In the deepest underground cavern.
Water dripped onto the stalactites, making crisp tapping sounds.
The air was thick with the damp, moldy stench that made one's nostrils itch.
Under the dim firelight.
The massive Demonic Statue of the Outer Path stood towering and still, like a sleeping Death God.
Obito leaned against a stone pillar, struggling to adjust the joints of his wooden right arm with his rough left hand.
The wood scraped together with a piercing creak.
Behind his mask, his breathing was labored, and cold sweat coated his entire body.
Ever since suffering a crushing defeat in Iwagakure last time, his body had never fully recovered.
Suddenly, a faint tremor flickered across one of the statue's fingers.
Obito abruptly raised his head, the pupil in his lone exposed eye contracting sharply.
The "Zero" ring representing Deva Path Pain and the "White" ring representing Konan—
The last traces of chakra lingering upon them vanished in an instant, like receding tidewater.
Only coldness and dead silence remained on those two hollow statue fingers.
"Zero... White..."
Obito sprang to his feet. The movement was too violent, and the tearing wound in his right shoulder flared with pain.
The aged face beneath his mask instantly turned deathly pale.
"Pain's chakra... has completely disappeared?"
He stared fixedly at those two bare statue fingers, his mind utterly blank.
Pop.
The watery mud on the ground suddenly bubbled as if it had been boiled.
Black Zetsu's grotesque face, as though molded from black clay, slowly crawled out of the muddy ground.
It reeked of foul ditch mud, its yellow eyes glinting in the darkness.
"No need to guess, Obito."
Black Zetsu's voice was low and hoarse, like iron scraped across sandpaper.
"Amegakure... has completely changed hands."
"Changed hands? What do you mean?!"
Obito lunged forward