Tobirama's second Water Release attack followed immediately. Unable to read Tobirama's thoughts, Satori flew back toward Ryou.
Ryou cursed at Satori, "Satori, you useless piece of trash, how are you already failing after just a few moves?"
Satori felt a surge of anger. This evil Uchiha saw that it was injured but didn't even reach out to heal it.
Satori took a deep breath and pointed a claw at Tobirama, saying, "He's a dead man. I can't read the thoughts of the dead."
Satori's mechanism works by reading the negative emotions in an opponent's heart to predict their attack trajectory.
The key is negative emotions. Satori was born from the world's negative energy; as long as someone is human, they will have negative emotions.
Such as hatred, anger, jealousy, greed, fear, anxiety...
As long as even a trace exists, Satori can perceive the opponent's malice and absolute evade their attacks.
But in Satori's perception, Tobirama had no emotional fluctuations whatsoever.
Because he was already a dead man, he felt no pain, made no sound, and his state of mind was like a pool of stagnant water.
When attacking Satori, he didn't have the slightest emotion, acting just like a cold zombie.
Satori could not use its malice-sensing ability to read a zombie's thoughts and achieve absolute evasion.
Ryou stroked his chin. He hadn't expected Satori's mind-reading mechanism to be useless against an Edo Tensei body.
Edo Tensei truly is a Ninjutsu that turns the mundane into the miraculous.
Ryou reached out and used Wood Release to heal Satori, who had been sliced by Tobirama's Water Severing Wave.
"Satori, you're not completely useless. Just now, when Tobirama used the Water Severing Wave, I copied it with my Sharingan."
The Water Severing Wave is only a B-rank Ninjutsu, but in Tobirama's hands, its power is at an S-rank level.
This verified once again that a technique's rank only reflects its learning difficulty, not its power.
Because the learning difficulty of the Water Severing Wave was only B-rank, Ryou could steal Tobirama's Ninjutsu using his Sharingan even without relying on the replicative nature of White Zetsu cells.
Compared to Orochimaru, Tobirama had far more good things on him—an entire arsenal of Water Release that countered the Uchiha's Fire Release.
Furthermore, Tobirama's Water Release techniques were all modified versions that required only a few hand signs to release.
There was also the Flying Thunder God Technique, Bringer-of-Darkness Technique, Mutually Multiplying Exploding Tags, Soul Sealing Technique...
Tobirama really had too many good things.
Ryou had an idea: "Satori, once I heal you, go attack Tobirama again. Let him use a few more Ninjutsu for me to copy!"
Satori: "(⊙﹏⊙)."
Satori refused outright: "This time he attacked my wing, next time it'll be my head. Even though I won't die because of the Box of Ultimate Bliss..."
"I still feel pain. If you want to go, go yourself."
"You're rebelling! To embarrass me like this in front of outsiders, I'll have to give you a good shock!"
While Ryou was dealing with internal strife, things weren't much better on Orochimaru's side.
Orochimaru and Manda were pleasantly surprised. They hadn't expected Satori's mind-reading to fail against the Edo Tobirama. Orochimaru's decision to bring Tobirama to block Ryou's ascent was correct.
Tobirama glanced sideways at Manda and said gloomily, "Did you just say you wanted Orochimaru to sacrifice a thousand living humans to you afterward?"
"ヾ(≧O≦)〃 Ow~"
Manda started acting cute: "Lord Tobirama, you misheard. I said a thousand eggs. Yes, eggs! Snakes love eggs!"
Pressure, what immense pressure!
Tobirama clearly hadn't released even a hint of his aura, yet Manda felt a crushing pressure.
This guy could definitely kill it in an instant!
Tobirama snorted coldly; he didn't believe for a second that Manda liked eating eggs.
He turned to look at Orochimaru: "Useless trash, you can't even control a beast. If I hear of you daring to use living sacrifices for such a beast in the future..."
"I will be the first to kill you!"
A puppet acting so arrogant?!
Orochimaru was losing his patience. He wanted Tobirama to understand that the man was currently his puppet, his Edo Tensei summon.
Just as Orochimaru began to form hand signs, Tobirama's fingers twitched—the starting stance for the Flying Thunder God.
"Orochimaru, you need to understand one thing. You don't possess Senjutsu. Relying solely on White Zetsu cells is not enough to absolutely bind the current me."
"Not to mention the Ryūchi Cave Cursed Seal you implanted in me!"
Orochimaru suddenly froze, caught in a difficult position.
Previously, with the intent of supplementing Hashirama's Yin Release, he had implanted the Ryūchi Cave Cursed Seal into both Hashirama and Tobirama.
But he hadn't expected it to strengthen Tobirama so much that he could no longer control him.
Orochimaru gave an awkward smile and apologized to Tobirama, "Lord Second Hokage, my apologies. This Summoned Beast of mine is a bit unruly."
"Rest assured, if it ever dares to ask for a living sacrifice again, I will kill it and turn it into an Edo Tensei body."
Manda was furious: "Orochimaru, what did you say—"
Orochimaru looked at Manda with murderous intent: "Shut up, Manda!"
Manda shut its mouth.
If Orochimaru truly got serious, he could definitely kill Manda.
His Eight Branches Technique alone could grind Manda into the dirt.
Tobirama nodded and lectured, "I won't pursue your past use of living people for human experiments, but if you want to conduct experiments in the future, use those White Zetsu bodies!"
"Humans are not leeks, after all. You can't just harvest one crop and expect another to grow back when the spring breeze blows next year."
Tobirama had also used living humans for experiments, but he exercised extreme self-restraint, only using criminals and heinous villains.
Even when researching the Sharingan, he studied the corpses of the Uchiha Clan.
With Hashirama watching from the side, it was impossible for Tobirama to use innocent villagers for human experiments.
Otherwise, he would have been hammered by Hashirama's summoned Wood Golem.
Tobirama had darkness within him, but he constrained it, guiding his darkness to create stronger power to protect a greater light.
A Kage is one who shoulders the darkness!
Why did the Third Hokage say that Itachi possessed the mindset of a Hokage at such a young age?
What exactly is the mindset of a Hokage?
It is to sacrifice the darkness of a few to secure the light for the many, just like slaughtering the Uchiha to ensure the stability of Konoha.
Itachi had the darkness to be a Hokage, but not the fate to be one.
Tobirama then looked toward Ryou and Satori, feeling speechless at the sight of their internal bickering.
Ryou was really no different from Orochimaru—no, at least he was slightly more human than Orochimaru.
Once Madara was eliminated, these two would definitely become new troubles for the Shinobi World.
Tobirama sighed inwardly. Why was he, a man dead for decades, still worrying about the future of the Shinobi?
His elder brother once said he believed in the wisdom of future generations, but such words are usually just a way to pass the buck to the next generation.
Because Hashirama and Tobirama's generation failed to solve the problem of war, three Shinobi World Wars broke out.
True wisdom lies in the current generation taking responsibility and paving the way for those who follow.
When there are conditions and opportunities, one must act. The further things develop, the more solidified the social strata become, making reform even harder.
Ten thousand years is too long; seize the day!
"Orochimaru, it seems this kid Ryou is truly stubborn. Let's finish him off!"
Orochimaru nodded, his expression showing no signs of annoyance.
He had already guessed that Ryou wouldn't be so easily swayed to defect.
Truth be told, after seeing Madara's Limbo, Orochimaru didn't know who could possibly defeat him.
If Orochimaru were in Ryou's position, he wouldn't be easily swayed either.
Because Madara was simply too strong, unless there was some slight turn of events on Hashirama's side.