Chapter 188: The Death of a Legend
High above the shattered landscape, perched on a jagged cliffside overlooking the battlefield, Black Zetsu watched the distant storm. The torrential rain washed over the cratered earth below, but his golden eyes were fixated on a single, fading speck of purple light.
When that final ember of chakra completely snuffed out, a heavy, shuddering sigh escaped his shadowy form.
"Mutzuki is finally dead," Black Zetsu muttered, his raspy voice trembling with a mixture of disbelief and overwhelming relief. "She really is the most unkillable roach I have ever encountered. From the time she was just a minor, merely Uchiha Madara's disciple, I wanted to wring her neck. Even after she ascended to become the Fourth Hokage, I threw everything at her, and she still refused to die."
He paused, staring at the empty, rain-swept canyon. "But now... she is finally dead."
Black Zetsu felt a powerful, almost violent urge to weep with joy. It was a tragic irony that, as a literal manifestation of Yin-Yang Release, he lacked the tear ducts required to cry. If he possessed a physical human body, he would have collapsed to his knees and bawled his eyes out, pouring out all the bitter grievances and humiliating defeats he had suffered at Mutzuki's hands over the years.
"Mie, do you have any idea?" Black Zetsu turned to his companion, his shadowy form shivering with suppressed emotion. "In my entire, miserable existence, every single humiliating loss I've ever suffered was handed to me directly by Ida Mutzuki."
It was a deep pity that he couldn't consume alcohol. If he could, he would have downed an entire barrel of sake to celebrate this monumental victory. Failing that, he briefly considered buying a vat of the strongest liquor available and simply soaking his amorphous body in it, just to simulate the feeling of getting drunk.
"How could she blow herself up so thoroughly that not even a single bone fragment remains?" Black Zetsu sighed, shaking his head. "What a waste. Otherwise, I could have dragged her corpse back to a laboratory and dissected it properly, just to figure out what exactly made her so freakishly durable."
Despite the minor disappointment, the suffocating shadow that had weighed on his nonexistent heart for years had finally vanished. Black Zetsu started to feel genuinely giddy. His pitch-black body twisted and contorted in bizarre, unnatural angles, resembling a strange humanoid abstraction doing a joyous, spinning jig amidst the heavy downpour.
With Mutzuki out of the picture, the overwhelming military might of Konoha was finally balanced against the other Four Great Nations. Without that infuriating 'stabilizing pillar' holding the village together, the Ninja World would inevitably plunge back into glorious chaos.
Endless wars, border frictions, and bloody conflicts were now guaranteed. The messier the world became, the better. The more shinobi who slaughtered each other, the easier it would be for him to maneuver in the shadows and execute his grand design.
Mie turned her head, her calm gaze landing on Black Zetsu. Watching the pitch-black entity twist and sway his hips in a bizarre victory dance, she unceremoniously dumped a bucket of proverbial ice water over his head.
"If you hadn't carelessly lost the Rinnegan, right now would be the absolute perfect time to sweep in and collect the Tailed Beasts," she stated, her voice flat and completely devoid of his enthusiasm.
She paused, tapping her chin as if a sudden thought had just occurred to her. "Oh, wait. I forgot. You dragged the Seven-Tails all the way to Konoha, only for it to be blasted into absolute dust by the Nine-Tails. Then you got yourself caught by Mutzuki and barely managed to crawl back alive. You really are a useless deadweight."
That single, merciless sentence instantly killed the mood. The joyful dancing stopped, and Black Zetsu was rendered completely silent.
He slumped, forced to admit that during the grueling battle of attrition to exhaust Mutzuki's chakra, he had been a massive liability. If he hadn't been so easily captured, forcing Mie to alter her tactics, the outcome of the clash between her and the Fourth Hokage might not have required such extreme measures.
Just to activate Plan B, he had run himself ragged over the past few days, sprinting back and forth across the Five Great Nations until he felt like his essence was unraveling.
Depressed, he abandoned his humanoid shape, melting into a flat puddle of black sludge against the wet rock.
"I admit I made a slight miscalculation, but there's no need to be so harsh," Black Zetsu grumbled from the floor. "You were also killed once by Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara. If I hadn't accidentally intervened and saved you, you'd be nothing but ash right now."
After holding his tongue for so long, the stress of scheming his greatest rival to death had finally worn down his patience. His temper flared, and the black puddle bubbled aggressively.
"To save your life, I even had to sacrifice my cute, obedient daughter! You eat my food, you use my resources every single day, and I'm the one out here busting my back to earn the money to support your lifestyle! You'd better show me some respect. I am the absolute will of Lord Sōjin, not some stray dog you picked up off the street!"
Mie stared at him in utter silence.
Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth? she thought, her eye twitching slightly. You're making it sound like I'm some deadbeat scammer stringing you along for your life savings.
The sheer greasiness of his rant made her feel a little nauseous. Deciding to ignore his dramatic outburst, she extended a hand toward the puddle. "Just hand over that manuscript you stole from Enkawa Kazue."
Grumbling under his breath, Black Zetsu reformed his upper half, reached into his shadowy mass, and produced a sealed scroll. He tossed it into her waiting hand.
"What do you even want that garbage for?" he asked.
Mie tucked the scroll into her robes, her expression smoothing out into a mask of serene indifference. "I am going to give it to my new disciple to read. It will be the perfect tool to instill in him the proper ideology and methods required to achieve true peace in the Ninja World."
"You're going to give a stolen philosophical manifesto to that random stray you picked up?" Black Zetsu pulled himself fully upright, crossing his arms. "You've never been the diligent, teaching type. Tell me the truth, what exactly do you plan to use this thing for?"
Mie gave him a long, meaningful look. Uncharacteristically, she decided to humor him with an explanation.
"It is a brilliantly constructed plan, isn't it, Zetsu? The Four Kage couldn't comprehend its value because they are trapped inside the political game. But as an outsider looking in, you should have grasped its potential immediately. Otherwise, how could you have been so absolutely certain, from just a single glance, that this ideology could be weaponized to kill Mutzuki?"
Black Zetsu nodded slowly, conceding the point. He had to admit, the concept of peace outlined in that manuscript was dangerously compelling. If someone actually managed to convince the Four Kage to adopt it, the fundamental structure of the Ninja World would shift drastically, making large-scale wars almost impossible to orchestrate.
It was precisely because the ideology was so effective that he had feared it—and subsequently found the perfect loophole to exploit.
Mie turned her gaze back to the stormy horizon. "To achieve ultimate peace in the Ninja World, one must gather all nine Great Tailed Beasts and activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Convincing the masses to willingly step into an ultimate illusion and accept a flawless system... isn't that the most perfect, unassailable excuse?"
She slowly opened her arms, letting the cold rain wash over her. Her tone shifted, becoming incredibly serene, echoing the gentle cadence of an ancient, enlightened monk overflowing with boundless love for humanity.
"What I intend to establish is a righteous, noble organization dedicated entirely to fighting for world peace. The desperate and the broken will flock to it. Many like-minded idealists will gladly join our cause."
Dropping her arms, she shot a mocking smirk over her shoulder.
"Your methods of mental control are far too crude, Zetsu. You don't know how to sway a person's core beliefs. You should know by now that human willpower can overcome almost any physical torture or genjutsu. Only by truly understanding what a broken person desperately needs—and handing it to them on a silver platter—can you completely control them without ever needing to put them in shackles."
Those words struck Black Zetsu like a physical blow. He froze, his golden eyes widening in the darkness as he began to deeply reflect on his past failures.
Had his entire approach been fundamentally flawed from the start? Was that why manipulating pawns to awaken and gather the Rinnegan had been such an agonizingly difficult process?
Perhaps he really did need to change his recruitment strategy. Instead of relying on brute-force mental domination and cheap provocations, he needed to cultivate genuine, fanatical loyalty.
He already had a ready-made test subject waiting in the wings—the one he had just stolen. Since the boy hadn't woken up yet, Zetsu decided he would leave him in isolation for a while and carefully plan his psychological conditioning.
The only glaring issue was the missing Rinnegan. Where on earth was he supposed to find a replacement? Should he risk sneaking back into Konoha to see if any other Uchiha possessed the potential to awaken the Mangekyo? If he found a pair of brothers who both awakened it, he could theoretically cultivate a new set.
But the thought of returning to Konoha made his shadowy form shudder. No, he would wait. He would wait until the Gedo Statue was safely summoned, and wait for the inevitable, bloody fallout between Konoha and the Four Nations to conclude.
He absolutely refused to step foot in that cursed village anytime soon.
As the storm began to break, the dark clouds parted slightly, allowing the first pale rays of dawn to pierce the gloom. From far beyond the distant canyon, a massive, overwhelming surge of chakra flared to life.
Konoha's reinforcements had finally arrived.
The main force tore across the landscape at extreme speeds, their killing intent thick enough to choke the air. Unfortunately for them, they were far too late. The battlefield was silent, reduced to a smoldering, glassed crater.
The legend belonging to the Fourth Hokage, Ida Mutzuki, officially ended here.
When the devastating news of the Fourth Hokage's heroic sacrifice on the Lightning Country battlefield finally reached the hidden gates of Konoha, the entire village was plunged into a state of paralyzed shock.
No one wanted to believe it. How could someone as terrifyingly powerful, as brilliantly invincible as the Fourth Hokage, actually die in combat?
However, as the high-ranking officials and battered frontline commanders returned to the village one after another, and the familiar, reassuring figure of their leader remained absent, the grim reality finally set in. The village mourned, a heavy, suffocating blanket of grief settling over the bustling streets.
The only strategic silver lining in the entire disaster was the success of the Hokage Advisor. Danzo Shimura had ruthlessly led the main force deep into the Land of Water, successfully capturing the Six-Tails Jinchuriki alive and thoroughly plundering the enemy's resources before retreating.
But that tactical victory felt entirely hollow. It was an insignificant footnote compared to the catastrophic loss of their Hokage.
Inside the dimly lit Hokage Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood behind the massive oak desk. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot and sunken as he mechanically sorted through the towering stacks of mission reports and casualty lists.
A sharp knock echoed through the room, and an Anbu operative stepped inside, kneeling respectfully. "Assistant-sama, the Sealing Squad has encountered an urgent issue and requires your immediate presence. Please head over to the facility."
Hiruzen's hand, which was gripping a casualty report, began to tremble violently. His knuckles turned white, and with a sudden, uncontrollable surge of raw strength, he ripped the thick document cleanly in half.
He slowly turned his head, his eyes burning with a dark, terrifying intensity. "What 'Assistant'?" he hissed, his voice dropping to a dangerous, gravelly whisper. "The Fourth Hokage is dead. There is no longer a Hokage Assistant in this village."
The Anbu operative flinched, genuinely frightened by the hideous, grief-stricken fury contorting the older man's face. Having spent the last several hours crying until his own brain felt numb, the operative stammered out in a dazed panic, "F-Fif... Fifth Generation-sama..."
"Get out!"
Hiruzen roared, his chakra violently flaring. He condensed a swirling sphere of Wind Release in his palm and smashed it into the wall mere inches from the Anbu's masked face, shattering the plaster and sending the operative scrambling out the door.
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