The investigation of a disappearance case is never easy to uncover the truth.
Although Original Work did not specify how long Orochimaru had been secretive before being discovered by Anbu under Third Hokage, Shōji, judging from the current situation analysis, this time point will definitely not be less than one or two months, Even if Anbu specializes in this area, Orochimaru's methods are definitely beyond the reach of ordinary people. Even Shōji feels that if Orochimaru hadn't been too rampant and arrested too many Konoha Ninjas in a row in the following period, Third Hokage might not have been able to catch the tail.
Because, in a country and a ninja village, it is normal for people to disappear occasionally. The disappearance of ninjas is not unprecedented. Some enemy spies will attack these people in order to explore intelligence. Over the years, Konoha has not encountered any Seeing a similar situation, Third Hokage was initially identified as an act of an enemy force. He really didn't want to believe that it was done by his own family, let alone Orochimaru, the disciple he once valued most.
There are spies who have been successfully captured and brought to justice.
There are also spies who have been hiding and even eventually escaped and returned home.
These people are still like this.
Orochimaru If you were more cautious.
The number and frequency of arrests should not be so high. Even the village may not be able to detect the behavior of one of Konoha Sannin.
This has a two-way effect.
Therefore, when Anbu conducts a blanket search, he must be able to catch the slightest trace of Orochimaru. What Shōji has to do is to find definite evidence before other teams. After all, he knows that Orochimaru did it, but to prove this, he needs evidence!
This is one of Konoha Sannin.
The hero Konoha is second only to Third Hokage in prestige.
From Second Shinobi World War to Third Shinobi World War, Orochimaru, as the commander-in-chief, led thousands of Konoha Ninja to be responsible for one side of the battlefield. During the Second Shinobi World War period, Sarutobi Hiruzen's most preferred Fourth candidate at the time was actually Orochimaru, but later Orochimaru was obviously going astray, not in terms of research at that time, but after experiencing the death of many companions and close friends, his character began to change. Orochimaru gradually became indifferent, and his popularity in the village became worse and worse. People only had "awe" for Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannins, but no love.
Correspondingly, Tsunade is the granddaughter of First Hokage. Jiraiya has a cheerful and outgoing personality. Orochimaru is gradually eliminated from the candidate list of Fourth, although is later Fourth became Minato Namikaze, not Tsunade, nor Jiraiya, but that was also because Tsunade took the initiative to leave the village, and Jiraiya himself was unwilling to serve as Fourth.
Otherwise.
According to normal order and prestige.
Fourth must be one of Legendary Sannin, which is Jiraiya or Tsunade.
It's hard to Minato's turn here.
Therefore, it can be seen from here how high Orochimaru's status is now in Konoha. To put it bluntly, as long as he does not want to rebel against the village, no one can do anything to him, including Hokage and Sarutobi Hiruzen as a teacher. Orochimaru's status cannot be shaken easily.
Even Orochimaru like this still has his own group of die-hard subordinates in the village, which were trained by Shinobi World War twice.
From this point of view, Shōji is more inclined to think that Orochimaru himself has long wanted to defect from Original Work. The series of disappearances look more and more like Orochimaru deliberately staged it. If he wants to do something, he must find some solid evidence, and he must pay attention to the method and method.
Otherwise, it is easy to get angry.
Of course, if the risks and benefits really do not match, Shōji will take the initiative to change its pace and paddle directly. There are not many opportunities to test Sarutobi Hiruzen, but it is not just this time. There is no need to hang from a tree until death.
That's what fools do.
Moreover, Orochimaru is not an easy person. Even if Shōji himself has enough confidence to suppress Orochimaru in this period, he can not take the risk, which is unnecessary.
'The specifics still depend on how it develops next, but there is nothing wrong with at least collecting more first-hand information! '
Shōji took his three subordinates and returned to the Anbu sub-base, thinking silently in his heart.
In the next few days, Shōji still led his team to perform regular search tasks. He did not go overboard and conduct crazy searches, but he also had no intention of making any mistakes. He just stayed loyal to his duties and abided by his responsibilities.
We will carry out the tasks assigned by us without any compromise.
But it must be said that Orochimaru is indeed an expert in this field. Under the strict investigation of the two Anbu teams and dozens of elite Anbu, no trace was actually exposed. You must know that there are many Ninja Clan people like Inuzuka Clan and Aburame Clan who are good at tracking.
Just like this, in the past week since the order was issued.
It cannot be said that there is no gain.
It can only be said that no useful information was detected at all.
Including some inbound and outbound foreign business travelers, and even dignitaries and nobles, under the orders of Third Hokage, these Anbu sneaked in secretly to investigate, but there was still no effective information. Not to mention the Anbu below, even Third Hokage frowned when they received the information feedback from the two Anbu squad leaders.
This is really uncharacteristic of the norm!
It made Third Hokage feel a heavy haze deep in his heart. However, ordinary people could not notice such a large-scale search like Anbu. However, Shimura Danzō and Orochimaru, who are the elders of Konoha, could understand a thing or two.
It is even an exaggeration to say that Shimura Danzō received the corresponding information almost at the moment Anbu made some movement, even though he did not know what tasks the two major teams in Anbu were going to perform.
But considering the current situation in the village, Danzo can guess it just by using his brain a little.
'Has Orochimaru been discovered? Huh, I told him a long time ago that he needs to be more secretive. This guy is getting more and more out of control now! We must think of some ways to contain him. Now is not the time for him to be exposed. To deal with Hiruzen Sarutobi, we still need this guy!! '
Root Base li.
Danzo was leaning on the wooden stick, and there was a hint of darkness in his exposed pupils, and he was thinking secretly in his heart.
The cooperation between Danzo and Orochimaru is not only to borrow Orochimaru's research capabilities, but also to plan to use the card of Orochimaru to attack their old partner - Sarutobi Hiruzen at certain critical moments!