Location: Konoha, Sixth Training Ground.
Black Zetsu was locked in a grueling battle. Despite unleashing the full potential of Obito's body, it was struggling under the relentless pressure of facing the Four Hokage.
The First Hokage's Wood Style had completely taken over the training ground. While Black Zetsu could use Wood Style as well, its version was utterly inferior and completely suppressed by Hashirama's overwhelming power.
Black Zetsu tried to escape using Kamui intangibility, but Tobirama's Bringer-of-Darkness Technique repeatedly disoriented it at critical moments.
It could dispel the genjutsu, but doing so required Mangekyō-level power. However, its Mangekyō Sharingan was continuously occupied with maintaining intangibility...
This was because the attacks from Hashirama's Wood Style and Hiruzen's Five-Element Ninjutsu were simply too destructive. Even a slight misstep could lead to its annihilation.
In truth, it had already been hit more than ten times during the battle. Yet thanks to the near-Sage Body-level regeneration granted by Obito's modifications and Black Zetsu's unique properties, it had avoided fatal injuries.
But Black Zetsu was beginning to feel the strain. Obito's eyes, after all, were not Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
While the body's reserves were bolstered by Hashirama's cells and White Zetsu's enhancements, the sheer intensity of this fight was draining chakra far faster than it could be replenished.
Black Zetsu had attempted counterattacks multiple times, but every time it dropped intangibility to strike, Minato would leave it with another wound.
Minato's speed, amplified by Flying Thunder God, made Black Zetsu feel completely outmatched.
What troubled it most, however, was the forest created by Hashirama's Wood Style. This was no ordinary forest, it absorbed chakra and was laced with toxins turning it into a forbidden zone.
Though Black Zetsu was highly resistant to poisons, prolonged exposure was still discomforting. Every time it touched the trees, its chakra was drained. Every time it exited intangibility, it inhaled more toxins. Every attempt to counterattack only led to failure.
The combined assault of the Four Hokage left no openings, driving Black Zetsu to the brink of despair.
Even with its enhancements, Kamui intangibility wasn't infinite. The prolonged battle had already pushed its limits.
In the original storyline, Konan's sea of explosive tags had forced Obito to the brink after several minutes of relentless detonation. Now, Black Zetsu had been fighting for over twenty minutes. Even with its augmented Kamui, it couldn't keep up.
By this point, Black Zetsu had given up on fighting altogether. All it wanted was to escape.
Though it seemed cornered, Black Zetsu still had a few trump cards. As a master schemer, it had always hidden its strongest tools for desperate situations.
This time, it had no choice but to play them.
Black Zetsu revealed its true body and was immediately struck by consecutive attacks from Minato and Tobirama. But in that brief moment, it completed a series of hand seals.
"Fire Style: Uchiha Flame Formation."
Violent flames erupted, engulfing the entire Sixth Training Ground. Since the Hokage were not Edo Tensei bodies, they couldn't ignore the flames and were forced to retreat temporarily.
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique."
Tobirama, the true Water Shadow, countered with his signature jutsu. But as he cast the technique, Minato immediately sensed something was wrong.
"Stop!" Minato shouted, but it was already too late. Tobirama's jutsu was too fast and the water was unleashed.
The collision of fire and water created a massive cloud of steam, obscuring Black Zetsu's body.
The next moment, Black Zetsu sank into the ground.
It had used Mayfly, a signature White Zetsu technique. However, this jutsu couldn't be used simultaneously with Kamui intangibility.
If it could, Black Zetsu would have fled underground long ago.
Forced into a corner, Black Zetsu abandoned its intangibility and gambled everything on this one move.
As it began to sink, Hashirama, having prepared for this, activated his Wood Style, piercing Black Zetsu's body like a sieve.
Yet in the next second, all of Black Zetsu's wounds vanished. It had activated Izanagi, rewriting reality itself.
"It's not intangibility, it's Izanagi. Don't stop! That technique has a time limit!" Hashirama warned.
Under the invincibility of Izanagi, Black Zetsu forced its way underground using Mayfly.
But then, the "God of Shinobi," Hashirama, gave Black Zetsu a harsh lesson.
Izanagi might make it immune to attacks, but Mayfly still consumed chakra. Furthermore, this technique relied on natural underground environments like earth and groundwater for movement.
As Black Zetsu descended, it made a horrifying discovery: the entirety of Konoha's underground had been sealed with an unimaginably vast network of Wood Style.
There were no gaps, no safe zones, and no escape routes. The colossal, all-encompassing Wood Style turned Konoha's underground into a death trap for Mayfly.
In the earlier battle, Hashirama Senju's presence hadn't seemed particularly prominent, he merely used Wood Style to seal off the training ground. But now, Black Zetsu finally realized that Hashirama hadn't just sealed the training ground; he had sealed the entire underground area within hundreds of miles around Konoha.
It was clear that even using Mayfly to forcibly escape underground had been accounted for in their contingency plans.
In fact, during Aoba's simulations, if Black Zetsu were to truly combine the invincibility of Izanagi with the escape capabilities of Mayfly, it would be just as troublesome as retreating into the Kamui dimension.
Invincibility paired with a god-tier escape technique was the epitome of an unsolvable problem.
After extensive deliberation with the Hokage, Aoba had devised this strategy. While Black Zetsu's escape skills were virtually unparalleled, Hashirama's chakra reserves and Wood Style abilities were equally insurmountable.
On paper, Black Zetsu's combat power wasn't overwhelmingly strong. It didn't even dare face Aoba directly, which spoke volumes about its limitations.
But calling it weak would also be inaccurate as it was exceptionally tricky to deal with. Its combination with Obito's Kamui granted it so many tools and strategies that it was exponentially harder to kill than even someone like Hidan.
Even with four Hokage working together, with extensive preparation and ambush tactics, capturing or killing Black Zetsu was proving an incredibly difficult task. This underscored how troublesome it truly was.
Though Mayfly allowed Black Zetsu to stay mobile and Izanagi made it temporarily immune to harm, the omnipresent Wood Style left it drained of chakra at an unsustainable rate.
Sinking underground, Black Zetsu felt as though it had fallen into a sea of Wood Style. The endless expanse stretched out in all directions, leaving it utterly disoriented, unsure of which way to escape.
Ridiculous!!!
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Currently on Chapter 238 - A Catalyst for the Mangekyō?