“There’s much stronger than before!” Ryo whispered to himself looking at the Ninjas at the entrance of the village, and the barrier around it.

With such fortified protections, Ryo sneaking into the Mist Village one year ago might have been extremely difficult, perhaps even impossible. Now however, Ryo could go wherever he wanted in this country full of water.

During the year he spent in Mount Myoboku, besides accompanying Minato in his training, Ryo constantly practiced his control over his Ice.

Earlier, he managed to greatly enhance the range from which he could form Ice. If he could manipulate such Ice and teleport to it at will, the results he could achieve would be nothing short of miraculous.

However, for some reason, this Ice that was solidified from very long distances was mainly infused with his Spiritual Power, not Natural Energy. This was a shame, for the lack of Natural Energy caused this Ice to be as fragile as what’s in Nature, and also put limitations on Ryo’s ability to manipulate it.

Ryo’s usual control of the Ice he made felt to him like control over his own body. However, controlling this new long distance Ice felt more like the control of a tool in his hand. Obviously, he was less proficient at it, and he could teleport to that Ice.

However, after a long year of practice in Mount Myoboku, Ryo managed to greatly enhance his ability to control this Ice, even without it containing his Natural Energy.

Right now, he could use his mental power to condense moister anywhere around the entirety of the mist village into small crystals, which he attached to Mist Ninjas and then could teleport to at will!

In this way, Ryo attached an Ice Crystal to a guard on the village’s borders, and then waited. When he sensed that his crystal was alone and far enough from the gate as the guard was off-duty, he immediately teleported inside the village.

The guard had just entered home, when Ryo popped up out of nowhere and directly stunned him. After looking through his memories, Ryo used the transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as him, and went out of the house.

According to this Mist Ninja’s memories, Yagura would be usually handling his official duties by this time in the Hokage’s office. Ryo intended to use this Ninja’s ident.i.ty to meet “Yagura”.

No matter which village you’re in, all Ninjas are considered to be equally pillars of the village. If they would have something urgent to say, they would get no obstructions from seeing the Kage.

Soon after, Ryo was standing in front of Yagura, who did not raise his head and just asked indifferently: “Is there anything?”

“Mizukage sama, I want you to see this!”

“Yagura” heard that and grew impatient, raising his head. Just as he looked up, Ryo activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, using Genjutsu directly on him!

In the dark, Obito was shocked; someone else coming to control Yagura was something he definitely did not see coming!

He immediately went all out with his own Genjutsu, wanting to drive Ryo out of Yagura’s consciousness.

Ryo smiled, and then even laughed out loud, before going all out as well. This was a wonderful opportunity to test his Mangekyo against another extremely powerful one, and give it some practice with Genjutsu.

A few minutes later, Obito was observing more and more shocking things. Just like his own Mangekyo Sharingan, Ryo’s didn’t seem to be going blind as he used it, and it was also stronger than the normal Mangekyo!

It was a pity that Obito only had one eye left!

His Spiritual Power levels and his overall stamina were getting weaker and weaker, and Ryo took that opportunity, going far beyond Yagura’s mind into Obito’s!

In Obito’s consciousness, Ryo found a strange seal, with Dojutsu power attached to it.

Ryo frowned in surprise; while the Dojutsu power on the seal was not abundant in quant.i.ty, it was much stronger than his own Dojutsu power, and he couldn’t lift the seal right now.

Judging from the seal’s location and Obito’s behavior, Ryo could only estimate that this seal was blocking Obito’s memories.

‘So this is Madara’s hidden card!’ Ryo thought about that as he left the consciousness of both Obito and Yagura.

As Obito regained control over Yagura, the latter’s body was in cold sweat!

After a long silence, he controlled Yagura to say: “Are you Ryo Yamanaka?”

“Yes, it’s me!” Ryo wanted to see Obito’s reaction.

“Sure enough, I didn’t expect your Mangekyo to get this strong without Has.h.i.+rama’s cells. What brings you to the Mist Village?” Yagura’s voice remained extremely cold, showing no emotion.

Looking at “Yagura” before him, Ryo determined that Obito’s memories were indeed sealed by Madara.

In the dark, Obito was feeling smothered by Ryo’s inexplicable gaze, as if his eyes went through Yagura and reached him directly.

“Nothing, I just wanted to meet an old friend. Now that I did, I’ll be leaving soon. However, before I go, I have one thing to say: Don’t let Black come to Konoha again, otherwise, I won’t let him come back to you next time!” Immediately after finis.h.i.+ng his words, Ryo’s figure disappeared from the office.

With him away, Yagura’s head dropped to the table immediately, and Obito in his lair was gasping for air on the ground.

“What a terrible fellow! I never expected him to have such guts!”After regaining his breath, he asked Black Zetsu: “How come he found you?”

“I have no idea!” Black’s voice revealed his own frustration.

An expert when it comes to hiding, Black Zetsu was infuriated by the idea that he was by now caught twice by Ryo; once in Konoha, and once back at the Rain Country.

“Oh?! Then in that case, don’t go to Konoha anymore! We’ll have our chance to deal with the Uchiha later.”

“Alright, but this time, my harvest is not small. I shouldn’t need to go to Konoha for a while anyway.” Black said smugly.

“Is that right? What did you do?”

“I secretly controlled three of the Uchiha and tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate the Hokage’s subst.i.tute! As long as the higher-ups who hate the Uchiha in Konoha don’t mess up, the clan will have to say goodbye to Konoha’s center for good, and perhaps, even to Konoha itself!”

“Well, you did well. But speaking of that, I can feel that your hatred to the Uchiha is very deep!”

Black blinked, and then immediately said: “That’s because I am the incarnation of Madara’s will. The Uchiha have turned their back on Madara sama, and I will never forgive them!”

Obito nodded to those words, and asked no more, closing his eyes to recover.

After Black Zetsu snuck into the ground, his expression became more aggressive as he said: “My hatred of the Uchiha is certainly deep; those despicable descendents of Hagoromo!” As he said that, he went through the soil, leaving the Water Country.

On the other side, after finally knowing what had happened to Obito, Ryo moved back to Konoha to find out what Kus.h.i.+na could be able to do about Madara’s seal.

The Uzumaki are the most proficient clan of all with Fuinjutsu, and while Ryo had learned many of their seal from Kus.h.i.+na, compared to her, he knew all too well that he was far from being a master.

So now that he couldn’t deal with the seal in Obito’s mind, he had no choice but to hope that Kus.h.i.+na could unlock it.