Sasuke Uchiha's defection had happened!
Although the timing had changed a little, and the ninja who lured Sasuke into defecting were different, the outcome of the incident was still the same.
Rather than decreasing, the number of people pursuing Sasuke had increased.
But this time, the people meeting Sasuke Uchiha were not Kimimaro Kaguya, but Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi.
Against those two, Konoha's pursuit team had naturally failed its mission. Even the three siblings from Sunagakure who came to support them had been no help.
With Kabuto Yakushi's abilities, defeating these people should have posed no problem at all. However, Gaara was quite strong at this point, and working together with the Konoha ninja, he put Kabuto Yakushi in a sorry state. Even that would have been manageable, but at the crucial moment, Tsunade finished handling her affairs and arrived with a team.
Having recovered from her fear of blood, Tsunade had fully regained her strength through her training during this period. On top of that, Naraku had told her about Kabuto Yakushi's fighting style and weaknesses.
As a result, the moment Tsunade appeared, she struck Kabuto Yakushi with a Monster Strength Fist, leaving him coughing up blood and severely wounded. That counted as getting her revenge.
However, worried about Naruto Uzumaki, who had gone after Sasuke, Tsunade did not finish Kabuto Yakushi off. Instead, she left him to the others and took a team to find Naruto.
According to the analysis afterward, although Kabuto Yakushi had been severely wounded, suffered successive finishing blows from the Konoha ninja and Gaara, and finally been buried several hundred meters underground, Gaara still could not find his body after searching underground with his sand.
So he had escaped after all.
As for Tsunade, who had gone to find Naruto, she ran straight into