Under the Kannabi Bridge, Invisibility (Seeking Follow-ups)

Not a ray of sunlight penetrated the gloomy underground cavern. The walls around it were unusually smooth, with not a trace of vegetation in sight.

A white humanoid creature suddenly emerged from the ground. As it appeared, the white-haired old man seated at the very end of the cavern, his head lowered and face withered, abruptly opened his scarlet right eye.

"What is it this time?"

He raised his head, his scarlet right eye looking toward the humanoid creature that seemed to grow from the ground like a plant.

The white creature scratched its head and said in a shrill voice, "Lord Madara, Uchiha Mo came into contact with Nagato again. He seems to have recognized the Rinnegan. They nearly fought, but Yahiko stopped Nagato."

"..."

"Understood. Go back and continue monitoring Nagato."

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

Madara Uchiha closed his scarlet eye again, and the cavern fell silent.

Yet before several breaths had passed, a strangely accented voice rang out in the cavern once more.

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

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

"Idiot, neither of them is Lord Madara's descendant. How could he want a grandson? If Lord Madara wanted a grandson, 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 astonished, and his face wore an expression that said, "I'm so smart."

"Shut up! You two idiots!"

Madara immediately opened his eye and barked at them.

At his shout, the two instantly clamped their mouths shut. The cavern fell silent once more, but none of them noticed that somewhere within it, a presence was quietly taking in everything.

Uchiha Mo... Madara seems quite concerned about this Uchiha too? That's not good. One more person means 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 the wooden chair, and began to struggle inwardly.

As for Madara... it should be fine if I leave for a while. If this Mo is an idiot like Obito, it'll be easy. But if he isn't...

At the border of the Land of Rain.

After bidding farewell to the Akatsuki trio, Mo and his group quickly arrived at the border of the Land of Birds. However, night had already fully fallen. At Terada Yusuke's strong insistence, they had no choice but to rest there for the night and continue their journey in the daytime.

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 invisibility ability he had unlocked. This was the perfect opportunity.

Uchiha Mo sank his consciousness into his body and formed the intention to turn invisible. In the next instant, he could feel the ocular power in his eyes merging with chakra at an extremely disproportionate ratio. Then, that special chakra swiftly circulated through his entire body.

Then, something strange happened.

Mo felt as though his body was covered by a special layer of wind. Like glass submerged 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 he could not see the slightest trace of it.

Next, he drew upon the ocular power in his eyes, activated his Sharingan, and focused his gaze again.

There was still nothing...

A breeze brushed past Mo's body. He could clearly feel the wind resistance, yet through the Sharingan's vision, which rivaled a high-speed camera, the wind seemed to encounter no obstruction whatsoever. It followed its original path, bending the grass on the ground and stirring the slightly yellowing leaves on the branches.

"..."

Mo's lips curled slightly as he further expanded the scope of his experiment.

He gathered chakra on the skin of his palm without releasing it.

This time, however, a dark-blue mass of chakra immediately appeared within his 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 down 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 presence. A short while later, Mo opened his eyes. He now had a basic understanding of this ability.

This was a more advanced method of invisibility than Transparency Release. As long as he did not release chakra, even a two-tomoe Sharingan could not detect the slightest flaw. However, since his physical body had not undergone any substantive change, it likely would not fool the Byakugan.

Moreover, Mo's own chakra signature was unaffected by his invisibility ability, so it likely would not have the desired effect against sensory ninjas.

Sensory ninjas were even rarer than medical ninjas, so despite its shortcomings, Mo was generally quite 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; No Trace unlocks at 30% in both directions)

"No Trace... It looks like a method for enhancing concealment..."

Not seeing the shameless intangibility, Mo felt slightly disappointed.

Though concealment was certainly powerful, if it did not reach a certain level, its limitations in jutsu and chakra would prevent it from being of much use in top-tier battles. More importantly, while invisible, he had to maintain a steady, continuous output of chakra and ocular power. That meant he could not employ any other methods, so it was better suited to functional purposes such as assassination and intelligence gathering.

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

Black Zetsu had observed the ninja world from the shadows for a thousand years. Aside from Hashirama, no one had ever detected his traces. If Mo possessed 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 channeling chakra and revealed himself once more.

It was still too early to think about such matters. At this moment, Mo had something far 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. Fixing on a direction, Mo set off at full speed!

Based on the information Terada Yusuke had revealed and the devastation of the black markets within the Land of Birds, that person was most likely a Kage-level expert. There were not many people like that in the entire ninja world.

As long as he could personally inspect the traces left at the battlefield, he was certain he would immediately be able to identify the attacker.