After discussing a few more details, everyone left one after another.
But Obito and Black Zetsu's Shadow Clone did not go far. Instead, they met in another, more secluded underground cavern in the Land of Rain.
Rainwater dripped through cracks in the rock, its monotonous echoes breaking the silence.
Obito took off his mask, his expression utterly grim.
"Black Zetsu, there are no outsiders here now. Tell me the truth. Can the Eye of the Moon Plan still go ahead?"
Black Zetsu's Shadow Clone fell silent for a moment, his yellow eyes flickering faintly in the shadows.
The things he had said earlier in front of Nagato and the others about "regrouping" and "continuing the plan" had only been meant to keep that vessel for the Rinnegan steady.
The reality was-one Rinnegan had been lost, his original body was dead, and the Akatsuki had suffered devastating losses.
And Lin Ze...
That man's strength had already surpassed anything he had known in a thousand years.
Even his original body, with "Shadow Clone Group Assault" and "Yomotsu Hirasaka," had been killed. As a clone with only a third of that strength left, how would provoking Lin Ze again be any different from throwing his life away?
But...
Black Zetsu slowly raised his head, a trace of obsession that had burned for a thousand years flashing through his eyes.
This was the closest he had come in a thousand years to rescuing his mother, Kaguya!
The Rinnegan had appeared, the Ten-Tails' Husk was in his hands, and the Eye of the Moon Plan was almost within reach-was he supposed to give up just because of Lin Ze?
No.
Absolutely not.
Yet when he thought of Lin Ze's terrifying strength, a trace of lingering fear flashed through Black Zetsu's eyes again.
*Perhaps... he should