Fucheng and the others followed the Rain Ninja in pursuit, immediately alerting Black Zetsu, who was hiding deeper underground.
Black Zetsu was surprised to discover:
Among these newly arrived Uchiha ninja was the current Uchiha clan head he had always wanted to approach.
The legendary "Uchiha Fucheng," who possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Could it be that after someone has a run of bad luck, their luck suddenly gets exceptionally good?"
Black Zetsu thought this, even feeling a little pleased.
Considering the Mangekyō Sharingan's formidable perceptive abilities, Black Zetsu didn't dare act rashly.
He simply followed from a distance, cautiously observing them with a special sensory technique.
Salamander Doshin of the Land of Rain fled a long way after escaping the town.
A group of Rain Ninja stopped in front of a slippery cliff face.
The ordinary ninja thought they could finally relax. But Salamander Doshin, who was much stronger, looked even more despondent.
"Get ready. We're surrounded!"
Salamander Doshin warned the others bitterly.
"Use whatever tricks you have left. This may well be our last battle."
One, two, three...
Nine, ten, eleven, twelve...
"Twelve? How did there get to be so many?"
The White Zetsu who had gone to gather reinforcements looked as if his computer had crashed.
He was completely dumbfounded.
"I only gathered ten White Zetsu. How did there suddenly get to be two more?"
The White Zetsu scratched the back of his head. His logical thinking didn't seem quite up to figuring out why there were two extra White Zetsu.
Since the Misaka Sisters themselves had been transformed from White Zetsu, they could even imitate the smell of White Zetsu by using the Foreign Object Transformation technique.
Apart from not having the Spore Technique, they could fool ordinary White Zetsu in every other respect.
Of course, Black Zetsu, who was used to hiding behind the scenes and was rather cunning, definitely wouldn't be fooled.
The Misaka Sisters weren't simply imitating White Zetsu to blend in. Their logical thinking was far superior to White Zetsu's, and they could communicate entirely on their own.
Now, the two Misaka Sisters who had infiltrated the group of White Zetsu began their great bluff.
Misaka Sister 0011 spoke first. "I suspect an enemy has infiltrated our ranks! Some of the White Zetsu here must be spies."
Misaka Sister 0009 immediately stood with 0011.
0009 looked sternly over the other White Zetsu, not even sparing the one who had gathered them.
"You need to prove you aren't enemy spies who infiltrated our ranks."
The White Zetsu, whose thought processes were all over the place, immediately erupted into chaos.
Some shouted that they were veteran White Zetsu, pure, bona fide White Zetsu.
Some explained that they had been monitoring a target before being summoned for no reason, and that they hadn't wanted to come at all.
Others just laughed foolishly and pointed at themselves as they muttered, "You know what, I'm a White Zetsu too. I could be an enemy as well."
After all that, the thirteen white, human-shaped creatures, including the one who had gathered the rest, descended into chaos in the underground space.
This was when you could really see the importance of having someone to play the straight man and someone to play the fool.
Misaka Sisters 0009 and 0011 began playing off each other.
They used a baseless accusation to declare that one White Zetsu, who was taller than the others, was a spy, then tied him up with rope.
Then they tightly bound the White Zetsu who had just laughed and pointed at himself, saying he might be a spy, like a dumpling wrapped in dough.
With those two out of the way, the White Zetsu who had gathered them all suddenly felt "much more at ease."
"Thanks to you two!"
In his mind, twelve minus two made the correct number.
But Misaka Sisters 0009 and 0011 weren't about to let him have his way.
Working together, they promptly pinned the White Zetsu who had gathered them down too.
The other eight who had just helped the Misaka Sisters tie up White Zetsu seemed to have developed "muscle memory." Whenever they saw the Misaka Sisters grab someone else, they helped tie them up.
After all that commotion,
they managed to tie up thirteen White Zetsu, making nine enormous white dumplings.
It had gone so smoothly that 0009 and 0011 could barely hold back their laughter.
Finally, with the two White Zetsu who were easiest to fool left, 0009 and 0011 stopped.
The White Zetsu tied up on the ground either looked around foolishly or muttered:
"You're just grabbing people at random. You definitely didn't catch the right ones."
Their jumble of voices sounded like they'd fallen into a crowd of Minions.
Only when four masked figures appeared in the underground space did the White Zetsu stop arguing.
The only two White Zetsu still free stared blankly at the four masked ninja, their faces wary.
They looked at each other anxiously, then edged closer to 0009 and 0011.
"Get over here!"
0009 and 0011 attacked in an instant.
Only then did the two White Zetsu realize:
The White Zetsu who had been most eager to help tie everyone up had them firmly restrained.
"You? Him? Me? Us?"
The two White Zetsu clearly weren't the sharpest. For a moment, even their speech became incoherent.
They didn't understand.
Why had the two White Zetsu on their side suddenly turned around and captured them, the two "most enthusiastic about tying people up"?
Mikoto and the Misaka Sisters had successfully closed the net. Black Zetsu, lurking underground, was left utterly bewildered.
Judging by the time, the White Zetsu he had sent out should have already returned with reinforcements.
But even as Uchiha Fucheng was about to attack the remaining Rain Ninja, the White Zetsu sent to help were still nowhere to be seen.
[Water Style: Dam Who Repairs It]!
Salamander Doshin of the Land of Rain struck first.
With the rain already falling, the Water Release was exceptionally effective.
Like a flood forming a tornado, a vast surge of muddy water poured out from the Rain Ninja's side.
[Earth Style: Earth Wall]
At the center was the Earth Style wall Uchiha Fucheng had created, marked with the image of a Ninja Cat.
[Earth Style: Earth Flow Rampart]
This was a cooperative technique that extended more than ten meters outward from the center.
Two Uchiha jonin supported the technique.
The muddy torrent crashed against the earthen wall, then swept back into the ranks of the Rain Ninja.
Standing atop the earthen wall, the Uchiha ninja unleashed their second fire-and-wind combination technique, hurling it at the enemy with no windup.
[Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon + Wind Release: Great Breakthrough]
The fire fed on the wind, and the wind lent strength to the flames!
The enormous fire dragon expanded in the wind into a blazing dragon's head more than ten meters wide, crashing into the Rain Ninja ranks like a meteor.
Fucheng had no intention of ending the fight quickly.
Most of his attention was still on the three White Zetsu underground.
These remaining Rain Ninja were just right for giving his Uchiha subordinates some training.
Because Fucheng hadn't gone all out, Salamander Doshin felt a flicker of hope.
He felt that although the Uchiha ninja were attacking fiercely, they weren't putting him under the kind of pressure that came with certain death.
He decided to go all in and unleash one final burst of power.
Salamander Doshin swallowed three Military Ration Pills and two Stimulant Pills, which had an intensely bitter taste, in one gulp.
The Rain Ninja around him also took out their special drugs and swallowed them, shells and all.
The enemy's wild, desperate fighting style made the young Uchiha, who were used to winning easy victories, tense up instinctively...
Before you continue