Even though they were indeed manufactured using humans as 'feed,' White Zetsu was still just White Zetsu.
Was he here for Hiruko? For the man himself? Or for the Chimera Technique? Listening to White Zetsu's words, Menma's mind raced. On the outside, however, his expression remained ice-cold.
"Hmph. Keep spouting nonsense. I'll just find out for myself after I capture you!" A sharp, lethal light flashed in Menma's eyes.
Boom! His chakra erupted. The next second, his figure blurred forward.
Bang! In less than a second, he appeared directly in front of the White Zetsu. Before the creature could even react, Menma slammed his hand violently onto its face and ruthlessly slammed it down.
Boom! Thud! The White Zetsu was smashed brutally into the ground, the impact sending violent tremors through the earth.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt! With a flick of his wrist, Menma drew the Sword of the Thunder God from his waist and drove the blade viciously through White Zetsu's chest. A devastating surge of lightning erupted, effortlessly executing the creature.
Subduing and slaughtering a White Zetsu this easily didn't surprise Menma in the slightest. While they were manufactured as 'weapons of war,' even the strongest White Zetsu only possessed the individual combat power of a slightly above-average chunin. This was glaringly obvious during the final battles of the original timeline.
White Zetsu's true strength lay in his stealth and infiltration capabilities. The Spore Technique, the Substitute Jutsu, the Mayfly Technique—each one was more absurdly effective than the last.
Especially the Substitute Jutsu. It could perfectly mimic anyone's chakra signature. Not even the elite sensory ninja of the Five Great Villages could tell the difference. Only someone with the Nine-Tails' Negative Emotion Sensing, like Menma, could root them out so effortlessly.
But once they were identified and locked onto, forget Menma—any random jonin could crush a White Zetsu. Even a moderately strong chunin could fight them head-on. Their raw combat power was only good for bullying weak chunin and ordinary genin.
After taking out the White Zetsu, Menma immediately called upon the Nine-Tails to help him search the creature's memories.
Unfortunately... it was completely blank.
Exactly like a machine. And one without a memory card, at that. Menma couldn't extract a single trace of data.
I expected as much, but there really is absolutely nothing... Menma slowly released his grip and dropped out of the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. He stared down at the dead White Zetsu with a heavy expression. This thing was technically a product of Yin-Yang Release, after all. Even if it was a crude mass-produced version, it still operated on a fundamentally higher tier of existence. Pulling blanks from it was completely normal.
Right now, the only thing Menma needed to figure out was whether this White Zetsu had been telling the truth. Was it genuinely here for Hiruko, or was it explicitly ordered to spy on him?
No, if they were spying on me, they wouldn't have just started now. They would have been watching me long before this. It seems their target really was just Hiruko. But still... Menma's expression shifted repeatedly. The sudden appearance of White Zetsu had definitely thrown a wrench into his plans.
He had to determine if this was a signal that Obito was accelerating his master plan.
Even though Menma had mentally prepared for this possibility ever since he defected from the Leaf—especially after he stole Kakashi's Sharingan—he still desperately wanted more time to prepare. Especially now. His own plans had reached their most critical juncture. He absolutely did not want to trigger a premature war with Obito.
Whatever. What will come, will come. There's no point worrying about it! Menma took a deep breath, a sharp, resolute light returning to his eyes.
After sealing the White Zetsu's corpse into a separate scroll, Menma stomped the ground, exploding with chakra as he blurred into a high-speed sprint toward the southeast.
---
And right as Menma left...
Far to the west, in a dimly lit underground chamber over a thousand miles away, a pitch-black humanoid creature quietly phased into the room.
In the deepest part of the base, a figure wearing the black cloak with red clouds and an orange, single-hole spiral mask stood before an operating table. The table was covered in human anatomical subjects, filling the entire room with the thick, metallic stench of blood.
Sensing the arrival of the black humanoid, the masked figure paused. He turned his head, revealing a Tomoe Sharingan gleaming through the single eyehole. It instantly gave away his identity.
It was none other than Obito.
"Showing up at a time like this... Did something happen?" Obito asked coldly, watching Black Zetsu slowly rise from the floor.
"We lost one of the White Zetsu clones. The one deployed to the Land of Rivers to track down Hiruko."
"Hmm? Did Hiruko discover him and take him out?" Obito frowned, his tone laced with doubt.
Because of Menma's defection from the Hidden Leaf, the timeline of this world had already drastically deviated from the original story. Naturally, Obito's actions were subjected to the butterfly effect as well. The most obvious change was his desire to recruit more capable subordinates for the Akatsuki.
Not long ago, he had already ordered Nagato to forcefully recruit a relatively strong operative. Hiruko was his second target. His plan had been to confirm Hiruko's exact location before sending Nagato in for the recruitment pitch. He hadn't expected to hit a snag this early.
The Chimera Technique. Obito had heard of it, but he largely looked down on it. Fusing a bunch of low-tier Kekkei Genkai to become powerful? It sounded like a joke. But if Hiruko could actually detect a White Zetsu, Obito realized he might need to re-evaluate the man's capabilities.
"No, it wasn't Hiruko," Black Zetsu replied in his raspy voice. "Because Hiruko is already dead. He was personally executed by the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki—Menma Uzumaki!"
"What?! Menma Uzumaki? Why the hell is he involved with Hiruko?"
The moment he heard Menma's name, Obito's brow furrowed heavily. The current Menma was a completely different beast. His performance in the recent succession of wars had laid his terrifying power completely bare.
Obito had to admit that he had vastly underestimated the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. While he still had absolute confidence in his own power and grand design, he wanted his plans to unfold as smoothly as possible. Hearing that Menma had crashed his operation again was undeniably jarring.
"The motive is unclear. The last transmission from that clone reported seeing Menma kill Hiruko. Then, its position was compromised, and Menma subdued it almost instantly. The feed cut out after that. What's the play? Do we send more clones to track Menma? Or do we adjust our approach?" Black Zetsu stared intently at Obito.
"Send more clones? No. If he detected the first one, sending a hundred more is pointless. It seems that kid truly inherited the absolute peak of the Uzumaki bloodline. To think he can actually sniff out White Zetsu..." Obito shook his head without a second thought.
The main reason he hadn't deployed White Zetsu to investigate or tail Menma earlier was simply because it wasn't necessary. With the master plan still on standby, merely keeping tabs on the general whereabouts of the Jinchuriki was enough. That applied to the ones hidden in the Great Villages, the rogue Utakata, and the currently wild Three-Tails. Precision tracking and coordinated Akatsuki capture squads wouldn't be deployed until the plan officially commenced.
Menma's status, however, was uniquely dangerous. The Nine-Tails was the strongest of the Tailed Beasts, and Obito didn't want to spook Menma too early—especially considering his Uzumaki heritage. Based on all previous intel, Menma's sensory abilities were monstrous. It was almost guaranteed he had awakened the Uzumaki's signature 'Mind's Eye of the Kagura'. Unless absolutely necessary, Obito wasn't going to risk sending White Zetsu anywhere near him. And it seemed his caution had been entirely justified. The kid's sensory net was likely top-tier in the entire ninja world; prodding him aimlessly was a stupid move.
"As for our next steps... let me ask you this first: Are you absolutely certain White Zetsu's memories can't be breached? We cannot afford to be exposed early. If our hand is forced, we'll have to launch the plan prematurely," Obito demanded, his gaze turning icy as he looked at Black Zetsu.
From Obito's perspective, Black Zetsu was the physical manifestation of Madara Uchiha's will, and the White Zetsu army was Madara's creation. While Obito casually utilized them, he constantly harbored a deep undercurrent of paranoia and distrust. He had slowly grown aware of the curse mark implanted over his heart—the Forbidden Individual Curse Tag.
Whether in the original timeline or this one, Obito had never truly trusted Madara Uchiha. The only thing he believed in was the 'Eye of the Moon Plan'. And it had to be his 'Eye of the Moon Plan', executed by his own hands.
"Hehe. You can rest easy on that front. These White Zetsu clones were specially manufactured by Lord Madara. They share a collective consciousness, but they completely isolate all forms of external probing. Unless the interrogator possesses methods on par with Lord Madara himself, they'll get nothing," Black Zetsu chuckled low, sounding supremely confident.
"Good." Obito's expression relaxed slightly as he nodded.
Being detected by Menma and actually leaking intel were two entirely different threats. The master plan was in its final preparatory phase. Everything would be ready by next year, and Obito refused to tolerate any chaos disrupting his schedule. Especially since the recent brutal wars between the Great Villages had been incredibly beneficial for the Akatsuki.
Obito actually intended to fan the flames and escalate the conflicts between the villages, clearing the board for their future operations. Triggering a massive crisis now held absolutely no strategic value.
In just over a month of fighting this year, the total casualties across the Five Great Villages had already surpassed ten thousand. And recent intel suggested the Hidden Stone was constantly conspiring with the Hidden Leaf. Wasn't that a glaring sign they were plotting to strike Menma? Once that massive war erupted, the death toll would easily skyrocket past tens of thousands. When the dust settled, the Akatsuki could sweep in and clean up the board without breaking a sweat!
In the original timeline, the Five Great Villages hadn't engaged in direct, bloody warfare. Combined with the fact that the Akatsuki had already successfully captured seven Tailed Beasts and amassed an army of a hundred thousand White Zetsu, Obito had felt confident enough to declare a world war. But now, with the perfect opportunity to bleed the villages dry and cripple their military strength, why wouldn't Obito take advantage of it?
"Ignore Menma Uzumaki for now. Double down on our other preparations. Also, probe the Hidden Mist. Let's see if we can re-establish control. If we can put a Great Village back on our leash, the next phase of our plan will go perfectly," Obito ordered coolly.
This was another direct consequence of the massively altered timeline. Obito hadn't originally intended to do this. He had only planned to use Nagato and the Akatsuki as tools to collect the Tailed Beasts. From Obito's perspective, that force was more than enough to capture all nine. As long as the Outer Path Statue successfully sealed their chakra and resurrected the Ten-Tails...
He could simply take back the Rinnegan from Nagato, bypass resurrecting Madara entirely, become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki himself, and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
The only genuine hurdle in that plan was capturing the beasts. Obito was arrogant, but not completely delusional; he didn't think it would be a walk in the park. His decades of remaining in the shadows proved his caution. Nagato was the same.
Even with the Rinnegan and his self-proclaimed godhood, Nagato had still spent over a decade quietly building his strength. He waited until he fully understood the eyes' power and had created the Six Paths of Pain before making his move. That extreme caution stemmed entirely from their deep-seated wariness of the Five Great Villages' military might.
The Tailed Beasts weren't easy prey. The Five Great Villages weren't pushovers. Until those two problems were solved, their master plan had a zero percent chance of success.
But now, with the board actively setting itself on fire, the villages bleeding each other dry, and the possibility of reclaiming the Hidden Mist... how could Obito resist?
He had felt a twinge of regret when the Mist had previously broken his mind control, assuming he had lost them for good. But Menma had just utterly gutted their leadership. Mei Terumi, their strongest combatant, and Ao, the Byakugan wielder, were both dead. The remaining Mist shinobi were either too weak, too young, or too old. It was an absolute golden opportunity!
Obito wasn't going to let it slip away. The foundational resources of a Great Village held immense strategic value. At the very least, they could be thrown onto the front lines as high-tier cannon fodder.
"Understood. I've already infiltrated several White Zetsu clones into the Hidden Mist per your previous orders. We've successfully eliminated and replaced a handful of targets. However, the higher-ups—specifically Elder Genji's most trusted aides, Gonbei and Midori—are highly capable. We haven't moved on them yet, fearing it might trigger a massive uproar and put the village on high alert."