Chapter 11 – Black Zetsu's Rage
The streets of Konoha lay eerily silent, drowned beneath an unnatural aura. The village that once thrummed with the heartbeat of countless shinobi now felt suffocated, as though the very air had been stolen away. Above it all, a storm of power loomed—chaotic, boundless, and alive.
Uchiha Obito stood at the edge of that darkness, his Sharingan glowing faintly beneath his mask. A tremor ran through his body. If he dared step even a fraction deeper into that suffocating sphere of energy, he was certain he wouldn't escape—not even with Kamui.
"Besides… this thing is devouring my eye power," he muttered, pressing his hand to his right eye. A sharp sting lanced through him, like something invisible was being stolen straight from his soul.
Before he could steady his thoughts, a voice, venomous and sharp, tore through the silence.
"Obito! Look at what you've done!"
Black Zetsu's form rose from the ground, his body twisting like liquid shadow. His face was contorted with something Obito had rarely seen before—not calculation, not mockery, but raw fear mixed with fury.
For millennia, Black Zetsu had moved like a phantom, always calm, always manipulating. But now, before this expanding abyss, he raged. He had never felt so helpless, so small.
And the cause?
Uchiha Raizen.
Born from the ashes of the Uchiha clan's slaughter, Raizen's awakening had birthed something neither Zetsu nor Obito had predicted—a monster, a being that drew in power like the universe itself bowed to him.
To Zetsu, it was worse than failure. It was death itself.
"This—this abomination exists because of you!" Zetsu snarled, his teeth bared. "You failed to extinguish him, and now you've created a disaster that can end us all. You fool!"
Obito clenched his jaw but said nothing. He too had seen the flicker of crimson light in Raizen's eyes as the Mangekyō Sharingan awakened, and the endless storm of chakra that followed. It was Itachi's slaughter of the clan that had lit the match, but Obito knew he had fanned the flames.
"It's all Uchiha Itachi's fault," Obito spat finally, desperate to shift the weight. "If he had done his work properly, if he hadn't hesitated, this wouldn't have happened! He should have ended Raizen before those cursed eyes could ever awaken!"
He lifted his gaze toward the sky where Raizen hovered amidst the void of his own creation, energy flooding into him in torrents invisible yet undeniable. A flicker of fear danced even behind Obito's mask.
Black Zetsu seethed. Itachi… Obito… all of them worthless. His hatred for those two surged like poison in his veins. If not for their failures, the world wouldn't now be staring down the barrel of annihilation.
But hatred couldn't undo the present.
Obito stepped forward, extending his hand toward the shifting void. The instant his fingers touched its edge, his chakra screamed as it was stripped from him, dragged away into Raizen's endless hunger. He tried to resist, pouring all his will into halting the drain, but it was useless. He could only delay the inevitable.
The two of them leapt back immediately.
"Obito…" Zetsu's gaze cut through him, sharp and accusing. "You think this ends just because Raizen lacks the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan? You really think his power has limits?"
Obito stiffened. His throat felt dry. "What… what are you saying? That's impossible. Masaka…"
Zetsu's voice dropped, each word dripping with dread. "His domain devours everything—chakra, light, life itself. Eye power is just another form of chakra. Who's to say this monster can't restore his eyes as long as he keeps feeding? Who's to say his strength won't grow without end?"
The words struck like a blade through Obito's chest. His breath caught, and he staggered a step backward. He turned his gaze skyward again. Raizen's silhouette loomed against the void, his Sharingan glowing like twin suns of crimson, merciless and infinite.
"No… no, impossible!" Obito hissed, shaking his head violently. "Even if he restores his eye power, there has to be a limit. No Sharingan can grow endlessly! If it were possible, the Uchiha would have ruled the entire shinobi world long ago. This… this nightmare can't last forever!"
But even as he spoke, he didn't believe himself. A chill had settled into his bones, whispering truths he dared not voice. If Raizen's power spread unchecked, if his domain blanketed the world, then not even the tailed beasts would survive. They would be drained, corpses left in a vacuum of nothingness.
And Obito's grand plan—his Moon's Eye dream—would crumble before it could even begin.
Zetsu, for once, didn't argue. He only stared upward, trembling despite himself. For the first time in a thousand years, the creature born of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's will knew fear. If Raizen's domain spread to the ends of the earth, there would be nowhere for him to burrow, nowhere to hide. His existence would simply end.
But more than his own death, one thought consumed him: If I die, Mother is lost forever.
"No," he whispered fiercely, dark tendrils writhing in anger. "I won't let it happen. Regardless of his limits, regardless of what these eyes can or cannot restore, there's only one path. We must kill him. Slay him completely! Destroy those cursed eyes before they devour the world itself!"
His voice was so cold, so absolute, even Obito felt it cut through the air.
Obito said nothing. The weight of Zetsu's words hung heavy.
The two vanished into the shadows soon after, their minds made up. They would seek out Nagato. They would twist their plan, frame this threat as something greater, something that required immediate action. If the world needed saving, then they would be its false saviors—for now.
Meanwhile, high above Konoha, Uchiha Raizen stood in silence, bathed in his expanding domain. Energy surged into him ceaselessly, filling him with a sense of boundless power. His Mangekyō glowed with hunger, his aura pressing down on the world like the hand of a god.
Obito, Zetsu, the world itself—they were nothing but shadows to him. Their fear, their schemes, their resistance no longer mattered.
For Raizen had already chosen his path. The fate of the shinobi world was sealed.
Unless someone could kill him here and now, its destiny was to vanish into the endless void he commanded.
And Uchiha Raizen had no intention of dying.