There were no words, but that posture—that faint, almost imperceptible expression suggesting that he understood everything while refusing to reveal anything—was more provocative than any sharp retort.
It was like a silent mockery, a wordless challenge.
That other being who's exactly like you... is he merely decoration?
That gesture completely ignited the Evil Corpse's fury.
"Black Zetsu!"
The Evil Corpse's gaze abruptly turned incomparably sharp, like a ferocious beast ready to devour its prey.
"You're nothing more than that woman's pet, skulking in the shadows!"
His voice was vicious, filled with lofty contempt and a ruthless determination to purge all obstacles.
"Now that woman has been sealed within the Moon, condemned to remain there forever, there's no reason for a masterless parasite like you to remain in this world! Your disappearance will be the perfect way to celebrate my rebirth!"
"I'M NOT A PET!!!"
Black Zetsu's reaction was instantly more intense than anyone could have imagined!
The mass of darkness that had maintained its cold, calculating composure until now began to churn and expand violently like boiling tar!
Countless sharp waves of spiritual anguish and fury erupted from within, nearly tearing the air apart with their sheer intensity!
"That's my mother!"
A hoarse roar burst from the swirling darkness, carrying the ultimate fury of someone whose deepest obsession had been profaned, along with an almost fanatical and unquestionable determination to defend it.
"I have nothing to say to an unfilial traitor like you—someone who betrayed his own mother and couldn't even protect his true body!"
Black Zetsu's voice twisted with rage.
"You... aren't worthy of speaking to me!"
"Die!"
The Evil Corpse wasted no more words.
The last trace of restraint in his eyes vanished completely, replaced by pure, cold killing intent.
He raised his hand, and Chakra instantly condensed into countless spikes brimming with destructive power, raining down upon Black Zetsu's position like a violent storm!
They were so fast and powerful that they could have pierced through and annihilated the entire area, mountain rock included!
However, Black Zetsu had never been meant for direct confrontation.
The instant the Evil Corpse uttered the word die and the Chakra began to gather—or perhaps even earlier, at the moment the Evil Corpse revealed his undisguised killing intent—
Black Zetsu's enraged, cursing form vanished like dew beneath the blazing sun.
It was not an afterimage left by high-speed movement.
He had truly disappeared, merging completely with the shadows of the earth.
Whoosh!
The Evil Corpse's attacks all struck empty air, blasting a bottomless crater through the rocky ground where Black Zetsu had stood and into the mountain wall behind it. Dust billowed through the cave as fragments of stone shot in every direction.
The Evil Corpse's face darkened.
He immediately unleashed an immense and extraordinarily precise sensory field, spreading outward from the cave like an invisible net, frantically scanning and probing everything around him.
Every grain of soil.
Every vein in the rock.
The course of every underground current.
Even the slightest tremor of each speck of dust in the air...
His furious search turned everything in the surrounding area inside out.
Nothing.
There was absolutely nothing.
That unique Chakra signature—cold, clinging, and saturated with hatred and obsession—had vanished completely, as though it had never existed.
It was as if the confrontation, the provocation, and the furious shouting had all been nothing more than hallucinations brought on by his recovery from severe injuries.
After a long while, the swirling dust gradually settled, leaving behind only the shocking crater and the devastation within the cave.
Unwillingly, the Evil Corpse slowly withdrew his sensory Chakra.
His face—identical to the Sage of Six Paths' true body, yet now made particularly sinister by its ferocity and killing intent—was clouded with gloom.
He knew he had been played.
A seemingly weak but slippery and cunning being, one deeply skilled in self-preservation, had effortlessly provoked his anger before escaping right under the lock of his most powerful attack.
That frustration irritated him even more than his physical injuries.
Yet Black Zetsu's disappearance did not calm his killing intent.
Instead, it was like removing an annoying stone from his path, revealing the true and far more urgent threat that lay deeper beneath the surface.
His sinister gaze slowly shifted before suddenly shooting toward a distant direction like a poisoned arrow.
Through the connection between beings born from the same source, he could vaguely sense the general location of the Good Corpse.
The cave fell silent.
Only his slightly heavy breathing and the faint sound of his fingers tightening into a fist could be heard.
"That guy..."
The Evil Corpse muttered, his voice grinding out from deep within his throat, filled with wariness, disgust, and an almost imperceptible... complicated connection to another being who, like himself, was a "clone."
"His personality may be weak and unbearably rigid, his heart filled with ridiculous kindness and compassion..."
He paused, his fingertips nearly digging into his palm.
"...but his strength and abilities are identical to mine."
He spoke those words with absolute clarity—and with immense weight.
It was an unavoidable fact.
The Good Corpse was the greatest obstacle to his claim of being the sole "true body," as well as his most dangerous potential enemy.
An even darker and colder light gathered within his Rinnegan, where violent ferocity continued to churn.
"I'll have to... plan this carefully."
The Evil Corpse seemed to have finally made up his mind—or perhaps he was issuing himself an absolute command that could not be defied.
"I am the real true body."
He emphasized it once more, as if trying to brand that belief into the very core of his existence.
Then his voice dropped even lower, carrying the ruthless resolve of someone determined to eradicate a problem at its roots.
"That Good Corpse... is absolutely unworthy!"
With those words, he wasted no more time.
His figure transformed into a streak of dark-red light and shot out of the mountain cave that had served as his temporary refuge.
The Heavenly Curtain shifted away from that cave, thick with killing intent and violent hostility, and moved to a far more peaceful scene.
This was beneath a sheltered cliff. In the distance, the broken walls and ruins left behind by the great battle could still be faintly seen, but nearby, a small stream trickled gently amid patches of stubborn greenery.
The Good Corpse sat cross-legged beside a smooth boulder, his eyes gently closed.
A clear, gentle radiance surrounded him.
Unlike the Evil Corpse's violent Chakra, this light flowed like moonlight over water, slowly soothing the body that had likewise been severely injured by the overwhelming force of the "fishing line."
Yet its flow occasionally faltered, revealing the turmoil within his heart.
Gamamaru hurried to the area.
Seeing that the Good Corpse was recovering his strength, yet noticing the heavy concern that seemed impossible to dispel from his brow, he quickly stepped forward and asked with concern, "Are you all right? That disturbance just now..."
The Good Corpse slowly opened his eyes.
The Rinnegan within them was identical to that of the true body, yet it lacked the original's profound majesty and was completely unlike the Evil Corpse's violent ferocity.
Instead, they were clear and bright, filled with deep concern.
Rather than answering the question about his injuries, he looked anxiously toward Gamamaru, as though he had found the only person with whom he could discuss such a heaven-shaking upheaval.
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