At this moment, far away on Mount Sumeru, Black Zetsu was assimilating Hiruko's body.
He intended to completely erase the newborn soul that had just emerged within Chimera.
As everyone knew, White Zetsu himself possessed a plant-based body, and Chimera was likewise a mutated plant-type organism.
Therefore, when it came to how to fuse and assimilate the two, Black Zetsu could be said to be thoroughly experienced and completely at ease.
It was worth mentioning that Black Zetsu's body, which looked like black sludge, was by no means ordinary.
In truth, it originated from Kaguya herself, after she had already acquired the ability of Kekkei Mora.
Only after splitting apart did it take on its current form, and because of that, this body possessed all seven attributes, making it an all-purpose vessel.
As he slowly merged into Hiruko's body, the ocular power in his eyes, which had previously been heavily depleted from using the Mangekyo Sharingan, was restored and replenished at an astonishing speed.
Before this, Black Zetsu had already received an intelligence report sent by the White Zetsu stationed at the Mountain's Graveyard.
As expected, everything unfolded exactly as he had anticipated.
The descendants of Otsutsuki Hamura had once again taken advantage of the turbulent Shinobi World War to conduct a deeper investigation of the shinobi world.
However, this time, they unexpectedly discovered the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path that Black Zetsu had meticulously arranged.
And they successfully summoned it back to their own territory.
At this point, the first major plan that Black Zetsu had been secretly plotting was finally able to proceed smoothly.
Only recently, a sudden space-time lockdown fluctuation had swept across the entire shinobi world, causing Black Zetsu to feel deeply puzzled.
'Who exactly possesses such immense power, enough to seal space and time?'
After some contemplation, an answer gradually surfaced in Black Zetsu's mind, 'Otsutsuki Isshiki.'
Looking across the present shinobi world, perhaps only this person had the ability to do such a thing.
But the key question was, why would Otsutsuki Isshiki seal space and time?
Although Black Zetsu was confused, he was currently overwhelmed with his own affairs and simply had no spare energy to investigate the reason.
Right now, the most urgent matter was to completely seize Hiruko's body.
Only after completing this step could he free up the time and effort to go out and examine the situation in detail.
———
Because of Rengoku's mysterious disappearance, a whole series of carefully planned actions were forced to be put on hold.
All of Konoha's high-level officials were sent back by Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique.
As for the remaining shinobi stationed in the Land of Wind, after receiving orders, they also withdrew back to Konoha one after another.
Those spies in the Land of Wind were extremely puzzled. Why had Konoha suddenly pulled out?
Was it because they felt there was no profit in taking down Sunagakure, or had something unexpected happened?
But with Konoha's shinobi already retreating, those spies had no choice but to withdraw as well.
Without a doubt, this earth-shaking Fourth Shinobi World War ultimately came to an end in a rather hasty and perfunctory manner.
If one were to assess the overall situation of the war, Iwagakure suffered no small losses this time.
More than two thousand shinobi who had come to attack Konoha were killed in action, and even the Four-Tails Jinchuriki fell on the battlefield.
Fortunately, they were still barely able to withstand such a blow.
By comparison, Sunagakure suffered a devastating defeat. The number of shinobi lost exceeded seven thousand, a truly crippling blow.
As for Kumogakure, although their Two-Tails Jinchuriki, Yugito, had already been killed earlier and they had suffered some casualties as well, because they had remained trapped on the outskirts of the Land of Fire and failed to enter the core of the battlefield, their overall losses were relatively small.
Meanwhile, Konoha emerged with a sweeping victory. Not only did they cripple Sunagakure, they also firmly established Uchiha Rengoku's position as the number one figure in the shinobi world.
After the Kazekage Rasa returned to Sunagakure in disgrace with his defeated remnants, sure enough, a storm like a violent tempest was waiting for him.
Inside the solemn and austere Sunagakure council chamber, the atmosphere was so oppressive it was almost suffocating.
Suddenly, there was a loud "bang" as an old man with eyebrows drooping nearly to his mouth slammed his hand on the table.
Glaring at Rasa seated in the position of honor, his voice exploded like thunder, "Elder Chiyo died on the battlefield! This single war cost our Sunagakure a full seven thousand lives!"
The speaker was none other than Sunagakure's senior advisor, Ebizo.
His words were filled with grief and accusation.
"Rasa! This war against Konoha was something you forcefully advocated for! Now that we've been utterly defeated, you must bear the primary responsibility!"
Ebizo roared harshly.
Although he had rarely appeared in public in recent years, relying on his seniority, his control over Sunagakure's massive intelligence network, and the many informants he had placed throughout the nations, his status in the village was of paramount importance.
This time, with Elder Chiyo unfortunately captured, everyone could only tacitly accept that she had already met a heroic end.
After all, from Konoha's standpoint, capturing Elder Chiyo alive did not seem to serve much purpose.
The battlefield at the time had been utter chaos, and no one had the leisure to worry about her safety.
Now that Rasa had returned, it was only natural for Ebizo to settle accounts with him.
At this moment, Ebizo's anger burned fiercely, because Elder Chiyo was not only a highly respected senior of Sunagakure, but also his only family.
Looking at Rasa before him, safe and sound, without so much as a scratch, fury surged uncontrollably within him.
'Why was it that you, Rasa, could come back alive, while my elder sister lost her life?'
Moreover, the casualties among those who followed Rasa into battle were appalling, with over seventy percent permanently falling on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Konoha's losses were only in the single digits, an almost negligible number that formed a stark contrast with Sunagakure's side.
Without question, all responsibility for this incident fell squarely on Rasa's shoulders. He was destined to bear this heavy blame, and stepping down had become an unavoidable outcome.
However, how to deal with him after he stepped down was an entirely different matter.
At this moment, Rasa's expression was dark as water. He sat motionless in his chair like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
He stared coldly at the people below and said in an icy voice, "The Hokage of Konoha is that powerful. Is that really something you can blame on me?"
"It's clearly your intelligence work that failed! What does that have to do with me?"
Then Rasa swept his gaze across every elder present and continued loudly, "When we voted on attacking Konoha back then, every single one of you raised both hands in favor!"
"Now that something's gone wrong, you shove all the blame onto me alone?"
At this point, Rasa suddenly stood up and pointed at the elders.
"And tell me, were there any mistakes in my command during the battle?"
"Are these massive losses really supposed to be borne by me alone?"
"Even if it were you commanding this war, the result would still be losing just as many people!"
As Rasa's words fell, his cold gaze once again slowly swept over the elders below.
Their faces had all turned extremely ugly, because they knew very well that the defeat in this battle could not be blamed entirely on Rasa as the commander.
After all, aside from the early probing clash, Rengoku had activated his Complete Body Susanoo, and unleashed a bloody slaughter with an almost invincible posture.
[T/N: Man, I really had high hopes for this MC but this past 200 chapters are so disappointing.]
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