HSU: Ch. 281

Masashi and Black Zetsu were sitting face-to-face in the living room, drinking tea.

After bringing Black Zetsu home, Masashi didn't need to introduce him, Hikari, who had already met him back at the shelter, naturally recognized the familiar face. Pakura, on the other hand, was startled. Mainly because he radiated serious villain vibes.

He didn't even have eyelids.

Following the fine tradition of "kill first, ask questions later when faced with something unknown," she almost launched a Scorch Release attack on the spot.

If it weren't for the kids being around, she probably would've done it. But once she found out this strange thing in front of her was the "Black Zetsu" Hikari had mentioned, her attitude did a complete 180. If he's one of their own, then it's not "radiating villain vibes"—it's just "very Masashi-like."

Masashi was speechless at how fast his wife could switch faces. The two kids weren't afraid of Black Zetsu at all, and were actually quite friendly with him. To kids their age, a title like "Dad's friend" was enough to dissolve all their wariness.

Hikari quickly suggested taking the kids over to visit Setsuna's house.

Masashi was slightly uneasy about this. After all, there was a major "bomb" squatting over there. But knowing Madara's personality, prideful beyond reason, he figured even if the guy had now turned to the dark side, he wouldn't lay a hand on children. Plus, it was still under his watchful eye, so he agreed.

Seeing everyone else leave, Pakura also decided to head out, to see if she could help with anything. After all, that intense air of "colluding scoundrels" between Black Zetsu and Masashi was a bit much. And she was the type who didn't interfere with her husband's scheming.

Once the house was down to just the two of them, Masashi didn't care whether Black Zetsu could eat or not. He brewed a pot of tea, brought over a plate of peanuts and some cookies, and sat back on the sofa like he owned the place. And thus the current scene unfolded.

Black Zetsu looked at the unbothered expression on Masashi's face. While trying to guess what Madara's next move might be, he also felt a little irritated by Masashi's lack of urgency.

"You sure are relaxed."

"What else should I be? There's a war coming. How can I fight it without being well-rested?"

"And how exactly do you plan to rest up?" Black Zetsu asked. "You really ought to wake up now. You've already caught Hagoromo's attention. He won't let you mess up his plans."

"Do you have some kind of persecution complex?" Masashi set down his teacup. "Whether he's watching me or not, Naruto and Sasuke are doing just fine. Is the Sage of Six Paths so bored that instead of watching his own kids, he's got time to keep an eye on me? Even if he is watching me, shouldn't he be watching you instead?"

As for how Hagoromo viewed him, he didn't know. But Hagoromo's opinion of Black Zetsu was clear, if there were a chance, he'd send Black Zetsu off to reunite with Kaguya in a heartbeat. To him, nothing was more important than sealing Kaguya away for good.

Come to think of it, it wouldn't be too crazy to assume that Black Zetsu had been left alive just so Hagoromo's sons could grind some EXP.

Chances were, he never expected that even an aged Madara would still be able to awaken the Rinnegan by stirring his chakra. Now that Masashi also had the Rinnegan, he was confident he could weather whatever storms lay ahead, as long as Kaguya didn't get released, he wasn't afraid.

"He won't catch me," Black Zetsu replied half-heartedly, then added, "If you don't care about that, fine. But what about the tailed beasts in the other villages? What do you plan to do about them?"

"What do you mean, 'do about them'? That's a precedent set by the First Hokage. Only the Hokage can change that. What could I possibly do?"

"Don't play dumb. I know for a fact, you've already collected chakra from most of the tailed beasts."

Black Zetsu felt disappointed. Masashi wasn't being honest with him. He clearly had chakra from several tailed beasts, among them, the Nine-Tails and Eight-Tails. Just the chakra from those two alone was more than the rest of the tailed beasts combined.

If Masashi kept collecting like this, it was only a matter of time before he gathered chakra from all nine.

"I've collected a bit, that's true," Masashi decided to give a small admission. "But the Three-Tails hasn't even been revived yet. Strictly speaking, I've only been lucky enough to get partial chakra from four of the nine tailed beasts. And the only one that willingly helps me is Gyūki."

Black Zetsu gave Masashi a scornful look that practically said, Yeah, sure, keep talking.

He had seen Masashi spar with Madara. It was obvious that he could already fully control the chakra of four tailed beasts, and even channel their abilities through his Susanoo.

---

While Black Zetsu was still trying to get more out of Masashi's vague answers, Muzo had brought Tsunade to the Uchiha compound and was now going door-to-door. Although she hadn't returned to the village in a long time, most of the Uchiha ninjas still recognized her. When they saw her, they had no reservations about helping Muzo with directions.

The current generation of Uchiha might not know who Muzo was, but almost all of them knew Tsunade. There was no helping it, too many ninjas in the village had been saved directly or indirectly by her. When she was healing people back in the day, she never cared what clan someone was from. As a result, her popularity in the village was massive, and not just because she was the granddaughter of Hashirama, but because of her own merit.

Right now, Muzo was just asking around about where Masashi lived.

"Tsk tsk tsk… living this well, huh…"

He had seen all kinds of people in his life. Based on the Uchiha clan's attitude alone, he could tell that this highly likely reincarnation of himself was now someone whose word carried immense weight in the clan.

That was a good sign. He just needed final confirmation.

Following the directions given to them, they finally arrived at Masashi's doorstep.

"What's this about?" Tsunade couldn't hold back anymore. She didn't understand why he had brought her to the Uchiha compound. Did he actually think she could make friends with the Uchiha? Honestly, she wasn't that desperate for friends, nor did she want many. And the Uchiha didn't seem to be lacking in that department either.

"I'm just visiting," Muzo said with complete nonchalance. "We've fought bad guys together, after all. It's perfectly normal to visit."

"...You know that's not what I meant."

"You're just too serious," Muzo said, shaking his head as he stepped forward to knock on the door.

---

The knock on the door interrupted the previously meaningless slacking-off session between Masashi and Black Zetsu.

"Someone's coming now?" Masashi put on an expression as if he were genuinely puzzled, set down his teacup, and stood up.

"Wait here. I'll go open the door."

Black Zetsu didn't respond but was already prepared to dive underground at any moment. This Konoha may not be dangerous for Madara, but for him, it was still risky. He wasn't a natural life form, technically, he was a manifestation of Yin-Yang Release, but as a jutsu, he also had his weaknesses. Even though ninjas didn't understand it fully, all ninjutsu was fundamentally derived from Yin-Yang Release, so he could still be harmed.

Who in their right mind wanted to get hurt for no reason?

After a thousand years, he had pretty much experienced all mainstream ninjutsu firsthand.

Masashi walked to the entryway and opened the door. If he was still pretending just now, upon seeing who was standing there, his shock was completely real.

"Yo." Standing at the door, Muzo raised a hand toward him. "Long time no see, my—"

Boom!

The windows of nearby buildings rattled loudly.

"That kind of joke isn't funny," Masashi said with a fake smile, his expression anything but amused.

Damn it, was the me from the first timeline this dumb? Just opened his mouth and said something like that?

He glanced at Tsunade, who was standing beside Muzo, and started to wonder what the first timeline version of himself had been trying to do.

"You actually threw a punch at a poor, lonely, hundred-year-old man like me?" Muzo looked at Masashi in disbelief. "Show some respect for old people, will you? Didn't they teach that at school?"

The chakra fist, which had come down from above, was being held up easily in Muzo's left hand.

It had extended from Masashi's right shoulder.

Hearing the commotion, Black Zetsu had immediately darted out, but after seeing the scene at the door, his expression went blank, then emotionless. He turned around and went back to the living room.

Worrying about someone who could get into a shouting match with their own past life? That was clearly a waste of energy. Even though he didn't need to eat, the logic still applied. It was like watching someone fight with their own shadow clone, nobody would bother to watch that for long.

"If I remember correctly, you never went to school either," Masashi said with a half-smile.

He figured this Edo Tensei Muzo had probably figured things out by now. Because this wasn't how he himself would have acted as Muzo.

He withdrew the Susanoo arm.

"But I was a principal once." Muzo chuckled. "Being a principal is impressive. If you think it's so great, why don't you try it?"

Watching Masashi use partial Susanoo so skillfully, Muzo felt very satisfied. His reincarnated self was really strong.

That was great. No worries about Tsunade at all.

Just like how Masashi was trying to read his intentions through the situation, Muzo was doing the same.

A lifetime was a lifetime, especially when the roles had reversed.

If Masashi weren't his reincarnation, then he shouldn't be acting like this.

That was the only explanation for why Masashi would choose to coexist with the Third Hokage's faction, even when he wasn't at a disadvantage in terms of power.

"Please come in," Masashi stepped aside and made a welcoming gesture. He couldn't very well block his own way in, and definitely not Tsunade's.

She had finally returned to the village.

"Is Jiraiya busy?" Masashi couldn't help but ask.

Honestly, he thought it'd be great if Tsunade and Jiraiya ended up together. Jiraiya was one thing, but Tsunade definitely had feelings for him. After all, he had kind of proved the point, as long as a man was stubborn enough, there was no girl he couldn't win over, unless they were just completely incompatible.

And so that scene from the original timeline came to be.

Tsunade's gambling skills? That wasn't gambling, it was prophecy.

"Mm." she responded half-heartedly.

If Muzo hadn't dragged her along, she definitely wouldn't have come.

In the current Konoha, the Uchiha and the Hokage were an inseparable entanglement of karma.

After the Second Great Ninja War, the Sannin rarely had chances to fight alongside the Uchiha clan. But during the war itself, there were quite a few instances of them going into battle together. Back then, tensions between the Hokage's office and the Uchiha clan had already been rising. As a student of the Hokage, fighting side by side with Uchiha ninjas was one of Hiruzen's key gestures of reconciliation toward the clan.

It was during that time that Tsunade had saved many Uchiha clan members. Likewise, it was during that period that she came to understand the Uchiha better. She never saw them as evil, if anything, they just couldn't hide their emotions.

Their likes and dislikes were written all over their faces.

Later, when the Hokage's office resumed its hostile stance toward the Uchiha, she couldn't stand it.

Once the truth of the Wood Release experiments came to light, she completely lost faith in the faction within the Hokage's circle.

Even though Minato had already succeeded the title of Hokage by then, he was Jiraiya's student, and Jiraiya didn't involve himself in politics.

Minato, in reality, was all alone.

At that time, his only advantage was his reputation among the elite ninjas, and that was enough to get him the title, but not enough to go head-to-head with the Sarutobi faction.

The reason he was able to take down Danzō was purely because Danzō gave him the ammunition he needed, and because of that, the Sarutobi faction abandoned Danzō, and even Hiruzen couldn't save him.

Strictly speaking, Danzō was actually set up by Orochimaru. And the true spark that ignited the entire affair was Masashi.

Tsunade wasn't familiar with this new Uchiha rising star, nor did she want to be. It was all trouble.

Masashi wasn't offended by her attitude. How could he ever be mad at her?

As he led the two of them into the living room, Black Zetsu was already seated, staring at the tea, peanuts, and cookies on the table, deep in thought.

Should he eat, or not eat?

If he ate, it would feel like a waste, he looked human, but he didn't even have internal organs. If he didn't eat, it might come off as rude.

"Yo, you've got company too?" Muzo spotted Black Zetsu. "Oh, it's you. Finally decided to stop wearing clothes, huh? Remember me?"

Black Zetsu was just sitting there nonchalantly. That confirmed it for Muzo.

They had indeed crossed paths before.

Black Zetsu would always appear near the reincarnations of Asura and Indra's chakra, albeit in different forms.

The last time he appeared in his true form was when Madara awakened the Rinnegan and summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Ever since then, he never bothered disguising himself.

Muzo had been around Hashirama and Tobirama back then, so he had seen this guy before, albeit under a false identity, but he had always known its true nature. He wasn't fooled but chose not to expose it. Back then, he had thought about giving this dark thing a good beatdown.

Unfortunately, Hashirama and Madara were too dazzling, and he himself was too ordinary to catch Black Zetsu's attention. And without attention, there was no opportunity to strike.