From the upheaval in the shinobi world and the start of the hunt for Orochimaru until now, only the Akatsuki had achieved any results throughout the entire process.
Although they had yet to capture Orochimaru, or rather, kill him, the damage they had inflicted on him was real.
As for the others, their pursuit had instead left large numbers of ninja dead.
Some had died in traps Orochimaru had laid, while others had died at the hands of his subordinates.
Seeing that things were going wrong, Orochimaru had completely disregarded his subordinates' safety and begun creating ninja with Cursed Seals in large numbers.
Although these ninja gained tremendous strength as a result, they were utterly unable to resist the Cursed Seals' erosion, leaving them with barely a dozen days to live.
But that was enough. Orochimaru only needed to get some use out of these expendable subordinates and have them fend off a few of the endlessly annoying flies.
And sure enough, these people proved very effective at holding them back.
Caught off guard, quite a few ninja who had never seen Cursed Seals suffered crushing defeats at their hands.
Because the news that Orochimaru was in the Land of Birds had been exposed, everyone pursuing him had now arrived in that country.
The repeated battles had plunged the Land of Birds into chaos.
Large numbers of ninja fought there at any time and in any place, completely disregarding the lives of the Land of Birds' civilians.
Orochimaru!
The Akatsuki!
The numerous wandering ninja and rogue ninja, divided in purpose and varying in strength!
And then there were the pursuit squads dispatched by the Three Great Shinobi Villages!
Four forces clashed madly in the Land of Birds. Of course, the other three all had Orochimaru as their target.
But since