Caressing the necklace hanging around his neck, a warm current surged through Ren's heart.
Although Tsunade had lectured him the entire way, Ren understood that she wasn't concerned about what he had done, but was simply worried about his safety.
Ren could also sense a rather peculiar power contained within this necklace; it seemed to be Wood Release Chakra.
If Ren only had one Tailed Beast inside him, this necklace would still be somewhat useful, as it could help him suppress the rampaging power within him.
But as the number of Tailed Beasts inside him increased, if Isobu and Chomei were to rampage together, the power within this necklace wouldn't be enough to handle them.
"Alright, let's go."
Tsunade lightly patted Ren's head, then turned and walked out. Ren, having come back to his senses, quickly put down his clothes, jumped off the bed, and chased after her.
"Wait for me, Teacher!"
"Hurry up."
The two walked side by side through the camp, instantly attracting numerous gazes, or more accurately, Ren attracted them.
Everyone knew Tsunade; she was already recognized as the Goddess Princess of the Ninja World, and even now, clad in armor, she remained valiant and spirited.
Ren's height was only slightly shorter than Tsunade's beside him. His long, unkempt black hair had grown to his shoulders and was slightly frizzy, and a gentle smile graced his handsome face.
Although Ren didn't speak, the people around him quickly recognized him and began whispering to their companions.
There was no helping it; the identical diamond-shaped marks on both their foreheads were simply too conspicuous. Only this master and disciple pair in the entire Ninja World possessed them.
A passing young woman's eyes lit up when she saw Ren. She immediately turned and walked away quickly, soon disappearing among the tents.
Ren, of course, was unaware of these things. At this moment, they had stopped in front of a tent, with two guards standing on either side. Upon seeing Tsunade, they said in unison,
"Lady Tsunade!"
"Mm."
Tsunade nodded to the two, then walked straight ahead. Ren quickly stepped forward to lift the curtain, and only after his teacher had entered did he follow her inside.
As soon as Ren entered, his eyes met a rather spacious desk, on which only two small, neatly stacked piles of documents lay. There were no superfluous items, making it clean and orderly.
At this moment, a figure was sitting behind the desk, head bowed, writing something on a document with a pen.
"Hm?"
Noticing the movement at the entrance, the person paused their pen, then looked up at the two.
Upon noticing Ren, he first froze, then a slight smile appeared on his lips as he chuckled softly.
"Heh heh heh, you truly surprise me. I didn't expect to see you here, Ren-kun."
Ren also smiled slightly, took two steps forward, bowed slightly, and said softly,
"It's been a while, Orochimaru-sama!"
This person was indeed Orochimaru. Since being transferred here from the Cloud Village Battlefield, he had taken over from White Fang as Commander, fighting against Sunagakure and Iwagakure alongside Tsunade and Jiraiya.
Under the command of the Three Sannin, invading enemies like the Sand Ninja and Stone Ninja were firmly held back, unable to advance an inch.
"I heard Ren-kun became the Three-Tails Jinchuriki. That's truly surprising."
Orochimaru subconsciously licked the corner of his mouth with his tongue, his gaze at Ren tinged with curiosity.
He had always wanted to deeply understand and research powerful creatures like Tailed Beasts.
He had once infiltrated the Hidden Cloud Village and orchestrated the previous Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Fukai, to lose control and rampage. He took advantage of the chaos to obtain some of the Eight-Tails' cells, but the sample was too small, not nearly enough for his research.
Although the Village also had a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, no one would allow Kushina to cooperate with his experiments, so this research project could only be temporarily shelved.
Until now, looking at the living Ren standing before him, he instantly had new ideas.
Just then, Tsunade stepped forward two paces, blocking his view, and slammed her hands on the table, saying in a deep voice,
"Orochimaru, don't even think about him!"
The Three Sannin had fought side by side for decades, understanding each other even better than they understood themselves. She instantly saw through his intentions.
A look of regret immediately appeared on Orochimaru's face. After all, opportunities to research Tailed Beasts like this were rare.
But he quickly adjusted his mindset, picked up a rolled-up scroll from the table, and handed it to Tsunade.
"What is it?"
Although Tsunade was somewhat puzzled, she still took the scroll, unrolled it, and began to read.
"Heh heh heh."
Orochimaru, however, just smiled without speaking, and continued to sit and review the documents in front of him.
Tsunade also didn't waste time. After reading every word from beginning to end, she suddenly looked up, her gaze somewhat surprised as she looked at him, and asked,
"Is the information reliable?"
Orochimaru didn't even lift his head, responding softly,
"It's news from the Village. What do you think?"
"Is that so…"
Tsunade's gaze returned to the scroll, her expression somewhat nuanced.
"What is it?!"
Ren, seeing the two being so secretive, couldn't help but become curious about the content. He quickly walked to the table, then squeezed in under his teacher's armpit, his eyes quickly locking onto the first line.
"Brat!"
Her thoughts interrupted, Tsunade couldn't help but be annoyed, but she didn't disturb Ren from reading the scroll. Instead, she turned and went to the nearby conference table, sat down, and fell into deep thought again.
As for Ren, when he saw Danzo Shimura's name, a look of understanding instantly appeared in his eyes. He already roughly knew what this intelligence report was about.
"Phew."
After finishing the last paragraph, Ren closed the scroll, a thoughtful expression in his eyes.
It was pretty much as he had thought before. Danzo, not trusting Hanzō, had chosen to return to the Root stronghold to rest. Unexpectedly, he was jointly killed by Ren and Kakuzu halfway, without even managing to send out a distress signal.
When the Root's people noticed that their curse mark has vanished they panicked, feeling that their leader was in trouble, the Root members immediately dispatched everyone to search, but found nothing.
In desperation, they could only choose to request aid from the Village. Upon learning that their friend had gone missing in the Land of Rain, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Utatane Koharu, and Homura Mitokado, all three, unusually, agreed and sent a message to the front lines, hoping Orochimaru would dispatch personnel to enter the Land of Rain and begin a search.
However, Orochimaru had no desire to deal with it. After all, the situation on the front line had only just stabilized. To dispatch hundreds of people to leave here and infiltrate another country to search for a so-called Elder at this time…
In his opinion, it was pure nonsense.
Although Danzo was a Konoha Elder, he was still just an Elder. His safety was not worth the risk of so many Konoha Ninja.