Right now, Obito didn't want to hear Black Zetsu talk.
Right now, all Obito wanted was to be alone with his Rin.
He gazed at the gravestone in front of him with deep affection. If Black Zetsu hadn't been there getting in the way, Obito definitely would've started pouring out all the grievances in his heart to the girl he loved.
He truly couldn't understand it. All he wanted was to create a world where Rin existed—so why was that so hard?
"Do whatever you said you were going to do."
"When the time comes for me to act, I'll act."
Obito gave the order to Black Zetsu in a low, grave voice.
And the reason he was using such a grave voice was obvious—there was no way he was going to lose face in front of Rin's grave.
Black Zetsu, naturally, couldn't understand that little bit of sentimentality. It only felt that Obito was acting strangely, but didn't think too much about it and slipped back into the ground.
Today was a big day in Konoha. Black Zetsu trusted that the village's guard would definitely be slacker than usual.
As soon as he figured out whether the Great Tenseigan was in Hyuga Neji's hands or Hyuga Hinata's, he planned to incite Obito to make his move.
As for Hinata herself, she really hadn't gone to today's Hokage inauguration ceremony.
It wasn't just because she lacked the strength to matter there. More importantly, she was still trying to understand her new eyes.
Even after the Tenseigan chakra wrapped around her body had faded, her eyes remained pale blue.
With those pale-blue Tenseigan eyes, Hinata still possessed incredible x-ray vision even without actively using the Byakugan. Part of the reason she stayed indoors was because she was afraid of accidentally seeing something she shouldn't.
"Big sister, your eyes are so beautiful…"
Hanabi clung to Hinata's side. At her age, she didn't have that many worries. She didn't know why their father was gone, or why they had left the Hyuga estate, but life right now didn't seem all that bad.
At the very least, her big sister Hinata was still with her.
"Hanabi will have eyes like these one day too."
Hinata gently stroked Hanabi's head.
Now that Hinata had awakened the Tenseigan—even if it was only the pale-blue stage—she could already recharge the Great Tenseigan.
That didn't just mean the giant eye's chakra wouldn't run out so easily. It also meant that both Neji and Hanabi now had a possibility as well:
the possibility of evolving their Byakugan into Tenseigan.
Even if they never reached the stage of a complete Tenseigan, awakening a dark-blue Tenseigan shouldn't be impossible for them.
Hanabi leaned into Hinata's touch, her Byakugan eyes filled with confusion and contentment.
It should have been a warm, peaceful scene.
But a sinister voice suddenly shattered that warmth.
"Ah! Found it!"
"So you really entrusted a treasure like the Tenseigan to a little girl!"
Black Zetsu emerged from the wall.
The moment his eyes fell on the Great Tenseigan, even a creature that had lived for over a thousand years couldn't help feeling excited.
To everyone else, it was just a Tenseigan.
But to Black Zetsu, it was hope—hope for bringing his mother back.
"Who are you?!"
Hinata might be timid, but she still rose to her feet immediately and took a Gentle Fist stance.
To Hinata's simple understanding of the world, this pitch-black thing, half-covered in fire, clearly didn't look like anything good.
"So you awakened your own Tenseigan through the Great Tenseigan's power…"
"Even if it's only the most basic stage of the Tenseigan, at your age…"
Black Zetsu ignored Hinata entirely, instead studying the pale-blue Tenseigan in her eyes with interest.
"So that's how it is…"
"Hiashi must have realized long ago that you had the aptitude to awaken the Tenseigan. That's why he was willing to go that far, all or nothing."
"He force-ripened the Great Tenseigan using the eyes of the entire Hyuga clan, then used that Great Tenseigan to guide his own daughter into awakening the Tenseigan."
By now, Black Zetsu had basically seen through the whole truth.
Or rather, once you saw both Hinata and the Tenseigan together, any shinobi with half a brain could more or less piece it together.
Neji might have chosen to stay silent about the truth, but it was never going to stay hidden for long.
Though Neji probably never imagined the first person to reveal it to Hinata wouldn't be some malicious villager—but Black Zetsu.
"What did you say?"
Hearing Black Zetsu's words, Hinata's pale-blue Tenseigan eyes tightened, and her whole body tensed.
"I said your father used his own eyes—and the eyes of your entire Hyuga clan—to help you awaken the Tenseigan."
Black Zetsu only laughed darkly at Hinata's reaction.
Now that Hinata had awakened the Tenseigan, she was someone who absolutely had to die in Black Zetsu's eyes.
But before killing her, Black Zetsu didn't mind letting her die knowing the truth.
As for Hinata's feelings?
What did that have to do with him?
"Shut up!"
"You're not allowed to slander my father!"
Hinata struck with Gentle Fist, one fierce palm chopping toward Black Zetsu.
No one could say for sure whether she struck in anger because Black Zetsu was slandering her father—or because she was terrified that what he said might actually be true.
After awakening the Tenseigan, Hinata's chakra had increased enormously.
In her own mind, that strike should have done no more than knock back the ugly thing in front of her.
But what even Black Zetsu hadn't expected was that Hinata's palm strike punched straight through him—and through the wall behind him as well.
"So the Tenseigan boosts physical power this much?"
Black Zetsu looked at the clear palm print left on his chest, his expression turning incredulous.
He had used White Zetsu to monitor Konoha for a long time. He knew exactly what level Ninja Academy students were supposed to be at.
But that furious strike from Hinata had produced force no weaker than an ordinary taijutsu jōnin's blow.
And that had only been the opening form of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.
"So even a Tenseigan that has only just awakened is already comparable to the Uchiha clan's three-tomoe Sharingan—or even the Mangekyō Sharingan?"
Black Zetsu suddenly realized something unpleasant:
he might genuinely not be a match for the soft-looking little girl in front of him.
And what Black Zetsu hadn't expected even more was that, at this very moment, someone else arrived outside Hinata's door.
"Hinata! Hinata!"
"Big sis Anko said something might be wrong with you, so I came to check on you!"
Downstairs, Naruto stood outside with a steaming bowl of ramen in his hands.
Earlier that morning, while out searching for petty criminals and troublemakers, Naruto had run into Anko Mitarashi. Anko hadn't told him what had happened to the Hyuga clan, but she had mentioned in passing that Hinata probably wasn't in a very good state right now.
Warm-hearted as always, Naruto heard that and immediately spent what little pocket money he had left to buy a bowl of ramen and come see her.