A girl who looked about twelve or thirteen walked over, carrying a piglet that seemed to have just been born, and asked in surprise.
"You are..."
"Ah, sorry! My name is Shizune, and I came here with Lady Tsunade!"
Shizune bowed politely to Nagato and Konan, making them even more curious about this place. After all, Orochimaru was a Rogue Ninja of Konoha, while Tsunade, though she had left the village, was still an active-duty Ninja of Konoha.
Logically, these two should be like fire and water, or at least never cross paths. The master of this city could actually bring both of them under his command; he was clearly no simple figure.
"Alright, if you want to chat, there will be plenty of time later! For now, Nagato, follow me to see the boss!"
Tobi waved his hand and spoke... "Let me enter the dream realization space one more time! I promise I'll go complete the mission right after this!"
When Konan and Nagato entered the building at the very center of the city, they saw a stunning blonde woman with a curvaceous figure. She was covered in tears and snot, kneeling on the ground without a shred of dignity as she bitterly begged a blonde youth.
"Enough! You'll rot if you stay in there any longer! From now on, I'm banning your access to the dream realization space!"
The blonde youth rubbed his brow with an impatient expression, looking as if he wanted to kick the clingy woman away.
"Don't! I only stay in there for eight hours a day..."
"You idiot... eight hours in there is equivalent to over a decade! And you've put all your focus into genjutsu; your development of Medical Ninjutsu hasn't progressed at all!"
"If this continues, I'll just ban your account entirely and kick you out!"
"No! Don't ban my account! Please! I'll work hard!"
"Then get the hell out of here!"
Nagato and Konan watched this surreal scene in stunned silence. Konan murmured as if she couldn't believe her eyes:
"Am I seeing things? That woman... is she Princess Tsunade?"
"I don't think we're both mistaken..."
Nagato was also feeling uneasy, unable to fathom how the most famous female Ninja in the Ninja World had fallen to such a state.
Uchiha Obito, however, was unfazed. After hearing their question, he explained:
"This is the result of addiction to the dream realization space... Staying in that genjutsu space for too long makes one treat the illusion as reality. They end up rejecting reality and even viewing it as a terrifying hell..."
"You probably have little contact with the outside world, but there are actually many people like this now. They do nothing all day, just waiting for the night when the chakra network space descends. They've almost entirely become useless wrecks."
"It's just that for a Ninja of Tsunade's level to end up like this was quite unexpected. One can only say her mental fortitude and self-control are abysmal; I have no idea how she became one of the Sannin."
Tobi couldn't understand it, but the blonde youth Tsunade was begging—Vegapunk—understood quite well.
In truth, Tsunade was never a particularly strong-willed person; otherwise, she wouldn't have developed hemophobia. Although almost all Ninjas who have experienced war suffer from some form of Battlefield Syndrome, Tsunade's case was undoubtedly the most severe.
Other Ninjas might become extreme or cold due to the deaths of loved ones and friends—Ninjas of the Bloody Mist, Uchiha Obito, and Kakashi Hatake are all typical examples, and even Nagato and Konan are no exception.
But as Ninjas living by the sword, these people never developed a mindset of escapism. Only Tsunade would flee because of the cruelty of war, which already spoke volumes.
Not to mention that during her years of wandering, she did nothing but gamble and drink—two activities that are the most effective at eroding willpower and self-control. After nearly ten years of such erosion, Tsunade's current willpower and self-control were a total mess, likely worse than those of an average person.
After finally getting rid of Tsunade by telling her she could only return to the dream realization space after finishing her current project, Vegapunk rubbed his temples helplessly:
"It seems the dream realization space really isn't a good thing... Forget it, when I use it in the Naruto World I come from next time, I'll just remove this feature!"
As for the current world, if Vegapunk dared to suddenly remove the dream realization space's capabilities, the entire Ninja World would likely fall into chaos... This was the result of poor initial planning, though this place was only considered a testing ground anyway.
If he rashly did this in his own Naruto World or the One Piece World, it would be much more troublesome to fix later.
Turning his head, Vegapunk saw Nagato and Konan. He nodded with a light smile:
"Good job, Tobi. You brought them here quickly!"
The Ninja named Tobi's previously playful face became respectful upon seeing Vegapunk:
"Are there any other missions, my lord?"
"Nothing for you now..."
Vegapunk waved him off, signaling him to leave, and then stepped forward to look at Nagato.
"Do you want to recover your health, Nagato? If you work for me, I can make you fully recover."
Nagato's expression remained calm upon hearing this, but Konan suddenly became excited:
"My lord, can you really heal Nagato?"
"It's just regrowing limbs; it's not really that difficult. Not to mention Nagato himself has the Uzumaki bloodline, which makes recovery even simpler!"
Hearing Vegapunk's words, Konan wanted to agree immediately, but Nagato suddenly spoke up:
"Setting aside the matter of my recovery for now, tell me what you actually want. If I'm not mistaken, that genjutsu covering the entire Ninja World was released by you, wasn't it?"
Vegapunk nodded:
"Well said. That genjutsu was indeed released by me. To be precise, it was a genjutsu created by my team working together."
"Actually, I wanted to find you directly within the genjutsu at first, but you seemed very cautious. Every time I tried to find you through the genjutsu, you would immediately disconnect from it."
The normal chakra network was just a mechanical server. Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, had used the convenience of the chakra network for training, but occasionally he could feel an incredibly powerful mental energy wandering through the network, seemingly searching for him. Every time that power got close to finding him, Nagato would use the power of the Rinnegan to exit the network.
After all, Nagato's condition was at its worst back then, and he wasn't sure what the consequences would be if he were discovered.
For others, like Orochimaru and Tsunade, Vegapunk just talked to them through the chakra network and then located them to bring them over. Because Nagato possessed the Rinnegan, Tobi had to make a trip personally.
Nagato gave a bitter smile, finally understanding why the other party could find him so easily. After all, within the chakra network, he was such a unique existence; how could he possibly hide?
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