Chapter 227: No Gains at All
Uchiha Madara had already been a bit skeptical about the words of Uchiha Dali and the others.
Now that Black Zetsu countered with a claim that he knew nothing about any "Ōtsutsuki Kaguya" or the like, Madara found the situation even harder to grasp.
Of course, he wasn't a fool—he wasn't that easy to deceive.
Madara fixed his gaze on the Black Zetsu clone, contemplating for a moment before suddenly making his move. He slammed his palm down on the clone's head.
"Verifying which of you is lying is very simple."
"I'm not so easily fooled."
As he spoke, Madara began interrogating the clone directly.
The Sharingan's genjutsu instantly seized control of the Black Zetsu clone's consciousness.
Madara stepped into an unguarded memory world, where fragmented recollections began surfacing all around him from the clone's mind.
To his disappointment, they were all just scattered fragments.
The Black Zetsu clone's memories were incomplete—limited only to the brief moments from when it had been sealed into a dormant state, and then from when it was awakened up to the present.
Aside from that, there were only memories of the intelligence on enemies that the main body had given it, and the instructions from the main body to continue carrying out the Eye of the Moon Plan.
Other than these, there was nothing.
This greatly disappointed Madara.
It seemed that directly digging into the opponent's mind to determine whether the Black Zetsu clone was lying or had been deceiving him all along was not going to work.
Still unwilling to give up, Madara ransacked the clone's mind one more time.
In the end, he withdrew from the other's mental world empty-handed.
When the genjutsu ended, the Black Zetsu clone awoke.
Seeing Madara's still somewhat doubtful expression, he smiled faintly. "Madara, this isn't like you…"
"Could it be that you're actually doubting my loyalty to you?"
"Or perhaps just a few words from Uchiha Dali and his lot have shaken your confidence?"
The clone had intended to provoke him.
But before the words had even fully left his mouth, Madara suddenly clamped a hand around his neck.
Coldly lifting him with one hand, Madara said, "Does an insect dare act arrogant before me? Don't forget who created you. Next time you dare speak to me in that tone, I won't be so lenient."
"I can create you, and I can destroy you."
Though merely a clone, it still had its own consciousness.
And it feared death.
At that moment, the Black Zetsu clone's expression was deeply apprehensive, his face tense as he nodded solemnly.
Madara released him and turned his gaze into the distance.
"Uchiha Dali or whoever else—"
"Anyone who dares obstruct my plan will regret it."
"But for now, the most important thing is to find a suitable sacrifice so I can reincarnate once more and regain my full power—power closest to what I possessed in life."
He was a genius of the highest caliber.
Just one look at the Book of Seals' section on Impure World Reincarnation, and he had already pinpointed the problem.
If the jutsu was to achieve the ideal result—rather than its current state—a suitable sacrifice was essential.
The stronger and higher-ranked the sacrifice, the more power the reincarnated could recover from their lifetime.
And the fewer restrictions they would face.
Of course, this was only one of the key factors.
Madara deliberately kept a certain insight about the essence of Impure World Reincarnation to himself.
For even though he had gotten nothing valuable from the Black Zetsu clone, his trust in it had waned.
If Uchiha Dali hadn't lied to him, and this thing truly had been concealing its real intentions all along, then he would need to guard against this pitch-black creature.
"So… you already have a suitable target in mind, don't you?" the clone asked with a smile.
Madara said nothing, merely turning his head to the left.
In that distant direction, he sensed a powerful chakra presence.
That chakra would serve perfectly as a sacrifice for his reincarnation. With it, he could regain strength closest to that of his prime.
His body slowly rose into the air as he flew toward the target.
The Black Zetsu clone, seeing this, quickly merged into the ground and used the Mayfly Technique to follow.
After what had just happened, he was naturally still shaken.
But since Madara hadn't discovered anything and his mind held none of the main body's secret memories, as long as no evidence surfaced, he could still be used.
…
After joining the organization Kara, created by Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, and becoming the first Inner member aside from Isshiki himself, Mifune had been ordered to roam the shinobi world in search of a suitable "vessel" for Isshiki.
The current vessel, the monk Jigen, had a body corroded by a thousand years of time and was on the verge of collapse.
Because the Land of Iron lay relatively close to both the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning, Mifune had naturally set foot in the Land of Lightning.
He was here to try his luck.
What he never would have imagined was that he was about to become someone else's prey.
As Mifune made his way cautiously through the forest, he suddenly sensed an approaching enemy.
With a clang, he drew his katana and turned toward the direction of the threatening chakra.
The next second, he saw a figure dropping rapidly from the sky.
The man wore armor from an age long past, with long, jet-black hair and a stern expression that made it clear he was not someone to be trifled with.
"Your chakra is nothing special, and you're a bit older, but in this area, there's no one more suitable than you."
Madara stood with his arms crossed, looking down coldly from a tree as he spoke to himself.
Hearing this, Mifune's expression tensed.
Narrowing his eyes, he glared at the man in the tree and asked coldly, "Who are you?"
"A mere grain of rice could never be my opponent. Naturally, you're unworthy of knowing my name."
Such arrogance made Mifune's face darken further.
"So you've come to cause trouble? In that case, I won't be polite!"
With that, Mifune swung his katana, intending to strike first and gain the advantage.
But the next second, he found his body frozen in place, as if crushed beneath ten thousand mountains.
Cold sweat slid down his cheek in an instant.
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