I just returned to Konoha and found that all my clan members were gone.

"I see. Karin has left."

After listening to Kabuto's report, Orochimaru said with some regret.

He could see that the girl had some inexplicable thoughts in her mind, but he didn't expect it was because of Sasuke. In this way, another talent was wasted.

"My subordinates are useless. I didn't expect Sasuke to have grown to this point."

Kabuto was half-kneeling. What concerned him most about the whole incident was not being interrogated by Sasuke, but being defeated by Sasuke in just one encounter.

"If you are unwilling, then try to rest, Kabuto. If you really can't do anything, I can give you the power of the curse seal."

Orochimaru said sadly.

"That's not necessary. Lord Orochimaru, I will try my best."

The only thing that Kabuto couldn't keep calm was in front of Orochimaru. The mortality rate of the curse always daunted him, and he really had no confidence that he could make it through it.

"What a shame, you have more talents than that, Kabuto."

It is not easy for Kabuto, who has no blood of a big family and is just a war orphan, to get to this point. Orochimaru thinks that Kabuto can actually go one step further.

After Orochimaru raised his head, Kabuto left the room.

The air began to twist, and in the vortex, Obito's figure appeared.

Obito has changed his mask now, and it is no longer the one-eyed mask he wore before.

The pattern did not change much and it was still in the shape of a spiral, but there were two holes that looked like magatama, through which Obito's two red Sharingan could be seen.

"It looks like your plan has failed, Orochimaru."

"Plans always go awry. It seems that Sasuke or Ye Lan has the ability to solve the side effects of the Mangekyō."

After a little analysis, Orochimaru understood why Sasuke would not go deeper into this place.

First, this is Orochimaru's territory, and it is unclear what dangers there may be. Sasuke, who is no longer impulsive, will not go there easily. Second, the temptation is not big enough. Based on Sasuke's attitude described by Kabuto, Orochimaru has guessed most of it.

"When Sasuke took action, Black Zetsu was watching from the side. Although he only had a little feeling, he was right. Sasuke has the ability to control natural energy."

Orochimaru had also seen the Black Zetsu that Obito mentioned, but he wanted to dissect this creature to see what its structure was.

"Ye Lan's spiritual beast is very unusual. You can ask Longdi Cave about it."

Even with Black Zetsu's knowledge, what he said was a bit vague, and he told him that if he wanted to understand, he could only start from the three holy places.

Orochimaru was a little unhappy. The relationship between him and Ryuchidong was about to break down because of Mana's death. Currently he could only summon some insignificant snakes.

If you want to know some detailed information, you will definitely have to pay a lot of price.

The White Snake Immortal is not a character who only believes in men and women.

After a moment of silence, Orochimaru spoke again.

"But I have some information that you might be interested in."

"The people who stayed in Konoha told me that Ye Lan took away all the Sharingans from Danzo on the day he left, including Uchiha Shisui's eyes."

This information took Orochimaru a lot of effort to obtain. Some people thought that perhaps Ye Lan just didn't want to bring shame to the eyes of his own people.

But after Orochimaru learned about the side effects of the Sharingan, he felt that it might be more than that.

Sure enough, there was a slight fluctuation in the two pairs of eyes that Obito showed.

Damn it, I should have thought of it earlier. If Ye Lan could reincarnate Shisui, then Shisui would definitely tell him the whereabouts of his eyes. If Ye Lan got Shisui's Mangekyō...

At this moment, Obito was very glad that he did not attack Sasuke, otherwise he would probably have been hunted down endlessly by Ye Lan.

Orochimaru has already caught the change in the other party's eyes, and there is indeed the secret of the Uchiha clan in this.

However, Orochimaru did not ask further, but pretended not to see and continued: "What also interests me is that Ye Lan, who joined Akatsuki, seems to have some other ideas."

"No matter how powerful he is, he is trapped in his clan. How can a guy who keeps talking about Uchiha have such a broad mind?"

Obito's tone was slightly disdainful. In his opinion, Ye Lan was just a fanatical Uchiha member who had great strength but only thought about revenge. No matter how strong the other party was, he would look down on him.

Orochimaru smiled but said nothing. His only goal was to study how to achieve immortality and he didn't care about these things. He cooperated with Obito only to explore the secret of the Sharingan.

Both of them are aware of this, and when the day comes when they are no longer useful to each other, that will be the time for them to fall out.

...

Konoha, Hokage's office.

Tsunade bit her lip and looked at the mission report Asuma gave her with a worried look on her face.

"Sasuke is now teaming up with Hoshigaki Kisame. You read that right."

"How could that be? Even though we didn't fight, we still talked about it a little."

Asuma muttered to himself that, according to the rules, one must use all his strength to capture the rebel ninja, but he actually started a conversation with the other party.

"Besides, he said himself that he had killed Uchiha Itachi."

Tsunade put down the report with a slightly confused look in her eyes. Now Sasuke has grown to this point. This is not just beyond his peers, but has surpassed most of the ninjas in Konoha. Was what she did at the beginning really right?

However, Tsunade, as the most famous female ninja in the ninja world, quickly cheered up, the confusion in her eyes disappeared, and she showed a serious expression again.

"What is Sasuke and Kisame's purpose in going to the Land of Iron? Is there any news about the Tailed Beasts there?"

Tsunade knows more inside information than these ninjas. The jinchūriki in each village are quite unwelcome, and it is very likely that some of them will run away to other countries.

Maybe they got the news and wanted to capture the lone Jinchūriki.

"No, they didn't do anything. I even met them when they left. Nothing happened during the time in the Iron Kingdom..."

"Are you trying to say that they went to the Iron Country just to travel?"

Tsunade said unhappily, when did the Akatsuki organization become so idle? It would be understandable if they were carrying out some bounty missions, but in the end nothing happened.

"But that's the fact. When I had some free time in the Iron Country, I went to inquire about it, and there really was nothing going on!"

Asuma was sweating profusely. Others didn't do anything, so he couldn't force them to kill. Maybe they were just out traveling to relax as Tsunade said.

Just like Tsunade asked Shikamaru to come out.

"This is out of the ordinary. There must be something we don't know about. Forget it. Let's leave this matter to Jiraiya to investigate."

Tsunade couldn't figure it out, so she just left it to Jiraiya. Investigating Akatsuki was his job.

"What about Shikamaru? Is he getting better?"

The main purpose of this mission was to allow Shikamaru to open up his heart. Meeting Sasuke was just an accident. When Tsunade heard that he did not fight with Sasuke, she did not intend to blame him and simply ignored the matter.

Asuma stroked his beard and looked up in thought, then said uncertainly.

"As for Shikamaru, there shouldn't be any big problems. He seems to be training hard at home. When he came back, he told me that he wanted to become a jonin."