Saboten is a large city, even larger than Konoha, it could easily hold hundreds of thousands of people within its walls, the orange stone walls alone were almost thirty meters high and five meters wide.
As he approached, Toji thought that even the capital of the Land of Fire wouldn't be so magnificent, but it made perfect sense too, the sand problem is very serious, high walls aren't just an 'attraction', but a necessity.
The Snake Clone had already 'taken a walk' when Toji and Afro arrived, gathering information. With it, Toji discovered that more than ten years ago, this city wasn't so much smaller than it is now, it was only Momori's fierce development that made the city grow so much.
It became so prosperous that it could even be compared to the capital of the Land of Wind. Toji didn't know if there was any internal intrigue, but the Daimyo didn't seem at all afraid of this 'young lion' growing within his territory.
Toji couldn't say whether the relationship between the two men's wives was what made the Daimyo so confident in Momori, if it were up to Toji himself, he would have eliminated this 'dissident' nobleman long ago.
Although Toji hadn't found any rumors of disagreements between the two parties, the mere fact that Momori had grown so much should have been reason enough to get rid of him. Toji couldn't understand the loose screws in this Daimyo's head, but he didn't delve any deeper into it at that moment.
Instead, he didn't let Afro in with him, although he was strong, in terms of concealment, the man still left much to be desired. After all, he is a samurai, not a ninja.
Toji sank into the ground with the Mayfly and stormed in alone. He was ready to go straight for this Momori guy, figuring things out little by little wasn't his style. Capturing this guy and getting the information straight from him was much faster.
Toji sped across the land at an extremely high speed, reaching the palace in a short time. He then followed the Snake Clone, his objective clear, he had already let the Snake Clone go first and discover the target's location.
Momori was in his office, behind a heavy desk, reading some documents. From Snake Clone's perspective, Toji had already noticed something strange about this guy. Although his Byakugan showed that everything seemed normal, the man spent most of the day reading documents and writing something, without any expression, pure mechanics.
This left Toji very confused, is this guy really a workaholic?
Curious, as soon as Toji arrived, he observed a little longer, but even so, he felt a clear sense of incongruity, something was wrong, very wrong.
Lost in thought, he didn't appear. Instead, he cast a simple genjutsu directly at the target, wanting to see the effect. He activated his Byakugan to monitor the target's chakra network. However, as soon as the chakra entered his body, the genjutsu seemed like a drop of water trying to influence a steel plate, his chakra didn't even fluctuate!
Momori also didn't change his actions at all, everything seemed normal, the way he acted, the way he moved, the chakra within him, but Toji still sensed that extreme incongruity. Seeing the effect of the Genjutsu, he was certain that something was wrong.
Frowning, Toji used his Byakugan to its limit, trying to understand what was wrong, but nothing. At that point, he knew he himself wouldn't be able to see the problem, but he still had Jugo's Snake Clone.
Toji woke Jugo's Snake Clone, which was 'sleeping' like a puppet, by sending some chakra to it. The puppet moved and quickly reverted to its snake form.
When Toji explained the problem, even Jugo in Otogakure became curious. The Snake Clone has returned to human form, and he used the Tenseigan to look at Momori again, and this time, what Jugo saw was completely different from what Toji had seen.
-It's a puppet.- The Snake Clone sent his voice to Toji's mind. -There's no soul there, that's quite interesting. It reminds me of Sasori's puppets, but different. The physical body is still there, but the soul is gone. Instead, I sense a connection between this guy and the strange tree down there. There are no chakra threads, it's a purely spiritual connection, which is why you can't see it.
As Toji's eyes widened slightly, Jugo's voice continued. -Not just this guy, most of the individuals in this palace, as well as some in the city, are puppets.
Toji frowned, this was even stranger, he sent his voice to Jugo. - So it's the tree that's controlling them?
-No.- Jugo explained. -I sense a connection between another person and the tree, someone in this palace, the tree acts as an intermediary.
Toji tried to activate his Byakugan to search, but Jugo spoke. - It's no use, if it weren't for the Tenseigan, not even I would be able to see this purely with my eyes, although I could still feel the connection between these things, come, let's look for the real 'culprit'.
Jugo was interested, so he moved forward while Toji followed behind, 'Momori' didn't even realize what had happened to him.
Toji and Jugo finally arrived at a room on the east side of the palace. There, a figure was working on something at a workbench. With a better look, they saw that it was a human body. The man took some of a white, gelatinous liquid and methodically applied it to the body. Neither Toji nor Jugo moved, watching what this man was doing.
When the body was completely covered, the liquid stuck and hardened completely. The man picked up the body and placed it in the center of the room, where a series of seals were already engraved on the floor.
The man began making hand seals and the sealing array lit up, the seals moved towards the white body and the body began to tremble violently, it took several minutes for the body to calm down, but at that point, it looked completely different.
Whether it was Jugo or Toji, they saw that the man looked like a living person, breathing just like anyone else, Toji couldn't even tell that it was a body moments before.
Jugo saw much more, he looked at the liquid in the bottle and saw an extreme amount of vitality and chakra emanating from it. The most interesting thing was that it wasn't dissipating, but was perfectly contained within that 'jelly'. His gaze returned downwards and looked at the strange tree with a human face. He saw that from the mouth of the human face, a slow stream of white liquid fell as it was collected by a pre-prepared container, the same one that was in that bottle.
-'Interesting.' - Jugo smiled thoughtfully, even more so because he recognized this man, someone he had been wondering what had happened to, only now did he find out.
Mukade.