Exposing the Hundred Thousand White Zetsu, I Make the Rules for the Dead!
Dawn, outside the abandoned mine.
The wind and snow, carrying ice shards, crashed against the rock walls with a crackling sound. After the Control Array was destroyed, the entire underground prison was completely paralyzed, and more than 500 prisoners, drained of their Chakra, lay scattered on the snow.
Naruto stood in the cold wind, his chest heaving violently. He had repeatedly used the ultimate Yang Release, forcibly reversing and draining the Control Array. Even with his perfect Uzumaki Sage Body, he was now on the verge of running out of Chakra.
But before he could even catch his breath, he suddenly clasped his hands together.
"Bang bang bang--"
With a trail of white smoke, hundreds of Shadow Clone appeared simultaneously. Each clone quickly walked to the side of several prisoners, and a gentle golden light emanated from their palms, pouring the last bit of Pure Yang Chakra into their chests, forcefully holding back their dying heart meridians.
Kurotsuchi from Iwagakure carried two severely unconscious wounded men on her shoulders and tossed them into a slightly sheltered snowdrift. She patted the mud off her gloves and glanced sideways at Naruto, whose face was pale.
"Are you out of your mind?" Kurotsuchi raised his chin, his tone revealing undisguised incomprehension. "You could have punched right through the mine, but you insisted on tearing apart the formation and exhausting yourself like this?"
In her view, death in war is perfectly normal. The new clan leader of Hidden Leaf is ridiculously strong, but he is indecisive and fussy in his actions.
Naruto turned his head, his golden pupils showing no sign of fatigue, only chilling calm. "Because there are people down below the mine, not experience packs to be casually hacked down."
Kurotsuchi was speechless, his mouth opened but he couldn't utter a single word.
(This bastard is usually incredibly domineering, but he's actually acting like a human being right now.)
She pursed her lips, said no more, and turned to speed up the process of moving the wounded. Although her movements were still rough, the force she used had unconsciously lessened considerably.
Having calmed the situation with the prisoners, Naruto walked towards the boulder on his right.
Kakashi was crouching in a sheltered spot, his deadpan eyes wide open for once. He held the black metal box that Sasuke had thrown down before leaving, and a fine layer of cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
"No." Kakashi shook his head, his voice a little dry. "This Sealing Jutsu isn't the conventional kind. Forcibly infiltrating with Sharingan Chakra has already caused the self-destruct Cursed Seal inside to get hot. If we move it any further, all the information inside will burn to ashes."
"Get out of the way."
Naruto stepped forward, without making any Hand Seals, and placed his right hand, with its five fingers spread, directly on the top of the black iron box.
The Great Evolution Divine Soul Art activated instantly, and the violent spiritual power transformed into an invisible sharp cone, piercing deep into the iron box along its texture. This irrational and brute force directly severed the Chakra circuit of the self-destruct Cursed Seal.
"Snap."
With a crisp snap, the tin box popped open.
Kakashi took a deep breath and quickly flipped open the scroll inside. After just one glance, his breath caught in his throat.
"What... what the hell is this thing?"
Kurotsuchi leaned closer, his gaze sweeping over the scroll. He immediately took two steps back, exclaiming as if he'd seen a ghost, "One hundred thousand? Where did they get one hundred thousand troops? Even the combined regular armies of the Five Great Nations don't have that many!"
"White Zetsu is a low-quality clone cultivated using the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and Hashirama Cells." Naruto's eyes were icy. "Its individual combat strength is only at the Genin to Chunin level, but it's enough to use it as cannon fodder to wear down the Allied Shinobi Forces. Look at that map."
Kakashi suddenly unfolded the parchment map beneath the scroll.
The entire map of the Shinobi World is densely covered with red dotted lines. These dotted lines, like veins in the human body, all bypass surface checkpoints and run directly from deep underground through the borders of the four great nations, eventually converging at several key nodes.
Obito had no intention of fighting a proper positional war. He planned to use 100,000 White Zetsu to launch a full-scale attack from underground, completely crippling the Allied Shinobi Forces' logistics and support.
"A clever scheme," Naruto sneered.
Kakashi's gaze didn't linger on the map. His fingers groped along the bottom of the metal box, touching a barely noticeable protrusion.
With a forceful pry, the hidden compartment opened with a "snap".
Inside lay a metal fragment the size of a fingernail.
The metal plate had jagged edges and was covered in rust and bloodstains, but the half- Hidden Leaf dart engraving in the center and the clear number "0114" on the back were like a heavy hammer, slamming into Kakashi's optic nerve.
Kakashi's fingers began to tremble uncontrollably.
That was a special number issued to Team Minato when they went on missions. And this number belonged to Obito Uchiha. During the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, half of Obito's body was crushed by rocks, and his Forehead Protector also shattered.
"Impossible... That guy's body was completely destroyed in that mission. No matter how strong his Wood Release Cells, it's impossible..." Kakashi muttered to himself, his dead fish eyes filled with bloodshot veins. He was trying his best to deny the most terrifying guess.
Naruto looked at Kakashi's dejected appearance without a trace of pity in his eyes. Instead, he took a step forward and shattered Kakashi's last illusion.
"Still making excuses for him?" Naruto's voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a knife. "Kamui's space-time Dōjutsu, the Sharingan's Chakra fluctuations, and that piece of scrap metal in your hand. Kakashi, your weakness is his biggest bargaining chip."
Kakashi gripped the metal fragment tightly, the edge cutting his palm and dripping blood onto the snow.
"Not only did he not die, he also personally released the Nine-Tails, causing the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and his wife." Naruto grabbed Kakashi's wrist, forcing him to look up. "Your teammate who's always late and keeps saying he wants to be Hokage has long been a madman who wants to drag the entire Shinobi World down with him."
Kakashi's lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a word for a long time. His energy seemed to have been drained away in an instant.
"Stop crying, now is not the time to dwell on the past."
Naruto shook off Kakashi's hand and pulled out a yellowed piece of paper from the bottom of a hidden compartment in the metal box.
The piece of paper contained only a few names, drawn in blood, and exuded a chilling, fishy smell.
"Obito's scheme involves far more than just 100,000 White Zetsu." Naruto unfolded the paper and slapped it against Kakashi's chest. "Look closely, see what's written on it."
Kakashi looked down, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
The first line of the list prominently displays four large characters: Impure World Reincarnation.
The note following it reads, "Kabuto Yakushi, pending contact." Below that are all names of notorious Shinobi World who have died, including even the titles of Kage Level shinobi from past generations.
Obito's trump card was never just living people from the very beginning.
"It's time to end this hiding trick." Naruto's voice was cold and hard, and his body radiated dazzling Golden Yang Release Chakra, instantly evaporating the surrounding wind and snow.
He declared, enunciating each word clearly. "Using the bones of the dead as bargaining chips—I will settle this old score today! Go back and tell the Five Kage that in this game of the Land of Iron, I now call the shots! The rules of the dead are also my rules!"
Kurotsuchi swallowed hard. Looking at that tall figure in the wind and snow, only one thought remained in her mind: This madman from the Uzumaki Clan is really going to completely shatter the heavens of the Shinobi World.
At the same time.
Inside an unnamed cave at the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rice Fields.
Drips sounded from the damp rock walls. In the dimly lit center of the cave stood a figure draped in a gray cloak.
The Kabuto Yakushi up his round-framed glasses, the lenses reflecting the churning dirt ground in front of him.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three dark red wooden coffins burst from the ground, crashing heavily onto the rocks. The surfaces of the coffins were engraved with intricate Sealing Jutsu techniques, and a nauseatingly cold Chakra seeped from the cracks.
Dou extended his pale, scaly tongue and licked the corner of his mouth.
"Let me push the art that Lord Orochimaru didn't finish to its peak..."
He slowly walked towards the central coffin and placed his palm on the lid. Inside the coffin, a massive pressure that had been dormant for decades surged wildly in the darkness, like a ferocious beast about to awaken.