In a remote place near the sea—
On a night several decades ago, an object fell from the sky here, and along with it came a large number of fleeing ninja.
These people settled and reproduced here, building up their strength, hoping that one day they could take revenge and restore their nation.
They were the Sky Ninja Village of the Land of Sky, which had been jointly annihilated by several major ninja villages back then.
Decades had passed, and the Sky Ninja who once single-mindedly wanted to restore their nation had gradually split into different factions.
One group had already given up on revenge, feeling that living in seclusion like this was already a kind of happiness.
The other group advocated taking revenge on Konoha, destroying it, and rebuilding the Sky Ninja Village.
After the group led by Hiruzen and others had been wiped out, this faction of Sky Ninja once saw hope.
After all, Konoha had suffered such a heavy blow, so its strength would naturally be greatly reduced. The other ninja villages certainly wouldn't let such an opportunity pass.
The facts were indeed as they expected. After Konoha weakened, the Fourth Great Ninja War broke out.
However, the timing and course of the war were completely beyond everyone's expectations.
Konoha's Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Rengoku, almost single-handedly forced back the Hidden Stone, crippled the Hidden Sand, and scared off the Hidden Cloud.
In front of a two-hundred-meter-tall Susanoo, the elites of the various ninja villages had all become a joke.
They originally thought this would be Konoha's war of rise, but unexpectedly, Uchiha Rengoku actually died in the end.
Yet afterward, the Fourth Hokage suddenly reappeared and took up the position again, catching every village off guard.
Moreover, Namikaze Minato used flight combined with Flying Thunder God tactics to directly beat the Hidden Sand into ceding land and suing for peace.
Amid this series of upheavals in the ninja world, the people of the Sky Ninja Village could only lie low for the time being.
They knew that unless their ultimate fortress, Ancor Vantian, was fully repaired, they would never be able to defeat Konoha.
At this point in time, Obito came knocking.
Information about Obito had already been made public by Konoha and the Akatsuki years ago.
The enemy of an enemy is a friend.
Obito and the people of the Sky Ninja Village began to cooperate.
"This is your research result?"
In front of a ruin, Shinno, wearing a headscarf, looked doubtfully at the rotting flesh inside the glass container.
No matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem like something capable of severely damaging Konoha.
Obito opened the glass container, "Try it."
Shinno made his living traveling outside by relying on his medical skills, so he didn't show any hesitation. He directly opened the medical kit he carried on his back.
He took out a pair of tweezers and picked up that lump of rotten flesh.
At once, a pungent smell hit his face.
Shinno's medical skills were indeed superb. With just a simple sniff, he already knew what it was.
He immediately stuffed it back inside, but just that small whiff made him feel slightly unwell.
He quickly took out a specially made antidote from his bag and swallowed it.
"Isn't this corpse rot poison? Why is the toxicity so strong?"
There was lingering fear and surprise on his face. Although he recognized the type of poison, this was clearly different from ordinary corpse rot poison.
Obito said indifferently, "This was specially made, with its infectivity and onset speed enhanced."
"Ordinary people will fall sick within three minutes. Regular ninja can only last half an hour."
"Given Konoha's current level of development, bombing some of their buildings doesn't mean much."
"It'd be better to cooperate with us. You carry out the bombing, we spread the infectious toxin, and wipe out everyone in Konoha."
A cold glint flickered in Obito's eyes. The words he spoke were exceptionally cruel.
But Shinno didn't find Obito cruel at all. He thought this idea was simply brilliant.
Back then, when the Land of Sky was defeated, the Sky Ninja Village had also suffered a near-total massacre.
The people who survived were less than a tenth of the original.
"Even if this thing has been enhanced, it still needs corpses to spread, right?"
"How many units have you produced?"
Shinno immediately asked the key question. Air-dropping this was possible, but the prerequisite was having enough of it.
Otherwise, with Konoha being so large and its medical system being among the best in the ninja world, too small a quantity would be meaningless.
"Is a million units enough?"
Obito didn't understand these things at all. He was just repeating information provided by Black Zetsu.
But Shinno was startled, "How much did you say? A million?"
Obito gave a slight nod, "I've had people digging up corpses over the past few years."
Shinno looked deeply at Obito. These corpse-diggers were not simple.
From a single corpse, the amount of corpse rot poison that could be cultivated ranged from dozens to over a hundred units.
In other words, these people had dug up tens of thousands of corpses.
Moreover, the corpses used to train this poison had to still have flesh and blood, bare skeletons wouldn't work, which meant they had to be freshly killed or not long dead.
The ninja world had been relatively peaceful recently, with no large-scale massacres anywhere, so the collection could only have been done in small batches.
That meant the time spent must have been at least several years.
"Have you brought it all here?", Shinno asked.
Obito shook his head, "There's still a portion being prepared."
"It should all be ready within half a month. I came in advance to inform you."
"How much time do you need on your side?"
Shinno narrowed his eyes, silently calculating how long it would take for his Zero-Tails to mature.
Then he said calmly, "I'll also need about half a month."
"Konoha's barrier techniques right now are very strange. I can't get in to gather information."
"If we can understand their general defense layout, the success rate will be higher."
Obito naturally knew why Konoha's barrier techniques were strange, they belonged to the priestess system of the Land of Demons.
It was a completely different system from chakra, so it couldn't be infiltrated.
He had no way, but someone else did.
"I'll handle that. During this time, I'll find a way to gather the relevant intelligence."
"You just prepare for the attack. I'll come find you again later."
With that, his figure retreated and directly entered the vortex that had just appeared, disappearing from sight.
Shinno looked at the place where the vortex had vanished with deep wariness.
'What a strange space-time ninjutsu.'
No matter how many times he watched Obito appear and leave, he couldn't figure out how this space-time technique was activated.
Of course, cooperating with Obito was like seeking the skin of a tiger.
But Konoha right now was too strong, so strong that in recent years, the Hidden Stone and Hidden Cloud didn't even dare to probe them in the slightest.
If the ninja world continued to develop peacefully like this, their dream of restoring their nation would never succeed.
So their attack on Konoha wasn't just for revenge, they also needed to muddy the waters.
Only when the ninja world fell into chaos would they have a chance.
Konoha's combination of flight and Flying Thunder God tactics had also made the Sky Ninja realize the deterrent power of flight.
He was very confident that once the Zero-Tails was successfully completed, Ancor Vantian would possess the same level of deterrence.
At that point, the Sky Ninja could rely on Ancor Vantian to restore their nation.
And Obito, a man with immense darkness in his heart, was the best nourishment for the Zero-Tails.
———
[Kamui Space]
"In about ten days, the Zero-Tails should be ready, but it's still in the cocoon and hasn't hatched yet."
A White Zetsu emitting black smoke spoke.
This person was Moryo.
Now, Moryo's relationship with Obito was far closer than Obito's relationship with Black Zetsu.
While Obito was talking with Shinno, Moryo had taken the opportunity to investigate the still-developing Zero-Tails.
That's right. The reason they were cooperating with Shinno wasn't because they were descendants of the Sky Ninja or because of their ability to fly.
Before Black Zetsu cultivated the corpse rot poison, Obito and Moryo had even thought that these Sky Ninja were nothing more than clowns who could at most cause some losses to Konoha.
After all, Konoha currently had the Fourth Hokage in charge, and the Uchiha clan had many powerful experts.
From the very beginning, his target had been the Zero-Tails.
It was just that over the years, the Zero-Tails had still been in the process of being cultivated.
Obito had only been pretending to cooperate, building trust between both sides.
Now that Black Zetsu had cultivated a large amount of corpse rot poison, it could at least be put to some use.
"No wonder they agreed to the air raid."
A calculating glint flashed in Obito's eyes.
"Let's hope they're at least somewhat useful."
He picked up a transparent glass bottle and looked at the white powder-like substance inside.
"First, a trip to the Fire Temple."
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