Black Zetsu had always been patient.
For a creature that had survived in the shadows of the shinobi world for centuries, patience was not merely a virtue.
It was survival.
He had watched generations rise and fall.
He had manipulated Indra's descendants.
He had altered the Uchiha stone tablet.
He had guided Madara toward the Rinnegan.
And after Madara's death, he had continued preparing everything necessary for his resurrection—and ultimately for Kaguya's return.
Black Zetsu had never minded waiting.
Ten years.
A hundred years.
Even a thousand years.
None of it mattered.
As long as the final result remained unchanged.
But there was one thing he had never anticipated.
Senju Hikaru.
That man was wrong.
Wrong in ways Black Zetsu couldn't understand.
His strength had grown far too quickly.
His Wood Release had appeared without warning.
He knew things he shouldn't know.
And now—
He had returned from the moon.
Black Zetsu had felt the disturbance.
The changes in the moon's chakra had been impossible for someone like him to completely overlook.
That was why he had approached Konoha.
He needed information.
Instead, he had heard something that made even him feel genuine fear.
Hikaru had told Nagato the truth.
The Rinnegan belonged to Madara.
That secret could not be allowed to spread.
Nagato was supposed to be a tool.
A vessel entrusted with Madara's eyes until the day came to use the Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.
If Nagato understood the truth—
Everything could collapse.
So Black Zetsu fled.
He merged with the earth and moved as quickly as he could.
Yet behind him—
A pair of brilliant blue eyes had already locked onto his chakra.
"Found you."
The moment those words reached him, Black Zetsu knew.
Running normally was pointless.
Hikaru disappeared.
Saya reacted almost immediately.
"Hikaru!"
But he was already gone.
Nagato's Rinnegan narrowed.
"Flying Raijin?"
Konan looked toward the place Hikaru had occupied.
"He left without explaining anything."
Saya's expression darkened.
"He's very good at that."
Konan glanced at her.
For the first time since their meeting, the two women appeared to agree on something.
Nagato, however, remained focused on Hikaru's final words.
Uchiha Madara's.
His eyes—
His entire identity as the supposed bearer of the Sage of Six Paths' eyes—
Had been built upon someone else's power.
"Nagato."
Konan's voice pulled him from his thoughts.
Nagato slowly closed his eyes.
"I'm fine."
"You aren't."
"No."
Nagato opened them again.
"But I will be."
There was anger in his voice.
Not the explosive rage that had consumed him after Yahiko's death.
Something colder.
The anger of a man beginning to understand just how thoroughly his life had been manipulated.
Saya looked at him.
"If Hikaru said those eyes belonged to Madara, he probably has evidence."
Nagato turned toward her.
"You trust him that much?"
The question made Saya pause.
Then she answered simply.
"Yes."
There wasn't even a second of hesitation.
Konan noticed.
Nagato did too.
Saya apparently didn't care.
Nagato looked away.
"Then I'll wait for his explanation."
Several kilometers away, the earth exploded.
A black mass shot from underground.
At almost the exact same moment, Hikaru appeared above it.
"Wood Release: Cutting Sprigs!"
Dozens of wooden branches erupted from the ground.
Black Zetsu twisted unnaturally, slipping between them before diving toward the earth again.
But before he could disappear—
Hikaru's foot touched the ground.
"Got you."
Wood Release seeds hidden beneath the soil instantly germinated.
Roots erupted everywhere.
Black Zetsu's body was pierced, trapped, and dragged upward.
"You—!"
His body distorted.
Then began sinking through the roots themselves.
Hikaru frowned.
"Still troublesome."
Black Zetsu wasn't human.
Treating him like an ordinary shinobi was a mistake.
He could merge with terrain, plants, and other substances in ways conventional Earth Release users couldn't imitate.
More importantly—
Hikaru didn't want him dead.
Not yet.
Black Zetsu knew too much.
Madara.
Obito.
The Ten-Tails.
The Eye of the Moon Plan.
Kaguya.
The history of Hagoromo and Hamura.
Perhaps even secrets Hikaru himself didn't know.
Killing him would be easy compared with capturing him.
"Then let's make this harder."
Hikaru's eyes changed.
Brilliant blue light spread through his pupils.
Jōgan.
The world transformed before him.
Chakra pathways.
Spatial distortions.
The minute fluctuations created whenever Black Zetsu attempted to merge with his surroundings—
Hikaru saw all of them.
Black Zetsu realized this immediately.
"What are those eyes?"
Hikaru smiled.
"Something your mother might recognize."
Black Zetsu froze.
For perhaps the first time in centuries—
His thoughts stopped.
Mother?
No.
Impossible.
There was no way.
No one knew.
Not Hagoromo's descendants.
Not Hamura's descendants.
Not Madara.
Not Obito.
Not Nagato.
No one.
"You..."
Black Zetsu stared at Hikaru.
"What did you say?"
Hikaru's smile disappeared.
"Kaguya Ōtsutsuki."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Black Zetsu stopped struggling.
Not because he had surrendered.
Because he was genuinely stunned.
Hikaru watched him carefully.
That reaction was enough.
"Seems I got your attention."
"Who are you?"
Black Zetsu's voice had changed.
There was no mockery.
No pretended superiority.
Only suspicion.
And something dangerously close to fear.
Hikaru shrugged.
"Senju Hikaru."
"Impossible!"
Black Zetsu's chakra erupted.
The wooden restraints shattered.
Hikaru immediately moved backward.
Black Zetsu surged upward like living darkness.
"You cannot know that name!"
"So you admit it."
Black Zetsu stopped.
Hikaru laughed.
"Still making mistakes when you're emotional after living for a thousand years?"
Black Zetsu's expression twisted.
"You know nothing."
"I know enough."
Hikaru raised one finger.
"You altered the Uchiha stone tablet."
A second.
"You manipulated Indra's descendants for generations."
A third.
"You led Madara into believing the Infinite Tsukuyomi would save the world."
Black Zetsu's expression grew uglier with every sentence.
"You waited for Madara to awaken the Rinnegan, then arranged for those eyes to reach Nagato."
Hikaru lowered his hand.
"And when Madara returns and becomes the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki..."
His voice became quieter.
"You intend to use him to resurrect Kaguya."
Black Zetsu stared.
For the first time since Hikaru had encountered him—
He looked completely lost.
Not angry.
Not calculating.
Lost.
Because there was no possible explanation.
Even Madara didn't know the full plan.
How could Hikaru?
"Who told you?"
"No one."
"Then how?"
Hikaru smiled.
"That's my secret."
Black Zetsu's mind raced.
Could Hamura have left something behind?
Hikaru had gone to the moon.
Could he have learned the truth there?
No.
The lunar Ōtsutsuki shouldn't know everything.
Could Hagoromo—
Black Zetsu suddenly stiffened.
The Sage of Six Paths.
Could Hagoromo's chakra still exist somewhere?
Had he contacted Hikaru?
That explanation was absurd.
Yet everything happening was absurd.
Black Zetsu made a decision.
Hikaru had to die.
Now.
Not later.
Not after Madara returned.
Not after Obito completed his preparations.
Now.
Dark chakra erupted from his body.
Hikaru sighed.
"That's the problem with telling villains you know their plan."
Black Zetsu lunged.
Hikaru vanished.
A Flying Raijin mark beneath Black Zetsu activated.
Hikaru appeared behind him.
His palm struck forward.
"Sealing Art: Adamantine Binding Formation!"
Chains erupted from the ground.
Black Zetsu twisted.
One wrapped around his arm.
Another caught his torso.
Then another.
And another.
Black Zetsu screamed as sealing formulas spread across his body.
"You think this can hold me?"
"No."
Hikaru formed another hand seal.
"But this might."
"Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees!"
The forest exploded into existence.
Trees tore through the landscape.
Roots spread underground for kilometers.
Black Zetsu's expression changed.
He could merge into the earth.
But now Hikaru's chakra was everywhere.
Every root.
Every tree.
Every seed.
And mixed into that chakra were countless sealing formulas.
The entire area had become a prison.
Hikaru's face was calm.
"Try escaping."
Black Zetsu struggled.
Nothing.
For the first time in centuries—
He had been captured.
When Hikaru returned, Saya punched him.
Not hard.
But definitely not gently.
Hikaru rubbed his shoulder.
"What was that for?"
"You disappeared."
"I found an enemy."
"You disappeared."
"I came back."
"You disappeared."
Hikaru looked toward Nagato.
"Help?"
Nagato stared at him.
"You still haven't explained my eyes."
"Right."
Hikaru immediately became serious.
Saya's eye twitched.
Konan almost smiled.
Almost.
Hikaru sat beneath the tree.
"Your Rinnegan originally belonged to Uchiha Madara."
Nagato remained standing.
"How?"
"Madara survived his battle against Hashirama Senju."
Nagato's expression shifted.
"He survived?"
"Yes."
Hikaru began explaining.
Madara had obtained Hashirama's flesh during their final battle.
By combining Indra's chakra with Asura's, he eventually recreated Hagoromo's chakra.
Near the end of his natural life—
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan evolved.
Rinnegan.
Nagato listened without interrupting.
Konan's face became increasingly grim.
Saya already knew fragments of this, but even she had never heard everything laid out so clearly.
"Madara was already old when he awakened them," Hikaru continued. "He needed someone capable of preserving and eventually using those eyes."
Nagato understood.
"An Uzumaki."
"Exactly."
His enormous life force made him uniquely suited to bearing the Rinnegan.
"Madara transplanted them into you when you were young."
Nagato's fingers tightened.
Memories flashed through his mind.
His parents.
War.
Jiraiya.
Yahiko.
Konan.
Hanzo.
The Akatsuki.
Pain.
All this time—
Those eyes had been inside him because someone had chosen him before he could even understand what a shinobi was.
"What was I supposed to do?"
Hikaru looked at him.
"Eventually?"
Nagato nodded.
"Die."
Konan's paper immediately began swirling.
Hikaru continued before she could speak.
"You were meant to master the Rinnegan and eventually use the Outer Path to resurrect Madara."
Nagato's expression became terrifyingly calm.
"So my purpose was to return his eyes and his life."
"Yes."
"And the man calling himself Madara?"
"Uchiha Obito."
Another silence.
Hikaru didn't hide it.
There was no reason anymore.
"He was once a Konoha shinobi."
Nagato laughed.
It was quiet.
Bitter.
"How amusing."
Konan looked at him worriedly.
Nagato raised his head.
"I thought I was using Akatsuki to achieve my vision."
Rain began falling lightly through the forest.
"I thought Madara was useful because our goals temporarily aligned."
His Rinnegan hardened.
"But from the beginning..."
"I was the useful one."
Hikaru didn't soften the answer.
"Yes."
Nagato closed his eyes.
Saya looked toward Hikaru.
He could have comforted him.
He didn't.
Perhaps because Hikaru understood that Nagato didn't need comforting right now.
He needed truth.
After a long silence, Nagato spoke again.
"What is his real objective?"
Hikaru's expression became more serious.
"The Infinite Tsukuyomi."
Nagato frowned.
"A genjutsu?"
"On the entire world."
Hikaru looked upward.
"The Ten-Tails is necessary. That's why they need all nine tailed beasts."
Nagato's expression changed.
Everything suddenly connected.
Black Zetsu.
Obito.
The tailed beasts.
The strange interest in his Rinnegan.
The Gedo Statue.
"But that's Madara's objective," Hikaru continued.
Nagato immediately caught the distinction.
"Madara's?"
"Yes."
"Not theirs?"
Hikaru smiled faintly.
"You're sharp."
Konan frowned.
"There's someone above Madara?"
"In a way."
Hikaru looked toward the forest where Black Zetsu remained imprisoned.
"The thing I just captured has been manipulating the shinobi world since before Konoha existed."
Nagato stared at him.
"Who?"
"Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's will."
The Rinnegan widened.
"The mother of the Sage of Six Paths."
Nagato said nothing.
For once—
Even he didn't know how to respond.
That evening, Hikaru returned to Konoha with two unexpected guests.
Nagato and Konan were not officially announced.
That would have caused chaos.
Instead, Hikaru placed them inside a secure compound under ANBU observation.
Not imprisonment.
Not exactly.
But certainly not freedom either.
Nagato accepted the arrangement.
He needed time.
Time to think.
Time to reconsider everything he'd believed since Yahiko's death.
And time to decide what Akatsuki would become.
Before Hikaru left, Nagato stopped him.
"Hikaru."
Hikaru turned.
"If everything you've told me is true..."
Nagato's expression was complicated.
"What is peace to you?"
Hikaru didn't answer immediately.
Once, he might have given some clever political response.
Something about deterrence.
Institutions.
Power.
Balance.
All of those things mattered.
But after everything he'd seen—
After the moon—
His answer had become simpler.
"Something one person can't create."
Nagato frowned.
Hikaru continued.
"Hashirama couldn't do it."
"Madara couldn't."
"Hanzo couldn't."
"You couldn't."
"And I can't."
Nagato stared at him.
"Then what's the point?"
"Making the next generation's problems smaller than ours."
Nagato went silent.
Hikaru smiled faintly.
"If they inherit a perfect world, great."
"But that's probably impossible."
"So I'll settle for giving them fewer reasons to kill each other."
Nagato lowered his gaze.
For some reason—
He remembered Yahiko.
Not Pain.
Not Akatsuki.
Yahiko.
The idiot who had once believed three children from the Rain could change the world.
Nagato closed his eyes.
Perhaps he'd misunderstood his friend's dream for far too long.
Hikaru stepped outside.
Saya was waiting.
"You didn't need to."
"I know."
They began walking.
Konoha was quiet.
Night had already fallen.
For once, Hikaru wasn't surrounded by ANBU.
No Hokage guards.
No Kakashi.
No Hashirama or Tobirama.
Just the two of them.
Saya glanced at him.
"Are you tired?"
"Very."
"You don't look tired."
"I'm excellent at pretending."
"I know."
Hikaru looked at her.
There was something strange about that answer.
Saya continued walking.
"You've always done that."
"Done what?"
"Pretended everything was fine."
Hikaru's smile weakened.
"When we were younger, I thought you genuinely weren't afraid of anything."
Saya looked ahead.
"Then I realized you were simply better at hiding it."
Hikaru didn't respond.
"Today too."
Saya continued.
"You knew Black Zetsu was dangerous."
"Yes."
"You still chased him alone."
"I could handle him."
"That's not the point."
Hikaru stopped.
Saya took another step before stopping too.
She turned.
"What?"
Hikaru studied her face.
Saya had changed.
Or perhaps—
He simply hadn't been paying enough attention.
"You were worried."
Saya stared at him.
Then frowned.
"Obviously."
"Obviously?"
"You're my..."
She stopped.
Hikaru waited.
Saya looked away.
"My Hokage."
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
"That pause was suspicious."
"Shut up."
He laughed.
Saya started walking again.
Hikaru followed.
Neither mentioned it again.
But Saya's ears remained slightly red.
And Hikaru—
For reasons he couldn't quite explain—
kept smiling.
Elsewhere, Ayame stood alone on the balcony of her home.
The village lights stretched beneath her.
She had spent much of the day thinking.
About Hikaru.
About herself.
About years that could never be recovered.
There had been a time when she believed they would naturally end up together.
No confession needed.
No promise.
It simply felt inevitable.
But inevitability was a dangerous illusion.
People grew.
People changed.
Sometimes they grew together.
Sometimes they didn't.
Ayame lowered her gaze to the old pendant in her hand.
A gift from Hikaru.
From years ago.
She had kept it all this time.
Her fingers closed around it.
There was still affection.
There probably always would be.
Hikaru was too deeply woven into her life for everything to simply disappear.
But love wasn't only about remembering what someone used to mean to you.
It was also about who stood beside you now.
Ayame thought about what she'd seen earlier.
Saya laughing.
Hikaru watching her.
Neither had seemed aware of it.
That somehow made it more obvious.
Ayame smiled sadly.
"You really are an idiot, Hikaru."
She closed the pendant inside her palm.
Maybe she was one too.
Perhaps they had both spent too long protecting a relationship that had already changed.
Neither willing to hurt the other.
Neither willing to say it aloud.
But someday soon—
They would have to.
And strangely enough, that thought no longer frightened her.
Deep underground, far from Konoha—
Obito suddenly stopped.
White Zetsu emerged from the wall.
"We have a problem."
Obito's Sharingan turned toward him.
"What happened?"
"Black Zetsu disappeared."
Obito's expression changed.
"Disappeared?"
"We can't sense him."
"Where was he last?"
White Zetsu grinned nervously.
"Near Konoha."
Silence.
Obito's Mangekyō slowly began spinning.
"Hikaru."
There was no need to ask who was responsible.
Then White Zetsu delivered the second piece of news.
"And Nagato entered Konoha."
This time—
Obito genuinely froze.
Everything had changed.
Black Zetsu was gone.
Nagato had approached Hikaru.
The moon had undergone some unknown disturbance.
And Hikaru had returned alive.
Obito slowly clenched his fist.
Plans that had been prepared for years were collapsing one after another.
Waiting was no longer an option.
"Summon everyone."
White Zetsu blinked.
"Everyone?"
"Everyone still loyal to us."
Obito turned toward the enormous statue hidden within the darkness.
"If Hikaru wants to overturn the board..."
His Sharingan glowed crimson.
"Then we'll begin the war before he's ready."
Far away—
sealed beneath an entire forest of Wood Release—
Black Zetsu heard nothing.
For the first time in a thousand years, the creature that had manipulated shinobi history could no longer influence what happened next.
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