Chapter 382: Black Zetsu's Fury
Inside the desolate, block-filled void of the Kamui dimension, Obito stood paralyzed.
From beginning to end, he had witnessed the absolute slaughter.
"How can he... be this strong?"
His gloved hand pressed hard against his spiraled mask. Beneath the porcelain, his breathing hitched, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
The invincible Six Paths of Pain had been dismantled like mere toys. The Akatsuki, an organization built from the shadows over decades, was reduced to ash in a single afternoon. And in the final moments, Nagato himself—the wielder of the god-like Rinnegan—had been swallowed whole by the abyssal black vortex conjured by Uchiha Akira. Whether the Uzumaki was dead or alive remained entirely unknown.
Obito dragged in a ragged breath, forcing his chaotic emotions down into the darkest corners of his mind.
He could not stay here.
Akira's monstrous power defied all logic. Even though this space existed entirely separate from the physical world, the sheer, suffocating pressure of Akira's chakra made Obito doubt his absolute safety. Who could guarantee that monster wouldn't tear a hole straight into the Kamui dimension?
The spatial vortex twisted around his right eye.
Warping space itself, Obito fled the skies above Amegakure, retreating far toward the desolate borders of the Land of Rain.
Deep underground, within a damp, lightless cavern that served as one of Obito's most secure strongholds, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense.
In the pitch blackness, Black Zetsu's golden eye glowed with unadulterated malice. His usually stoic, shadowy visage twisted into a mask of ferocious rage. The sprawling root network of White Zetsu clones had just relayed the catastrophic events that transpired in Amegakure.
"What happened?" Black Zetsu's voice tore through the cavern, abandoning its usual raspy whisper for a guttural roar. "Why did Nagato lose? That was the Rinnegan!"
He had orchestrated this grand design for over a millennium. To resurrect his mother, Kaguya, he had scurried through the darkest corners of history like a rat in a sewer, carefully manipulating generation after generation of Indra's reincarnations.
After centuries of agonizing effort, he had finally nurtured Nagato into the perfect pawn and forged the Akatsuki into a weapon capable of capturing the Tailed Beasts. The grand plan was on the precipice of execution.
And the result?
Uchiha Akira had suddenly descended from the heavens and shattered the entire board to pieces with a single, devastating strike.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Black Zetsu thrashed against the cavern walls, his shadowy form trembling with a violent, impotent fury.
Just then, a spiraling distortion interrupted his tantrum.
The air twisted, and Obito materialized out of thin air. His black cloak was torn, and while his physical body bore no severe injuries, the heavy, suffocating aura of absolute defeat clung to him like a shroud.
"Nagato has been sealed." Obito leaned heavily against the jagged rock wall, his voice devoid of warmth.
Black Zetsu glared at him, his golden eye narrowing, but offered no reply.
"So, what do we do now?" White Zetsu's high-pitched, flippant voice echoed from the other half of the parasitic entity, dripping with a sickeningly cheerful schadenfreude. "The Akatsuki is gone. Nagato is gone. The Rinnegan is gone. All we have left is a massive pile of my beautiful clones, and absolutely nothing else. How about we all just pack it up and disband?"
"Shut up!" Obito and Black Zetsu snarled in perfect, venomous unison.
Disband? The very concept was an insult to their existence.
Obito needed to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi to create a dream world where Rin still smiled. Black Zetsu needed to tear apart the heavens to free his sealed mother. How could they possibly stop? Not until the world burned or their goals were realized.
Silence stretched through the damp cavern, heavy and suffocating.
After a long time, Black Zetsu raised his head. A cold, ruthless glint pierced through the darkness.
"Go find Orochimaru. Have him use Edo Tensei on Madara."
"No!" Obito rejected the idea almost instantly, his single Sharingan spinning wildly. "If that old ghost is resurrected, our entire plan will spiral completely out of control! I am Uchiha Madara now! If the real Madara returns to the mortal realm, what does that make me?"
A fierce, burning resistance clawed at Obito's chest. He had spent years walking the ninja world wearing Madara's legendary name like a shield. What he wanted was to personally activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi. He refused to hand the reins of reality over to that arrogant, manipulative old relic. Obito had forged his own path and loathed the idea of dancing to Madara's posthumous scheme.
It was precisely for this reason that he had withheld the ultimate trump card.
Over the years, Obito had supplied Orochimaru with the genetic material of countless powerful shinobi. He had handed over the DNA of previous Kage from the Five Great Nations, along with the desecrated corpses of renowned Bloodline Limit masters.
But he had deliberately kept one specific sample hidden away. He had never given the Snake Sannin the flesh and blood of Uchiha Madara.
"Do you truly believe you have another choice?" Black Zetsu hissed, his voice dripping with sinister mockery. "Obito. Face reality. Look at the pathetic state you are in. With your current power, how exactly do you plan to fight Uchiha Akira?"
"That monster has already unified the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Water. Now, even the Land of Rain has fallen into his bloody hands. Give him a few more years, and the entire ninja world will kneel before the Uchiha clan. By then, you can forget about the Infinite Tsukuyomi. You won't even have a patch of dirt left to stand on."
The venomous words struck Obito like physical blows, shattering his fragile denial.
Black Zetsu was right. There were no other options left on the board.
Uchiha Akira was too strong. His power was an impossible wall of pure despair. Perhaps only Uchiha Madara, the legendary Shura of the ninja world, possessed the overwhelming might required to crush this monstrous rising star.
Obito clenched his fists until the leather of his gloves creaked. The bitter, acidic taste of absolute powerlessness burned the back of his throat, making him feel incredibly, utterly miserable.
"I understand." Obito finally exhaled, the fight draining from his posture. "I will give Madara's flesh and blood to Orochimaru. But merely resurrecting Madara isn't enough. Uchiha Akira's current prestige is practically divine, and Konoha's military cohesion is unbreakable. We must create some trouble for them."
Black Zetsu's shadowy form shifted in a nod of approval.
"Exactly. And if we want chaos, let's make it complete chaos. Have Orochimaru deploy the legendary shinobi he resurrects via Edo Tensei. Send them to launch devastating surprise attacks on Kumogakure and Iwagakure. Disguise the reanimated corpses as Konoha ninja. The disguises don't even need to be flawless. Just creating chaos and hatred is enough."
The sheer viciousness of Black Zetsu's strategy hung heavily in the damp air.
"As long as high-ranking people from those two villages are slaughtered under the banner of the Leaf," Black Zetsu continued, his golden eye gleaming, "war will naturally break out. By then, the entire ninja world will be in great chaos. No matter how impossibly strong Uchiha Akira might be, he cannot simultaneously manage every single battlefield across the continent. And we can take advantage of the chaos to look for new opportunities to capture Tailed Beasts."
Obito absorbed the ruthless strategy. The crimson light of his Sharingan flared in the darkness, spinning with renewed, deadly purpose.
"Let's do this. I'll go find Orochimaru immediately."
Kamui activated once more. Space warped and folded inward, swallowing Obito's figure until he disappeared completely into the pitch-black cavern.
Meanwhile, high above the devastated, rain-soaked ruins of Amegakure.
"Jiraiya," Uchiha Akira instructed, his calm, authoritative voice cutting through the lingering smoke of the battlefield. "The matter concerning Amegakure is over. Kakuzu and Konan will handle the remaining cleanup work. You don't need to stay here."
Jiraiya blinked, pulling his gaze away from the massive craters that scarred the metallic cityscape. He came back to his senses and nodded.
"That's right. This old man can't be of much help staying here anyway."
"Put your hand on my shoulder," Uchiha Akira instructed.
Jiraiya was stunned for a moment, then reached out and placed his calloused hand heavily onto the young Uchiha's shoulder.
"Hold tight."
Uchiha Akira had a single thought.
Amenominaka activated.
In just a violent moment of spatial disorientation, the surrounding scenery instantly changed. The metallic towers and weeping skies vanished in a blur of twisting light. The two had already returned to the crisp, earthy borders of Konoha and the Land of Grass.
"Alright." Uchiha Akira lowered his arm, pointing toward the sprawling camp ahead. "You stay here and hold the fort. Keep a strict watch to prevent Iwagakure from making any small moves. Although they don't dare to act openly right now, they are definitely causing trouble behind the scenes."
Jiraiya took a deep breath, his usual goofy demeanor entirely absent. He met Akira's gaze seriously.
"Don't worry. I'll lock this border down."
Uchiha Akira nodded. He didn't say anything further.
The next second, his figure vanished into thin air again, leaving no trace of his terrifying presence behind.
Jiraiya stood rooted to the spot, speechless for a long time.
After a long time, he finally sighed. His shoulders slumped, and he reached into his vest pocket, pulling out a familiar, brightly colored manuscript.
"Sigh... these young people nowadays," Jiraiya muttered to himself, shaking his head in a mix of awe and exasperation. "They truly are more monstrous than the last. I'd better continue writing Icha Icha Paradise!"
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