"...The news about Deidara was a trap, but it wasn't aimed at the Akatsuki. It was aimed at everyone." Seeing them waiting for his explanation, Itachi thought his plan was already halfway to success and began delivering the Third Set of Talking Points he had prepared long ago.
"Konoha took hostages from the major Ninja villages during this operation, then kept using reports that those hostages were in the prison to ambush their rescuers. Kisame and I were watched the moment we arrived in Konoha.
"At first, I planned to infiltrate the prison with Kisame by creating a diversion. He would feign a frontal assault while I used genjutsu to get inside and confirm the situation. But not only was he ambushed, I ran into the First myself."
"The First? Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi?"
Everyone's heart tightened at that name.
Zetsu, in particular, couldn't help recalling how many years he had waited before finally finding such a perfect reincarnation as Madara Uchiha!
And the man had eagerly bought into his Infinite Tsukuyomi plan. He looked like the ideal candidate to rescue Mother, only to prove utterly incapable of beating Hashirama Senju!
Madara Uchiha had been clever enough to use his own death to create another opportunity, but...
If he could have beaten Hashirama, would he really have needed to wait until he died of old age without getting a chance?
He had even needed to figure out how to resurrect himself and start a new plan.
That had forced Zetsu's grand plan to rescue Mother back yet again, with all sorts of schemes and contingencies laid out as he waited for the right moment...
Zetsu absolutely loathed the name Hashirama Senju.
"You encountered the God of Shinobi and still managed to escape unharmed?"
Konan pressed him.
"He may