"I have a question." Tenzo remained stunned for a good while before his clever intellect finally regained dominance.
"Speak," Habara said, carefully putting away his design drawings again. The model was theoretically usable, but he temporarily lacked a suitable testing ground. Predictably, no matter where such a device detonated, it would inevitably arouse the vigilance of surrounding countries.
"Habara, can't you use the Tailed Beast Ball?" Tenzo asked. "In terms of sheer attack power, I feel the Tailed Beast Ball is already severe overkill." In his view, the Tailed Beast Ball was already destructive enough to reshape landscapes; why pursue a technique even stronger? It seemed to disregard the law of diminishing returns.
After listening to Habara's explanation of the newly designed technique, anyone could understand its power would far exceed that of a standard Tailed Beast Ball. Setting aside its complex structure, the mere fact that its "detonator" consisted of numerous smaller Tailed Beast Balls was enough to indicate this contraption was extremely "artistic."
Fear of insufficient firepower truly is a disease, one that needs treatment.
"The Tailed Beast Ball, ah. I can certainly use it," Habara affirmed. "Using that technique feels about as complex as spitting. It seems… not particularly elegant. But your belief that the Tailed Beast Ball's power is sufficient—I must disagree. Perhaps you haven't faced the kind of ninja who instills utter despair. In such situations, relying solely on the Tailed Beast Ball is definitely not enough. I absolutely require a means that surpasses it."
Fear of insufficient power truly is a disease, but it's one without a cure.
This was an emotion Tenzo couldn't truly comprehend. He had never witnessed the Deep Forest Emergence, so he naturally believed his own Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees represented the pinnacle of powerful Mokuton.
"The theoretical model is sound," Habara continued. "Finding a suitable test site is temporarily difficult. Besides that, this technique has another problem…"
"Don't tell me the problem is insufficient power," Tenzo interjected preemptively.
"No, quite the opposite. The problem is how I can avoid having such a wide-area attack ninjutsu affect me as well. Magnetic confinement? That's far too idealistic, impossible to implement," Habara said, shaking his head.
If Habara could actually control such conditions with magnetic confinement, honestly, he wouldn't need to bother with nuclear explosions. Controllable nuclear fusion would be the path he should pursue—that was the truly bright, magnificent, and broad avenue. If humanity wasn't constrained by energy limitations, what disputes would remain? Wouldn't such a method of achieving world peace be far more reliable than Pain's deterrence plan? "Airdrop? That seems too clumsy. Currently, the most feasible method appears to be remote delivery. Something like a magnetic railgun, perhaps."
With Habara's Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai, delivering an iron lump over an ultra-long distance wasn't a difficult feat.
Seeing Habara's eager-to-try expression, Tenzo began to seriously consider whether he should report this latest development to the Hokage. Habara's concept, if it were ever put to the test, would be more dangerous than all of Orochimaru's lifetime of hazardous experiments combined.
"Habara…"
"Hmm?"
"Please, absolutely do not attempt to test your design drawings lightly. Especially not while you are inside this new city."
Habara looked up at Tenzo with a slightly surprised expression. Seeing the utter seriousness on the other's face, he nodded solemnly. "I understand, Tenzo."
Although his mouth said no, deep down, a civil engineer always develops feelings for their projects.
The Sage of Six Paths creating the world—to the average person, this was merely a mythological story from the ninja world. Even so, the story's circulation was extremely limited. The fact that the Sage of Six Paths sealed the Ten-Tails and divided its chakra into nine parts was known only to an exceedingly small number of people.
In the current ninja world, there were numerous disputes regarding the origin of the Tailed Beasts. One prevailing theory suggested that Tailed Beasts were born from the negative emotions of ninja—hatred, malice, grudges, selfish desires, and so forth. This explained why Tailed Beasts could revive after death; after all, the ugly side of humanity would never disappear.
This theory was, of course, incorrect. Yet, it wasn't entirely without merit. Tailed Beasts did indeed represent a kind of aggregation of hatred. And precisely because of this, the Nine-Tails possessed a unique ability.
Ordinary Konoha ninja generally had no concept of clocking off work on time. Habara, however, did. In fact, the higher a ninja's rank and strength, the less likely they were even to have the concept of "off-duty," let alone adhere to regular hours.
But Habara clocked off on time.
The Nine-Tails' chakra-sensing capabilities weren't particularly outstanding. However, it could sense the presence of others through the malice within their emotions. It was precisely because of this that it could easily detect White Zetsu, who possessed virtually no discernible chakra signature.
The Nine-Tails had this "anti-stealth" ability, often referred to as Malice Sensing. Now that Habara had become the Nine-Tails, this ability had become his as well.
During his walk home after leaving the Hokage office building, he sensed at least three White Zetsu tracking and observing him.
Did they infiltrate because of the joint Chunin Exam? Taking the opportunity to gather intelligence would be normal. And now they're observing the situation due to my 'resurrection'? Judging by their current numbers… it seems they lean towards believing I'm an imposter.
Habara speculated on Zetsu's thoughts. He felt these creatures were being far too arrogant, likely due to their usual undetectability. This was enemy headquarters; how could they swagger around so blatantly?
"There's no way I can allow them to move freely."
Habara immediately contacted Daigo. "Daigo, listen carefully. Next, use my chakra and utilize the third layer of the sensory barrier to scan Zone X22. Find someone reliable… On second thought, just have Kakashi handle the job. Remember, no unnecessary talk, direct action."
"Understood, Habara." Daigo immediately indicated she would follow his instructions.
Daigo acted swiftly. She quickly mobilized the city's inner sensory barrier layer. With the assistance of Habara's chakra, she too could naturally detect the presence of the White Zetsu.
"The frequency of the sensory barrier sweeps is a bit abnormal…"
White Zetsu wasn't an idiot; he naturally sensed the anomaly.
"Have we been marked? But how is that possible…"
"Dive deep, hide."
However, before this particular White Zetsu could submerge deep into the earth below, the ground beneath him suddenly solidified into a pillar. Immediately following, a massive impact force launched him upwards to ground level.
An unfamiliar sensation on his body made the White Zetsu look down. He saw a dazzling cluster of lightning quietly pulsing against his chest.
The man who tamed the rushing thunder had pierced his body from behind.
"Your identity and origin, your purpose for infiltration, your affiliated organization… Forget it." The speaker was Hatake Kakashi—the man who was deployed wherever needed, moved wherever told, worked hard, and ranked first in overtime. His tone, however, carried a rare coldness. "Judging by your appearance, it's indeed unlikely we'd get any intelligence out of you. Direct disposal is truly necessary."
This White Zetsu creature didn't look human. It was hard to imagine extracting any useful information from it. Since it wasn't even human, methods used for interrogating humans would surely be ineffective. Therefore, clean and swift elimination was the most appropriate course of action.
Meanwhile, hidden within the forest designated for the Chunin Exams, the "Black Zetsu-White Zetsu-Aloe Unified Body" instantly became aware that the White Zetsu clones concealed within the city had been eliminated.
"Three clones were taken out almost simultaneously. No, wait, the fourth one in another location has also lost contact…" White Zetsu informed Black Zetsu.
"We were discovered?" Black Zetsu questioned. "Were the movements too careless? How were they found? Who possesses such an ability?"
"No," White Zetsu clarified. "They first underwent repeated scans by some kind of sensory barrier, and then the clones were located. It wasn't an individual's ability, but the capability of Konoha's barrier system."
"As expected of a place that inherited the Uzumaki legacy," Black Zetsu mused. "Withdraw the personnel. Otherwise, we will only heighten Konoha's vigilance… In the future, do not easily enter Konoha. By that, I mean do not easily enter Konoha's core areas, especially these two towns."
"Understood. This operation concludes here."
Overall, they didn't find it particularly surprising that the Uzumaki-derived systems could track White Zetsu. One might even say it was expected. Even Zetsu couldn't simply run rampant in the heart of enemy territory. Otherwise, the plan to resurrect Mom wouldn't still be ongoing without success.
The hardworking, overtime-logged Kakashi promptly presented the White Zetsu's corpse before the Hokage. This marked the first time Konoha had captured a wild White Zetsu specimen. The portion of White Zetsu eliminated during the previous invasion of Konoha had been completely incinerated by Uchiha Itachi's Amaterasu. Without physical evidence, Habara hadn't bothered reporting the matter at the time… Given the chaos then, such a minor detail was definitely not within Habara's scope of priority.
Under the stark illumination of the pale lamp light, the tragically dead White Zetsu's skin appeared even whiter.
"So this is the thing that was gathering intelligence in the city?" Tsunade remarked, examining the wounds on the White Zetsu corpse. "Judging by the wounds, it certainly doesn't look human."
The wounds didn't bleed, and neither the exterior nor interior resembled human skin, muscle, or organs.
Kakashi shook his head. He was only responsible for the capture, and the mission had specified direct elimination. He had no idea about the specifics of White Zetsu.
"What does Habara say?" Tsunade then asked Daigo.
"He only sensed that someone had infiltrated," Daigo relayed. "As for their origin, he also couldn't be certain. However… he suggested that if we cannot determine their origin, perhaps we should consider that direction."
The so-called "that direction," naturally, referred to the direction of the Rinnegan enemy. This implied these pale, humanoid entities were very likely a means of reconnaissance employed by the Rinnegan user.
The appearance of White Zetsu once again increased the pressure on Tsunade. She had initially felt the crisis was still distant, but she hadn't expected Konoha to already be coveted by the enemy.
Fortunately, after a night of thorough investigation, no further White Zetsu were discovered within the city. The opponent had actively retreated after realizing they had been detected. This indicated that, at the current stage, they did not wish for a direct confrontation with Konoha and remained wary of such a large ninja village… The enemy wasn't as resolute as feared and had been relatively easily scared off, which allowed Tsunade to breathe a sigh of relief.
Two days later, Habara finally received the intelligence report from Orochimaru regarding Shinno. This was a positive development; after all, resorting to violent debt collection would have been troublesome for Habara, and equally troublesome for Orochimaru.