He kept his mouth shut, which was basically an admission in itself...
Even if the spectacle of those four "pillars of blood aura" was nowhere near as shocking as the "blood cocoon" from last time, for first-timers like Netero and Beans, it was still absolutely stunning. More than that, to Netero, watching the boy get stronger in weird little bursts, one wave after another, gave him an absurdly depressing feeling...
"That's just how he is."
A warm gust drifted through the window frame into the training room, stirring the two old men's white hair...
Zeno was silent for a long moment, then cast a deep look toward Roy's bedroom and said, "This isn't the first time. You get used to it."
Ripples of emotion glimmered in Netero's old eyes. After the initial shock wore off, he slowly sat back down. His gaze swept from Roy's bedroom to that dim little room on the first floor, then up to the second floor. With a low chuckle, he said, "You're taking it pretty calmly. Can't say the same for certain people."
Zeno followed Netero's line of sight...
On the second floor of the Zoldyck family castle, the door to that spacious master bedroom stood open, completely blocked by a tall figure standing in the doorway.
From inside came the sound of Kikyo softly singing a children's song to lull Killua to sleep...
Beside her was the little bed prepared for him, plush toys, and a few cute cartoon decorations hanging by the headboard...
Silva's striking silver hair fell down his back. His arms were crossed over his chest as he stood by the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, staring at Roy's bedroom without saying a word.
Inside the room, Kikyo's electronic visor flickered. As she soothed Killua and watched Silva's back, she couldn't help feeling that something had been off with her husband lately. He kept drifting off at odd moments.
Was it because taking care of a child was too exhausting? Or because she had demanded too much from him during her ovulation period?
Neither.
Kikyo turned her pale neck slightly, and static-like snowflakes flickered across her electronic eyes.
Among Nen users, she might not be one of the dedicated "combat specialists," but she was still the daughter-in-law chosen by the Zoldyck family, and now the mistress of the world's greatest assassin family.
When it came to reconnaissance, she was second to no one.
Naturally, she had sensed those "pillars of blood aura" slamming into the sky one after another.
Roy... how did you suddenly turn silver-haired?
"Gah... ah..."
Killua gnawed on his fingers in her arms. A few sparse tufts of silver fluff on his head reflected in Kikyo's vision as she lowered her head to pull his little hand away. And in that dazed, confused moment, she found herself zoning out again and again, just like Silva.
Ever since she married into the Zoldyck family, she had thought about nothing but giving birth to a silver-haired child. Even just one would have been enough.
Now, after more than ten years, she had finally gotten her wish.
Not only had the newborn Killua been born with silver hair, even her eldest son had turned silver-haired too.
And yet Kikyo did not feel the joy she had once imagined. Instead, she had sunk into deep confusion. Time and again, she would stare blankly at the Killua in her arms, even starting to wonder whether there had been any need for her to give birth to him at all... if only she had known earlier that Roy was capable of transforming like this!
But the wheels of time only roll forward. They never turn back...
"Khh..."
Killua closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Kikyo rose, adjusted her robe, gently laid him down in the little bed, slipped into her slippers, and slowly walked out of the bedroom. She came to Silva's side, wrapped an arm around his, rested her head against his shoulder, and said, "Stop looking. Just wait a little longer. Tomorrow will be here before you know it."
Tomorrow...
It was tomorrow...
Silva's gaze was sharp and predatory, like a blade. Expressionless, he exhaled two long streams of air through his nose, pushed Kikyo away, and turned toward his study.
"I'm sleeping in the study tonight."
"You don't even have to say it. I wasn't going to ask for it anyway!" Kikyo stamped her foot and shouted at his retreating back. "I can hold back."
Silva didn't stop walking. He didn't even turn around.
"I'm the one..."
"...who can't."
He had finally waited for this day.
For this day that had come far, far sooner than he had imagined.
Silva's breathing grew heavy. His insides churned as a fierce fire burned through him. Now that the moment had really arrived, he suddenly realized that he was even less able to stay calm than he had thought.
He had no idea how long it had been since he last felt this way.
The last time...
was twenty years ago.
That battle with Zeno—the one in which he had successfully defeated his father, earned Maha's approval, and inherited the position of family head.
In the blink of an eye, twenty years had passed. Now it was his turn to stand where Zeno once stood.
So what would happen?
What would Roy become?
No matter what—
he would not lose.
Silva's hands dropped to his sides, then suddenly clenched into fists. The air in his palms exploded with a sharp sonic crack, only to be forcibly suppressed a moment later...
Bang!
The study door slammed shut.
In the corridor, Kikyo was left standing there alone, the static on her electronic visor crackling wildly in a chaotic blur...
"Sigh... every one of those children is stubborn in their own way. Zigg was like that in the past, and now Silva and Roy are the same."
Inside that dim little room in the Zoldyck family castle, hazy Nen mist steamed through the air. Betty Zoldyck, her hair tied in a ponytail, emerged from Maha's body. Her bright eyes were filled with the weight of years and hardship. She looked through layer after layer of thick walls toward the second floor, then shot Maha a sideways glare and said, "Honestly... they all take after you..."
Maha's dried-up body lay sprawled in the rocking chair, which creaked as it swayed back and forth. He let out a dry laugh, but didn't argue.
He only cast one glance toward Roy's bedroom, and in his seasoned eyes there was a faint, thoughtful look...
Betty's gaze shifted. She floated over and nestled into his arms, resting a hand on his chest as she asked softly, "What did you notice this time?"
"Do you think Roy's growing too fast, and that [Nature] might turn on him... or is it something else...?"
Maha wrapped an arm around Betty's waist and slowly shook his head.
"He is the sun. He is already a part of [Nature]. Why would [Nature] reject him?"
"Then what are you worried about?"
Maha did not answer at once. He raised his bony hand and slowly traced it up Betty's back. His gaze turned distant. A moment later, he said in a deep voice, "I'm worried he'll lose himself."
The old man narrowed his eyes, recalling Orochimaru, Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama, and the others he had seen earlier in Roy's mindscape. His voice grew low and heavy.
"[Dreams] can't be predicted. You and I can't dream for him. You saw it yourself today—even resurrection is possible in that child's dreams. In the future, whoever he meets there, whatever happens there, even if it's a life-threatening situation... he'll have to face it all alone. And I mean if..."
Maha paused, his expression darkening.
"If he experiences life and death in a dream, then once that reflects back into the real world, it may cause completely irreversible damage."
Betty Zoldyck shuddered in alarm and straightened up at once, staring at him.
"You mean someone's going to target Roy inside his dreams?!"
"It's only a guess..."
"What do you mean, only a guess? Back then with Zigg, you said it was only a guess too. And what happened?"
Betty flung off Maha's withered hand as he tried to calm her and began pacing anxiously around the room.
As she walked, twisting her hands together, she muttered in agitation, "Conjurers are especially prone to losing themselves between [illusion] and [reality]. Back then, Zigg was trapped because someone used [game] against him. If Roy ends up..."
"Maha." Betty suddenly stopped in place. "This won't do. You have to think of something!"
Creak... creak...
The rocking chair swayed.
The old man lay there with narrowed eyes, silent for a long time.
Then, with a helpless sigh, he said, "There is no way."
"He can only rely on himself. After all, it's his dream."
"And all we can do..." Maha's old eyes opened and closed as he looked out the window, where the sunlight beat down on the ground and heat shimmered upward. "...is pray that no one targets him. That's all."
As soon as those words fell, the dim little room sank into a long silence...
"Mother..."
In the world of the Hokage, in a hidden forest near Konoha, a blurry black shadow attached to the shadow of a tree jolted awake. It suddenly sat upright, cold sweat beading across its pitch-black forehead...
Another nightmare.
Black Zetsu no longer knew how many nightmares he had had over the centuries since Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed away.
Every time, in the dream, his mother would stare at him with blood tears running from her pale eyes and ask him how much longer she was supposed to wait.
Every time, Black Zetsu would be crushed by fear and pressure until he could barely breathe.
"Zetsu... are you going to betray me too, just like your two brothers?"
Her words still echoed in his ears.
At the mention of those two brothers, Black Zetsu shrank into the shadow of the tree and gazed at the moon through the heavy night, using the moonlight to see.
That was the prison where his mother had been sealed.
It was also the place guarded by his dear second brother, Otsutsuki Hamura.
Now, a thousand years had passed. The eldest brother was dead, and the second one was surely long dead too...
With half his body sunk into the tree's shadow and the other half lifted toward the starry sky, Black Zetsu slowly shook his head.
"Of course not, Mother. Please believe me. I've always been trying. I've never slacked off. Very soon... I'll let you out."
Like a mayfly, he slowly sank into the earth, moving freely through the soil with the Mayfly Technique. Before long, he arrived in a mysterious underground chamber—a hidden fortress deep beneath the earth, dug out in years past by the Uchiha clan as a wartime bunker.
Unfortunately, the batch of Uchihas from those days had long since died, one after another, swept into the dusty pages of time...
None of the younger Uchihas left behind—people like Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Yashiro, or even the oldest elder of the clan, Uchiha Setsuna—could ever have imagined that, right on the outskirts of Konoha, at the very edge of the village's sensory barrier, there still lurked such a secret bunker...
And inside it, someone who should already be dead was still clinging to life...
"You're here..."
At the top of the bunker, Black Zetsu slowly poked his head out.
The moment he appeared, a weak, ancient voice drifted over to him. It sounded like a candle left in the freezing wind—like it would gutter out with the slightest breath. It was eerie enough to make the back of one's neck crawl.
Black Zetsu, however, was already used to it.
He pulled himself completely out of the earth, then dropped down lightly. The first thing he saw was a dried-up body, covered in tubes, connected to a giant Demonic Statue that was steadily feeding chakra into it.
A trace of hidden mockery flashed through Black Zetsu's eyes. Reaching into his robe, he pulled out several scrolls, opened them one by one, and held them up for the "mummy" to inspect.
"As you instructed, among the younger generation of the Uchiha clan, there are currently three people worth putting under close observation."
As the scrolls unfurled to reveal a few portraits, Black Zetsu's hoarse, shadowy voice echoed through the underground chamber.
"They are Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Shisui, and the one I mentioned to you last time... Uchiha Ren."
At the mention of "Uchiha Ren," the mummy's ear twitched. With difficulty, he opened his eyes.
What was eerie was that one of them was gone.
Only an empty, black eye socket remained, making the sight all the more chilling.
In a frail voice, he said, "Bring it closer."
Black Zetsu obeyed and stepped forward with the scroll. The scroll labeled "Uchiha Ren" unfurled, revealing a handsome young face—slightly like Fugaku, but much more like Mikoto—staring out calmly from the page.
The mummy froze slightly.
Through that youthful face, he seemed to catch a faint glimpse of his younger brother—his brother who had died at the hands of Senju Tobirama, the same brother who had given him his eyes before he died, the same brother who, even at death's door, had still told him to protect the Uchiha...
"Izuna..."
The mummy hunched over and murmured the name hoarsely.
He remained dazed for a long... long time...
A moment later, perhaps because his emotions had been stirred—or perhaps because he hadn't spoken in so long—the mummy suddenly began coughing violently. It took him quite a while to steady himself. Only after the chakra output from the Demonic Statue increased behind him did his body stabilize.
Then he looked back up at Black Zetsu and asked, "Does he have a younger brother?"
"He does." Black Zetsu recalled a glimpse he had once spied and narrowed his eyes. "His younger brother is named Uchiha Itachi, the younger son of the current Uchiha clan head, Uchiha Fugaku."
"Itachi..."
The mummy repeated the name and gave a weak, hunched laugh.
"It's good that he has a younger brother."
"It's good... Then it'll be him. Carry out the original plan."
"I want to watch him fall into endless hell."
"I want him to experience the loss of his loved ones... and awaken—"
"The Mangekyō!"
Black Zetsu unfolded the scroll belonging to Obito and glanced at Madara.
"Not him? He looks like an idiot. Easy to manipulate..."
Madara shot him a cold, unquestionable glance.
"Remember this. You are only a fragment of my will. All you need to do... is obey."
Black Zetsu bowed at once.
"Yes, Lord Madara."
But the moment he lowered his head, another trace of mockery flashed through his eyes.
Then he sank back into the earth and disappeared...
In the dark underground fortress, only the "mummy" and the silent Demonic Statue remained, savoring the loneliness...
Once Black Zetsu's figure was gone from sight, the mummy looked through layers upon layers of rock toward Konoha in the distance...
Konoha today was as peaceful as ever.
It was so calm, so untouched by the Third Shinobi War, that the peace almost felt unnatural...
Except for one place—
Uchiha Fugaku's house, whose door was currently being pounded by a certain someone.
Bang bang bang...
Bang bang bang...
Inside the Uchiha compound, in the small courtyard that belonged to Uchiha Fugaku, two rare "uninvited guests" had arrived.
Hearing the knocking, Uchiha Fugaku—fresh off the night shift and sitting at the dining table in the living room, drinking tea while waiting for Mikoto to finish making breakfast so he could eat and then go to sleep—frowned, got up, and walked to the entryway. He pulled open the door, stared in surprise for a few seconds, and said,
"Lady Tsunade…"
~~~
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