Once the Heart Restriction began its sustained backlash, the Masked Man's right hand was the first to lose sensation.
The white repair tissue had not died.
It was still growing, but it no longer obeyed Obito's own chakra.
With every heartbeat, the black core sent out a ring of fine lines, pulling the new tissue in the direction left by the Clearance Command.
It was as though his entire right side were reminding him that the pain would stop as soon as he opened a spatial passage to the four Witnesses.
A White Zetsu knelt beside the stone platform.
"You don't need to trust us."
"Just complete the final old command."
"They were your enemies to begin with."
The Masked Man did not look at White Zetsu.
"And after the command is completed?"
White Zetsu answered that the restriction would go dormant again.
"What about the next time I ask questions?"
"As long as you don't stray from the plan, there won't be a next time."
This was the treatment Black Zetsu offered.
Not removing the lock.
But teaching the person locked inside never to touch the door again.
The Masked Man raised his still-mobile left hand and burned all four locations White Zetsu had delivered.
His heart immediately contracted violently.
The white tissue on his right chest cracked as though it had dried out, the fissures spreading all the way to his shoulder.
He made no further attempt to cover it with wood release cells.
Every new growth would give the black core more territory to control.
The Space Slot in the Land of Rivers received seven irregular pulses in succession.
The pulses were not a distress signal.
They came from spatial fluctuations that his right eye could not fully stabilize through the pain.
A stabbing pain appeared in