Obito paused for a moment, taking a breath as he looked down at the corpse of Yagura.
Another one down.
And as far as he knew, none of the villages knew about his plans.
Maybe Nagato's little rebellion was a blessing in disguise? He was honestly surprised at how easy this was turning out to be.
But he shouldn't get cocky, just because until now, things were going well, didn't mean he should underestimate his opponents.
He got up and stretched, it didn't alleviate the slightly off feeling in his body, but he just ignored it with now practiced ease.
"Report." He ordered aloud.
Black Zetsu casually popped out of the ground, looking as emotionless as ever.
"Mei Terumi has taken nominal command of Kirigakure." Black Zetsu reported calmly. "They have not officially recognized her as Mizukage yet, but she holds the most power and has the most support."
Obito let out a hum at that, that was about what he expected, the fact that she had refused to participate in the invasion was not planned for, but the moment he took Yagura he knew she had the highest chance of taking charge.
"The invasion of Wave was a complete failure, all Kirigakure forces were killed, while The Order only suffered light casualties." Black Zetsu continued his report. "Konoha sent a single squad, none of whom participated in combat against Kirigakure."
That made Obito pause.
A complete failure? And the casualty count was 100%?
He ignored that for now, he could look at the detailed reports later, but something was very wrong here, he had expected for it to be a prolonged invasion that would then be broken up by Konoha's intervention.
"And Itachi and Kisame have gone dark, also in Wave." Black Zetsu concluded.
Obito blinked.
What?
"What do you mean?" He demanded sharply.
"They've both went into Wave and didn't come back out, any White Zetsu sent to monitor them vanished without a trace."
Now that was very concerning.
White Zetsus were very hard to detect, being able to merge with their surroundings and camouflage perfectly, if they disappeared then someone had found a way to track them.
"Did you try summoning them back?" He asked after a moment of thought.
"No, I didn't want to expose our ability to do so." Black Zetsu replied promptly.
"Call in the Animal Path Zetsu." Obito decided, even if someone realized he could summon the Zetsus, someone being able to detect them was a threat he couldn't just ignore.
He patiently waited as Black Zetsu left, plans coming and going as he considered the implications.
"Hey boss!" Animal Path Zetsu called out cheerfully. "Did you miss me?"
Obito ignored its antics.
"Summon the Zetsus planted on Kisame and Itachi." He ordered simply.
Animal Path Zetsu nodded, before using his Summoning Jutsu, simply slamming its hands on the ground.
Nothing happened.
Animal Path Zetsu looked confused at that, before trying again.
"Uh oh, are they dead?" It asked cheerfully, seemingly unconcerned with the possibility of their deaths.
"The corpses would still be marked. Which ones were sent after them?" He asked calmly.
"Numbers 18 and 57." Black Zetsu responded instantly.
"Summon those numbers, then."
The Animal Path Zetsu tried again, and this time one White Zetsu popped out of the smoke.
"There we go! See, no need to worry." The Animal Path cheered happily. "Come on little guy, report!"
The White Zetsu didn't respond immediately but turned to face Obito before doing so.
Obito tensed up, he was intimately familiar with the Zetsus behavior, and the considering look in its eyes was wrong.
This wasn't right, something was off.
"Now, who might you be? A little mastermind, trying to look at things from the shadows?" It asked rhetorically. "Thats not very sma..."
It suddenly twitched, it's body jerking wildly as it collapsed on the ground.
Its face became blank and its body unmoving, but he could see it was still alive.
There was a beat of silence, whoever had just spoken was not the White Zetsu anymore.
Something was very wrong in Wave.
***
Hikari pouted slightly at her office, the connection to the White Zetsu breaking, she had tried keeping the strings together, but the sudden summoning made that almost impossible to do.
Well, time to call another meeting, she had hoped that the summoning would not strain her connection this hard.
She wanted to infiltrate this Obito's network, The Watcher had plans for him, but had given his approval for her to try and infiltrate.
But she had been stumped when realizing what Obito's network looked like.
A network of weird ancient humanoid plants that were able to perfectly mimic Chakra signatures.
If she had that kind of army, then she would have to stop worrying about almost everything, they were the perfect spy.
Oh well, she would have to be content with the ability to rip out the thoughts of any living being that stayed in her presence for long enough.
She set up a note for a high-priority meeting, making sure to tell Haruka that the Great Messenger should be in attendance.
***
Jiraiya knew that someone didn't want Naruto and Sakura to meet with Sasuke, there had been a steady stream of challengers since they arrived at Wave proper, they had gotten an official tour from a woman named Sadako, and afterward Asura showed up to taunt for another round.
Asuma was fully willing to jump into the ring with him, and once he got firmly beaten, the last few days turned into a constant stream of fights.
And Tsunade had told him to 'improve relations and hold until the Kiri Situation was resolved'.
The relationships were certainly being improved, multiple Order members had struck up rivalries with the Konoha Shinobi, some even hanging out together after fights.
Asuma had calmed down after realizing that Asura wasn't being arrogant about his claim of being S-Rank in strength, though he was now trying to win a spar while teaming up with most of the other Konoha Shinobi, the only people regularly sitting out of the spars was Jiraiya himself and Kakashi.
"You know, if you don't want us to meet Sasuke, then all you have to do is say so." He pointed out idly, causing Haruka to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh? So neither of the two kids would try and sneak off if they got the chance?" Haruka asked dryly. "I guess I shouldn't doubt Konoha Shinobi, it's not like you have ignored basic courtesy multiple times already."
Jiraiya twitched, well, he couldn't really defend himself against that.
"Why do you not want them to meet him anyway? Did he say he didn't want to see them?" He asked, genuinely curious.
Haruka shrugged in response.
"I'm not aware of the specifics, I just know I was asked to make sure Naruto and Sakura didn't meet with Sasuke, at least for a few days, it seems Sasuke has some other things to deal with first."
Well, that was suitably vague.
"Huh." He muttered simply. "It's nothing bad, right?"
Haruka snorted, shaking her head.
"Ayumu is fond of the kid, that means he is one of the safest people in Wave, you do not need to worry."
That bastard being involved made him more worried, not less.
He sighed but let it go, it's not like this wasn't a good position to be in, Wave was surprisingly skilled in terms of military power.
All of the people involved in the friendly spars had grown, some in small ways, some in big ways, like Asuma, who had learned quite a good deal of new tricks from his spars with Asura.
He let himself relax, no point in trying to overthink things, he should just enjoy this impromptu vacation.