So much for prophecy—things like that were fundamentally unreliable, especially when they came from half-baked "sages" like the White Snake Sage or the Great Toad Sage.
If Black Zetsu knew the White Snake Sage thought he was scheming to revive Uchiha Madara, he'd probably burst out laughing.
Did he want to revive Uchiha Madara?
Of course not.
Madara was just the best possible vessel for reviving his mother, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. Reviving Madara itself meant nothing to Black Zetsu—bringing Kaguya back was the dream he had lived for his entire life.
"Work with me, Yakushi Kabuto!"
"You're the most gifted talent in the entire shinobi world. Whatever it is you want to do, you're going to need allies, aren't you?"
Black Zetsu naturally noticed the White Snake Sage staring at him, but so what? If the White Snake Sage had the guts, then let him come and try killing him. As a being born from Yin–Yang Release, even Uchiha Chizumi's Flames of Judgment hadn't managed to destroy him. Black Zetsu was feeling unusually confident now.
Confident that there wasn't a single human—or even summoning beast—in the entire shinobi world that could truly kill him, unless they also possessed Yin–Yang Release.
"Black Zetsu… White Zetsu…"
"Members of the Akatsuki!"
Kabuto was no stranger to either Black Zetsu or White Zetsu. He had worked under Orochimaru, and he had been placed under Sasori as well. At the very least, he could be called well-informed. He had even sneaked into Akatsuki meetings before.
"So… after Lord Orochimaru, the Akatsuki want to recruit me now?"
Kabuto's eyes flickered. He wasn't unfamiliar with the Akatsuki, but for the moment, he couldn't quite see why he needed to cooperate with them.
"No, no, no—not cooperate with the Akatsuki. Cooperate with me."
"Or rather… cooperate with Uchiha Madara. With Madara-sama."
Black Zetsu let out a sinister chuckle. He had already figured it out—this man called Yakushi Kabuto had ambition. It didn't matter what that ambition was. As long as he had ambition, there was a basis for cooperation.
"Uchiha Madara?"
"Didn't he already die?"
Kabuto frowned. Was this bizarre creature trying to toy with him?
Everyone in the shinobi world knew Uchiha Madara had died at the Valley of the End, killed by Senju Hashirama.
"Madara-sama did indeed die. But who ever said the dead can't be brought back?"
Black Zetsu kept grinning darkly. He didn't say anything more. He was gambling—gambling that Kabuto might have some lingering feelings toward Orochimaru, and that the idea of resurrection would tempt him.
And in fact, the moment Kabuto heard Black Zetsu say that, his heart really did jolt.
But not in the way Black Zetsu expected.
What came to Kabuto's mind first was Nono Yakushi—the head of the orphanage, the woman he had regarded as a mother, the woman whose surname he had inherited as his own.
"You… can revive the dead?"
Kabuto's mouth went dry, and even his voice turned hoarse.
"The Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique."
"You were part of the Akatsuki too, even if only as an outer member. So you should know that the Akatsuki's leader possesses the Rinnegan, shouldn't you?"
"The Rinnegan is the legendary eye of the Sage of Six Paths. With those eyes, one can use a technique called Samsara of Heavenly Life."
"As long as you use Impure World Reincarnation to bring back the person you want revived, and then have that person use Samsara of Heavenly Life, anyone can be brought back to life."
Black Zetsu's smile only widened. He wasn't afraid that Kabuto's request might be difficult—what he feared was Kabuto having no request at all. The way Kabuto was reacting made it obvious that there was someone he desperately wanted to revive.
"There's no way reviving the dead comes without a price."
"Even if the Akatsuki leader has the Sage of Six Paths' eyes, I don't believe reviving people costs him nothing."
Kabuto was not as easy to fool as Obito. Having spent years playing with forbidden techniques under Orochimaru, he knew very well that every forbidden art in the world came with a price. The only question was how steep that price was.
A technique that could revive the dead—something that played with life and death itself—wasn't going to come cheap.
"It does require a tremendous price. In fact, you could say the Akatsuki's leader would have to sacrifice his own life to revive someone else."
Black Zetsu never even considered feeding Kabuto some nonsense about creating a perfect new world. Kabuto wasn't very old, but he clearly wasn't brainless like Obito.
"Then how exactly do you plan to convince the Akatsuki leader to sacrifice himself?"
"And why would he sacrifice himself to revive someone he doesn't even know?"
Kabuto looked at Black Zetsu and felt that the creature was just dangling an impossible fantasy in front of him.
Besides, Black Zetsu's real priority was obviously reviving Uchiha Madara. Reviving Nono Yakushi was probably nothing more than an empty promise.
"What the Akatsuki leader can't do doesn't mean Madara-sama can't."
"After all, those Rinnegan eyes the Akatsuki leader uses… were never his to begin with."
To gain Kabuto's trust, Black Zetsu directly revealed information even Nagato himself didn't know.
What did Nagato know, really?
He knew he could summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. He knew the statue he summoned could absorb the power of the tailed beasts and grow into a terrifying existence capable of destroying a country in a single blow.
He was still clinging to that naive idea that he could use the Ten-Tails to intimidate the shinobi world into peace.
What Nagato didn't know was that his entire life had been scripted for him from the start. It might have looked like he had walked a razor's edge every step of the way, but there was never any chance he would truly make it across.
"The Akatsuki leader's Rinnegan… isn't actually his?"
Even someone as used to conspiracies as Kabuto was genuinely shaken by that.
Back when Orochimaru was still alive, Kabuto had heard from him that the Akatsuki's three founders were Jiraiya's students, and that the one named Nagato had already possessed the Rinnegan when Orochimaru and Jiraiya first encountered him as a child.
It was because Orochimaru coveted the Rinnegan—and wanted to know why it had appeared in Nagato's eyes—that he had joined the Akatsuki in the first place.
Unfortunately, Orochimaru died before he could accomplish anything.
"Those eyes belong to Madara-sama. Of course they don't belong to him!"
"In order to nurture Madara-sama's eyes for him, the Akatsuki leader's body is already nearly burned out."
"Instead of letting him just die pointlessly, why not have him use Samsara of Heavenly Life to revive Madara-sama first… and then have Madara-sama revive the person you want brought back?"
Black Zetsu kept tempting Kabuto onward. In his second plan, Kabuto was absolutely essential.
Or rather, in the current shinobi world, Kabuto was probably the only one capable of helping him complete—even truly execute—this second plan.
Because after Orochimaru's death, Yakushi Kabuto was now the only person in the entire shinobi world who still possessed the Impure World Reincarnation technique.
"So… what exactly do I have to do?"
Kabuto's snake-like eyes flickered.
The bargain Black Zetsu was offering sounded very appealing.
And Kabuto had to admit—
he was tempted.