"...Yep, this is definitely suspicious. Good thing in my past life I watched 'The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious.'"
It had been less than two days of Izayoi monitoring the Land of Fire alongside his shadow clone, and he'd already noticed something was off.
Because he spotted a familiar figure.
During the days he'd spent in the Land of Rivers, he had glanced with his Tenseigan into the neighboring Land of Rain and glimpsed this exact person: one of Jiraiya's old Students, the Angel of Rain Village, the "Byaku (White)" of the Akatsuki – Konan.
She was riding a sharp-beaked bird into the Land of Fire, heading in a particular direction.
Ever since Nagato's health had begun deteriorating, Konan rarely left the Hidden Rain. And once the Akatsuki roster was filled, she practically never took on solo missions, staying in Rain Village to handle affairs and care for Nagato. In the original story, wherever Konan went, Nagato (or Tendo Pain) was never far behind.
So seeing Konan in the Land of Fire now definitely wasn't a pleasure trip. Izayoi got the strong feeling she was coming for him.
Half a day later, Izayoi's suspicions proved accurate.
Fifty kilometers northwest of the black market stood a small hill. Konan leapt off her bird known as the "Yatagarasu." Cracks spread across her body, and pages of white paper peeled away from her skin, forming two wings behind her back. Like an angel descending, she drifted into the forest beneath. Meanwhile, Yatagarasu dove down and landed, dispersing in a massive swirl of white smoke.
When the white smoke cleared, a large paper-formed tree appeared. Then, from the bottom up, the tree automatically colored itself in – in the space of a few blinks, it looked just like a normal tree, blending perfectly into the forest.
From Izayoi's Tenseigan vantage, however, that entire tree was packed with blue chakra. A bunch of tadpole-like sigils seeped out of that chakra, creating a barrier that blocked ordinary sensory detection. Even Mind's Eye of the Kagura probably couldn't pick up that chakra.
But they couldn't hide it from Izayoi's Tenseigan.
In his view, inside that "tree" were eight chakra signatures, precisely Konan, Nagato, and the Six Paths of Pain.
"They hid them in the bird's mouth. That's how they moved around. I figured maybe Konan was summoning them via her lip piercings," Izayoi realized, now enlightened.
Then he couldn't help mocking: "So the strongest person in the shinobi world personally came out to get me? That's giving me way too much credit, huh?"
Moments later, Izayoi fell silent.
He watched as an opening formed in the tree and Tendo Pain emerged, hovering up to a nearby cliff. Before long, the space beside him warped, forming a fist-sized black hole.
Two twisted figures flew out of that distortion: Uchiha Obito and…someone Izayoi had seen at Konoha's gates back in his first academy year – the "dutiful son" himself, Uchiha Itachi.
Watching them line up, looking like some "iconic painting" come to life, Izayoi couldn't stop himself from muttering an expletive in his hometown dialect.
The "Super-Kage Gatekeeper" – Pain's Six Paths, a fully developed Mangekyō-user with all sorts of hidden trump cards – Uchiha Itachi, plus Obito, who could spam Kamui without risking blindness… That lineup would mean certain death even for Onoki at his peak, the oldest of the Five Kage.
Each of these three could take on multiple Kage at once. If they fully cooperated, not even all five Kage combined could handle them.
They'd assembled a group that powerful just for him? Seriously?
Just then, Izayoi heard the voice of his clone speaking in "normal speech": "Look, that black market's got movement too."
Izayoi switched his focus to the black market. A suited middle-aged man lay impaled by a tree branch, while some white creature was imitating his form.
"Mayfly Technique – it really can't be detected by the Tenseigan," Izayoi thought grimly.
"And his impersonation technique is perfect. Not a single flaw. It's definitely the strongest 'Transformation' in the shinobi world," added his clone. "If the Tenseigan's second fetal stirring or final evolution still can't see through it, we might have to rely on Mind's Eye of the Kagura with good–evil detection."
Izayoi frowned in thought. He was already brainstorming whether there was anything aside from Mind's Eye of the Kagura that could expose such an impersonation technique – ideally, something that could also crack the Mayfly Technique.
Because Black and White Zetsu's most fearsome ability wasn't simply disguising or possessing people's bodies, but traveling swiftly underground, fusing with earth and foliage, ignoring barriers – a method that not even Six Paths–level fighters could detect.
Just imagining eyes like that watching from the darkness made Izayoi uneasy. But for now, he didn't see an immediate solution and put the problem aside.
After scanning White Zetsu's clone in the black market and the "ultimate trio" on that cliff, Izayoi chuckled quietly: "I was actually going to greet you with a little surprise. On second thought, it's not worth the effort. Let's have you all stand around for a while."
This wasn't necessarily bad news. The bold, "we'll just wait for him to show up" approach suggested Black Zetsu was clueless about the Tenseigan's existence or at least its capabilities, giving Izayoi a significant advantage. He definitely wouldn't waste that.
"Lucky I had a backup plan or this would've been a disaster. Remember this – I'll repay you guys later," Izayoi muttered, finally dissolving his shadow clone and returning to the cave to retrieve Momochi Zabuza.
…
Three days later…
It was twilight. Uchiha Itachi gazed at the sun, now only half visible below the horizon, and asked Obito – who likewise was watching the sunset – "Has the target still not shown up?"
"Ask Zetsu," Obito said cryptically.
Half-submerged in the earth, Black and White Zetsu spoke. White Zetsu said, "We delivered the goods to the clone, but that guy never appeared. The clone's fine."
"Has he realized he's exposed?" asked Itachi.
"Can't rule it out," Black Zetsu replied heavily. If this mystery man turned out to be Hamura's descendant, it would imply an extremely pure Byakugan, making sense for an eye with a range surpassing the Hyūga's limits.
But they'd all kept a fifty-kilometer distance, often hiding in barrier or pocket-dimension spaces. Yet if he still found them, that was even more outrageous than the Uzumaki's Mind's Eye of the Kagura.
"You'll keep waiting one more day. Itachi and I will withdraw a bit," Tendo Pain intoned, then turned and left. Uchiha Itachi rose to follow, and Obito slipped back into Kamui's dimension.
Only Black–White Zetsu remained, using Mayfly and White Zetsu clones to watch the black market and expand the search radius, hoping their target was close by.
Another day came and went; still no sign of their "mystery man." The "ultimate squad," having accomplished nothing, departed with mixed feelings. If they couldn't catch him this time, next time would only be harder. This level of stealth–sensory confrontation had them at a disadvantage before they could even begin fighting.
…
Six days later, somewhere in a forest near Land of Fire's border…
"Master, here's what you wanted. Altogether it cost 29.87 million ryō," said Haku, who'd just returned from the Land of Rivers into the Land of Fire. He dropped three large scrolls from his back and bowed respectfully to Izayoi.
"Well done. You can keep the leftover change," Izayoi said, using gravitational power to take the scrolls. In the next instant, he rocketed skyward and vanished.
Watching him leave, both Haku and Zabuza were worried he might suddenly go back on his word, so they only relaxed once they saw him truly gone.
"Lord Zabuza, where shall we go now?" Haku asked, supporting Zabuza, who was only partly healed and leaning on a crutch.
"Time for a little 'black eats black,'" Zabuza murmured. His eyes gleamed as though discovering an entirely new world. The Demon of the Hidden Mist, having been schooled by Izayoi, had really learned something!
~~~
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