"Impossible-absolutely impossible!"
Black Zetsu's voice suddenly rose, shrill and distorted. He had lost control.
His black body writhed violently under the restraint of the Yin-Yang Release Black Rods. The dark substance along his edges kept trying to slip out to either side, seep underground, or disperse into the air-
But every attempt was thwarted by those spear-like Yin-Yang Release Black Rods. It was as though he had been pinned to an invisible net, and all his struggles were futile.
He raised his head, his pitch-black eyes locked on Tianyi, his voice hoarse with disbelief.
"Hyuga Tianyi, who exactly are you?! These things-I've never told anyone about them!"
Tianyi calmly regarded Black Zetsu's twisted face, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly with unhurried composure.
"Hamura Ōtsutsuki told me all of this."
Black Zetsu's body froze that instant.
"Hamura Ōtsutsuki..."
His voice abruptly dropped from a shriek to a barely audible murmur, and all his struggles ceased.
His lips moved faintly, repeating that name as though turning over a signal that had been forgotten for far too long.
"Hamura Ōtsutsuki... Hamura Ōtsutsuki... So it was him..."
He slowly raised his head, his gaze turning complicated and shadowed, as though reassessing the man before him, those eyes, and all the details that had repeatedly thwarted his calculations. "I see... No wonder you have the Tenseigan!"
His voice gradually faded, that hysterical anger giving way to something heavier.
"Hahaha... I lost... I lost. I lost..." His gaze fell to the ground, his dark body trembling faintly beneath the Yin-Yang Release Black Rods. The sharpness gradually drained from his voice, exposing the exhaustion buried beneath it for countless years.
"Mother... It's been a thousand years, and now I can't save you..."
He had schemed for a thousand years, endured humiliation, and used every means