Uchiha's personal opinion

"Thirty thousand..."

Black Zetsu immediately changed his tune.

But upon closer inspection, Minato Namikaze's expression still seemed serious, so he changed his tune and said, "No, I can't remember the exact number of gold coins. You'll need to send someone to search for them to find out."

"Then it seems I'll have to trouble my colleagues!"

Minato Namikaze's bright smile returned to its radiant state.

"I'm very sorry, I've caused trouble for my colleagues in the Shinobi World Government..."

Black Zetsu was very respectful, but in his heart he looked down on Minato Namikaze!

It seems that the so-called police chief is nothing more than a greedy person!

No wonder he was able to become the Commissioner of Police at such a young age!

"It's alright. Even if I can't find any supporting evidence within seven days, I can still grant you official status."

Minato Namikaze said cheerfully, "Besides, procedures are just procedures. You have already gained His Majesty's approval, so as long as the stipulated time is reached, it's fine even if no trace of your activities is found."

"That's good……"

Black Zetsu thought about it again and realized that it made sense. Since he would be free in seven days anyway, it wouldn't matter if he stayed a few more days!

"How about this..."

Minato Namikaze said somewhat apologetically, "I'll just issue you an identity document first, the kind that officially takes effect in four days..."

"...That's also acceptable."

Black Zetsu nodded with great pleasure.

"Please inject chakra or other energy into the machine port."

Minato Namikaze immediately unsealed a small device from the sealing scroll and had Black Zetsu inject chakra into it for identification.

Just a little chakra...

Black Zetsu hesitated for a moment, then conjured a hand from his muddy body and channeled a bit of chakra into the port designated by Minato Namikaze.

"Hmm...it looks like it's an unusual earth-style chakra. No wonder you're so confident in your earth-style abilities."

Minato Namikaze also offered a few perfunctory analyses.

Black Zetsu felt even calmer inside.

As expected, I hadn't misjudged him!

This so-called 'Watergate Director' is a complete incompetent!

'Click!'

Minato Namikaze fiddled with it for a while, and a small card popped up from the top of the instrument.

"This is your identification document. Please keep it with you at all times."

Black Zetsu took the small identification card handed to him and saw a line of numbers, his own photo, and his chakra attribute level. It looked quite legitimate.

"How about this, I'll take you to the immigration detention center later. Once we get there, I'll let you out and let you move around freely in the cell. That way, you won't have to stay cooped up in this little cage all day."

Minato Namikaze said kindly, "If there's anything you want to eat, just tell the supervisor. As long as it's not too rare, we can get it for you."

"Thank you for your kindness, Director Watergate..."

Black Zetsu offered a sincere compliment.

"You're too kind..."

Minato Namikaze seemed unusually polite because he was about to receive 50,000 gold coins. He picked up the small cage containing Black Zetsu and walked out of the interrogation room.

"...Phew, at least we don't have to keep an eye on things anymore."

The police ninjas in the monitoring room also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Staring at a mud monster for days on end is exhausting!"

Another police ninja complained as well.

"However, in my opinion, the Watergate Commissioner's greedy expression just now didn't seem like an act. I suggest we have the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigate him..."

"A police ninja joked."

"That's true!"

The monitoring room erupted in laughter.

……

On the fourth day of Black Zetsu's imprisonment, an identification device bearing his chakra signature was delivered in its entirety to the front-line base in the Land of Snow, becoming a crucial tool for Ashina Uzumaki to lead his people in searching for the underground base.

After a day and a night of exploration, the Uzumaki ninjas, under the guise of prospecting, finally found a super-large underground cavern that seemed to have been inhabited by humanoid creatures, based on the residual chakra fluctuations underground!

This encouraging result also made Orochimaru, who was also based in the Land of Snow, restless.

At this moment, he desperately wanted to know what the objective of this mission was!

However, the enigmatic Ashina Uzumaki kept his mouth shut and refused to reveal any information. He simply instructed Orochimaru to have the exploration teams continue to dig all sorts of deep wells beneath the snowfield and to put all sorts of strange and unusual detection instruments into the wellheads.

Uchiha Tokumitsu, however, remained calm and showed no intention of urging them on.

Anyway, Black Zetsu is currently enjoying himself in the Konoha Immigration Detention Center, eating and drinking well, so there's no need to rush.

Meanwhile, Nagato and the others underground were also becoming increasingly troubled.

Scorpion, in particular, who prefers quiet, couldn't stand living with the White Zetsu after moving to a deeper underground base!

Therefore, he approached Nagato more than once, strongly demanding a complete relocation to an area free from the activities of the Shinobi World Government.

However, considering that his teacher Black Zetsu had not yet returned, Nagato, though equally troubled, dared not make a decision on his own. He could only appease the fuming Sasori, and then, in front of Sasori, reprimand the unruly White Zetsu.

Even Scorpion knows that these shameless white monsters will do whatever they want no matter how much you curse them.

"How about this, I'll go to the surface and scout around, see what kind of schemes those Uchiha lackeys are plotting..."

Sasori, having no other choice, thought to himself, "If we can't fight, we can at least dodge," and said to Nagato, "Otherwise, they might pose a threat to us..."

"This……"

Nagato hesitated.

In the past few days, due to the large number of "mining ninjas" gathered by the Shinobi World Government, Nagato proactively withdrew some of the White Zetsu who were monitoring the ground to prevent the leakage of their presence. Therefore, he did not have a good understanding of what the ninjas on the surface of the earth were up to these past two days.

"Anyway, this base is still under expansion and can't produce puppets for a while, so I might as well go out and get some fresh air!"

Scorpion continued.

But it would have been better if he hadn't said anything, because as soon as he did, Nagato became wary—could this guy be planning to use the excuse of going on an outside reconnaissance mission to escape?

That won't do! The base's war golems still need to be crafted by Scorpion!

"Not permitted!"

Therefore, Nagato decisively rejected Sasori's request, saying, "If you have nothing to do, go and control the puppets to help dig through the rock..."

"You damn red..."

Scorpion was instantly filled with rage.

"What did you say?"

Nagato calmly brushed aside his long red hair, revealing his Rinnegan, which resembled a mosquito coil.

"N-nothing..."

The scorpion's anger vanished immediately.

Originally, after Black Zetsu left, he also had bad intentions and planned to target Nagato's Rinnegan. However, he did not expect that neither puppets, poison techniques, nor various escape techniques could have any effect on this red-haired brat. Sasori's puppet was even blown away by a strange force, and he himself was also beaten up!

Although after joining this inexplicable but truly underground organization, Sasori underwent a second modification of his body using various strange substances, essentially replacing all of his body's organs, he was still as powerless as a puppet in the face of Nagato's Rinnegan!

So, after Nagato gave Sasori a little scare, he calmed down and obediently went to work as a construction worker with the White Zetsu.

However, because of this, Nagato, who failed to conduct timely reconnaissance and assessment of the ninja's movements on the ground, also lost the opportunity to discover the clues of the ninja's gathering!

"One day, I will definitely get my hands on the Rinnegan!"

As he manipulated the puppets to dig through the rock strata like a scorpion, he fantasized with a heart full of hatred: "When the time comes, whether it's the red-haired brat, the mud-covered black guy, or even that Wood Release guy, I'll turn them all into puppet collectibles!"

Chapter 477 Kaihuang Sweep

"Beneath the enormous cavern showing signs of biological activity, there is also a small underground base..."

Uchiha Tokumitsu looked at the last reconnaissance report sent by Uzumaki Ashina and felt a headache coming on.

"Yes, the small underground base exhibiting signs of swarming life is approximately 500 meters deep..."

Ashina Uzumaki replied respectfully.

"But can our steel-walled barrier seal off such deep underground spaces?"

Uchiha Tokumitsu asked, frowning.

"Theoretically, if we were to withdraw about 3,000 of the 6,000 ninja soldiers brought by Shiina-kun, we could set up a super-large barrier that could cover the entire Land of Snow..."

Having gained experience in ambushing Ashura with a super-large barrier during the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, Ashina Uzumaki had accumulated a lot of knowledge about setting up such giant barriers: "Moreover, as long as there is enough chakra, it is entirely possible to use a barrier to transform the entire underground soil of the Land of Snow into a hardness comparable to steel!"

"So...Lord Tokumitsu, please have Kushina come over!"

Ashina Uzumaki suggested, "Just have her maintain the barrier with the ninja army on the outside. That way, even if the mysterious underground organization really has a secret weapon to suppress the tailed beasts, it won't cause any additional damage."

"...Alright then."

Uchiha Tokumitsu hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded: "Then let's officially begin the operation tomorrow at noon!"

"Also, you'll be in charge of deploying manpower on Kirina-kun's side. Make sure the barrier is absolutely foolproof!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu was still planning to wipe out all the White Zetsu so he could send them to centrifuges for large-scale extraction of 'holy particles'!

Moreover, if he could obtain a special version of a living White Zetsu, he believed that by using White Zetsu's Wood Release or immortality as a lure, he could make Orochimaru completely devoted to serving the Uchiha clan for the rest of his life!

"I respectfully obey Your Majesty's will!"

Ashina Uzumaki immediately responded.

Operation codename—