Chapter 195: Parasitic Zetzu

Maintaining control while retaining self-awareness...

How interesting.

Madara Uchiha cast a knowing look at Kabuto.

Kabuto offered a reserved smile, clapping his hands as the reanimated corpses began to file out of the room.

"Madara-sama, aren't you joining them?" Kabuto tilted his head.

Madara crossed his arms, his tone dripping with arrogance. "Not every trivial opponent is worth my attention."

"These younger generations are so short-sighted."

"I highly doubt that this sixteen-year-old Jinchuriki truly measures up to Hashirama Senju."

"Or is it..."

"That the power of the Nine-Tails alone has led you all to some 'unattainable' illusion?"

Kabuto smiled slightly.

Madara shot him a cold glare.

After he left, Kabuto grinned widely, speaking to himself, "What a sharp mind."

"Madara Uchiha."

"How fascinating... No wonder Obito chose to call himself 'Madara.'"

As his hands dropped to his sides, a thin, small white snake silently slid out, disappearing into a ripple on the ground.

This was a disturbance beyond the realm of chakra.

No one noticed.

…

At the border of the Land of Iron.

A group of figures stood on tree branches, gazing into the distance.

"It seems the intel was off," Orochimaru murmured, his tone tinged with surprise. "This doesn't look like just a force of forty thousand."

The territory ahead was packed with ninjas.

There were so many that they seemed to encircle the land with their sheer numbers.

"Something's not right," Neji observed with his Byakugan, frowning. "A large portion of these ninjas... have identical faces and chakra signatures."

Orochimaru made a small sound of interest.

Sasuke Uchiha, hands in his pockets, used his Sharingan to see the same results as Neji.

"Their souls are identical too," Naruto added, frowning in surprise.

This was the first time he'd encountered such beings in either world.

"Clones?" Orochimaru ventured a guess.

Naruto shook his head.

He clapped his hands together.

"Adamantine Sealing Chains."

Chains surged forward, shooting downward to capture the nearest ninja.

He was quickly taken away.

His companions were startled, but not out of concern for him.

They shouted in alarm, their voices sharp and panicked.

"He's here!"

"Naruto Uzumaki is over there!"

"That guy is terrifying!"

They began to gather, their identical consciousness allowing their chakra to blend seamlessly.

The group's expressions changed slightly.

A single ninja's power was insignificant.

But with thousands of them merging their energy, it created an overwhelming pressure, even for them.

However, to Naruto...

This level of pressure wasn't enough to make him flinch. He studied the ninja before him.

After he killed him, the man's true form was revealed.

The "skin" and "features" peeled away like paint, revealing a ghastly white body beneath.

Pale green hair, golden eyes.

The golden chains whipped out again, capturing a second person.

His appearance gradually emerged.

Nearly identical to the first, with only slight differences in build.

"I know what this is," Orochimaru murmured, his voice low. "This is White Zetsu."

"A special kind of human created using the cells of the First Hokage."

"It seems they were cloned in considerable numbers..."

Naruto interrupted him, "Not exactly."

Orochimaru paused, surprised.

"While their bodies use the First Hokage's cells, they're not clones." Naruto shook his head, reaching into one of the corpses to grab its soul and pull it out.

The soul looked almost identical to the body.

Orochimaru was still puzzled.

Naruto gently blew on the soul, the spiritual particles swirling as he carefully ground away at it.

Layers of its outer shell were stripped away.

A faint, nearly transparent, and extinguished soul, utterly different from White Zetsu's appearance, was revealed beneath the outer shell.

It was a human soul, distinct from White Zetsu.

The death of the body didn't necessarily mean the death of the soul.

But...

This soul was so weak that it couldn't even open its eyes.

Naruto grabbed the soul of another corpse, carefully peeling away the layers again, revealing a face identical to the first but in the same weakened, almost obliterated state.

"What is this?" Orochimaru's eyes widened.

"A soul," Naruto answered softly. "A parasitized soul."

"Naruto-sama," Neji called out in warning.

As Naruto conducted his brief investigation, the White Zetsu began to converge, twisting into a grotesque, monstrous form.

Like a mountain of flesh, numerous heads grew haphazardly, some standing alone, others conjoined. The enormous mass towered over them, taller than Sasuke's Susanoo, with thousands of heads clustered together like tumors.

Pitcher plants sprouted wildly, bursting from every conceivable and inconceivable part of the flesh mountain.

They opened and closed soundlessly.

All their chakra converged, massive and imposing, exerting a nearly tangible influence on reality.

"What a grotesque sight," Naruto remarked, looking up with an expressionless face.

The White Zetsu cackled, their laughter echoing from all directions.

Karin covered her ears, lowering her head.

She didn't want to look at this—it was too disgusting.

"Isn't this thing just a bio-weapon created from the First Hokage's cells?" Orochimaru asked calmly, looking up.

"Did you see this creature back when you were with the Akatsuki?" Naruto inquired.

Orochimaru squinted. "There was a member of the Akatsuki named Zetsu."

"His body was black and white."

"I don't know what the black half was..."

"But the white half was likely White Zetsu."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully.

The White Zetsu conglomerate raised a massive hand high, chakra surging as it crashed down with a chorus of sinister laughter.

But...

The hand stopped abruptly, less than a meter above them.

An invisible barrier protected them.

It wasn't a technique.

It was pure spiritual pressure.

"I've always suspected that chakra is a parasitic force," Naruto said, staring up at the giant hand, its smooth surface devoid of lines or wrinkles, like porcelain. "With these creatures, that suspicion is confirmed."

"They..."

"Must have once been ordinary humans or regular ninjas."

"They were influenced by a certain type of chakra, gradually assimilating into White Zetsu."

Orochimaru responded with a soft, "Oh."

"We're looking at thousands of them now," he tilted his head in thought. "Throughout the Land of Iron, there might be tens of thousands."

"And yet, there's been no word of mass disappearances of people or ninjas."

"Where did they come from?"

Naruto turned his head, smirking. "Could it be that Obito turned the entire allied force of the Five Great Nations into these things?"

Orochimaru licked his lips and smiled without replying.

"Yes, where did they come from?" Naruto turned back, gazing at the massive, writhing conglomerate that kept trying to attack them. "And what was the purpose of creating such creatures?"

"Even when they merge into such a hideous form..."

"They're still so weak."

The chains rattled with his words, stabbing into the flesh mountain.

A hurricane erupted.

It was a Kidō spell, performed without incantation.

"Hadō #58. Tenran (闐嵐, Vigorous Tempest)."

Wind blades began to take shape, swirling upward, grinding the enormous flesh mountain to pieces.

The White Zetsu panicked.

They struggled to escape.

But the chains held them in place, and the hurricane pulled them in. Their massive size only added to their suffering.

In the blink of an eye, the flesh mountain was gone.

All that remained in the nearby forest was a layer of dust, like a "red velvet" coating.

"What a waste of good research material," Orochimaru clicked his tongue. "Destroying it like that is a shame."

Naruto smiled at him. "Didn't you say there are tens of thousands of White Zetsu in the Land of Iron?"

"It's better not to keep such hideous things around."

Orochimaru shook his head, remaining silent.

Karin suddenly raised her head. "There's a lot of chakra approaching."

"Among them, I sense the First Hokage's chakra."

"The Second and Third Hokage are also present."

"And there are others with chakra nearly as strong as theirs."

Naruto said softly, "So it's Edo Tensei."

"So many bodies," Orochimaru smiled faintly. "Kabuto did a good job."

As they spoke, figures landed on the ground.

"It really is Naruto-kun." The leader was Hashirama Senju. He scratched his head and laughed, still cheerful and naive despite being reanimated. "I never thought I'd have to fight you this time."

Tobirama Senju said nothing, his arms crossed as he glared at the Uchiha boy with the Mangekyō Sharingan standing beside Naruto.

Behind them, more and more ninjas landed.

There were some familiar faces, like those from the Akatsuki—Nagato, Kakuzu, Deidara.

There were also some unfamiliar faces with strong auras.

A man who resembled Gaara, another who looked like the Raikage…

These must be former Kage.

"Such a large gathering, reviving so many of us from the Pure Land, just to fight a few people?" The Fourth Kazekage frowned, deep in thought. "

That Kabuto fellow is unforgivable."

"You died early, so don't act so high and mighty!" Deidara shouted. "You have no idea how terrifying Naruto is."

"All of us here probably aren't enough to beat him."

"Unless our leader..."

He turned his head, searching the crowd for "Pain," but his gaze ultimately landed on the red-haired man with the Rinnegan.

"Who are you? How do you also have the Rinnegan?"

Many ninjas turned their eyes to Deidara.

So many of them weren't a match for Naruto?

It seemed that just now, even that Hashirama guy had called out Naruto's name.

"The previous Kage, and some former powerful figures," Naruto's eyes swept over them, his expression still calm. "But why is Itachi the only Uchiha here?"

"Is Obito not going to show himself?"

Tobirama warned, "We saw Madara earlier. He's not being controlled like we are."

"So you're saying, you're just the appetizers before the main course?" Naruto raised his hand.

"Perfect timing, I've got a new idea."

~~~

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