Boom!
"The situation doesn't look good!"
At the border of the Land of Rain, Zetsu's upper body emerged from the ground. Watching the intense battle taking place ahead, he quietly assessed the situation.
No one had expected them to be intercepted outside the Land of Rain—and especially by Nagato himself. His personal arrival meant only one thing: their assault plan had been leaked.
Was it Hiruko?
Black Zetsu immediately suspected Hiruko. Only three people knew about the attack plan—himself, Hiruko, and Uchiha Setsuna.
He and Setsuna would never leak the intel. That left only Hiruko.
But as Black Zetsu watched Hiruko fight like a man possessed, nearly throwing his life on the line, he hesitated.
Neither Hiruko nor Nagato seemed to be holding back.
From what he could see, both were aiming to kill.
Could a mole really be this convincing?
If Hiruko had gone easy on them even a little, their mission might have failed already.
Black Zetsu and Uchiha Setsuna still had a trump card—one last resort that could only be used under specific conditions.
It was not something they wanted to rely on unless absolutely necessary.
Suddenly, a massive wave of chakra appeared on the battlefield. It was the Three-Tails, summoned by Uchiha Setsuna through a summoning jutsu.
At this moment, the beast's eyes had turned into Sharingan. It was clearly caught in a genjutsu, its mind controlled by the illusion.
Black Zetsu's spirit lifted the moment he saw this. His eyes instinctively turned to Hiruko. As long as Hiruko summoned the Hollow according to the plan, his suspicion could be temporarily cleared.
As for using the Three-Tails in battle?
While the Three-Tails was undeniably a powerful tailed beast, its strength was somewhat suppressed in the face of the Rinnegan.
Especially with how masterfully Nagato was now wielding the Rinnegan—so skilled that even Black Zetsu was left stunned.
For a moment, it almost felt like... Madara himself was the one using those eyes.
Of course, Black Zetsu also knew that his thoughts were not entirely realistic—they were exaggerated.
But for Nagato to use a pair of powerful eyes that did not belong to him to such an extent really went beyond both his and Madara's expectations.
After all, although Nagato's body could bear some burden of the Rinnegan, to unleash the Rinnegan's power to this level, logically, Nagato's body should have been drained by the Rinnegan already.
Summoning Technique!
Hiruko appeared on the Three-Tails' back, quickly forming hand signs with both hands.
Protected by Uchiha Setsuna's Susanoo, he slapped the Three-Tails' back.
Centering on the Three-Tails, a black gate opened from the void.
A spatial rift appeared in midair, like a torn space being sewn up, revealing a dark hollow.
A huge black figure pushed apart the edges of the rift, tearing it open further to form a larger space hollow.
A giant foot and a masked humanoid monster forced their way out of the narrow spatial rift.
Immediately after, a second and a third one rushed out anxiously.
Three Huge Hollow?
Seeing these three that were much taller and more imposing than Susanoo, Black Zetsu felt a sense of relief.
They had certainly tested that Hiruko could really summon the Huge Hollows and could guide and control the summoned ones to some degree, which was why this plan was being carried out.
But the earlier experiment only summoned one Huge Hollow.
That single Huge Hollow was already a threat to Uchiha Setsuna, who possessed Wood Release cells and the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Now with three Huge Hollows, whose power and presence were even more oppressive than the one summoned in the experiment, it was indeed something to be thankful for.
Although he had never heard of the existence of Hollows, as a soul-abnormal creature, Black Zetsu could still understand them.
The usual ninjutsu had little killing effect on Hollows. On the contrary, the power of Hollows was far superior in quality compared to a ninja's chakra.
After the three Huge Hollows appeared, the surrounding air grew heavy, almost sticky.
Every living being there felt a kind of soul pressure.
When the three Huge Hollows showed up, Nagato, Yahiko, and Kakuzu suddenly felt they were being watched, as if the eyes behind the masks of the Hollows were staring directly at them.
Dark energy gathered in the mouths of the Hollows, and then suddenly burst out. Three black beams of energy swept across the area.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Loud explosions kept echoing without stopping.
When the dust caused by the attacks was blown away by the strong wind, the three of Nagato's group were revealed, standing close together in a triangular formation.
Nagato stretched his palm forward, protecting the ground under and behind him.
But the surrounding area was already shattered and ruined by the bombardment.
"Kill them!"
By relying on a mysterious connection with the three Huge Hollows, Hiruko gave them the order.
Hiruko clearly sensed three terrifying spirits sweeping over him and the Three-Tails beneath him.
They seemed to want to devour them, but out of some kind of caution, the three Huge Hollows did not act on their own.
Instead, they obeyed Hiruko's command and moved toward Nagato's group.
Although the bodies of the Huge Hollows looked heavy and clumsy, their movements were actually not slow.
Especially in terms of destructive power, even a single move could cause damage like a powerful jutsu comparable to Susanoo.
Combined with Cero, they were truly monsters capable of changing the battlefield.
Seeing the three Huge Hollows obey his orders, Hiruko secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Whether it was sensing the Hueco Mundo, summoning Hollows from it, or controlling the summoned Hollows, these were not his own abilities.
Instead, he used a piece of Orochimaru's soul fragment left inside him as a soul curse seal.
Both summoning and controlling relied on this fragment of Orochimaru's soul as a relay to send commands to the summoned Hollows.
If he lost Orochimaru's power, Hiruko knew very well that these Hollows might not hesitate to immediately see him as food.
Hiruko guessed that Orochimaru's strange and powerful curse, like a persistent tumor rooted deep in both soul and body, might be closely connected to the Hueco Mundo.
Of course, even if it involved Orochimaru's soul, this kind of summoning and conjuring came with a price.
Every time the Hollow was summoned, it required some soul sacrifices. The stronger the Hollow, the higher the quality of the souls needed for the sacrifice.
This matched well with his understanding of Orochimaru's summoning techniques.
After all, when fighting alongside Orochimaru, the army of snakes he summoned also needed sacrifices to obey and assist in battle.
But back then, it was during wartime, so there were plenty of enemy village ninjas available for sacrifice.