After concluding his affairs in the Land of Earth, Kuro stood atop a windswept ridge, the desert unfurling before him like an endless sea of gold.
"If my hypothesis is correct, I should solve the problem of the Hidden Sand at the sacrifice of their Kazekage." Kuro thought. "If a few more old bags with a high concentration of chakra are used, there would be no need to turn the regular shinobi into trees."
Behind him, Yonshi dropped into a dramatic bow, gravel crunching beneath his knees.
"Ah! A sublime vision, my Lord!" he cried with theatrical fervor. "With this, the Hidden Sand will no longer be barren. They would no longer need to invade other lands for resources."
"Enough," Kuro said, dismissing the display with a curt wave. "Capture four shinobi of the Hidden Sand with high chakra reserve, including the Kazekage. Plant them as miniature 'world trees' at the four cardinal points surrounding the village."
"HAI!" Yonshi vanished the instant the command left Kuro's lips.
Silence returned. The wind swept through Kuro's hair as he gazed over the golden dunes.
"I hope this ends the war," he murmured, releasing a quiet sigh. Too much blood had already been spilled. Even with the Shadow Legion striving to limit casualties, death was an inevitability on the battlefield.
His eyes hardened.
"Whoever is behind this chaos, note my words. I will find you. And I will make you pay for your sins."
…
Deep within a cavern in the Mountains' Graveyard, Black Zetsu and White Zetsu stood before a colossal statue. Beneath it, a crimson pool churned and slowly rose, its surface rippling like living blood.
"Just a little more," White Zetsu murmured, eyes fixed on the swelling tide. "Soon, Mother will be revived, and the world will fall under her embrace."
Bang!
Black Zetsu struck him sharply across the head.
"Idiot," he hissed, his single visible eye narrowing as he scanned the cavern's shadows. "Have you lost your mind?"
White Zetsu rubbed his head, pouting.
"What if our puppet heard you?" Black Zetsu continued in a whisper. "Do you intend to ruin everything now, when we are this close?"
"Sorry," White apologized. "It's just that I miss Mother."
Black Zetsu's expression darkened. "We have waited centuries for this moment. Do not let impatience undo what we have so carefully prepared."
…
Kuro went around the multiple battlefields, helping but never really doing much otherwise. Instead, he observes the battlefield and looks for anomalies. One detail that stood out almost immediately was that the blood was vanishing far faster than it should have.
"Hm." He touched his chin thoughtfully. "If I follow that logic, could this be some kind of blood sacrificial ritual? From what I remember from Naruto, there isn't any Forbidden Jutsu that requires this much blood."
He crouched and pressed two fingers into the soil. It was warm, faintly damp, with thin traces of blood lingering beneath the surface.
Closing his eyes, he released a subtle pulse of chakra. It rippled outward, spreading across the battlefield. At first, nothing seemed unusual.
However, as he focused more, he felt a small pull like a heartbeat from underground.
"That's not natural."
He shifted his focus as he wanted toward a small pool of blood under the body of a sand shinobi.
Focusing on the blood, he sensed that it was not dispersing randomly. Instead, it flows deep into the soil. The chakra signature of the blood flow downward for a while before shifting direction and flowing toward the northwest toward the Mountain Graveyard.
"Bruh," he muttered internally, following the trail with his senses. "I should've known. The two Zetsu."
Kuro smacked his head in realization.
"Since my meddling has foiled their plan on collecting the Tailed Beasts, they must have thought of this as an alternative fuel source. It seems this whole situation was a way to collect the chakra signature and genetic imprint within the blood to fuel the Gedo Mazo."
He thought for a moment, deciding whether to intervene or let the two Zetsu plan come to fruition.
"Nah, I want to see Kaguya and ask her about Kirama. Depending on the situation, I deal with her."
Kuro smiled.
"I'll let them finish assembling their 'Mother.'"
With that, Kuro disappeared from the battlefield.
…
Soon, the war was drawing to a close, with the combined army of the other villages suffering the most casualties.
The Hidden Leaf suffered some casualties, but not as many due to the interference from the Shadow Legion.
The most casualties were from the Hyuga, followed by the Uchiha. Especially the Hyuga, as the Shadow Legion barely shows up to help them. Possibly due to Kuro's past interaction with them, it was not so great.
The Uchiha loss, however, was understandable. Their Sharingan made them high-value targets as enemy forces prioritized them aggressively.
…
Kuro reappeared atop the Hokage Monument, wind sweeping across the stone faces beneath his feet.
He received reports from the Shadow Legion and was not surprised when he learned they were ignoring the Hyuga.
He, too, ignored them during his tour of the battlefields, only helping when he saw a huge group of them would be slaughtered.
"I hate them, but they are also necessary for this world." The Byakugan was too valuable to eliminate. "Also, Hinata."
"And I should help out the Zetsu a little. If the Uchiha and the Hyuga turn their focus toward the ground, they would realize the abnormal chakra flow. Which might lead Black Zetsu to activate the ritual prematurely. I don't want to see a chibi Kaguya due to insufficient energy."
Kuro pressed his hand on the ground and covered it with a thin layer of undetectable chakra across the known shinobi world, hiding the abnormal chakra flow from detection.
…
Far away, deep within the Mountains' Graveyard, the crimson pool churned uninterrupted.
Black Zetsu paused briefly as, for a fleeting moment, the blood flowing into the pool became smoother and more stable.
White Zetsu tilted his head.
"Did something change?"
"…No."
But somewhere in the back of his mind, an unfamiliar thought surfaced.
The board felt different.
As if another player had quietly adjusted the pieces and they were nothing but disposable pawns.