A dry wind carrying the smell of sand blew through the gaps in the canyon.
Mixed into it was a stench of rusty iron and dead fish. It was truly foul.
The smile vanished from Kakashi's face. His hand went to his ninja tool pouch, and his one exposed eye immediately sharpened with vigilance.
"Sen, did you have to jinx us? We just escaped one mess, and now there's more trouble?"
Naruto, who was carrying Gaara on his back, nearly had his blond hair stand on end at those words.
He turned and scanned their surroundings, gritting his teeth. "Who's there? After Gaara again? Come out if you've got the guts!"
Sen Senju rubbed his nose, which the wind had dried out, and let out a dismissive snort through his teeth.
Ignoring Kakashi and Naruto's tension, he simply slipped his hands into his pockets and tapped his toe twice against the gravel.
"Come out? That's beneath him. He thinks he's above everyone else."
"Right, Absolute? Doesn't that half-black, half-white look of yours get a little dazzling under this blazing sun?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a pitch-black mass slowly wriggled out of the shadow of a large rock nearby.
It looked like a puddle of sludge that had grown a mouth. It rose slowly, finally becoming a strange figure shaped like a pitcher plant.
One half of his face was white as paint, while the other was black as the bottom of a pot.
White Zetsu chuckled twice, his shrill voice rather grating:
"Oh my, you spotted us. Your senses really are sharp, Konoha brat."
Black Zetsu's voice sounded as though it had been ground through sand, dull and chilling:
"Boy of the Senju Clan, you ruined our plans."
"Those two useless fools, Sasori and Deidara, couldn't even withstand