"Go inform Obito—tell him to get here immediately!"
Hearing Naruto shouting noisily from downstairs, Black Zetsu's expression darkened even further.
At this moment, Black Zetsu was already regretting why it had told Hiashi's speculation to Hinata. If it had just taken her down the moment it appeared, it wouldn't now need Obito to come in and clean up the situation.
Hinata's strength had somewhat exceeded Black Zetsu's expectations, and Naruto's appearance was even more of an unexpected variable!
If it couldn't subdue Hinata and Naruto immediately, the commotion from the battle alone would be enough to attract the attention of Konoha's stronger shinobi—or rather, the attention of that Uchiha brat, Keizumi!
"You're not allowed to slander my father!"
On the other side, young Hinata, though surprised by the power of the first strike of her Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms, clearly wasn't thinking that far ahead. Right now, all she wanted was to take down the person in front of her who clearly looked like bad news!
As one palm strike after another of the Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms fell, a faint blue glow actually began to wrap around her hands.
Black Zetsu could tell that Hinata's combat experience wasn't very rich, but unfortunately, its own strength was only at the level of an ordinary chūnin. Even against an inexperienced Hinata, it was being forced to retreat again and again!
Downstairs, Naruto had clearly noticed something was off. In his memory, Hinata had always been soft and gentle, but now her voice carried unmistakable anger.
Not even bothering with the ramen in his hands, Naruto rushed upstairs.
And then he saw it—he saw the Hinata he remembered as gentle, actually forcing back someone who looked clearly suspicious, and the power behind each of her strikes was terrifying!
"This… is that really Hinata?"
Naruto muttered in shock, but he also noticed Hanabi standing off to the side, looking lost and helpless.
It wasn't just Naruto who noticed Hanabi—Black Zetsu had already shifted its attention toward her. It didn't dare clash head-on with Hinata, who had suddenly surged in strength, but it was looking for an opportunity—to capture Hanabi and use her to threaten Hinata!
Meanwhile, at the Konoha Cemetery, when Obito heard from a White Zetsu messenger that Black Zetsu had already clashed with Hinata—and was even losing—he felt a wave of irritation.
How could Black Zetsu be this useless?!
He hadn't seen Rin for so long, and he had finally found a chance to speak to her properly. Black Zetsu acting on its own was one thing—but losing to a student who hadn't even graduated from the academy?
Although Obito felt that Black Zetsu was embarrassing both Uchiha Madara and himself, he still knew what mattered.
As space twisted, Obito's body vanished from the cemetery.
Even if his intelligence wasn't always reliable, at this moment he clearly understood that if they couldn't take the Tenseigan immediately, what awaited them would be Uchiha Keizumi's iron fist of justice!
Back at Hinata's home, as her Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms failed again and again to land a hit on Black Zetsu—while it kept edging closer toward her younger sister Hanabi—an anxious expression inevitably appeared in Hinata's eyes.
But the more anxious she became, the more chaotic her movements grew—and the more relaxed Black Zetsu became in dealing with her!
"This ends here!"
Just as Hinata was about to unleash a second sequence of the Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms, a hand suddenly extended out of thin air and tightly grabbed her wrist.
Under the shocked gazes of Hinata, Naruto, and Hanabi, they watched as a living person stepped out from the air itself!
"Useless! You can't even handle something this simple!"
Obito glanced at the somewhat disheveled Black Zetsu, fully playing the role of a mastermind in front of outsiders.
"Madara-sama, the one behind that girl is the Tenseigan!"
"Taking that alone is enough!"
"Our battle might have already alerted that Uchiha brat!"
Black Zetsu no longer cared about being called useless. It could already sense, from a distance, an intense chakra—so scorching it felt as if it would burn everything—rapidly approaching!
"Move!"
Hearing that, Obito acted immediately. He grabbed Hinata and threw her aside.
The massive Tenseigan that had been floating behind her was seized directly by Obito and pulled into the Kamui space.
As space twisted again, Obito and Black Zetsu vanished into Kamui without hesitation. In the eyes of Naruto and Hinata, that mysterious figure who had just appeared disappeared once more into thin air!
Only then did Naruto barely reach Hinata, cushioning her fall with his body.
While Hinata, Naruto, and Hanabi were still shaken, Keizumi also arrived at Hinata's home. Seeing the hole blasted into the wall and the blood at the corner of Hinata's mouth, he immediately understood what had happened.
"Sensei, hurry and chase that guy! He took something from Hinata!"
Seeing Keizumi appear, Naruto's previously unsettled heart gradually calmed.
But remembering that the mysterious man had taken the thing floating behind Hinata—whatever it was—he anxiously called for help.
"Did he appear out of nowhere and disappear the same way?"
Keizumi looked at the Tenseigan that Hinata had only recently awakened, then turned his gaze to Naruto.
"Yes, yes! That's exactly it! Sensei, can you still catch him?"
Naruto looked at him eagerly. He didn't know what had been taken, but instinctively felt that it was extremely important to Hinata.
"I haven't started learning space-time ninjutsu yet. Catching him would be very difficult."
Keizumi had no intention of pursuing Obito. Without mastering space-time ninjutsu, even if he could force Obito to keep using intangibility, if Obito truly wanted to escape, there was nothing he could do to stop him.
Kamui was simply too broken—so broken that it was practically forcing him to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique!
"I see…"
Naruto fell silent for a moment.
But soon, he turned his attention back to Hinata, who still looked dazed.
After Keizumi appeared, Hinata had instinctively felt a trace of hostility toward him.
After all… he was the one who had killed her father.
But then she remembered what that pitch-black figure had said—that her father created the Tenseigan for her sake.
The hostility in her heart quickly faded, replaced instead by a sense of guilt.
In Hinata's childish understanding, part of her father's sins… belonged to her as well.