Somewhere within the borders of the Land of Rain, over a hundred kilometers from Amegakure, inside a secluded cave...
Yamanaka Shinno sat by the campfire, sealing away a White Zetsu into a storage scroll after reading its memories.
His gaze swept over the three corpses in the cave—former members of the Jashin cult.
He frowned slightly.
These three Jashinists, hailing from the Land of Hot Water, were all well into their years. Their decades of memories were far too extensive, so Shinno only extracted the past two months—specifically, the time surrounding Uchiha Madara's death.
As mid-tier operatives within the cult, their status wasn't particularly high or low.
They had no knowledge of Black Zetsu's existence.
All they knew was that their leader had ordered them to conduct a grand sacrificial ritual in Amegakure, claiming that Jashin-sama desired it.
The bizarre creatures that had possessed them, granting them the ability to infiltrate Amegakure and enhance their strength, were described as gifts from Jashin-sama.
However, even the three White Zetsu who had merged with these cultists knew very little.
They had been activated from underground just half a month ago by Black Zetsu, following orders to assist in the operation.
"...How cautious."
Shinno pulled out a separate sealing scroll from his robe, forming hand seals before placing his palm against the seal.
A White Zetsu, disguised as an Amegakure shinobi, appeared before him.
Placing a hand on its head, Shinno activated his memory-reading jutsu once more.
Unlike the previous three White Zetsu, this one had been active since the time when Uchiha Madara was still alive.
He ignored the countless, absurd discussions among the White Zetsu—such as their ridiculous debates on whether they could implant a Sharingan in their rear ends.
Sifting through the nonsense, Shinno focused on extracting useful information.
"Today, the dark-dark 'Madara-sama' gathered a lot of guys who are good at digging."
"Ah~ I can't dig, so Madara-sama didn't call me."
"Stop saying 'dark-dark'—if he hears you, he'll get mad. Even though, well... he is kind of dark."
"He's only a little darker than us, so why is he the boss?"
"Idiot! Madara-sama said something about digging up a seal... Something about an Uchiha weapon."
"Can those guys who are good at digging build us a toilet while they're at it?"
"Would you even use it? I—"
"..."
Shinno filtered through the flood of irrelevant information.
But when he heard the words "seal" and "Uchiha weapon," his heartbeat nearly skipped a beat.
Madara's gunbai? That was just a ninja tool.
There was only one person in Uchiha history ever referred to as a weapon—
Uchiha Hikari.
Black Zetsu had been alive for nearly a thousand years, making him a walking history book of the ninja world.
There was no way he wouldn't know about Uchiha Hikari—the legendary Uchiha from the Warring States period, so powerful that the Senju and Sarutobi Clans had to join forces to seal her away!
At this point, there was no longer any need to pretend that Black Zetsu was merely the will of Uchiha Madara.
That bastard...
This is bad.
And this information was already twenty days old!
Shinno's expression shifted rapidly.
He had considered the possibilities of the Rinnegan, Edo Tensei, and even factions from the movie timelines.
But he never expected this—the Uchiha weapon.
What the hell was Black Zetsu thinking? Wouldn't this create some kind of time paradox?!
Wasn't Uchiha Hikari from the pre-industrial era? And didn't she ultimately get sent back in time to fix—
"Wait... could my existence have changed the original future of the ninja world? So now Boruto never went back in time to alter Uchiha Hikari's fate, leading to her being unearthed instead...?"
Shinno went down a spiral of thought before smacking his forehead.
It didn't matter how the timeline had changed—the boomerang had already come back!
He had barely managed to get rid of old-man Madara.
And now, he was dealing with an Yachihoko user?!
Shinno felt numb.
That technique allowed the wielder to mark a target and, regardless of distance, freely control their chakra and mind through the mark.
If it were implanted on White Zetsu...
Even the most ordinary White Zetsu had chakra reserves surpassing those of an average Chunin.
And there were a hundred thousand of them.
Motherf— someone's hacking!
"You are electricity, you are light, you are the only myth...凸(艹皿艹 )~"
Shinno scratched his head in frustration.
His eyes flickered toward his system interface—he still had one trait removal chance and one trait reset chance.
This White Zetsu's memories didn't reveal anything useful—not even Black Zetsu's precise location.
Sighing deeply, he formed a hand seal and sealed the creature back into the scroll.
Yachihoko, when fully developed, would be a nightmare to deal with.
But with his current strength, it wasn't entirely unbeatable.
And with the system's support, even if things went south, he had a safety net.
Still...
Uchiha Hikari.
Thinking back to the Ultimate Ninja Storm storyline, Shinno's expression remained complicated.
On a personal level, he had a certain fondness for that "little girl."
Unfortunately...
He had no idea if there was any chance of bringing her to his side.
...
Stepping out of the cave, Shinno watched the sky gradually brighten.
With a flicker, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, teleporting along the kunai-marked route he had previously set while riding the hawk.
His destination—the Land of Fire.
...
One hour ago.
A shadow clone had successfully transported five giant salamanders to Konoha.
Among them was Ibushi, and all five were currently housed in a semi-abandoned Root research facility.
The clone, still disguised as Danzo, had assigned four Root operatives to guard them.
Each of these guards was a practitioner of the Tsuchigumo clan's special barrier technique.
That should be enough to keep everything in check.
...
"Did I forget something?"
While rushing back to Konoha, Shinno patted his aching forehead.
For the past four days, ever since his psychological battle with Danzo in Root, he had been running at full throttle.
One clone posed as Danzo, another as himself, while two others continuously altered the Tongue Cursing Seal to wrest control over Root's core members.
On top of that, he had to periodically replace the clones to avoid excessive mental fatigue.
And he had spent the past night fighting Amegakure shinobi, overseeing the salamander transport, and scouring the minds of Jashinists and White Zetsu.
Even with mental strength dozens of times greater than the average person, exhaustion was finally creeping in.
"It must be the system."
Shinno glanced at his interface.
Perhaps because Hanzō of the Salamander had drastically lost his influence after the Second Shinobi War, the system's rewards were underwhelming.
Aside from a single trait removal chance, the rewards weren't particularly impressive.
Hanzō had only appeared three times in the original series:
Once when he fell into Danzo and Obito's scheme against the Akatsuki.
Once when he was killed by Nagato in revenge.
And finally, during the Fourth Shinobi War.
Considering this, the rewards seemed fair enough.
Oh, and thanks to killing that small fry—Salamander Genda—he had earned an extra trait extraction chance.
Now, he had two extraction attempts.
"System, just roll it now."
[Congratulations, Host, for obtaining...]
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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