The Unlucky Black Zetsu

"Let me handle it. After all... this has something to do with me as well."

Hearing Hinata speak, Nagai Ukaku looked at Kakashi. Seeing that Kakashi did not refuse, he did not stop Hinata.

Hinata extended her right hand, her fingertips touching Kakashi's Sharingan.

The Sharingan in Kakashi's eye immediately settled down.

No, settled down was not the right way to put it.

Kakashi could feel it. It was submission, submission to a stronger power!

And that was not all. Kakashi's Sharingan saw countless tiny sealing formulas, so minuscule that even his Sharingan could not make them out—smaller than strands of hair—wrapping around his Sharingan.

At once, the Sharingan that had constantly been absorbing the Chakra within his body fell quiet, no longer draining his Chakra.

Relief. Unprecedented relief.

Ever since transplanting this Sharingan, he had never felt so relaxed.

His Sharingan had been sealed.

And it had been sealed with an exceptionally sophisticated Sealing Jutsu!

He could feel that even with his Sharingan sealed, he could still use it.

Or rather, he could control the switch of the seal over his eye. One Tomoe, Two Tomoe, Three Tomoe, even the Mangekyō Sharingan—through the Sealing Jutsu, he could choose how to wield the Sharingan's power.

With the Sealing Jutsu on his eye, this Sharingan was practically like an eye that had grown from his own body!

"Th... thank you."

"You're welcome. It was only a small effort for me."

Kakashi: "..."

Kakashi touched the Sharingan beneath his left eyelid. To have mastered Sealing Jutsu to this extent, even his teacher's wife probably could not compare to her. Was this girl a monster?

"Sorry for the trouble, everyone. I'm going to retrieve something."

White Zetsu's clone had undoubtedly died, but Hinata was rather interested in it. She intended to bring it back to the village for research and see whether they could uncover anything new.

Then, Kakashi and the others watched Hinata walk up to a tree, thrust her hand directly into the trunk, and pull out a completely white humanoid figure.

Then, Hinata suddenly vanished before their eyes! Along with that white humanoid creature.

Kakashi's eyelid twitched. He instinctively activated his Sharingan, but discovered nothing.

Hyuga Soki activated his Byakugan as well, yet he could not find any trace of Hinata.

"Space... Space-Time Ninjutsu?"

Considering Hinata's status as the Hokage's disciple, she indeed had access to secret techniques such as Space-Time Ninjutsu. But what Kakashi found difficult to accept was that Hinata had learned Space-Time Ninjutsu at such a young age!

"Hinata, what is this...?"

The Third Hokage, who had been handling documents in his office, was startled by Hinata's sudden appearance.

The Anbu secretly protecting the Hokage were startled as well. Only after recognizing Hinata did they refrain from showing themselves.

"I found this thing outside the village. It seemed to have been secretly watching the Hidden Leaf Village. After it saw me, it kept following me."

"I thought it had ill intentions, so I killed it with a mental attack. But it seems to have only been a clone."

"I saw that it was extremely skilled at concealing itself, so I brought it back to the village to see whether we could discover anything from its corpse."

Third Hokage: "..."

If it had not been Hinata, he would never have known that such a person existed outside the village.

"Then its original body..."

The Third Hokage did not think of Bizarre Creatures. After all, although Hinata was carrying a White Zetsu clone, he could sense Chakra within it.

"I'm not sure about that. It probably won't feel too good. To preserve this corpse intact, I deliberately controlled the power. Its original body should probably sleep for a few years."

The appearance of Bizarre Creatures was no longer a secret.

Several Bizarre Creatures had also appeared in the Land of Rain, where the Akatsuki Organization was based.

After capturing and studying them, Black Zetsu's first thought had been to turn them into weapons!

As for vessels, the one thing he did not lack was White Zetsu clones.

If the plan went smoothly, then after he rescued his mother, these strange things that had suddenly appeared would become the sharpest spears in her hands against the main Otsutsuki family!

As for the ninja villages capturing Bizarre Creatures, he did not stop them. In fact, he could not stop them.

Although these Bizarre Creatures possessed extremely strange and powerful abilities, allowing ninja villages with Tailed Beasts to obtain them would indirectly increase their strength, which was detrimental to his plans.

But relying on himself and the Akatsuki alone to control so many Bizarre Creatures was unrealistic as well.

Every day, he prayed that fewer of these Bizarre Creatures would appear, so that the Shinobi World's ninja casualties could be reduced.

He feared that when he carried out his plan, just as he was about to rescue his mother, too many ninja would have died and there would not be enough Chakra...

Today, he had left the Akatsuki's base and headed for a small mountain village, where reports had come in of a suspected Bizarre Creature appearing.

He was the fastest, so he could reach that village at the earliest opportunity.

Just then, the clone he had stationed outside the Hidden Leaf Village to monitor it saw something that left him utterly incredulous.

"Mother! No, not Mother! She merely looks like her, and her horns are in the wrong place."

Most Otsutsuki horns grew on top of their heads. Very few grew on the forehead like Hinata's.

Once he realized he had mistaken her for someone else, he hurriedly controlled the clone to observe her from up close.

After all, he did not believe that someone who looked so much like his mother could exist.

But upon drawing closer, he saw something even more unbelievable.

"That is... the Tenseigan?"

Those azure-blue eyes, and the terrifying Dojutsu Power he could sense despite the unknown distance separating them.

It could not be the Rinnegan, since it looked nothing like one. The only possibility was the Tenseigan.

Just as he was reeling in shock, the girl with the Tenseigan actually looked toward him.

"Not good!"

He did not find it strange that he had been discovered. It was normal for the Tenseigan to detect him.

But she was clearly looking at only one of his clones, yet his original body, located who knew how far away, felt a wave of palpitations, as though her Tenseigan had seen through him across an unknowable distance.

"AAAAAHHH..."

A sudden, excruciating pain struck him, as though his brain had been split apart and his brain matter churned in a blender.

The Mayfly Technique was interrupted by the unbearable pain.

Normally, if he did not emerge in time, he would be buried deep underground.

But due to the intense agony, his body kept struggling.

The earth and tree roots, buried at an unknown depth, were blasted upward. After a bout of venting—

Zetsu struggled to his feet in an extremely strange posture.

Strange was an understatement. It was as though a person with half their body disabled was struggling to stand.

Black Zetsu's exhausted and ferocious face was filled with wariness. "White Zetsu is dead."

Fortunately, he and White Zetsu were not one entity. Moreover, he was the manifestation of his mother's will, so he had not died as cleanly as White Zetsu had.

Yes, the instant the attack descended, White Zetsu had died. The remaining force had been unfortunately borne by him.

Fortunately, there were enough White Zetsu clones to disperse most of the force. Otherwise, he truly was not sure whether he could have endured it.