Shizune looked at Tsunade's suddenly pale face and slightly trembling hands, her worry nearly overflowing.
She quickly stepped forward, gently supporting Tsunade's arm, her voice carrying undisguised anxiety: "Tsunade-sama! You... are you alright? Your complexion looks terrible!"
Tsunade waved her hand, signaling Shizune that she was fine, but her other hand pressed firmly against her throbbing temples.
She took several deep breaths, trying to calm the tumultuous unease in her heart and the increasingly clear, terrifying suspicion forming in her mind.
She looked up, her gaze falling on Menma, who remained composed and unruffled across the table, her voice carrying a barely detectable hoarseness: "You... did you know this would happen?"
Menma raised an eyebrow slightly but said nothing, simply watching her quietly, waiting for her to continue.
Tsunade almost gritted her teeth as she spoke: "You know about my 'curse' of losing every bet! But you also knew that I would definitely win today, which is why you prepared so much money, isn't that right?!"
This speculation sent a chill down her spine.
If the other party was so thoroughly familiar with this almost 'cursed' metaphysical pattern, and knew that some 'disaster' was about to happen to those close to her, hence her sudden change in luck...
Then his understanding of her was terrifyingly deep.
Just then, the small slug that had been quietly resting on Shizune's shoulder wriggled slightly, hopped onto Tsunade's shoulder, and gently touched Tsunade's cheek with its soft antennae. A gentle wave of Chakra slowly infused into her, carrying a soothing effect.
"Tsunade-chan, your heart is beating very fast, and your breathing is very disordered. Do you need me to help stabilize you?" Katsuyu Sage asked with concern.
Tsunade felt that gentle Chakra, and her tense nerves relaxed slightly. She gently shook her head and said softly, "Thank you, Katsuyu-sama. I'm fine... just have a bad feeling."
She knew all too well what this abnormal 'good luck' of hers meant. Every time, it was accompanied by bad news about someone close to her.
This unknown fear unsettled her more than facing a powerful enemy head-on.
She took a deep breath and, from the ninja tool pouch at the small of her back, retrieved an ancient-looking scroll.
The scroll looked quite old, its corners worn. In the center of the scroll, written in ancient script, were the two words [Shikkotsu Forest].
Tsunade placed this heavy scroll on the velvet-covered gaming table and pushed it forward an inch with effort.
"I don't actually know the specific coordinates of Shikkotsu Forest," Tsunade said, her voice filled with fatigue and a hint of relief.
"But this summoning contract scroll… by signing it, you will obtain the 'key' to Shikkotsu Forest. According to the bet... it's yours."
Having said that, she almost immediately stood up, her body swaying slightly as if she had exhausted all her strength.
She didn't look again at the mountain of money boxes, nor did she glance at Menma. She simply said "Let's go" to Shizune and walked somewhat dispiritedly toward the entrance of the VIP hall, her back appearing particularly heavy.
"Tsunade-sama! Wait for me!" Shizune hurriedly picked up Tonton, cast a worried glance at the scroll and money boxes on the table, and quickly followed.
Tonton let out tiny whimpers of 'Pupu pupu' in Shizune's arms.
The small slug rested on Tsunade's shoulder. It raised its small body, turned to Menma, and said in its soft voice with goodwill: "Then, I look forward to your visit to Shikkotsu Forest."
Menma gave Katsuyu a slight nod in return.
Then he raised his hand and instructed Kakuzu, who was standing respectfully by his side, "Kakuzu, take care of this money. Deposit it into Tsunade's account at the Star Bank."
"Yes." Kakuzu responded in a low voice. Looking at the eight money boxes, though it pained him, he carried out the order without any ambiguity.
The Land of Stars now possessed the most advanced and widely covered banking system in the Ninja World. Even in a place like Aomori City, a 'concession', there were branches of the Star Bank, making large-sum transfers and deposits very convenient.
Menma picked up the ancient [Shikkotsu Forest] contract scroll from the table. It felt slightly cool and peculiarly textured, as if he could feel the spatial fluctuations contained within.
He didn't linger. His figure flickered, and he disappeared from the spot.
…
Land of Stars, a highly classified biological laboratory.
Menma's main body appeared before the experimental table.
He carefully placed the Shikkotsu Forest summoning scroll on a specialized analysis instrument.
Inside the laboratory, several of his shadow clones were busy. Some operated precision energy detection devices, others analyzed the ancient sealing runes on the scroll, and still others calculated complex spatial coordinate parameters.
A deep blue scanning light slowly moved across the scroll, while complex data streams continuously jumped on the instrument screens.
Menma's gaze was focused, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he performed calculations.
After a long while, a shadow clone was released, and its memories returned.
Menma slowly opened his eyes, a glint of understanding in them.
He murmured to himself, "As expected... the coordinates don't point to any point in the main material plane of the Ninja World. Natural Energy feedback shows that it is an alternate space attached to the main world but with slightly different rules... or perhaps a small world."
This confirmed his guess. The reason the Three Great Sage Regions were difficult to find by ordinary means was precisely because they existed in independent alternate spaces, much like Kaguya's dimensions.
The next day, everything was ready.
In the center of the laboratory, Menma spread open the Shikkotsu Forest summoning contract scroll.
The scroll was very long, inscribed with the names of successive contractors with Shikkotsu Forest throughout history. At the top were unfamiliar names from ancient times. Further down, the name Senju Hashirama could be seen, and Tsunade's name was at the end.
Menma bit his thumb and, using his blood, solemnly wrote his own name, [Uzumaki Menma], in the blank space of the scroll.
Then, he formed hand seals. They were not the conventional summoning technique seals, but seals for a reverse summoning technique with a strong spatial orientation.
"Reverse Summoning Technique!"
Hum—!
A powerful spatial fluctuation spread outward from him, causing the instruments in the laboratory to emit a soft hum.
The next moment, Menma's figure suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke.
A slight feeling of weightlessness and spatial displacement came over him, and Menma's feet landed on firm yet somewhat damp ground.
A wave of dense, almost indelible moisture hit his face. The air was thick with the mixed smells of rotting plants and a peculiar, cloying sweetness.
He looked around. Before him was a boundless swamp area shrouded in grayish-white thick fog.
Beneath his feet was dark brown, muddy ground, soft to step on.
Around him grew many strange trees. They had no leaves, their trunks either straight or twisted and gnarled, presenting an unsettling, bleached, bone-like pallor. They stood silently in the thick fog, like a vast cemetery of the dead.
Apart from these 'bone forests' and the occasional popping sound of bubbles bursting in the muddy swamp underfoot, the entire world was terrifyingly dead silent. There were no insect chirps, no bird calls… as if no living creature existed.
This place was one of the Three Great Sage Regions, Shikkotsu Forest.
"Welcome to Shikkotsu Forest." A gentle female voice, seemingly coming from all directions, broke the dead silence.
Menma looked up. Ahead, a gigantic shadow, like a mountain range shrouded in thick fog, began to slowly wriggle and rise!
As it moved, the surrounding fog churned violently, revealing its true form.
That was no hill at all… it was the body of Katsuyu Sage, so vast as to be almost unimaginable!
Just its raised front portion was like a true mountain peak, blotting out the sky and sun, radiating a vast life force.
Katsuyu Sage's gigantic head slowly lowered, and the eyes at the ends of its gentle tentacles curiously observed the tiny human below.
"However, how should I address you? 'Shura', as Tsunade-chan calls you... doesn't seem to be your real name. I perceive a brand new name on the contract scroll."
Menma looked up at Katsuyu's main body. Even prepared, seeing Katsuyu Sage's vast main body in person was still somewhat surprising.
He knew that before such thousand-year-old intelligent beings, hiding his real name was meaningless and would instead appear insufficiently candid.
Menma spoke clearly: "My real name is Uzumaki Menma. However, please, Katsuyu-sama, keep it a secret for me for the time being, especially in front of Tsunade and Shizune... um, just about one or two months should suffice."
"Uzumaki Menma... a child of the Uzumaki Clan?" Katsuyu Sage's voice carried a hint of understanding and nostalgia, as if recalling certain contractors from long ago.
"Keep it a secret? An interesting request. Very well, I promise you. Within two months, I will not mention your real name to Tsunade-chan or Shizune."
"Thank you." Menma nodded. At the same time, he quietly activated his [Mind's Eye of the Kagura].
An invisible perceptual ability rapidly spread like a tide, exploring this peculiar alternate space.
The information fed back made him inwardly cautious.
The size of this space was far smaller than the main plane of the Ninja World. And Katsuyu Sage's main body's Chakra reaction almost filled the entire core region of the space. Its volume was so enormous that, as the legends said, it probably truly rivaled a mountain range.
To have such a vast living being inhabit such a relatively 'cramped' alternate space for over a thousand years was like imprisoning a dragon in a shallow pond.
Imagine living in a room of only ten square meters for over a thousand years… the oppressive feeling it would cause.
"Well then, Menma-chan..." Katsuyu Sage curiously began to ask.
The gentle female voice echoed through the space: "You went to great lengths to come to Shikkotsu Forest. Do you have an important purpose? I vaguely heard from Tsunade-chan and Shizune that you have stirred up great waves in the Ninja World, with the ambition to unify the entire Ninja Continent. Do you need my power to help you achieve this grand goal?"
Menma lightly leaped and sat down on a curved, rib-like white tree trunk nearby, so he could converse more comfortably with Katsuyu Sage.
He shook his head, his tone confident: "I already possess the power to unify the Ninja World. What troubles me now is not the process of conquest, but how to govern after the conquest, how to break the thousand-year cycle of hatred, and establish a new order."
"I am still waiting... waiting for the right opportunity, and also need to eliminate some greater potential threats."
"Greater threats?" Katsuyu Sage was somewhat puzzled.
Unifying the Ninja World seemed to it an already unimaginable feat. Among its countless contractors over the millennium, many had aspired to this. What could be greater than that?
Menma raised his head, his gaze piercing through the thick fog as if seeing further into the starry sky. He spoke slowly: "Katsuyu-sama, the reason I have come this time is to ask you... about the history of this planet, and about the truth behind the Otsutsuki Clan's invasion of the Ninja World a thousand years ago, and the past events concerning the Sage of Six Paths and his brother."
"Otsutsuki?!" Katsuyu Sage's voice, for the first time, showed obvious fluctuation, carrying undeniable surprise.
"You actually know about this? And about the Sage of Six Paths and his brother? These past events... have been buried for over a thousand years!" It felt extremely astonished.
After all, no one else should know about this.
The story of the Otsutsuki, the legend of the Sage of Six Paths… had been obliterated in the Ninja World for a millennium.
Only the three of them, the old beings who had lived for over a thousand years in the Three Great Sage Regions, still knew.
A few ancient Ninja Clans with long traditions might still retain fragmented records.
But those records were mostly incomplete and fragmented, having lost their original form.
This young man before her, looking only in his teens, how could he know these things?
Menma nodded. "I know a lot of history, but I wanted someone to corroborate it."
He slowly began to speak, his voice echoing in the fog: "Back then, Otsutsuki Kaguya and Otsutsuki Isshiki invaded this planet, planted the God Tree, intending to harvest the Chakra Fruit. Kaguya ambushed Isshiki, consumed the fruit alone, and gave birth to the Sage of Six Paths and his brother."
He paused, observing Katsuyu's reaction.
Katsuyu's antennae vibrated slightly. Even it did not know all these details completely.
"But Isshiki did not die. He lurked in the Ninja World for a thousand years, waiting for an opportunity for revenge." Menma continued. "I have already fought him and learned some of the history. I also know... that the Otsutsuki Clan has taken notice of this planet. In the near future, more Otsutsuki will invade."
Menma mixed the history he knew with eight parts truth and two parts falsehood, revealing it bit by bit.
The nature of the God Tree, the origin of Chakra, the Sage of Six Paths founding the Ninshu, the conflict between Indra and Asura, the birth of the Tailed Beasts...
Each segment of his narration deepened Katsuyu's astonishment.
Some of this history it had experienced firsthand, such as the Sage of Six Paths visiting Shikkotsu Forest to discuss the relationship between Natural Energy and Chakra.
Some of it she had not known, such as Isshiki not being dead, and the Otsutsuki main family's attention on this planet.
When Menma spoke of 'the Otsutsuki Clan will come again', Katsuyu's breathing seemed to become heavy.
It had lived for over a thousand years, witnessing the rise and fall of the Ninja World.
But it had never imagined that behind all of this lay such an enormous crisis.
The Otsutsuki Clan, those plunderers from beyond the stars, if they truly returned...
If the Natural Energy of the Ninja World were drained by the God Tree, then Shikkotsu Forest, which depended on the Ninja World for its existence, would also wither and perish!
"Can the Ninja World withstand it?" Katsuyu asked softly, more to itself than to Menma.
"It cannot withstand it." Menma's answer was very direct. "With the current Ninja World, even if all the countries and Ninja Villages united, they could not withstand a complete Otsutsuki team. An individual as injured as Isshiki was already so difficult to handle. If it were a formal team in its prime..."
He didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was clear.
Katsuyu fell silent.
Its body gently rose and fell in the swamp, as if taking deep breaths.
"So you want to unify the Ninja World." Katsuyu understood Menma's reasoning.
"Not for power and ambition, but to integrate strength to respond to the coming disaster."
Menma nodded. "That is one part of the reason."
"And the other part?" Katsuyu asked curiously.
Menma did not answer immediately.
He looked at the surrounding pale trees, at this dead silent swamp, and finally at Katsuyu's vast body.
"The other part... I want to find a different path. A path that can truly bring freedom to this planet."
These words plunged Katsuyu into even deeper silence.