Konoha Root Headquarters.
Zero stood before the projector as dense streams of data on the wall updated in real time. Naruto sat beside the conference table, his fingers lightly tapping the surface in an increasingly slow rhythm.
"Commissar, Spiritual Pollution incidents across all countries have suddenly stopped." Zero turned around, his voice calm. "The infected no longer seem to be getting worse, and new cases have dropped to zero."
Naruto stopped tapping.
"When?"
"There have been no new reports since yesterday afternoon. Considering the speed of information transmission, it should have happened even earlier." Zero brought up a map. "The Land of Waves, the Land of Whirlpools, the Land of Hot Water, the Land of Water, even the Land of Rain—the spread of Pollution in every region plummeted to zero during the same period."
Naruto stared at the red markers on the map, his frown deepening.
"The spread rate dropped to zero?" He raised his head. "Not gradually slowing down, but suddenly stopping?"
"Yes." Zero nodded. "That goes against every known pattern of transmission."
Naruto rose and walked over to the map. He pointed at several key nodes, his voice low.
"This isn't good."
Zero said nothing, waiting for him to continue.
"There is only one possibility for such a sudden stop." Naruto turned around, his gaze as cold as ice. "The mastermind behind this has chosen to pull in the net."
Zero was slightly taken aback.
"Pull in the net?"
"That's right." Naruto braced both hands against the table, staring at the map. "They've already completed some kind of experiment or arrangement. They stopped now to conceal their true objective and tracks."
Zero fell silent for a moment before bringing up another set of data.
"If that's the case, what is their objective?"
Naruto did not answer. He merely