Nonō finally broke her silence and said, "Compared to my talent in Medical Ninjutsu, I have more potential in intelligence gathering. My codename in the underground world is—Wandering Miko."
"Wandering Miko? What on earth is that?!"
Fortune and a group of Shinobi Cats were somewhat confused; at their level, they hadn't encountered the underground of the Shinobi World, the dark world of espionage and assassination.
That place was filled with betrayal and deception; that was the true Shinobi World.
Tsunade remembered: "Wandering Miko, I've heard of it. You were Konoha's ace spy. Haven't you already retired?"
"..."
Nonō didn't speak. Resign and retire? How could a high-level agent who held so much classified information about Konoha and the Root possibly wash her hands of it all?
Nonō had already guessed that Danzo sent her to Amegakure intending to use Madara or Ryou's hand to get rid of her.
Because she knew too many of Konoha's secrets, the Konoha higher-ups could not rest easy as long as such a person lived.
Seeing that Tsunade had asked many questions without being able to interrogate anything out of her, Fortune became somewhat impatient.
"Big Sis, why waste your breath on her? Just take her down and give her a severe electrocuting; I don't believe she won't say anything."
Tsunade explained the Root's Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal to Fortune, telling him that as long as this cursed seal existed, Nonō could say nothing.
Fortune sneered: "Can't talk, huh? Then let Sasori invade her brain and seize all her secrets."
Tsunade shook her head: "Better wait for your master to come and let him decide!"
Tsunade's heart had softened; her defection to Madara's side wasn't decisive enough, and her forgetting of Konoha wasn't thorough enough.
Caught in the middle, she took heat from both sides.
Looking at Nonō's beauty, Fortune said pitifully: "I think it's better if we interrogate her. If it's the Master, who knows what kind of torture she'll suffer?"
She'd be fed to the grass!
Nonō looked at Tsunade with a very calm gaze and asked, "Lady Tsunade, is your surname Senju or Uchiha now?"
"..."
Tsunade was stunned.
Nonō continued to ask her: "Lady Tsunade, don't forget, your two grandfathers were Konoha's First Hokage and Second Hokage respectively."
"You are the Senju Princess in whose veins the blood of heroes flows; you should not have fallen so low!"
Tsunade was struck in her heart, and her pupils lost focus slightly.
Fortune was furious and shouted for the Shinobi Cats to take Nonō away: "Daring to disturb the morale of the troops, take her down and beat her."
The Shinobi Cats took Nonō down to beat her.
Fortune comforted Tsunade: "Big Sis, my master said something back when his future seemed hopeless."
"We cannot see all the snow that falls in a person's life; everyone is in their own life—surviving winter in loneliness."
"A person must love themselves and not care about the opinions of others. Gossip exists all day long; if you don't listen, it naturally ceases to be."
After Fortune finished speaking, he left with the Shinobi Cats, leaving Tsunade to repeatedly chew over his comfort.
Everyone is in their own life—surviving winter in loneliness!
Hozuki Castle.
After Ryou let the Great Tree of Takigakure finish absorbing the negative energy in the Box of Ultimate Bliss, he summoned it to take Root in the open space of Hozuki Castle.
Suddenly, a giant tree that blotted out the sun appeared on this isolated island in the sea.
The Kusagakure Shinobi and the people of Hozuki Castle looked up in shock at this massive tree that covered a city.
To say it covered a city was an exaggeration; Hozuki Castle was just a prison and hadn't reached the level of a city.
But the height of the Great Tree of Takigakure exceeded the mundane scope and was beginning to leap toward the legendary chakra ancient tree.
Ryou placed the Box of Ultimate Bliss in the hollow of the Great Tree of Takigakure.
Then he went to Satori's sealing place and unsealed Satori, who had been sealed by iron sand.
Without the energy supplied by the Box of Ultimate Bliss, and with Wood Release continuously absorbing Satori's energy, Satori was now completely withered, lacking any vitality like a drowning cat.
Ryou used Wood Release to hang Satori up and, regardless of anything, began to electrocute it.
Satori was shocked awake; sensing it had lost its connection with the Box of Ultimate Bliss, it said in a low voice: "What have you done?"
Ryou said: "The Box of Ultimate Bliss has been subdued by me; I am now your master."
"..."
Satori was silent for a moment, then looked at the Great Tree of Takigakure rooted next to Hozuki Castle.
Rather than saying Ryou was Satori's master, it was better to say that this giant tree, which had devoured all the negative energy of the internal space, was its anchor.
Satori desperately wanted to enter it to restore its chakra.
Satori asked Ryou: "How on earth do you know my weakness?"
Satori was very confused as to why Ryou could evade its malice-sensing skill, leaving it unable to predict anything.
Ryou said: "Why do you care so much? From now on, you will be under my control!"
Ryou had Candy bring a brand-new summoning scroll, cut open Satori's paw, let out its blood, and signed a summoning contract.
Once the signing was done, Ryou had Candy sign her name as well.
Satori began to negotiate terms: "I can become your Summoned Beast, but you must provide me with a hundred living people every day; I need them to provide me with negative energy."
"Audacious! You still dare to set conditions?!"
Ryou had Lightning Release chakra attached to the vines and electrocuted Satori vigorously.
Satori screamed from the electricity and began to beg for mercy: "Master, Master, I don't dare anymore! I don't dare anymore!"
Requiring a hundred living people to provide negative energy was a refined way of putting it; more cruelly, it meant torturing these living people, making them wish for death and feel despair.
Ryou felt that Satori, like Sasori, was a dark creature; to deal with such individuals, one should use unconventional methods and suppress them vigorously.
Electrocute it whenever there's nothing else to do to establish absolute authority.
After Ryou taught Satori a lesson, he implanted one of his life spores into the other's body.
With a foreign object entering its body, Satori's first instinct was to crush it.
But Ryou commanded it: "Satori, don't destroy it. That is the communicator between us; I installed it in your body to make it more convenient to contact you."
Satori didn't believe him; given its ability to see into the human heart, this was definitely something to control it, but Satori didn't dare to resist Ryou now.
So it allowed Ryou's spore to parasitize inside its body.
Satori actually didn't need to fear Ryou's spore parasitism because it was immortal; Satori wasn't like the Tailed Beasts created by the Sage of Six Paths using Yin-Yang Release to separate the Ten-Tails' Chakra.
Satori was a collection of life's negative energy; as long as the world still possessed negative energy, Satori would continue to exist.
That was why the Sage of Six Paths chose to seal it rather than kill it.
After the spore parasitized Satori's heart, Ryou controlled it: "You look too ugly like this; change back to your previous little catgirl form."
Satori obeyed and changed back to its previous human-form little catgirl.
She was so soft and cute that Ryou couldn't help himself; he grabbed the little catgirl and wanted to take her into the small woods.
Candy knocked on his head: "You guy, you'll lay a hand on anything, won't you? It's about time; we should leave this place!"