At the top of the high tower in Amegakure.
Hanzo looked down upon the entire village.
The surrounding Rain Ninja didn't dare to breathe, but they could sense a mountain-like pressure from his slightly tense expression.
Gloomy, displeased, and wary.
A moment later, several dark figures emerged through the curtain of rain. They were envoys from the Leaf Root.
The leader half-bowed, his voice cold and mechanical:
"Lord Hanzo, we have already contacted Sakumo Hatake. The matter of the Flame Gym will be handled entirely by the Hidden Leaf Village."
After speaking, he fell silent again.
That strange building, which had appeared out of thin air on the Land of Rain's front lines, was situated right on the Hidden Leaf Village's support route to Amegakure.
After much consideration, Hanzo still felt that this matter required the Hidden Leaf Village to step in.
"You set up your Artificial Tailed Beast Proving Ground in the Land of Rain... which attracted spies from the Cloud... and even the Two-Tailed Jinchuriki died within my Amegakure's borders."
"Do you know what this means?"
The Root envoy remained completely unfazed, merely speaking in a tone tinged with faint regret.
"Lord Danzo deeply regrets this. The Hidden Leaf Village will also do its utmost to ensure Amegakure's safety."
With a single word of regret, he casually brushed aside the death of the Two-Tailed Jinchuriki, the fury of the Hidden Cloud, and the tension among the three nations.
Hanzo narrowed his eyes but did not press the point.
He had no way to directly quell the Cloud Ninja's anger right now. Fortunately, the Cloud Ninja couldn't invade the Land of Rain directly through the Land of Fire. So, after careful thought, he decided to hand over the intelligence from his last battle with Red to Root.
Then, Hanzo presented his reasonable speculation:
"That man's fire... black hair, and exceptional taijutsu."
Hanzo paused, his tone profound.
"No matter how you look at it, it's the Uchiha bloodline."
The Root envoy's fingertips tightened slightly, but he still accepted the scroll.
Hanzo turned around, walked towards the edge of the tower with his hands behind his back, and looked down at the distant Flame Gym, which was glowing brightly in the rain.
"When Uchiha Madara left the Hidden Leaf Village back then, did he leave alone?"
"Perhaps... this Red is a descendant of the Uchiha who was taken away."
Rain slanted against the high tower's outer walls as the wind howled past.
Beneath his mask, the Root envoy's eyes flickered with shock.
Red, an Uchiha?
But they remained as still as stagnant water.
"We will bring this intelligence back to the Hidden Leaf Village. From here on... Root will handle it."
Atop the high tower, Hanzo was once again alone.
He stood amidst the wind and rain, his gaze piercing through the mist, locking onto the distant, red, flame-like hall that did not belong to the Land of Rain.
Outside Uchiha Madara's base, the mountain wind was cold and gloomy, and the air was filled with an irritating stuffiness.
Black Zetsu slowly emerged from the shadows, a rare hint of agitation in his eyes.
The series of inexplicable events in the Land of Rain had left his mood on a highly unstable edge.
As if on cue, White Zetsu drilled out from under a tree root and greeted him with a grin, "My lord, you don't look so good today?"
Black Zetsu glanced at him silently.
...His entire face was pitch black.
How could one read his expression?
White Zetsu was just spouting nonsense.
"Shut up."
Black Zetsu replied coldly.
Being rebuffed didn't anger White Zetsu in the slightest. Instead, he sidled even closer. "Is that really so? I feel like you're very gloomy today."
He took a deep breath, suppressing the feeling of losing control that had been growing since the Flame Gym's chaotic intrusion. "How has Uchiha Madara been lately?"
White Zetsu answered quickly, "He's been chatting with Drampa recently."
Black Zetsu's brow furrowed slightly.
The mention of Ninja Beasts subconsciously made him think of his own Ninja Beast Egg. It seemed to have been incubating for a long time, but there was still no sign of it hatching.
However, he quickly suppressed the thought. "Keep an eye on Uchiha Madara."
But White Zetsu scratched his head. "I'd like to watch him more, but unfortunately, my eyesight hasn't been very good lately."
Black Zetsu stopped in his tracks.
Does a thing like you even need eyesight?
"What are you trying to say?"
Black Zetsu was getting impatient.
White Zetsu's eyes lit up. "I want a Sharingan!"
"..."
"What do you need a Sharingan for?"
"I just think they look cool, and they can enhance my dynamic vision."
Both Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu had a considerable stock of Sharingan.
He couldn't let his own Sharingan be seen in front of Madara.
He then took out a vial of preservative fluid from his robes and casually tossed it to White Zetsu.
However, just as the vial left his hand, another White Zetsu suddenly popped out from behind a tree. "I want one too!"
Immediately after, a second, a third, and a fourth White Zetsu popped out, their movements perfectly synchronized.
The four White Zetsus immediately surrounded Black Zetsu, their eyes shining like children fighting over a toy.
Black Zetsu: "..."
He speechlessly raised his hand and tossed out another vial. "There are only two pairs. You figure it out yourselves."
After speaking, he didn't even bother to look at the chaotic expressions on the White Zetsus' faces and simply turned to leave.
Without hesitation, without pausing, without wanting to say another word of nonsense.
This group of White Zetsus was getting stranger and stranger.
Because the White Zetsus originated from the God Tree, Black Zetsu had never once suspected that something was wrong with them.
"Don't cause me any trouble."
After Black Zetsu left, the four White Zetsus squatted on the ground, staring at the two vials of Sharingan. The air seemed to freeze for a second.
A moment later, the atmosphere began to shift, growing gradually more serious.
In the strange atmosphere, one of the White Zetsus spoke up, "Two pairs for the four of us?"
"How about... one each?"
"What about Red? Have you forgotten him?"
"Then how should we divide them?"
"I don't know either!"
A brief silence hung in the air.
The four White Zetsus looked at each other, finally seeming to reach some top-secret consensus.
One of the White Zetsus solemnly concluded, "The Sharingan... let's give them all to Shiroishi."
The other White Zetsus nodded in unison.
"Yeah, if Uchiha Madara sees us with Sharingan, it could be big trouble."
After a serious meeting, they formally decided to hand over the two vials of Sharingan to Shiroishi for safekeeping.
One of the White Zetsus took a deep breath and slowly sank into the ground, moving through the earth like a fish as he stealthily advanced toward the Flame Gym.
Before long, a slight ripple in the soil appeared at the Gym's entrance.
As the sand and dirt bulged slightly, a White Zetsu's head slowly emerged from the ground, followed by his entire body floating out lightly. He held the two vials of preservative fluid solemnly in his hands, his expression as grave as if he were delivering a state secret.
Seeing White Zetsu suddenly pop up, both Shiroishi and Red were stunned for a moment.
White Zetsu raised the vials in his hands, his tone solemn. "The Sharingan. I've brought them."
Although Shiroishi had once asked White Zetsu to collect and search for some Sharingan.
He hadn't expected White Zetsu to be so efficient, obtaining two pairs of Sharingan in the blink of an eye.
Shiroishi then picked up one pair of Sharingan and handed it to Red.
"Want to try the Sharingan?"
Red stared at the Sharingan before him, lost in thought for a long time.
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