Orochimaru, causing all the changes in him.
That was why Shinji hadn't gone to great lengths to hunt Orochimaru down, and why he was doing everything he could to