"Postpone? Why should we postpone?"
After Obito Uchiha finished listening to White Zetsu's intelligence, half of his original face showed a mocking sneer, while the other non-original half remained as calm and dead as dry wood.
He clenched his right fist, which was made of a substance similar to White Zetsu's body, and said in a deep voice,
"There is only one chance to obtain the Nine-Tails. Once we miss this opportunity created by the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki giving birth and weakening the seal, the Uzumaki clan's physique will only allow her to become more and more familiar with the Nine-Tails' power. She will become more troublesome, harder to deal with, and more difficult to handle.
"On top of that, the Nine-Tails itself is the strongest and most difficult to deal with among the nine Tailed Beasts. It is extremely important to the entire Eye of the Moon Plan. If we cannot take it into our hands as early as possible, then in the future, when we collect the Tailed Beasts, the Jinchuriki controlling the Nine-Tails will inevitably become a massive obstacle in our path."
"But with the Root combat strength in our hands, at most, we can create a certain degree of chaos before Konoha reacts. Even if we add Kakuzu and those other disobedient fellows, it will only slightly extend the scale and duration of the chaos…"
As the leader currently responsible for managing and relaying intelligence for Root, White Zetsu had a clear understanding of just how much strength the current Root organization possessed.
Did they have the courage to secretly make trouble and stealthily kill a few jonin from the Five Great Shinobi Villages?
Yes.
And plenty of it.
But did they have the courage to go head-on into a full war with one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages right now?
They really did not have even a bit of that.
"That is why we need external aid."
Obito Uchiha spread his arms, his voice lacking any fluctuation.
"Some temporary allies who have ambitions of their own and do not wish to see Konoha and Kirigakure grow stronger."
White Zetsu thought for a moment, then his expression suddenly changed.
"You contacted Iwagakure and Kumogakure shinobi?"
"It was not that I found them. They found us and expressed interest in discussing cooperation."
Obito Uchiha took a scroll written in encrypted text from his sleeve, then coldly tossed it up and caught it again.
"That previous joint investigation involving Sunagakure, Konoha, and Kirigakure already fully displayed Rei Kaguya's expectations for the piece called Akatsuki. Do you think Iwagakure and Kumogakure's intelligence personnel planted in Sunagakure would ignore such a large-scale movement?"
"Obito, what you mean is… Iwagakure and Kumogakure do not want to follow the rules Rei Kaguya set for them and participate in that joint organization founded under Nagato of Akatsuki's leadership?"
White Zetsu frowned.
"Why are you so certain?"
"Because Kumogakure has the ambition to unify the shinobi world. They will not be willing to submit to rules created by Kirigakure. As for Iwagakure, although they may not necessarily have the ambition or strength to unify the shinobi world, they absolutely do not want to be overtaken by Kirigakure in the future and suppressed so badly that they can never turn things around again… And, between them and us, there is no direct conflict or hatred."
Obito Uchiha threw the scroll in his hand to Black Zetsu, who had just emerged from the ground, and said meaningfully,
"An enemy's enemy may not necessarily become a friend because of that, but there will still be some shared interests between them… Akatsuki, that peace organization, was pushed forward by Rei Kaguya and became an important piece for him to stir up the shinobi world's situation. In that case, we Root can also use Iwagakure and Kumogakure's ambitions in return, absorbing their resources and strength to strengthen ourselves while restraining the continued expansion of Akatsuki's influence."
"Walking from the darkness into the sunlight is not so simple, Obito."
Although no emotion could be seen on Black Zetsu's face, the worry and disapproval toward this idea could still be detected in his tone.
"Moreover, the name we are borrowing right now is Root. In every sense, we have no way to openly show ourselves in the shinobi world like Nagato's Akatsuki, do we?"
"But if we do not borrow the power of these great nations, the speed at which we accumulate strength will only be left far behind by Kirigakure and Akatsuki."
Obito's expression turned somewhat gloomy.
He turned his head and looked at the hideous and massive Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, then slowly said,
"Think about it. Even Sunagakure, which was internally panicked, had its funding cut by the daimyo due to poor performance, and was in such a terrible state, could still unleash such shocking efficiency once its intelligence system operated at full strength. They nearly followed clues that could not even be called spider threads and horse tracks and dug out organization members who had already stayed silent for a long time from the crowd…
"Then what kind of shocking power would Kirigakure, completely under Rei Kaguya's rule and capable of investing all its strength into the fields Rei Kaguya desires, be able to unleash?"
"If we do not borrow the resources and manpower of the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth, then with only the dozens of Root missing-nin in our hands, whose humanity has been erased and who lack both selfhood and creativity, what right do we have to say that we can complete the Eye of the Moon Plan faster than Rei Kaguya can unify the shinobi world?
"Do not forget, Madara's Rinnegan is still with Nagato. He has already escaped our control and thrown himself toward Rei Kaguya's side without looking back. In the future, whether we want to recover Madara's Rinnegan or control Nagato into using the Rinne Rebirth Technique to resurrect Madara, we will inevitably have to fight Kirigakure's forces head-on… If we do not seek support from Iwagakure and Kumogakure, are we supposed to go to the black market and search for missing-nin to supplement our manpower?"
Black Zetsu and White Zetsu both fell silent.
The quiet atmosphere lasted for quite some time before Black Zetsu finally spoke, his voice extremely gloomy and unwilling.
"Why… did the world suddenly become like this?"
"I do not know. It is probably that fellow Rei Kaguya playing tricks."
Obito Uchiha looked at Black Zetsu, whose body shape was no longer as close to human as before, and narrowed his eyes.
"Make the decision, Black Zetsu. You are the manifestation of part of Madara's will. As for whether we should bring in the power of Iwagakure and Kumogakure, I permit you to voice your opinion."
"Right now, you are the savior. You are Uchiha Madara. I will listen to you."
Black Zetsu shook his head.
Then, as if he had thought of something, he asked,
"So, choosing Sunagakure's territory as the stage for the previous attacks on Kirigakure and Konoha shinobi was because you had already foreseen this scene? You planned to pull Iwagakure and Kumogakure, who could never reconcile with Kirigakure, to our side?"
"No. It was simply because I felt that Sunagakure at the time was suffering continuous internal troubles and widespread panic. As long as a little external danger was introduced, it should have been very easy to ignite the flames of war from the Land of Wind once again and spread them toward the surrounding nations…
"As for the idea of borrowing Iwagakure and Kumogakure's power to develop ourselves, that only occurred to me by chance after I saw Nagato borrow Sunagakure's intelligence system to gather clues about us."
When asked, Obito Uchiha did not deliberately act like some prophet who had foreseen everything.
His expression was solemn as he sighed and said self-mockingly,
"I originally thought this round of assassination incidents would be an exquisite arrangement that could completely cover up my true objective of taking back my eye, while also throwing the shinobi world into chaos again. I did not expect it to instead become the stepping stone for Rei Kaguya to help Akatsuki truly transform and enter the stage, gaining the right to publicly interfere in great nation disputes. He even used the chance to half-force us out of the darkness where we were hiding…"
"Even if Madara himself were resurrected, when contending against Rei Kaguya, he would not be able to help finding that fellow troublesome, would he?"
Black Zetsu noncommittally looked away.
Inwardly, he bitterly hated the fact that he had not discovered Rei Kaguya before the man had revealed his ambitions and transformed his talent.
If he had discovered Rei's abnormality early and let Madara find an opportunity to kill him, how could the current situation have spiraled out of control to this extent?
"Damn it. Could it be that Hamura also left behind a pawn on Earth? Otherwise, how could that Rei Kaguya become so strong in such a short period of time… It is almost as if Asura and Indra's chakra suddenly fully awakened inside their reincarnations."
"Mother, it seems many more twists and turns will appear on the road to your return to this world… But no matter what, please wait patiently. I will definitely sweep away every enemy blocking the path and grandly welcome your return."
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