Investigation and Analysis

On the deserted island, two figures suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

The man at the head of the group wore a mask, revealing only one scarlet eye.

Behind him was a strange man with a two-toned face, his upper body wrapped in huge leaves. He was Zetsu, the most low-profile member of Akatsuki.

"No, we still need to go another thirty or forty miles north," Jue replied, bowing slightly and pointing into the distance.

"Further?" The leading man narrowed his eyes.

"Yes, Obito."

Following the direction the strange man was pointing, Obito could only see a hazy gray expanse between the sea and ocean, and vaguely sensed an unpleasant atmosphere floating in the air and in the sea.

The further north you go, the stronger this ominous aura becomes; standing on these rocks even begins to cause a dull ache.

Jue told him that these were embers left over from that massive explosion.

What kind of explosion could cause such terrifying residual power in the embers dozens of miles away? Imagining the power of that Secret Technique, Obito couldn't help but get goosebumps and subconsciously took a step back.

Black Zetsu noticed Obito's actions.

As the true mastermind, he continued to play the role of a docile tool, his expression remaining completely unchanged, as if he hadn't seen anything.

Normally, beneath Black Zetsu's calm exterior, he would have already begun to despise Obito's cowardice deep down. He wasn't actually satisfied with the tool Madara had chosen—narrow-minded and foolish, far less useful than Madara Uchiha had chosen. He was only tolerating Obito for the sake of the plan's execution.

But this time, he understood Obito's feelings.

"The moment the battle ended, I sent three White Zetsu to scout ahead," Zetsu suddenly said.

The half-vegetative White Zetsu is an expert at intelligence gathering on land, but in the sea he can only walk step by step like a ninja. Therefore, the slow pace of this reconnaissance mission and even the casualties were within Zetsu's expectations.

But to everyone's surprise, it took three whole days before a White Zetsu, covered in abscesses and ulcerated beyond recognition, returned to the base.

"... That place is hell..." Having managed to finish the intelligence report and those words, the surviving White Zetsu breathed his last.

Black Zetsu's horror at that time was not much less than Obito's at this moment!

Later, he sent out more people, and as the residual radiation at the nuclear explosion site further decreased, Jue slowly learned what had happened there.

Zetsu then recounted everything that had happened here to Obito.

The latter frowned and remained silent.

Suddenly, his nostrils twitched, as if he had sensed something. He took a few steps forward and jumped onto the rocks by the sea. His eyes swept down to his feet, and his gaze instantly became tangible.

Dead fish.

An endless stream of dead fish!

They rotted on the sea surface, accumulated beside the reefs, and formed a vast, dark mass. Amidst the enormous school of fish, two huge killer whales lay motionless, their bellies turned white, their swollen, decaying bodies splattering pus, drawing particular attention.

The pungent smell of decay, carried by the changing sea breeze, burrowed into my nostrils like leeches, making me want to vomit.

Apart from the weak lapping of the waves, the surroundings were eerily calm, almost deathly silent.

This shocking scene greatly disturbed Obito. He was about to ask Zetsu a question, but he quickly realized what was happening.

The reason is self-evident.

"Hmph..." Obito, his face grim, walked around the group of dead fish and muttered, "No wonder I smelled a stench earlier."

"... The power of the embers seems to be diminishing; it's no longer enough to infect a ninja," Zetsu added. "Thinking about it now, it's likely that some of the burning embers were carried away by the ocean currents."

Obito remained noncommittal, walking forward with a gloomy expression.

He wasn't an environmentalist and didn't have any particular thoughts about the large number of fish dying; he just felt a little more wary of the Secret Technique that Sakura Haruno had used that day.

Zetsu followed behind him, his face seemingly calm, but his heart was in turmoil, and his fear of Sakura Haruno was even deeper than that of Obito.

After traveling some more sea, Zetsu called out to Obito, "This is the place where we fought that day."

Obito stopped in his tracks.

"Is this the place...?"

The surrounding area was calm sea, with nothing particularly noteworthy about it.

But the aura of curse in the air was extremely strong. Standing here, the burning sensation became particularly noticeable, as if every breath was an attack from an omnipresent enemy.

Even with his body protected by Chakra, Obito instinctively realized that he couldn't stay in this place for too long.

When the first three White Zetsu entered, the power of "Ember" was probably a hundred times greater than it is now.

The man pursed his lips, imagining the scene of White Zetsu gradually being corroded, decayed, and swollen with pus, without uttering a sound.

After a long silence, he finally spoke slowly, "If it's the power of the Ten-Tails, how does it compare to this?"

Zetsu paused for a moment, then replied, "This... I don't know. Perhaps the Ten-Tails is stronger."

There is absolutely no way to answer this question openly.

But Black Zetsu had actually witnessed the power of the Ten-Tails.

In comparison, while the Ten-Tails' power is many times stronger than Sakura Haruno's hand-crafted atomic bomb in terms of total amount, it is far inferior to the power of a nuclear explosion in terms of quality. At least, the Ten-Tails could never create a fireball with a temperature of tens of millions of degrees.

Conversely, if the Ten-Tails were to be hit by a nuclear bomb right in its face, then within the fireball's radius at the explosion's epicenter, under the scorching heat that melts everything, whether it's One-Tail, Ten-Tails, or a hundred tails, they would all be reduced to ashes!

That's the difference.

Obito scoffed, "What do you know?"

He took a deep breath, feeling a faint burning sensation rising within him, and his expression became increasingly solemn.

"Did you feel that power, Zetsu? That explosion wiped out the Six Paths of Pain when he was going all out. Although that idiot Nagato didn't fully unleash the power of the Rinnegan, it's still hard to imagine what level of energy Sakura Haruno has mastered!"

"I'm starting to regret it. It was my mistake to break with Nan and Nagato without listening to your intelligence... If I had known that girl possessed such power, I should have stayed behind the scenes and let Nagato take the lead!"

"By the way, with an explosion of this magnitude, Sakura Haruno should pay some price, shouldn't she?"

Jue shook his head. "Theoretically, such a violent explosion should affect even the caster... but according to information from our informant in the Land of Water, she was seen in the village the day after the battle, strolling around in high spirits... seemingly without any serious injury!"

Obito's expression darkened further.

"He probably escaped the explosion using Reverse Summoning Technique..." Obito guessed the correct answer, but didn't dwell on it. "Never mind, speculating on the details of the battle is pointless."

He thought for a moment and concluded, "In short, this shouldn't be some kind of Secret Technique that can be used casually. Otherwise, Sakura Haruno would have used it right from the start, instead of fighting for a long time, revealing all her trump cards, and only using it to decide the outcome at the last moment. It seems like this technique is very risky, and was only used as a last resort!"

Jue nodded.

Even Black Zetsu agreed with Obito's analysis.

If Sakura Haruno can really conjure up nuclear bombs at will without facing any risks or costs, then Black Zetsu's millennium plan is out of the question. He should just stay hidden and wait until that woman dies of old age before stirring up trouble again.

Forget about Obito Uchiha, Nagato, or even Madara; even if his mother were resurrected, she probably wouldn't want to be hit by a nuclear bomb head-on.

"That's right," Zetsu chuckled easily, "If Sakura Haruno were really that strong, Konoha wouldn't need to fear us at all; they should be unifying the Shinobi World right now! Therefore, her techniques must have very strong limitations."

As expected of someone who hides behind the scenes in the Shinobi World and weaves conspiracies, he analyzed a lot of information in just a few words. Sakura Haruno's techniques do indeed have various limitations. Just using them is extremely risky, and the preparation of enriched uranium also takes a long time.

After analyzing the situation, the two realized that Sakura Haruno wasn't entirely untouchable, and their anxiety lessened considerably.

But such a person still existed, and no matter how much they analyzed the limitations of that technique, an indelible shadow still lingered in the hearts of Obito and Black Zetsu.

This made them feel somewhat disoriented—Shouldn't Akatsuki be a shadow looming over the hearts of ninjas from all nations? How come the roles are now reversed?

"Sakura Haruno..." Obito murmured the name, Obito eyes narrowing slightly. "To deal with her, we'll need more power."

Or, cannon fodder at the front...

Jue's heart skipped a beat. "You are...?"

"Orochimaru," Obito voice, "That's right, I need him, and his Impure World Reincarnation."

After saying that, he turned and left.