Black Zetsu froze for a moment.
He fell silent for a while, then laughed.
It was a release steeped in a thousand years of history, all pretense stripped away, finally free to tell the truth.
"Heh heh, Obito."
Black Zetsu drifted up to the bars, gripped one with a hand, and tilted his head as he studied the figure curled up in the corner.
Obito raised his head and looked at Black Zetsu. There was no anger in his Sharingan, only an exhausted silence, waiting for judgment.
Black Zetsu began to speak.
He started with Kaguya's arrival, the planting of the God Tree, the Sage of Six Paths sealing his mother away, and the thousand years he had spent manipulating events from the shadows of the shinobi world.
Word by word, like peeling an onion, he stripped away the lies he had woven over the years, layer by layer.
Infinite Tsukuyomi was not a genjutsu to save the world. It was a sacrifice.
White Zetsu were not evolved humans. They were weapons.
Madara was not a savior. He was a pawn.
And Obito, neither were you.
I was the one who told you Infinite Tsukuyomi could create a world where Rin was still alive.
I was also the one who led you to believe this world was false, that only dreams were real.
Obito's eyes slowly widened in the darkness, the Sharingan patterns in his pupils beginning to tremble.
Black Zetsu finished speaking.
The corridor was so quiet they could have heard dust settling.
Orochimaru was the first to break the silence. His low laughter rose steadily until it became wild, unrestrained howling.
"Interesting, interesting! Hahahaha!"
His golden, slit-pupiled eyes swept back and forth between Black Zetsu and Kaguya.
"So it was all to resurrect your mother-the progenitor of chakra