"I woke up to find my little pets missing from home. Turns out someone caught them and sold them as merchandise. You really don't think much of their owner, do you?"
The newly appeared [Black Zetsu] gradually coalesced from a puddle of sludge into a humanoid form. Sitting with brazen arrogance, he pulled nine scrolls from somewhere inside his clothes.
With a light toss, the scrolls floated up and circled him in the air as he spoke in a flippant tone.
"Oh, honestly. You made me look everywhere~"
At the sight of those familiar scrolls, Tobirama Senju's expression changed drastically. Beside him, Watanabe Ichiro's Shadow Clone vanished the instant [Black Zetsu] appeared.
Watanabe Ichiro's real body had been guarding the Tailed Beasts. Something had happened to him!
Two minutes earlier.
Watanabe Ichiro's real body sat cross-legged in a spell formation painstakingly crafted by Tobirama Senju, supposedly capable of suppressing Tailed Beast Chakra.
Several Konoha Jonin stood guard beside him, warily scanning their surroundings.
But they were of little use, really. If anything went wrong with the Tailed Beasts, only Watanabe Ichiro, with his powerful Sharingan ocular power, could briefly suppress them. The others could only restrain them with ninjutsu, offering little meaningful support. Ichiro would have to look after them instead, which would only tie his hands. So, at his suggestion, Konoha had assigned just a token handful of guards.
Sensing that the time was about right, Watanabe Ichiro knocked out everyone around him one by one. He created a few apparently fatal wounds, staged the scene, and left a Wood Clone with its belly seemingly torn open to play the gravely wounded victim. His real body equipped the skill [Disguise].
([Disguise]: When you wish to disguise yourself as someone else, provided you have spent a certain amount of time with them, no one can see through your disguise.)
Watanabe Ichiro had no taste for being spied on. He had tolerated Black Zetsu following him for so long, believing himself undetected, not because he lacked a way to deal with him, but to fulfill [Disguise]'s prerequisite.
Black Zetsu was always extremely cautious. Catching him and forcing him to stay long enough to meet that condition would have been no easy task. So Watanabe Ichiro had eliminated Madara Uchiha and found a way to keep Black Zetsu's attention focused on himself for an extended period.
At last, he had fulfilled the time requirement. He could disguise himself as Black Zetsu and pull off something big at the "Five Kage Summit."
After holding back for so long, his moment had finally arrived.
Watanabe Ichiro activated [Disguise] and selected Black Zetsu. His exterior immediately felt sticky and slimy-disgusting enough to make his skin crawl.
He couldn't be the only one subjected to this disgust. He chose to share it equally with everyone.
So he decided to portray the great [Black Zetsu] as an unpredictable lunatic.
"Hey, I know you're impatient, but don't get impatient just yet~"
"You caught my little pets, and now you want information about me? Well, here I am, delivering it myself. Could Konoha's intelligence possibly be more accurate than what I tell you in person?"
"You, the white-haired brat over there. I know you have a very interesting technique, but I hate techniques that let people zip all over the place. Don't make me angry, okay?"
Watanabe Ichiro saw Tobirama Senju holding a hand behind his back. He was probably either preparing to teleport away with Flying Thunder God or trying to reverse-summon the Wood Clone playing the wounded victim back there, so Ichiro promptly warned him.
I'm handing out intelligence here, and you're not even paying attention?
Look at those points shooting up on my system. The real Black Zetsu must be sobbing in some corner somewhere. You'd better appreciate this.
"Black Zetsu, don't get too full of yourself."
Hashirama Senju's face darkened. Watching Black Zetsu act as though no one else mattered, he clenched his fists.
So this was [Black Zetsu]?
He was the one who led Watanabe Ichiro-the little-brother card from the Warring States Period-astray, made his strength skyrocket, and left Tobirama badly wounded, nearly getting me beheaded.
He was the one who helped an enemy who hated Uchiha Izuna, causing Madara's younger brother to die in the ninja village we built together.
He was the one who made Madara Uchiha return a changed man after spending some time hunting him down, turning him from a gentle, kind person-through Hashirama's rose-colored glasses-into a tyrant bent on conquering the world.
Everything, every last thing!
It was all [Black Zetsu]'s doing!
[Black Zetsu]!!!
As he stared at Black Zetsu, his eyes slowly grew bloodshot, and he reached behind himself toward Tobirama Senju.
Tobirama Senju hesitated for a moment. After Hashirama Senju's repeated urging, he sighed and passed him a small bottle from his ninja tool pouch.
The bottle contained just one pill, modified from the Akimichi Clan's secret medicine. It could instantly unleash the body's full potential, but the price was enormous, and the backlash severe.
With Hashirama Senju's body in its current condition, taking it could lead to only one outcome: death.
This would be Hashirama Senju's final battle, the battle that marked his exit.
Wasn't letting a mighty warrior die on the battlefield rather than a sickbed a kindness in its own right?
Watching Hashirama Senju's surging fighting spirit, Watanabe Ichiro figured he wouldn't be able to settle down and listen to the intelligence he had come to deliver.
Then...
We'll fight first and talk afterward.
"Oh my~ Why is everyone looking at me like that~ You're making me embarrassed, and when I get embarrassed..."
[Black Zetsu] writhed about theatrically.
"...I like to kill people to ease the feeling."
"[Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence]!"
Two overlapping voices rang out at once.
Towering trees erupted, crushing and tearing at one another. Vines attacked each other, sending wood chips flying everywhere.
Of the ninja unfortunate enough to be caught in the two combatants' attacks, the stronger ones managed to escape. The weaker ones were ripped to pieces the instant the techniques appeared.
When gods fought, mortals suffered.
With the complete version of [Wood Release] he had purchased from the system, Watanabe Ichiro traded blows evenly with Hashirama Senju.
[Act at Will] let him clap his hands together and summon whatever he called out, just like Hashirama Senju.
[True Damage Infusion] let him easily shatter Wood Release defenses, giving him a slight edge in every close-range exchange.
[Disguise] let him wear [Black Zetsu]'s appearance and use his Sharingan without fear of discovery.
["Coincidence"] let him exchange fate points to alter how events unfolded whenever he wished, without worrying about things going wrong.
Watanabe Ichiro didn't have many system skills, but he made the most of every one.
Still, he had to admit that Hashirama Senju truly lived up to his status as Asura's reincarnation. His strength was practically a cheat. He was so difficult to handle that the Three Tomoe in Watanabe Ichiro's eyes couldn't keep up with his speed, forcing him to equip the Mangekyo as well.
Mangekyo skill-[Amenominaka] Enhanced all combat attributes, boosted ninjutsu, reduced all ninjutsu and ocular power consumption, and grew with the eyes' evolution. Effects included, but were not limited to: Taijutsu enhancement: predicted Taijutsu attacks and countered attacks from blind spots. Ninjutsu enhancement: massively expanded the range of various release techniques, including enormous area-of-effect ninjutsu such as the flowering forest. Ocular power consumption: reduced the cost of activating any ocular technique to one-tenth.
It was a Mangekyo skill that enhanced combat ability across the board. Compared with other Mangekyo abilities that could pull off all sorts of fancy tricks, it was plain and unremarkable.
But...
Watanabe Ichiro flexed his fists, abundant power coursing through his body.
It had truly been a long time since he'd fought a battle where every punch hit flesh.
His eyes blazed with fighting spirit. He lowered his body and gathered his strength, then met Hashirama Senju's leaping attack from behind, accompanied by Wood Release, with a punch of his own.
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