Black Zetsu's Surveillance, Sosuke's First Match Against a Thousand-Year Conspirator

Sunlight filtered through the century-old tree in the courtyard, scattering flecks of gold across the wooden corridor of the Senju main house.

Sosuke sat upright before a low table, holding a steaming cup of tea. Through the mist, his handsome yet slightly pale face carried a hint of languid ease. Inside, Mikoto had changed into a simple, elegant house kimono and was kneeling before a bronze mirror, combing her long hair. Last night's indulgence had given her an utterly breathtaking softness and charm, completely erasing the Uchiha clan's former aloofness and sorrow from between her brows.

"Dear, is the water temperature all right?" Mikoto turned her head, her eyes brimming with tenderness.

"Just right." Sosuke took a light sip of tea, a gentle smile on his lips.

On the surface, he was still that sickly young master who would cough from the slightest cold breeze. But only Sosuke knew just how terrifying the transformation brought by the perfected Sage Body truly was.

At this moment, his senses were no longer limited to sight and hearing. That vast Yang Release source allowed him to resonate with the surrounding natural environment in an extraordinarily mystical way. He could clearly "see" the roots stretching slowly through the soil ten meters underground; he could "hear" the suppressed breathing of the ANBU ninja monitoring the Senju Clan Grounds a hundred meters away.

The entire Senju Clan Grounds, even the movements throughout half of Hidden Leaf, unfolded in his mind like a three-dimensional sandbox without reservation.

Suddenly, Sosuke's long fingers around the teacup paused almost imperceptibly.

A faint ripple spread across the tea that had been calm just moments ago.

At the edge of his sensory field, an eerie "blind spot" had appeared. It was neither a chakra fluctuation nor the aura of a living being. Rather, it was like an absolute shadow peeled away from the world itself. It had no warmth, no heartbeat. Like a mass of pure nothingness, it clung to the veins of the earth and slipped through the sensory barrier surrounding the Senju Clan Grounds in an incredibly concealed manner.

Hidden Leaf's vaunted defensive system was utterly useless before that shadow.

Sosuke lowered his eyes without a change in expression, concealing the icy green flash that had passed through his pupils.

In the ninja world, the only one capable of such concealment—ignoring all barriers and leaving even his perfected Sage Body barely able to catch a trace of its outline—was the mastermind who had lived for over a thousand years and regarded all life in the ninja world as chess pieces: Black Zetsu.

He moves quickly enough. Sosuke sneered inwardly.

He knew very well that when he had tentatively unleashed [Deep Forest Emergence], the pure Yang Release source that had leaked out in that instant had ultimately alerted the thousand-year-old rat lurking in the deepest shadows of the ninja world. To Black Zetsu, who was obsessed with resurrecting Kaguya Otsutsuki, any Wood Release power capable of rivaling or even surpassing Senju Hashirama was an absolute variable that had to be eliminated.

The prey had entered the field. Now it would depend on whose methods were superior.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..."

Sosuke suddenly hunched over and broke into a violent coughing fit. He covered his mouth, his brows tightly furrowed. The little color left in his already pale face vanished instantly, and even his breathing became hurried and ragged.

"Dear!" Mikoto's face changed drastically. She quickly set down her wooden comb and hurried to Sosuke's side. With one hand, she gently patted his back, while with the other she wiped the cold sweat beading on his forehead with her sleeve. "Why are you coughing again? Did you catch a chill in the courtyard just now? I'll go get Lady Tsunade..."

"No need." Sosuke caught Mikoto's slender wrist, his voice weak and hoarse. "Sister Tsunade has been busy at the hospital all night. Don't disturb her. You know my body better than anyone. It's an old problem. I'll be fine after resting for a while."

After taking a few breaths, he leaned into Mikoto's soft embrace and pointed outside. "Go to the kitchen and make me a medicinal meal to replenish my energy. I don't trust anyone else to prepare it."

Mikoto's eyes reddened with heartache as she nodded repeatedly. "All right, I'll go right away. Don't move around."

Watching Mikoto's hurriedly departing figure, Sosuke slowly leaned back against a cushion beside the tatami. He closed his eyes, and his breathing gradually weakened, the rise and fall of his chest slowing as though he were a dying man who could breathe his last at any moment.

Yet within his body, the vast chakra of his perfected Sage Body flowed silently in reverse along the inner walls of his meridians under deliberate suppression. It transformed into countless emerald-green threads invisible to the naked eye, weaving and intertwining through every corner of Sosuke's body until they formed an invisible net, restrained to the extreme yet brimming with endless killing intent.

He waited.

As the sunlight shifted, the light within the main house cast a long, narrow shadow along the corner of the wall.

Within that shadow, a jet-black gelatinous substance clung to the gaps in the wooden floor, writhing soundlessly. It had no solid form. Like a drop of spilled ink, it crept along the edge of the tatami, inching closer and closer to Sosuke's bed.

Black Zetsu's single eye, glowing a dim yellow, slowly opened under the cover of the shadows and fixed itself on the seemingly defenseless young man lying on the bed.

It was cautious. Having lived for over a thousand years and witnessed countless gifted ninja fall, Black Zetsu understood the danger of being overturned by a hidden threat. Even though the sole remaining descendant of the Senju Clan before it appeared so weak that he was inferior to even a genin, it did not rashly attack.

Strange... Black Zetsu calculated inwardly.

It carefully examined Sosuke's body. His meridians were shriveled, his chakra reserves pitifully small, and the flame of his life was like a candle flickering in the wind. The condition of this body perfectly matched the intelligence held by Hidden Leaf's upper ranks: "He was suffering backlash from Wood Release and was about to become useless."

But where had that fleeting, heart-palpitatingly pure Yang Release source from this morning come from?

Could Senju Hashirama have left behind some special ninja tool containing source power, which this brat had happened to activate?

Malice and greed flashed through Black Zetsu's dim yellow eye. Whatever the truth was, it could not allow any variable beyond its control to exist. Since this brat was crippled, it would simply possess him and forcibly seize his memories. If Senju Hashirama had truly left behind some treasure, it would take it along the way. If not, it would crush this brat's heart and completely sever the last trace of the Senju Clan's bloodline.

With that thought, Black Zetsu hesitated no longer.

The black gelatinous mass suddenly accelerated, springing up like a venomous snake. It climbed unhindered along the edge of the bed and latched onto Sosuke's left hand, which hung at his side.

Cold.

An extreme chill that pierced straight into the soul instantly seeped through Sosuke's skin and into his muscles. Black Zetsu was a product of Kaguya's will, a creation of pure Yin-Yang Release. Its possession required no hand seals and produced no chakra fluctuations. It directly targeted the victim's mind and the source of their meridians.

Black Zetsu's body rapidly transformed into countless tiny black threads that crazily burrowed through the pores of Sosuke's arm and deep into the meridians within him. It intended to seize control of Sosuke's central nervous system and instantly crush his fragile soul.

Too weak. A descendant of the Senju Clan has fallen to such a state. Black Zetsu sneered inwardly, even feeling a trace of boredom.

However, at the exact instant its core consciousness entered the main trunk of Sosuke's meridians—

The supposedly unconscious Sosuke abruptly opened his eyes.

His formerly deep black pupils had now been completely replaced by a dazzling emerald radiance too brilliant to look at directly. There was no weakness, no fear—only the ultimate indifference and mockery of one looking down upon ants from on high.

"After hiding in dark corners for over a thousand years, you little rat have grown quite a bit bolder."

Sosuke's voice was no longer hoarse. Instead, it rang with the sharp resonance of clashing metal and stone.

Black Zetsu's core consciousness jolted violently. An unprecedented sense of mortal danger instantly engulfed it. To its horror, it realized that the young man before it was no dying cripple at all. His seemingly withered meridians were actually a perfectly disguised living volcano!

This is bad! It's a trap!

Black Zetsu's thousand-year-old cunning instantly crumbled as it desperately tried to pull the black threads it had sent into Sosuke's body back out.

But it was too late.

"Since you're already inside, don't be in such a hurry to leave."

A cruel curve touched Sosuke's lips. Rather than using chakra to expel Black Zetsu, he completely opened the gates of his meridians.

Boom!

The source of Sosuke's perfected Sage Body, hidden within him, erupted completely at that moment. The emerald-green net that had long since been woven instantly tightened, transforming into an incomparably terrifying Yang Release vortex.

Black Zetsu's Yin-Yang Release body, which it had been so proud of, was like noodles thrown into a meat grinder before that vortex. In utter terror, it discovered that not only could it not pull free, but it was being firmly bitten down on by an irresistible, horrifying suction force. That life force, pure to the extreme, was forcibly tearing at its source consciousness in an overwhelmingly tyrannical manner!