_________ POV Narration _________ 

"Hah... HAh.... What the hell...?" 

Black Zetsu felt the body of the White Zetsu it possessed becoming tired, something that was completely mindboggling. 

At that point, he had been torturing the Blind Monster for around 2 hours. And, during that time Ken had not made a sound of pain, not even the slightest hiss.

Ken only really made any sounds when commenting on the torturer's skills and sometimes even giving him random tips. 

It was genuinely infuriating for the Black Zetsu to have to listen to all of that. It was true that it wasn't a torturer by profession, sure. It was too busy being the plotting consciousness of a ghost from the past...

But the Torturer still knew that what it was doing was supposed to be inflicting pain upon the Blind Monster. Hell, the entire point was to kill him in the first place, but nothing was working.

Stabbed through the heart? It would close back up as soon as he pulled back the rod. 

And it wasn't like stabbing Ken through the heart was an easy matter either, as it took genuine effort for the body of the White Zetsu to pierce the monster's scales. 

Black Zetsu's only real peace of mind was the fact that not many of the seals had broken since the beginning, some seemed to malfunction, but the main ones that were keeping the Blind Monster in place were active and working as intended.

'Really, that man, Saburo was it? To be able to create something to hold down someone of Ken's strength in such a short time... He's worth keeping an eye on in the future.' 

Black Zetsu continued to stab into Ken's body, piercing it more and more.

He had tried going for the head and piercing the brain too, but that seemed to be a whole lot more difficult to do. 

After destroying the mask, Black Zetsu found out the hard way that Ken had no holes in his skull that led directly to the brain. His nostrils were too thin for him to pierce through as well.

There was also the fact that the brain seemed to be no different from the heart, and it healed just as quickly when injured. 

That coupled with the fact that Ken's skull seemed to be much thicker than that of a regular human led to Black Zetsu simply giving up on piercing the Blind Monster's brain after a while, and focusing on other vitals. 

"You seem to be quite frustrated... Are you running out of ideas perhaps?" Ken's voice rang out in that large chamber.

His eerily calm tone was concerning, but then again, it hadn't changed much through the whole ordeal, so Black Zetsu had gotten used to it already. 

 "Tsk, don't act as if you've managed to break any seals in the time I've been squandering...

Plan B will soon be on its way, and if that fails too, then that fool, Onoki, should hopefully be able to do the job as long as you're incapacitated..." 

Black Zetsu shook its head before slowly turning around and looking at its table of tools. Ken was right, it was indeed slowly running out of ideas.

Sure, stabbing him through the heart till he died was an idea, but how long was that going to take? Did Black Zetsu have the time for that? 

No, no he didn't.

"Oh, that's right, Onoki... How come you didn't allow him to do this in the first place? I'm sure his methods, that weird jutsu of his, would've been more effective than whatever you've been attempting..." 

Ken's disimpassioned tone seemed to continue getting on Black Zetsu's nerves. But the fact that the Blind Monster was nothing more than a rat trapped in a cage made Black Zetsu more comfortable. 

"Tsk, the Sand Kage and Jinchuriki were unwilling to face you alone. They didn't want their losses to be greater than-" 

Black Zetsu seemed to instantly stop, a thick stone door opening on the side and showing a White Zetsu entering the room, panting. 

"B-bad ne-" The White Zetsu didn't even get to finish two words as its head turned to mush, a gigantic tail stretched above Black Zetsu's head and piercing the newcomer instantly. 

And in that same moment, the Parasitic Entity that was Black Zetsu felt a bone-chilling fear as it heard the entire formation behind him crack and break like glass. 

His eyes widened as he felt a gigantic hand grasp his neck from behind. 

'No way! No fucking way... That barrier was standing strong just seconds before?!?!' Black Zetsu's mind raced, trying to understand how Ken had managed to break out instantly. 

"I guess the time has come, huh?" Ken smiled as he tilted his head, smiling at the parasitic being he held in his hand. 

"W-what have you don-"

"Nothing really... It's just odd of you and your little alliance to think that the Dark Brotherhood didn't have any allies. 

By now, the Cloud should've arrived to assist with the Brotherhood, the Leaf should've intercepted the party that attacked me.

And finally, the Uzumaki should have already crushed the other reinforcements that were heading for the Dark Brotherhood... So the wait is over!" 

"How did you know abou-" The Zetsu's eyes widened as it felt Ken's hand tighten around its neck.

Its eyes widening were also out of realization, as its mind seemed to instantly connect the dots on everything.

'Shit... The formation broke instantly, almost as if someone had made it weaker on purpose, all of our information was leaked... Those fools from the Grass Village ruined everything! Saburo was never to be trusted!' 

Just as the parasitic being came to that realization, Ken snapped the neck of the White Zetsu it was inhabiting, before dropping its lifeless body on the ground.

"..." The assassin stood there for a few seconds, before turning around and whistling, leaving through the opened stone door with a smile on his face.

Out of the shadows in front of him stepped out a cloaked man wearing an empty mask.

"Everything proceeded smoothly Leader..." It was the voice of the Second Blade, ringing out from the puppet he controlled. 

"Of course they did... You did a great job, Saburo." Ken smiled and patted the clone on the shoulder, gleefully acting as if everything was already over. 

Things had gone perfectly according to his and Saburo's plan. 

Ken was sure that Tosho and the others were going to feel a bit betrayed at not having been included, but he needed the White Zetsu spying on the Brotherhood compound to be fooled without any shadow of a doubt. He was sure that they would understand his reasoning. 

With Saburo, it was easy to fake betraying the Brotherhood as he had absolutely no emotional ties to anything and anyone within it. 

He had done his best to make it believable, despite aiming to not kill any of the children at Ken's orders. 

After all, it wasn't as if the children could just get lucky and win against him, a seasoned Elite Jonin who had surpassed most of the Kage of the smaller villages. 

He was also the one tasked with contacting the Dark Brotherhood's allies ahead of time and informing them of the situation.

Ken had placed a lot of bets in that situation, but he trusted his chances at each and every one of them.

The Raikage was sure to come to the Brotherhood's assistance, same for the entirety of the Land of Iron, that much was not even a question.

The more difficult 'allies' that Ken had were the Leaf and the Uzumaki. 

But the Leaf was involved through Danzo already, so Ken safely assumed they would get involved. 

It was still a stroke of luck that 'Lord Yuu' of the Grass Village managed to recognize him in the War Room due to their past dealings, and that Saburo had managed to finagle that information out of him. 

As for the Uzumaki Clan... Well, their gratitude for the last time Ken helped them was still extending quite far. Their leader had even requested a meeting with Ken after he had found out that Ken had saved his daughter. 

No matter how much the Leaf had tried to cover up the incident, they couldn't quite stop Kushina from telling her brother whilst he was visiting. 

All in all, it made for a rather safe plan, despite its projected risks. 

"It was nothing, sir... I just hope we didn't go too far, I wasn't sure about destroying the compound itself at first, but I can understand why you would order me to do so..."

Saburo sighed a bit as he realised that the rebuilding efforts would set him back in his research slightly, but it was a small price to pay in his eyes. 

"It made everything all the more believable. They didn't suspect you for one sec-..."

Ken stopped mid-sentence as he tilted his head and turned his face towards a wall seemingly 'looking' through it. 

"It seems the Rat has also 'escaped' in the meantime..." 

Ken's senses extended far, he had felt the parasitic being detach itself from the body it had been inhabiting and sink deep into the shadows.

'... You think you can sneak away after spending that much time near me?'

It was at that moment that the second part of Ken's plan was put in motion. 

"I hope tracking that rat achieves the results that you envisioned, Leader..." Saburo said as he nodded towards the Blind Monster, who took out a spare mask from the seal on his wrist and put it on. 

"With enough luck, I may actually get to the one behind the scenes in all of this. You can start assisting the brotherhood with the cleanup in the meantime." 

Saburo's clone bowed towards Ken one last time before both of them vanished.

Ken was off to track Black Zetsu using the 'mark' he had put on him. And Saburo was off to get in touch with the Brotherhood. 

The Blind Monster soared through the skies, and an ever-present smile resided underneath his wooden mask.

He revelled at the fact that he was now one step closer to his plans... Taking down the mastermind behind the attack was a must.

After all, someone with the resources to contact so many village leaders and convince them to band together was going to be an obstacle in Ken's plans.

'Revealing my age was enough to make all of the snakes poke their heads out from the grass, but the spider that clings on the tree and just observes is always the most dangerous...' 

By now, all of the 'snakes' had their heads cut off, so all that was left was to rid the spider of its legs and break its head. 

Hours passed as he flew at his greatest speed to keep up with the strange parasitic shadow. The Black Zetsu as it called itself. 

It seemed to be extremely fast, but Ken was still able to track it down.

It was a special being, a blend of strange chakra and Nature Energy, unlike anything that Ken had ever felt. 

It was almost similar to the White Zetsu, but not quite, almost as if it was of a different wavelength.

But it wasn't like all Nature Energy was the same, after all his was different compared to that of the Toads as well.

But thanks to being able to observe the Unique form of the Black Zetsu for such a long time whilst it was struggling to kill him, Ken was now able to trace its steps effortlessly. 

And it eventually entered a crack in the ground, one which led to a large cave. Ken tapped on the outer wall of the cave silently, feeling the vibrations within the earth as he pressed his ear to the stone.

He could feel plenty of odd things inside, but he needed to first address the most important part... The old man was now conversing with the Black Zetsu. 

The cave entrance was completely covered up with rock, no human was likely going to be able to break it without alerting those inside. 

But Ken was still going to try...

He dug his hands into the ground, his claws turning sharper, more monstrous as he dug through the earth whilst making as little noise as possible. 

Eventually, he dug a hole through the roof of the cave and landed right in between the old man with spiky hair, and the Black Zetsu which had taken over the body of another White Zetsu.

He sniffed the air a few times as both the old man and the Zetsu seemed to jump away from him.

"...Fuck..." Black Zetsu muttered as it slowly stepped back. 

Meanwhile, the old man's eyes narrowed as he also stepped back, albeit slower than the Zetsu. 

Ken could feel a familiar energy in his eyes... 

'The Sharingan? Hmm... This seems more interesting by the minute... Let's see what the spider has to say for itself...' 

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Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Feeling a bit better, managed to write up another chapter

Part of the plan's finally been revealed, tho some ppl might've guessed where this was going already :))

Story Shoutout: Hell Difficulty Tutorial

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