Snowy closed the door and transformed back into a calico cat, standing on all fours on the bed in Kabuto's room.
It looked at Kabuto and said, "It seems you already knew I was in disguise?"
Kabuto was still immersed in what Snowy had said earlier—that the Director was being controlled by Ryou.
Kabuto couldn't easily trust the words of a cat. He looked into Snowy's eyes and asked, "What evidence do you have to prove the Director is still alive?"
Snowy directly took a photo out of a scroll and tossed it to Kabuto.
Kabuto caught it. After looking at it, his pupils constricted slightly because the person in the photo was Nonō, and she was currently tied up with ropes.
Kabuto only saw the physical restraint of this binding, but in some people's eyes, it was full of erotic charm.
Kabuto gripped the photo with some excitement. In this era, PS and AI generation didn't exist yet, so the image Snowy gave him was real.
However, there was another possibility: the enemy could have transformed into Nonō's appearance to take the photo.
Kabuto didn't think Ryou would care enough about him to go to such lengths specifically to deceive him.
Kabuto looked at Snowy and asked, "Are you Uchiha Ryou's Summoned Beast?"
Snowy nodded. "I am Snowy, one of the High Cloud Quintet under my Master's command."
Kabuto was puzzled again. "Why has Snowy-sama come to Root?"
Snowy replied, "Yakushi Nonō is now my Master's subordinate. She cares deeply about her orphanage."
"My Master heard that Konoha had cut off the supplies to the orphanage, so he sent me with silver to resupply Yakushi Nonō's orphanage."
Hearing this, Kabuto's hostility lessened slightly, but at the same time, he found it strange that Ryou would be so kind.
Didn't they say on the streets that he was a beast among beasts?
Snowy added, "My Master also said that since the children in the orphanage have no mothers, he asked me to play a song for you all praising mothers."
Snowy summoned its speaker from a scroll and played it right in front of Kabuto—"Only Mother is Good in This World."
As soon as Kabuto heard it, his heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a hand, aching with a dull pain.
Kabuto did have an adoptive mother, and that was Nonō.
As soon as Snowy played this song, Kabuto thought of Nonō; she was so gentle and so kind.
Yet such a kind person was being used by evil men like Danzo and Ryou.
And then there was his biological mother. Kabuto had forgotten the past, but some memories were carved into his blood and bone long ago, becoming unforgettable fragments in his genes.
That was the shadow of his mother.
Even at an age of clouded consciousness, as long as he thought of that shadow, his heart would settle into peace.
Kabuto's nose felt sour, and tears fell directly.
Seeing how effective it was, Snowy turned the volume up even higher. Outside, Kuromaru could hear the voice of a child praising their mother with a sincere voice.
Kuromaru's eyes turned red; he missed his dog mother.
Kabuto stepped forward and pleaded with Snowy, "Snowy-sama, please stop playing it! If you keep playing, the people from Root will notice!"
Snowy turned off the speaker and said to Kabuto, "Well? Do you believe my identity now?"
Kabuto nodded. Playing 'Only Mother is Good in This World' to an orphan—Root wouldn't do such a beastly thing.
Only that legendary beast among beasts—Ryou—would do something so beastly.
Now that Kabuto believed, Snowy began to question him: "Kabuto, have you been branded with Root's Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal?"
Snowy wanted to interrogate Kabuto, but before that, it had to find out if Kabuto had been implanted with Root's cursed seal. If so, Snowy would help him break it.
Kabuto shook his head. "Snowy-sama, I haven't been implanted with any cursed seal."
Snowy didn't believe him and approached to check his body. Sure enough, it found no cursed seal.
Because Kabuto was being groomed as a high-level member of Root, Danzo had not implanted a cursed seal on him.
"Good. Then let me ask you, why are you and the children from the orphanage here in Root?"
Kabuto told Snowy about how the group from the orphanage went to the streets to beg for food a while ago and were then tricked into a pyramid scheme by Root's people.
After arriving at Root, Kabuto discovered that Root's people had no good intentions at all; they would use the children brought out as sacrifices for human experiments.
The orphanage had already lost several children.
Kabuto also found out about an ultimate assessment in Root: the trained children would be divided into pairs, eating and living together to build a deep friendship.
On graduation day, the assessment topic was to make the two children kill each other. Only the one who survived could become a Shinobi of Root.
Root had already selected the children from the orphanage, picking out ten of the most outstanding ones to train in pairs.
Kabuto's best partner, Urushi, was among them.
At the thought that Urushi might one day kill his best partner and fall into becoming a killing tool, Kabuto became very anxious.
He knelt directly before Snowy and pleaded, "Snowy-sama, please save us! This place is hell!"
Snowy didn't sympathize with the orphanage's plight; what it cared about was Root's human experiments.
Snowy placed a paw on Kabuto's head, looking into his snake-like golden vertical pupils.
"Are Root's human experiments to make you gain Orochimaru's power?"
Kabuto nodded. "Yes, Root's experiment is to make people fuse with Orochimaru-sama's cells. My companions were all eroded by Orochimaru-sama's white snake cells and disposed of as monsters."
Snowy was puzzled. "Why would Root's people want you to fuse with Orochimaru's cells?"
Snowy was very confused. Orochimaru was one of the Sannin, at the peak of Shinobi, but that was only compared to conventional Shinobi.
Against Shinobi at the level of Hashirama, Madara, or Tobirama, Orochimaru's power was not enough.
Konoha's people should be implanting Hashirama cells, or White Zetsu cells derived from Hashirama cells.
Why go and implant Orochimaru's cells?
"..."
Kabuto fell silent for a moment. The matter of the Impure World Reincarnation was Root's highest-level secret.
Danzo had once warned Kabuto not to tell anyone.
Seeing that Kabuto didn't want to answer, Snowy moved its paw toward the speaker's switch and played 'Only Mother is Good in This World'.
As the song continued from its previous verse, Kabuto immediately begged bitterly, "Snowy-sama, I'll talk, I'll tell you everything, just please stop playing it!"
Snowy turned off the speaker and looked coldly at Kabuto. "If you don't say anything, I'll go and play this song for the other children."
Kabuto finally told Snowy, "Because Root's people want to learn Orochimaru-sama's Edo Tensei!"
"What?! Edo Tensei!"
Snowy was suddenly stunned, its pupils shrinking, its voice carrying a hint of excitement.
It had a feeling it was about to perform a great service, a very, very great service.
It approached Kabuto excitedly: "You know Edo Tensei?"
Kabuto shook his head. "I've only learned about seventy or eighty percent of it; I haven't been able to fully master the Edo Tensei yet."
"Where is the Edo Tensei?"
Snowy grabbed Kabuto's collar and asked.
Kabuto pointed to his head. "In my mind. Danzo-sama made me memorize all the Ritual Formulae for Edo Tensei, and then he took the scroll away."