Even though the scale of Anbu seems to have expanded several times now, the scope of its responsibility has also become much larger, especially as the military strength of various countries has not decreased all year round, but is on the rise. As the most elite force in a village, it is necessary to provide the village with information on the specific movements of the ninja villages in various countries. Anbu is also responsible for the senior spies lurking in the major ninja villages.
Therefore, don't look at the number of Anbu now expanding to hundreds of people.
But in fact, there are only so many people who can be mobilized at any time, and quite a few members have fixed tasks that need to be performed.
This time Third Hokage was able to dispatch two teams with a total of 50 Anbu to carry out the search mission, which was already a large number.
After a week of exhaustive searches by these Anbus, although the real traces of the person behind the scenes were still not captured, from the information that can be collected, it is certain that the real murderer has not left the scope of Konoha. In other words, this guy is now 'tethered' to Konoha.
And there is a high probability that there are other people cooperating in the cover.
Although there is no definite evidence to prove this, from various indications, it is difficult for one person to do this alone. At least Third Hokage pays for himself without the help of others. It is impossible for Five Great Shinobi Villages to be able to provide such a perfect cover under the full search of Five Great Shinobi Villages.
And the more so.
Third Hokage is even more afraid of it.
Because this means that the person behind the scenes is either covered by a senior cadre in his own Ninja Village, or he is simply pretending to be a senior cadre in the Ninja Village.
For this reason, the heads of some important departments in the village, as long as those who have left the village in the past year, are all temporarily blacklisted by Sarutobi Hiruzen, and they have directly ordered their subordinate Anbu to focus on investigating the whereabouts of these people in the past year.
The final news we got was—nothing was wrong!
Not only that.
in the past week.
The person behind the scenes seemed to have seen through Konoha Anbu's helplessness, and arrested two people who were patrolling at night in succession. This blatant provocation really shocked all Anbu who participated in this incident. The members were all indignant, but Shōji was the only one who remained unmoved. In his opinion, the more arrogant he was, the more it proved that Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin seniors, planned to leave the company directly.
After all, ordinary people know the truth - the more you do something, the more traces it may expose.
Moreover, this is completely different from the previous crimes.
This is completely said to be a crime committed against the wind!
With all members of the Anbu teams being vigilant, Orochimaru's actions would still allow these Anbus to catch some clues.
Unless Orochimaru stops immediately.
Otherwise, Anbu will find Orochimaru sooner or later. This can already be explained in Original Work. What we need to see now is that Orochimaru takes the lead in completing his role in In Konoha, the last experimental plan was to leave early, or was Anbu led by Third Hokage to forcefully block the door. In Original Work, it was the latter. It must be said that that was the only mistake made by Orochimaru.
He thought he had enough time, and even said that he was confident that he could escape smoothly even if he was blocked. However, he really underestimated his teacher - Sarutobi Hiruzen. Although he was close to sixty years old, the strength he could show could still steadily suppress Orochimaru in this period, coupled with the siege of Anbu.
There is a high probability that Third Hokage in Original Work can strangle S-Class Rogue Ninja in Orochimaru in the cradle, but in the end, this Third relented when he was face to face with his most respected disciple.
He chose to let him go with his own hands.
This is Orochimaru's luck and Konoha's greatest misfortune.
It is one of the biggest crimes Third committed when he got old.
After all, in terms of his own philosophy, whoever threatened the collective interests and justice of Konoha, as Hokage, he should destroy the other party at all costs, but he still let Orochimaru go. This is a mistake that cannot be washed away.
Shōji has no way of knowing what the situation is like in this life.
But in his thoughts over the past few days, the only thing he could conclude was that from the Uchiha Clan's point of view, it was best for him to ensure that Orochimaru left Konoha safely. After all, his arrival had already begun to change the plot of Original Work. No one could guarantee whether Orochimaru could retreat as smoothly as in Original Work.
The most important thing is.
Even if the probability of success is not very high.
But Shōji still plans to try to conduct a transaction with Orochimaru.
The target is Wood Release cells of First Hokage.
As for the items being traded, Shōji has also prepared them in advance. It depends on whether Orochimaru will take the bait. Even regarding his own identity, Shōji is also prepared. He will definitely not foolishly use his identity to contact Orochimaru.
No matter what, this person is a heavyweight and dangerous person.
Therefore, it is time to make some necessary preparations.
In Konoha Year 49, one night near the end of December.
Early in the morning.
Shōji escaped from his residence, dodged numerous patrols, and hid in the night. He walked along the shadowed path of Konoha, heading straight to the northeast until he came to a flat-bottomed house.
This is the residence of Orochimaru, one of the well-known Legendary Sannin in Konoha.
Original Work did not explain the location of the secret base set up by Orochimaru in Konoha. Not to mention that Shōji did not collect very effective information in Anbu during this period of investigation. Even if it did, it would definitely not be the turn of Shōji to arrive in advance.
There is only this residence on the outside.
This is information that Shōji can obtain in the shortest possible time.
The reason why I chose today is because Orochimaru rarely appeared in Hokage Office Building today. Although it is not 100% accurate, Shōji guessed that the probability of this 'research madman' returning to his normal residence to rest should be very high.
The worst thing is to do it again.
The worst outcome is just not being able to reach the top. In the final analysis, this is just an additional auxiliary plan that Shōji thought of. It will have no impact if it fails.
At this moment, Shōji is dressed like the big BOSS character in Original Work. He is dressed in black. The fire cloud pattern engraved on it is so conspicuous. He is wearing a Spiral Mask on his face, with only one pupil exposed.
The Four-Pointed Windmill Sharingan form slowly rotating in that single pupil.
That's right!
Tonight, Shōji intends to pretend to be Uchiha Obito to test Orochimaru. It doesn't matter whether the final result is successful. The most important thing is not to let his true identity be exposed.