Chapter 573: Exposing All of Black Zetsu's Secrets
"The operating method for this time machine is actually quite simple. But the technological level behind it is completely absurd."
Kenichi stared at the time machine in front of him while a faint white glow surrounded his hand.
He had just attempted to examine the machine again.
This time, he succeeded.
The moment he placed his hand on it, information about how to operate the device appeared clearly in his mind.
More importantly, Kenichi now knew exactly how to return to his original timeline.
He had even seen his own space-time coordinates.
As long as he used those coordinates, he could return to his original world whenever he wanted.
That discovery removed most of Kenichi's hesitation.
At the very least, he finally had a reliable way out.
However, precisely because he now possessed a way home, Kenichi wanted to finish several matters before leaving.
Otherwise, his unexpected trip into this timeline would have been wasted.
Thinking of that, Kenichi put the time machine away.
The device was far too important to leave lying around.
At present, only Kenichi could properly control it, and he absolutely did not want anything happening to it.
As for Amado, Kenichi did not make things difficult for him.
He simply allowed Amado and Akebi to live peacefully together.
"Next..."
Kenichi returned to Konoha.
Elsewhere in the Shinobi World, a letter from Konoha had already begun causing waves.
"How strange. Konoha actually sent an invitation?"
Inside Kumogakure, the Fourth Raikage, A, stared at the letter in his hand and rubbed his brow.
He genuinely had not expected Konoha to organize another joint jonin qualification examination.
More surprisingly, Konoha had specifically invited him, the Raikage, to attend in person.
The relationship between Kumogakure and Konoha could hardly be described as friendly.
Kumogakure had never been willing to accept Konoha standing above it.
For years, they had wanted to pull Konoha down from its position as the strongest hidden village and claim that title for themselves.
Yet now Konoha had suddenly decided to hold a jonin qualification examination?
"This is interesting."
Darui sat below and voiced his thoughts.
"Is Konoha trying to show off its strength?"
A glanced at the man he had already chosen as his future successor.
Then he nodded.
He had reached the same conclusion.
A joint jonin examination was essentially another opportunity to display military strength.
The Chunin Exams served a similar purpose.
However, after several Shinobi World Wars, most hidden villages had gradually begun handling their own promotions internally.
That made Konoha's sudden decision rather unusual.
"Are we going?"
One of Kumogakure's elders looked toward A.
The Fourth Raikage immediately stood.
"Of course we're going!"
His voice thundered through the room.
"If we refuse, Konoha will think Kumogakure is afraid of them!"
Then his voice lowered.
"But we'll make the necessary preparations first."
A narrowed his eyes.
He was certainly not afraid of Konoha.
But that did not mean he would walk blindly into an unknown situation.
The Fourth Raikage was hot-tempered, not stupid.
Once A confirmed his attendance, ripples spread throughout the Shinobi World.
By the time the Fourth Raikage arrived in Konoha, he discovered that two other major figures had also come.
Chiyo represented Sunagakure.
Onoki had personally arrived from Iwagakure.
Only Kirigakure had declined to send anyone.
The major leaders exchanged glances before entering the venue prepared by Konoha.
All of them wanted to know exactly what Hiruzen was planning with such an elaborate gathering.
However, when they entered the meeting hall, they immediately noticed something strange.
Hiruzen was not sitting in the main seat.
Instead, the central chair was occupied by a young man none of their intelligence networks recognized.
The young man leaned lazily against the chair with his eyes closed.
Behind him stood a young girl, casually massaging his shoulders.
A's temper immediately flared.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, what is the meaning of this?"
The Fourth Raikage glared toward Hiruzen.
Was Konoha deliberately insulting them?
"A, quiet down."
Kenichi opened his eyes.
"I'm the one who called all of you here."
He casually waved a hand.
Hikari, who had been standing behind him, playfully stuck out her tongue before running off.
The moment Kenichi opened his eyes fully, the atmosphere changed.
Every Kage present froze for a moment.
Those strange concentric rings...
A stared at Kenichi with a heavy expression.
Something about this young man felt deeply abnormal.
More than anything else, Kenichi carried himself with absolute confidence.
"I called you all here today because I have something to inform you about."
Kenichi smiled at the assembled leaders.
Kirigakure had not sent anyone.
Kenichi did not particularly care.
The village was isolated overseas anyway.
Its absence made little difference.
His Rinnegan flickered slightly.
Kenichi's gaze shifted toward the ground below.
After completing his transformation and obtaining Otsutsuki level chakra, his ability to sense unusual presences had become far sharper.
And he had already detected one very familiar aura.
Black Zetsu.
Kenichi sneered internally.
That bastard had actually come.
Then again, with so many major leaders gathered in one place, it would have been stranger if Black Zetsu had ignored the opportunity to gather intelligence.
"Before we begin, though, I think I should invite an old acquaintance to join us."
Kenichi casually extended one hand.
The power of the Rinnegan activated.
The ground began trembling.
Several people immediately became alert.
Less than ten seconds later, just as A was beginning to lose patience, something shot out from beneath the earth.
Kenichi caught it in one hand.
A strange black figure struggled in his grip.
"Black Zetsu."
Kenichi patted its shoulder.
"Stop hiding. There's no point anymore."
Black Zetsu stared at Kenichi in shock and fury.
Then its gaze landed on the Rinnegan.
Its pupils trembled.
It had never imagined that someone would expose its hiding place so easily.
The assembled leaders were even more stunned.
Not one of them had detected another presence inside the venue.
Yet this black creature had apparently been lurking beneath them the entire time.
"This is Black Zetsu."
Kenichi smiled broadly.
"You could call him a former partner of mine."
"Unfortunately, his ambitions are rather large, and quite a few future events in the Shinobi World are connected to him."
"So I thought I should drag him out before we begin."
In the past, Kenichi had not possessed enough strength to ignore everyone around him.
He had needed to maintain appearances, negotiate carefully, and occasionally pretend to be polite.
Now?
There was no point.
Kenichi had already reached the level of the strongest beings in this world.
He no longer had any reason to play those games.
"This..."
Onoki frowned.
"What exactly is this supposed to mean?"
Chiyo remained silent.
She was still trying to process everything that had happened since entering the room.
There was simply too much information at once.
"To explain Black Zetsu properly, we need to start with the origins of the Shinobi World."
Kenichi began speaking.
He briefly explained the Otsutsuki Clan.
Kaguya.
Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths.
The birth of Black Zetsu.
Black Zetsu's true purpose.
The schemes it had carried out across generations.
The pawns it had selected.
One by one, Kenichi revealed almost every secret Black Zetsu had spent centuries hiding.
At first, Black Zetsu still held onto a sliver of hope.
Perhaps Kenichi knew only fragments.
Perhaps he had misunderstood something.
Perhaps this could still be salvaged.
Then Kenichi continued speaking.
Black Zetsu's hope gradually disappeared.
Kenichi knew everything.
Even its ultimate objective.
"This... this means..."
Hiruzen looked genuinely shaken.
He had never imagined that Madara had survived for so many years.
He certainly had not known that Black Zetsu had played a role in Akatsuki's creation and the events surrounding it.
"Actually, Black Zetsu has been manipulating events behind the scenes for a very long time."
Kenichi shrugged.
"Obito was another fool who became a pawn of Madara and Black Zetsu."
"And after letting himself be manipulated, that idiot went on to help kill his own teacher, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze."
Kenichi watched the increasingly broken expressions around the room.
He had to admit it felt extremely satisfying.
"How do you know all of this?!"
Black Zetsu glared furiously at him.
If Kenichi had never appeared, its plans would never have fallen apart like this.
Kenichi smiled.
"Guess."
He offered no further explanation.
Everyone else remained silent, desperately trying to digest what they had just learned.
Kenichi decided to simplify matters.
"In short, the current leader of Akatsuki, Nagato, intends to gather the Tailed Beasts from your villages."
"He plans to use them to revive the Ten-Tails, then use that power to impose his version of peace upon the world."
"Obito, meanwhile, intends to manipulate Nagato and eventually cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, creating a false world where the people he lost still exist."
"Madara is another fool being manipulated."
"And Black Zetsu plans to betray Madara at the final moment and use him to resurrect its mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki."
Kenichi spread his hands.
"That's basically the entire plot."
At least, that was essentially the whole story of Naruto.
Boruto was another matter entirely.
A's expression stiffened.
"This information is..."
He stopped.
For once, even the Fourth Raikage seemed unable to find the right words.
His brain was struggling to process everything.
Kenichi was not finished.
"Of course, Black Zetsu is also an idiot."
Black Zetsu's expression darkened.
"It spent all those years plotting without realizing that beneath Akatsuki's activities, another organization called Kara was developing."
Kenichi leaned back slightly.
"And inside Kara is Isshiki Otsutsuki."
"The same Isshiki who came to this world alongside Kaguya to plant the Divine Tree."
"He's still alive."
"And that man is the enemy you should actually be worried about."
The entire room fell silent.
Black Zetsu stared at Kenichi in horror.
If what he said was true...
Then no one present understood the seriousness of that information better than Black Zetsu.
Isshiki Otsutsuki.
A being who could rival Kaguya.
Possibly even surpass her.
Black Zetsu had seen fragments of information left behind by Kaguya herself.
And those fragments had made one fact terrifyingly clear.
Isshiki was monstrously powerful.
"Really?"
A hoarse, ancient voice suddenly echoed through the hall.
"Isshiki Otsutsuki... is still alive?"
A faint smile appeared on Kenichi's face.
He turned his head.
As expected.
The Sage of Six Paths had finally been unable to remain hidden after hearing Isshiki's name.
Hagoromo had appeared.
And that was exactly what Kenichi wanted.
He had already thought through his next move.
Kenichi could not remain in this world forever.
But before leaving, he wanted to take something else with him.
Another time machine.
If he possessed two of them, he could dismantle and experiment with one far more aggressively without risking his only means of returning home.
The time machine that had originally brought Kenichi here had been sent out by Hagoromo.
That meant the Hagoromo of this timeline might possess one as well.
And Kenichi wanted it.
Of course, getting Hagoromo to willingly hand over something that valuable required bait.
Isshiki was that bait.
"Of course he's alive."
Kenichi shrugged.
"And he's doing quite well."
"His strength is terrifying. If he truly wanted to, he could probably eliminate most of this world's strongest shinobi in one operation."
This timeline's Isshiki had spent even longer recovering than the version Kenichi had encountered in his own world.
That probably meant he had regained even more strength.
Without several decisive top-tier fighters, dealing with Isshiki would be nearly impossible.
Hagoromo's appearance immediately threw the meeting into chaos.
Before this moment, several people had still been skeptical of Kenichi's claims.
But the literal Sage of Six Paths appearing in front of them shattered most of those doubts.
Kenichi looked around at the chaotic meeting.
Then he glanced at the stunned Black Zetsu.
A playful smile appeared on his face.
For Naruto's original storyline, solving Black Zetsu and Kaguya could essentially be considered clearing the main plot.
Unfortunately, Boruto existed.
That meant Isshiki also had to be dealt with.
And afterward, there was an almost one hundred percent chance that other members of the Otsutsuki Clan would eventually appear.
Perhaps even the Otsutsuki who had been described as gods.
At that point, the power scale would completely collapse.
"I really hope Kishimoto doesn't come up with even more ridiculous monsters."
Kenichi rubbed his brow.
Once he returned home, he still had to deal with Isshiki.
He needed a method of killing or suppressing him without allowing Isshiki to drag everyone down with him.
At the same time, Kenichi needed to prepare for the possibility of other Otsutsuki arriving in the future.
There were far too many troublesome matters waiting for him.
"Then what are we supposed to do now?"
Chiyo finally spoke.
She had no desire to cooperate with Konoha.
Under normal circumstances, she would have avoided it whenever possible.
But this was clearly no longer a conflict between hidden villages.
The survival of the entire Shinobi World might be at stake.
And with the Sage of Six Paths himself standing here, refusing to cooperate was hardly realistic.
More importantly, they still had no idea exactly how powerful Isshiki was.
Kenichi ignored the question for the moment.
Instead, he looked directly at Hagoromo.
"Sage of Six Paths, have you ever found a turtle-shaped object?"
"I need it."
That was Kenichi's real objective.
He wanted Hagoromo's time machine.
If he failed to obtain it, his future research would become much more restrictive.
Hagoromo studied Kenichi briefly.
Then he nodded.
He made no visible movement.
A moment later, a familiar turtle-shaped object appeared in front of Kenichi.
Kenichi immediately examined it.
There was no mistake.
Another time machine.
His mood instantly relaxed.
Perfect.
With this second machine, he finally had enough experimental material.
He could conduct far more dangerous research without worrying about accidentally destroying his only route home.
Only then did Kenichi return to Chiyo's question.
"The answer is simple."
"Gather every truly powerful shinobi in the world and attack Isshiki together."
Kenichi began explaining the abilities and terrifying strength of the Isshiki he had encountered in his own timeline.
The more he spoke, the worse the expressions of the Kage became.
Several of their eyebrows twitched repeatedly.
Just what kind of monster was this?
"Oh, and one more thing."
Kenichi glanced at Hiruzen.
"You should focus heavily on training Naruto and Sasuke."
"Those two children possess the potential to change the entire world."
"When they grow up, they'll become far, far stronger than any of you Kage."
The current Kage were simply not enough.
If the Shinobi World truly wanted to confront Isshiki, it needed monsters of its own.
Hashirama qualified.
Madara qualified.
Naruto and Sasuke would eventually qualify as well.
Strengthen Naruto and Sasuke.
Gather every top-tier shinobi in the world.
Only then would they have a realistic chance of bringing Isshiki down.
"Can you help us?"
Hagoromo looked directly at Kenichi.
He could sense Kenichi's strength.
More importantly, there was something unmistakably Otsutsuki-like about Kenichi's current existence.
If someone like Kenichi fought alongside them, their chances would naturally improve dramatically.
Kenichi paused.
Help them?
It was not impossible.
Fighting this timeline's Isshiki would also give Kenichi the opportunity to observe any abilities or hidden cards the version in his own world had not yet revealed.
He could continue studying the time machines at the same time.
The only problem was...
Wouldn't that mean staying in this damn timeline for even longer?
Kenichi hesitated.
Then he thought about the unique value of the time machines.
In the end, he made his decision.
He would help.
Understanding more of Isshiki's abilities in advance would make it much easier to kill the Isshiki waiting in his original timeline.
Better to expose every possible surprise here than return home and lose because of some hidden trump card he had never seen coming.
....
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