"That shark-face has rotten luck, getting targeted by you!"
Oto Uchiha sounded rather wistful. She had undergone Zou Hyuga's experiments many times, and although they had rapidly increased her strength, the process had been decidedly inhumane.
To provoke the emotional upheaval she needed to evolve her Sharingan, Zou had used all sorts of methods to stimulate her.
These included, but were not limited to, stopping stories halfway through and deliberately infuriating her, among a whole series of other nasty tricks.
The most memorable had been the time she awakened her three tomoe. She and Zou had been surrounded by enemy ninja, and to save her, Zou had used his body to block hundreds of highly poisonous senbon.
After awakening her three tomoe, she had slaughtered the Sunagakure troops lying in ambush around them and discovered Zou's secret.
Although Zou had very little talent for ninjutsu, he could enter the legendary Sage Mode and even withstand attacks on the level of explosive tags head-on.
"No, his luck is very good..." Zou Hyuga spread his hands.
If not for Kisame's unusual constitution, he would have long since died from the natural chakra. The chakra inside him was more than ten times that of the previous test subjects.
He had survived entirely thanks to his unusual constitution, which allowed him to absorb chakra.
Kisame's constitution was extremely similar to that of the Samehada Zou had acquired, and Samehada had once been a little fish trailing behind the Three-Tails' rear.
Zou Hyuga even suspected that Kisame's ancestors had some connection to the Three-Tails-not that sort of connection, but something along the lines of Kinkaku and Ginkaku eating the Nine-Tails' flesh.
Otherwise, there was no explaining Kisame's enormous chakra reserves or his ability to absorb chakra.
In short, Kisame had saved himself, successfully surviving to become one of the test subjects.
The wind was rather biting that night. Oto Uchiha pulled her collar tighter and looked at the smiling Zou Hyuga. "Zou, should we keep experimenting tonight?"
Zou Hyuga instinctively started to nod. Although he could not study natural chakra, they could continue working on coordinating their ninjutsu. He also needed an opponent of Oto Uchiha's caliber to keep his strength from slipping.
A ninja's strength was not static. Years without the necessary training would lead to a noticeable decline.
Just then, Zou Hyuga suddenly glanced toward the camp out of the corner of his eye, his expression turning serious.
"Zou, what is it? An enemy we weren't expecting?" Oto Uchiha lowered her voice, resting a hand on her sword hilt.
As a rule, whenever Zou wore that expression, there was definitely a troublesome enemy around-at least a chunin.
"No, I saw wrong." Zou Hyuga shook his head. There was no fourth person within his Byakugan's field of vision.
"Even you can see wrong?" Oto Uchiha was rather surprised. Byakugan users were the scouts of the battlefield, and Zou Hyuga was among the best of them.
"That's perfectly normal..." Zou Hyuga looked at Oto Uchiha. "The Byakugan isn't all-powerful, and neither is the Sharingan."
"Why did you have to drag the Sharingan into it?" Oto Uchiha complained.
"Because I thought it sounded more balanced that way..." After a pause, Zou Hyuga said, "Anyway, let's keep watch. No more strenuous activity tonight. Conserve your strength."
"Got it." Oto Uchiha nodded helplessly. She knew Zou Hyuga must be hiding something.
But since Zou Hyuga would not say anything, she would not ask. He had too many secrets. If she pried too deeply, she might get killed and have her body dumped in the river near the clan compound.
After patrolling the surroundings, Zou Hyuga lay beneath a tree and pretended to sleep, leaving Oto on guard.
He had indeed sensed a fluctuation in chakra just now, but after activating his Byakugan, he had found nothing at all.
An ordinary Hyuga ninja might have let their guard down. After all, ninja capable of fooling the Byakugan were few and far between in the shinobi world-practically nonexistent.
But Zou Hyuga happened to know of a few techniques and creatures that could do it, such as White Zetsu or sophisticated clone techniques.
That fluctuation, at once familiar and unfamiliar, had prompted an unbidden association in Zou Hyuga's mind.
But even if he had guessed something, there was nothing he could do about the ninja lurking in the shadows right now.
He was only an ordinary chunin with a rudimentary grasp of hand-to-hand combat, barely able to use a few basic ninjutsu. He had no way to counter Space-Time Ninjutsu.
Could anyone really distort space with taijutsu?
One kilometer outside the camp.
Two figures stood atop a pitch-black rock. The one wearing a striped mask watched the flickering campfire.
Beside him, a humanoid creature had only half his body exposed above the ground. He grinned at the masked man.
"Little Obito, it seems your old teammate found a new squad after you died..."
"Zetsu, please call me Lord Madara, or Tobi, the masked man!" The masked man glanced at the humanoid creature beside him and spoke coldly.
"Got it, Little Obito." Zetsu flashed an obnoxious grin.
Suppressing the urge to kill Zetsu, the masked man sighed inwardly. There was no point getting angry with a brainless White Zetsu.
Even if he killed one White Zetsu, the countless others would be just as brainless.
Holding back the urge to complain, the masked man turned his gaze back toward the camp. He had merely been passing through when he sensed a familiar presence and came over to take a look.
Sure enough, he had found Kakashi again, surrounded once more by Konoha ninja.
Unfortunately, neither he nor Rin was there beside him.
After lingering silently for a while, the masked man looked ahead and held out his hand. A vortex gradually appeared before him.
He wanted to look at Kakashi a little longer and reminisce about their happy past. But the Obito of those days was already dead. The only one still living in this world was Tobi, the masked man.
"Let's go, Zetsu!"
The masked man looked at White Zetsu and said, "To the Land of Rain!"
"Are we finally starting the task that man entrusted to us?" Zetsu asked with his obnoxious grin.
The masked man nodded, took one last look at the camp, and disappeared into the vortex.
That man had been dead for several months. It was time to begin carrying out the plan.
The first step was to travel to Amegakure, guarded by the Demigod of the Ninja World. There, a fledgling organization called the Akatsuki dreamed of peace, and there was also the legendary Sage's Eye.
Only by joining that organization could he carry out the rest of the plan-a plan that would take years, perhaps even more than a decade, to complete.
Inside the camp.
The instant the masked man left, Kakashi opened his eyes where he lay on the ground and looked around.
Huff, huff...
Drenched in cold sweat, Kakashi began to get his bearings.
He had just dreamed again of the moment he drove his Chidori through Rin's heart, and of Obito's final words to him before his death.
"Kakashi, what's wrong?" Ninja remained alert even in their sleep, and the disturbance had woken Asuma.
Kakashi said nothing. He merely rose slowly and headed out of the camp. He needed to clear his head.
"They're all nuts!" Asuma cursed under his breath, then felt for his cigarettes and left the camp too. He also needed a smoke to calm down.
Before you continue