Chapter 29: Life is Like a Play, It All Depends on Acting
You really have the nerve to say that, Black Zetsu!
Life truly is a stage, and it all comes down to the performance.
Then let's have a showdown. Let's see whose acting is better.
"The Progenitor's will!"
The black-robed figure shot to her feet, the exclamation sharp with shock. In a reflexive motion, she pulled the mask from her face, revealing a disarmingly harmless, cherubic face beneath.
Black Zetsu finally understood. He finally knew why he had never been able to track down the elusive figure in black. It was because she was none other than Mie, the brutal bounty hunter from the Exchange Center.
The realization was staggering. Her personal aura was so drastically different from the cold, imposing presence of the black-robed operative that no one had ever connected the two. Even he, in all his millennia of observation, had been completely fooled.
"Are you… truly the Progenitor's will?" Mie's voice was a disbelieving whisper, her pupils trembling violently.
"Of course," Black Zetsu's voice oozed ancient confidence. "Besides you and me, how many people in this world even remember the Progenitor?"
He pressed his advantage, continuing the bluff as Mie listened with rapt attention.
"Back then, before the Progenitor was sealed, she used her own power to create me, allowing me to inherit her will. For all these years, I have been working towards the world's destruction. That great battle half a year ago? That was my masterpiece."
"So that's how it was," Mie breathed, her eyes wide with awe. "You're truly amazing. If you are the Progenitor's will, then we are comrades. I am Mie. May I ask how to address you?"
She seemed to have completely bought his story, her tone shifting to one of deep respect. It was going so smoothly that Black Zetsu could hardly believe his luck.
"I am Black Zetsu," he declared. "The name the Progenitor bestowed upon me."
"Black Zetsu…" Mie repeated the name, her reverent expression suddenly melting away. A wicked, predatory grin stretched across her baby face. "Since you are the Progenitor's will, you must be very strong. Let me test your mettle and see if you are worthy of that title."
Before the words had even fully left her lips, she lunged. In the blink of an eye, the woman who had been smiling in deference was now a blur of motion, her hand forming a complex, glowing pattern—a Fūinjutsu seal.
Holy crap!
Black Zetsu's form dissolved into the earth without a second thought. He turned to flee, panic coiling in his ancient consciousness. He had lived for an eternity, but raw power was not his forte. He feared nothing more than sealing jutsu. This woman was clearly not someone to be trifled with; he could not let her catch him.
[Ding! Mood value from Black Zetsu +10,000]
Thus began a bizarre scene of "she chases, he flees, and he has nowhere to run." The woman and the plant-like being tore across the landscape.
"Come out! Get the hell out here!"
Mie's fists slammed into the ground again and again, each impact sending shockwaves through the earth. Her powerful sensory abilities allowed her to track Black Zetsu's subterranean movements with terrifying precision. She relentlessly hammered the terrain, smashing it to pieces in an attempt to force him to the surface.
And it wasn't just the fists. Every time her left hand crashed down, her right hand was already aglow, a new sealing jutsu primed and ready. Did this woman specialize in Fūinjutsu?
Damn it, she's a lunatic! She turns hostile in the blink of an eye! Black Zetsu cursed internally as he fled.
He had noticed back in the Land of Fire that Mie's sensory skills were strong, but he had never imagined they were this powerful. She could detect him even when he was hidden deep underground. If he stopped moving, she would simply wait on the surface, standing as still as a statue, a patient predator. The moment he moved, she was on him again, her pursuit unerringly accurate.
He was a product of Yin–Yang Release; ordinary sensory ninja shouldn't be able to perceive him at all. What kind of sensory power was this? He couldn't shake her.
The chase, which stretched on for several days and nights, finally came to a halt in a deep canyon carved by a winding river.
Mie stopped at the edge of a deep lake. She stared down at the water, a chilling smile playing on her lips. "As the Progenitor's will, is fleeing all you can do?" she called out to Black Zetsu, who was hiding in the murky depths. "If this is all you're capable of…"
A crazed, ecstatic light filled her eyes. "Then I'll devour you, replace you, and become the Progenitor's will myself."
Damn it, a lunatic—a sinister and utterly deranged lunatic!
[Ding! Mood value from Black Zetsu +50,000]
Black Zetsu finally surfaced, his amorphous black form coalescing on the opposite side of the lake, keeping a significant distance between them.
"Mie, do you intend to betray the Progenitor?" he hissed, his voice strained. "You should know that only I am privy to the Progenitor's grand plan for world destruction. Without my cooperation, you absolutely cannot complete it alone."
Mie's crazed expression softened. She frowned, appearing to give his words serious thought, and then nodded, reluctantly convinced.
"It seems you really are the Progenitor's will," she conceded, withdrawing the Fūinjutsu she had been maintaining in her left hand. She plopped down onto the ground, crossing her legs. "I'll begrudgingly believe you. Let's cooperate. I am Mie—the 'Mie'in'Mie Shi'." [Translator Note: 'Mie Shi'(灭世) means'to destroy the world'.]
"So," she said, her tone now businesslike, "what instructions did the Progenitor actually give you?"
Finally, she took the bait. Black Zetsu let out a long, silent sigh of relief.
"Do you know of the Tailed Beasts? There are nine in the ninja world, each created when the Ten-Tails was split apart. According to the Progenitor's instructions…" He paused for dramatic effect. "As long as the nine Tailed Beasts are gathered and fused back into the Ten-Tails, we can activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi, immersing everyone in the world in an illusion until they perish."
Mie waited for him to continue, but Black Zetsu simply stopped there, his form radiating an air of deep authority, as if to say, Believe me, this is an order from on high; you'd better listen. He was a master of tailoring his words to his audience.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go catch the Tailed Beasts now!" Mie clenched her fists, her eyes gleaming with eagerness.
"Wait," Black Zetsu interjected, stopping his new ally. She was strong and her cooperation was enthusiastic, but she didn't seem particularly bright—and she was far too erratic. "Activating the Infinite Tsukuyomi requires a medium. If it were that simple, why would I have sought you out?"
"What medium?" Mie asked impatiently.
"It requires the power of the Rinnegan to force all the Tailed Beasts into the husk of the Ten-Tails, the Gedo Statue, before it can be activated."
"Then what is the Rinnegan?" Mie asked again.
Aren't you supposedly the successor to the Progenitor of Chakra? How can you not know any of this?
Black Zetsu patiently explained, "The Rinnegan is the final evolution of the Sharingan. When a member of the Uchiha Clan evolves their eyes to the Mangekyō Sharingan, the next step beyond that is the Rinnegan."
"Oh," Mie said. "So do you have it?"
"Of course not!"
Mie shot Black Zetsu a look of pure, unadulterated disdain. The contempt and disgust in her eyes were so potent they were almost tangible.
"Useless trash."
Black Zetsu felt his entire liquid form stiffen. He desperately wanted to kill this lunatic—if only he stood a chance of winning a fight against her.
"Alright," Mie declared, stretching her arms above her head. "I'm a bit tired now and need to rest. Find me a comfortable place to stay and give me some money. I'm going to enjoy myself. Running around every day is exhausting."
"I… give you money?" Black Zetsu was stunned. On what grounds?
"Aren't you the Progenitor's will? I'm the Progenitor's successor, so what's wrong with you giving me some money to spend? You're so weak; I'll be the one doing all the heavy lifting in the future. Small matters like making money should obviously fall to you. Hurry up, don't dawdle…"
She watched as Black Zetsu reluctantly produced a small pouch of coins. Her face soured.
"You have the nerve to bring out such a pathetic amount? Forget it. Go find a way to make some real money, quickly. I'll be waiting for you at the best hot spring hotel in the Land of Hot Springs. Ganbatte."
Is this an ally or an ancestor I'm supposed to be serving?!
A shudder ran through Black Zetsu's form. He was suddenly struck by a deep sense of regret for ever approaching Mie, a deep, sinking feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
[Ding! Mood value from Black Zetsu +10,000]
Back in her own mind, Stelle received the full report of Mie's encounter from the System Space. Learning that Black Zetsu had claimed to be the Progenitor's will, she almost doubled over with laughter on the spot. That wave of publicity she had orchestrated when she first appeared had been a masterstroke; it had been so effective that even Black Zetsu himself had nearly believed it.
In the blink of an eye, winter arrived. Konoha, however, was a place where it felt like spring all year round; even in the coldest season, the air remained mild.
Uchiha Izuna's supposed death had little impact on the common people. They only knew that some high-ranking leader had passed away. The trivialities of daily life—the grind of earning enough to support their families—left them little time to ponder such things. Reality was just that; the world wouldn't stop turning because of one person's departure.
That day, after Uchiha Madara finished reviewing his documents, Stelle served him a cup of hot tea. Leaning in for a closer look, she saw that the scroll Madara had been holding, his gaze fixed upon it for some time, was a detailed plan for the unification of the ninja world.
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