Orochimaru immediately summoned a small snake and took out the summoning scroll for the Rashomon from its mouth.
Then he tossed it to Ryou.
Ryou caught it and had Candy check the summoning scroll for the Rashomon.
Candy nodded: "No problem, the scroll is real."
"Then take it!"
"Yes!"
Ryou did not intend to return the summoning scroll for the Rashomon; otherwise, just like with the Ryūchi Cave summoning scroll last time, Orochimaru would later erase his name from it.
Orochimaru and Tobirama watched without saying anything; to them, the Rashomon was truly nothing special.
It was worth it if it could be used to win over Ryou, the number one general under Madara's command.
Orochimaru said to Ryou, "Ryou, I've given you the Rashomon. You should now agree to join forces with us to deal with Uchiha Madara!"
Ryou shook his head: "Orochimaru, the Rashomon alone won't do. You have to give me one more thing as a bribe."
Orochimaru's brow furrowed slightly: "What do you want?"
Ryou said word by word: "I want the Edo Tensei!"
"Impossible!"
Orochimaru refused Ryou almost instantly.
Previously, Orochimaru hadn't discovered the power of the Edo Tensei, but after learning it, he was completely amazed by this technique.
With only a living sacrifice, one could summon a powerful soul from the Pure Land and obtain an indestructible zombie.
It was also because of the Edo Tensei that the Shinobi World could see a turn for the better.
Otherwise, with that bunch of riffraff in the Shinobi Allied Forces trying to deal with Madara, they'd just be waiting to be kicked to death one by one!
Tobirama also wore a look of refusal as he stared gloomily at Ryou: "Ryou, the Edo Tensei cannot be given to you. This technique is too dangerous."
"If someone like you obtained the Edo Tensei, who knows how you would disrupt the balance of the world?"
After Tobirama developed the Edo Tensei, he rarely used it; he knew the terrifying way it disrupted the balance of life and death, as well as human ethics.
If Tobirama could have summoned Hashirama via Edo Tensei back when facing the Kinkaku and Ginkaku' unit, the Kinkaku and Ginkaku would never have been able to surround and kill him.
Tobirama himself was also a victim of the Edo Tensei.
He was already dead and at peace in the Pure Land, yet at his age, he had to be summoned via Edo Tensei by Orochimaru to protect the Shinobi World.
Although his resolve made it impossible for him to leave the Shinobi World to its fate, if it happened once, it would happen again.
As long as a crisis appeared in the Shinobi World, those of them who were peaceful dead would never know peace.
Predecessors would be used as puppets of war by their descendants for their entire lives.
This was a total disregard for ethics.
Ryou sneered: "If you won't give it, then I'm sorry, I'll take it myself!"
"Orochimaru, just like when you wanted my head back then, now I want yours!"
Turning hostile in a second without even a hint of hesitation, Ryou flipped the table immediately after consuming the Rashomon.
"Satori, do it!"
"I've been waiting for ages!"
Satori instantly transformed into his Demon form; suddenly, a black-winged, headless, and eyeless black demon lunged toward Orochimaru and Tobirama.
"What kind of monster is this?!"
Orochimaru and Tobirama were horrified, never expecting that the soft and cute little catgirl beside Ryou would turn into such a fierce monster.
Satori was very fast, turning into a bolt of black lightning the moment he transformed and striking toward Manda.
Manda was terrified: "Orochimaru, you bastard, you're making me deal with this kind of thing again?"
Orochimaru was stunned: "Manda, do you know what kind of monster this is?"
Manda nodded: "This is Satori, a product of the Box of Ultimate Bliss left over from the era of the Sage of Six Paths."
"The Land of Grass once nearly ruled the world by relying on the Box of Ultimate Bliss and Satori. Born with Satori, moving with Satori, ending with Satori!"
Gamabunta knew about Satori and the Box of Ultimate Bliss, and Manda, who was on the same level as Gamabunta, naturally knew about Satori as well.
This was part of the heritage of the Three Great Sage Regions.
Satori didn't give Orochimaru and Manda a chance to speak their lines; he struck like lightning.
Orochimaru warned Manda: "Manda, watch out!"
"I know! Orochimaru, before it was Uchiha Madara, and now it's Satori. Damn it, if you don't sacrifice a thousand living people to me afterward, don't even think about driving me again!"
Manda wasn't a pushover either; he captured Satori's movement trajectory.
Snakes have poor eyesight—they are highly nearsighted and cannot see stationary objects clearly, but they are extremely good at catching moving objects, and their vision in dim light is slightly clearer.
But he was still nearsighted.
Manda didn't rely on eyesight to capture Satori's trajectory, but rather on a snake's other auxiliary sensory abilities.
For example, a snake's vibration sensing, Jacobson's organ, infrared sensing...
Darkness is a snake's home turf; otherwise, they wouldn't live in holes.
Manda heavily swung his snake tail toward where Satori was lunging; this heavy tail could easily smash a building to pieces.
Unexpectedly, Satori nimbly shifted his body in mid-air like an aerial acrobat, steadily brushing past Manda's tail.
Not a millimeter more, not a millimeter less, he dodged Manda's tail strike perfectly.
Manda's tone was grim: "It's no use. Satori can sense malice; he can predict attacks by reading the opponent's internal negative emotions, achieving absolute evasion."
"Malice sensing?!"
Orochimaru's expression turned ugly.
Satori struck like a black storm, and Orochimaru spat the Kusanagi sword from his mouth.
Kusanagi Sword: Longsword of the Sky!
Orochimaru's Kusanagi sword was extremely sharp; even Enma, who possessed a diamond-hard body, would feel pain if touched by it.
Orochimaru's Kusanagi sword frantically extended toward Satori, seeking to pierce the headless and eyeless black monster.
Just as it looked like the Kusanagi sword was about to pierce Satori's body, Satori's body suddenly flipped rapidly, dodging Orochimaru's Longsword of the Sky with extreme agility.
"What kind of reaction speed is this?"
Orochimaru was shocked; at such a hair's breadth distance, Satori could actually perform such agile and difficult movements?
This wasn't a movement a biological creature could make; it was more like an ability—Absolute Evasion.
Manda said, "This is Satori's ability. Orochimaru, you've already been seen through!"
"Satori needs no words; he directly knows what is in others' hearts—their thoughts, their ideas, their desires, and their doubts."
"He can distinguish between good and evil thoughts, true and false hearts, and understands all the troubles and motives of all living beings."
Orochimaru was somewhat fearful: "That powerful?"
"Successor of Ryūchi Cave, you are far inferior to your ancestors!"
Satori sneered coldly, extending his sharp claws to tear apart Manda's body.
At the critical moment, that man made his move.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
Tobirama rapidly spat a high-pressure straight stream of water from his mouth; the water column was like a sharp blade, attacking toward Satori's wings.
Unlike ordinary Water Release techniques, the Water Severing Wave relies on concentrating powerful water pressure on a small area, and its destructive power is extremely great, effectively slicing through targets.
During the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Tobirama had used this technique to cut through the roots of the God Tree.
Strangely, Satori, who had just been able to perform absolute evasion, was hit by this attack.
Satori recoiled in pain as his wings were hit, but relying on a body comparable to a Tailed Beast, he withstood Tobirama's Water Severing Wave and flapped his wings to retreat.