Black Zetsu-I

Note:

'Black and White Zetsu communicating with each other through their telepathic link.'

"People speaking out loud."

Just added this small section to ensure that there is no confusion. I experimented a lot in this chapter with the perspective of an invisible and undetectable spy.

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Black Zetsu sensed a massive buildup of chakra right before a black arc of chakra went tearing through the base and into the heavens. Compared to what he was sensing in the rest of the base, he reckoned he needed to observe the major confrontation firsthand.

Interest piqued, he immediately used the mayfly technique to swim through the ground towards where two huge sources of chakra were clashing.

As he swam through the base and reached Danzo's personal wing, he came across some sort of invisible barrier that he effortlessly passed through. He could feel a microscopic amount of his chakra being absorbed by the barrier and was confused by how it had managed to tag him in the first place. He observed the composition of the barrier and could see that it was similar to several barriers that absorbed any foreign chakra and bolstered themselves. The chakra that the barrier got from him would not even be a kikaichu's worth of chakra, so he didn't worry much.

Still, it was interesting that there existed a barrier that could even do something to him while he was using the mayfly technique. He immediately sent out a White Zetsu clone to Danzo's office to see if there was any information about this barrier over there.

One positive thing was that he no longer needed to constantly fluctuate chakra from both his halves to fight the genjutsu. It seemed like this part of the base was not targeted by the technique. The Kurama girl's genjutsu didn't really target him because the girl used paintings as a medium and the genjutsu only targeted the scenario painted by her. Both his halves could not be considered humans, so he could easily evade this brand of genjutsu. Nonetheless, he had still been careful in the face of such potent genjutsu.

Within seconds, Zetsu reached the site of the confrontation. He reached there just in time to see the Third Hokage make an entrance, ready to confront his longtime friend.

Oh, how he liked to pit friends against each other. Even though he couldn't necessarily take credit for this particular bout, he would enjoy it nonetheless.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and Ichigo Haruno stood on one side while Danzo stared at the both of them with a sour expression on his face. Sunlight was streaming in from the massive hole in the ceiling and lighting up the place perfectly.

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'Looks like we missed the first act,' said his white half in a playful tone through their link.

'Doesn't matter either way. We'll still see what Haruno is capable of,' he responded. He had been curious about Haruno ever since the kid had killed Hiruko. Zetsu had tried hard to get his hands on Hiruko's corpse, but apparently, there was nothing left of the body. Such a waste. Nagato could have easily restored the body if they had found it. He could have put the Chimera technique to good use for their cause.

He took a good look at Danzo and saw that there was not a single scratch on him while Ichigo had several tiny cuts here and there. Although, Danzo's bandages were nowhere to be seen, and he had his right eye closed for some reason.

Right as he looked at his arm full of Sharingan, one of the eyes closed, cluing in Zetsu on what had happened. So the decrepit warmonger planned to abuse Izanagi to cling to life. It would be interesting to see how he pulled it off against these two.

'Such a shame that those eyes in his arm can't see. He would have had massive spatial awareness then,' white Zetsu said through his transmitted thoughts.

'He would have also melted his mind due to the overload, you idiot,' he transmitted back through their link. The both of them stopped communicating as it seemed like the fight was going to resume once more.

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"I see that you finally grew a backbone," snidely said Danzo as he pulled out a kunai and coated it with wind-natured chakra.

"You mistake my kindness for weakness, Danzo," replied the Third Hokage calmly as he got into a fighting stance.

"Unlike you, I am not delusional. You are weak. You let Orochimaru go. You let me go, even after I tried to get you assassinated. Is that how the leader of a village is supposed to act?"

Zetsu could clearly see that Danzo was indulging in such small talk to take a breather from whatever Ichigo had put him through.

"Lord Third, I hit him point blank with a Getsuga. He somehow appeared nearby without a scratch on him, and all healed up from his previous injuries. It is as we suspected," said Ichigo, interrupting the banter between the two old men.

"Izanagi," Sarutobi declared resolutely, with a tinge of disgust lacing his voice. "Was it worth it Danzo? Shisui could have easily stopped us from losing a major clan. Instead, here we are. The village is bereft of arguably our strongest remaining clan. All we have to show for that fiasco is you literally reaping their corpses for your benefit."

As he was speaking, he put a hand on his back and began rapidly instructing Ichigo via hand signs. Zetsu was proficient in the hand signs used by all the villages. He could see that Sarutobi was relaying the plan to combat Izanagi to Ichigo while he was talking to Danzo.

"Don't make me laugh. What was to stop Shisui from changing his mind later on? And what guaranteed that nobody would develop a counter to it? Haruno here managed to do it. What was stopping any other Uchiha from doing it? No. It was for the best that I took the eye and let that wretched clan die. In their death, they served Konoha," spat Danzo.

"Is that how you justify desecrating Lord Hashirama's legacy as well?" asked Hiruzen, pointing towards Danzo's arm.

"Hah, you have your student to thank for that," laughed Danzo.

Zetsu could see that all three of them had begun molding chakra, and were ready to spring at each other at a moment's notice.

"So, Lord Hokage," said Danzo, scoffing at the honorific, "How do you plan on dealing with me this time?"

Without responding, Hiruzen threw three shurikens at Danzo and ran through a set of hand seals. The next instant, the three projectiles became thousands in number. The shuriken shadow clone technique bore upon Danzo as thousands of shuriken surrounded him.

Danzo countered with a wind jutsu that blew away the oncoming shuriken, which all disappeared into a massive cloud of smoke that covered Danzo. Another burst of the wind jutsu blew all of the smoke away, but it was too late as Ichigo and Hiruzen were already upon Danzo.

Zetsu watched with mounting humor as Danzo began desperately dodging for his life from Ichigo's sword and Hiruzen's fists.

Just as Danzo dodged a vertical slash, Hiruzen stomped on the ground and pinned Danzo in place with several earthen spikes. Danzo immediately made a hand seal as the spikes impaled him. As he was immobile from the waist down, he could only watch as Ichigo beheaded him with a simple slash.

Silence hung in the air for a second right as the toppled head hit the floor. The next instant, Danzo's severed head, and body disappeared as he materialized right behind Hiruzen. He attempted to skewer Hiruzen with the blade of wind chakra that sprung from his kunai.

Ichigo parried the wind-infused kunai and Hiruzen immediately kicked out with such force that Danzo's knee bent backward with a sickening crunch. Ichigo capitalized on this moment and impaled Danzo's chest with Zangetsu.

Without caring about his injuries, Danzo leaned into the blade impaling him and spat out several air bullets.

Hiruzen sank into the ground to avoid the jutsu. Ichigo, on the other hand, dodged to the side while dragging the impaled sword across Danzo's torso, almost cutting him in half. He did not escape unscathed though, as an air bullet clipped him in the shoulder.

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'The cockroach is putting Izanagi to good use. But how long can he maintain the jutsu before he loses an eye?' pondered White Zetsu through their shared link.

'Definitely not as long as Obito can,' Black Zetsu responded as he watched on.

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Ichigo jumped away from Danzo as he moved his injured shoulder around, testing his mobility. It did not seem to be a deep wound, as he shrugged it off and gripped his sword once more with both hands. Meanwhile, Danzo's injuries just disappeared in an instant.

Before he could do anything though, Hiruzen's hands burst out from the ground and held Danzo's body in place as the earth below him rose like a pillar. The pillar of earth shot upwards with great speed as Danzo struggled on top of it due to Hiruzen's hold on him. The pillar, with Danzo on top of it, crashed into an undamaged part of the ceiling with a deafening sound.

Blood and gore spattered out of the point of impact as Danzo was sandwiched into a mere smear on the ceiling. The pillar lowered a bit, only to show a gory mess on top of it.

Hiruzen shot out of the pillar and joined Ichigo at once. He placed a glowing hand on Ichigo's shoulder as green chakra covered the shallow wound and began closing it up. The next moment, Danzo materialized at the foot of the pillar that squashed him seconds ago. He looked at it in distaste and turned towards the duo that had almost killed him thrice within a minute.

Zetsu sensed Danzo's chakra fluctuate as one eye closed, indicating the end of the Izanagi. Overall, the jutsu itself had taken a lot of chakra out of him. Going by his current chakra level, Zetsu calculated that Danzo would run out of chakra by the time all his extra eyes were used up. That too, given that he did not use other major techniques that drained his chakra even more.

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'A full minute. That is impressive. Obito's Izanagi lasts longer though,' said White Zetsu.

'I'm more interested in why he's not using his right eye. He could have escaped all that if he had it open,' said Black Zetsu as he replayed the fight so far in his mind.

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The moment Danzo peeked at his arm to check the closed eye, Hiruzen and Ichigo exchanged glances and nodded in understanding.

They resumed working in tandem as both of them tried to catch Danzo by surprise. Both of them began targeting Danzo's arm, hoping to damage the eyes in it before he could use them to trigger another Izanagi. As he tried to dodge once more, Ichigo's sword struck true and lopped his arm full of Sharingan off.

Unfortunately for the duo, both the arm and Danzo vanished, signifying that he had triggered another Izanagi successfully.

Seemingly growing tired of being ganged up on, Danzo began running through a set of hand seals. The moment he began that specific sequence, Hiruzen and Ichigo began doing the same thing. Three hands hit the floor at once and the occupants were surrounded by a cloud of smoke.

The smoke cleared to reveal the new additions to the fight. A massive tapir-like creature stood in front of Danzo. The creature known as the Baku lifted its trunk as it let out a loud trumpet, challenging its foes. Responding to the challenge was a mighty roar from an armored polar bear that rivaled the Baku in size. Unlike Ichigo's renowned personal summon Shirokuma, this specific bear was devoid of any weapons and was wearing a heavier set of armor. It was also way larger. Zetsu wondered if the beast was the boss summon of the polar bears.

In contrast to the gargantuan beasts, Hiruzen's summon, the Monkey King Enma was only slightly taller than the humans on the battlefield. Enma took a look around the room and nodded in approval.

"Another rat inside the village eh? Remember Hiruzen. This time, you will not show mercy," stated Enma, reminding Hiruzen of the time they had let Orochimaru slip past them. Hiruzen nodded wordlessly as the monkey summon transformed into a black staff with gold-capped ends.

At a wordless signal, the Baku began to inhale, creating a suction force that began drawing in everything in the vicinity. Ichigo immediately stepped behind his armored bear, using it to shield himself from the pull. Hiruzen slammed the adamantine staff to the ground and used it as leverage to stay put as the Baku kept the inhalation going.

Danzo capitalized on this and moved to the side, attempting to flank them. But before he could reach a vantage point, an arc of black chakra engulfed him continuously, destroying everything in its wake. It was definitely not as big as the one Zetsu sensed previously, but he could tell that it was the same jutsu.

Fortunately for the old fool, he had performed the hand seal for the Izanagi beforehand and was able to survive once more. Capitalizing on the jutsu, Danzo materialized a good distance behind both of them and unleashed his Vacuum Serial Waves jutsu. Zetsu watched with interest as the blades of wind were given a massive boost both to their speed and size due to the suction jutsu pulling them in.

"Your memory has gotten spotty my friend," roared Hiruzen as he slammed his hand on the ground, summoning a Rashomon gate in front of him. The jutsu stuck the Rashomon with a loud scraping noise and kept trying to bypass the gate. Danzo scowled as the jutsu failed to destroy the barrier.

"Go, Yama," said Ichigo. Upon his signal, the armored polar bear barreled towards the Baku. The suction force just increased its speed as it sprinted on four legs towards the source of the pull. With a mighty roar, the bear tacked the Baku and moved with such force that both the animals crashed through the wall, moving out of sight.

"We fought in wars together. I am aware of your tricks," said Hiruzen. Danzo did not respond and looked at his arm once again as another eye closed. Zetsu did a quick count and saw that he had run through four eyes already.

Hiruzen and Ichigo set upon Danzo once more, black staff and black sword lashing out at their foe. Zetsu watched on as they quickly overwhelmed him and forced him to trigger another Izanagi.

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'By now, he should know that he doesn't have a chance of winning right?' said White Zetsu.

'The fool knows that he is doomed. But it seems like he won't be going down quietly. This is a battle of attrition. He expects them to accumulate enough damage and run out of chakra before he runs out of eyes to sacrifice,' he said.

'Seems pointless.'

'Didn't you hear him? He thinks Hiruzen is not fit to be the Hokage. In his mind, if he gets rid of the village's biggest weakness as his last act, he will gladly die,' Black Zetsu said as he had already started plotting what to do with the result of this fight.

Zetsu could hear the summons fighting in the distance, but that noise died out soon after. He could sense that the Baku had been taken out. The polar bear unsummoned itself after it was done with its task, presumably under Ichigo's orders.

'If they both die, can we get Obito to take over the new Hokage?' asked White Zetsu right as the adamantine staff hit Danzo's head with such force that his neck twisted backwards.

'Depends on who it is,' he responded right as the adamantine staff extended and shot towards Danzo.

Zetsu chuckled in amusement as he understood the duo's game plan. This was quickly turning out to be one of the most entertaining fights he had witnessed throughout his long life. He didn't count Indra, Asura, and their reincarnations of course. Those fights were on a whole different level.

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Danzo moved sideways as he dodged the expanding staff. He expected Hiruzen to retract the weapon, but instead, Hiruzen let go of the staff and made a shadow clone.

At that moment, the staff began to retract. He was visibly surprised as it began retracting on the opposite end. He glanced back to see that Ichigo had caught the other end and was reeling the staff back in.

That one second of distraction cost Danzo, as Hiruzen and his shadow clone released two different techniques at the same time.

Hiruzen unleashed a massive tidal wave while his shadow clone began pumping obscene amounts of lightning chakra into the wave. He couldn't hide behind a wall as Ichigo was right behind him, so Danzo jumped upwards, attempting to escape the electrocuting tidal wave.

Ichigo stood atop the pillar that had previously squished Danzo, staff held overhand like a javelin. Lightning arced over the staff as he pushed more chakra into the lightning nature chakra flow. With an almighty heave, Ichigo threw the lightning javelin.

The lightning-coated staff struck Danzo's spine with a sickening crunch, as it speared him right into the electrocuted water below.

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'There goes another eye,' mocked White Zetsu.

Black Zetsu could only agree as he saw the trap that Danzo got caught in. They truly were wasting huge amounts of chakra just to drive the old fool into a trap. But they had no other option other than to go for the kill with their moves and force him to use the jutsu.

The next two minutes went on in a similar vein as Hiruzen and Ichigo demolished Danzo nonstop with their impeccable teamwork. The Third Hokage easily read the flow of the battle and was able to aid his younger subordinate and counter Danzo whenever he tried to get on the offensive.

Danzo kept leaning into the attacks to take advantage of his pseudo immortality and attack them at unexpected times. Even that did not work in his favor due to Hiruzen being familiar with his fighting style. It was not without any results though, as Ichigo sported cuts and bruises here and there, but nothing fatal. Hiruzen in contrast was relatively unscathed, but he seemed to be tiring out as well.

What surprised Zetsu was the Fire Release Chakra Mode that Ichigo began using. The more he saw of the fight, the more he was convinced that Ichigo would make an excellent pawn. Either via Edo Tensei or by manipulation and coercion.

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Six minutes had passed since the three had begun fighting. Adding the eye that had been used up already, Danzo was now down seven eyes.

Something must have happened at that moment, as both Hiruzen and Ichigo hid their mouths and whispered something that only they could hear.

They immediately burst into action as Hiruzen ran through a bunch of seals and stomped hard on the ground. Two massive walls of earth rose at once, trapping Danzo into a narrow tunnel.

At the same time, a massive amount of black chakra oozed from Ichigo's sword. From the sheer output of the thing, it looked like Ichigo was pouring a good chunk of his remaining chakra into the thing.

Sighing in resignation, Danzo made the hand seal to trigger another Izanagi. He was just in time, as black chakra consumed the newly created earth tunnel and everything inside it. All that was left of that area was a deep gouge in the ground that looked eerily familiar to Zetsu.

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'Is that-' questioned his white counterpart.

'Incomplete, but on the correct track,' he responded as he got a good feel of the chakra composition of the jutsu. Zetsu's sensory abilities were a notch above any of the puny shinobi running around, and he could clearly feel what the jutsu was. Or at least what it was trying to emulate.

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Right as Danzo materialized again, the adamantine staff cloned itself and assembled into a lattice, trapping Danzo within an unbreakable prison.

At the same moment, three Hiruzen Sarutobis stood together and ran through different hand seals while molding massive amounts of chakra. They unleashed the co-operation jutsu without preamble, engulfing Danzo and his unbreakable prison in a sea of flames.

Two of them spat large jets of fire while the third one used a wind jutsu to fan the flames and spread it throughout the battlefield. Danzo materialized and got immediately submerged by the rapidly spreading flame. He tried once more and got burnt into ashes the next second.

Within seconds, the entire place was aflame. The fire didn't seem to let up, still being fueled by the Third and his clones. Soon enough, only two places were untouched. One was the place where the Hokage, his clones, and Ichigo were, and the other place was the very top of the earthen pillar that had previously splattered Danzo.

To Zetsu, it seemed to be timed in such a way that Danzo materialized atop the pillar right as the clock struck sixty seconds since the Izanagi started.

Right as the eighth eye began to close, a flaming arrow punched out of the sea of flames, heading towards Danzo at blinding speeds. Ichigo, wreathed in the explosive aura of his Fire Release Chakra Mode was right next to Danzo in the blink of an eye.

Danzo was in the middle of performing the hand sign for the Izanagi as his right arm was lopped off at the shoulder. The fiery aura surrounding Ichigo and his blade ensured that the wound was cauterized in an instant.

For a second, it looked like Danzo considered sacrificing Shisui's eye to trigger the Izanagi. Alas, the choice was taken out of his hand, as Hiruzen jumped out of the ground, arm outstretched. He plucked Shisui's eye right out of the socket and plopped it into a jar as Danzo fell from the pillar, devoid of his right arm and his right eye.

The whole fight was leading to this moment as Hiruzen and Ichigo had been getting used to the exact timing of the Izanagi. They had finally put an end to it, as Danzo crashed several meters away from his felled arm.

To everyone's surprise, the arm bulged unnaturally and burst out with trees, all of a sudden. The Mokuton ran rampant, without most of the Sharingan and Danzo's vitality to counteract its own.

Within seconds, instead of the arm, stood a tall tree. The center of the trunk had Hashirama's face jutting out of it, with the last two remaining Sharingan eyes blazing in the immobile sculpture's eye sockets.

All three of the fighters looked at the tree in a stupor before the Hokage shook his head in dismay and turned towards Danzo, ignoring the tree for the moment.

"I hope you repent for your misdeeds in the afterlife, old friend," said Hiruzen as he pulled out a kunai and suffused it with wind-natured chakra, just like Danzo did throughout the fight.

"Repent? Why should I repent?" Danzo coughed and wiped the blood flowing from his empty eye socket before continuing, "I did everything for the sake of the village. If there is one thing I regret, it would be letting you become the Hokage. I let that opportunity slip by my hands, and watched as you led the village to ruin."

Danzo stumbled to his feet as he looked at the Third Hokage with hatred burning in his one sole eye.

"Why now, of all times? You were content, letting me do as I pleased all this time," he said as he touched his cauterized shoulder and examined his wound.

"You are a threat to the village. I don't plan on repeating my mistakes anymore. Not when I know for sure that you have been colluding with traitors and attacking loyal shinobi," said Hiruzen with grim determination.

"A threat, am I? You are the Hokage. You found a threat, what are you going to do about it then? Either you get rid of the threat like a Hokage should, or die here as a failure unfit for the mantle," shouted Danzo as he placed his good hand on his chest.

A fuinjutsu seal appeared on his chest, and it seemed like Danzo was going to trigger the suicide jutsu. Before he could do so, a kunai impacted his stomach, with a sealing tag hanging from its ring. Whatever Danzo was trying to do got disrupted as the sealing tag interacted with the suicide seal.

"Good job, Ichigo. Now that a minute has passed, you can't come back, Danzo. I suppose it is farewell, old friend," said the Hokage as he appeared right next to Danzo and stabbed him in the heart with the wind-natured chakra blade. The dying old man coughed a dollop of blood and laughed maniacally in his last moments.

"That's it! Don't hesitate. Never hesi-" Danzo never got to finish his last words as Hiruzen severed his head, looking at his fallen comrade in distaste.

Hiruzen stood still for several moments, just staring at Danzo's corpse. Meanwhile, Ichigo had slumped on the ground, exhausted due to all the chakra he had been throwing around.

After a few more seconds, Hiruzen threw the tiny jar containing Shisui's eye to Ichigo.

"Seal it. Place trackers. Guard it for now. We will decide later what to do with it," Hiruzen said as he walked to the tree and plucked the two remaining Sharingan out of the tree. The face of Hashirama jutting out from the tree closed its eyes once the eyes were out. It looked serene, without the blazing red eyes marring its blank expression.

"It's ironic, isn't it? The last stand of Root resulted in a massive tree being planted in the center of the village," Ichigo scoffed as he began inscribing seals on the vial containing the Sharingan.

"I'm of half a mind to destroy it. I'll get Tenzo to check on it first before we do anything. If he can study its composition and improve his own Mokuton, then it'll be great for us," he said as he placed the other two eyes in a different jar and put it away in a storage seal.

Hiruzen then looked at Danzo's corpse and hummed thoughtfully.

"Destroy the body with a Getsuga. I'd burn it with fire, but I don't want even ashes to remain of this travesty."

"Yes sir."

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Zetsu swam through the ground and made his way back outside. On his way, he saw a purple-haired Anbu woman leading a team that corralled the captured Root agents. A droopy-eyed shinobi with a katana was leading another squad that was rounding up the captured children.

He moved past them unseen as his numerous White Zetsu clones returned to him with the information they had managed to plunder from the base. He still didn't get anything about the weird barrier he initially encountered, but there was nothing he could do about that.

His mind went back to the fight he had witnessed. Ichigo Haruno was more of a threat than he had initially thought.

He had always wondered how a wet behind the ears brat had managed to take out Hiruko, who was once a peer of the Sanin. He had gotten his answers now. The Fire Release Chakra Mode would have given him enough speed and power to keep up with Hiruko while the sword- Zangetsu, would have helped overcome the tide.

From what he observed, both of his trump cards drained a lot of chakra. It was still impressive nonetheless, for a young shinobi to have enough chakra to throw such jutsu around without getting drained completely.

Zetsu once again pondered on what exactly the Getsuga Tensho was. Catching his train of thought, his white counterpart spoke up at once through their telepathic link.

'It was very similar to the failed attempts of Mu.'

'I'd say he succeeded where Mu failed,' he replied. He could clearly sense the chakra composition of the attack, and it was reminiscent of the time they were spying on Mu, the second Tsuchikage.

'So, four elements?' questioned his white half. Mu tried to take the Dust Release one step further by adding another element to it, but all his experiments failed and he eventually gave up.

'Definitely more than three elements. From what I could sense, the sword was pumping out chakra of different elements at the same time and using a catalyst to mix them. It then released the volatile mixture as a blast of chakra.'

'That is dangerous.'

Black Zetsu nodded as he agreed with his counterpart. The sword was dangerous. He was sure that at least four elements were being mixed, possibly lacking a fifth element and a yin-yang component. Or it might be oversaturated with yin, which would mostly be the reason for the black color and the red tinge on the edges. It would also explain the massive chakra drain of the jutsu.

'It is volatile. Not polished, not stable, but it does the job. I would say that it is stronger than Jinton when he dumps huge amounts of chakra into the jutsu,' he said.

'What if he improves it with all the elements?' asked White Zetsu.

'If he ever reaches close to that point, we get rid of him. Although, I doubt anyone would be able to make truth-seeking orbs without the sage's chakra,' he replied in a grim tone.

The existing imperfect mix had a corrosive effect that obliterated everything in its path, but it was nowhere near the level of the truth-seeking orbs which could affect even souls.

Ichigo Haruno was a new player on the board that needed to be reined in by any means. Zetsu ruminated on all the details he knew about the boy and came to a decision. They would need to make a plan to kill him and steal the sword later on, or to bring him over to their side.

He had an inkling that Ichigo will most likely be in the running for the Kage seat after the old man. It did require him to be older, so he could not exactly say what would happen. If the old fool retired quickly, then they would place someone with experience on the seat. Someone like Jiraiya or Kakashi.

Hiruzen had gotten weaker in his old age, compared to how he was in his prime. Zetsu had witnessed all the wars with great interest after all. Danzo didn't dare to go against Hiruzen in his prime.

In any case, it would be beneficial to have another Kage under their control. An added bonus would be that they would have easy access to the nine tails too.

All it would take was holding the younger sister hostage to get Ichigo under their control. It was a pretty easy weakness to exploit. On the other hand, he could do what he did to Obito. He could get the girl killed and make it look like it was Konoha's fault. It would be easy to manipulate the teen as he drowned in misery.

It wouldn't be much work as well, since he was already planning on monitoring the jinchuriki of the nine tails. It was his good fortune that the girl was on the same team as the host. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

Zetsu was a patient being. He could wait and enact his plans since he had been waiting for so long already. He didn't know how long his pawns would be patient though. Both Obito and Nagato were nearing a stage where they would no longer work in the shadows and move out in the open.

Zetsu finally reached the surface and crept up on the team monitoring the Root base. There was no bloodbath due to this specific team. He had already seen them when they started the operation, but it seemed like the whole ordeal had drained them of all energy.

The Kurama clan girl was still maintaining the mass genjutsu with a painting of hers. Right next to her sat the Mokuton wielder, slumped due to the amount of chakra he had spent.

He had an irrational urge to just nab the Mokuton wielder and use him as a battery for creating and empowering the White Zetsus. He let that feeling go because it would be pointless at this point in time. Once the wielder got stronger, Zetsu would come for him. He would make for a better battery then.

A pale kid was seated next to the two, coordinating with critters made out of ink. He had seen the inky creations running around the base, presumable acting as a scouting force and an information relay for the other squads inside the base.

Sarutobi's son and Hatake were guarding the three lynchpins of the operation along with an Anbu squad.

Seeing nothing much of interest anymore, Zetsu began traveling away from the village at great speed. He planned on returning after the security became lax. If he could make a play for Shisui's eye at the correct opportunity, it would aid him more in his endeavors.

He wondered whether he should let Obito know of all the events that had happened, or whether he should leave out some information.

At the end of the day, everyone else was a pawn and the only thing that mattered was freeing his mother from her prison.

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A.N: I don't even care about the stuff that Danzo did anymore. I hate him purely off the fact that I had to keep going back and counting how many damn eyes he had left. Such a downer to the flow.

I'll most likely be updating the Six Paths chapter next, so expect a minor delay before the next Strawberry chapter. Might update a Shinobi Files installation in the meanwhile.

Please do let me know if you liked this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing the fight, but I suppose it might have dragged just a teensy bit. I hope it was entertaining nonetheless.

If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.