In an instant, Haseo and Sakumo Hatake reached the location indicated by Mito Uzumaki. It was a barren rock face, and just as their figures appeared, they caught sight of two strange humanoid figures attempting to escape—one trying to merge into the ground while the other turned to flee into the distance.
However, the two were too fast— their targets never stood a chance of escaping.
When Haseo saw those two figures, he hesitated for a moment—he hadn't expected these things to actually appear… It seemed the Mastermind truly paid close attention to developments in the Ninjutsu World. Undoubtedly, both Mito Uzumaki and the Nine-Tails were among their primary concerns.
Yet, during that brief hesitation from Haseo, Sakumo Hatake had already rushed forward. Then he struck with one slash, followed by a second.
Then, everything went quiet.
"Haseo, I... got excited and forgot to leave someone alive. Huh, why are you so stunned?" Perhaps acting out of competitiveness, Sakumo had acted impulsively. He wiped them both out without sparing a single life.
Considering Sakumo's age, he wasn't yet a fully mature ninja, so it was normal for him to occasionally act recklessly.
Truthfully, he was just worried Haseo would take credit for the kill, so he eliminated them right away. However, once he finished the job, he realized that maybe he shouldn't have done it quite like this—he should've at least kept one prisoner.
When he looked back though, he found that Haseo hadn't approached right away. What's more, the intensity of the Lightning Release chakra currently radiating from Haseo was something Sakumo had never seen before... almost as if he was on high alert against some unknown enemy.
"No… my point is, it's fine. After all, these things look nothing like humans. If you hadn't taken action, I would have."
Haseo responded after regaining his composure.
He couldn't very well say that you actually just killed my "acquaintance," could he?
Naked, genderless, pale-skinned, covered in spines, and sporting sharp teeth—sure enough, it was an old friend… White Zetsu. He hadn't expected this thing to really show up.
Keeping a live White Zetsu was completely meaningless anyway—they wouldn't reveal anything regardless.
Not long ago, he had proposed splitting the Nine-Tails—and now, these creatures appeared soon after. Was there a connection? No, Haseo shook his head, dismissing the idea soon after. At the moment, only a few people were aware of this plan—making the chances of a leak very slim.
Haseo, Mito Uzumaki, the Third Hokage, and the Uzumaki clan leader along with several elders—this group would absolutely not leak such intelligence under any circumstances.
Therefore, a more plausible explanation was that these two White Zetsus were simply monitoring the Nine-Tails jinchuriki. In their eyes, every tailed beast was vital—it was the key to their "Mother Resurrection Plan"... or, more accurately, the Tailed Beasts themselves were pieces of their mother's physical form.
"Indeed… what exactly is this thing?"
At this moment, Sakumo Hatake also sensed something was off. He first lightly kicked the severed head of a White Zetsu before bending down and picking it up.
"For starters," he said, "the feeling when I cut into it was strange—nothing like slicing through a normal human body, where you'd feel muscle resistance followed by the crunch of bone. Instead, it felt more like cutting through a fibrous plant-like structure."
"What's even more important," he continued, "is that despite severing its head, not a single drop of blood spilled out. In fact… they don't even have blood vessels."
As he spoke, Sakumo Hatake flipped the head upside-down to show Haseo the smooth cross-section of its neck—just as flat and clean as a log.
So, it was hard to consider this thing a living being, especially since just moments ago they'd shown signs of trying to escape.
Now, Sakumo himself was actually quite an adorable child in appearance, but the issue was that his actions and words came across as rather disturbing.
Luckily for him, Haseo didn't find it disturbing at all—he thought Sakumo's behavior was perfectly normal—and right now his focus was entirely on the White Zetsu corpse.
Haseo drew his long blade, stepped forward, and pushed his sensing ability to the max. The slightest ripple in the air would trigger an instant stab from his blade.
"Hashirama… the fight's already over. Could you stop releasing your [Lightning Release]? It's kinda scary," Sakumo couldn't help but ask as Haseo approached. From his point of view, the current Haseo was far more dangerous than their previous enemies had been.
After all, wild White Zetsu were pretty weak. Without any underhanded tricks, like stealing chakra or hijacking a Wood Release ninja for power—as if using them as living batteries—their combat abilities were pitifully low.
White Zetsu might be weak, but Haseo wasn't—the [Lightning Release] surging through his body was strong enough to kill someone outright.
"Not yet. I'm a bit cold, and generating electricity is the only way to keep warm," Haseo replied. He remembered that part of the White Zetsu species possessed spore-based parasitic capabilities, and he definitely didn't want anything like that sticking to him.
Still, he detected nothing at all—perhaps there really were only these two White Zetsu around.
After roughly confirming the surroundings, Haseo then raised his blade and began slicing one of the corpses apart for inspection.
"It really doesn't seem to have internal organs either, and I haven't sensed any traces of chakra manipulation. So, how exactly does this thing move? Maybe it's just some sort of puppet, huh?" Seeing that Haseo had practically reduced one of the 'corpses' into dumpling filling without discovering anything significant, Sakumo couldn't help asking aloud.
So why did Madara Uchiha believe these things were originally crafted by him? That was truly baffling.
Haseo shook his head, feigning ignorance with a smirk. "Let's notify Lady Mito and have her come take a look—we'll leave figuring things out to her."
Privately, he was thinking: If Mito Uzumaki could identify and destroy the core forms of Black and White Zetsu, that'd be ideal. Once those two were eliminated, wouldn't many troubles plaguing the ninjutsu world disappear? Though it might be a bit unfair to Mito Uzumaki, wouldn't it be tragically beautiful if Madara ended his days alone with Hashirama Senju's face forever etched upon his chest?
Sakumo didn't understand Haseo's train of thought, but he simply nodded and went off to inform Mito Uzumaki.
"Anyone still here? Need to talk about something — want to come out and chat? If you've got some big plan, can I get in on it?" Haseo whispered low and mysterious-like, doing his best to sound sincere.
But no one gave him the time of day. Even if Zetsu really was still around, there's no way he'd fall for such an obvious lie — not even good enough to be called smooth-talking.
Not long after, Mito Uzumaki arrived on-site with her team. The first thing they saw was White Zetsu — chopped into pieces beyond recognition.
Mito frowned. You don't need to be *that* thorough when dissecting something for research... At least Haseo had left one body intact.
"So this was the one spying on us earlier? This is the 'puppet' Kakashi mentioned?"
She asked, but the dead White Zetsu lay there like a slab of wood — not a flicker of life or energy left in it.
Well, whether it was a puppet or something else didn't matter — none of them recognized the creature anyway. So Haseo nodded and asked, "Lady Mito, can you sense any other enemies nearby?"
Inwardly, he hoped she'd say the area was clear — he'd come here determined to finish off both Black and White Zetsu. As the old saying goes — a real master wins unseen and uncelebrated. If the main culprit was truly gone, then even without recognition, Haseo could consider himself the world's savior.
Let's face it — those Zetsus wouldn't know combat if it hit them in the face.
What's more, even if they *did* have some strength — wasn't Mito Uzumaki right here?
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