“What happened?! They just froze in place!!” A concerned Ayanami snaps her fingers in Naruto’s face.

Naruto doesn’t move, twitch, or even react; he just stands there as perfectly still as a statue, the wind blows a leaf in his eye and the hero still doesn’t react. The same can be said for Itachi and Bee, they just stand frozen with Itachi’s crow remaining on Naruto’s right shoulder. The bird is frozen as well.

However, Jin’s attention is drawn elsewhere; he notices his hand is shaking again and more profusely than before. His breathing slowly becomes more rapid and deep with each passing second. The world goes quiet as Jin falls to his knees with sweat running down his face. Rito comes and gently helps Jin back to his feet.

After Ayanami removes the leaf from Naruto’s eye, she quickly notices Jin in his current predicament. “Are you alright?! Do you need a bag or something?”

“There are no bags here--wait, I know what to do!” Rito reaches into Jin’s clothes and pulls out his book and pen. “Idle hands are the devil’s playground. You like to draw, so draw. You need a safe, emotional structure.”

With trembling hands, Jin takes the book and pen; he opens the book up and draws with focus. Jin slowly calms down and regains himself with each stroke of the wrist.

“So, what do we do now? …What do we do about them?” Ayanami looks back and Naruto and company with concern.

“D-Don’t worry, they’re… t-they're fine.” Jin tries to explain to the kunoichi. “I just froze their perception of time. They’re fine, I-I… I promise…”

Echo appears behind Naruto and takes the crow, turning his back on the three young ninja. Ayanami, Jin and Rito can tell that Echo is messing with the crow, they hear squishing sounds followed by a loud squirt. Echo turns back around and walks over to Jin; he hands the Onikage a small medical jar that contains Shisui’s eye, suspended in incubation fluid.

“THAT’S DISGUSTING!! DISGUSTING AND MORBID!” Rito gags profusely.

“It’s necessary.” Echo places the crow on the ground and sets it ablaze with Amaterasu.

As Echo takes off his mask and stares Naruto and Itachi directly in the eyes; Jin puts down his book, turns away, and stares at the eye. When he looks at the eye, Jin is disgusted, but still sees new possibilities opening up.

“Mileena, front and center.”

A black mass of slime runs down Jin’s leg and slithers a few feet away. It rises to the ground, taking on a more humanoid appearance with eyes full of determination. “Yes, Father?”

The black mass takes on a voluptuous humanoid appearance with no hair and red eyes. She displays sharp, non-human teeth and a long, prehensile tongue protrudes from her mouth. She smiles and salutes her creator, waiting for her new orders.

“W-what the hell is that?!” Ayanami shouts, falling on her backside in shock.

“Oh, yeah… This is Mileena, Jin made her from his own chakra. Don’t worry, I had the same reaction as you.” Rito holds out his hand to Ayanami. “Hey, Jin? Why does Mileena look like… a girl version of Venom?”

“‘Cuz symbiotes are cool.” A lethargic Jin gives a brief smirk and then hands Mileena the container. “Anyway… Mileena your mission is to find Danzo’s body and bring me the other eye.”

“But Danzo crushed the other… Oh, I see what you’re plotting. But still… How am I supposed to find it? You never even found out where Tobi keeps his spare eyes.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“True, I don’t know… But I know who does.” Jin kneels down and places his right hand on the ground.

The young Uzumaki injects his sage chakra into the battle-scarred ground and a few moments later, a pair of White Zetsu clones erupt from the ground. One lands on his back and the other on his rear; the two Zetsu stare at the group with a mixed look of shock and bewilderment.

“...Y-you knew we were here?” One of the fearful Zetsu coughs up.

“Ever since we left the coast. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you?” Cocking his head to one side, Jin looks down on them. “Mileena?”

Jin’s creation springs into action and pounces on the White Zetsu to the left, she graphs onto his body and completely covers him; The black mass takes on a more masculine physique and bulks up some. Mileena grabs the other Zetsu by the neck and lifts him up.

Using her long tongue, Mileena licks the side of Zetsu's face and sneers, “Eyes, lungs, pancreas… so many snacks, so little time.”

“Who… what… are you?!” Zetsu struggles to break free of her grip. His tone is full of fear.

“You may call me Mileena and I’m feeling hungry.”

“D-Damn… D-Damn… you…!”

In one quick move, Mileena pulls Zetsu in closer and opens her maw wide; the last thing this Zetsu ever sees are several rows of razor-sharp pearly whites coming right at him. Licking her face clean, Mileena drops the headless body on the ground and turns to face her creator.

“Leave it to me father! You’ll have both eyes before the war’s end.” Mileena declares as she slowly sinks into the ground.

She completely disappears, leaving behind the dead Zetsu body. A white substance gushes out of the corpse’s neck wound. The sight of the headless Zetsu makes Jin baby vomit a little in his mouth, he swallows it back down and goes back to drawing.

“How are you not freaked out by that?!” Ayanami shouts with her face turning green.

Not lifting his head up from his book, Jin simply replies with, “I’ve almost died multiple times, I have PTSD anxiety attacks now, and I don’t even know if I’m even human anymore… I have bigger things to wor--”

“Can we please move on with the plan now?” Echo impatiently interrupts their conversation before it gets long. “I want to see Moryo’s head on a wall sometime soon.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Right now? You just need to undo your jutsu, I’ve already put them under genjutsu. They believe Itachi destroyed the crow and that Naruto just received advice about teamwork.”

We’re nearing the finish line, Jin… You can do this; after war, you’ll have two years of rest until The Last movie and after that, another thirteen years until Boruto. YOU! CAN! DO THIS!! Trying to perk himself up from his episode, Jin turns to face Naruto, Itachi, and Bee. “Release!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, back at the Nina Alliance headquarters, Tsunade and Raikage Ay are at the table, waiting urgently for new information.

“Well?” Ay taps his finger on the table.

“I have good news and bad news. The Good news is that Jin has so far kept true to his word, he’s regrouped with Naruto and sent shadow clones to multiple battlefields.” Shikaku replies. “It seems we were right to trust Ayanami’s faith in him…”

With exigency written on her face, Tsunade stares at Shikaku. “What’s the bad news?”

“It’s… it’s the prisoner Jin delivered…”

“Go on.”

“When we had him taken away to be interrogated, an explosion occurred minutes into the interrogation. The prisoner had an explosion jutsu formula inscribed on his body that had a delayed effect. The only information we were able to get was that he worked for Moryo and Yomi and that they’re waiting to ambush us during the final battle.”

The three go silent as they ponder the unknown ramifications of what they’ve learned.