The Fire Temple had a unique method of passing on intelligence: embedding coded messages in prayer sutras. Unless someone had specifically learned how to decipher them, no matter how many times they read the document, they would see nothing more than an ordinary prayer.
At Huanhai's command, his trusted disciple wrote the new orders into a Blessing Sutra. Tomorrow, the document would be carefully packaged and sent to every corner of the Land of Fire, eventually reaching countless ordinary people. Kazuko in Konoha would be just one of them.
Once deciphered, the coded message roughly meant, "Remain undercover."
Although the nobles and the Daimyō revered it as the foremost holy temple in the Land of Fire, the Fire Temple had no grand ambition to live and die alongside them. Right now, all it wanted was to know its place and attach itself to Konoha's rising power. Thus, what the Daimyō of the Land of Fire hoped for-having a long-planted hidden agent kill Uchiha Shingetsu-was, of course, utterly out of the question.
After the sutra containing the coded message left the Fire Temple, passed through numerous checkpoints, and crossed rugged mountains, an unwelcome visitor suddenly emerged from the shadows just as it was about to reach Konoha.
Late at night, the caravan members guarding its many valuables were drowsy. The few guards who were still alert watched only the more valuable gold, silver, and treasures, rather than the sutras that would fetch little money. It was then that a puddle of black sludge slipped silently into the wagon holding the sutras, practically right under their noses.
Despite having lived for hundreds upon hundreds of years, Black Zetsu had not grown any stronger. It was still as helplessly weak as when it had first been born. Yet over that immense span of