In a corner of the tavern, Toji and Afro were sitting with a drunken old man. The old man looked like he had one foot in the grave, his indifferent gaze clouded by drink, as if he had already seen enough of the world and had nothing left to lose.
Toji heard the whole story from him, at least the part he knew, the only thing he had to pay for was more drinks.
-That girl is one of Momori's henchmen, a bastard nobleman if I may say so.- the old man said, though he lowered his tone when he called the nobleman a bastard. Looking around and seeing no one paying attention, even in his drunken state, he seemed somewhat relieved.
-Momori? - Toji raised an eyebrow.
-Yes, that's his name. He's the highest-ranking nobleman in this region, controlling several cities, including this one.- The old man shrugged. -They say his wife is the sister of the Daimyo's wife, which is why nobody really knows how to deal with him.
Toji didn't answer, simply listening calmly to the story. The old man took a few more sips of his sake, the liquid trickling down his neck as he drank greedily.
He let out an alcoholic sigh and put the empty bottle aside, his eyes filled with pain. -My son, all I had left, tried to pass one of the many recruitment drives that guy runs, but only a few come out alive. My son wasn't so lucky, I couldn't even recover his body. Eaten by beasts, they said.
-If it's so difficult to pass, why do so many people still try?- Toji asked curiously.
The old man scoffed. -Of course it's for the money. Those greedy fellows had their eyes on the generous rewards Momori offered, fools, all of them, including that little brat. I warned him, I warned him several times not to go, but he listened to me? No, of course not.
Toji seemed thoughtful, finding the story increasingly interesting. - And what about the girl?
-Her? She was one of the few who passed, not without suffering, that scar on her face and the loss of her arm, it all happened during the test.- The old man shrugged. -She's known as the sand fox around here.
-I understand, and where does this nobleman live?- Toji, who suspected something was increasingly wrong with this Momori character, and where there was something wrong, there was an opportunity to act or acquire more souls, thus his interest was completely piqued.
-East of this city lies the city of Saboten (Cactus), a prosperous city, much better than this one. I went there to ask for my son's body, but I never managed to see that nobleman, I was only stopped by a guard outside his palace.- The old man explained.
-I understand.- Toji didn't say anything else, instead, he was thinking. The direction Yukina took after leaving the city was east, and the Snake Clone was still following her, probably towards the aforementioned city of Saboten. -Thanks, old man.
Toji placed the money on the table and left with Afro. The old man watched them leave, shaking his head. He sensed that the boy would probably get into trouble with Momori, those two would surely die, but the old man said nothing, it wasn't his business.
He continued drinking, thinking about the past with a bitter expression.
Toji went to an inn with Afro to spend the night, he wasn't going after Yukina now. Anyway, the Snake Clone was still with her, although this one was created by Toji, not Jugo. Its strength was enough to handle even one or two Kages, and he wasn't worried about that.
Instead, he wondered what was happening in that city. After spending enough time wandering the Ninja world, Toji had long since discovered that there was much more to this world than what was shown in the anime. Judging by Momori's actions, he probably had a big secret, right?
Was he feeling excited? It was more out of curiosity, the stronger you get, the harder it is to find a good opponent. He'd been through that as Jugo, and now that his strength had grown even more, he was almost past the point where ordinary ninjas in this world posed a problem for him.
Shaking his head, he ignored the sounds in the next room, that pervert Afro must have found a date at some point. Sighing, he thought. - 'That guy is exactly the type who eats quietly.'
Toji wasn't in the mood for that right now, at least the girl should be interesting enough, these random women didn't interest him anymore.
//-//
The following morning, after eating, Afro and Toji left again, much faster than expected, leaving the city guard captain surprised but very pleased that this 'plague gods' had finally gone.
Toji didn't care about the man's thoughts, instead, he was in a bit of a hurry because the Snake Clone's discoveries from the previous night had been truly interesting.
After Yukina arrived in Saboten, she didn't stop in the city, instead, she went straight to the palace, but via a secret route. The Snake Clone, using Mayfly, followed her with ease.
Inside, it looked like a base camp with many ninjas coming and going, almost like the Anbu headquarters. Most of them just ignored each other, walking with their heads down and hurried steps. Yukina went straight to her own dormitory, but the Snake Clone stopped following her and began to understand the surroundings.
It was while wandering around that he discovered a place that sent chills down even his spine.
The place was enormous, underground, easily large enough to fit several football fields, but the truly unsettling feature was a huge tree with a human face in the center. It was black with white leaves and had tens of thousands of roots, each connected to a strange cocoon. This cocoon looked strange from the outside, but the Snake Clone used his Byakugan to look inside. Inside each cocoon, there was a human being.
Seeing the chakra flow of that thing, it was possible to see that it was extracting chakra from those humans. Upon seeing this, Toji could only think of the scene with the human energy fields in Matrix.
Toji didn't know what was happening in that place, but just seeing it made it clear that the trip was worthwhile.