Once someone passed beyond the walls of Konoha, it was truly impossible to capture Orochimaru.
After returning to Konoha, Habara first sent the two patients to the Konoha Hospital, then relayed the Hokage's cleanup order to the ANBU, and finally informed Uzumaki Kushina to lead a team to "raid the house."
Uzumaki Kushina hadn't directly participated in the operation to arrest Orochimaru. Her status made it somewhat inappropriate for her to participate in such a mission. So, when she heard the order brought by Habara, she immediately mobilized the few members of her team and began their operation.
As they walked through the narrow, winding underground passage, a question suddenly arose in Uzumaki Kushina's mind. "Lord Orochimaru's... uh, laboratory, his laboratory is hidden in this place. How did the Third Hokage suddenly discover it? I've never heard of the Third Hokage conducting any investigations before. Or rather, given his complete trust in Lord Orochimaru, why would the Third Hokage conduct any secret investigations?"
This was a good question. Aside from the incident a year ago where a Uchiha ninja went missing, there hadn't been any other cases of missing ninjas within Konoha. The village was peaceful, and the people were stable. Why would the Third Hokage suddenly investigate Orochimaru? He wasn't crazy.
Because of the previous invasion of Sunagakure, Orochimaru had captured enough ordinary test subjects, so he hadn't caused any trouble within the village. Without any incidents, there would be no investigation. Therefore, his sudden exposure seemed somewhat unreasonable.
"It must have been... divine intervention, perhaps."
Habara answered Kushina's question with four words. He didn't know if there was any "divine intervention" in this matter, but he was certain someone was playing tricks.
They passed through the twisted underground passage, and further ahead was Orochimaru's "laboratory." Two ANBU ninjas were guarding the entrance.
"Kushina-sama," the two ANBU ninjas were initially tense when they heard the messy footsteps. But when they saw Kushina leading the way, they immediately relaxed.
"The Third Hokage ordered us to clean this place up," Kushina nodded and stated her purpose.
"Um... Kushina-sama, do you have a written order from the Hokage-sama?" The two ANBU ninjas didn't immediately open the passage. The current situation was rather strange, generally falling under the category of "Why is Your Majesty rebelling?" So, the ANBU ninjas wanted to see a written, formal order from the Third Hokage.
For the ANBU at this time, only the Third Hokage was trustworthy.
However, Uzumaki Kushina ignored this legitimate request. "Stop wasting time. Where would I find a written order at a time like this? When the Third Hokage returns to the village, you can go ask him yourself if he gave such an order."
"But..."
"What's there to 'but'? Just pretend we're also defecting from the village now... Renegade ninjas on a mission, do we need to reason with you? Are you going to stop us?"
"..."
When Uzumaki Kushina was prepared to be unreasonable, she really could be unreasonable.
Habara smiled. He ignored the two ANBU ninjas and walked directly between them into the "laboratory" behind. The rest of the group followed suit.
The two ANBU ninjas opened their mouths again, but ultimately didn't say anything to stop them. Not only could they not stop them, they had to continue guarding the entrance.
Upon entering the "laboratory," everyone was immediately greeted by the sight of corpses hanging on all four walls.
"This is..."
Kushina was stunned. She hadn't expected such a shocking scene. Then, she realized why the Third Hokage was so agitated this time, directly labeling Orochimaru a rogue ninja. Even the Hokage couldn't cover for Orochimaru or defend him.
"If I'm not mistaken, most of the corpses here should be Sunagakure ninjas. Previously, Konoha invaded Sunagakure, and Lord Orochimaru probably captured some Sunagakure ninjas at that time... He habitually referred to these ninjas as test materials," Habara explained.
Hearing that these corpses weren't from Konoha made everyone feel a little better, but only a little... When a person sees someone using humans as test subjects, it naturally makes them feel all kinds of uncomfortable.
The corpses didn't scare Kushina. What surprised her was Orochimaru's behavior.
"Unfortunately, Sunagakure is now Konoha's ally, and the war is over... These corpses must be destroyed, and the truth of this matter cannot be revealed to Sunagakure."
Kushina knew that the "international relations" between Konoha and Sunagakure were quite important at this time, after all, the agreement to jointly hold the Chunin Exams had just been signed. If Sunagakure found out that many of their ninjas had been used as lab rats in Konoha for a long time, they would definitely withdraw from the agreement.
While everyone was focused on the corpses hanging on the wall, Kakashi, who had already walked to the dissection table in front, said, "Kushina-sama, the Sunagakure corpses aren't the most important thing. The key is these four corpses."
Kushina walked over and looked up and down. She didn't see anything wrong with the four corpses, so she asked, "What's wrong with these corpses?"
Kakashi reached out and gently pushed open the eyelid of one of the corpses, revealing a crimson Sharingan. "Kushina-sama, look."
Uzumaki Kushina took a startled step back. "Uchiha..."
So, the Uchiha's previous unrest wasn't just senseless trouble; Konoha's higher-ups really did kidnap their ninjas.
But... four corpses?
"If I'm not mistaken, one of these people is the missing Uchiha ninja, and the other three are the three Uchiha ninjas who died at the hands of their own clansmen in the previous incident," Kakashi gave his guess.
Habara reacted, Holy crap, aren't these three Shisui Uchiha's buddies? Did Orochimaru go grave robbing?
Truly worthy of being Orochimaru, this was being frugal and recycling... So why not promote cremation? Isn't cremation better than burial? Clinging to outdated and feudal customs is unacceptable.
"Kakashi..." Uzumaki Kushina pointed to the four corpses.
Kakashi immediately took out a scroll and sealed them inside. He had to quickly destroy these four corpses... This matter couldn't be known to either of the two Uchiha factions. Konoha had to choose to cover up this part of Orochimaru's actions.
Orochimaru had really created a mess.
"Collect the remaining corpses. As for the research materials here... collect them as well," Kushina said.
Orochimaru had escaped in a hurry, taking nothing with him. As Habara said, the snake had fled Konoha "stark naked," leaving behind a large amount of research data.
According to Kushina's own inclination, she felt that these research materials should be destroyed. However... sometimes she couldn't act on her own subjective intentions.
......
While Kushina and the others were sorting through Orochimaru's legacy, on the other side, in the "underground" belonging to Root.
Shimūra Danzō sat there, and after an unknown period of silence, he ordered:
"Notify all countries."
"Yes, Danzo-sama."
During the previous Five Kage Summit, a system had been established for major ninja villages to notify each other of rogue ninjas. When this system was proposed, the Third Hokage might have imagined that Konoha would submit its own list of rogue ninjas, but he never would have thought that Orochimaru's name would be on that list.
Shimura Danzo was truly a master of harming others for his own benefit and sacrificing public interests for private gain, a true international warrior of love.
He was worried that other countries would be a step late in learning that Orochimaru had defected from Konoha, and that Konoha's high-end combat strength had suffered a great loss.