Tsunade frowned hard in concentration as she focused on the cursed tongue eradication seal that Danzo had implanted on multiple kids in Konoha.
"Shizune, come here." Tsunade said commandingly, uncaring of how she may have seemed to others in that moment.
Shizune obeyed and put Tonton aside on the floor before sliding over to Tsunade's side.
Tsunade broke her concentration from the seal before she looked Shizune in the eyes and asked her a straightforward question, "Shizune, do you trust me?"
"With my life Tsunade-sama…" Shizune responded without hesitation.
Tsunade's serious expression broke into a dazzling smile for a second before she reformed her expression into a solemn look and spoke gently, "I'm about to put the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal on you Shizune, if you have any problems with it let me know and I'll ask Shimkamori to bring me some thug from the street to experiment on."
"I trust you fully Tsunade-sama." Shizune said, still with a warm smile on her face as she looked at Tsunade.
Tsunade also smiled but then sighed as she commanded Shizune once again, "Put out your tongue for me please."
Shizune nodded and complied, Tsunade then placed her right palm above Shizune's tongue and performed the jutsu in the scroll with a single hand, purely using one handed seals!
Shizune felt a short stinging pain on her tongue that caused her to wince a little but she held on.
Tsundae hadn't paused yet, however, she focused calmly and performed another jutsu single handedly. This time the seal on Shizune's tongue expanded outwards, opening and unfurling as if there were tiny ink characters written into it that were packed together into the seven bars that were on her tongue.
The characters kept expanding from her tongue, flowing outwards until they covered her face entirely.
Surprisingly, the contents of the characters on Shizune's face were the same as the ones that were on the scroll that Tsunade was studying.
Tsunade had just used the seal expansion jutsu.
Tsunade then lifted her right hand and raised her index finger. A fire-like ball of green chakra emerged from the tip of this finger before she gently used her finger like a pen on Shizune's face, editing the characters used in the seal.
Suddenly however, Shizune's expression shifted!
She grabbed her throat and clawed at it roughly, her nail scraping off the skin on her neck causing blood to slowly seep out of her wounds.
Tsunade paused and formed a one handed seal with her left hand again before stabbing her raised finger into the center of the seal that she'd just planted on Shizune, on her tongue. Her greenish hued chakra flared up before it seeped into the expanded unfurled seal as it all collapsed and shrank back into Shizune's tongue, into seven distinct lines.
The seal then burnt slightly before it evaporated like steam with a swish!
Shizune felt like she'd coughed her lungs out by that point. Tsunade gently healed the scratches on Shizune's throat with the Mystic Palm Technique and handed her a glass of water to calm her nerves.
Shizune drank her water and then spoke to Tsunade in a calm tone, "Did it fail Tsunade-sama?"
"Yes… a spectacular failure… I'd say someone on par with Grandma Mito made this seal… I'm afraid even a month won't be enough for me to break this seal if I have to do it fully."
"Even a month won't be enough?" Shizune asked with worry in her tone.
"Well… we'll see… maybe there'll be a breakthrough at some point." Tsunade said noncommittally.
"But…" Shizune voiced her worry but then spotted Tsunade's hands trembling and paused.
'Is Tsunade-sama's hemophobia triggering again because of the pressure of the situation?'
Tsunade noticed Shizune's worry and clenched her fists tight.
"It's alright… we'll get through this… have some hope in me."
"Hai, Tsunade-sama. I trust you wholeheartedly."
***
Black Zetsu looked at Obito's headless corpse and paced around in the dark underground chamber in silence.
Obito's body was free from rotting since nearly more than half of his body was composed of Hashirama cells, but there was nothing that could be done with that.
"Useless!!! All my preparations for a millenia turned out to be useless!!"
"How did he know Obito's real name!? Who told him!? Did you!?" Black Zetsu asked grabbing a random White Zetsu by his neck and wringing it tight.
"N- No… How could… I!? I'm… with you… all the time." The White Zetsu gasped out between deep breaths.
Black Zetsu released White Zetsu and sent him sprawling to the floor, coughing hard as he tried to remain alive by taking deep dying gasps.
"Then how did he know!?" Black Zetsu's gaze sharpened as he asked that question. "Did Jigen notice me spying on him and retraced my steps in some way? Or was it the other Otsutsuki that Mother was always afraid would arrive on the planet?"
"It must've been them… there's no one else that knows about our plans to free Mother." White Zetsu said from the floor after he stabilised his breathing.
"Hmmm…" Black Zetsu felt like he was missing something, so he frowned harder, trying to figure out what he was overlooking, and after a few seconds he asked a question out loud, to himself.
"How did Shisui come in contact with the Otsutsuki? Which one is it that's puppeteering his actions… what are their intentions?"
Black Zetsu's frown was so deep by this point that even his lightless black face looked morphed because of it.
"I should keep a close watch on him from now on…" Black Zetsu mumbled with a bad taste in his mouth since he couldn't do anything else. Directly killing Shisui would only ruin his chances of capturing whoever was behind him and openly threatening him might cause the Otsutsuki to take direct action against him who was no stronger than an ordinary Chunin.
"I need a stronger piece on the board…" Black Zetsu said with a frown.
"How about we resurrect Obito with Impure World Reincarnation?" White Zetsu said plainly.
But Black Zetsu shook his head, "Obito won't do… he's too weak… if Shisui is the Otsutsuki's pawn… then we need someone stronger… and there's only one person who can do that for us."
"You don't mean him!?"
"Yes… Obito's corpse is the perfect sacrifice to summon Madara into his body. Now we only need to talk to Orochimaru who holds the key to the Impure World Reincarnation outside Konoha…"
"What if Orochimaru refuses? It's not like we can go to Pain with our plan…" White Zetsu said with a buzzed out expression as he looked at a dung beetle rolling dung on the floor with interest.
Black Zetsu frowned at that thought once more… he didn't have the strength to make Orochimaru obey him and there was also no way he could give Orochimaru anything of value for now to draw him into his fold.
"What do I do to draw Orochimaru to my side? The secret of the Sage of Six Paths?"
"No… that's too expensive of a trade… do I tempt him with the sharingan Danzo has collected for his experiments?"
"Or maybe even offer him Uchiha Itachi or Uchiha Sasuke as a vessel given his obvious weakness to yin release techniques because of how often he's split his soul which weakens his spiritual power?"
***
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