White Zetsu's appearance and the intelligence he had obtained from Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Made Ren clearly realize that Obito's target was him, and that there was no avoiding it.
Although he did not want to face Tobi so soon, he had at least awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
That gave him some confidence. Even if he really encountered Obito, it should not be a big problem. Probably.
White Zetsu's appearance did not merely make Ren tense.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had also learned the details from Anbu and obtained two White Zetsu bodies, did not go home at all, though there was not much waiting for him there anyway.
"Kakashi, Yun Jian, neither of you noticed anything unusual?"
"No, Lord Hokage." ×2
Yun Jian was a ninja of the Hyuga Clan. As mentioned before, any major clan would more or less have Hiruzen Sarutobi's people within it.
As one of Konoha's foremost noble clans, the Hokage could not possibly fail to keep the Hyuga Clan's strength under his control.
Hearing their answer, Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned deeply.
When he had decided to reject Kirigakure's terms, he had sold out Kirigakure's envoy as a gesture of goodwill toward the Uchiha Clan.
He had not expected such a being to appear among the favor he had sold. A perfect Transformation Technique—so perfect that even Kirigakure's own companions had been unable to detect anything.
Even the two great eye techniques renowned throughout the ninja world, the Sharingan and Byakugan, could not spot any abnormalities.
It made Hiruzen Sarutobi worry about the outcome of the war. Besides Kirigakure, there appeared to be enemies lurking even deeper in the shadows.
These strange creatures possessed humanoid forms, yet they were not human. Konoha had never had any record of them before.
"Could they be the product of some kind of