Arriving at the Black Market, Identifying the Killer / The Reason

"..."

"Got it. Go back and keep watching Nagato's movements."

As soon as he finished speaking, White Zetsu swiftly sank into the ground and vanished.

Madara Uchiha closed his scarlet eyes once more, and the underground cavern fell silent.

But the silence lasted less than a few breaths before a strangely accented voice rang out in the cavern again.

"Lord Madara, haven't you already chosen Obito as your target? Why are you keeping an eye on Uchiha Mo too? Are you so lonely that you want another grandson?"

A completely white White Zetsu with a spiral-patterned face stood with his arms crossed as he spoke. Beside him, another White Zetsu whose left half was covered in branches immediately refuted him with utter conviction.

"Idiot! Those two aren't Lord Madara's descendants either. How could he want grandchildren? If Lord Madara wanted grandchildren, he should find a woman! Oh~ Could it be that Uchiha Mo is the woman Lord Madara has taken a fancy to?!"

His tone gradually turned shocked, and his face took on an expression that said, "I'm so smart."

"Shut up! You two idiots!"

Madara immediately opened his eyes and barked at them.

At his shout, the two instantly sealed their lips. The cavern fell silent again, but none of them noticed that somewhere within it, a presence was quietly taking everything in.

Uchiha Mo... Madara seems quite concerned about this Uchiha too? That isn't good. With one more person, there will be more variables in the plan... Should I observe him in advance?

Black Zetsu thought to himself. He glanced at Madara Uchiha, who sat motionless in a wooden chair, and began to hesitate.

As for Madara... it should be fine if I leave for a while. If this Mo is an idiot like Obito, it will be easy. If not...

Border of the Land of Rain.

After parting ways with the Akatsuki trio, Mo's group quickly arrived at the border of the Land of Birds. However, night had completely fallen by then. At Terada Yusuke's insistence, everyone had no choice but to rest there for the night and continue their journey in daylight.

That night, Mo left a Shadow Clone in his room while he himself headed straight out of the inn.

He had yet to properly study the ability he had unlocked after gaining Invisibility. This was the perfect opportunity.

Uchiha Mo sank his consciousness into his body and formed the thought of becoming invisible. The next moment, he felt the ocular power in his eyes merge with chakra at an extremely uneven ratio, after which that special chakra swiftly circulated through his entire body.

Then, something strange happened.

Mo felt as though his body was covered in a special layer of wind. Like glass sinking beneath water, his entire body instantly blended into the night.

He raised his right hand and lowered his head to look at it, only to find that there was no trace of it in his field of vision.

Then, he mobilized the ocular power in his eyes, activated his Sharingan, and focused his gaze again.

There was still only emptiness...

A gentle breeze brushed across Mo's body. He could clearly feel the wind resistance, but in the Sharingan's vision, which rivaled a high-speed camera, the wind seemed completely unobstructed. It followed its original path, bending the grass on the ground and stirring the slightly yellowing leaves on the branches.

"..."

Mo curled his lips slightly and expanded the scope of his experiment.

He condensed chakra onto the skin of his palm without releasing it.

This time, however, a dark blue mass of chakra immediately appeared in the Sharingan's vision.

Mo frowned slightly, took out a bottle of ink from his Ninja Tool Pouch, then raised his right arm and poured the ink through the air onto it.

The somewhat viscous black liquid immediately slid from the mouth of the bottle. Mo narrowed his eyes, his pair of Sharingan fixed tightly on the ink's trail.

The ink fell straight through the air, but upon reaching a certain height, it suddenly vanished without a trace.

Mo's brows relaxed slightly as he deactivated his Sharingan.

"Next, the final experiment."

He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his body, beginning to sense his own aura. After a short while, Mo opened his eyes. He now had a basic understanding of the ability.

This was a more advanced means of Invisibility than Transparency Release. So long as he did not unleash chakra, even the Two-Tomoe Sharingan could not spot the slightest flaw. However, because his physical body had not undergone any substantial change, it likely would not fool the Byakugan.

Furthermore, Mo's chakra aura was unaffected by the Invisibility ability, so it likely would not produce the desired effect against sensory ninja.

Sensory ninja were even rarer than medical ninja, so despite its minor flaws, Mo was generally satisfied with this ability. After all, this was only Blue Baby's initial-stage ability.

With a thought, he turned his attention to the panel.

Blue Baby Fusion Rate: 11.83% + 10.74% (Unlocked abilities: Invisibility; when both reach 30%, unlock No Trace)

"No Trace... It seems to be a method for enhancing concealment..."

Not seeing the almost cheat-like intangibility, Mo felt slightly disappointed.

Concealment abilities were certainly powerful, but unless they reached a certain level, their effectiveness in top-tier battles would be greatly limited by techniques and chakra. More importantly, while invisible, he had to maintain a continuous and steady output of chakra and ocular power, which meant he could not use other methods. Thus, it was more suited to functional needs such as assassination and intelligence gathering.

"If the second stage can grant concealment comparable to Black Zetsu's, or achieve an effect similar to the Mayfly Technique, that would be pretty good."

Black Zetsu had secretly observed the Ninja World for a thousand years. Aside from Hashirama, no one had ever detected his whereabouts. If Mo could obtain that level of concealment, it would be immensely useful to him even outside of combat.

(Hashirama discovered Black Zetsu at the Valley of the End)

Shaking his head, Mo stopped the chakra output and reappeared.

It was still too early to think about such matters. At this moment, Mo had something more important to do.

He pulled out a scroll from his Ninja Tool Pouch and opened it. Inside was a map of the Land of Birds. After identifying a direction, Mo set off at full speed!

Based on the information Terada Yusuke had revealed and the terrible state of the black markets within the Land of Birds, this person was most likely a Kage Level expert. There were not many such people in the entire Ninja World.

As long as he could see the traces left at the battlefield with his own eyes, he was certain he could immediately determine the attacker's identity.

Arriving at the Black Market, Identifying the Killer

After crossing the Land of Rain and entering the Land of Birds, the air became noticeably drier. However, Uchiha Mo had no time to concern himself with such minor changes.

He kept his head down and rushed toward his destination. Since Terada Yusuke's planned route had deliberately avoided the black markets, even a round trip to the nearest large black market would take Mo quite some time.

Furthermore, if the killer had deliberately erased the traces, he might need to investigate several more locations before finding anything. Therefore, even though he only needed to rejoin the team before it returned to Hidden Leaf, Mo still had to finish his investigation as quickly as possible.

The wind howled continuously past his ears, the moon slowly sank through the sky, and a sliver of dawn spilled from the east...

"Tap..."

A clear footstep echoed through the empty, deathly silent underground black market. A young man dressed in a high-collared black robe, with the Uchiha Crest printed on his back, appeared within.

With no burdens holding him back, Mo had reached his destination in the latter half of the night by unleashing his full speed. However, to ensure he remained in peak condition, he rested for roughly two hours before moving again.

The black market was underground, and large black markets generally contained a Bounty Exchange.

Mo walked through the pitch-black corridor. After pushing open a wooden door, his view suddenly widened.

A thick stench of blood rushed into his nostrils. Mo frowned slightly and turned his gaze to the side. Large patches of blood crusted over the wall had dried into a dark reddish-black from the passage of time. Broken corpses lay scattered everywhere across the floor, while damaged marks and explosion-created craters covered the entire hall.

"Looks like no one in the Land of Birds dares to clean this place up. That saves me quite a bit of trouble."

Mo circulated the chakra within his body, and scarlet filled his eyes.

There were no residual traces of chakra in his vision, as too much time had passed. Mo walked forward to a crater, crouched down, looked at the bottom, then grabbed a handful of dirt and rubbed it between his fingers.

"The soil is brittle, like it was burned by fire. There are signs of carbonization at the bottom of the crater. It was caused by Fire Release."

Mo then stood up, examined the slash marks on the wall, and approached a corpse leaning against it.

The tomoe in his eye sockets slowly turned as he looked at the severed neck of the headless corpse. Apart from the neck, the corpse bore numerous other cuts as well. Mo then compared them with the slash marks on the wall.

"Wind Cutter Technique."

Over the next fifteen minutes, Mo found penetrating, charred wounds from Lightning Release on several more corpses.

After inspecting the hall, Mo entered an inner room through a small door on the front right. This was usually where customers and merchants finalized their negotiations and completed transactions. Bounty payments could also be handled here.

This place was far better preserved than the hall, but the moment Mo stepped inside, he saw a row of sharp earthen spikes of varying heights. A corpse with a terrified face was still hanging from the tip of the tallest spike.

"Earth Pillar Explosion..."

In this single black market, the killer had displayed every one of the five elemental release techniques except Water Release. Judging from the techniques' power, the killer could be considered proficient in all of them.

With that, the killer's identity became obvious.

At this point in the timeline, aside from the Third Hokage and Nagato, the only ninja clearly capable in the original story of mastering more than four elemental releases was Kakuzu...

Though there were also ninja like Orochimaru who possessed all five elemental natures, most of them were proficient in only one or two. Their combat styles were not centered around multi-elemental release techniques either.

Just as Mo had basically confirmed his target, footsteps suddenly sounded from the hall outside.

"!"

The instant Mo heard the sound, he directly deactivated his Sharingan and lowered his aura as much as possible. At the same time, his figure flickered, vanishing into the surroundings like glass sinking into water.

He turned around without rashly moving. Instead, his eyes narrowed slightly, and his vision immediately passed through the wooden door and walls, landing in the hall.

Inside the underground black market hall.

A figure wearing a conical hat and a loose brown robe that concealed his body was looking around furtively as he crept toward the inner room where Uchiha Mo was.

Mo focused his attention slightly, and his vision immediately passed through the hat and robe, allowing him to clearly see the man's appearance.

He was a burly middle-aged man with a centipede-like scar running from the left side of his lips across his entire face before ending at the corner of his right eye.

With only a glance, Mo judged from the man's walking posture and breathing rhythm that he was an ordinary person.

As the man drew closer, Mo did not make any rash moves. Instead, he gathered chakra beneath his feet and leaped lightly, hanging upside down from the ceiling.

Although he had basically identified the killer, the reason behind it all was still filled with questions. Mo needed more information. At a time when even the Land of Birds' ministers did not dare approach this place, an ordinary person had actually come here on his own. He was surely connected to the matter somehow.

"Creak~"

The wooden door slowly opened. The man hurried into the room and then closed the door behind him.

"I hope it's still here!"

He muttered under his breath, then leaped behind the counter. After fiddling with something for a while, the counter slowly shifted aside with a series of clicking sounds. The man crouched down, lightly pressed a spot on the exposed floor, then hooked something to the left. The ground immediately began to tremble.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle~"

Before long, the wall behind the counter shifted aside, revealing a hidden passage.

The man stood up and was about to enter the passage when a faint breeze suddenly brushed against his back, followed by the sound of feet landing on the ground.

"Tap..."

His body stiffened. He immediately raised both hands and said in a terrified voice, "Sir! I only came back to retrieve something. I'm not a black market merchant, and what happened before has nothing to do with me!" He raised his hands high. Though his voice trembled slightly, he spoke extremely quickly, his will to survive at full force.

"Turn around."

Mo spoke softly. After he finished, the man in front of him froze for a moment, then his entire body stopped trembling.

Mo silently watched the scene and began counting down in his heart.

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

"You damned brat! You actually dared to pretend to be Kakuzu and make me—"

The man suddenly drew his blade and spun around. The flesh on his face shook wildly, and his expression was vicious.

However, before his sword could strike, a pair of scarlet eyes entered his field of vision first.

Genjutsu: Sharingan!

The man's eyes flew wide open, his pupils shrank sharply, and his entire body instantly froze in place.

"Clang—"

The long blade hit the floor with a crisp sound, but Mo did not even look at it. Instead, he watched the man and slowly asked, "Who are you? Why did you come back? Why did Kakuzu attack the black markets in the Land of Birds?"

The Reason (Please Continue Reading)