Sensing the turmoil in Uchiha Obito's mind beneath his mask, Zetsu, who had been quietly standing nearby with his pitcher-plant head and black-and-white split body, suddenly spoke up. "Find something interesting?"
Obito took a deep breath and shared his discoveries and suspicions with Zetsu. "The Four-Tails from Iwagakure is definitely gone, and the one who took it is most likely Seimei."
"Seimei? You mean that Seimei from the Uchiha clan?" Zetsu asked, seeking confirmation.
"Exactly," Obito nodded. After a brief hesitation, he added, "I forgot to mention, this Uchiha Seimei, like me, has already awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan."
"What?!" Even Black Zetsu, normally unflappable, let out a surprised exclamation at this.
Having wandered the shinobi world for a thousand years, Black Zetsu had encountered countless Uchiha—hundreds, if not a thousand. Yet, in any given generation, or even across longer spans, only one or two Uchihas at most would awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan at the same time.
This generation already had Obito and Uchiha Shisui. To think there was a third Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan? How could that not shock him?
Yes, Black Zetsu already knew about Shisui's Mangekyo. It had awakened during a mission with Obito, triggered by the latter's influence.
But this Seimei?
Zetsu glanced at Obito's profile.
He didn't know when Seimei had awakened his Mangekyo or when Obito had learned and confirmed it. But the fact that Obito had kept this from him showed he was playing his own game.
Still, Zetsu thought to himself, "Just a pawn. No matter how you twist and turn, you can't escape the board."
Pushing aside his thoughts, Zetsu continued, "So, are we going after this Seimei next?"
Like Obito, he wanted to figure out why Seimei had targeted the Four-Tails.
For Obito, whether it was carrying out Uchiha Madara's plan or pursuing his own, all nine Tailed Beasts needed to be gathered. And for Black Zetsu, it was the same.
But to his surprise, Obito shook his head. "No, we're not going after him yet. First, we need to confirm something else."
"What's that?" Zetsu asked, curious.
"Is the Seven-Tails still in Takigakure?" Obito replied, his expression grave.
"What do you mean?" Zetsu's heart skipped a beat.
Obito shook the Iwagakure Anbu he was holding. "Just now, when I read this guy's memories, I found something."
"What?" Zetsu pressed.
"A few months ago, right after the war ended, Takigakure was secretly searching for someone. It seems they lost something incredibly important," Obito said bluntly. "Iwagakure didn't think much of it at first, but after recent investigations, they suspect Takigakure might have lost the Seven-Tails."
"The Seven-Tails…" Zetsu muttered, his expression darkening.
"Exactly, the Seven-Tails," Obito confirmed with a nod. "If this is true, you know what it means, right?"
Zetsu didn't respond, but he knew exactly what it meant.
It meant Seimei wasn't just targeting Iwagakure or a single Tailed Beast. He was systematically going after multiple Tailed Beasts.
Whether it was to boost his own power or for some other reason, this was something Zetsu couldn't tolerate.
But that was a problem for later. More pressingly, Black Zetsu realized that in just a few years, he'd lost his iron grip on the shinobi world.
If Obito hadn't brought it up, he wouldn't have known about another Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan or that Takigakure had lost the Seven-Tails.
A faint sense of unease crept into his heart, and his once rock-solid confidence in his "save Mother" plan wavered.
Suppressing the gloom, Black Zetsu rasped, "What else do you know?"
Obito glanced at him, surprised, as if seeing Zetsu for the first time.
Normally, Zetsu acted like he had everything under control. But this time, Obito's keen Mangekyo Sharingan picked up a flicker of panic.
It was brief, barely noticeable, but Obito caught it.
This sparked a mix of curiosity and renewed caution in him.
Why renewed caution? Simple. He'd always been wary of this mental construct of Uchiha Madara's.
After all, he had no intention of blindly following Madara's "Eye of the Moon" plan. All he wanted was to create a perfect world where Nohara Rin existed. Peace? That didn't matter to him.
A flurry of thoughts raced through his mind, but Obito quickly reined them in. Shaking his head, he said, "That's all I know."
Zetsu stared at him intently. Obito met his gaze, and the two locked eyes in silence.
A moment later, Zetsu opened his mouth to say something.
But just then, footsteps echoed, growing closer rapidly.
Clearly, Iwagakure had noticed something was off.
Without hesitation, Obito snapped the neck of the Anbu in his grip with a crack.
Then, he activated Kamui, teleporting himself, the Anbu's body, and the three corpses on the ground into his Kamui dimension.
Seeing this, Zetsu used his Mayfly Technique.
His feet slowly sank into the earth.
Then, using the underground network of plant roots and water, he vanished from Iwagakure—and the Land of Earth—at an unimaginable speed.
Not long after they left, several Iwagakure Anbu arrived at the scene.
Spotting fresh blood on the ground, they concluded the enemy hadn't gone far and immediately called for reinforcements, launching a wide-scale search.
But their efforts were doomed to fail.
In the end, when the report of the missing Anbu squad reached Onoki, the intelligence department's conclusion was that the culprit was likely the same mysterious figure who'd taken the Four-Tails.
This infuriated Onoki, who doubled down on investigating both incidents.
Meanwhile, Seimei had no idea he'd unknowingly taken the blame for someone else.
It couldn't be helped. At this point, Obito hadn't revealed himself to the world, and his Kamui, in some ways, was too similar to the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Under these circumstances, Seimei getting blamed was only natural.
But even if he knew, he wouldn't care much.
He was already drowning in debts and unbothered by a few more "lice."
As long as it didn't interfere with his training, he couldn't care less about the outside world.
And this intense focus on training had already yielded solid results.
(Chapter End)