"Aah!!"
White Zetsu's body twisted continuously. Like liquid being squeezed out, it emerged from Nagato's body and immediately let out a terrified scream!
During this time, it had been parasitizing Nagato's body and had clearly witnessed the destruction of the Heretic God Cult.
The human before it, who loved putting on fake smiles and had an utterly vile sense of humor, used methods so bizarre that he seemed more like a monster than they were!
Cruel, wicked, bloody, and violent—yet carrying a uniquely twisted sense of beauty.
He was practically a more perfect creation, an existence that completely followed the law of the jungle.
But that was all.
It merely assumed it was some newly mutated Kekkei Genkai and remained confident—arrogant, even—in its ability to hide.
No matter how powerful, cruel, or violent he was, so what?
It was White Zetsu, personally selected by Lord Madara from among that trash heap of its kind, with the strongest concealment abilities!
Even Nagato, who might awaken the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, had been unable to detect it. How could some inexplicable, bizarre human possibly find it?
But just as it was feeling smug about that...
"Bastard, what the hell is this thing?!" White Zetsu's white face was filled with terror.
That crimson, liquid-like substance had actually forced it out of Nagato's body!
It was a creation cultivated from the God Tree's shell and Hashirama Cells, yet this damned thing before it felt even more vicious and terrifying!
It was as though it regarded Nagato's body as its own and refused to allow any foreign object to remain in its territory.
In its memories, such a bizarre power had never appeared anywhere in the shinobi world—a power that could make it twist and mutate without any ability to resist.
"I should be the one asking that!"
Before White Zetsu could receive an answer, Nagato, his face full of rage, seized it by the neck and violently tore it out of his body.
Nagato stared at it in disbelief, his expression utterly savage as he demanded, "What the hell are you? How did you get inside my body?! Since when have you been..."
A chill still lingered in his chest, as though a piece of flesh had been carved straight out of him.
"So you really had been parasitized."
Before White Zetsu could struggle free, Yun Chuan decisively extended his hand.
Crimson Symbiotic Tissue spread out, creeping toward its body.
"No! Don't come any closer! You monster!"
White Zetsu gurgled pitifully in its throat. Like a frightened child, it screamed in terror and flailed its arms wildly, trying to drive the substance off its body.
But the flesh-like tissue seemed to be its natural enemy. It effortlessly swayed past blow after blow until it completely wrapped White Zetsu into a crimson "cocoon."
Thump! Thump!
Moonlight fell upon the surface of the Symbiotic Tissue. As it subtly wriggled, crimson flecks of light reflected from it, causing an instinctive sense of discomfort.
Until the "cocoon" became smaller and smaller, completely devouring the White Zetsu within.
Just as Yun Chuan reached out to call it back, he suddenly froze.
The Symbiotic Tissue was sending feedback. The meaning it seemed to be trying to convey was...
"Delicious! Delicious! Not enough! Not enough! More! More!"
After interpreting the symbiote's idiot-like instincts, Yun Chuan's expression gradually became indescribable.
Was the symbiote saying White Zetsu tasted good?
But didn't it eat "human brains" and "its own kind"?
It was just that Yun Chuan found that ugly method of "feeding" somewhat disgusting...
Oh, wait.
Yun Chuan suddenly recalled the symbiote's settings.
If he remembered correctly, symbiotes could apparently eat chocolate instead of human brains?
It seemed to be because chocolate and human brains contained the same substance—something called phenylethylamine.
"Does White Zetsu also contain a similar substance? Or does it have traits similar to the symbiote, becoming stronger by devouring its own kind? Or is it both?"
He could indeed sense that the Symbiotic Tissue had become more "robust."
At that thought, Yun Chuan's gaze flickered. He expanded the range of the blood mist, enveloping the entire ship within it.
However, he found no other White Zetsu.
"What a pity." Yun Chuan sighed regretfully.
It seemed Madara also knew Nagato's sensory abilities were powerful, so the White Zetsu assigned to monitor him had been chosen for quality rather than quantity.
"Brother, what exactly was that thing? It could even parasitize me..."
The anger and shock on Nagato's face had yet to fade. The intense unease that had built up over so long erupted in an instant, severely agitating his sensitive nerves.
His powerful sensory abilities had failed to detect it from beginning to end. He did not even dare imagine how long that thing had been inside him. Just thinking about it sent a chill crawling up Nagato's spine.
If it had parasitized him after he met his brother, how much information about Dawn City had already been exposed? Had they been under someone's surveillance this whole time?
If it had been there before he met his brother, then his father's and mother's deaths, as well as these cursed eyes...
"You don't need to worry too much."
Yun Chuan patted his head and comforted him gently, "Your sensory abilities have improved quickly. It couldn't freely enter and leave your body whenever it wanted, or you would have discovered it long ago."
Feeling the warmth from the hand atop his head, much of Nagato's fear and rage faded. Once he calmed down, he also remembered that earlier feeling of being watched.
That should have been when his sensory abilities improved by leaps and bounds, allowing him to discover a trace of it.
That damned thing had hidden after being detected, which meant it had not passed on much information. At least, it had not found an opportunity in the past few months.
"Whew!"
Nagato let out a deep breath and nodded with an ugly expression. "I understand, Brother!"
But at that moment, he became increasingly certain that his brother had been right about the "cursed eyes." Perhaps his parents' deaths had not been simple either.
Without his brother, he did not even know how long he would have continued being deceived...
"Don't worry."
Yun Chuan vigorously ruffled Nagato's hair and looked toward Kirigakure. "Sooner or later, we'll face that old bastard head-on."
"Soon."
What was the most valuable thing in the Land of Whirlpools?
—Precise Sealing Techniques and barrier techniques, extraordinarily powerful sensory abilities, and an all-purpose "vessel" physique.
Too many people wanted them dead. Even Konoha might not have been free of such thoughts.
After all, Mito Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki were both in Konoha, and the inheritance of Sealing Techniques and barrier techniques was also in Konoha...
However, the ones who most wanted the Uzumaki Clan exterminated should have been those two old schemers.
—Madara Uchiha, and Black Zetsu.
Meanwhile, inside the Mizukage Building of Kirigakure, Water Country.
A man with long black hair and a circular ornament atop his head sat at a desk with his eyes closed.
Standing before him was a short figure with a baby face, who looked like a child.
"Yagura, has the team heading to the Land of Whirlpools already set out?"
The man's tone was exceptionally flat, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, as though he were a corpse.
"They have already departed, Third Mizukage. They will arrive in two days."
The baby-faced Yagura nodded. After hesitating for a moment, he still drew a breath, lowered his head, and asked respectfully, "I have a question, sir. May I..."
"No." The Third Mizukage interrupted him calmly. "Don't forget that I personally promoted and taught you. You only need to follow my orders."
"If you do not wish to share the same fate as those people."
"...Yes, Teacher."
Under the faint moonlight outside the window, Yagura could not make out his teacher's face hanging in the shadows. He could only see the long, slender shadow cast across the desk.
Once again, he felt that the teacher before him was incomparably unfamiliar.
Why had the once gentle and humble Third Mizukage become like this?
Could it be because he could no longer endure the pressure from those shinobi clans, so his teacher had decided to suppress them through such forceful methods?
That explanation made sense, but Yagura still felt an indescribable wrongness, as though a layer of black gauze stood between them.
"Then I'll take my leave, Teacher."
The Third Mizukage said nothing. He merely watched in silence as Yagura left the office, then rose and walked to the window, looking down at the damp village shrouded in heavy mist and dew.
Then, in the next moment, the Third Mizukage, whose eyes had remained tightly shut, suddenly opened them.
Three tomoe were clearly visible in his eyes, flickering with a dense blood-red glow.
"Increase the number of civilian ninja, gradually strengthen the Mizukage faction, reclaim leadership, and only then can we speak of anything else..." He lowered his head and muttered, "Damn shinobi clans. I will never allow you to take the village my teacher entrusted to me!"
The weak moonlight obscured by the mist made the entire village seem somewhat dim. Like a ghost city, it inexplicably felt as though even its vitality had diminished somewhat.
The temperature grew colder, and the fog grew thicker.
The moonlight outside the window became even dimmer. Darkness spread from the depths, as though everything had fallen into deathly silence, leaving only the sound of breathing.
"And..."
A figure stepped out from the shadows behind him, walked to the Third Mizukage's side, and let out a cold laugh. "At any cost, wipe out the Uzumaki Clan and make the Second Shinobi World War completely erupt!"
Promotion
One Piece: My First Companion Was Tom the Cat
Zhang Daye, who accidentally ended up in the world of One Piece, obtained a strange magic circle that could summon characters from other worlds. His first companion was actually Tom the Cat! From then on, he would travel freely through the world of One Piece with Tom and his other companions.
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