"At last, finally, they're back!"
"Do you have any idea how I've been living these past six weeks?"
"I've been getting up earlier than a chicken and going to bed later than a dog. Half the time I'd wake up in the middle of the night worried there might be some petty thief sneaking around Konoha, and I'd drag myself out to make another round through the village."
"Six weeks. In just six weeks, I lost twenty pounds!"
"Do you know how horrifying it is for an adult to lose more than twenty pounds in a single month?"
At Uchiha Izumi's front door, Anko Mitarashi was braced against it with all her strength, speaking one word at a time, every sentence soaked in blood and tears as she recounted her exhaustion and misery over the past month and a half.
Sometimes she really did feel like just ending the whole world already. Seriously. She was done.
But what else could she do?
The person she most wanted dead—Orochimaru—had already been killed for her by Uchiha Chizumi, and then Chizumi left Konoha. There was no way Absolute Justice could really be handed over to brats like Sasuke and Naruto, right?
As for the Uchiha clan, they had been working hard too—but the Uchiha were terrible at dealing with people.
For the past six weeks, Anko had truly lived exactly the way she described: up earlier than a chicken, asleep later than a dog, all because she was terrified that when Uchiha Chizumi finally returned, he'd see that Absolute Justice in Konoha had started slipping.
"Um… Anko-senpai, maybe you could let go first?"
Looking at the clearly much thinner Anko, Uchiha Izumi couldn't help showing a little guilt on her face.
She really hadn't expected Anko to have such a hard time while they were away. But they had only just gotten back, and Izumi honestly wanted to rest a little…
"No way!"
Anko's attitude was absolutely unshakable. She had had enough of this cursed sense of responsibility.
Even if Izumi talked herself blue in the face today, Anko was making her go out on patrol herself.
As for Anko?
She was going to soak in a bath until her skin wrinkled, gorge herself on dango, and put back every ounce she'd lost over the past month and a half!
"Unless you go patrol right now, I'm absolutely not letting go!"
Anko's tone was firm, but the look in her eyes was almost pleading.
As for why she wasn't going to ask Uchiha Chizumi instead?
She didn't dare.
Anko didn't really know why, but she just couldn't quite bring herself to face him. Maybe it was because of what she'd seen him do in the Fire Capital, or maybe it was because of Orochimaru. Either way, she just didn't feel brave enough to go looking for him right now.
Besides, asking Uchiha Chizumi to go do something like patrol duty? She'd need a death wish for that.
"I'll go."
At some point, Uchiha Chizumi had stepped out of his house and found the two of them deadlocked outside Izumi's door.
Kitsujiro's injuries were already mostly healed, and after realizing that what he had gained was, at least for now, only the ability to create black receivers and a further stage of natural Rinnegan awakening, Chizumi had stopped dwelling on it too much.
"Chizumi-senpai…"
Seeing him appear, Anko gave an awkward greeting, then glanced between him and Izumi behind the door.
At the same time Uchiha Chizumi was returning to Konoha, Black Zetsu was making his own move.
As the Flames of Judgment burned on him longer and longer, Black Zetsu had gradually begun adapting to that soul-deep agony. Mere "sin" was never going to stop a dutiful son from wanting to save his mother.
But during this same period, Black Zetsu had also come to a bitter realization:
Obito was completely hopeless.
Not just Obito—the Akatsuki too were gradually slipping out of his control. That forced Black Zetsu to activate his backup plan.
"Have you found Orochimaru's bases yet?"
Black Zetsu looked at the White Zetsu standing in front of him. Without Obito knowing, Black Zetsu had already sent out who knew how many White Zetsu, combing through mountains and seas in search of Orochimaru's old hideouts.
What Black Zetsu wanted wasn't anything else.
He wanted the possible records of the Impure World Reincarnation technique that might still be hidden in one of those bases.
"We've found Orochimaru's most important base. It's in the Land of Rice Fields."
"But we haven't found any notes on Impure World Reincarnation. It looks like Orochimaru may have stored the research somewhere else?"
White Zetsu reported the results of their investigation.
To infiltrate Orochimaru's old bases, the White Zetsu had taken quite a few losses too. Orochimaru had always loved picking up odd little kids.
Bone Release. Crystal Release. Children born able to use natural energy from the start…
Most annoyingly, every last one of them had been fiercely loyal to Orochimaru. Honestly, the shinobi world was painfully short on love if even a piece of trash like Orochimaru could inspire that kind of devotion.
"What about Kabuto?"
"I remember Kabuto was the spy Orochimaru planted beside Sasori. He also used to be Orochimaru's research assistant."
"If there's anyone who knows where Orochimaru's legacy went, it's probably him!"
Black Zetsu then asked after Kabuto. Every single person Orochimaru had picked up had eventually served some purpose, but Kabuto was the one who had actually risen to the level of Orochimaru's assistant. Naturally, that made him the one Black Zetsu valued most.
"Couldn't find him."
"Or rather… there's no trace of him at all."
White Zetsu shook his head helplessly. He really had tried hard to track down Kabuto, but no matter how thoroughly he searched, the man seemed to have disappeared completely from the shinobi world.
"Can't find him?"
Black Zetsu didn't understand. How could someone that obviously alive be impossible to locate with White Zetsu's intelligence-gathering ability?
If he didn't know White Zetsu literally couldn't lie, he'd have started suspecting he was being toyed with.
"No… wait…"
"I think I know where Kabuto is."
After thinking for a while, Black Zetsu's thoughts gradually became clear.
Maybe there really was someone besides him who valued Kabuto. And among those connected to Orochimaru who also had that kind of ability… the only one that fit was the White Snake Sage, the same one whose lair Uchiha Chizumi had ripped apart.
"The beasts that use natural energy and possess prophetic powers…"
"Did they foresee something through prophecy, and take Kabuto away in advance?"
The more Black Zetsu thought about it, the more confident he became in the chances of success for his second plan.
Whether Orochimaru had fully perfected Impure World Reincarnation or not no longer mattered that much. If the White Snake Sage valued Kabuto this highly, then it meant Kabuto absolutely possessed something exceptional.
And in fact, Kabuto himself had gradually begun realizing that he really might be unusually gifted.
At first, when the White Snake Sage had forcibly imprisoned him and pressured him into training in Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode, Kabuto had been deeply unwilling. After all, one wrong step in Sage Mode really could kill you.
But as he became more and more familiar with Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode, he discovered something surprising:
He seemed to be naturally, extraordinarily compatible with it.