They're promoting the "Konoha threat" theory, and spouting nonsense about the Hidden

Chapter 248 Black Zetsu: The best strategy is too slow, the worst strategy is too risky, only the middle strategy, neither hasty nor risky, is feasible.

The huge white sphere, which had been dull and lifeless, suddenly emitted a soft white light, illuminating the dark room and the face of the old man sitting to the side.

The old man had white hair and beard, his muscles were atrophied, and his eyes were wrapped with a white band, making them deeply sunken. It was obvious at a glance that he was blind.

"Huh? What's going on? Why is the giant Tenseigan acting strangely? Could it be that an outsider has arrived?"

Sensing the light coming from his eyelids, the blind old man straightened up and shakily stretched out his withered hands to touch the giant white sphere.

It wasn't until his hands touched the giant sphere that he noticed it wasn't a complete circle; its interior was filled with pairs of oval pupils—it was clearly made entirely of human eyes!

"There really are outsiders here, but why does their aura seem so strange?"

After stroking it with both hands for a while, the blind old man immediately sensed the presence of Black Zetsu.

"Without the aura of the Byakugan, the newcomer shouldn't be a member of the branch family on Earth... After being cut off from Earth for hundreds of years, someone has actually managed to find us. Could it be that the disappearance of that Outer Path Demon Statue was this person's doing?"

The blind old man had a sudden thought, and immediately remembered the disappearance of the heretical demon statue more than ten years ago.

The Gedo Mazo was something that their ancestor, Hamura Otsutsuki, personally ordered them, his descendants, to guard.

Whether out of their ancestors' dying wish or out of respect for the Otsutsuki clan, they were determined to retrieve the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

It would have been fine if there were no clues before, but now that the clues are right in front of us, we can't just sit idly by and ignore this.

Upon realizing this, he could no longer sit still and left to gather all the remaining branch family members of the Otsutsuki clan.

However, for some reason, the survivors of the Otsutsuki clan who had gone through the war between the branch family and the main family were all men, except for one woman with a slightly protruding belly, and they were all middle-aged or elderly men.

And without exception, everyone present, even the woman, had their eyes wrapped in white bandages. It was easy to tell from their deep-set eyes that they were all blind.

"Everyone except Kaori, set off and catch this little thief who dared to steal from us!"

After briefly explaining the situation, the blind old man looked at the only woman present and immediately gave an order.

The continuation of the Otsutsuki clan depends entirely on this woman's pregnancy, so the blind old man would naturally not let Otsutsuki Kaori take any risks unless absolutely necessary.

At this moment, Black Zetsu was still crawling underground with excitement, completely unaware that its whereabouts had been exposed. It was still thinking about whether it could reach the depths of this seal and make contact with its mother. Unexpectedly, it was blasted out of the ground by a powerful ninjutsu.

boom!

A huge crack suddenly appeared on the originally flat ground, and a large number of rocks were turned into a rain of pebbles under this incomparably powerful attack, which struck Black Zetsu's shoulder.

"So you weren't from the Hyuga clan after all... You stole the Gedo Mazo?"

The blind old man suddenly appeared from the side, leading a large group of former members of the branch family, and surrounded Otsutsuki Kuroze.

"Hamura's descendants, huh...?"

Black Zetsu glanced at it and immediately understood what was going on, inwardly cursing himself for being careless.

"Not saying anything? You think nothing will happen if you don't say anything?"

The blind old man frowned, then waved his hand. The giant Reincarnation Eye, some distance away, seemed to receive a command, trembled slightly, and then a burst of white light erupted around it. A thick white beam of light shattered the roof of the temple and fell straight down towards them.

When Kaguya Otsutsuki created Black Zetsu, she had two reasons: first, she herself had been through numerous battles and her strength was reduced to less than one-tenth; second, she knew that no one could surpass her in combat power, so she simply sacrificed her own strength to grant Black Zetsu unparalleled stealth, ki concealment, and defensive abilities.

Black Zetsu has dominated the ninja world for many years, and only the giant Tenseigan, which has gathered countless Byakugan, can detect his presence.

So, with his whereabouts exposed and his main body completely powerless, his intelligence, which had been lowered due to excitement, began to gradually recover, and he started to back down.

At that moment, a sense of danger flashed through its mind. Before it could think about where the attack that made it feel dangerous could come from, Black Zetsu immediately turned around and disappeared from the spot.

The instant it disappeared, the spot where it had stood was abruptly engulfed by a white beam of light.

The moment the soil came into contact with the white light, it vanished without a trace, as if ice and snow had melted away. When the white light disappeared, only a perfectly round hole remained in the original spot.

"That speed... Is it a space-time ninjutsu? Or some kind of unknown body-flickering technique or escape technique?"

The blind old man watched this scene in silence, becoming more and more certain that it was Black Zetsu who had stolen the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

With their connection to the giant Tenseigan, they quickly followed the traces left by Black Zetsu and arrived at the underground cave connected to Earth.

"They've already gone back... Just as I thought! The creatures of this earth, in the midst of a thousand years of war, have strayed from the Sage of Six Paths' last wishes and become failed experiments..."

The blind old man looked at the bottomless cave and commented without any expression.

"Indeed, apart from the branch family of my Otsutsuki clan, everyone else has betrayed the dying wish of our ancestors... Fortunately, we destroyed the main family, otherwise, who knows how the dying wish of our ancestors would have been altered by the world!"

"Keeping such failures alive is a disgrace to our ancestors. In my opinion, we should use the power of the giant Tenseigan to eliminate these failures on Earth!"

As for the very foundation upon which their clan had built their existence, those present were all elders, and naturally, they would always want to bring it up and boast about it.

"Furthermore, the thief who stole the Gedo Mazo is clearly an Earthling. The Gedo Mazo must be retrieved no matter what, so I suggest we go all the way and activate the Giant Rinnegan now to eliminate those Earthlings and retrieve the Gedo Mazo!"

One of them made a very radical suggestion.

"But if humanity were to be wiped out entirely, how would Toneri awaken the Tenseigan?"

Before anyone else could respond, someone immediately asked a question, which caused everyone to fall silent.

Otsutsuki Toneri was the name that everyone had already chosen for the child in the woman's womb.

The Hyuga clan on Earth, although a branch of the Otsutsuki clan, are considered by them to have lost their Otsutsuki identity after drifting along on Earth for thousands of years. They are therefore considered sinful and should be eliminated.

However, the formation of the Tenseigan requires the combination of the Byakugan of the Otsutsuki clan and the Hyuga clan, so the Hyuga clan cannot be destroyed under any circumstances.

Before they could come up with a solution, another person raised a thorny issue:

"Not only that, what if there are still humans on Earth who are similar to those two monsters from decades ago? What if they attack us while we're wasting the power of the giant Tenseigan to eliminate others?"

Upon hearing this, all the blind men in the room fell silent.

They will never forget the peak of the family division decades ago.

At that time, the branch family had just gathered the power of the entire clan and condensed it into a giant Tenseigan. Naturally, they wanted to test the power of the newly condensed giant Tenseigan, but just as they turned the giant Tenseigan, they happened to "sense" the earth-shattering Battle of the Valley of the End that was taking place on Earth through the giant Tenseigan.

The two colossal creatures that blotted out the sky, and the overwhelming power they exuded with every move, involuntarily reminded them of the great battle their ancestors had once described.

It was after that, coupled with the great loss of their own strength after the decisive battle with the main family, that they were no longer willing to destroy the Earth. They even worried that the two people would come to the moon through the Earth-Moon passage, so they sealed the passage and stopped using it themselves.

But unexpectedly, today a guy who doesn't keep his mouth shut brought up the old story again, making them involuntarily recall the scene from back then.

"Those two are long dead. Moreover, their strength is rare even in the thousand-year history of the ninja world. It's uncertain whether there are people on Earth who can rival those two monsters now."

"Kaori will soon be giving birth, which is crucial to the continuation of our Otsutsuki clan. At this time, it is better to remain still than to make any moves."

The blind old man was silent for a moment, then turned to a young man and said, "Liangma, take two people down the passage and find out what's going on in the ninja world. Then we'll make a decision."

The other blind men breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this and nodded in agreement.

-

"Phew! I never imagined that Hamura would have descendants left on the moon..."

As Black Zetsu returned to the Ninja World via the Earth-Moon Passage, he breathed a long sigh of relief.

Compared to the ninja world that had been established for thousands of years, this was truly its first time visiting the moon, and it was quite uncomfortable to be away from its familiar environment.

"Although our whereabouts were exposed, it wasn't a wasted trip... Now that we know the location of this Earth-Moon passage, I now have a third way to save my mother..."

Black Zetsu put aside his distracting thoughts and recalled the events with some excitement.

The first method is naturally the "Eye of the Moon" plan that it has been preparing for for thousands of years. It only needs to gather all nine tailed beasts, use the Gedo Mazo to absorb them, and then combine it with the Rinnegan to recreate the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. At that time, Kaguya Otsutsuki will naturally be able to escape.

The second method is Hozuki Shingetsu's Chakra Cannon Project. If a cannon that can shatter the moon can be developed, the seal can be broken, allowing Kaguya Otsutsuki to reappear in the world.

The third method, which I just thought of, is to gather (or trick) a group of experts, use the Earth-Moon passage to reach the interior of the moon, eliminate the Otsutsuki clan on the moon, and then destroy the sealing core, which would naturally also rescue my mother.

Currently, of the three methods, the Chakra Cannon plan is the simplest to implement; all that's needed is to wait step by step.

The "Eye of the Moon" project is the most complex, with each step closely linked; if any one step goes wrong, all previous efforts could be wasted.

If we consider the best, middle, and worst strategies, the Chakra Cannon is undoubtedly the best strategy, while the "Eye of the Moon" is undoubtedly the worst strategy.

"The best strategy is too slow, the worst strategy is too risky, only the middle strategy, which is neither hasty nor risky, can be implemented!"

After a moment's thought, Black Zetsu immediately decided to abandon the search for the mineral resources and prepare to return to the underground of the Land of Grass to continue deceiving Uchiha Madara.

What kind of bullshit "Eye of the Moon Project" is this? It involves becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and then casting genjutsu on the moon?

I'll take you directly to the interior of the moon, without any middlemen taking a cut. You can put it however you want, isn't that wonderful?

-

Beneath the Land of Grass, in a mysterious cave, sat the aged-looking Madara Uchiha quietly.

Six years ago, his hair was gray, but now it is completely white, and he has lost all the heroic spirit that once dominated the ninja world; his face is extremely thin, yellowish-black, and all the sadness he once had has disappeared, as if it were a wood carving; only his eyes occasionally gleam, which can still indicate that he is a living being.

Behind him, a long, hollow branch connected to the sacred tree. Every now and then, as the hollow branch moved and bulged, his body trembled. He was clearly now an old man.

Since being defeated by Hozuki Shingetsu, Uchiha Madara has been sitting blankly in the cave, no longer caring about anything related to the Uchiha clan or Kirigakure except for matters concerning Takigakure and Nagato Uzumaki.

It seems that it only thinks about waiting for the arrival of that "destined person," and then quietly dies, waiting for its next appearance.

It was under these circumstances that Black Zetsu returned here and came to Madara Uchiha's side.

"It's Black Zetsu!"

Madara Uchiha's wooden eyes flickered slightly as his pupils met those of Black Zetsu.

"Lord Madara, I'm back."

Black Zetsu skillfully played the role of a grandson in front of his nephew, not in a hurry to tell him about the Earth-Moon Passage, but instead respectfully reported on the various things that happened in Takigakure and Nagato Uzumaki.

After that battle, Tobi's body was taken away by Hozuki Shingetsu.

Left with no other choice, Black Zetsu, with the "help" of Madara Uchiha, could only reuse the energy of the Divine Tree to create a new "Tobi".

With the help of this new Tobi, Takigakure, despite having the Seven-Tails as its leader and being widely regarded as a strong contender for the title of "Sixth Greatest Ninja Village" along with Amegakure, was still easily captured by Black Zetsu.

After years of development, Takigakure has now completely transformed into the shape of Black Zetsu.

After reporting on the matters concerning Takigakure, Black Zetsu brought up the matter of Nagato Uzumaki.

When Madara Uchiha heard that Nagato Uzumaki had entered Konoha and that the Third Shinobi World War was raging on the surface, his calm expression finally changed.

"Ha, three great wars in thirty years, and this is the new ninja world order you've been dreaming of creating... Hashirama, I wonder how you'll react when you see this?"

Madara Uchiha's lips curled into a mocking smile, a sneer directed at his friend and foe.

"Because Nagato Uzumaki entered Konoha, I happened to discover an Uchiha clansman during my reconnaissance mission, who perfectly fits your requirements, Lord Madara."

Black Zetsu continued to diligently perform his duties, calmly reporting on Obito Uchiha's various actions and behaviors.

Upon hearing this, Madara Uchiha's face finally lit up.

"To be a member of the Uchiha clan with such rich emotions, what a misfortune!"

As the first person in the history of the Uchiha clan to awaken the Rinnegan, Madara Uchiha naturally had a deep understanding of the Uchiha clan.

They naturally knew that the Uchiha clan was both a clan full of love and a clan full of evil.

For the Uchiha clan, the more intense their emotions, the easier it is to awaken a higher form of the Sharingan. However, the way the Uchiha clan awakens the Sharingan is destined to be a path of no return.

For someone as emotionally rich as Obito Uchiha, being born into another ninja clan might be a good thing, but being born into the Uchiha clan destined him for a tragic path.

However, despite his feelings, Madara Uchiha would not be soft-hearted when it came to his grand plan of obtaining the "Eye of the Moon".

"Keep an eye on him, and when the opportunity arises, bring him to me and give him a good beating."

Black Zetsu's choice of Madara Uchiha was not unexpected. Seeing that the groundwork had been laid and Madara Uchiha was no longer as silent as before, Black Zetsu began to steer the conversation toward the Earth-Moon Passage and the Otsutsuki clan.

"Lord Madara, have you heard of... the Tenseigan?"

(End of this chapter)