All White Zetsu look the same, but to Hane Genma, they were anything but.
By acquiring the ability to manipulate Water Release chakra nature from a White Zetsu, Genma realized something important — White Zetsu might offer more than just camouflage and trickery. They might offer potential.
If he could accidentally acquire Water Release from one of them, then what about Wind Release? Lightning Release? Maybe even—
Just as he successfully ambushed a White Zetsu, far away from the scene of the attack, one particular White Zetsu — who had been heading toward its main body — suddenly froze mid-step.
"One of the signals just vanished. What's going on?"
This Zetsu wasn't just any clone — it was a communications operative, a "sub-leader," if you will. Unlike the typical White Zetsu, this one had the rare ability to detect the signals of others over long distances. It had rudimentary information-processing capabilities, a rarity among its kind.
White Zetsu weren't exactly easy to kill. And yet, just after the most recent gathering, one of them had been taken out? It didn't add up.
Before the sub-leader could even analyze what might have gone wrong—
Another signal disappeared.
This was when Genma exited his White Zetsu transformation.
"The second one's gone too!"
Two White Zetsu, dead in nearly the same instant — and their signals had disappeared from the same general direction. The sub-leader quickly deduced which ones had fallen.
All the other White Zetsu were scattered and working solo. Only the pair sent to Sector 037 had been operating together. So if two had died at once, it could only be them.
The situation was far more serious than the sub-leader had imagined. No longer hesitating, it immediately turned toward the direction where the signals had vanished. It needed to uncover what had happened.
White Zetsu were creatures born in the shadows — they couldn't survive in the light, and felt uneasy without conspiracy. Losing two clones wasn't catastrophic, but what disturbed the sub-leader was the possibility of targeted elimination.
And if there was a targeted attack, that meant someone had discovered them. If the White Zetsu — pawns in a plan that had lasted for millennia — were being exposed, then what would become of the mastermind pulling the strings?
Because the sub-leader could only detect a vague directional cue — and was understandably wary of becoming the next victim — its approach was agonizingly slow and cautious. It took a full seven or eight days before it finally found the location of the skirmish.
But by then, most of the battlefield's evidence had long since faded. The scorched earth, charred by Genma's Fire Release, was already showing signs of regrowth. What clues could possibly remain?
All it could determine was that the battle had been brief, intense, and not drawn out — accurate, but lacking in depth. That alone wasn't enough to decide whether the White Zetsu had been specifically targeted… or had just been caught in the crossfire between two ninja.
Don't mistake the sub-leader's thinking as careless. After living for centuries, the Zetsu had seen all kinds of absurd deaths — even being randomly crushed by a falling meteor wasn't out of the question.
So being incinerated by a surprise Fire Release? Hardly impressive.
But what was troubling was how cleanly they'd died.
No corpses. The sub-leader scoured the entire area but couldn't find the remains of either White Zetsu. That alone almost confirmed its worst suspicion.
It didn't even occur to the sub-leader that someone might have been capable of impersonating a White Zetsu. It simply assumed that someone had sensed their presence and eliminated them.
Regardless, the sub-leader resolved to report the incident — in full detail — to the main body.
Hane Genma had expected that his actions might draw Zetsu attention, which was why he'd retreated promptly.
Raising their suspicions was unavoidable. But there was a massive difference between someone sensing the White Zetsu's presence and someone being able to impersonate them. The latter would cause far more panic among the White Zetsu network.
The first wouldn't cause Genma any real trouble. If the Zetsu were to start pointing fingers, they'd be more likely to suspect others — people with red eyes, descendants of the Sage, powerful seal experts, and so on.
Genma? He wouldn't even be on their radar.
What Genma didn't know was how tediously slow the sub-leader's investigation would be. So after leaving the site of the assassination, he didn't return to camp right away.
He had told his teammates that he was scouting battlefields and looking for supplies — and that wasn't a lie. So on his way back, he deliberately traveled along the outskirts of war-torn regions and small towns.
Mid-sized clans had their own style of fighting, and the great ninja clans fought differently too. Genma wanted to map out where the main conflict zones in the current shinobi world were — just in case he got caught in the crossfire later.
The shinobi world was a massive stage — enter if you dare. But Genma was someone who knew his limits.
After asking around in a few towns, the intel he received left him… mildly speechless.
The mid-tier clans were fighting like wildfires — flaring up everywhere. The great clans, on the other hand, had battles that "exploded outward," mostly around what would one day become the border of the Land of Fire.
Genma's camp was currently hidden deep within the northern forested regions of that very land. Which meant… they weren't exactly far from one of the central warzones.
Most of the intel he gathered came from civilians, so he wasn't too confident in its accuracy — but all signs pointed to one conclusion:
Nowhere in the shinobi world was truly safe.
He also had a far more immediate problem: he was broke.
Which meant resupplying in town wasn't an option.
His only hope was the battlefield — with some luck, maybe he'd find a generous ninja who'd left behind food, medicine, or tools in a not-so-lethal location.
His camp needed everything. If some anonymous "delivery ninja" just happened to drop off useful gear in the field, he would make sure their generosity didn't go to waste.
And wouldn't you know it — just three days after leaving town, Genma spotted two ninja squads locked in combat.
He watched from beginning to end: how they encountered each other, how the battle escalated. He even figured out the reason they were fighting.
They were fighting over supplies.
Supplies!
Genma had originally intended to just observe from a safe distance. But now, he carefully crept closer, all while avoiding the chaos of their melee.
Both sides were evenly matched, with a dozen or so ninja on each team. One side called themselves the Ishigawa Clan — Genma had never heard of them before. He didn't recognize their family crest either. But given that they were the ones doing the raiding, he figured they had to be a major clan.
The victims, on the other hand? Genma recognized their forehead protectors.
One of the ninja was carrying a massive scroll on his back — packed with vital supplies needed by their clan.
Both the scroll and their protectors bore a bold, unmistakable emblem: five interlocking circles, traced by flowing lines.
No, the five rings didn't mean they came from some Olympic clan.
These ninja were well-known — they were from the Sarutobi Clan.
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