Chapter 303 - 303: 303 - Zetsu's insidious plan!!

White things suddenly sprouted across Fū's body. The chakra blades in Asuma's hands flared with a razor‑bright light, but he held back, teeth clenched, afraid a strike might cut into her as well.

"Himon!" Asuma barked.

"Understood!" Hyūga Himon had already activated his Byakugan; veins bulged at his temples as he poured all his focus into tracing the flow of chakra inside Fū and the points where it connected to those foreign white objects.

"Her chakra is being extracted at high speed… Hm?!"

Before his startled murmur had even faded, the scene shifted again.

The white humanoid shapes clinging to Fū, greedily devouring the crimson chakra, suddenly froze in unison, as if they had just reached some critical limit.

Several pale bodies slipped from her and hit the rocky ground, then melted into the earth the instant they touched it.

An eerie silence settled over the cave. The crimson Tailed Beast cloak around Fū's body retreated like a receding tide. Her breathing turned ragged; her limbs went limp, and she collapsed forward.

"Fū!" Shibuki lunged in and caught her.

Asuma still didn't lower his guard. He signaled for Himon to continue observing with his Byakugan as he advanced step by cautious step, holding his chakra blades horizontally in front of him.

Nothing remained on the cave floor.

—

Meanwhile, in the central plaza of Takigakure, the air was thick with fear and the stench of blood.

A little over a dozen Takigakure shinobi ringed the gathered villagers, hemming them in.

Oyashiro En lounged in his rattan chair as if at a casual viewing, idly twirling a kunai between his fingers. The terror and anger of the hundreds of villagers facing him seemed to register as nothing more than distant background noise.

At his feet, the stark black‑and‑white form of Zetsu rose from the ground.

"Mission accomplished," Black Zetsu reported.

"I'm heading out," White Zetsu added cheerfully.

"Oh?" Oyashiro En arched a brow. "If I remember correctly, the original requirement was to bring back the complete Jinchūriki if possible, wasn't it?"

"Sample collection has reached the expected values," Black Zetsu replied blandly. "Under current conditions, taking the jinchuriki presents too high a risk."

"Risk?"

"A troublesome fellow is heading this way," White Zetsu cut in, his tone notably missing its usual mockery. "If not for that, bringing back the whole Jinchūriki would've been our first choice. But this is plenty for now~"

"A troublesome fellow?" Oyashiro En rose from his rattan chair, the smile on his face dimming. "If even you call them that, it seems this isn't just some ordinary Konoha reinforcement."

"Exactly~ If you hang around much longer, leaving will get very troublesome," White Zetsu said lightly. "So, we'll end it here."

"I'll take the samples back first."

Zetsu's body began to sink beneath the surface.

Oyashiro's smile finally cracked.

"Hey, hey." All trace of nonchalance vanished from his voice. "You're leaving me alone to deal with this? That's not what we agreed on."

"Correct," White Zetsu answered without hesitation. "After all, the safety and timely delivery of the samples take priority over you personally."

"I came here just to warn you," Black Zetsu left him with a final line. "If you manage to survive, the organization will come for you again, Oyashiro En."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zetsu's body melted into the earth and disappeared.

Oyashiro remained where he was, the kunai at his fingertips slowly coming to a stop.

His business was overseas. The only thing he still cared about was overseas.

There were some things he couldn't turn down—like accepting Akatsuki's invitation, or serving as the main force in this raid on Takigakure to find the Seven-Tails' Jinchūriki.

After all, someone whose face had yet to appear on the high-risk wanted lists of the major Hidden Villages was far better suited for infiltration than those S-rank missing-nin constantly under surveillance.

He had just not expected the "cleanup" to come so abruptly.

"Fine then," Oyashiro murmured, a smile returning to his lips. "We'll go with the backup plan."

He turned toward the controlled Takigakure ninja. The whites of his eyes flushed blood-red, his pupils twisting into a horizontal bar.

Just as he was about to move, several razor-thin jets of water shot out from the surface of the nearby lake.

Oyashiro's body leaned back on instinct.

The water blades skimmed past his cheek, slicing off a few strands of blond hair before slamming into the wooden house behind him, drilling honeycomb-like holes straight through.

'He's here!'

Without a moment's hesitation, he rushed toward the nearest cluster of Takigakure villagers, his figure flickering through the crowd.

The glint of his kunai danced like a butterfly, precisely tracing shallow cuts across the arms and shoulders of over a dozen villagers.

Beads of blood sprayed into the air.

The eyes of the wounded villagers went vacant in an instant. Their bodies stiffened, then turned jerkily, moving toward the remaining terrified survivors like puppets on strings.

They didn't explode right away. Instead, they spread their arms, reaching forward as if for an embrace.

"Get back! Everyone, get back!" a Takigakure ninja shouted hoarsely.

Panic erupted. The controlled "human bombs" advanced step by step, every footfall dragging the crowd deeper into despair.

On the outside was the ring of a dozen ninja he had controlled earlier; on the inside, a second ring formed by these newly controlled villagers—two layers of encirclement closing in.

Oyashiro withdrew to the rear of the crowd, the corners of his mouth once again curling upward.

His calculation had been right. Konoha was currently trying to win over various Hidden Villages; they definitely wouldn't be indifferent to civilian casualties in Takigakure.

He just had to buy some time.

However, just as all the controlled ninja were about to hurl themselves into the crowd—

The ground shuddered.

Countless thick tree roots exploded from the earth, surging and coiling with incredible speed.

Terrified civilians, struggling Takigakure ninja, even the blank-eyed puppets under the control of the Ketsuryūgan—every last one of them was instantly snared by the erupting wooden tendrils and pinned in place!

"What!? This is… Wood Release?!"

The smile on Oyashiro's face went rigid. Dropping any pretense of composure, he lurched forward clumsily, kunai flashing as he hacked through the thin vines trying to coil around his ankles, dodging again and again.

Just as he was about to trigger the explosions, he realized something was wrong—his connection to every person under his Ketsuryūgan's control had suddenly vanished.

He snapped his head toward the ninja bound by the tree roots.

All of them hung with their heads bowed, bodies limp in the vines. Not only had his ocular control collapsed, but even their own chakra signatures were faint and unstable, as if their strength had been sucked away in an instant.

"Chakra… even the chakra I used to control them was absorbed by these roots?"

Oyashiro understood immediately.

Almost at the same moment he grasped who had arrived, a figure rose from beneath the surface of the lake bordering the plaza.

Water burst upward in a spray.

Black hair plastered to his forehead, droplets running down his cheeks and dripping onto a tight blue combat suit, the young man stepped out of the shallows and onto solid ground.

Roshi had arrived.

Oyashiro looked at him and slowly let his smile creep back. "I see."

He raised both hands. "I surrender."

The words stunned everyone present.

The Takigakure villagers who had just been freed and still stood in a daze. Asuma's team, emerging from their hiding spots. Fū, newly awake and half-supported by Shibuki. All of them froze.

"W-what… did you say?" a Takigakure shinobi asked, unable to believe it.

"I said, I surrender," Oyashiro repeated, his voice even more earnest. "If you kill me, you're just getting rid of a criminal who attacked Takigakure. But alive, my value is far greater than that."

"I know many things about the organization."

"I know their goals. I know their next move."

"That's not information you can get after killing me. There's a cursed seal in my brain—if you kill me now…"

"The seal will destroy my brain, and you'll get nothing. But if you keep me alive and cooperate with interrogation, I have ways to reveal enough without touching the trigger words."

Roshi remained silent.

He simply lifted a finger.

Several branches burst from the ground, snaking toward Oyashiro En like living whips. They coiled around his wrists, ankles, and waist, tightening until he was firmly trussed up—yet unlike before, they did not drain his chakra.

Oyashiro's smile widened. He didn't resist at all; instead, he shifted his stance slightly, almost helping the branches find a more comfortable hold.

Negotiations had begun. As long as they were willing to listen, as long as they cared about the value of his intel, he still had room to maneuver…

Roshi approached, stopping two steps in front of him. His gaze dropped to Oyashiro's hands.

"Value?" Roshi's voice was quiet. "From someone who hasn't even obtained a ring symbolizing official membership?"

He shook his head.

"The little you know..."

The whites of Oyashiro's eyes flushed red again as the power of the Ketsuryūgan flared on instinct.

A forest of sharp wooden branches speared up from the ground without warning, driving through his chest, abdomen, and throat from below.

The tips burst out of his back and held him suspended in mid-air like a pinned insect.

"Is likely less than what I already know."

From the moment Oyashiro abandoned resistance and began listing his own value, not only the people of Takigakure but even Asuma's team had assumed that Roshi would at least spare his life for the time being.

After all, a living prisoner is always more useful than a dead enemy.

As for the people of Takigakure—aside from the small group gathered near Asuma in the square, the hundreds of other villagers and shinobi were still bound to the spot by twisted tree roots.

No matter how much resentment or confusion they felt, they had no way to interfere with Konoha's judgment and actions.

It was precisely because he had seen through this that Oyashiro En had made the choice he believed gave him the highest chance of survival.

So when he was executed, the only thing left in his eyes was disbelief.

Roshi barely spared a glance for the cooling corpse hanging in the air.

"Roshi."

Asuma put a cigarette between his lips but didn't light it. He walked over with Shibuki and Fū in tow.

"It's a good thing you came."

He skipped any further pleasantries, getting straight to the point as he motioned toward Fū. "When we were retreating just now, white things grew out of Fū's body."

"They looked similar to the half-body of 'Zetsu' from the intel. They drained part of Fū's chakra, then detached and disappeared."

Roshi listened, his dark gaze settling on Fū. She looked a little drained, but she was alive.

So they only took a portion of the Seven-Tails' chakra...

"Roshi-san."

Shibuki stepped forward, his young face caught between gratitude, lingering terror, and guilt.

"Thank you very much for Konoha's assistance. If you hadn't arrived in time, Takigakure might have..."

He couldn't finish. His eyes swept across what was left of Takigakure, now almost unrecognizable, and the tremor in his pupils said the rest.

"I've already arranged for Mobile Units to reinforce you," Roshi said. "They'll help Takigakure with restoring your defenses and handling the aftermath. They'll arrive by tomorrow noon at the latest."

"Now, please do what you need to do, Shibuki-san."

With that, Roshi released the Wood Release.

In the square, the thick roots restraining the villagers and shinobi writhed like living things, then quickly loosened and sank back into the ground, leaving behind only trampled grass and scattered wood chips.

Jolted back to himself, Shibuki forced down the surge of emotion in his chest and raised his voice—still shaking, but trying to remain steady—as he began issuing orders to the Takigakure shinobi who could still move.

"Those who can still move, help the wounded first!"

"Yōrō! Take two teams and seal every exit. Don't let any remaining enemies slip through!"

Orders came one after another. The shinobi of Takigakure forced some order out of the chaos, fanning out in all directions according to Shibuki's commands.

At that moment, three figures rose from the surface of the lake and climbed ashore.

"No enemy activity within a five-kilometer radius." Genma walked up to Roshi and gave his report. "The request for reinforcements has been sent. According to the planned route, the first wave of co-defense units will reach the perimeter in six hours."

"As for the advance team… we found signs of a battle in the forest three kilometers northeast. Blood traces and explosion marks…"

He trailed off, but the implication was obvious.

The one who claimed to be Ozaki had already been dealt with—after Roshi sent a Shadow Clone ahead to scout, the man had given up resisting.

"Genma, have your team assist Takigakure with post-disaster support."

Genma's squad quickly scattered to carry out the order.

Izumo and Kotetsu exchanged a glance, then stepped forward.

"Roshi, we'll go help as well," Izumo said. "With more hands, we can treat the wounded—"

"Wait."

Roshi cut him off.

His gaze returned to Asuma.

"Asuma. Tell me everything in detail."

Asuma took the unlit cigarette from his mouth and rolled it between his fingers.

He first gave a brief account of why he had chosen to retreat to Takigakure, then moved on to what happened after entering the village.

"After we fell back into Takigakure, we immediately helped Shibuki set up defenses. It was quiet at first; the enemy didn't pursue."

"But about an hour later, the rogue Takigakure jōnin Suien led people to attack the village."

As he spoke, Asuma finally lit his cigarette with a wry smile and drew in a deep breath. "I did manage to kill Suien and the others, but that blond guy's ability was a real pain. In the end, I had to withdraw with Shibuki and Fū first."

He felt a stab of guilt, but after his rotation on the border, Asuma already understood what truly mattered to Konoha when it came to the village's missions.

"After that, the villagers kept getting blown up. Fū lost control of her emotions, and her chakra went wild. Those white things grew all over her body… then vanished after taking some of her chakra away."

He kept it concise, but he didn't leave out any key points.

When he finished, Asuma took another drag on his cigarette and waited for Roshi's response.

Roshi didn't answer. He only watched Asuma in silence.

A few seconds passed.

Izumo and Kotetsu also sensed that something was off. Instinctively, they straightened, eyes sweeping their surroundings, hands drifting to rest on their tool pouches.

—Something's wrong.

Asuma quickly ran through his own report in his head.

Did I leave something out? Misjudge something? Or—

His eyes widened slightly.

The white, human-shaped growths on Fū's body had suddenly sprouted to the surface. But why had they appeared on her in the first place?

They were clearly the enemy's technique. The question was: when, and under what circumstances, had Fū been caught by it?

If she had been affected without noticing, then those who'd been with her the whole time—Asuma himself, Izumo, Kotetsu, Himon, and even Shibuki—were all very likely facing the same danger.

"Himon, check if there's anything wrong with us," Asuma said, his voice low.

Hyūga Himon had already activated his Byakugan.

He swept his gaze over Asuma, then Izumo and Kotetsu one by one, before finally examining himself.

"No…" Himon's tone was both puzzled and grave. "At least for now, I don't see any abnormal chakra attachments or parasitic traces."

Roshi finally spoke again.

"First, do not disperse," he ordered. "Everyone stay where you are and wait for the village's follow-up support team to arrive."

His gaze slid past Asuma to Shibuki in the distance, who was busy directing the villagers as they carried away the wounded.

If Fū had been infected from the start, then Zetsu already knew their location.

Yet he had waited so long before acting, and had eventually left Oyashiro En alone.

If there was a reason for that, the most likely explanation was that Zetsu intended to use Asuma's status as a Konoha Jōnin to get close to targets that were now hard to approach—

For example, the Jinchūriki of the Tailed Beasts.

Of course, that assumed Asuma and the others had indeed been affected.

From what Roshi remembered, there were methods to force the spores to manifest early.

Namely, by injecting Senjutsu chakra—Natural Energy.

And this was a chance to test whether he could find a way to identify White Zetsu.

So he had to wait for the people from Konoha to arrive.

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