Chapter 155: Sorry, I Am an Undercover Agent
Pitch-black flames gnawed relentlessly at the frozen wasteland. Despite the biting chill of the surrounding ice and snow, the inferno radiated a blistering, unnatural heat. Instead of fizzling out against the frost, the obsidian fire merely sank deeper, melting through the permafrost in a stubborn display of destruction—a fire that would never extinguish until it had devoured every last trace of its fuel.
'These flames... they are too strange,' Kato Dan thought, his spiritual form drifting over the scorched craters.
Judging by the devastating aftermath of the battlefield, Uchiha Kou had clearly lost, overwhelmed by a mysterious adversary wielding this inextinguishable black fire. But where had the victor dragged her? Dan pressed forward, handling the ethereal void. He followed the faint, erratic pulses of residual chakra, letting the lingering energy guide his spectral form through the desolate landscape.
At last, the jagged silhouette of a collapsed ruin loomed ahead. From within the rubble, Dan sensed Kou's fading life force—a flickering candle in a storm—overshadowed by another, deeply sinister chakra signature that made his spiritual core tremble. He hesitated for only a fraction of a second before phasing smoothly through the shattered roof.
The sight below made his ethereal breath hitch.
Kou lay sprawled across the cracked stone floor. Her legs were twisted at a sickening, unnatural angle, the bones cleanly snapped. Cruel, jagged kunai pierced through her palms and ankles, pinning her limbs to the earth like a grotesque butterfly on a display board. A horrific, gaping wound marred her chest, missing her heart by mere inches. The dark fabric of her uniform was saturated with a thick, morbid crimson. Blood pooled beneath her, winding through the cracks in the stone like macabre rivers.
Her eyelids fluttered, half-closed over dilated, unfocused pupils. She hovered on the absolute precipice of death. Even the vile curse marks crawling across her pale skin—pulsing with agonizing, parasitic energy—could not wring a scream from her throat. Only shallow, ragged gasps escaped her bloodstained lips.
Dan's expression darkened into a grim scowl. Yes, Uchiha Kou was an S-Rank rogue ninja, a traitor to Konoha, but they had once shared the bond of comrades. If they had clashed on the battlefield, he would have granted her a swift, honorable death. Watching her endure this sadistic torture churned his stomach.
Looming over her broken body was Black Zetsu, his voice dripping with venom as he demanded the location of the missing Rinnegan. As a mastermind who had lurked in the shadows for a millennium, he should have maintained his cold, calculating demeanor. But the sheer indignity of repeatedly losing the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and the Rinnegan had finally snapped his sanity. He had devolved into a seething, irrational mass of pitch-black rage.
At his command, the curse marks branded into Kou's flesh flared to life, viciously eroding her internal organs.
Just as Black Zetsu reached out with a clawed hand, fully intending to gouge the Mangekyo Sharingan straight from Kou's skull, Mie shifted. The aloof woman casually glanced toward the exact corner of the ceiling where Dan's soul hovered.
That single, piercing look sent a violent shudder through Dan's spiritual form. 'She sees me.'
Fortunately, Mie merely swept her gaze past his hiding spot, turning her attention back to the bloody scene below. Exhaling a silent breath of relief, Dan drifted closer to Kou, preparing to dive into her mental landscape to glean whatever intel he could.
Suddenly, Mie moved. Her hands blurred through a rapid sequence of seals. Instantly, a barrage of small, semi-transparent barriers materialized in the air, shooting directly toward Black Zetsu.
Having suffered through Mie's unpredictable antics far too many times, Black Zetsu reacted with practiced paranoia. He melted into the shadows, darting frantically around the ruins to evade the glowing traps.
Dan, however, was caught completely off guard. Just as he descended toward Kou, one of the stray barriers snapped shut around his spiritual body. The ethereal cage locked him in place, rendering him entirely paralyzed.
"What are you doing?!" Black Zetsu screeched, his hoarse voice echoing off the crumbling walls. "Didn't you see me interrogating her for the Rinnegan?!"
"You were the one who brought her here," Mie replied, her tone dripping with icy condescension as she lightly tapped the skin beneath her right eye. "You vouched for her. You claimed she was trustworthy. That is the only reason I allowed her to get close."
She took a slow, deliberate step forward. "And now, she has stolen one of my Rinnegan. Frankly, I have every reason to suspect you are in league with her. Were you planning to silence her just now? Trying to kill her so I would permanently lose the trail of my eye?"
Black Zetsu practically vibrated with apoplectic fury. He, the grand architect of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, was being accused of sabotaging the Rinnegan by this utter lunatic! The sheer absurdity of the accusation pushed him to the brink of madness.
"Rest assured, I will not kill her!" he hissed, his yellow eyes bulging. "I guarantee I will keep this wretched girl alive until she spits out exactly where the Rinnegan is!"
Grudgingly forced to prove his innocence, Black Zetsu reined in his temper and ceased his activation of the curse marks. He rummaged through his cloak, producing a high-tier Healing Scroll. Unfurling the parchment, he tossed it onto Kou's battered chest and violently yanked the kunai from her left hand.
Kou had been clinging to her final breath. The sudden removal of the blade caused a fresh geyser of arterial blood to spurt, threatening to drain the last of her life in seconds. But the scroll flared with a soothing, emerald luminescence. The restorative chakra forcibly knit her ruptured veins and staunched the bleeding, dragging her back from the abyss just enough to regain a sliver of agonizing consciousness.
"I am genuinely curious," Black Zetsu growled, looming over her. "How did you break free from my mental control? You were drowning in despair over this miserable world. You should not have trusted anyone anymore."
A weak, breathless chuckle rattled in Kou's chest. The minute movement sent shockwaves of agony through her shattered nerves, but the pain only seemed to sharpen the clarity in her half-lidded eyes.
"How do you know..." she rasped, coughing up a speck of blood, "...that your so-called control... was actually you controlling me? What if... I simply wanted you to think you were?"
Black Zetsu froze. He had manipulated countless legendary figures over the centuries without a single misstep. To fail on a mere Uchiha brat felt utterly absurd.
"Impossible," he sneered. "No one escapes my mental domination. How did you do it?"
Despite lying in a pool of her own blood, completely crippled and defeated, Kou's gaze held nothing but mocking pity. Every subtle twitch of her lips was a calculated insult to the ancient entity.
"How could a non-human freak like you... ever understand human will?" she whispered, her voice laced with defiant pride. "I am the most outstanding operative of Root. Codename: Kou. Everything... from the very beginning... was a lie. I never submitted to you. So how could there be a betrayal?"
She forced her head up a fraction of an inch, locking eyes with the monster. "The moment I sensed your pathetic attempt to invade my mind, I reported it directly to Hokage-sama. Everything I did was solely to uncover your true objective."
"The assassination attempt, the brutal interrogations, the awakening of my eyes... all of it was just a stage play to lower your guard. Did you honestly believe a shinobi as powerful as Hokage-sama would let himself be stabbed by me so easily?"
Black Zetsu's eyes narrowed as he caught the glaring inconsistency. "Wait... your Mangekyo was not awakened during that assassination?"
Kou's voice grew faint, almost swallowed by the howling wind outside the ruins. "Did you not investigate my background thoroughly? You... tell me..."
The realization hit Black Zetsu like a physical blow. "You awakened your eyes back when you lost your arm! You have been acting this entire time?!"
Suspended within the translucent barrier, Dan felt a tidal wave of shock crash against his spiritual core.
'She never betrayed Konoha,'he realized, his ethereal heart aching with a deep, tragic awe.'She willingly branded herself a traitor, enduring all this hatred, just to infiltrate the enemy as an undercover agent!'
He threw himself against the walls of the sealing barrier, desperate to break free and help her, but the jutsu was far too exquisite. He was entirely trapped, forced to watch her final moments.
Kou's unwavering, mocking stare finally shattered the last remnants of Black Zetsu's rationality. Snarling, he snatched the Healing Scroll away and raised a jagged blade, aiming it directly at Kou's collarbone.
"Enough, Black Zetsu."
A single pebble shot through the air like a bullet, violently striking Black Zetsu's wrist and knocking the blade from his grasp. Mie stepped forward, her arms casually crossed over her chest.
"I acknowledge your skill," Mie said, her voice echoing with a haunting, authoritative cadence. "As a spy, your acting was flawless. You perfectly deceived both Black Zetsu and myself. And even at death's door, you managed to steal a Rinnegan that is absolutely crucial to our plans. However..."
She closed the distance slowly, her sharp, oppressive aura bearing down on the broken girl.
"Is this conviction of yours truly worth it?"
Mie knelt slightly, her gaze piercing. "You slaughtered your own comrades. You drove a blade through the heart of your friend. You betrayed your entire team. And for what? No one in your precious village will ever know of your sacrifices. The only person in this world who truly understands the depth of your loyalty... is me, your enemy."
She leaned in, her tone dripping with a dark, irresistible seduction.
"And the grand result you sacrificed everything for? It will remain meaningless. Your truth will be buried here in the dark, rotting away alongside your corpse, becoming a secret that no one will ever mourn."
Mie extended a hand. "Tell me where you hid my Rinnegan. Do that, and I will give you an ending worthy of your tragic sacrifice. I will personally inform your comrades of your heroic deeds, and I will ensure your body returns to the Konoha you so desperately long for. Consider it the highest respect I, as your enemy, can offer."
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