The unrest in Konoha gradually died down. After days without a lead, ANBU moved its investigation into the missing Archive ninja out of public view.
An open investigation could easily unsettle the villagers and weaken their trust in the Konoha leadership.
Fugaku had paid no attention to ANBU's movements these past few days. Orochimaru had left no trace, and no one would suspect him.
With his standing, gaining access to the Scroll of Seals would not have been difficult. The Konoha leadership remained convinced that the scroll was the culprit's target. No one had considered Impure World Reincarnation.
After all, the technique was little known. The First Hokage had banned it almost as soon as it was created.
That mistake in their intelligence had led the Konoha leadership astray.
Fugaku returned to the Underground Chamber beneath Naka Shrine. The Warning Trap he had set earlier was gone, which meant Black Zetsu had been here.
Perhaps this was a weakness of Black Zetsu's, though not quite one. His goal had always been to free Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
He had waited over a thousand years. Despite his caution, a millennium of scheming had gradually made him look down on everyone else.
For all that time, he had worked behind the scenes, stirring up trouble. No one had ever discovered him or managed to hurt him, and that had made him somewhat arrogant.
Even now, he surely did not believe his cover had been blown. To deal with Black Zetsu in the future, Fugaku could look for things connected to him and use them to lure him out.
Without Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, that was the best way to seal Black Zetsu or kill him.
As far as Fugaku knew, Planetary Devastation empowered by Six Paths Power was the only way. If Kaguya Ōtsutsuki could not