Hearing the gloomy voice, the ninja fell silent for a moment, then snorted. "You'd better not be lying to me."
The gloomy voice continued, accompanied by chilling laughter. "Why would I? I still need your help capturing the Nine-Tails. Why would I deceive you? Don't worry... this is a secret among secrets. Even Konoha has classified it as an S-rank secret."
"How did you find out about it?" the ninja asked directly.
"Heh heh... there isn't much intelligence in the shinobi world that could be called secret to me. All right, I've told you everything I know. The rest is up to you. If you succeed, I'll come find you again."
The gloomy voice faded, and their conversation came to an end. The voice within the shadow never spoke again.
The ninja gave a disdainful snort and headed toward Rōran in the direction he had chosen.
His name was Mukade, a rogue ninja from Sunagakure. He had been hunted for stealing certain forbidden puppet techniques, and had spent these past years constantly hiding and fleeing.
It was only recently that he had encountered that mysterious black shadow. The shadow called himself Black Zetsu. Mukade knew nothing of that name, but with the other man's intelligence, he had repeatedly escaped Sunagakure's pursuit and successfully killed many shinobi sent to capture him.
Thus, the two had formed a simple relationship of mutual benefit. Recently... Black Zetsu had revealed information about the Dragon Vein to him, and Mukade was immediately tempted.
If he could obtain that power, he would immediately be free of Sunagakure's pursuit. He might even be able to establish his own shinobi village and faction.
For a rogue ninja like him, that temptation was enormous—more than enough to make him take the risk.
As for the condition set by the