Currently Caught in the Act

White Zetsu were all the same, but to Yuzhen, White Zetsu were different.

Through this ability to obtain Water Release chakra transformation from White Zetsu, he realized that White Zetsu might offer a rich variety of possibilities.

Since he could accidentally obtain Water Release from White Zetsu, what about Wind Release? What about Lightning Release? Even...

Just as he successfully ambushed the White Zetsu, in a certain place far from where the incident occurred, a White Zetsu moving toward the main body suddenly stopped.

"The signal of one of our kind disappeared. What happened?"

Clearly, this White Zetsu, which served as a messenger—or, more accurately, a "leader"—differed from ordinary White Zetsu. It could sense the "signals" of its kind from far away, making it a rare individual with a certain degree of information-processing ability.

One had to know that White Zetsu were not so easy to kill. Someone had been taken out right after the meeting? No matter how one looked at it, that made no sense.

However, before this White Zetsu could think through what had happened, the signal of another "White Zetsu" disappeared as well... Yuzhen had ended his White Zetsu Transformation.

"The second one died too!"

The two White Zetsu had died almost simultaneously, and the directions of their signals before death had been the same. The White Zetsu Leader quickly figured out which two had died.

The other White Zetsu were all acting alone. Only the two dispatched to Area 037 for surveillance had been moving together, so the two who had died together could only be them.

The seriousness of the matter exceeded the White Zetsu Leader's imagination. It no longer hesitated and immediately turned toward the direction in which the signals had disappeared, chasing after them. It had to figure out what had happened there.

White Zetsu were creatures that could not survive away from darkness and felt uncomfortable without schemes. Losing two White Zetsu was nothing, but the White Zetsu Leader was somewhat worried that the two dead White Zetsu had suffered a targeted attack.

Since the possibility of a targeted attack existed, that also meant the existence of White Zetsu might have been exposed. As the hidden hand that had lurked in the shinobi world for a thousand years, could it continue being the hidden hand once it was discovered?

The White Zetsu Leader could only determine a vague direction, and it was also worried about becoming the next target. As a result, it acted far too cautiously, dawdling for seven or eight days before finally finding the place where the battle had taken place.

So much time had passed that nearly all the useful information left at the battlefield had been destroyed. Even the ground burned by Yuzhen's Fire Release had begun growing grass again. What could it still discover?

The White Zetsu Leader could only determine that the battle had been extremely brief and that the fighting had been fierce but short-lived—accurate information, but lacking in detail. With that little information, it was difficult to determine whether someone had targeted White Zetsu or whether the two White Zetsu had accidentally been caught up in a battle between shinobi.

One should not think the White Zetsu Leader's suspicions were insufficiently cautious. They had lived far too long, and no manner of death was too unlucky for them. There had even been White Zetsu that had been walking along normally only to be crushed to death by a meteorite.

By comparison, being burned to death by suddenly appearing Fire Release was nothing.

The only problem was that they had died too cleanly. The White Zetsu Leader searched for a long time without finding the corpses of the two White Zetsu. That fact essentially confirmed its suspicion.

It had not considered that someone could disguise themselves as White Zetsu. It only thought that someone had noticed the existence of White Zetsu and casually eliminated the two of them.

Regardless, the White Zetsu Leader decided to report everything that had happened here to the main body in detail.

Yuzhen knew that his actions might attract White Zetsu's investigation, so he retreated very promptly.

It was inevitable that he would put White Zetsu on guard, but the two pieces of information—"someone had noticed the existence of White Zetsu" and "someone could disguise themselves as White Zetsu"—would receive completely different levels of attention among the White Zetsu.

The former basically would not have any adverse effect on Yuzhen. Even if White Zetsu became suspicious, they would first suspect those whose circumstances were riddled with inconsistencies.

People like the Red Eye Disease Sufferer, the Sage Body Inheritor, and the Out-of-Spec Sealing Ninja, among others. In any case, they would not suspect Yuzhen.

Yuzhen had no idea that the White Zetsu Leader's investigation would be so sluggish. After leaving the site of the assassination, he did not immediately return to camp.

What he had told his companions earlier about surveying the battlefield environment and searching for supplies had not been a lie. Thus, on his way back, he followed the edges of towns and areas where warfare frequently broke out.

Small and medium-sized shinobi clans had their own ways of waging war, while powerful major shinobi clans had their own methods of fighting as well. Yuzhen wanted to determine, as much as possible, the range of the main battlefields in the shinobi world at this time, lest he be accidentally injured by powerful individuals in the future.

The shinobi world was a grand stage. If one had the guts, one could come. At present, Yuzhen belonged to the kind of person who knew his own limits.

After gathering information in several towns, the intelligence he obtained left Yuzhen somewhat speechless...

The battlefields of small and medium-sized shinobi clans were like "flowers blooming at the center," basically scattered everywhere. The battlefields of the major shinobi clans were like "explosions all around," unexpectedly concentrated near what would later become the borders of the Land of Fire.

Yuzhen and the others' camp was currently hidden in a primeval forest in the northern part of the "Land of Fire." Strictly speaking, it was not far from part of the shinobi world's main battlefields.

Although most of the information he had gathered came from ordinary people and was not very accurate, it still confirmed one point—there was simply no safe place in the shinobi world.

Yuzhen also faced a very realistic predicament: he had no money. Therefore, he had no way to replenish his supplies in the towns.

He could only focus on the battlefields and see whether some kind-hearted shinobi had left useful supplies behind in a less dangerous war zone.

Food, medicine, ninja tools—his camp lacked everything. If some kind-hearted shinobi delivery service were to make a friendly grand delivery at this time, he definitely would not let their good deed go to waste.

As it happened, three days after leaving the town, Yuzhen really did witness a battle between two groups of shinobi.

Because he had seen from beginning to end how they had encountered each other and how the fight had begun, Yuzhen even figured out why they had started wrestling with each other... They were fighting over supplies.

There were supplies!

Yuzhen had originally only intended to watch the show. But while carefully avoiding their chaotic battle, he cautiously approached the battlefield.

The two sides were evenly matched in numbers, with more than a dozen shinobi each. One side called itself the Ishiwa Clan. Yuzhen had never heard of them and did not recognize their clan crest, but he knew that they were definitely a major shinobi clan.

That was because they were the ones carrying out the robbery. As for the ones being robbed, Yuzhen recognized the forehead protectors they wore.

The robbed shinobi wore distinctive forehead protectors. One of them carried a huge supply scroll on his back, containing a large quantity of supplies urgently needed by their clansmen.

The scroll and their forehead protectors both bore an extremely prominent design. The design consisted of five circles and several lines.

Five circles did not mean they came from the Olympic Clan. In fact, these shinobi were famous throughout the world. They came from...

The Sarutobi Clan.