However, just as mentioned before.
After temporarily abandoning his designs on the Hidden Leaf, the Fourth Raikage, A, turned his full attention to the massive manhunt for Menma, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. The search personnel he dispatched were all at the level of elite Chunin.
After all, it was the Nine-Tails.
Even if the target was only 12 years old.
A still treated the situation with the highest degree of seriousness.
There were quite a few Jonin in the search teams as well. The overall person in charge was Darui, the strongest representative of the Hidden Cloud's younger generation. With his superb mastery of Lightning Release and the highly destructive Storm Release, Darui could be considered to have stepped into the Kage-level tier.
To deal with a mere 12-year-old Nine-Tails Jinchuriki...
The Fourth Raikage felt this was more than sufficient.
Moreover, he himself was ready to mobilize personally at any time. Therefore, over the past month or so, traces of Cloud ninja could be found all over the small countries located in the core of the continent, such as the Land of Rice Fields, Land of Waterfalls, Land of Rivers, Land of Grass, and Land of Rain.
There were even small groups of Cloud ninja infiltrating the territories of the Land of Fire, Land of Earth, and Land of Wind.
To obtain the Nine-Tails, the Fourth Raikage had practically issued orders to spare no cost.
In A's own words, the Nine-Tails was the final and most important piece of the puzzle for the Hidden Cloud Village to establish its hegemony.
And facing such domineering behavior from the Cloud ninja...
Except for the Land of Earth, where they encountered full-scale counter-searches and annihilation by the Stone ninja, other countries almost universally chose to acquiesce.
The Hidden Sand Village goes without saying.
Having just suffered severe losses in the Konoha Crush plan, they were only saved from utter embarrassment because Tsunade released Gaara, the One-Tail Jinchuriki. Otherwise, the Sand would have faced the most awkward situation in history—having no Kage-level combatant to hold the fort.
After all, their Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, had died directly at Orochimaru's hands.
Chiyo and Ebizo were only ordinary Kage-level in their prime, or perhaps just Quasi-Kage infinitely close to that level. Now, in their old age, they were at best Elite Jonin to Quasi-Kage level.
Without the One-Tail...
The Sand's position among the Five Great Ninja Villages would have become extremely awkward.
Added to that were the hundreds of Sand ninja killed in action.
These were all elite existences of Chunin level and above. Among them were dozens of Jonin.
With their power severely damaged and facing the already much stronger Hidden Cloud Village, the Sand's Jonin Council—led by Baki, who temporarily held the Kazekage's authority with the support of Chiyo and Ebizo—chose to tacitly allow the Cloud's actions after a less-than-rigorous discussion. They merely guarded a few key areas. Since it was only small unit infiltration anyway, they treated it as self-consolation.
If even the Hidden Sand Village was like this, there was no need to mention the other small ninja villages.
Or rather, this had been the norm for the past few decades.
Ninja from the Five Great Nations could move freely within the territories of other small countries at will. They were the ones threatening and warning others; these small ninja villages never had any room to speak up.
As for the Hidden Leaf, the situation was rather special.
In Tsunade's words, she didn't want to further provoke the Hidden Cloud. Since the Cloud had already taken the initiative to step back and withdraw their main forces from the border, the transit of a few personnel was not worth caring about; guarding key positions was enough.
What the current Leaf needed was a smooth transition.
This concept truly won the approval of the two advisors, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane. It also once again infuriated the "Darkness of the Shinobi" (Danzo) to the point of exploding, nearly causing him to lose control. But no matter what, during this period, Danzo indeed couldn't do anything. With his Root under full surveillance by the Hokage's direct Anbu, it was impossible for them to leave the Leaf easily to execute special missions.
He could only hold back for now.
The ninja world thus welcomed a short period that could tentatively be called stable.
Of course, this only meant that no war broke out between nations.
For Menma, the person involved, things weren't exactly stable.
After all, the Leaf's pursuit units and the Cloud's search units were both troublesome. The former might be slightly better; Tsunade wasn't the crude, direct type like the Fourth Raikage, and the number of pursuers she sent was limited.
For the most part, Tsunade left the issue of Menma and Orochimaru to Jiraiya to handle. Overall, the threat level wasn't very high. Menma really had to say he was fortunate that the First Hokage's granddaughter was serving as the Fifth Hokage.
She gave him the necessary time to develop.
If Danzo had taken the position directly, Menma could foresee that for a long time to come, he would face endless encirclement and pursuit from the Hidden Leaf.
That would inevitably consume a massive amount of his time and energy.
Forget about training and experimenting in peace; whether he could stay in one place securely for any length of time would be a big question mark.
The current situation was the one Menma was most happy to see.
The Leaf hadn't launched a formal full-scale manhunt.
The Hidden Stone had become a "temporary" ally.
The anticipated attack from Obito hadn't happened either.
It could be said that the only enemy Menma truly had to face right now was the Hidden Cloud Village.
And facing a Hidden Cloud Village that couldn't exert its full power and could only use local forces, Menma, with Orochimaru's forces as support, didn't need to worry at all.
"Oh? Is this already the third batch? It seems the Fourth Raikage has really invested heavily; he wants to find me that badly in such a short time."
In the Land of Grass, inside that exclusive underground base of Orochimaru.
The time had reached December of Konoha Year 60, close to the end of the year.
Over the past month or two...
After extensive screening, the Cloud's search units finally locked onto this area of the Land of Grass.
Moreover, scouts from other ninja villages were also gathering slowly, like sharks smelling blood.
Orochimaru's guards had already killed three batches of Cloud scouts, totaling more than ten Cloud ninja.
"Yes, Menma-kun. This stronghold is almost exposed. So, Lord Orochimaru has ordered us to abandon this base within the next few days and relocate. He specifically asked me to inform you, Menma-kun."
Kabuto Yakushi, still in his usual attire, looked at Menma with a smile and said.
"Oh, is that so? I understand. I'll pack my things as soon as possible."
Menma nodded knowingly.
Changing strongholds...
This was something Menma had anticipated long ago.
Both he and Orochimaru were rogue ninja. He was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and Orochimaru had betrayed both the Leaf and the Akatsuki.
Being hunted was a daily occurrence.
To avoid being found, changing bases frequently was one of the best practices.