White Zetsu

About an hour later, a support force of 300 men from the Land of Night arrived as scheduled.

Hisana, Oboro, and Nene, who arrived with the group, immediately saw the massive ruins of Uzushiogakure.

Looking around, there was no intact land to be seen; everywhere were collapsed buildings and potholed roads.

A gust of wind swept across the ruins of the Uzushiogakure, stirring up clouds of dust and carrying a damp and bloody scent.

It's as if the once peaceful and tranquil village is just a fleeting illusion in their memories.

"Honestly, this is a bit too much..."

Nene crouched down and touched the soil at the edge of the village ruins. A hint of inquiry flashed in her red pupils, as if she was trying to discern some easily overlooked information from the loose soil.

Hisana and Oboro, standing to the side, wore complicated expressions, with a hint of sadness flashing in their eyes.

Although they have returned to the Land of Night very few times since marrying into it, this place is still their second home.

Seeing my childhood paradise reduced to this miserable state, it would be a lie to say I feel nothing.

"Let's go see Elder Zhaoming first."

Hisana took a deep breath, said something to Oboro and Nene, and then turned and walked towards the temporary Camp that had been set up not far away.

On their way here, the three of them had a basic understanding of the extent of the Uzumaki Clan's losses in this incident.

The current clan leader was killed in battle, and many elders also perished in the battles against the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Mist Village.

Many young people also fought, burning their lives and fighting to the last moment.

Of the remaining powerful elders, only Uzumaki Teruaki remains; the rest of the ninja clan members are mostly young people in their teens to thirties.

Of these ninja clan members, nearly seventy survived.

As for the ordinary clansmen, there were slightly more, about two or three hundred people.

Compared to its peak, the Uzushiogakure has shrunk by almost 80% of its strength.

The only thing that gave Hisana peace of mind was that her parents were unharmed; they were among the first to evacuate the battlefield and had narrowly escaped this calamity.

On the other side--

"My lord, I'm going to see Elder Zhaoming now. Would you like to come with me?"

Standing in front of Doichi was a woman of average height with long red hair, about twenty years old, with a pair of crimson pupils and wearing glasses. She appeared quite quiet and gentle.

Although her face was calm, Doichi could still see a deep sadness in her eyes.

This quiet woman wearing glasses was Erika other than his concubine, Oda (Uzumaki).

She was a support member who came with the support team, and also served as an important bridge between the Land of Night and the Uzumaki Clan.

"Go check the situation first, I'll come later. I need to interrogate the prisoners I captured now. This incident wasn't accidental; there might be more people involved than just Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Mist Village."

Doichi waved his hand, telling Erika to go and handle it first, and he would go later.

"I understand, I'll head over now."

Erika nodded, knowing Doichi had important things to do, so she didn't insist.

She also wanted to know which other force was behind the attack on the Uzumaki Clan.

Watching Erika leave, Doichi walked towards a nearby small wooden house.

This wooden house is perfectly square and standard; it wasn't built by hand, but rather a temporary dwelling created using Wood Release Ninjutsu.

Yes, the entire temporary Camp here was created by the Wood Release ninja of the Land of Night using Wood Release Ninjutsu.

"General."

Upon seeing Doichi enter, the Land of Night ninjas and Samurai working there all put down their tasks and bowed.

"How's the situation?"

Doichi ignored these things and instead looked at the person in charge here.

The person in charge was the Land of Night's ambassador to Uzushiogakure, and also one of the Land of Night's Wood Release ninja, possessing strength far exceeding that of ordinary Jonin.

"No, these guys are impossible to communicate with effectively. The only effective communication is when they claim to be ' White Zetsu '."

The Wood Release ninja shook his head, indicating his helplessness.

As he spoke, his eyes looked helplessly at the three white-skinned humanoid creatures bound by wooden vines. Along with the vines were sealing Sealing Talisman that suppressed their Chakra, preventing them from escaping.

Doichi looked at the three white-skinned creatures— White Zetsu —who were heavily sealed by Wood Release and Sealing Talisman.

When he fought against the Third Raikage, his kind had also appeared in the Land of Lightning.

However, at the time he felt that he shouldn't alert the enemy, so he didn't take much action.

Unexpectedly, upon returning and communicating with the Embassy here, I learned that they had arrested several accomplices of these white-skinned creatures.

Furthermore, according to Embassy personnel, this group of white-skinned humanoid creatures calling themselves "White Zetsu" suddenly appeared at the sites of the Hidden Mist Village and Hidden Cloud Village attacks, with the clear objective of destroying the communication devices of the Embassy and the Land of Night, and launching an attack.

If it weren't for the Wood Release ninja planted here, the Land of Night envoys stationed here would most likely have been completely wiped out, and the blame would have been firmly placed on the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Mist Village.

"Hello~ Good afternoon, the hulking general of the Land of Night."

"Wow, it's even taller up close."

"With such a tall body, it must poop a lot."

The three White Zetsu chattered incoherently, seemingly believing themselves to be quite humorous.

However, none of the people here were laughing; instead, they looked at them with great difficulty, unsure of what to do.

Clearly, they had already experienced the absurd thought processes of White Zetsu, making effective communication impossible.

Although they will answer any question, their answers are often completely different from what the question is asking.

"Who are you? Why are you here? Are you involved in the attack on Uzushiogakure by Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Mist Village? Is someone pulling the strings behind the scenes?"

Doichi remained unsmiling, completely ignoring the people's terrible remarks, and instead asked a series of questions, directly addressing the core of the issue.

However, the three White Zetsu continued to daydream, seemingly oblivious to what Doichi was talking about, and instead discussed with playful smiles what to eat that night.

Have you used any interrogation techniques?

Doichi looked at the Wood Release ninja.

The Wood Release ninja nodded.

"Minister Rikuo visited not long ago and even used his Sharingan to interrogate them. He discovered that a high-level hypnotic trap had been planted in their minds; if their minds were forcibly probed, their brains would suddenly explode..."

The Wood Release ninja pointed to two headless White Zetsu statues not far away, along with scattered white debris.

It was the failed interrogation that led to the White Zetsu's head exploding.

"..."

Doichi frowned slightly; this result surprised him.

It's surprising that even Rikuo's Sharingan couldn't uncover the secrets of these strange guys, which shows just how sophisticated the person who planted the Genjutsu trap in White Zetsu's mind was.

If Rikuo hadn't already used the Flying Thunder God Technique to return to the Land of Night and take charge, he really would have wanted to ask about the details.

However, through this incident, he finally realized that there were indeed major problems with these White Zetsu, and he had to investigate further along this path.

"Take them back and find someone to break the Genjutsu trap in their minds."

Doichi quickly made a decision to take White Zetsu back and find professionals to crack the trap in the other party's mind.

No matter how sophisticated a technique is, there is no situation where it cannot be solved; the only difference is the speed of its development.

After giving his instructions, Doichi left the interrogation hut and headed towards the Uzumaki Clan's temporary residence.

We can explore the White Zetsu matter later when we get back. Right now, the most urgent task is to arrange for the Uzumaki Clan to relocate as soon as possible.