Every time Ryou performed the Wood Golem Technique, he had to create it from scratch using his own chakra, which was a waste of energy.
He could easily prepare the Wood Golems in advance, engrave the Summoning Formulas, and summon them as Shinobi tools.
Although summoning large objects also consumed chakra, it was far less than the amount required to create a Wood Golem from scratch.
Ryou nodded. "Candy, help engrave the Summoning Formula on the Great Tree of Takigakure."
Candy was somewhat speechless; first it was asked to monitor Fortune's catgirl, and now it was being told to engrave Summoning Formulas.
It was being treated entirely like a tool.
Nevertheless, Candy nodded.
It jumped down from Ryou's shoulder to engrave the Summoning Formula for the Great Tree of Takigakure.
Ryou stroked his chin, thinking Candy's idea was actually quite good.
He couldn't perform a summoning between himself and his Spore Clones, but if he treated the Spore Clones as Shinobi tools or Shinobi beasts and engraved a Summoning Formula on a scroll, he could use the scroll to summon them.
Just like the summoning scroll exclusive to the Hozuki clan's Seven Shinobi Swords, Hohzuki Mangetsu could use a scroll to forcibly summon Kirigakure's Seven Shinobi Swords back.
After Candy left, Fish Ball jumped onto Ryou's shoulder.
It said, "Ryou, when are we going to capture the Three-Tails and Six-Tails? I want to eat fish!"
Ryou grabbed its cat head. "Capture what? There's no need to capture the Three-Tails and Six-Tails."
"Why not?"
"Why do you care so much? You don't do any proper work all day. Candy is so busy, how can you stay idle? Go collect some metal materials immediately."
"The more you collect, the better. If you haven't collected about ten tons of metal by tomorrow, I'll have your head."
Fish Ball hissed, "What about you? I don't see you doing any proper work all day either!"
"Insolence!"
"I rest during the day and sleep at night; I'm so busy I can't even keep up with my schedule. You dare say I don't do proper work? You deserve punishment!"
Ryou gave Fish Ball a harsh electric shock. Fish Ball begged for mercy and obediently went off to collect metal.
Ryou returned home.
He saw Konan tied up securely, and Tsunade passed out drunk on the bed.
"Mmph, mmph—"
Konan muffledly cried out for help, but no one could save her.
Snowy jumped onto Ryou's bed and asked, "Is everything taken care of?"
Ryou nodded and then instructed Snowy, "Go guard the door with Nekomata! If anyone dares to come and interrupt my good business, take their head."
Snowy nodded but was a bit puzzled. "Ryou, why do you like mating so much?"
"The Uchiha are all sexually indifferent; there has never been someone who likes mating as much as you. Is your bloodline impure?"
"Shut up, Snowy! Don't ruin my mood!"
Ryou grabbed Snowy and threw it out, then sat on the bed looking at the bound Konan.
He peeled the tape off her mouth.
As soon as her mouth was freed, Konan began cursing at him, "Uchiha Ryou, you evil Uchiha, you are a disgrace to the Uchiha name!"
"Keep shouting—"
Ryou pinched Konan's face. "Konan, oh Konan, from the day you accepted my spores, haven't you been my slave?"
"Do you know what a slave means? It means you can be disposed of at your master's whim."
"Come on, let me hear you call me 'Master'."
"Ptui!"
Konan spat in Ryou's face. Ryou simply wiped it off and licked it.
Konan was shocked. "Perverted Uchiha!"
Ryou smiled, then formed hand seals and began to manipulate Konan.
"Konan, I've served you so many times; isn't it time you served me for once?"
Under the control of Ryou's spores, Konan's body involuntarily moved according to Ryou's will.
Ryou untied her, and at that moment, Konan realized her body no longer belonged to her.
It moved according to Ryou's desires.
"No, no, no—mmph—"
In the Ryūchi Cave, inside the giant Snake Temple.
The light in the White Snake Sage's temple was very dim, with only a faint, eerie glow outlining the interior, creating the oppressive atmosphere of an ancient cavern.
In the center of the temple, a thousand-year-old giant snake with white scales coiled upon a massive stone throne.
It had orange hair and yellow pupils, a green cat's eye stone on its chest, a red luminous pearl embedded in its forehead, and a tobacco pipe held in its mouth.
This was the leader of Ryūchi Cave, described in the Jin no Sho as 'radiating a mysterious and majestic aura'—the White Snake Sage.
The White Snake Sage sat coiled on the stone seat.
The rock wall behind was covered in spiral cloud-patterned reliefs, layered like coiled snakes, appearing and disappearing in the gloom.
It was silent, cold, and smelled of stale tobacco.
The White Snake Sage was a chain smoker of over a thousand years.
The White Snake Sage looked down at the unwilling Orochimaru. "Orochimaru, have you still not made up your mind?"
This was the second time Orochimaru had come to Ryūchi Cave to practice Senjutsu.
The first time, Orochimaru had come to the White Snake Sage to seek Senjutsu, and the Sage had told him the method of practice.
Senjutsu practice in Ryūchi Cave was like a violent storm, vastly different from Mount Myōboku.
At Mount Myōboku, Fukasaku would earnestly teach Naruto, explaining step-by-step what Senjutsu chakra was, and applying Toad Oil to help him sense natural energy.
If an accident occurred, he would use a staff to strike the chakra out of Naruto's body.
Why would Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu need such fancy methods?
The White Snake Sage would simply give you a bite, injecting natural energy into your body through fangs, and then the rest was up to you to endure.
If you survived, you were a Sage of Ryūchi Cave. It was that simple!
But what about the success rate?
From the original Naruto series to Boruto, only Kabuto alone successfully learned the Senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave.
Mitsuki's Sage Mode in Boruto was not the orthodox Senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave; it was the result of Orochimaru's Cursed Seal experiments, a modified version of the Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode created by Orochimaru.
It could be seen as an artificially optimized version of Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu.
Not counting the special case of Mitsuki, in a thousand years, it's estimated that only Kabuto successfully learned the Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode.
There were almost no successful examples, and failure meant being consumed by natural energy and then swallowed by the White Snake Sage.
Manda ate people, the White Snake Sage ate people, and its three Snake Princess subordinates also ate people.
Ryūchi Cave was not some holy land for Sages; it was a demon's den.
The White Snake Sage here was less of a Sage and more of an old demon, a thousand-year-old snake demon.
Because of the extremely high failure rate, Orochimaru feared failure and feared being swallowed by the White Snake Sage.
Because Orochimaru was someone who cherished his life.
Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu was powerful, but there were plenty of Forbidden Jutsu in this world; there was no need for Orochimaru to stake his life on training Senjutsu.
If he succeeded, he could surpass ordinary Shinobi, but if he failed, he would die.
And the chance of success was so low.
Orochimaru was no fool; why would he go and practice Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu, which had such a high mortality rate?
Furthermore, Orochimaru discovered that the most important thing for Senjutsu was to have a strong enough constitution, and his was insufficient.
So, the first time, he failed because he was afraid of the death associated with the training.
And the second time, he backed down again.
Even with the implantation of White Zetsu cells, it only increased Orochimaru's attainment in Yang Release and enhanced his physical stats.
Although the chances were much higher than before, it was still not enough.
Orochimaru was a researcher; he would only train in Senjutsu if he could ensure the success rate was sufficient.