Within the borders of the Land of Rain, inside a cave over a hundred kilometers from Ame, Kei sat in front of the campfire, placing the White Zetsu, which he had just finished extracting memories from, into a sealed storage scroll.
He glanced at the three corpses in the cave—former members of the Jashin cult.
These three guys from the Jashin cult of the Land of Hot Water were quite young. Their memories spanned several years, an overwhelming amount of information.
He only extracted the last two months, around the time of Madara's death.
As mid-level members of the Jashin cult, they knew nothing about Black Zetsu's existence. They had simply followed their leader's orders, claiming that Jashin wanted them to go to Ame to perform a sacrificial ritual.
The strange creatures possessing them, enhancing their abilities and allowing them to infiltrate the village, were said to be gifts from Jashin.
The three White Zetsu that had possessed them also had very limited knowledge. They had only been activated by Black Zetsu half a month ago, merely following orders to assist the cult members.
"So cautious…" Kei took out a separate sealed scroll from his robe. He formed hand seals and pressed his palm against the seal.
Before him, a White Zetsu disguised as an Ame ninja appeared. He placed his hand on its head, which was trapped in a genjutsu, and once again activated his memory extraction technique.
Unlike the previous three White Zetsu, this one had already been activated back when Madara was still alive.
Skipping past a scene of a bunch of White Zetsu huddled together discussing how to open an eye on their butts, Kei struggled to extract useful information!
"Madara in the dark kept recruiting a lot of guys skilled at digging tunnels."
"Ahh~ I can't dig, so Madara didn't pick me."
"Take 'dark' out of the name, or Madara will get mad, even though you are, in fact, dark."
"Nagato is only slightly darker than us. Why is he the boss?"
"Idiot, Madara said Nagato is for unsealing something… like an Uchiha weapon."
"Can those guys good at digging make us a bathroom?"
"Would you even use it? I—"
Skipping past all the useless information, when he heard the words "seal" and "Uchiha weapon," his heart nearly skipped a beat.
The Gunbai? That thing was just a ninja tool.
In Uchiha history, only one thing was ever called a weapon.
Black Zetsu, who had lived for nearly a thousand years, was practically a walking history book of the shinobi world.
There was no way he didn't know about Hikari—a force so powerful in the Warring States period that it had to be sealed away by the Senju and Sarutobi clans together!
He no longer needed to pretend to follow Madara's will.
Black Zetsu, that bastard…
This memory was from two days ago!
Kei's expression shifted rapidly. He had considered the issue of the Rinnegan, Edo Tensei, and even the possibility of threats from the movie arcs. But he never expected this Uchiha weapon! If Black Zetsu was doing this, wouldn't it cause some kind of time paradox? That thing was a relic from a forgotten era—wasn't it supposed to be sent back in time for someone else to save—
Wait… Did my existence change the shinobi world's original future? So there's no Boruto to go back in time and alter Hikari's fate… Which led to her being unearthed now…? Kei thought in circles for a while before slapping his forehead.
Forget whatever timeline logic this follows, the boomerang just came flying back!
He had finally managed to take down an old Madara. Now they were throwing Hikari at him?!
As long as a mark was left on a body, Hikari's Mangekyō ability, Yachihoko, could ignore distance and use that mark to connect to and completely control a person's mind and chakra.
If that mark were placed on White Zetsu… Even disregarding the special variants of White Zetsu, even the most ordinary White Zetsu had more chakra than a standard chunin.
Tens of thousands of White Zetsu…
That was straight-up cheating!
Kei scratched his head.
He looked at the system interface, where he still had one Trait Removal chance and one Trait Reset left.
Seeing that this White Zetsu's mind contained no further useful information, he took a deep breath, formed hand seals, and sealed it back into the scroll.
A fully developed Yachihoko would be difficult to deal with. But with his current strength… maybe it wasn't impossible! Especially with the system's assistance.
Even if something unexpected happened, he could rely on the system's abilities as a failsafe.
The only problem was… Hikari!
Kei recalled the plot from Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections, his expression still grim.
From a certain perspective, he actually had a good impression of her. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure if there would be a chance to pull her to his side.
Stepping out of the cave, Kei looked at the sky, which was gradually brightening, and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Following the path he had taken earlier on Pidgeot, where he had scattered Flying Thunder God kunai along the way, he quickly headed back toward the Land of Fire.
An hour earlier, the shadow clone responsible for transporting the toxin-bearing salamander had already returned to Konoha.
Including Ibusu, the salamanders had been temporarily placed in a semi-abandoned research facility under Root's control.
A shadow clone disguised as Danzō had already assigned four Root ninjas to guard the place. With those four—who could use the Creation of Heaven and Earth, there shouldn't be any problems.
Did I forget something?
As he sped back toward Konoha, the clone patted his slightly dizzy head. From four days ago, when he had started playing mind games with Danzō in Root, he had been using the Shadow Clone Technique at an intense rate.
One clone impersonated Danzō, another played himself, while two others constantly rewrote the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal on one Root member after another.
His real body not only had to periodically swap out clones to prevent excessive fatigue buildup, but also had to continuously read years' worth of Danzō's memories.
On top of that, from last night until now, first, he fought against the Ame ninjas, then his clones transported summoning beasts all night long.
Meanwhile, his real body was still extracting the memories of the Jashin cultists and White Zetsu.
Even with his spirit power being several times stronger than an ordinary person's, he was feeling an unusual level of exhaustion.
"…Must be the system, huh?"
The clone glanced at his system interface.
Perhaps because Hanzō's influence on the timeline had drastically diminished after the Second Great Ninja War, The system's rewards weren't particularly generous—aside from granting him one Trait Removal chance.
In the original story, Hanzō only appeared three times after that. Once when Danzō and Obito schemed against Akatsuki, where he played a minor role. Then when he was resurrected and killed by Nagato. And finally, during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
Considering that, the rewards were still reasonable.
Additionally, killing that small fry named Kandachi had granted him one Trait Extraction.
Now, he had accumulated two Trait Extraction chances.