Chapter 166: Ida Mutzuki Must Die
The relentless downpour of the Land of Rain hammered against the jagged mouth of the cave, sending a chilling mist into the dark interior. In this miserable country, the skies wept for three hundred days out of the year. Ever since arriving, they had not seen a single ray of sunlight pierce the heavy gray clouds.
Inside the damp cavern, Black Zetsu lay sprawled across the rocky floor. He did not look like an ancient, shadowy mastermind. At this moment, he looked exactly like a puddle of congealed, foul-smelling black asphalt. He remained entirely motionless, exuding a heavy, suffocating aura of absolute world-weariness.
Mie sat on a dry boulder a few paces away, her cold eyes fixed on his pathetic, pancake-like posture. Outwardly, her expression remained as indifferent as carved ice. Inwardly, her heart swelled with immense joy. Watching this ancient manipulator question his very existence in front of her day after day was a rare and exquisite form of entertainment.
Ever since Kou had stolen the Rinnegan, released his Shadow Clone, and vanished back into his original body, they had spent two agonizing months scouring the Land of Rain. They had practically dug three feet into the muddy soil of this tiny, war-torn nation. They had even infiltrated the heavily guarded stronghold of Hanzo of the Salamander no less than ten times, turning the place upside down, yet they found absolutely nothing. Refusing to give up, they had retraced Kou's entire escape route, searching every inch of the path backward. Still, nothing.
Now, forced to take shelter from yet another torrential storm, Black Zetsu had completely given up. He melted into the floor, refusing to move a single inch. If a random traveler were to wander into the cave right now, they would simply step over him, assuming he was nothing more than a puddle of stagnant, blackened rainwater. No one would ever suspect this flat smear of darkness possessed a life of its own.
Mie casually pulled a piece of dried jerky from her pocket and tore off a tough strip with her teeth. She chewed slowly, the salty flavor grounding her thoughts as she pondered her next move. She wondered exactly when she should summon the Gedo Statue. Black Zetsu was teetering on the edge of a complete mental breakdown; she needed to give him a little incentive to keep him.
What was Black Zetsu doing while flattened against the cold stone? He was obsessively reviewing his life choices. He analyzed every single operation, every scheme, and every manipulation, trying to figure out exactly where his flawless plans had derailed into this endless streak of catastrophic bad luck.
After running the calculations over and over in his mind, the dark entity finally isolated the root cause of his misery.
Whenever a situation involved Ida Mutzuki, he was guaranteed to suffer.
That woman was a walking disaster. She radiated an aura of pure, unadulterated malice that made her infinitely harder to control than the likes of Uchiha Madara or Senju Hashirama.
He mentally tallied her crimes. First, there was his most promising candidate for the Moon Eye Plan, Uchiha Madara. One moment, Black Zetsu was patiently waiting at the hidden entrance of Konoha. The next moment, Ida Mutzuki had slaughtered the very master who had taken her in and treated her with nothing but kindness. And she did not just kill him; she brutally gouged out his eyes. She was an absolute beast.
Then, he had carefully cultivated Uchiha Setsuna to retrieve those stolen eyes. Just when he thought victory was assured, with Ida Mutzuki beaten down to her last ragged breath, she somehow pulled an ultimate, devastating technique out of nowhere. The resulting explosion blew Uchiha Setsuna into so many scattered, charred pieces that Black Zetsu could not even scrape him off the pavement.
When he finally managed to secure the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, Ida Mutzuki appeared again, violently gouging the eyes straight out of Ye's skull and vanishing into the night.
Desperate to reclaim his prize, he had picked up a convenient tool along the way: Uchiha Kou. And because of that single, miserable tool, he was now left with only one Rinnegan. If Ida Mutzuki had not been operating from the shadows, whispering poison into Kou's ear and instructing his every move, how could his grand design have fallen apart so spectacularly?
Everything was Ida Mutzuki's fault.
The puddle of black sludge began to bubble. Slowly, it rose from the floor, reshaping itself into a dark, jagged humanoid form.
"Mie," Black Zetsu hissed, his voice grinding like stones crushing together. "Ida Mutzuki must die. I must kill her. I will tear her apart until there is nothing left to bury."
Mie remained seated on her rock, calmly folding her hands beneath her chin. She looked at his trembling, shadowy form with deadpan eyes.
"Then go do it," she replied smoothly. "You constantly remind me that Lord Sojin gifted you with unmatched intelligence rather than martial prowess, but I have yet to see a single shred of this supposed genius. All I have seen is you dragging us down into the mud. Thanks to your brilliant planning, the most critical tool for the Infinite Tsukuyomi is now completely lost to us."
Black Zetsu stiffened, forcing his chaotic emotions back under control. He let out a raspy, echoing laugh, desperately trying to exude the chilling, authoritative aura of a mastermind villain.
"I will handle this matter personally," he sneered. "You only need to stand by and cooperate with me when the time is right."
"Then please, display your boundless intelligence to your heart's content," Mie said. She stood up, casually flicking a stray crumb from her dark hem, and walked toward the mouth of the cave. "Let me see exactly what you are capable of, Black Zetsu."
She stepped out into the freezing rain, letting the water wash over her shoulders.
"Given that you are far too weak to provide any actual physical assistance," she called back over her shoulder, "I have decided to cultivate a subordinate of my own. Someone who is actually obedient. Someone who trusts me completely."
Far away from the endless storms of the Land of Rain, the arid, sun-baked dunes of the Land of Wind told a very different story.
The continued friendship and open trade routes between Konoha and the Hidden Sand Village had brought an unmatched wave of prosperity to the desert. The civilians walking the dusty streets smiled more this year than they had in a decade. Pantries were stocked with grain, merchants shouted over bustling market stalls, and the people finally had a sense of hope for tomorrow.
Caravans heavily laden with rare minerals mined from the deep desert and scarce medicinal plants unique to the arid climate flowed continuously out of the Hidden Sand, destined for Konoha. In return, wealth and technology poured back in.
Under this heavy blanket of friendly exchange, the Hidden Sand Village was slowly showing signs of complete Konoha-fication. On the surface, everything appeared to be heading toward a golden age of peace. However, beneath the bustling markets and full stomachs, a creeping crisis threatened to strangle the village from within.
Following the joint military exercises, Chiyo, who had previously thrown her full political weight behind Kazushi, found her absolute faith beginning to fracture. The village elders and the heads of the major Ninja Clans had approached her in secret, whispering their growing fears into her ears.
The reality of their situation was chilling. Only Konoha's specialized engineers possessed the knowledge to repair and maintain the massive water purifiers that kept the desert village alive. Consequently, during the mandatory biennial maintenance cycles, Konoha's teams had carefully mapped out nearly every hidden water source within the Hidden Sand's territory.
, by purchasing the desert's unique flora in bulk, Konoha was essentially buying the raw blueprints to the Hidden Sand's most lethal poisons. The Senju Clan's medical division could now analyze, deconstruct, and synthesize antidotes for their toxins at a terrifying speed.
Konoha held the economic and survival lifeline of the Land of Wind firmly in its grasp. It was a dynamic strikingly similar to the oppressive control the Daimyo of the Land of Wind had once exerted over them. Yet, the Daimyo was their legitimate ruler. The Land of Fire was merely supposed to be an allied nation. Konoha's invisible fingers were digging far too deeply into the political and structural foundation of the Hidden Sand, and the elders knew this was a harbinger of disaster.
Kazushi, sitting comfortably in the Kazekage's office, was perfectly aware of the storm brewing in Chiyo's heart. She was simply waiting for the old woman to finally step forward and initiate the inevitable showdown.
At this moment, however, Kazushi was busy playing the role of the benevolent leader. She sat on a woven rug, holding little Sasori in her lap, spoiling the boy rotten. To keep the young puppet prodigy entertained, she had brought out a massive jar of expensive, brightly colored candies and invited a group of civilian children into the compound to play.
The children swarmed around Kazushi, their eyes wide with excitement as they begged for sweets. Kazushi laughed warmly, distributing a handful of candies to the eager hands. Once the initial rush died down, she poured the remaining sweets back into the glass jar, placed it firmly into Sasori's small hands, and instructed the other children to ask him if they wanted more.
It was a simple, manipulative tactic. If the children wanted the sugar, they would be forced to interact and play with the normally isolated Sasori.
Unfortunately, Sasori harbored zero interest in the noisy, sticky-fingered brats. He scowled, tucking the heavy glass jar tightly under his arm, and immediately turned his back on the crowd. He reached his small arms up, demanding to be held by Kazushi again.
"What is wrong?" Kazushi asked softly, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "Do you not like playing with them? Look at them, they are all very cute."
Sasori wrinkled his little nose in utter disgust. "They are so childish. I do not like playing with them at all."
It was the classic arrogance of a born genius. Despite his tender age, he already viewed the ordinary children around him as entirely beneath his notice.
"Then who does Sasori want to play with?" Kazushi asked, gently pinching his soft, pale cheek.
Sasori looked up at her, a faint blush spreading across his face. "I like being with the Kazekage. Can I come to see you every single day?"
Kazushi smiled, her eyes crinkling with perfectly feigned warmth. "As long as you do not find it boring to follow me around, you may come to see me absolutely anytime you wish."
Sasori's eyes sparkled with pure adoration. The Third Kazekage's embrace was the safest, warmest place in the world.
A short distance away, standing on a shaded balcony overlooking the courtyard, Ebizo watched Kazushi surrounded by the laughing children. He made no effort to hide the deep admiration etched into his weathered face.
"Sister," Ebizo murmured, leaning against the stone railing. "She truly delivered on every promise she made to us. She led us to seize the political power of this country right out from under the Daimyo, and she has guided the Hidden Sand to a level of prosperity and power we never dreamed possible."
Chiyo stood beside him, but her brow was tightly furrowed. Her lips were pressed into a thin, grim line. For the very first time, she did not nod in agreement with her brother. Her dark eyes were clouded with heavy anxiety.
Were these immediate, tangible benefits truly a blessing? Or were they a slow-acting poison, masterfully woven by Konoha to rot the Land of Wind from the inside out?
What Ebizo and the civilians saw was a thriving, wealthy Hidden Sand Village. What Chiyo saw was an invisible collar tightening around their necks, with the leash held firmly in Konoha's hands. The people's absolute dependence on foreign aid had spiraled out of control. Once this parasitic system fully cemented itself into their daily lives, Konoha would not even need to wage a war to conquer them. They could simply swallow the Hidden Sand whole without spilling a single drop of blood.
A masked Sand ninja materialized from the shadows of the balcony, stepping silently to Chiyo's side. He leaned in, his voice barely a whisper over the desert wind.
"Lady Chiyo, the heads of the major clans have sent word. They will convene at the old place tonight. They humbly request your presence; they state this matter concerns the very survival of the Hidden Sand Village."
Chiyo closed her eyes, taking a slow, steadying breath.
"I understand," she replied, her voice heavy with resolve. "Tell them I will keep the appointment."
This time, Chiyo offered no excuses to delay the inevitable. The time for blind faith had passed.
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