"Summoning Technique!"
Bang! A giant eagle appeared, but it wasn't Badora.
This was an eagle much smaller than Badora, capable of carrying only one person, and its speed and endurance were not bad.
Badora's injuries were no longer an issue, but its size was too large and easily attracted attention, making it unsuitable for traveling secretly. Moreover, Tenten might need Badora.
Xia Mu leaped onto the giant eagle's back and patted its back.
The giant eagle immediately let out a long cry and soared into the sky, flying towards the north of the Fire Country.
The Ninja World actually doesn't seem very large. According to the distances calculated in the original work, it takes only three days at the fastest from Konoha to Hidden Sand Village, and the distance from Konoha to the border of the Land of Rice Fields is half the distance from Konoha to Hidden Sand Village. Coupled with Xia Mu riding the super-fast giant eagle, it didn't even take a day to reach the border of the Land of Rice Fields.
Xia Mu didn't rush into the Land of Rice Fields but flew around the border of the two countries twice.
After confirming that only Konoha Ninja were stationed there and there was no trace of Sound Ninja, he ~ relaxed.
It was getting late, so he first found a hidden place to eat, while also thinking about countermeasures.
Although Orochimaru's hideouts were often mentioned in the original work, the locations were vague, and there was even little description of Otogakure. Therefore, it was a bit difficult to extract information from the original work. At most, he could write down some information about the Sound Five and the Crystal Release user Guren from the anime original, who were relatively threatening enemies.
As for Orochimaru's hideouts, he could only go and look for them.
Early the next morning, Xia Mu once again rode the giant eagle and circled the border line of the two countries. After finding nothing, he flew into the Land of Rice Fields.
The Land of Rice Fields is not large. Xia Mu planned to fly along several routes, and while sitting on the eagle's back, he used the Telescope Technique to achieve a low-cost aerial photography effect.
He refused to believe he couldn't find several of Orochimaru's hideouts!
Xia Mu was also lucky. After flying for more than an hour, he aerial photographed a hidden cave. The entrance of the cave clearly showed signs of human activity, and there were snake-like carvings on the cave door.
That was practically shouting: This is one of Orochimaru's hideouts!
Xia Mu didn't stop immediately but continued to let the giant eagle fly forward, just in case there were people monitoring on the ground. After flying a certain distance, he had already marked the location on the map, and then he quietly leaped off the eagle's back, landing silently on the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Evasion Technique!"
Xia Mu burrowed into the ground and quietly approached the cave entrance, making sure to leave no trace.
After reaching the cave entrance, seeing that there was no one around, he took out a Polaroid camera and took a picture of the cave entrance. This was all intelligence and would be counted towards his merits.
After doing all this, Xia Mu continued to enter the cave using the Earth Evasion Technique.
There were still signs of recent human activity in the cave, and as he went deeper, he heard people talking. Xia Mu became even more cautious.
He wasn't afraid of being discovered, much less afraid of not being able to win, but he kept his investigation mission in mind. He only needed to get the intelligence, and Tsunade would naturally arrange the rest.
Startling the snake was not a good thing. If Orochimaru wasn't here, or if Orochimaru heard the news and moved directly, it would be even more difficult to find this venomous snake. Xia Mu would not do such a foolish thing.
After a period of exploration, it actually took a whole day.
The main reason was that there were people inside the cave, so Xia Mu didn't dare to make too much noise. He also took the opportunity to take pictures.
This was clearly one of Orochimaru's experimental bases. Many people who were used as test subjects were held inside, and there were also many samples soaked in green liquid. Just looking at them was chilling.
Xia Mu took pictures of most of the things he saw, then attached notes and a map, and summoned a smaller eagle to send the message back.
With the investigation here concluded, Xia Mu continued forward.
What Xia Mu didn't know was that when Tsunade and Shizune received the intelligence the next day, they were incredibly shocked by his efficiency.
"Shizune, how many days has it been since Xia Mu went on his mission?" Tsunade asked in disbelief.
"Uh, it seems like only three days..." Shizune said blankly.
"I heard that his and Tenten's summoning beasts are a type of mountain giant eagle, and they fly extremely fast. It seems he went to the Land of Rice Fields by riding the giant eagle, no wonder it was so fast. Having such a subordinate really makes one feel at ease!"
Tsunade couldn't help but sigh and quickly opened the intelligence to read it. Her face immediately turned very ugly.
Shizune leaned over to take a look and immediately gasped, because among the photos Xia Mu sent back, there were many scenes of human experiments. Even though Shizune was a doctor, she was shocked by the images.
"Damn Orochimaru! What does he think of human lives!"
Tsunade punched the office desk, but getting angry like this was useless. Only the desk and the financial personnel were injured, and it was of no use to Orochimaru.
...Please give flowers...
Shizune took a long time to recover and quickly asked, "Tsunade-sama, what are you planning to do next?"
Tsunade had already recovered her composure and shook her head, "Let Xia Mu continue to investigate first. I believe he will soon find all of Orochimaru's hideouts within the Land of Rice Fields. We will finish the negotiations with Hidden Sand Village as soon as possible and then gather our forces to annihilate Orochimaru in one fell swoop!"
In the following days, Xia Mu would discover a hideout every few days and quietly infiltrate it, obtaining a lot of intelligence without being discovered.
Each time, he would immediately send an eagle back with the intelligence.
I have to say, Orochimaru is truly speechless. In a small Land of Rice Fields, he actually has ten experimental bases. There might be more hidden ones that haven't been discovered, but those are very difficult to find.
..... .. ...
Xia Mu also couldn't find all of them. That would be too time-consuming. The priority was to find Orochimaru!
What Konoha primarily wants to eliminate is also Orochimaru. As long as Orochimaru is successfully defeated, it doesn't matter how many experimental bases Orochimaru has. After all, the biggest threat has been eliminated. These experimental bases can be slowly destroyed, or even ignored altogether.
Time passed quickly. It had been about a month since Xia Mu left the Village.
Most of the Land of Rice Fiel
Normally, if aerial photography didn't reveal anything, it meant Orochimaru had no base there.
That day, Xia Mu arrived in an area not far from the Land of Rice Fields' Daimyo's mansion and once again discovered a hidden base.
And judging by the entrance, it seemed even more luxurious.
The entrance was a giant python carving, awe-inspiring, making it seem like there was no point in hiding it at all.
In this situation, it could only be Orochimaru's main base!
Xia Mu quietly took a photo and was about to sneak in as usual when several figures suddenly appeared in his binoculars, causing Xia Mu to instinctively re-conceal himself.
These people were very familiar; they were Kidōmaru, Tayuya, Sakon and Ukon, and Jirobo of the Sound Four.
These four had been responsible for setting up the barrier during the Konoha Crush, trapping the Third Hokage and Orochimaru together, leaving the Third Hokage without rescue, which led to the Third Hokage's death.
ds had also been aerial photographed.