I didn't know what Black Zetsu was doing—not exactly.
But I knew one thing: whatever his plan was, it meant I had to speed up everything.
Tailed Beast redistribution.
Hunting Black Zetsu.
The Tenseigan project.
The Ōtsutsuki threat.
Keeping the great powers from tearing the world apart.
All of it hung over my head like a butcher's knife waiting to drop.
The moment I returned to Konoha, I didn't rest. Didn't breathe. I went straight to the office, greeted my Wood Clone, and grabbed the newest intelligence on the tailed beasts.
After weeks of Anbu scouting, the picture was finally getting clear.
One-Tail — Somewhere around the "Altar of Wind" in the Wind Country desert.
Two-Tails — Forest of Death.
Three-Tails — Already sealed by me.
Four-Tails — Unknown.
Five-Tails — "Unknown Valley" in the Land of Earth.
Six-Tails — Luya Island, Land of Water.
Seven-Tails — Sealed by me.
Eight-Tails — Thunder Valley, under heavy Lightning Country surveillance.
Nine-Tails — Rumors of appearing in the Land of Lightning, swallowing two children… who somehow survived by eating its flesh, then gained its chakra.
I clicked my tongue.
"Golden Horn and Silver Horn, huh…"
Of course fate would cough those two maniacs into existence even in this timeline.
I sent messenger hawks to both Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama—told them to focus on finding Four-Tails and Nine-Tails first. If they had spare time, they could pick off the ones already located.
After that, I packed up and moved out again.
This time, the target was One-Tail Shukaku.
I took ten Anbu—no more. Tailed beast fights were brutal, but too many people just made more casualties.
Once I left Konoha, my message reached both Madara and Hashirama.
Madara headed toward the Forest of Death to hunt the Two-Tails.
Hashirama resumed his wandering pilgrimage searching for tailed beasts.
And I? I went straight into the Land of Wind.
Sand.
Endless sand.
Hot enough to cook a fish on your forehead. The horizon shimmered with distorted air, dunes shifting under the wind like giant beasts rolling in their sleep.
"Yeah… no wonder Wind Country keeps trying to rob Fire Country of farmland," I muttered.
If I grew up here, I'd probably raid Fire Country too.
Wind Country was massive, but ninety percent of it was desert. Harsh desert. No water, no shade, nothing but wind that carved your skin like a knife.
Even Sunagakure in the future would end up building their entire village in this wasteland. Just to prove they could survive it.
I'd been to Loulan once, sure—but that was an oasis fortress. A cheat code compared to this hellscape.
I shook my head and slapped myself mentally.
"Focus. Sympathy for the climate doesn't catch a tailed beast."
I pulled out the map. Not that it helped much—desert geography changed faster than a politician's promises. Hurricanes reshaped dunes overnight.
But at least the map gave me direction.
"West," I ordered.
We moved. Within minutes, the desert swallowed us whole.
Even for shinobi, the heat gnawed at our throats. The dryness felt like inhaling sandpaper. If not for my sensory abilities, we'd have been hopelessly lost.
"This place hates life," I muttered.
But after another hour—
"Hmm?"
A sharp spike of chakra hit my senses.
Byakugan bloomed across my vision.
On a dune about five hundred meters away, something crawled out of the sand.
Big.
Chitin gleaming.
Mandibles twitching.
An ant.
Or rather—an ant the size of a horse.
But the weirdest part?
No heartbeat.
No breath.
Just chakra strings flowing through its body.
"A puppet…?"
I squinted.
Yup. Definitely a puppet.
A huge one, controlled by chakra threads running deep into the dune.
"Sand puppetry… figured we'd run into it eventually."
Wind Country was famous for puppet masters—dangerous ones. Strong ones. People like the future First Kazekage, the legendary Chiyo-sama, and Sasori of the Red Sand.
I hadn't expected to meet one here.
But then again…
Where Shukaku roamed, puppeteers weren't far behind.