'Are you finally going to make a move on Kirigakure?' – thought Zetsu with a strange smile.

While Uchiha Madara was still alive, he secretly began to attach strings to Kirigakure, as such many of the high-ranking shinobi of Kirigakure became a puppet in Madara's hands without them even realizing it. ​​

This is also the reason why Uchiha Madara was able to kidnap Nohara Rin under the guise of this being Kirigakure's doing, sealed Sanbi inside her, and also branded her with the Forbidden Individual Curse Tag, leaving her with no other choice but to kill herself at the hands of Kakashi so that Kirigakure's plan doesn't come to fruition.

Aside from all the planning hidden behind Nohara Rin's 'death,' there were two reasons why Madara selected Kirigakure to control from the shadows.

The first reason was their war potential. Kirigakure's overall strength was second only to Konoha because of all the Shinobi clans with strong Kekkei Genkai living in the Land of Water, which included, Yuki Clan with Ice Release, Kaguya Clan with Corpse Bone Vein, Terumi Clan with Lava Release and Boil Release, Hoshigake Clan, Karatachi Clan, Hozuki Clan, and so on.

The second reason is the location of Kirigakure. The Land of Water is located at the edge of the mainland, with the only mode of transportation to the continent being through the sea, so the flow of information outside was very limited.

And Madara's control over Kirigakure is also one of the many reasons for Kirigakure's instability and internal conflicts.

Madara's death and the rise of Karatachi Yagura to the position of the Yondaime Mizukage has gradually started to change Kirigakure for the better, the policies advocated by the new Mizukage have started to calm the internal strife within the Land of Water and there are signs that Kirigakure would soon rise.

So if the Yondaime Mizukage is allowed to continue his rule over Kirigakure, then all the efforts Uchiha Madara put to control Kirigakure from the shadows would amount to nothing, as such Zetsu also wants the masked man to again take control of Kirigakure.

"The guards following Mizukage are two elite Anbu!" – said Zetsu.

The masked thought a little and said, "In that case, we will take control of Mizukage, inform Nagato and Konan to meet me in the Land of Water, and there we will ambush Mizukage, effectively controlling over the entire Kirigakure from the shadows."

Karatachi Yagura is indeed strong, with his own strength he managed to reach a degree of consensus with the Sanbi sealed inside him, as such his strength is obviously nothing to scoff at.

Although the masked man is sure that he can easily deal with the Mizukage very easily because of his Mangekyou Sharingan and Wood Release, having Pain and Konan will only make it much easier to take control of Mizukage.

Zetsu said as he submerged into the ground "Alright, I will inform Nagato and Konan to meet you in the Land of Water in about two weeks from today."

The masked man also disappeared into the spiraling whirl, closely following the soon-to-be puppet Mizukage.

…

A week later, Hyuga Kuroto's home.

Poof…

With a poof of white smoke, the tiger-striped orange cat appeared before Kuroto.

As soon as the cat appeared before she asked for One thousand Ryo as usual and after Kuroto gave the thousand Ryo bill, the cat passed a scroll to Kuroto and left into a poof of white smoke.

Kuroto unfolded the scroll and read the information on it, and muttered, "At the end of next month, there is going to be a celestial phenomenon which would lead to the occurrence of Aurora lights, and Hiruko plans to use that opportunity to complete the ritual?"

Kuroto deduced this based on the intelligence that Shinichi sent him.

"Currently it is the second week of this month, which means that the ritual will take place about six weeks from now?"

When Kuroto thought of the fact that six weeks from now Hiruko will be performing the ritual to absorb the five Kekkei Genkai, the sense of urgency in Kuroto's mind increased.

This is because he wants to go to the scene and personally observe the entire ceremony in full detail.

But the problem is that the entire Akatsuki will also be present there since Pain had arranged the members of Akatsuki to help gather the Kekkei Genkai therefore it is obvious that they will ensure his safety during the ritual process, so it is obvious that Kuroto can't be present there so openly.

"How should I sneak there?" – as Kuroto thought of this issue, he suddenly got an idea.

…

A month later.

In this period of a month, Kuroto put a lot of his time to train the Female Fire Nature Clone, although the time he spent training this clone has been very short, its effects were still very visible.

It is probably because of the fact that Kuroto already has experience of cultivating the clones so he did not face any active problems.

However, there are some passive problems, one of which is the Chakra Natures of this Clone body, because of the Shisui's genes present in the clone, the chakra natures of this clone body are Fire, Lightning, and Yin.

Fire Release and Yin Release are obviously the primary Chakra Natures, while Lightning Release is the secondary Chakra nature.

And as far as Kuroto knows, there doesn't seem to be any Kekkei Genkai in the shinobi world that is a fusion of Fire Release and Lightning Release.

The only thing that even comes close to being a possibility of being a fusion of Fire Release and Lightning release is Uchiha Sasuke's Blaze Release, but Kuroto knows that Blaze Release developed by Uchiha Sasuke is Amaterasu molded into different forms under the control of Sasuke's Kagutsuchi.

As such, there is really no Kekkei Genkai with Fire and Lightning being its elementary Chakra Natures.

Therefore, if Kuroto wants to attain his objective of cultivating this female clone up to the standards for being used in the ritual, then Kuroto has to develop an all-new Kekkei Genkai that has never appeared in the Shinobi World before.

This is obviously not an easy task, but he has no other choice but to do so.

After completing a day of training, Kuroto came to his laboratory.

Looking at Uchiha Ryota on the test bench, his eyes grew colder.

Right now, the two pairs of eyeballs in each eyesocket have started to return into a normal shape, but they are far from being merged completely as there are still two pupils clearly visible in each eye socket, this indicated that the two pairs have yet to integrate successfully.

And here lies the problem, it has already been almost two months since the fusion process started, but it is still far from being completed, and this is making Kuroto very annoyed.

Considering his plans, Kuroto decided that he can't take it anymore and said coldly, "Stop pretending to be unconscious Uchiha Ryota, I have not injected any drug inside of you for the past month, and the fact that you are conscious is not hidden from my eyes."

It was a few days ago, that Kuroto decided to stop injecting the drugs into Ryota's body so that the speed of fusion of the two pairs increases, and it is obvious that Ryota's consciousness was restored because of the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan Fusion.

Initially, Kuroto did not point it out because, there is no threat from Ryota anymore, his whole body is sealed from inside and out as such he can't even blink his eyes without alerting Kuroto. And because there is a need for a host whose will would guide the fusion of two Mangekyou Pairs, so Kuroto chose to remain silent and let Ryota do the work that he is 'supposed' to do!

After all, that's all he is useful for anyways.

But Ryota who was detained, tortured, and almost killed by Kuroto has yet not learned the lesson, let alone speeding up the fusion of two pairs of Mangekyou Sharingan, he even put his effort to deliberately slow down the already slow fusion process, which has only increased Kuroto's dilemma, greatly annoying him!

Exposed by Kuroto, Ryota grinned weakly and flapped his lips speaking something but no voice came out. Although Ryota couldn't perfectly control his muscles to grin or speak, Kuroto noticed that it was a mocking grin and also understood what he was trying to speak because of his training in lip reading.

"Sure enough, I can't hide from you, but what is with your voice…? Why does it… why do you sound like a woman?"

Kuroto didn't bother to answer Ryota's question about why his voice sounds like a woman, and asked instead, "Why are you trying to prevent the fusion of two Mangekyou Sharingan into Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan?"

Ryota again flapped his lips, "Why? Because it's fun! Annoying is fun! Without my will to be a guide to the fusion process to the two pairs of Mangekyou Sharingan, you will never get the completely integrated Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan!"

Kuroto frowned, "Don't waste your meaningless effort, first and foremost, the two pairs will integrate regardless of what you try! All your futile attempts to stop the process will slow it down and nothing more, so your efforts are worthless in the end.

And you seem to be confused about some things, you are not the only Uchiha, there is Hideki in one of my other secret labs, then there is Shisui, moreover, your attempts to annoy me will only increase your suffering before your inevitable death, are you so hell-bent on suffering more?"

But it seemed that Ryota didn't care. "You can try whatever you want, but as long as these eyeballs are in my eyesockets I am going to do everything to stop their integration!"

Kuroto was silent for a moment and then asked curiously, "Since you chose to communicate with me, it means that you still have something that you want from me, right? Come on tell me, what is it that you want?"

When asked by Kuroto; Ryota suddenly went silent and finally spoke, "I want to have a final fight with you; using all the power that an Uchiha can have, that is with the power of the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan!"

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Read up to Chapter - 515 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations