Chapter 316: The Greatly Filial Son's "Save Mom" Plan!

Chapter 316: The Greatly Filial Son's "Save Mom" Plan!

'I am definitely taking Uchiha Obito! Without him, what about Madara's plan? This was Madara's dying wish!'

White Zetsu Tobi, like a white earthworm, dived deep into the subterranean soil, weaving back and forth through the network of plant roots, never stopping.

Nara Keisuke's [Dust Release] just now had left an indelible and profound impression on him.

His "innate" Wood Release ninjutsu was as fragile as a thin piece of paper in the face of [Dust Release].

The attack effect of [Dust Release: Detachment from the Primitive World Technique] wasn't "destroyed on contact"—it was "death on contact"!

Having personally witnessed Uchiha Madara's [Susanoo] fail to resist the [Dust Release]'s attack power, White Zetsu Tobi had no doubt that [Dust Release] could blast a hole straight through the earth's core...

Nara Keisuke had deactivated his [Shadow Invisibility Technique], so White Zetsu Tobi naturally recognized this familiar enemy.

As for whether Nara Keisuke could sense his presence and would fire a [Dust Release] into the ground to wipe him out…

White Zetsu Tobi didn't dare to gamble.

Although he had just experienced a "revival," that was entirely thanks to Uchiha Madara's "Izanagi."

White Zetsu Tobi himself had no means of resurrection; he had only one life, and once he was dead, he was gone!

Fortunately, Uchiha Madara had summoned the Gedo Mazō from the moon and placed it underground in the Mountain Graveyard.

Over the past ten-plus years, the Gedo Mazō had rooted itself deep in the Land of Iron, absorbing natural energy from the depths of the earth.

Even though Uchiha Madara had just "sent" the Gedo Mazō back to the moon, the thick roots it had left behind in the earth were still here!

Relying on his special constitution and the [Mayfly Technique], White Zetsu Tobi shuttled freely through the Divine Tree's roots, guarding against the [Dust Release] cube that could fall from above at any moment.

While moving, he was also slowly approaching the remote cave where Uchiha Obito was being kept.

As he had just said, cultivating Uchiha Obito as a "backup" for the "Infinite Tsukuyomi Project" was a plan Uchiha Madara had finalized before his death. White Zetsu Tobi just needed to execute it.

But at that moment, another, unfamiliar voice sounded from underground, carrying an indisputable tone.

"Stop! Stop running! And don't surface!"

White Zetsu Tobi's pale, grotesque body was undergoing a very strange change. His entire "person" was split evenly down the middle: left side white, right side black.

At this moment, White Zetsu Tobi's new form was even more bizarre than his original one.

The unfamiliar voice had come from his "black half."

Black Zetsu—his specific name was unknown, so we'll temporarily use the name given by Uchiha Madara's will—suppressed the restless created-consciousness of Old Man Madara within his body, while commanding the White Zetsu half who was still moving toward Obito.

"I am Madara now! All plans regarding Uchiha Obito are to be temporarily halted! White Zetsu!"

When his voice fell, the underground soil layer seemed to fall into a dead silence.

White Zetsu Tobi obeyed the order, decisively halting his movement. A few stray thoughts flashed through his empty head.

Cultivating Uchiha Obito was Uchiha Madara's order…

Temporarily stopping the plan to take Uchiha Obito is also Uchiha Madara's order…

The living-Madara's and the dead-Madara's orders conflict, what should I choose…

White Zetsu Tobi didn't know. He was just a little fool with an empty head.

But as the saying goes, the current official is better than the one in charge.

Old Man Madara was dead. "New-Black-Madara" had given an order…

Then he'd better listen to "New-Black-Madara"!

White Zetsu Tobi, thinking he was being subtle, twisted his head, looking up toward the soil layer in the direction of the Gedo Mazō's former location, which was where Nara Keisuke was now.

'Since "New-Black-Madara" gave the order, I won't fight Nara Keisuke for now... It's not that I'm afraid he'll kill me!'

Seeing White Zetsu Tobi stop, Black Zetsu breathed a sigh of relief.

He had a very high understanding of the Divine Tree and knew this so-called "Child of the Divine Tree" (Tobi) well.

In Uchiha Madara's understanding, White Zetsu was an inferior being he had cultivated by mixing Divine Tree chakra and Hashirama's cells.

This was completely wrong!

The true White Zetsu were, in essence, the humans who had possessed chakra and were completely controlled by the Divine Tree during Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's Infinite Tsukuyomi a thousand years ago.

It was just that after a long period of evolution, those humans were transformed into White Zetsu by the Divine Tree's power.

Uchiha Madara's operation was merely to infuse Hashirama's cells into the White Zetsu; he did not "create" them.

(Though, under the power of the Divine Tree, almost all White Zetsu infused with Hashirama's cells did successfully master Wood Release... which was an unexpected bonus.)

But back to White Zetsu Tobi.

Through many years of true observation from the shadows, Black Zetsu knew very well what a weirdo White Zetsu Tobi was.

Although this guy was the most elite among the millions of White Zetsu created by the Divine Tree, his brain was just as problematic as the others! Perhaps even more so!

Black Zetsu had been genuinely worried that White Zetsu Tobi would disobey his orders and act on his own.

Fortunately, the name "Uchiha Madara" was still potent enough, and Tobi was loyal enough.

That was enough!

Black Zetsu ignored White Zetsu Tobi's backward glance and silently spread his own sensory abilities, probing the Mountain Graveyard.

In an instant, the chakra distribution inside the graveyard was reflected in his mind.

This included the doppelgangers who were about to finish cataloging the ninjutsu scrolls, as well as the precise situation over by Uchiha Obito.

'As expected! That Nara Keisuke fellow left doppelgangers by Uchiha Obito! Good thing I didn't let White Zetsu surface!'

As the will and agent of the Rabbit Goddess, Black Zetsu was, in fact, a creation of the Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.

To put it in simpler terms, Black Zetsu was a "doppelganger" Kaguya had created using Yin-Yang Release!

In a sense, Black Zetsu really was Hagoromo and Hamura's "little brother."

In the final stage of the future Fourth Great Shinobi War, no one would have expected that this black, putty-like guy could stab Six Paths Madara in the back and then reverse-summon his "dear mother"!

In the shinobi world, any power related to Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was not simple.

In essence, Black Zetsu's existence was on the same level as the "Divine Tree," the "Rinnegan," and "Kekkei Mōra"—the absolute pinnacle of power in the shinobi world.

In White Zetsu Tobi's eyes, [Dust Release] was a terrifying Kekkei Tōta that couldn't even be touched.

But in Black Zetsu's eyes, even if [Dust Release] wiped the entire Land of Iron off the map, it couldn't even scratch him!

The power-level gap was just that terrifying.

Black Zetsu wasn't worried about [Dust Release] at all.

In fact, ever since he was created by Kaguya, Black Zetsu had lived silently in the shinobi world for thousands of years. His lifespan was longer, not shorter, than the nine Tailed Beasts.

Without external interference, Black Zetsu's lifespan could only be described with one phrase: as eternal as the heavens!

But Black Zetsu didn't fear death.

White Zetsu Tobi did.

And Black Zetsu had to protect White Zetsu. Otherwise, the future plan would be severely affected!

Thinking of this, Black Zetsu was filled with grievance.

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki created Black Zetsu with one simple, clear intention: Revive the Rabbit Goddess!

In Black Zetsu's view, "revive" was perhaps not the right word. "Unseal" was more accurate.

But that was the problem.

Kaguya had been sealed by her two "greatly filial" sons. The power that sealed her was a genuine Six Paths-level sealing jutsu!

As everyone knows, to defeat magic, you must rely on magic.

To undo the Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei cast by Hagoromo and Hamura, one could only rely on an equivalent Six Paths-level power!

Black Zetsu did not have this ability.

As Kaguya's creation, if Black Zetsu could break the Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei on his own, why would he need to save his mother? Kaguya could have just jumped down from the moon herself!

Therefore, Black Zetsu could only guide Hagoromo's (the Sage of Six Paths') power to undo the seal.

He had thought about using Hamura's chakra.

But after sealing his mom, Hamura took part of his clan to the moon to personally guard the Gedo Mazō there. Black Zetsu had a hard time finding an opportunity.

But Hagoromo was different.

Just like Kaguya, Black Zetsu strongly disagreed with Hagoromo's decision to distribute his chakra to others.

But he had to admit, this very action gave Black Zetsu the opportunity to fish in troubled waters.

The "fish" here were not the ordinary people in the Sage's "Ninshū."

They were Hagoromo's two sons: Indra and Asura!

Just as Kaguya had split her chakra between her two children, giving them parts of her bloodline and abilities, Hagoromo also split his chakra. Asura inherited the "Sage Body," and Indra inherited the "Sage Eyes."

Black Zetsu knew very well: if the "Sage Body" and "Sage Eyes" were fused, they could resonate Hagoromo's power, and thus gain the possibility of unsealing his mother!

This "power," of course, was the Rinnegan!

For the past thousand years, Black Zetsu had hidden in the shadows, guiding the conflict between Asura and Indra, guiding their fusion, never stopping his dark campaign.

But for a thousand years, Black Zetsu had witnessed generation after generation of "Asura's Successors" and "Indra's Successors," but not a single one had met his requirements.

The reason was simple.

The Asura successors were always too weak! They were always being pinned to the ground and rubbed in the dirt by the Indra successors!

In this situation, Black Zetsu couldn't even find an opportunity to make Indra absorb Asura.

But this generation's reincarnates... had a small deviation.

To this day, Black Zetsu still didn't understand how the "special Asura individual" known as Hashirama Senju had developed.

He clearly looked like a giant idiot, but his strength was greater than any Asura successor in history!

So strong that the Indra reincarnate, even with the Nine-Tails, still couldn't beat him…

The original Asura had never achieved such a feat!

Hashirama Senju was truly an enigma of a man…

And Hashirama's Wood Release also confused Black Zetsu greatly…

Because the original Asura never awakened Wood Release, let alone used it to suppress the Tailed Beasts... (Asura using Wood Release is anime-only content).

Setting aside those minor issues, the most exciting part of this generation was that their chakras finally fused, and resonated from the unknown to produce Hagoromo's true power: the Rinnegan.

Once the Rinnegan appeared, all subsequent plans could be put on the agenda!

The only thing Black Zetsu regretted was that Uchiha Madara was too old when he awakened it.

As a human, when Madara awakened the Rinnegan, he was already halfway in the grave...

If not for the Gedo Mazō's life support, Uchiha Madara would have died over a decade ago.

Such a decrepit ninja was completely unsuitable for Black Zetsu's plan. He could only silently postpone the plan and adjust his choice of "tools."

In Black Zetsu's eyes, the only value of the Asura and Indra reincarnates was to resonate Hagoromo's chakra.

Now that the Rinnegan had appeared, he just needed to push the plan forward.

To revive his mother, two conditions were necessary: the Divine Tree and the Infinite Tsukuyomi cast by the Rinnegan.

These two conditions boiled down to one thing: a massive amount of chakra.

The Divine Tree was needed for the Gedo Mazō and the chakra of the nine separated Tailed Beasts.

The Infinite Tsukuyomi was needed to absorb all the scattered chakra in the shinobi world.

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki became the "Rabbit Goddess" by eating the Divine Tree's fruit.

To "revive" Kaguya, he just needed to gather an amount of chakra equivalent to that original fruit!

Of course, a little less was fine, as long as the core power was there.

The Rinnegan, the Divine Tree, and the Tailed Beasts. Not one could be missing!

The "Greatly Son of Ōtsutsuki" sighed, then steeled his resolve.

'Mother! I will save you!'