The Least Bad One

It took nearly a quarter of an hour before the pitch-black clouds of smoke gradually dispersed.

The power of such a violent explosion naturally paled in comparison to Deidara's self-destruction, and it was even further inferior to the so-called six hundred billion Explosive Tags Konan had used against Uchiha Obito in the original story.

But against Black Zetsu and White Zetsu, whose secret techniques were bizarre but whose actual bodies were not necessarily all that powerful, it was more than enough.

From the bottom of the deep crater blasted out by the violent shockwave, a black shadow rose from underground.

"That was really close. I almost died."

"Died?"

Another white humanoid creature emerged from the earth.

"There's no way such a shallow attack could kill you. Unless they could dig you out from the ley lines hundreds of meters underground, killing you would be quite difficult. But..."

White Zetsu sensed the chakra fluctuations around them.

"It seems the original body is completely dead!"

Black Zetsu said indifferently, "Dead is dead. Though it's called the original body, to White Zetsu, it's only a relay station for a single will. Without it, you clones won't die anyway."

That was indeed the case. Unless something went wrong with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path—in other words, the Ten-Tails—the connection between White Zetsu's original body and its various clones was not particularly close.

Though it was called the original body, it was really only the first commander Madara Uchiha had created using Hashirama Cells and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to control the White Zetsu Army.

"What you said about being unable to kill me isn't entirely accurate. At the very least, Kakuzu has a way to do it."

That indescribable sense of threat he had felt from Kakuzu earlier had