On a rainy night, a squad of Kage-level ninja moved covertly through Amegakure.
Walking through this weeping shinobi village, Zou Hyuga activated his Byakugan and scanned every inch of his surroundings. The evacuation of Amegakure's civilians had caused such a commotion that there was no way the enemy had failed to notice.
Did they not care about these civilians, or was their appearance itself a trap?
As he pondered this, Zou Hyuga headed toward the Tower in the central district and stopped before its rust-covered doors.
Before long, the Akatsuki members who had searched the other areas also gathered at the foot of the Tower.
After comparing their findings, they discovered that none of them had noticed anything unusual. All they could do was come here as planned.
Zou Hyuga nodded in acknowledgment. Rather than push open the Tower's doors, he formed hand seals and slammed both palms onto the ground, calling out in a low voice, "Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation Technique!"
Infused with senjutsu chakra, the ground slowly cracked open, silently revealing a passage leading down.
"He's better at senjutsu than I am!" the First Hokage remarked as he gazed into the abyss below. "I wonder just how strong the enemy is. Could he be even stronger than Madara?"
"Hard to say, but I'm not confident I can beat him either..."
After that casual reply, Zou Hyuga jumped down first, repeatedly pushing off the rock walls as he descended. The others followed close behind.
With his Byakugan active, Zou Hyuga soon found a route that led straight to the Underground Base.
Once below, they saw underground pipes arranged in a complex network, connecting to Amegakure's city system. The organization harboring that Otsutsuki had no shortage of talented ordinary people, who lived there and conducted research.
Zou Hyuga did not