Capture White Zetsu

Time slipped quietly by amid patient waiting and meticulous preparations. In the early spring of Konoha's forty-sixth year, the air still carried a biting chill. Everything in Kyohaku Uchiha's secret laboratory was ready, like a spider's lair with its web spread, awaiting its prey.

He knew White Zetsu's patience was not limitless. An Uchiha clansman who had long remained outside the Uchiha mainstream yet maintained close ties with Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin, possessed intelligence value enough to make Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu unable to suppress their curiosity. He had deliberately maintained this "anomaly," like a faint yet sufficiently enticing lamp lit in the darkness.

He had even left an exceedingly subtle, almost imperceptible "leak" of energy fluctuations at the outermost layer of the barrier. It was not an oversight, but a carefully designed lure—a gap that appeared to offer a way in, yet actually led straight to the heart of the trap.

That night, the moon was dark and the wind was high. Kyohaku had not slept. He was carrying out routine data recording and equipment maintenance in the underground laboratory when several sealing runes on the walls, which had been circulating steadily, flickered ever so slightly. Their frequency changed by the most negligible fraction.

It was here!

Kyohaku's heart clenched, and every muscle in his body instantly tensed before he forced himself to relax at once. He could not reveal the slightest abnormality. He could not even raise his head toward the direction of the intrusion. He kept his back to the entrance as though fully focused on the cell culture dish in his hands, but every sense had been heightened to its limit, like the most precise radar scanning every minute change in the space behind him.

From the ground, a pale hue almost indistinguishable from dirt slowly rose, like a fungus growing in silence. It twisted and condensed into a vague humanoid outline—White Zetsu. Its wary eyes swept across the cramped space filled with bizarre runes, its pallid face showing curiosity mixed with a trace of instinctive vigilance.

It sensed that this place was unusual. The dense Fūinjutsu formulas made it somewhat uncomfortable. But its powerful urge to pry, along with its curiosity about the secrets of this "anomalous Uchiha," ultimately overwhelmed that small measure of caution. It was certain that its Mayfly Technique was flawless and that no one could detect it.

It carefully avoided the metal pillars in the center of the floor, which looked dangerous at a glance, and attempted to approach Kyohaku, who was "working intently," to peek at what he held. Its formless body slid over the floor like liquid without making the slightest sound.

Now!

The instant White Zetsu's entire body entered the laboratory and reached the optimal coverage zone of every Chakra Sealing Needle Array—

Kyohaku casually set the culture dish in his hand down on the nearby workbench. That small motion seemed to trigger an invisible switch.

Bzzzt—!

The sealing runes on all four walls of the laboratory suddenly erupted with dazzling ghostly blue light! The entire barrier instantly switched from "shielding mode" to "confinement mode," and an invisible force field contracted inward like the toughest rubber, completely locking down the space!

White Zetsu was horrified. Its body instinctively tried to melt into the ground and flee, only for it to discover in terror that the floor beneath its feet had been completely sealed off by a solid Fūinjutsu formula! The Mayfly Technique had failed!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!

At the same time, countless hair-thin Chakra Metal spikes shot out from the surfaces of the cold metal pillars at the center of the laboratory like a torrential downpour! They did not fire blindly. Instead, as if they possessed lives of their own, they precisely covered every direction White Zetsu could possibly move, instantly engulfing it completely!

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft...!

A dense series of faint sounds, like needles piercing a cloth sack, rang out. More than a dozen—perhaps dozens—of Chakra Metal needles imbued with powerful Fūinjutsu formulas effortlessly pierced White Zetsu's body, which was not made purely of flesh and blood!

"Urgh—!" White Zetsu let out a strange, warped scream, not from pain, but from a deeper terror—the terror of having its power stripped away in an instant!

The Chakra Metal needles embedded in its body activated at once. The miniature Fūinjutsu formulas engraved upon them were like hungry leeches, madly devouring, severing, and disrupting the unique flow of chakra within it, mixed with Nature Energy! Its body visibly stiffened and solidified, while the pallid color of its surface rapidly dulled as though all vitality had been drained away. It tried to split apart and struggle, but its chakra had been completely sealed. Every special ability failed, leaving only its most instinctive, feeble writhing.

The entire capture took place in a flash, lasting no more than two seconds.

Only then did Kyohaku Uchiha slowly turn around. There was no surprise or excitement on his face, only an icy calm, like a surgeon assessing the results of an operation. Leaning on his cane, he approached step by step the white monster pinned in place by dozens of fine silver needles, utterly unable to resist and capable only of trembling faintly.

It had worked.

Three years of planning, enormous financial investment, and countless days and nights of calculation and preparation had finally yielded the expected result at this moment.

He carefully observed White Zetsu's condition and confirmed that its chakra had been completely sealed. Its vital signs remained, though exceedingly weak, and its consciousness appeared to be in a semi-comatose state. He did not immediately step forward to touch it. Instead, he first went to the control console, further strengthened the barrier's isolation, and activated the prearranged injection procedure for a powerful anesthetic gas. A faint, odorless gas was released into the confinement field, ensuring that the target had no possibility of remaining conscious.

Only after finishing all that did he truly approach. At close range, this creation from ancient times did indeed possess a peculiar body structure—neither wood nor flesh, containing an indescribable form of life.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately began the follow-up work. He transferred White Zetsu into a specially made containment vessel covered in sealing runes... Every step was orderly, calm to a chilling degree.

The underground laboratory returned to silence, broken only by the faint hum of machinery. The residual energy fluctuations in the air, along with a faint, peculiar scent belonging to White Zetsu, proved that the brief yet critical confrontation had just taken place.

Kyohaku Uchiha stood before the containment vessel and watched White Zetsu lie motionless inside like a specimen. At last, an almost imperceptible heat flashed in his eyes.

The first step, and also the most crucial and difficult step, had been completed.

The "Completion Plan" finally possessed its most essential cornerstone.

What came next was how to extract from this precious specimen the power that could change his own fate. He knew that the more complex and delicate work had only just begun.