Chapter 270: First Meeting with Black Zetsu
"They're gone."
Black Zetsu, watching the distant, retreating figures, spoke evenly.
Beside him, Obito stood in cold silence, saying nothing.
"What now?"
White Zetsu, popping up nearby, eyed Obito with curiosity.
"Obviously — time to go have a chat with our Fifth Hokage."
Black Zetsu gave a small laugh, glancing at Obito.
Whatever bad blood existed between Obito and Kakashi held no particular interest for Black Zetsu.
If anything, this was exactly the outcome he'd wanted.
At some point, the rain had quietly stopped.
Black Zetsu looked up at the distant crow soaring across the sky, understanding dawning across his features.
So Itachi's finally run out of patience, has he?
"Well then, let's go."
"Once we've met with the Hokage, we'll move on to capturing the Four-Tails."
With that, Obito and Black Zetsu vanished from the spot, leaving nothing behind but the cold, lingering wind of a rain that had finally passed.
—
"...I guess this mission's a failure, then."
Along the road, Karin lifted a slightly downcast gaze toward the scroll tucked in Kakashi's tool pouch.
Inside that scroll, sealed away, rested Jiraiya's body.
"..."
Kakashi didn't answer her, only letting out a sigh.
Sasuke, walking silently at the rear of the group, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"What's wrong?"
"Sasuke?"
Karin, noticing his stillness, turned to look.
"Go on ahead. I've got something to take care of."
The black-haired boy lifted his gaze toward a black crow, circling overhead.
Sasuke's crimson, three-tomoe eyes locked directly with the crimson pupils of the crow's own.
"Sasuke?"
Karin blinked, genuinely startled.
"Don't worry. Once I've dealt with this, I'll catch up with you all soon enough."
"Right now, the priority should be getting word of everything back to the village, shouldn't it?"
With that, Sasuke turned and started walking in an entirely different direction from the rest of the group.
"Sasuke!"
Karin moved to press him for a proper explanation.
"If there's something important you need to do—"
"Then let me come with you."
By now, Karin had more or less pieced together exactly what this was about.
Some final reckoning, long overdue, regarding everything the Uchiha clan had endured.
And Sasuke was here now to bring that to an end.
"Well, it's a bit of a hassle, but like Karin said — having us along wouldn't hurt, either. Someone to watch your back."
Kakashi stepped forward as well.
Mei said nothing, but simply came to stand quietly beside Kakashi.
Her meaning was clear enough without words.
"..."
Sasuke stood still for a moment, glancing back at the three of them.
"Fine. Suit yourselves."
With that, he continued on ahead, the crow above leading the way for the Konoha squad.
Sasuke walked with his back to the others, his calm expression giving nothing away.
But what lay hidden beneath that calm exterior — no one could say.
He only knew that with every step forward, something inside him grew heavier.
In that moment, Sasuke found himself remembering the past.
Days spent with his father, his mother, his brother.
Now, he knew everything.
The Uchiha clan's plotted coup. Hiruzen's attempt to ease tensions between the Uchiha and Konoha by placing Itachi within ANBU — only for the Uchiha to turn Itachi into a spy instead. And how, in that same period, Itachi had approached Danzō and become a double agent.
Not long after, Itachi, working alongside Obito, had raised his blade against his own clan.
The price for it — Sasuke's own protection.
Walking through rain-soaked puddles, Sasuke pressed onward, one step at a time, toward an unknown destination.
His face stayed calm, but his heart carried something inexplicable, something he couldn't fully name, as he moved forward.
Step by step by step, he walked the path called vengeance.
Itachi Uchiha.
Sasuke couldn't fully articulate his own feelings toward this particular brother.
He loved him deeply, and hated him just as fiercely.
Resentment and helplessness, born from the choices Itachi had made unilaterally, without ever consulting him.
But now — it was too late for any of that.
Ten years too late.
For his father. For his mother. For every innocent clan member slaughtered under Itachi's blade.
He—
He would kill this brother who loved him, with his own two hands.
A blood debt owed for years, finally to be settled today.
Despair? Hatred? Helplessness?
Sasuke didn't know what exactly he was feeling right now.
Step by step, they passed through a stretch of dense forest and finally arrived before a large structure.
That tall building bore a striking, jarring emblem.
The Uchiha clan crest.
A flame-shaped fan.
Seeing that familiar crest, something inside Sasuke, oddly, settled.
Right.
What was there left to hesitate over, to agonize over?
He only needed to kill him, and carry his body to the Uchiha graveyard, to offer it before those who'd died for nothing.
And Obito Uchiha too — kill him eventually, and that would be enough.
Once it was all done, he'd simply return to standing behind Sakura, fulfilling his duty as one of her personal guard.
And this whole grim, helpless, blood-soaked path would finally come to an end.
Itachi...
Sasuke's pace never slowed, walking steadily forward, onto this path called vengeance.
A somewhat battered greatsword blocked his path.
"Sorry about this. Itachi said this particular path is for Sasuke, and Sasuke alone."
Kisame, breathing hard, addressed the Konoha squad before him.
His fight with Mei hadn't gone easily for him.
If Konan's paper crane hadn't interrupted things, he'd have already fused with Samehada and been prepared to fight her to the death.
Even so, he'd dragged his exhausted body here regardless, following Itachi's instructions to hold back the Konoha party.
"Kisame. Seems you still haven't learned your lesson."
Mei stepped forward, her eyes cold, fixed on the man before her.
"Deeply sorry, Lady Mei. Itachi's orders."
Kisame shook his head.
"Never mind. All of you wait here."
"I'll go alone."
Sasuke glanced at Mei, shaking his head, then, ignoring Samehada in Kisame's hand entirely, walked past him, step by step, into the towering structure.
Watching Sasuke disappear inside, Karin turned to Kisame.
"I'm a medical and sensory-type ninja. I should be fine going in, shouldn't I?"
Kisame stared at Karin, momentarily lost.
He still vaguely remembered — the last time, it had been some pink-haired girl calling herself a medical ninja who'd single-handedly beaten him and Itachi clean out of Konoha...
He moved to stop Karin, but by the time he registered it, the red-haired girl had already darted off, following Sasuke's retreating figure.
"Hold on, please."
Just as Kisame moved to stop her, a white short-sword pressed against Samehada's blade.
Compared to Samehada, that blade looked dozens of times smaller.
But the edge gleaming off it was bright enough that Kisame had to squint against it.
...
In the dim corridor, Sasuke pressed forward, step by step, toward an unknown destination ahead.
The long-neglected passage was crumbling, moss creeping across every surface.
"Up ahead."
The voice from behind jolted Sasuke out of his memories.
"..."
Sasuke pressed his lips together, glancing briefly at Karin following behind him, saying nothing.
"Don't look at me like that. I just don't want you to die, because if you did, that idiot Naruto would..."
Karin blurted the words out, then abruptly stopped herself, a shadow of grief crossing her crimson eyes.
That idiot...
His teacher just died.
"..."
"Let's go."
Sasuke fell silent for a beat too, then strode forward.
As the two of them advanced, a dim light began to filter into view ahead.
Finally, in an enclosed space, Sasuke found the person he'd come to see.
Itachi... Uchiha.
"You... finally came."
Itachi regarded Sasuke calmly, studying him carefully.
As if this might be the last time he'd ever see him.
The moment he'd learned the current Hokage was sending his own younger brother to find him, Itachi had already anticipated this exact scene.
But even so, he felt no surprise at all.
After all — this was always how it was meant to be, wasn't it?
"Yeah. I'm here."
"I've come to kill you."
"Itachi Uchiha."
Sasuke's gaze stayed calm, fixed on the man seated in the stone chair before him.
"To kill me... is it?"
Itachi murmured.
The moment the words left his mouth, a blade wreathed in lightning was already driving straight for the space between his brows...
—
Night
Poking at the campfire, Sakura tossed in another piece of firewood, the flames crackling and dancing.
Suddenly, a sharp cry echoed across the black sky.
Sakura looked up, rose to her feet, and extended her arm. A hawk descended, landing on her forearm.
She calmly retrieved the intelligence report clutched in its talon, gave it a light flick with one hand, and the black hawk lifted off again, soaring back into the sky.
This was Karin's report.
Jiraiya, dead.
Itachi Uchiha, dead.
Reading the contents, Sakura's expression showed no reaction at all.
Akatsuki, huh...
She sat back down, crumpled the note into a small ball, and tossed it directly into the fire.
"Huh?"
"Sakura, did something happen?"
Naruto's voice called out from the darkness, and Sakura turned to see him, soaked head to toe — clearly drenched crossing back through the waterfall — Yuki and Hikaru following calmly behind him.
"No. Nothing."
Sakura shook her head, choosing not to tell Naruto about Jiraiya.
Under Yuki's guidance, Naruto's tailed-beast training was progressing rapidly.
Telling him about Jiraiya right now would only shatter his focus entirely.
"You three go ahead and talk. I'm going to take a walk."
Tossing the branch she'd been stoking the fire with into the flames, Sakura rose and, under Naruto's puzzled gaze, headed off into the dark.
"What's up with Sakura?"
Naruto scratched his head.
"Never mind what's up with her."
"You should be focused on yourself right now. I've got no interest in spending months here babysitting you."
Hikaru, poking around the campfire, dug up a few sweet potatoes buried in the coals.
"Huh? I mean, fair enough, but that still kind of hurts my feelings."
Naruto looked at Hikaru in the firelight, somewhat helpless.
"What, you expected me to stay here and keep you company forever?"
Hikaru shot the blond a flat glare.
"..."
Naruto had nothing to say to that, and simply dug out one of the sweet potatoes himself, immediately fumbling it, burnt fingers and all.
"Idiot."
...
A salt-tinged sea breeze drifted past, stirring Sakura's long pink hair.
No moon tonight, leaving the ocean unusually dark, waves crashing rhythmically against Turtle Island's rocky shore, the crisp spray somehow taking on an eerie quality in the darkness.
Green eyes fixed on that endless expanse of ocean, Sakura's thoughts drifted.
She found herself thinking of that stubborn, unpredictable man.
Pain, huh...
Three years ago, Sakura would genuinely have counted him among her most significant threats.
But now...
Maybe it's time I shifted my attention away from the nobility for a while, and turned it toward Akatsuki instead.
Sakura had always held to one particular belief.
Whatever could be solved through raw force was, without exception, the simplest problem to solve.
Pain — nothing more than a flick of the wrist away from extinction, as far as she was concerned.
Since that was the case, once things settled here, she'd pay Amegakure a visit.
"Hokage."
A voice broke the silence, abrupt, out of the darkness.
Calm — but with an unmistakable undercurrent of wariness.
At some point, unnoticed, a man in a black cloak patterned with red clouds had appeared not far behind her.
"You've got some nerve, coming to see me."
The pink-haired figure, unmistakable even in the darkness, rose slowly to her feet.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Black Zetsu."
Another voice sounded from behind her.
Sakura turned, her gaze cutting through the dark toward the figure standing there.
Obito Uchiha.
And from his wide sleeve, a small, ink-dark, unidentifiable creature poked its head out.
"A life born of Yin-Yang Release."
Sakura's gaze fixed on Black Zetsu, laying his true nature bare with a single sentence.
He was a being born from Yin-Yang Release, created by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself, on the very edge of her own sealing.
Black Zetsu paused for a beat, then spoke with an unsettling smile:
"As expected of the Hokage, seeing through my true nature at a single glance. I imagine the Hokage herself has traveled quite far down the path of Yin-Yang Release."
Sakura said nothing.
Yin Release was Yin Release. Yang Release was Yang Release. Yin-Yang Release was its own thing entirely.
Right now, Sakura had only barely touched the surface of Yin-Yang Release herself.
"The nerve of the two of you, coming to find me without a shred of fear for your lives."
"Aren't you worried I'll simply keep both of you here permanently?"
Sakura's voice was calm.
But Black Zetsu's next words made her brow furrow slightly.
"Lord Hokage. Surely you wouldn't want the matter of your involvement in the previous Daimyo's death exposed to the world, would you?"
Sakura said nothing, waiting for him to continue.
Seeing the pink-haired girl's expression stay unchanged, Black Zetsu pressed on:
"To secure the Fifth Hokage's seat, Danzō Shimura used genjutsu to control the Daimyo — but it seems you took things considerably further."
"You killed the previous Daimyo outright, then installed a more compliant replacement in his place."
"If this were made public — how do you imagine the world would come to see you?"
Black Zetsu's tone carried real weight now, an unmistakable current of threat running underneath it.
"That's all?"
"A mere member of Akatsuki, daring to slander the Hokage with such nonsense?"
"Who exactly do you think you are?"
"What standing do you have? And what standing do I have?"
In the darkness, the pink figure stood tall, unbowed, and even the thickest night couldn't obscure the look in her eyes.
What was that look?
Mockery. Contempt.
As though the man before her had just told a genuinely amusing joke.
"If any random person off the street could smear the Hokage's name this easily, then the title of Hokage would be worth remarkably little, wouldn't it."
"Do you honestly expect me to go around proving my own innocence, just because some missing-nin from a criminal organization made an accusation?"
Her Hokage robe rippled in the sea breeze, and Obito's expression turned grave at her words.
"A cockroach in the shadows is always just a cockroach."
"Same as a salted fish trying to turn itself over — flip it once, and does that actually make it any less a salted fish?"
Perhaps the Hokage's words had cut too close, because Obito's face darkened visibly.
He felt, distinctly, like she was aiming that jab sideways at him.
"That wasn't my intention."
Black Zetsu shook his head, his expression turning grave as he studied the Hokage before him.
"Hokage, let's speak plainly. I already know your intent — to shatter this unchanging, ossified shinobi class system."
"Akatsuki's path and yours aren't so different, in the end."
"If Konoha and Akatsuki were to—"
Before Black Zetsu could finish, a scoffing laugh cut through the darkness.
"And what exactly are you."
"That you'd dare come and talk to me about an alliance?"
"I am the Hokage."
"The Fifth Hokage of Konoha."
"Leader of the single largest military organization in the entire shinobi world."
"And you?"
"You're nothing but a fourth-rate nobody."
"You think you're in any position to negotiate with me?"
Her withering scorn left even Black Zetsu momentarily silent.
"It seems the Hokage has no interest in continuing this conversation."
Black Zetsu let out a sigh.
"Continuing it?"
"I'm just out here enjoying the sea breeze, taking in the view."
"You two are the ones who came looking for me."
"Since that's the case, I suppose neither of you needs to leave, either."
Sakura rolled her wrist, a cold expression crossing her face — and Obito's scalp prickled instantly at the sight.
The next instant, a fist tore through the air, grazing straight past him!
Obito had kept every nerve on edge throughout the entire exchange between Sakura and Black Zetsu, especially once the conversation had turned this openly hostile.
He'd already been fully prepared.
The instant the pink-haired girl moved, he'd triggered intangibility!
Predictably, her fist passed straight through empty air.
"What a genuinely irritating ability."
Passing clean through Obito's body, Sakura's expression darkened.
"Sakura Haruno. You should understand — if you choose to make an enemy of us, you'll be facing condemnation from the entire world."
Black Zetsu spoke again.
"Even if we succeed in capturing every tailed beast, that means nothing to the nobility who hold the shinobi world's economic lifeblood in their hands."
"After all, Hashirama Senju did something similar himself, decades ago."
"And you — you're challenging the very bottom line, the very authority, of those same people."
"Should this ever come to light, you'll find yourself the target of the entire shinobi world's condemnation."
Black Zetsu's words reached the Hokage's ears, and a soft laugh escaped the pink-haired figure, shrouded in the darkness of night.
A laugh carrying genuine bemusement — as if she found what he'd said genuinely funny.
"Black Zetsu, was it?"
"Since when did you get the impression that every time Konoha's gone to war, it wasn't already the whole world lined up against us?"
"Well, since that's settled — I suppose it's time for the two of you to make your exit."
In that instant, those green eyes, hidden in the dark, turned, without warning, to gold.
The next instant!
Terror seized Obito's very soul!
Like a lamb suddenly thrown into a den of tigers!
What an absurd comparison — tigers don't hunt in packs!
And yet, right now, that was exactly the sensation gripping Obito.
He triggered Kamui almost purely on instinct — but a voice, clear as a silver bell, reached his ears first...
"A little too late for Kamui, this time..."
(End of chapter)
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