After Black Zetsu left Kirigakure, he used a White Zetsu to perform the Mayfly Technique and rushed underground toward the Land of Rain.
Just as he entered the waters of the Land of Hot Water and was about to reach land, he was suddenly thrown out from underground into seawater.
Only then did he discover that the White Zetsu he was possessing was slowly turning into wood from head to toe. It was clearly about to fail.
Black Zetsu said in disgust,
"Bad luck. I really didn't want to move together with that chatterbox who spends all day thinking about taking a dump, so I chose one that couldn't speak. And yet it's already failing so soon."
After checking, Black Zetsu discovered that the White Zetsu's chakra was almost exhausted.
It needed rest.
Black Zetsu became even more depressed and complained,
"As expected, the time since the Gedo Statue's shell was awakened is still too short. These low-grade White Zetsu without intelligence still need at least fifteen more years of recovery before they can regain their immortal characteristics."
"I have to find the Divine Tree roots as soon as possible and hang it up to replenish energy."
Black Zetsu remembered that there was a White Zetsu warehouse not far away.
It was a huge cave formed by the withering of a Divine Tree root after it had snapped a thousand years ago.
The key was that there was still a small section of root retaining vitality.
White Zetsu could be preserved for a thousand years without decaying entirely because of the active roots left across the shinobi world continuously maintaining them.
Black Zetsu decided to go there and change White Zetsu, while also inspecting the precious White Zetsu inventory.
He turned into a layer of black shadow and covered the surface of the White Zetsu, which looked more and more like a sapling.
Wrapping the White Zetsu, he merged into the shadows and slid through them continuously, advancing toward the warehouse in his memory.
There were densely packed hot spring water veins there.
One-hundred-and-eighty-degree hot springs were the best nutrients for the snapped Divine Tree roots, very suitable for the Divine Tree's recovery and also suitable for accelerating White Zetsu's awakening process.
…
Under Genji's questioning, Karatachi Yagura's breathing grew heavy.
His face flushed.
Blood threads gradually crawled into his eyes.
Hatred.
Especially hatred for the murder of his parents.
How could he possibly give it up?
As a son, Karatachi Yagura could not choose forgiveness.
After a very long time, he finally stabilized his emotions again.
With blood-red eyes, he stared at Genji.
Karatachi Yagura said word by word,
"I will kill every shinobi competing with me today for the Mizukage position."
"And I will kill their families."
"But I guarantee that I will not expand the scope of killing without limit."
"I will leave enough bloodline limit seeds behind."
"I guarantee it."
"With my son, and my soon-to-be-born grandson, as guarantee."
Hearing Yagura's promise, Genji relaxed greatly.
He slowly sat down and smiled as he said,
"Revenge is human nature."
"You can frankly say how many people you want to kill. I am very satisfied. This means you have no intention of deceiving me."
"Karatachi Yagura, I believe you."
"I entrust the children, and Kirigakure's future, to you."
The red in Yagura's eyes slowly faded.
He lowered his head gratefully and said sincerely,
"Thank you for your trust."
Genji shook his head.
"There's no need to thank me. This old man still has one request."
"The Fifth cannot be your son."
"And cannot be your grandson."
Karatachi Yagura raised both hands and smiled bitterly.
"Hehe. Lord Genji, please rest assured. That is truly impossible."
"Since I intend to take revenge, I don't know how many people I'll have to kill. And all of them will be important figures from shinobi clans."
"With so much hatred accumulated on me, if my descendants still dare covet the Mizukage position, then they'll be courting death."
"It doesn't have to be that extreme. As long as you do well, and help the Fifth smoothly inherit the position, I think the Seventh is not impossible to hope for."
"I hope such a day comes."
Karatachi Yagura sighed softly.
Then he looked at Genji and raised a new request.
"Lord Genji, although my current strength is greater than Kaguya Yoshi and Hōzuki Gengetsu, it is not powerful enough to crush them."
"Without absolutely overwhelming strength, defeating the three great clans will take a very long time."
"And the price we pay will be very heavy…"
"So I want more power."
He looked at Genji and asked sincerely,
"Lord Genji, can the tailed beast sealing research be put into use?"
Genji shook his head.
Karatachi Yagura sighed regretfully.
As expected, it still wasn't possible.
Actually, this was normal.
The three great clans occupied too many resources.
Now, they had reached ninety percent of Kirigakure's income.
After deducting the portion needed for basic operations and maintaining shinobi, how much could still be taken out for research?
Without investment of money, supplies, and personnel, tailed beast sealing research made no progress at all.
The sealing technique materials stolen when Uzushiogakure was destroyed were merely gathering dust for nothing.
Karatachi Yagura was indeed a suitable leader.
He quickly threw away this unrealistic hope and smiled.
"Forget it. If we don't have a tailed beast, then we don't."
"Victory still belongs to us."
"After I become the Fourth Mizukage, I'll increase research investment and produce tailed beast jinchūriki as soon as possible."
"Konoha was first, Sunagakure second, Iwagakure third. Now Kumogakure has surpassed from behind and succeeded in creating an even stronger perfect jinchūriki."
"We Kirigakure cannot continue falling behind."
Not arrogant in victory.
Not discouraged in defeat.
Even in adversity, he still imagined the future.
Yagura's performance greatly satisfied Genji.
Aside from not being discouraged in defeat, Genji himself could not do any of those things well.
More fatally, he lacked the courage to make decisive choices according to the situation.
He was naturally not suited to be a leader.
Otherwise, after the Second Mizukage Hōzuki Gengetsu fell, why would the Yuki clan obtain the Third Mizukage position?
He, Genji, should have been the rightful successor.
Now, things looked good.
Like the Second Mizukage, the Third Mizukage had come from a great shinobi clan.
But as Mizukage, his stance had been impartial, and he had made his own contributions to Kirigakure's development.
Looking at it now, the Third Mizukage's greatest contribution should be the disciple he had trained.
Kirigakure's future had hope.
Kirigakure's great defeat on the battlefield finally triggered the final internal chaos inside the village.
From killings, fighting, and deaths every night, it rapidly turned into fierce battles day and night.
Just like that, Kirigakure temporarily withdrew from the Shinobi World War.
…
Black Zetsu wrapped the White Zetsu and shuttled through the shadows, sliding forward step by step toward the White Zetsu warehouse.
When he followed the cracks in the rocks and quickly reached the warehouse, he once again drilled into water.
Splashing water and violent impact left Black Zetsu somewhat dazed.
He couldn't help suspecting whether he had taken the wrong path and plunged into a nearby hot spring vein.
When Black Zetsu saw a White Zetsu drifting through the water, it proved that he had not found the wrong place.
This was indeed his White Zetsu warehouse.
It had only been flooded.
It shouldn't be.
Every passage here had been drilled out by Divine Tree roots.
The cave walls that looked like rock were all Divine Tree secretions, sealed absolutely tightly, guaranteeing one hundred percent airtightness.
The Divine Tree remnant root's need for hot springs was also through this protective layer, absorbing the hot spring's heat.
It did not absorb water or minerals.
The Divine Tree was a true miracle, a pure energy lifeform cultivated by the Ōtsutsuki clan.
It did not need any external matter to replenish itself.
What it needed was only energy.
Even Black Zetsu himself could only enter and exit the warehouse through the narrow passage deliberately left behind back then.
So how had water poured in?
Could an earthquake have happened at some unknown time, creating new cracks?
The puzzled Black Zetsu abandoned the White Zetsu he had brought and began searching everywhere at unimaginable speed.
He quickly inspected the entire underground space, following the Divine Tree root caves one by one.
The more he checked, the more alarmed Black Zetsu became.
This water was not natural water.
Although much of the chakra inside it and the water transformed by chakra had already dissipated, its concentration was still several hundred times higher than natural water sources.
This proved that the water had been driven by ninjutsu and used as material for ninjutsu.
Black Zetsu even imagined a terrifying possibility.
Could someone have attacked this secret warehouse with Water Release?
Not long after, he found the true reason.
The perfectly cylindrical vertical cave Uchiha Yoru had excavated using earth-spirit natural energy.
Black Zetsu stood at the bottom of this cave and looked up.
He could actually see a round patch of sky.
He knew—
This too had been made by human hands.
Black Zetsu clenched his teeth.
Two rows of white teeth produced a grinding creak.
Half terrified and half furious, he growled lowly,
"Who? Who exactly flooded my warehouse?"
No one answered his question.
"Was it you? Hagoromo…"
Black Zetsu even considered whether Six Paths Sage Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo had found this place.
But he immediately rejected the idea.
Whether this enormous circular hole or the huge amount of water filling the warehouse's bottom level, although both far surpassed the limits humans could reach, compared with Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo's might, the gap was still far too huge.
These two miracle-like results could be achieved as long as someone reached Uchiha Madara's level in Fire Release or Senju Hashirama's achievement in Wood Release, but in Earth Release and Water Release instead.
In other words, a level where one person could crush five thousand shinobi.
Thinking of this, even Black Zetsu couldn't help feeling uneasy.
He muttered in disbelief,
"Could it be that two more over-standard shinobi have appeared in the shinobi world?"
"That shouldn't be possible. How could I not know?"
With this question, Black Zetsu began cleaning up the aftermath.
First, he blocked the vertical hole.
Then he activated the White Zetsu on the bottom level, making them walk to the upper level and hang themselves again.
Finally, he sealed off the lowest warehouse level that had been filled with water.
After finishing all this, Black Zetsu carried a head full of doubts and increasingly frightening guesses back to the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire.
He returned to Uchiha Madara, who could no longer move freely.
After recounting the process of this trip, Black Zetsu couldn't help asking Uchiha Madara his question.
"Who exactly made such a large-scale move and flooded the White Zetsu warehouse?"
"How could two more powerful shinobi suddenly appear in the shinobi world?"
Although Uchiha Madara had been evaluated by Black Zetsu as "naive," that only referred to his slowness in politics.
In terms of battle, ninjutsu, and military affairs, Madara was the true expert.
He did not even need to see it with his own eyes.
Just by listening to Black Zetsu's description, combined with the local terrain and recent intelligence sent back by White Zetsu, he could infer the truth.
Uchiha Madara looked at Black Zetsu with the eyes one used to look at an idiot.
Hating iron for not becoming steel, he said,
"Black Zetsu, are you really the product of my will?"
"How can you be this stupid?"
"I'm not familiar with Earth Release, so I don't know how that circular hole was dug. But the cause of the Water Release is too simple."
"Black Zetsu, did you never think that the water was the result of five thousand or even more shinobi jointly using ninjutsu?"
"Ah?"
"You idiot. Above that warehouse is Kubota Village!"
"You were the one who reported to me that Konoha and Kirigakure fought a huge battle there!"
"That water was naturally the ninjutsu effect Kirigakure used to attack Konoha shinobi."
"That hole must have been dug by Konoha shinobi to discharge the flood."
Uchiha Madara looked at the dumbfounded Black Zetsu.
He became even angrier, pointing at Black Zetsu's head as he complained,
"How can you be this stupid?"
"How does this make me feel at ease?"
"If I die, can you really execute the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan in my place?"
Black Zetsu suddenly realized.
As an old monster who had lived for a thousand years, his face had naturally been tempered from thick to nonexistent.
He no longer had the slightest sense of shame.
He very naturally smiled shamelessly and said,
"I am only the manifestation of part of your will. How could I possess wisdom like Lord Madara?"
"Your expectations of me are too high."
"There is only one thing I can do."
"That is to diligently and faithfully execute the plan you have formulated!"
Hearing Black Zetsu say this, Uchiha Madara's anger miraculously vanished.
He even felt reassured and pleased.
Black Zetsu was only a substitute he had no choice but to use.
Being a little stupid could not be considered a flaw.
Instead, it should count as an advantage.
As long as he faithfully executed Madara's plan and helped Madara revive in the best state, that was enough.
If he were too smart, the risk of rebellion would be far too great.
After all—
He, Uchiha Madara, had to die once more.
…
On the western southern battlefield of the Land of Rivers, fighting proceeded neither quickly nor slowly.
On the northwestern battlefield of the Land of Rain, fighting raged like fire.
Only the eastern Land of Waves and Land of Hot Water remained calm and without waves.
As Kirigakure's civil war began, even infiltration by single squads or individual shinobi stopped.
But both sides in the civil war coincidentally strengthened patrols at sea, desperately hunting shinobi from Konoha and Kumogakure.
Neither side wanted the weakness caused by internal war exposed.
But this posture, when seen by Orochimaru and the Third Raikage, sent a very dangerous signal.
The feeling of "I'm charging a big move" was simply too strong.
In the Land of Hot Water, as missions advanced, bandits and mountain thieves had already been swept clean.
Wandering shinobi and evil churches had also vanished.
Considering Kirigakure's dangerous performance, Orochimaru shifted the mission focus to the sea.
With garrison and patrol missions, he squeezed Kirigakure's sphere of influence.
With infiltration missions, he strengthened intelligence acquisition from Kirigakure.
Yoru firmly refused infiltration and sneaking missions.
Infiltrating Kirigakure alone meant death as soon as he was discovered.
Too dangerous.
He also disliked patrol missions very much.
Tiring and conspicuous.
It was easy to predict his movement route and set traps in advance.
The danger level was still very high.
Yoru's favorite missions were island garrison missions.
He could familiarize himself with the terrain in advance and offset the disadvantage of passive defense by setting traps and building fortifications.
Most importantly—
Freedom and safety.
As long as there was no large-scale enemy activity, all of Yoru and the Tiger Unit's time could be arranged freely.
They would not be driven by fixed mission objectives.
If they suffered a small-scale enemy attack, the Tiger Unit would naturally accept it happily as a gift.
If it was a large-scale group of Kirigakure shinobi, Yoru would lead the Tiger Unit in retreat.
He did not care about any mission punishment.
Konoha Village could not possibly execute Konoha shinobi because of a mission failure.
ANBU assassinations were no longer any threat to Yoru.
All Shimura Danzo could do was spread rumors and slander Yoru's reputation.
Rumors?
He feared those even less.
In his previous life, he had been a community police officer.
Ninety percent of his working hours had been spent soothing retired old ladies in the neighborhood.
The level of rumors in Konoha Village—
Compared with the ability of community old ladies to believe and spread rumors—
Was not just a tiny bit worse.
To be honest, spreading rumors and processing rumors were also mental activities.
They required time and energy.
Konoha's villagers were busy enough that their feet barely touched the ground and only managed to obtain warmth and food.
Where would they have the leisure and time of retired old ladies?
Those old ladies had monthly retirement salaries higher than his.
Their bodies were extremely healthy, their appetites excellent, and they had all received education above middle school level.
Their minds were full of material.
They gathered together all day, focusing solely on three things—
Creating rumors.
Spreading rumors.
Processing rumors.
Constantly creating leg-breaking work for community staff and local police.
For the final ten years before Yoru transmigrated, he had basically been tormented by retired old ladies, tempering himself into someone with a super-strong heart.
No matter how frightening the words were, he could treat them as wind passing by his ears.
The rumors that had forced Hatake Sakumo to death, in Yoru's view, were completely calm and without waves.
"White Fang abandoned the mission to save his comrades, causing huge losses to Konoha Village."
Could this be considered a rumor?
It didn't count, right?
That sentence was just simple and straightforward.
Not shocking.
Not engaging.
Not close to daily life.
It did not even qualify as a UC Shock Department headline.
According to Yoru's common sense about rumors, there should have been more rumors spreading afterward, such as—
"White Fang's mistake caused ninety percent of shinobi to suffer!"
"Third Hokage-sama stated: Never in my life have I seen such a major loss!!"
"Authoritative shinobi reveals: Because of White Fang's mistake, salt prices are about to skyrocket!!"
"White Fang's mistake continues to ferment. Grain prices are expected to see a once-in-a-century rise!"
But…
There was nothing.
Just when Yoru was wondering why the rumor-brewing stage was so long, Hatake Sakumo committed suicide.
Only then did Yoru realize—
It was not that rumors were still brewing.
The highest level of rumors in Konoha Village was only like this.
Flat and without waves.
If Danzo used rumors like this against Yoru, he would definitely remain calm.
They wouldn't even count as a breeze brushing his face.
Easy and without risk.
Yoru liked this kind of mission the most.
He happily accepted a large-scale garrison mission, took the Tiger Unit, and swiftly ran out to sea, settling down peacefully.
The early spring sea weather was cool and clear.
Every day, he could see the sunrise.
Yoru absorbed purple qi on time, absorbed natural energy, polished spiritual power, calmed his mind, and immersed himself wholeheartedly in cultivation.
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