"Finally... I've taken a true first step."
She whispered to herself, looking out the window with a smile.
Then, her Divine Sense stirred slightly, sweeping through the Hyuga Clan Compound like invisible ripples.
Before her secluded cultivation, she had ordered that no clansman was to approach her courtyard.
As for the Ninja missions issued by Konoha? With the highest authority personally granted by the Third Hokage, she had long since chosen to ignore them.
Everything within the clan grounds was as usual, and no one dared to come forward and disturb her.
After Hinata came out, Hiashi immediately felt that increasingly unfathomable and awe-inspiring aura.
She was in no hurry to leave the courtyard. Instead, she first used her expanded Divine Sense, like an invisible giant net, to gather intelligence, calmly collecting everything that had happened in the outside world during this period.
Information surged in like a tide, quickly filtered and categorized by her powerful Divine Sense.
A sense of bustle and impetuousness, completely different from before her seclusion, rushed toward her.
The air in Konoha was no longer just filled with the dust and hope of reconstruction, but mixed with an indescribable anxiety and a slightly heavy atmosphere.
A precise perception with a ten-kilometer radius allowed her to not even need to listen intentionally; countless pieces of disorganized information automatically flowed into her mind.
The whispers of the villagers, the suppressed reports of the Ninjas, the muffled groans and the smell of disinfectant from the hospital, and even the even older and more exhausted Chakra fluctuations in the Hokage Office... She roughly knew what had happened.
Hinata slowly walked out of the courtyard, her pure white eyes scanning the clan grounds.
When the clansmen saw her emerge from seclusion, they all bowed respectfully.
"Young Miss Hinata."
"Mm, thank you for your hard work."
Hinata didn't ask them what had happened to the Village; she just strolled toward the Village, thinking in her mind.
According to the development of the plot, Sasuke should have defected by now, Naruto made a vow, and finally fought a great battle with Sasuke at the Valley of the End.
These things probably wouldn't change. The only thing that had changed was that Tsunade wouldn't take over the position of Hokage for the time being, and Naruto wouldn't get the pendant.
Sure enough, before she had walked far, she captured key information.
"That last child of the Uchiha family... seems to have defected..."
"I heard the pursuit team was almost wiped out. Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and the others are all in a coma with serious injuries..."
"In the end, they still couldn't bring him back..."
"Sigh..."
Uchiha Sasuke had chosen to defect after all, seeking power from Orochimaru.
The pursuit team sent by Konoha had gone through a hard battle with heavy casualties. Finally, at the Valley of the End, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke had their fateful duel, both sides suffering losses, and Sasuke still left.
"The inertia of fate is indeed massive. Naruto and Sasuke would eventually do this."
Hinata was not at all surprised by Sasuke's choice.
For that boy whose heart was full of obsession, it was inevitable that he would go to extremes. Plus, his brother had been brainwashing him, saying 'hate me,' so it would be a wonder if Sasuke weren't extreme.
However, there were still some slight changes. For example, Orochimaru's hands were not sealed by the Reaper Death Seal, so he wouldn't go to Tsunade for treatment and might possess Sasuke earlier.
Hinata had a plan for her next step, and her figure vanished from the spot.
Her figure seemed to blend into the moonlight, silently disappearing from the courtyard. When she reappeared, she was already outside Konoha's high walls, over a hundred meters away.
Her Divine Sense unfolded like the most precise radar, covering a range of over ten miles.
The chirping of birds and insects in the mountains and forests, the gurgling of the stream, and even the subtle Chakra residues were all clearly fed back.
The night was deep, and the stars and moon traveled together.
To her, there was no difference between night and day. Her cultivation at the Golden Core Stage was enough for her to ignore most natural environmental influences.
While maintaining an astonishing speed, she multi-tasked, continuing to deduce and consolidate the various mysteries of the Golden Core Stage in her mind.
Along the way, following the traces of battle and Chakra, she moved precisely toward her target.
Some traces of battle remained: shattered trees, deep gouges on the ground, and occasionally scattered blood that had already dried and turned black.
These all bore witness to the tragedy of the previous pursuit team. Her Divine Sense even found a piece of torn cloth with the aura of the Nara Clan's Shadow Secret Technique in a hidden tree hollow, with a faint smell of blood still lingering on it.
A moment later, the Valley of the End.
The valley here was full of huge craters, charred earth, shattered rocks, and Chakra auras that had not yet completely dissipated.
Hinata's figure landed as lightly as a feather in the center of the valley, on the giant rock that once carried the final duel between Naruto and Sasuke.
Her eyes scanned the surroundings, and her Divine Sense combed through every inch of land and every wisp of air in this area like a comb.
"Lightning Release Chakra residue... it should be Sasuke's Chidori."
"Over here is the violent, hate-filled Nine-Tails Chakra... Naruto."
Her Divine Sense precisely captured those subtle clues that had long been ignored by ordinary Ninjas.
Tracking along the traces of the battle, she finally found Sasuke's residual traces on a shore.
These traces wound toward the south, clearly the path he took when he left.
"I found it."
Hinata grinned; Divine Sense at the Golden Core Stage was indeed useful.
Without the slightest hesitation, her figure flashed again, chasing in the direction locked by her Divine Sense.
In the night, she almost turned into a blurry white stream of light.
Her goal was clear and singular—following the aura left by Sasuke to strike directly at Orochimaru's heart.
As she moved deeper into the border of the Land of Fire, the surrounding environment became increasingly desolate and sparsely populated.
Orochimaru's Chakra traces also became clearer and clearer.
Finally, at the darkest moment before dawn, Hinata's figure stopped before a strange mountain range filled with thick mist.
The mist here was not naturally formed; it contained a weak Chakra that could interfere with perception and vision.
From deep within the mountains, a faint, uncomfortable cold aura emanated, and the air was filled with a faint smell of humus mixed with some kind of herb.
"Hmm... looks like this is the place. He certainly knows how to hide."
Hinata's eyes pierced through the thick fog, looking deep into the mountains.
Under her Divine Sense perception, a large-scale underground base, hidden by multiple barriers and genjutsu, was like a venomous snake's nest hidden in the shadows.
The base entrance was extremely well-hidden, with trigger-type alarm barriers and offensive traps set up around it.
The internal structure was complex, with crisscrossing passages, filled with the auras of various laboratories, prisons, and cultivation tanks.
And among them, the strongest few Chakras: one was cold and slimy, undoubtedly Orochimaru's main body.
Another was violent but with a hint of instability; it should be Sasuke, who had just completed the Reincarnation or had not yet fully adapted. There were also a few slightly weaker but equally cold Chakras, which should be his capable subordinates, such as Yakushi Kabuto.
Hinata slowly landed on the top of a large tree, withdrawing all her aura, as if merging with the surrounding night.
She didn't intend to storm in immediately. Although with her strength at the Golden Core Stage, she could easily do it, that wouldn't be conducive to long-term development; Orochimaru would just hide even deeper.
She now wanted to see if she could find those Forbidden Jutsu scrolls and precious research materials collected by Orochimaru.
[Successfully tracked to Orochimaru's Southern Hideout, discovered the hidden base, obtained points: 2000.]
[Current point balance: 69050.]
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