The weather is pretty nice today. I'm currently sitting cross-legged on a field some ways off from Sakuragakure, waiting for my chakra to fill back up and trying to figure out what exactly is going on with Black Zetsu. I don't think that Madara lied about Black Zetsu trying to pull some form of bastardized third impact just so that he can bring back his mommy.
My main issue is that I can't for the life of me figure out how he plans to do that. We'd done some math once we'd arrived back at home, the theory behind this plan works out. The only problem is that for it to actually work out he would need to absorb the souls of over 99.9999% of the currently living population. The number itself relies on how many 'fragments' of Kaguya he needs to merge together in order to revive her.
I sigh, that's one thing that I hope that capturing Kakuzu will reveal, although I doubt the man worked together with Zetsu knowing Zetsu's end goal. Kakuzu might be greedier than Mr Burns, but he's not retarded. It doesn't matter how much he'd get paid if the world fucking ended. The option that he's under some form of mind control isn't out of the question. Black Zetsu has been alive for a loooong time, by now he would've probably forgotten more about chakra and jutsu than what even the total knowledge that someone like Hiruzen knew about chakra and jutsu.
My chakra is back to full capacity now, so I get up and begin training till I've used about half of it. Right now I'm training to increase how much chakra I can use at once. If Madara called for help then it's almost a certainty that the chances of me dying in the fight are pretty high, so training specifically to increase my power as an edo tensei as much as possible is what would give me the most bang for my buck training personally right now.
I blast Amaterasu into the sky, using as much chakra as I can physically put into the jutsu. 20% of my chakra is more than enough to create a fireball large enough to rival the size of many mountains. I begin using Kagutsuchi to try and compress the fireball as much as I can, stopping after fifteen seconds once I've used enough chakra to leave me at half of my capacity. After this I sit back down, eat a pill that Sakura gave me for chakra regeneration and wait another thirty minutes for it to refill back up again.
—
Sakura slaps a sealing tag on the edo tensei I created. The edo tensei just looks mindlessly at her. She rips the sealing tag off and slaps another one. It does nothing. She rips this one off and slaps yet another sealing tag. This one makes the Edo Tensei get sucked into the sealing tag, which then sways into the air as it falls down. I try to summon that same edo tensei, to check if it's properly sealed. The summoning fails. I nod. "Attempt twenty-seven is a success."
Sakura nods back. "We've another eighty-nine to test, hopefully we'll have another success in case he has some counter for this one."
No other test was positive, number twenty-seven is the only success. Afterwards we begin preparing some countermeasures in case we end up dying, some of them rely on the village still existing, some don't. One of them is an edo tensei hidden in the Land of Iron that will try to use the edo tensei to bring us every morning of every day.
—
I jump over Hinata's kick, only to end up picked up by two of her arms, get my ears hit by the open palms of another pair of her arms and my chest punched by the final two arms before she violently slams me into the ground, creating a sizable crater. If this were a real fight this would be the point where she just killed me. I wouldn't be able to retaliate in any fashion right now regardless of the healing tattoos, what with my organs currently being busy rearranging themselves in their proper spots.
I groan in pain, only rising after the healing tattoos healed me fully. I give Hinata a nod and we start another round of sparring. The memories of my clone rushing back distract me enough for her to uppercut me into the sky. Thankfully she realises that the spar and doesn't follow up with a barrage, lucky me.
Konoha has caught Kakuzu.
—
Once we arrive at Konoha we find Tsunade, or more likely a shadow clone of hers, waiting for us at the gates. she doesn't waste any time and motions for us to follow her as she begins dashing towards T&I. "At first he hadn't divulged any information at all, even demanded one hundred kilograms of gold and political asylum before he would be giving any information."
She jumps to the rooftops. Hinata, Sakura and I jump as well, following after her. I nod. "What made him talk? Doubt torture worked on him, he probably doesen't even feel pain."
Tsunade grunts. "Madara told him what the stakes were, afterwards his demands changed to only being let go after giving out everything that he knew, which wasn't much, he just followed orders without question."
We all jump down, landing near the T&I gates as we do. I cross my arms. "You managed to check whether or not he was lying? He could've been lying his ass off."
She nods, pointedly stopping five meters away from the gates. "The Yamanaka checked and made sure what he said was the truth. Keep your guard around Madara, he believed Kakuzu immediately after questioning him. He almost certainly knows more than he is letting on."
No shit, he's the one actually behind the Akatsuki. I nod. "Thanks for the warning."
Tsunade nods and opens the door, motioning for us to follow her. She leads us down three floors, taps a wall, opening a gate, then leads us two more floors down before we finally reach Kakuzu's cell. A giant slab of steel blocks the entry into his cell. Mei and Darui are already here, as is Tsunade. The clone that has been leading us pops.
Tsunade grabs the metal door, effortlessly lifting and shifting it aside, allowing us to enter the cell. Inside of it is Kakuzu, hands tied behind his back, legs forcefully tied in seiza, blindfolded and having more seals than you can count slapped all over his body. He doesn't react in any way to our entrance. Tsunade clears her throat. "Tell them what you told us again."
Kakuzu takes a deep breath. "The writing was on the wall, no way we were surviving that fight against all of your villages combined. If I would've ran away my reputation would've taken a big hit, lowering the price of my contracts. I committed just enough that I could escape at a moment's notice. Once I got away from the village Zetsu offered me a new contract. Five hundred kilograms of gold per battle, on the condition that I remain constantly available for deployment at a moment's notice."
I blink. "That's it? You don't know anything about what he's planning? Or what he captured the one tail for?"
Kakuzu shakes his head. "I didn't bother finding out and didn't want to find out, that's bad for business."
I sigh. "You're fucking useless."
That's one lead gone to shit. I really hate being forced into being reactive. Black Zetsu can just do whatever the fuck he wants and there's really nothing I can do to stop him. The only thi-
The ground begins shaking. Everyone sans Kakuzu dash as fast as possible up the stairs. The moment we get outside we see a giant clay-bomb descending towards the village. I pull Sakura and Hinata close to me, activate my mangekyou and then form the susanoo.
Mei just sits and stares at the clay bomb, seemingly resigned when it comes to her death. Darui just shrugs, saying "Man, am I glad I'm a shadow clone." Go fuck yourself.
Tsunade has a really angry look on her face. She might survive the bomb through sheer toughness and regeneration, but the village will still be turned into a crater.
I form fifty shadow clones, all of them immediately rushing around us as soon as they are created. They form a barrier of black flames right under the clay bomb, attempting to save as much of the village as possible. The bomb lands on the barrier, the resulting explosion destroys almost all of the buildings not directly underneath the barrier.
I clear the smoke from the explosion with wind style jutsu, only to see the edo tensei of Deidara riding on his clay owl finish weaving handsigns, creating that same bomb again.