The Time of Return

Just as Kabuto had predicted, Black Zetsu immediately set his sights on the group returning to Konoha.

Obito has disappeared, and Black Zetsu is eager to find out what happened.

They dispatched wave after wave of White Zetsu to inquire about what had happened to Ren.

Unfortunately, with Ren absent, the Konoha team was on high alert, and all the White Zetsu that showed themselves were slaughtered and never returned.

This gave Black Zetsu a bad feeling.

Has Ren met with Hagoromo? Did Hagoromo tell Ren the truth? Can Ren still be trusted?

Konoha's vigilance caused the intelligent Black Zetsu to conjure up many unpleasant thoughts.

Intelligent people tend to overthink; prudent people also tend to prepare for the worst.

The intelligent and steady Black Zetsu became timid and hesitant because of Konoha's attitude.

He could no longer be the same naive young man who, when he was still alive and the Sage of Six Paths was around, dared to recklessly try to fool Indra.

Being reckless isn't necessarily a bad thing; being timid isn't necessarily a good thing either.

Everything in the world needs to be viewed dialectically.

Black Zetsu, who had always been fearless and never even paid any attention to Ren, no longer dared to approach Ren because of the aura emanating from Hagoromo.

Hei Song also lost the opportunity to discover the truth immediately.

Even though he sent a considerable number of White Zetsu to the Hidden Sand Village forces, it was still to no avail.

Because the main force was also composed of Mongols, without Obito's help, White Zetsu could not infiltrate Hidden Sand Village on a large scale as they had done with Iwagakure.

Black Zetsu possesses many wonderful things, but lacks only the fundamental element: power.

At this point, besides feeling anxious and constantly fearful, there's nothing else you can do.

Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

'Ren' just walked out of the headquarters of Voice of Konoha, having just finished a public speech.

He walked towards the Hokage Building with a large number of impressive guards, smiling and nodding to every Konoha who greeted him along the way.

They finally breathed a sigh of relief after arriving at the Hokage's Office.

'Ren' habitually rubbed the corners of his eyes, smoothing out the wrinkles that were invisible to the naked eye.

"Ryusuke, give me some true energy!"

Fugaku extended his hand to the guard beside him without any hesitation.

Ryusuke remains the same one-armed hero. Despite Konoha possessing exceptionally high-level skills, he is unwilling to have a new arm transplanted, but he has had one eye reattached.

On the night the group returned to Konoha contacted Hidden Sand Village had returned to the village earlier.

After discussion, Hidden Sand Village informed Fugaku of the truth, while some Hidden Sand Village ninjas were also informed of the truth by Konoha.

Fugaku had no choice but to return to his old ways and play the Ren.

Having learned the truth and experienced the benefits of true energy once, Fugaku refused to use the White Zetsu eye drops manufactured in the Experimental Building again.

After receiving a surge of true energy, Fugaku controlled it to flow from his arm into his brain, and then injected it into his Sharingan.

Even with Fugaku's deliberate control, a significant portion of the true essence that flowed through it still entered his body via his meridians, bringing Fugaku a unique sense of satisfaction.

After closing his eyes and carefully reflecting for a while, Fugaku finally sat down in his office chair.

Fugaku was filled with envy for the ninjas who had been transformed, but unfortunately, he had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan and had to stay in Konoha at the time.

For me, the Mangekyo Sharingan is truly a curse.

The thought popped into Fugaku's mind again.

Aside from impersonating Ren and doing things to 'show off' in front of others, Fugaku didn't have any other work.

Bored in the office, he started flipping through documents to pass the time.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

"Please come in!"

As soon as Fugaku finished speaking, Xuanyue walked in with a look of delight.

"Lord Fugaku, good news! Jonin and Elder Chiyo of Hidden Sand Village have summarized the preliminary patterns of the Dragon Vein's spacetime power. At most, we'll have the time for the clan leader's return in ten hours!"

"That's really good news!"

Inside the Kazekage's Office, Gaara spoke to Ebizo.

Compared to Konoha, Hidden Sand Village is much simpler. Rasa is elusive and doesn't need to be exposed to the villagers regularly.

Konoha chose the experienced Fugaku to impersonate Ren.

On the Hidden Sand Village side, apart from a Jonin and occasionally appeared while wearing the Kazekage robes, there was no other presence.

All Gaara needs to do is periodically control the sand to create the illusion of training.

Gaara doesn't know Magnet Release, but he can control yellow sand, and Hidden Sand Village has prepared a large amount of 'Gold Dust'.

The interior is yellow sand, with only the surface layer filled with Gold Dust. Gaara only needs to control that enormous 'Gold Dust' and show it off from time to time.

With such a massive amount of 'Gold Dust', who but Lord Kazekage could control it so freely?

And so, in the hearts of the Hidden Sand Village, Rasa has always been with us.

After a day and a night of vigorous excavation, a passage large enough for two people to pass through was dug out in the land of the Dragon Vein, and a sizable area was cleared out.

After obtaining the data from the original equipment, the researchers began working tirelessly, day and night.

Konoha had already begun some research on time travel, and after more than ten days, they finally understood some of the patterns in the time-space energy they had previously collected.

It's unrealistic to try to figure it out completely, but simply calculating its return time is enough.

"The first result is in!"

The researchers presented the results, and Chiyo and Kabuto immediately looked at them, their hearts sinking.

One to one and a half years!