Black Judgment [Exclusive Sponsorship by Wuji-sama's Certification]

"Crack!"

Black Zetsu stared at the hand that had been pulled from his left chest, his entire being going numb with shock.

Ah...?

He stammered, "Wh-what's going on, Chen? Th-this isn't how it was supposed to go, is it?"

Chen said nonchalantly, "How isn't it how it was supposed to go~?"

Black Zetsu's eyes twitched backward, loading in Madara's face, etched with cold mockery.

"You, you said Madara was under your Kotoamatsukami! Why did he suddenly reach out from behind and grab me!"

Chen stood to the side, taking Kaguya's hand, her long, slender, separated fingers combing through his hair like a brush.

Not only were his actions bizarre, but the words he spoke sounded jumbled and incoherent to Black Zetsu.

"Ah? Strange~, could it be that your little black back is full of mysterious allure~, making Madara unable to resist investigating~? Is this a distortion of human nature or a loss of morality~!"

"Forget distortion or loss for now! Tell Madara to pull his hand out!! I can't move!!!"

"Crack!" As soon as Black Zetsu finished speaking, another hand emerged from his right chest.

Two hands in front, neatly aligned; two people behind, equally neat.

The owner of the later hand, Obito, stood beside Madara, both maintaining the same posture.

Black Zetsu's gaze struggled to shift away from Obito's wrinkled face, plastered with hot sarcasm.

Turning his head back, he saw Chen smiling too, but that smile, no matter how he looked at it, was filled with a sadistic meaning.

Black Zetsu finally snapped out of it.

"You, you... you're playing me?"

Madara's cold, mocking voice sounded from behind him: "Black Zetsu, in that moment of greatest triumph and relaxation, how does it feel to have your hopes suddenly shattered?"

Obito's hot, sarcastic words followed: "You seem to like playing smart, treating everyone like fools, but now you're undoubtedly the biggest fool of them all."

"Ha, hahahahahahaha!" Black Zetsu laughed like a madman, but as he laughed, his expression turned fierce. "Uchiha Chen, you, you bastards, you're truly shameless!"

"Black Zetsu, when it comes to the word 'shameless,' you could be the teacher of gods and men!"

"Trampling on others' lives and dignity wantonly, falling into our hands today is your retribution!"

"Sizzle." Behind him, the two who had once become the Six Paths, following a familiar sensation, began to 'exert force.' Using Black Zetsu's Yin-Yang Release body as raw material, they each refined a 'Truth-Seeking Orb' in their idle palms. (The original work had already verified Obito's feasibility.)

"Whoosh!" The Truth-Seeking Orb in Madara's hand transformed into a semicircular, crescent-shaped staff.

"Whoosh!" The Truth-Seeking Orb in Obito's hand transformed into a full circular staff adorned with rings, the Sun Staff.

The heads of these two types of staffs symbolized tendencies toward Yin and Yang, respectively.

Observing Hagoromo Otsutsuki's double-headed staff, it represented the perfect harmony of Yin and Yang, the truly complete Six Paths.

Black Zetsu, drained of the two Truth-Seeking Orb staffs, was utterly spent. He slid weakly off their arms and landed as a puddle on the ground.

"Clang!" "Clang!" Madara and Obito stood with their staffs, looking at Chen with eyes that all conveyed the same meaning.

We've vented our anger; the right to decide what happens next is yours.

Chen's smile faded.

He and Black Zetsu had no personal grudge, and individually, he had no reason to make things difficult for Black Zetsu.

His earlier stance was simply to back up his brothers, nothing more.

At this moment, Black Zetsu knew his fate was sealed. He gathered his remnant body, forming a flat, round face with two golden dot-like eyes, staring pitifully at Chen.

Grasping at the last shred of hope, he hurled a soul-piercing question at Chen.

"Chen! You just can't stand me, using me to vent for these two behind you! But you said you'd revive Mother—that wasn't a lie, was it! Was it!"

"I absolutely refuse to believe! You'd come all this way, go through all this trouble to destroy the Chibaku Tensei, just for someone as insignificant as me!"

How to put it, whether Chen had that thought in his heart or not.

Black Zetsu was Destined never to hear the answer he wanted here.

"Of course we didn't come specifically for you, because... we're here to kill Kaguya completely."

If you can't find the book by its title, try searching by the author's name—maybe it's just been renamed!

"What!? No! I beg you! Don't do this! Whatever mistakes Mother once made, I'm willing to bear them all! You can humiliate me, torture me, even kill me—I don't care! But I beg you to spare Mother! She's already lost her power, trapped in the Sealing Stone, unable to do anything! Why must you go so far as to wipe her out!"

The face formed from the black pancake bulged, its forehead pressing against the ground in front of Chen's shoe, as if kowtowing in supplication.

Chen set down Kaguya's hand, bent down, and grabbed Black Zetsu.

--Utsuro-ryu!

With trembling black lines, Black Zetsu's withered form swelled back to fullness!

Of course, the Truth-Seeking Orb staffs in Madara and Obito's hands did not disappear.

--Utsuro-ryu!

The power of time activated again, this time to freeze.

"Crack! Crack!" The sound of freezing echoed as blue-white frost spread across Black Zetsu's skin.

But Black Zetsu's heart was entirely with Mother's safety; even this miraculous dojutsu phenomenon failed to draw even a flicker of its attention.

Until the very second before its time was completely frozen, it was still muttering, "Please, don't hurt Mother!"

"Please, don't hurt Mother!"

"Please, don't hurt Mother!"

The frost mist dissipated, and on the ground, there was no trace of Black Zetsu left.

After a long silence, Madama asked, "Chen, what are your plans for Kaguya?"

In the earlier exchange between Chen and Black Zetsu, two extreme methods of dealing with Kaguya had been proposed, but Madara felt neither was Chen's true intention.

Chen's gaze dropped to Kaguya's arm on the ground.

This severed hand, still clutching half a sleeve, was the one Naruto had torn off with his monstrous strength back then.

In the final moments of Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei, Naruto had thrown Black Zetsu—still clinging to its stubborn ambitions, hidden within that sleeve—into the Chibaku Tensei to be sealed along with it.

"Uncle Madara, to be honest, I haven't decided what to do with Kaguya yet."

"Oh? Even you, the master of schemes, haven't figured it out?"

"Yeah. From Kaguya's stance toward the Otsutsuki clan, there's actually hope we could recruit her, but it's only hope—there are also unfavorable factors."

"First, reviving her costs a lot: we'd need the Ten-Tails, a Jinchuriki, and the Infinite Tsukuyomi, even absorbing the Divine Tree—basically retracing the same path you and Obito took."

"Second, Kaguya's abilities are actually quite troublesome."

"Back then, if she hadn't been so fixated on reclaiming Naruto and Sasuke's chakra, she never would have lost. Killing someone is far too easy for her!"

Obito empathized, placing a hand on his abdomen: "Yeah, not to mention the All-Killing Ash Bones—back then, she could have just switched the environment to the 'Acid Sea Space' with Amenominaka, and that would have been enough to take us all out."

Chen said, "High investment, high risk, and uncertain returns—purely from an investment perspective, Kaguya isn't a blue-chip stock. So for now, I have no plans to recruit her, but I also have no plans to kill her."

"Until I find some good method in the future to acquire Kaguya at low cost and low risk, I'll freeze her for now..."

As Chen spoke, he bent down and picked up Kaguya's hand. The soft, cool sensation traveled through his palm, and a flash of inspiration sparked in his mind.

He turned his gaze to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

More precisely, to the Hashirama Clone fused with Madara's power, embedded in the statue's chest.

Chen gripped the hand tightly, his heart pounding: Is this idea too outlandish and crazy? But if it really works, it would be an unprecedented feat...

I'll try it when I get back.

"Crack!" Chen sealed Kaguya's arm, still bearing half a torn sleeve, into the Otsutsuki Time Zone.

He lowered his head to check his watch.

It was already 10:23 in the morning.

Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei had only been about one-sixth destroyed.

The interruption from Black Zetsu had cost some time.

He needed to pick up the pace.

Three Perfect Susanoo rose once more, towering and fierce!

"Let's aim to finish before dinner—I've got to see that rabbit lady one way or another!"