Obito looked at Orochimaru sprawled on the ground, no longer able to hide his expression.
Anger, frustration, and resentment twisted together on his scar-ravaged face.
"Useless trash!"
Black Zetsu lost his composure too. Looking at that still-trembling body, he spoke in a rush.
"And to think I went around robbing graves with him! Dug up all those graves! Gathered all those bodies! And this is what we get?"
His voice brimmed with fury at Orochimaru's failure to live up to his expectations.
But Impure World Reincarnation had not been undone.
Though Orochimaru had fallen, the formula he had imposed on Impure World Reincarnation was still running.
The enhanced Kage of past generations stopped attacking once they lost their controller.
They stood motionless like statues, their hollow eyes staring ahead at nothing anyone could discern.
Then they moved.
They did not attack Itachi and Shisui, nor did they attack the people of Konoha. Instead, they turned to face Obito and Black Zetsu.
The Third Raikage's lightning chakra flared again, this time directed at Obito.
The Second Mizukage's clam cast a genjutsu, shrouding the White Zetsu army in white mist.
The Third Kazekage's iron sand condensed into black spears, their tips aimed at Black Zetsu.
They were free.
Not freed from Impure World Reincarnation, but freed from Orochimaru's control.
These dead men, forcibly summoned into the world of the living, could finally act according to their own will.
And their will was to demand an answer from those who had desecrated their rest.
Obito's expression changed. So did Black Zetsu's.
"Orochimaru, you useless wretch!"
Obito's voice exploded across the battlefield.
Black Zetsu said nothing. The air around him grew oppressively heavy.
The plan he had spent a thousand years devising, the ally he had so carefully selected, the bodies he had gone