In the Hokage's office, a purple toad lay sprawled across the desk, its front paws clutching a freshly unrolled scroll. Its golden horizontal pupils were wide with shock, and its mouth was agape to an exaggerated degree.
Gamakon looked at the long string of dense numbers on the scroll and couldn't help but blurting out a curse from his past life.
He had long suspected that those double-dealing snakes from the Grass Village had amassed a massive fortune by playing the great nations against each other and collecting dirty money through Hozuki Castle.
However, suspecting it was one thing; seeing it with his own eyes was quite another.
"Chengdu?"
Minato Namikaze, sitting behind the desk, put down his brush and looked up with a hint of confusion in his blue eyes. "Where is that? Is it a place as wealthy as the Grass Village?"
He had become somewhat immune to the strange vocabulary that Gamakon occasionally spat out, but every now and then, curiosity still got the better of him.
"Ah... that's not important."
Gamakon waved a paw, pushing the scroll back toward Minato while casually wiping away some nonexistent drool from the corner of his mouth. "What's important is that with this money, Orochimaru's money-eating beast of a laboratory won't have to worry about funding for at least a few years."
"We can even renovate the village orphanage and replace the gear for the Police Force."
Looking at the list, a relaxed smile finally touched Minato's face.
Even as the leader of a village, he had to fret over the daily necessities and finances. While Konoha was a great power, several Shinobi World Wars had left their foundations quite hollow.
This 'gift' from the Grass Village was like rain after a long drought, enough to turn Konoha's financial situation from 'tight' to 'extravagant.'
"Clan Leader Fugaku really did give me a massive surprise this time."
Minato tapped his fingers rhythmically on the desk, producing a series of soft thuds. "However, Gamakon, while the money issue is settled, regarding the topic we discussed earlier..."
His voice grew low, and the atmosphere in the office shifted instantly.
The previously lighthearted mood vanished.
"You mean, the matter of cooperating with 'Black Zetsu'?"
Gamakon dropped his playful expression and hopped from the desk to the windowsill. Looking out at the bustling streets of Konoha, his gaze turned deep.
"Exactly."
Minato stood up and walked over to Gamakon's side, crossing his arms. "According to the intelligence you provided, this existence known as Black Zetsu is the mastermind lurking behind the entire history of the shinobi world."
"He provoked the conflict between Indra and Asura, tampered with the Uchiha Stone Tablet, and manipulated Uchiha Madara... all of this, just to resurrect his mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki."
Minato paused, a flash of wariness in his eyes. "Is there really any possibility of cooperation with such a calculating schemer who has lived for over a millennium?"
"Bargaining with the devil is dangerous; one slip and we'll be devoured."
Minato's concern was perfectly reasonable. For any sane person, trying to negotiate with a lunatic whose only goal was to save his mother sounded like absolute madness.
Gamakon, however, simply grinned.
"Minato, you have to understand one thing."
Gamakon pulled out a lollipop and waved it in the air. "In this world, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests."
"Black Zetsu is indeed a schemer, but he is also a 'paragon of filial piety.'"
"A paragon of filial piety?" Minato blinked, confused.
"Exactly. The only reason he exists is to rescue his mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki, who is sealed within the moon."
Gamakon turned around, leaning his back against the glass window as the sunlight bathed his shoulders. "So the question is, why did Kaguya create a White Zetsu army back then? And why was she sealed by her two sons?"
Minato frowned in thought, recalling the fragments of information Gamakon had shared before.
"Is it because... she used the God Tree to drain the earth's nutrients and even turned humans into White Zetsu soldiers? That tyranny incited Hagoromo and Hamura to rebel?"
"That's just the surface level."
Gamakon shook his head, his golden eyes shimmering with wisdom. "While Kaguya was a woman with an extreme need for control, she wasn't a pure killing machine."
"There was only one reason she was obsessed with 'spamming units' and creating tens of thousands of White Zetsu."
Gamakon lowered his voice. "She was afraid."
"Afraid?"
Minato's pupils shrank. The woman hailed as the 'Progenitor of Chakra'—a being with god-like power—was actually afraid?
"She was preparing for the future arrival of the Otsutsuki."
Gamakon dropped the bombshell. "The Otsutsuki Clan doesn't consist of Kaguya alone. She was merely a 'planter' for that clan."
"For certain reasons, she betrayed her family and kept the fruit of the God Tree for herself. She knew that her family would eventually send people to settle the score."
"That's why she needed an army. Even if it meant sacrificing all of humanity, she had to gather chakra and create White Zetsu."
Minato sucked in a breath of cold air. The scale of this information was too vast, instantly elevating the situation of the shinobi world from 'inter-village brawls' to the level of an 'interstellar war.'
"So that's how it is..." Minato muttered to himself, his brain working at top speed. "So, Black Zetsu's current goal is just to revive Kaguya. But he doesn't know..."
"Exactly, that's the key."
Gamakon snapped his fingers. "Black Zetsu doesn't know that in a few decades—maybe even sooner—the Otsutsuki pursuers will descend upon this world."
"He thinks he has all the time in the world to slowly set his board, play with Uchiha Madara, and carry out the 'Eye of the Moon' plan."
"But he doesn't realize that the shinobi world is running out of time."
Gamakon hopped back onto the desk, dipped a paw into some spilled tea, and drew three circles on the surface.
"Kaguya, Black Zetsu, the Shinobi World."
"If the Otsutsuki arrive, they will first drain the God Tree, meaning they'll pick Kaguya clean, and then they'll destroy the entire shinobi world."
"On this matter, Black Zetsu's interests and ours are perfectly aligned."
"He wants to save his mom, and we want to stay alive."
"That is the foundation for our cooperation."
Minato stared at the water stains on the desk, his gaze gradually becoming sharp.
As a seasoned politician, he instantly understood Gamakon's meaning. This was a classic case of 'uniting with the secondary enemy to strike the primary enemy.'
In the face of an impending extraterrestrial threat, Black Zetsu, the local schemer, had ironically become a potential ally worth recruiting.
"But how do we make him believe this?"
Minato raised the core issue. "Black Zetsu is naturally suspicious and moves like a ghost. Even if we tell him the Otsutsuki are coming, will he believe us?"
"He doesn't need to believe it entirely; making him doubt is enough."
Gamakon chuckled, a hint of craftiness in his eyes. "Besides, in the eyes of outsiders, I hail from Mount Myoboku."
Gamakon pointed out the window toward the direction of Orochimaru's research institute. "Minato, have you ever considered one thing?"
"If Kaguya believed that creating a bunch of White Zetsu could handle the descending Otsutsuki pursuers, what does that imply?"
Minato was stunned. He hadn't truly thought that far ahead.
In his impression, or based on current intelligence, White Zetsu were beings with great stealth but mediocre combat power.
However, after the reminder, he suddenly remembered that when they captured White Zetsu before, he had vaguely sensed the opponent's chakra levels.
Viewed that way, a White Zetsu's chakra volume was impressive even among Jonin.
But if the members of the Otsutsuki Clan were all as strong as Kaguya, wouldn't such fodder be useless no matter how many there were?
Wait!
Minato hesitated before offering his judgment. "It implies that White Zetsu—or rather, the God Tree—is nowhere near as simple as we imagined?"
"Bingo! You got it!"
Gamakon clapped his paws. "Think about it. Who was Kaguya? She was a god who had consumed a Chakra Fruit; she had seen the true power of the Otsutsuki Clan."
"She wasn't stupid. On the contrary, her courage to backstab the Otsutsuki proves her capability."
"If White Zetsu were really just trash that could be crushed with a finger, would she have gone through the trouble of making a hundred thousand of them? Just to serve as snacks for the Otsutsuki?"
Gamakon's words were like a bolt of lightning, clearing the fog in Minato's mind.
Indeed. If the opponents were the Otsutsuki, then the weapons Kaguya prepared had to be at least capable of harming them.
"The current White Zetsu only look weak because they are 'prototypes,'" Gamakon explained.
"They lack a core drive and a catalyst for evolution. But in Kaguya's vision, a completed White Zetsu army would be a terrifying force."
"After all, the physical structure of a White Zetsu is essentially a part of the God Tree itself."
"They possess all the traits of Hashirama Cells, and perhaps even more. They don't need to eat or sleep, they feel no pain, and they follow orders without question."
"Just that 'Mayfly Jutsu' and 'Substitution Technique' alone have already surpassed eighty percent of the ninja in this world."
Gamakon paused, his tone becoming serious. "If we can unlock the secrets within White Zetsu and let them evolve... even if they only reach a tenth of what Kaguya intended..."
"That would still be an army capable of sweeping through the Five Great Nations."
Minato fell silent. He walked to the desk, picked up his tea, and took a sip, trying to calm the waves in his heart.
As the Hokage, he felt an instinctive rejection toward such a 'bioweapon.'
But logic told him that in the face of a future world-ending crisis, Konoha had to master every bit of power available.
Moral purity was a luxury in the face of survival.
"So, Senior Orochimaru's research..."
Minato looked up at Gamakon. "It's not just to solve the side effects of Living Corpse Reincarnation, but also to crack the secrets of the White Zetsu?"
"Exactly."
Gamakon nodded. "Orochimaru is the top scientist in the shinobi world. As long as he is given enough material and direction, he will definitely pull it off."
"And Black Zetsu holds a massive amount of 'raw data' regarding the God Tree and the White Zetsu."
"We need his data, and he needs our 'intelligence' and 'strength' to oppose the Otsutsuki."
"It's a win-win deal."
Minato took a deep breath and set the teacup firmly on the desk.
"I understand.