The Plan Begins

Ye stood at the back of the team, slightly abandoning his usual lazy posture.

Kannabi Bridge.

It had finally come.

The dividing line for every tragedy in the original story, the turning point that would reshape the entire Shinobi World.

The three scarlet tomoe in his eyes slowly turned. At last, the long-still lake in his heart rippled with genuine waves.

This time.

With me here, no one gets to follow the script.

At the same time, deep beneath the Land of Fire.

Inside a dark, damp stone cave, thick white pipes crisscrossed and connected to a stone seat in the deepest recesses.

A mass of black liquid silently emerged from the shadows beneath the tree roots, gradually forming half a human shape.

"Lord Madara."

The withered figure on the stone seat, dry as rotten wood, slowly lifted his eyelids. His eyes carried a heavy aura of death.

Black Zetsu's voice was low and hoarse.

"Minato's Team... has accepted the Kannabi Bridge mission."

Madara Uchiha sat there quietly.

Old, emaciated, as though he might scatter with the wind at any moment.

His bony fingers lightly tapped the stone twice.

"This subordinate has reported everything truthfully."

Half of Black Zetsu's body remained hidden in the darkness.

Madara did not open his eyes.

"In that case."

His hoarse voice seeped into the cracks in the stone and silently spread.

"The plan begins."

Black Zetsu lowered his head. "Yes."

The stone cave returned to deathly silence.

Yet a malicious conspiracy had already silently stretched its hand out from the shadows.

Konoha Mission Hall.

The air in the corridor carried an inescapable oppression.

The wooden floor creaked faintly beneath the feet of passing shinobi.

Minato held a top-secret scroll sealed with red wax, his gaze passing over the faces of his four