To Madara, what was terrifying was not Shisui's talent, but his Dojutsu—a Mangekyo ability that could permanently control a target and modify their will without even needing eye contact.
"..."
Madara was silent for a moment before he began to put on his armor. He was going to leave his seclusion: "The Shinobi World does not allow someone this formidable to exist!"
White Zetsu quickly stopped him: "Lord Madara, there's no need for that, because Uchiha Shisui is already finished. He gouged out his own eyes!"
"What happened?!"
Madara was puzzled by Shisui's act of destroying his own eyes.
White Zetsu explained the whole story, and Madara listened intently. It turned out Ryou wanted to seize Shisui's eyes.
To prevent his eyes from falling into Ryou's hands, Shisui destroyed them himself.
Madara sat down cross-legged, his fingers tapping on his knees: "It's better that they're destroyed. Such powerful eyes shouldn't exist in this Shinobi World."
Madara's own Mangekyo-exclusive abilities weren't that powerful; he was almost embarrassed to use them in battle.
A genjutsu like Kotoamatsukami was too broken. Although Madara was confident that Shisui's dōjutsu power couldn't suppress the Rinnegan...
But it was better to be safe than sorry!
Madara's Rinnegan had always been used to crush small fry; it hadn't really been tested in a proper battle!
He couldn't say for sure whether the Rinnegan could actually block a Mangekyo's exclusive Dojutsu.
If Ryou had gotten that kid, he probably would have used him to scheme against Madara. It's just as well that Shisui destroyed them.
The Shinobi World shouldn't have such overpowered eyes in the first place.
Immediately after, Madara sensed the Wood Dragon on the ground.
"This chakra?"
The chakra of the Great Tree of Takigakure was a bit off the charts; it had integrated Ryou's spores and devoured the Seven-Tails' Chakra.
Previously, when Ryou used Wood Release: Veritable 1000-Armed Kan'on, a portion of the chakra that surpassed the Nine-Tails was retained by the Great Tree of Takigakure.
Now, the Great Tree of Takigakure felt like a Tailed Beast, specifically a mid-tier one like the Five-Tails or Six-Tails.
White Zetsu said, "Lord Madara, Lord Ryou is back. He captured both the Seven-Tails and the One-Tail."
Madara nodded. Having a tool like him was quite useful; he didn't have to do everything personally.
In the past, Madara had been too solitary. When he left Konoha to fight Hashirama, there was no one there to cheer him on.
Madara stood up and walked out of the underground space where the Gedo Statue was kept.
With the One-Tail and the Seven-Tails, Madara now had two Tailed Beasts.
As for Kirigakure, with the Third Mizukage under Madara's control, the Three-Tails and Six-Tails were basically guaranteed to be in his grasp.
Thinking of Kirigakure...
Madara gave a cold sneer, waiting for the Shinobi Allied Forces to attack Amegakure so he could set off the explosion.
...
After finishing his meal, Ryou led everyone out of the Wood Dragon and arranged for the injured from Kusagakure and Amegakure to rest in the hospital.
Although his subordinates hadn't contributed much this time, they were still quite badly hurt.
At this time, the Spore Clone arrived underground with Shukaku and Sasori. The Shinobi Cats cleared a huge plaza, and Shukaku emerged from the ground.
Ryou had the Wood Dragon release the sleeping Seven-Tails, and then he let the Wood Dragon revert to the form of the Great Tree of Takigakure to take root in the plaza.
A giant tree sixty stories high, so thick that dozens of people couldn't wrap their arms around it, reaching so high it almost pierced the sky.
The Shinobi Cats and the villagers of Amegakure all looked at the towering tree. This Great Tree of Takigakure had now become the most spectacular sight in Amegakure.
No matter who it was, standing under the tree and looking up, they felt as small as ants.
An ancient, vast, and unshakable pressure washed over them, as if the tree were the very backbone of the earth.
Shukaku mistook the Great Tree of Takigakure for the incarnation of the Ten-Tails and was so frightened he broke into a sweat, not daring to look directly at the giant tree.
Madara walked out of the underground space and immediately saw the majestic Great Tree of Takigakure.
"What a magnificent tree. It must have been around for a thousand years. I wonder how it compares to the incarnation of the Ten-Tails?"
In the Uchiha Clan stone tablet Madara had seen, the Ten-Tails would eventually turn into a giant tree and bloom a flower, with the Rinne Sharingan inside the bud.
When the bud is reflected onto the moon, the moon turns red. At that moment, Madara opens the Rinne Sharingan on his forehead, allowing him to project his dōjutsu power onto the moon.
He would then be able to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi on the entire world.
Madara had never seen the God Tree incarnation of the Ten-Tails; the tallest tree he had ever seen was this Great Tree of Takigakure.
This made Madara somewhat impatient to revive the Ten-Tails and liberate the whole world.
Ryou absorbed the Spore Clone on Shukaku and simultaneously learned the initial stages of Magnet Release.
He used chakra threads to lift Sasori and introduced him to Konan and Nagato.
"Konan, Nagato, this is Sasori from Sunagakure. He has now become my Summoned Beast!"
Konan and Nagato looked at Sasori in surprise.
This was a real scorpion, not a person.
Was the true form of Sunagakure's famous Sasori actually a scorpion?!
But Sasori hadn't signed a summoning contract with Ryou yet, so theoretically, he wasn't Ryou's Summoned Beast yet.
Ryou immediately had Candy take out a summoning scroll and signed the summoning contract for Sasori on the spot.
The core of a summoning contract is a blood oath. Ryou drew a bit of Sasori's blood onto the scroll and then used his own blood to sign his name.
In this way, Sasori completely became Ryou's Summoned Beast.
"Konan, come here. Sasori is a Summoned Beast no weaker than the sages of Mount Myōboku. You should sign one too."
Although Sasori's main body and the puppets of the Hundred Puppet Technique had been smashed by Ryou, Sasori still had the Third Kazekage Human Puppet.
Plus the newly made Rasa Human Puppet, with two top-tier Magnet Release Shinobi at his disposal, his utility was far greater than that of large Summoned Beasts.
Konan shook her head: "I don't like scorpions! Besides, I have your spores in my body. If you can summon Sasori, it means I can too."
Ryou realized that since Konan had his seeds in her body, as long as he signed a contract with Sasori, his clones could theoretically perform the summoning as well.
Because Ryou's clones were Yang Release clones, they had blood and sweat; as long as they had Ryou's blood, they could perform a summoning.
Sasori, being held by the tail by Ryou, felt miserable. From now on, he really was nothing more than a beast.
Since Sasori carried the Rasa Human Puppet with him, Ryou also introduced Rasa to Konan and Nagato.
"This is the Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure, Rasa! Everyone, come and meet him."
"Rasa, you should introduce yourself too."
The Human Puppet Rasa: "..."
Konan and Nagato looked at the Fourth Kazekage, while the Kusagakure Shinobi were even more shocked, all crowding around Rasa's position to get a look.
A Kage—even if Sunagakure was the weakest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Rasa was still one of the Five Kage.
A Kage, whom Konan and Nagato usually wouldn't even see, and whom Shirakawa and Mui could only shine the shoes of, had died just like that.
His corpse was even being gawked at like some kind of rare curiosity.
It was truly absurd!
Konan looked suspiciously at Rasa's appearance; he was missing an eye, his body looked like it had undergone some kind of stitching, and his eyes were lifeless.
He looked just like a puppet made from a corpse.
Konan asked in confusion: "What happened to him?"
Ryou then explained the concept of Sasori's Human Puppets to Konan and the others.
Hearing about Sasori's Human Puppet technology, Konan, Nagato, and the others were extremely horrified.
Turning deceased Shinobi into Human Puppets while retaining their original Ninjutsu and Kekkei Genkai...
This technology was too inhumane!
But everyone also had a sudden realization.
"So the Third Kazekage was killed by one of their own."