Jiraiya and Tsunade Return

Obito Uchiha's figure emerged within the Kamui Space.

The Spatial Vortex had yet to fully subside. He clutched the stump of his still-throbbing right shoulder, fury and suspicion burning in his crimson Sharingan.

What he needed most was not treatment, but an answer.

"Black Zetsu."

Obito's voice was hoarse and suppressed as it cut through the silence of the space.

The shadows wriggled and gathered like viscous asphalt, finally condensing into the bizarre, pitch-black figure of Black Zetsu, half humanoid and half plant root.

His golden slit pupils flickered with their usual gloominess, along with a trace of barely perceptible scrutiny.

"You're back? Looks like the losses were considerable." Black Zetsu's voice was low and raspy.

"Hidan was completely annihilated by Minato Namikaze's Reverse Four Symbols Sealing. I lost my right arm too."

Obito's voice was utterly devoid of warmth, as though he were discussing someone else's affairs, but his tightly clenched left fist revealed his rage.

He abruptly looked up, his single eye locking onto Black Zetsu. "Forget that for now. Tell me, why did Vermilion Bird know that the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path doesn't need the complete Tailed Beasts to open its eyes?!"

That was the question burning most fiercely through his nerves.

Minamoto Takuya's casually spoken words atop the tower had exploded in Obito's heart like thunder.

This was a core secret of the Eye of the Moon Plan, classified information known only to those who had devised it!

How could a mysterious and unfathomable "Vermilion Bird" know it so clearly?

Black Zetsu's golden slit pupils narrowed slightly, as though he too had been caught off guard by the sudden question.

His mud-like body shifted faintly, as if pondering. After a moment, he asked with the same uncertainty, "He... knows that?"

There was genuine confusion