There was dead silence on the sidelines.
"Zabuza-sama has given up?"
"He never gave up..."
"He didn't even pull out the knife just now for the second time."
"But-"
Zabuza Insert Kubikiribōchō into the ground until the entire blade is half buried.
"Stop it." He raised his head and looked in the direction of the observation room with a loud voice, "If you can't beat me, you can't beat me. Your technique doesn't make sense at all."
"Didn't it make Kai six times stronger."
"It erases the line between 'beatable' and 'unbeatable' directly from the battlefield."
In the observation room, Xiong's finger lifted from the record key.
"Sixth Gate, the endurance time is forty-seven seconds." He read the data, "Nineteen seconds longer than the last puppet."
"Record it." Senju Chen stood behind him, looking at the beating curve on the screen, "Each First Gate from First Gate to Seventh Gate, engrave the maximum endurance time into the core of the puppet. Set it as a hard limit, and the door will automatically close when the time is up."
"Why do we have to close the door automatically?"
"Because not everyone is Might Guy." Senju Chen said, "He has practiced Eight Gates Released Formation for so many years, and he knows what he is doing. But we use The person who uses this puppet in the future may just be a Chunin or even Genin who has just graduated. He will get on top of it. Once people get on top of it, they will want to use First Gate again."
Scorpion understands.
"You want the puppet to calm them down."
"Yes."
Orochimaru stood up from the seat next to him and licked his lips.
"Little Chen, have you realized something?"
"What."
"The battle just now was not 'Might Guy defeated Zabuza Momochi'." Orochimaru's snake pupils reflected the light of the screen, "It was 'a Sixth Gate puppet of forty-seven seconds defeated a Seven Ninja Swordsmen captain'."
"The only value of Might Guy is that he knows how to make better use of Gate of Opening's rear body."
"We can copy the rest."
Senju Chen smiled.
"Teacher, isn't this exactly our purpose?"
Outside the venue, Might Guy had already sat up from Soul Conversion Device, ran towards Zabuza and held his hand.
"Senior! Those swords you just made were so beautiful! If it weren't for Eight Gates Released Formation, my puppet would have died three times!"
"... Can you please stop saying this with such excitement?" Zabuza withdrew his hand, "I was beaten into slime by a guy dressed like a gymnastics broadcaster. If this news is reported to Kirigakure, how can I lead the team in the future?"
"Then let's play again tomorrow. Maybe you'll win by then."
"Hit you on the head."
The crowd of onlookers gathered around and chatted with each other.
"That new puppet is so awesome!"
"Do you think that the explosion just now was the puppet's new ability, or was it the person's own secret technique?"
"Can everyone be so explosive with the new version of puppets used in the future?"
"Yes, instructor, when can I get the new puppet?"
In an instant, everyone who witnessed this fight became extremely curious about the new puppet.
Meanwhile, Land of Rain border, Undercurrent River.
Obito stood on the river beach, staring at the water with one eye.
"Tell me, where did Nagato hide? We almost turned Land of Rain upside down, right?" Obito said to Black Zetsu.
"Obito, I got new news..." Black Zetsu, who had just emerged from the ground, suddenly said to Obito urgently.
"..."
"Are you sure?" After listening to Black Zetsu's report, Obito's pupils trembled.
"I'm sure." Black Zetsu popped out the other half of his body from the mud at his feet. "The intelligence network of the underground black market has recorded many times. Those 'Twins' were beaten into mud on the battlefield, then stood up again, and had the ability to escape directly underground."
"Mayfly Technique." Obito said these four words in a very soft voice.
"Not only. Change appearance, copy body shape, the same face appears on the battlefield--" Black Zetsu's speech slowed down, "Obito, there is only one thing in the world that can do these."
Obito didn't answer.
He clenched his right hand tightly, and the Sharingan under Forehead Protector shrank a bit.
"Let's go back and have a look."
Land of Fire South, deep in the mountains.
When Black Zetsu took Obito to dive into that underground space.
Obito The moment he saw the outside, for ten seconds, he did not move or make a sound, and his one eye remained motionless.
Black Zetsu leaned out from his shoulder and was speechless for a moment.
--The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path that was sealed underground is still in its original location.
But it grew taller.
The body that was originally sitting cross-legged pulled out countless branches, which were pale and thick, layer by layer, breaking half of the cave's dome. The roots came out from the ground.
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path in front of me no longer looks like a statue.
That's a tree.
A tree nearly a hundred meters tall, completely white and without a single leaf.
The branches are covered with cocoons.
That kind of white, oval, translucent, one after another, from the roots to the crown, there are countless. In some cocoons, you can see the curled up outline. Some cocoons are empty, with the cracks facing downwards, and a thin film hanging down.
There is a track under the tree.
The metal track extends from a newly dug tunnel on the side wall of the cave and is laid all the way to the roots of the trees. There is a flatbed truck parked on the track, and there are corpses on the truck, stacked in three layers and weighed down with tarpaulins.
The carts are all White Zetsu.
More than a dozen White Zetsu moved neatly, lifting the body from the car and stuffing it into the gap in the tree root. The gap closed and squirmed. After a minute, a new bag bulged on the nearest branch.
A new cocoon.
"... How long has it been?" Obito's voice didn't sound like his own.
Black Zetsu didn't answer.
"I asked you how long!"
"It depends on the maturity of the cocoon." Black Zetsu's tone finally broke, "The outermost batch, at least three years."
Three years.
Obito's one eye was filled with bloodshot threads one by one.
Three years ago, he changed Yagura's second eye control at Kirigakure. Three years ago, he told Black Zetsu that Tailed Beast's collection would be slowed down. Three years ago, he sat in Land of Rain's secret room, counting the steps for Eye of the Moon Plan.
And during those three years, someone actually stayed here.
Move his tree, feed his tree, use his tree.
"He turned this place..." Obito took a step forward "He turned it into a factory???"
Black Zetsu's body began to shake irregularly.
That's not fear. It's a thousand years of waiting. Just when he saw hope, he found that someone wanted to break his hope.
"Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is the shell of Ten-Tails." Black Zetsu even spoke in a higher tone. "It is the only..."
"I know what it is." Obito interrupted.
"You don't know!" Black Zetsu yelled at him for the first time, "Only it! As long as you have it, as long as you gather Nine Tailed Beasts together, then... you can..."
Obito A Body Flicker Technique appeared on the side of the track, grabbed the neck of a lone White Zetsu, and lifted it up.
Then White Zetsu didn't resist.
It turned its head and looked at Obito, a smile slowly appeared on its face.
"Wuhu, we have a guest."