When Kazue arrived at the cave, she saw a lump of flesh letting out a shrill howl, an astonishing amount of Chakra surging through its entire body.
What... is going on?
Kazue stared at Genitsu and Obito in stunned confusion.
"Eh, it's Kazue..."
Genitsu calmly plucked the fleshy buds from his body one by one as he looked up in surprise.
He had thought the ones returning might be Might Guy and Kakashi, but he had not expected Kazue...
"I was worried about your safety, so I came back early to support you. But it seems I worried for nothing..."
Kazue let out a deep breath and smiled. "I don't know exactly what happened, but that's Hiruko, isn't it? He actually turned into this..."
"Yeah. He chose to defect, then attacked me."
Genitsu gave a soft laugh.
Kazue paused, unable to comprehend the scene before her. She then looked at Obito, only to find that he was even more bewildered than she was, so she immediately gave up on asking him anything.
"Don't underestimate Hiruko, Kazue. In a sense, he may be your hope."
Genitsu spoke meaningfully.
Then he slapped Hiruko, making him shut up.
After pondering for a moment—
"The village will definitely investigate this. And he tracked us here, leaving behind plenty of traces. None of that can be hidden from the elites of the ANBU and Intelligence Division."
If they discovered that Hiruko had not actually been killed by the Stone Ninja, but had instead vanished near where Genitsu and the others had appeared...
A cold glint flashed through Genitsu's eyes. If he killed Hiruko on the spot, it would only make things more troublesome.
"Forget it. For now, we'll treat this guy as a summoning beast. Once things settle down, we'll retrieve him."
Genitsu raised a