"But, one thing first." I looked towards Inoichi. "Do you have anything more that you need to say? Any more information that you need to take?"
Inoichi frowned. "I already have... most of the important matters. Losing the source now should not be a major setback."
I turned to Hiruzen.
"If you're wrong, will it kill them?" He asked.
"No." I shook my head. "But if I'm right, it will no longer be Zetsu."
He considered that, before nodding. "Do it."
I nodded. Inoichi let go of Zetsu as I approached him, moving back a few steps.
Zetsu looked up, blearily. Mind reading was not a particularly gentle thing, so that didn't surprise me.
Tendrils of Darkness sprung up from his shadow, binding him quickly. I held his arms out to the side, leaving his chest wide open. Another tendril sharpened and cut off his cloak, leaving it bare.
He struggled, but it was a light struggle of someone not entirely aware of themselves.
I knelt in front of him, placed my hand on his chest, and pushed.
My hand sank in. Not... physically, exactly. He wasn't harmed by it, though the discomforted sound he made as it did might have suggested otherwise.
I touched the Soul. Threaded My Darkness into it. It was disturbingly blank, a personality that was just so... manufactured in its mundanity.
I touched the Heart. Threaded My Darkness into it. It was a weak thing, echoing with hollow-fear and imposed-desire.
I reached deeper, into the Heart itself. I found a Memory, and followed it until I found more Memories.
The chain of Memories was not a particularly long one. A little over a decade and a half, and before that...
As Inoichi said, a blankness. Still, there was a Memory, weak and faded, and thus, it linked the chain.
I followed that, and reached into what seemed to be the deepest parts of the Heart.
The chain ended there, connected to nothing before it. That Memory, of the long blank period, was the start of Zetsu.
It would seem, then, that Zetsu was not a remnant of the old, but something born new.
It would seem, and it would be wrong.
Because it was not the deepest depths of the Heart. I could... feel that. Whether it was my nature or something else, I knew that there was something hidden, here.
So, I did as Kakashi always said. I looked underneath the underneath, feeling for the depths of the Heart that the Heart itself had long forgotten-
And I Saw.
My eyes closed.
I admit, on some level... I was hoping I was wrong.
I pulled.
Zetsu's Heart and Soul came free easily. The Body slumped backwards, not dead, but no longer possessing a will to animate it.
My Darkness shifted, and Zetsu's Soul became translucently visible, looking around with something like shock on his face.
"This is not who you are." Was all I said. My Darkness was still inside of the Heart, and I felt for a Memory, one in particular. It didn't take me very long to find it. "You are Takaero Tsukunaya."
Zetsu's form shattered like spun glass. What took its place was a man, old and decrepit.
Grey hair mixed with bagged skin and liver spots told me how old the man had once been. The clothes were simple, an old, well-worn robe that was almost as old fashioned now as it was a thousand years ago. A cane in one hand reached down to the floor, though it was entirely unnecessary as nothing but a Heart and a Soul.
The face was blank, unseeing and unhearing- but then he blinked, looked around the room, and some semblance of life returned to his eyes.
He turned, catching sight of Zetsu's body. At once, his face twisted in a grimace, and he sighed. "Ah."
His voice was as wispy and ethereal as he himself was.
I held a hand out, Darkness forming into a chair. I placed it down, offering it to him.
"Thank you." He murmured, taking it.
"It was no trouble."
"Not for the chair." He clarified. "For... For me. I didn't think... that I was ever going to be myself again."
"Of course."
He dropped his head, eyes closing. He breathed, slowly, though no air was drawn in or pushed out.
"Do you know what happened to you?"
He nodded, eyes opening, and a serious, worn expression crossed his face. "Yes. I became that... Zetsu."
Ah... "You remember."
He nodded again, more slowly this time.
"Can you tell us?" Hiruzen asked.
"I do not think I will be able to tell you as much as you might hope." Takaero said. "I do not know how or why. I could only tell you what I experienced when it did happen."
"That is fine." Mei assured.
"I lived in the Land of Ancestors." Takaero began. "A simple life, in a simple village, far from the happenings of the crown. I was an elder of the village, one of seven. I provided guidance, and mediated conflicts. All was well, until, one day, a monster appeared." His eyes closed again. "It was a terrible thing. Ten tails, a body that was larger than mountains, all warped and twisted, a single red eye. You call it the Juubi."
With pieces of me inside of his Heart, all it took was a bit of focus to see.
The monster loomed in the distance, limbs flailing as it charged towards the village. The people around you were in a panic, but you showed no fear. You were a rock, as sturdy and implacable as the earth. You gave strength to others from yourself.
You could not show your fear.