Black Zetsu appeared to merge with the stone tablet, but had actually slipped away entirely. After losing its cat tower, Black Zetsu knew it couldn't remain here any longer.
While it was indeed difficult to destroy, fear was still necessary. Bearing the mission of rescuing its mother, it couldn't allow itself to face any real danger... Even risking this brief encounter with Yūshin was already an act of extraordinary boldness.
Yūshin was still here fabricating that his purpose in dealing with White Zetsu was merely revenge. He didn't want to expose to Black Zetsu that he could gain abilities from White Zetsu. Little did he know, both sides were performing their own separate acts.
What he hadn't anticipated was that, for the sake of the performance, Black Zetsu would directly kill the original White Zetsu without the slightest hesitation... In its view, though called the "original," the original White Zetsu actually possessed no irreplaceable qualities.
Just a cat tower—replace it with another one.
What Yūshin hadn't expected even more was that the first scene performed before his eyes was actually a silent betrayal... Who knows how Black Zetsu had deceived the original White Zetsu, but until the moment of being "black tiger heart-ripped," the original White Zetsu never felt it had been abandoned by Black Zetsu.
It had to be said, it was a bit too ruthless. The original White Zetsu had merely stated facts and reasoned while criticizing it a few sentences, and Black Zetsu directly sent the original White Zetsu to its demise.
Yūshin struggled to maintain his expression—no choice, the act had to continue, even if it was a one-man show.
The text recorded on the stone tablet, Yūshin couldn't recognize at all, but after searching the cavern briefly, he discovered a journal written under an "archaeologist's" name. The journal recorded this "archaeologist's" research and translation of the text on the stone tablet.
In summary, the stone tablet's content roughly stated: the Sage of Six Paths created the world, then walked upon the earth, establishing the Shinobi Sect and spreading Chakra, connecting people together.
To prevent the world from returning to chaos after his death, this great sage left behind some "divine creations" to monitor the Shinobi World. These divine creations had pale bodies resembling tree people, possessed little power, and only retrieved chaotic objects or ninja when the Shinobi World fell into disorder.
For a thousand years, these pitiful, tragic creatures had been maintaining the Shinobi World's balance—if not meritorious, then at least hardworking...
"So White Zetsu are all beneficial insects, and I shouldn't hunt them casually? What kind of nonsense legend is this? The fabrication shows no effort at all, nowhere near as good as the content used to deceive Madara Uchiha... Is this my treatment level?"
Yūshin complained internally, feeling Black Zetsu was just fooling around.
Black Zetsu's fabricated story was indeed imprecise, but it still emphasized their origins, their non-malevolent nature, and reasons why they shouldn't be targeted.
This wasn't incomprehensible—in such haste, where would it find time to craft such an elaborate story? Time had to be left for carving tablets, forging archaeological records, and arranging the cavern environment. Textual content was important, but atmosphere was equally crucial.
To increase credibility, hadn't Black Zetsu made this cavern look like an ancient ruin?
Overall, though Black Zetsu wasn't intentionally using such simple content to fool Yūshin, his importance could never compare to Madara Uchiha... Deceiving Madara Uchiha aimed to make him completely despair of the world while providing an escape route; deceiving Yūshin was merely to stop him from hunting White Zetsu when idle.
This was wartime—shouldn't a ninja's proper destination be charging toward the battlefield and dying there?
After careful consideration, facing Black Zetsu's low-intelligence, low-level performance, Yūshin felt he should choose to believe... This way, after his revenge, both sides' conflict could temporarily conclude, returning to a state of mutual non-interference.
White Zetsu were widely distributed; Yūshin couldn't achieve "draining the pond to catch fish." Black Zetsu's essay indicated it only wanted to shake Yūshin off like dog excrement. If it could truly achieve this, without certain assurance, it wouldn't scheme against Yūshin and his organization again.
Upon reflection, both sides could actually reach an unexpected consensus.
"Fine, fine, Black Zetsu—truly worthy of you, your head filled with nothing but mush."
Yūshin continued his one-man show. After silent contemplation, he destroyed the stone tablet, indicating his willingness to keep secrets for the Sage of Six Paths' pitiful creatures.
Then he transcribed the archaeological materials before burning the originals... These interpretive texts might be genuine. Out of a "might be useful later" mentality, Yūshin wanted to preserve them, but worried Black Zetsu's originals might be problematic, so he had to transcribe them.
Well, if you're going to act, do it completely—he also burned the original White Zetsu's body.
After completing these tasks, Yūshin finally left the cavern.
Two days later, another cat tower carrying Black Zetsu returned here. Seeing the destroyed stone tablet, books, and White Zetsu remains still in place, Black Zetsu revealed a satisfied smile.
Its schemes were indeed unparalleled—this was the shocking wisdom accumulated over a thousand years.
However, this smugness had no basis whatsoever. Logically speaking, if Black Zetsu could defecate, a thousand years of accumulated dung would be more valuable than its accumulated wisdom.
After feeling smug, Black Zetsu became dissatisfied again... To deceive that ninja, it had actually praised Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo against its will, which made it very unhappy.
Forget it—the greater good mattered. A small emotional sacrifice was nothing.
Indeed, even the original White Zetsu's "sacrifice" was nothing. What did Black Zetsu feeling a bit disgusted matter?
...
Yūshin left the "Land of Rain" and slipped into a remote corner before carefully examining the changes the original White Zetsu's Chakra had brought him.
The original White Zetsu wasn't so low as to be merely a "booster pack," but it hadn't brought Yūshin any attribute Chakra either. Yūshin felt he'd only gained a "constitution experience pack," though this experience pack seemed somewhat special.
"Spore?"
Yūshin spread his palm, following a certain sensation to channel Chakra. He then saw his palm slightly bulge—the situation resembled Cursed Grudge Fear flesh buds, but wasn't as disgusting.
When the spore bulged, Yūshin felt his water and fire attributes—or more precisely, his Boil Release Kekkei Genkai ability—separating from his body and condensing into this spore.
This startled him, and he quickly terminated the spore generation process.
"Separating one's own power, then... transplanting it to others?"
Yūshin was full of questions, because he sensed this ability was "cut" rather than "copy."
"A very impressive ability... well, besides being useful, very impressive."
If he could plant spores on others and then extract their Kekkei Genkai, this ability would be invincible. However, Yūshin could only separate his own Kekkei Genkai—wouldn't this ability be rather useless?
He'd always believed his strength insufficient and was desperately trying every method to increase his power. Where was the logic in self-weakening?
Well, his expectations were wasted.
No wonder the original White Zetsu died so readily—turned out it was completely useless.
After expressing disdain toward the original White Zetsu, Yūshin calmed his emotions slightly and prepared to begin the operation he'd long wanted to perform.
Now that earth attribute and excess water attribute were both gathered, he could try synthesizing Wood Release.
Then...
"Wait, wait! Useful, extremely useful!"
Immediately after, Yūshin discovered that when fusing two attribute Chakras this time, it was incredibly smooth and fluid. After careful sensing, he found this was actually the Chakra from the original White Zetsu taking effect.
No—more precisely, the original White Zetsu's Chakra had improved his constitution, making Kekkei Genkai barriers less pronounced.
He'd misunderstood—he shouldn't have looked down on the original White Zetsu earlier. Now the misunderstanding was resolved.
When he'd previously fused Boil Release, it had been extremely difficult and unsmooth. But now? Yūshin felt like he'd used premium laxative—with slight effort, it was a thousand-mile flow.
Smooth—both intestines and meridians were very smooth.
After fusing water and earth attributes, Yūshin sensed three "evolution" directions... Wood Release, Lava Release, and Mud Release.
Unlike Boil Release's single Kekkei Genkai with two usage methods, Yūshin anticipated that after choosing one Kekkei Genkai, the fusion method of water and earth Chakra would be fixed, meaning he'd lose the possibility of the other two Kekkei Genkai.
Considering Yūshin's actual situation, Wood Release in his hands might not have the killing power of Lava Release. However, with almost no hesitation, he still chose his predetermined path—Wood Release related to his recovery ability. As everyone knows, only living people are qualified for damage output.
After determining the "path," certain "memories" and "fusion methods" were instantly imprinted into his meridians.
The next moment, Yūshin suddenly stood up. He literally "took root"—a large tree rapidly formed, grew tall, and shot toward the clouds beneath his feet.
"Good. Though it can't compare to the ultimate version, the 'Three Rooms and Two Halls Technique' is no problem. For me, it's sufficient."
In future persuasion of other ninja clans to surrender, Yūshin could also stab himself with kunai—stab hard, creating several holes would be completely fine.
This Wood Release ability just shouldn't be seen by Tobirama Senju, or what if he mistook him for his big brother?
Currently, Yūshin still had other excess water, earth, wind, and lightning Chakra—one portion each. He could seemingly synthesize Ice Release and Storm Release.
But he felt Ice Release was useless—better to save the attributes for later use.
As for Storm Release...
Don't bite off more than you can chew. Wait until Yūshin first adapted to Wood Release—after all, ability was ability, combat power was combat power. From ability to combat power, there would inevitably be an experience accumulation process.
Yūshin had coordinated various forces to destroy the Hagoromo Clan's stronghold and luckily obtained the Hagoromo Clan's Hiden scrolls, so mastering Storm Release was reasonable, right?
Swift wind and rapid thunder, flowing water and flowing light—occupying all eight characters seemed a bit greedy, but Yūshin taking half—claiming "flowing water and flowing light"—wasn't excessive, right?
...
After spending a day slightly familiarizing himself with Wood Release, Yūshin didn't continue wandering outside but returned to Fireflies Village.
His outing had consumed about ten days total. Unfortunately, when he returned to Fireflies Village, the Uzumaki Clan ninja still hadn't departed.
After all, setting up barriers was complex work. Yūshin could understand this work required substantial time, but still felt somewhat disappointed... Ahem, needless to say, after going out once, certain auras on his body had grown stronger.
The vast majority of ninja naturally had no awareness of such changes, but the Uzumaki Clan was different. Their sensory abilities were exceptionally strong, especially regarding Tailed Beasts, Ōtsutsuki, God Tree-related directions—they were like bomb-sniffing dogs, seemingly accurate with one sniff.
Yes, ordinary Uzumaki ninja couldn't sense ordinary White Zetsu, but what if someone was "stacking White Zetsu"?
Ridiculous—Yūshin's disguise could fool White Zetsu and Black Zetsu but not the Uzumaki. Was this reasonable?
Actually, it was reasonable—he just couldn't quite understand it yet.
After returning to Fireflies Village, he could only temporarily avoid the Uzumaki ninja.
Upon his return, subordinates had already delivered the first batch of Jōnin candidates to his hands.
"Strength assessment and merit selection system?"
The method subordinates provided for determining ninja grades was simple—just observing ninja battlefield performance... This seemed simple enough, but no problem.
Surely they couldn't implement examination systems in this era—who had that leisure time? Moreover, the battlefield was the most authentic, convincing examination ground. In comparison, later generations' examinations were merely playing house.
Regarding fairness issues, at least currently there was no need to worry about favoritism in such selections. Battlefield performance explained everything—who didn't know whom? Whose eyes could favoritism deceive?
Yūshin had no objections, then looked toward the Jōnin list.
Lan, Akimichi Shenyu, Nara Naoyuki, Nara Hideyuki, Yamanaka Takeya, Yamanaka Keiya, Aburame Atsushi...
Additionally, two provisional Tokubetsu Jōnin: Fūma Tomo and Tachibana Wakamatsu.
The first batch of Jōnin were all clan leader-level figures. This definitely wasn't subordinates giving themselves starring roles. First, clan leaders were indeed among the top-strength ninja within their clans. Second, granting clan leaders Jōnin status allowed them to better manage clan members.
Otherwise, if clan members were Jōnin while the clan leader was Chūnin, wouldn't that create trouble?
"The list has no problems, but future selection results must be reviewed by me before taking effect... Also, selections can't rely solely on your subjective assumptions—I need convincing quantified results."
"Quan... quantified?" Nara Naoyuki and others were puzzled.
Yūshin was about to mention mission classification systems, but after the thought circled in his mind, he held back.
He must give subordinates opportunities to exercise initiative—Yūshin couldn't handle everything personally.
Fortunately, everyone was unaware of his thoughts, or someone would definitely resign on the spot. Handle personally? What exactly had Lord Yūshin ever "personally handled"?
"Set this matter aside for now. The village has also been stable for some time... That war which caused us tremendous losses has long passed. I think we should reclaim what we lost."
"Lost things? What things?"
Yūshin's expression hardened:
"Of course the gold mine! How could you all forget the gold mine?"
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