Death Forest, Kusagakure group's gathering point.
"Is this... enough?"
The faint fluorescent glow slowly faded from her face. Hada Anna crouched down, looked at the back of Hada Ryuhiko, who was half-kneeling ahead of her and pasting something on in a crouch, then rested her chin in her hands and spoke.
"Mm."
Hada Ryuhiko, his face already filled with seriousness, nodded in response.
At the same time, he lightly dipped the brush in his hand into the viscous liquid in the small bowl held in his other hand, then began drawing and writing across the tree trunk.
At that moment, he and Hada Anna were crouched atop the roots on the back side of one of the six giant trees. They were reattaching the bark they had stripped off earlier, and as he drew and wrote, the cuts in the bark were continuously concealed by the viscous liquid.
A color that perfectly matched the tree's original bark gradually covered those faint flaws. It was clear that once Hada Ryuhiko finished, the trunk would return to an "unblemished" state.
"Will they be okay inside?"
Watching Hada Ryuhiko work, Hada Anna pouted slightly and asked.
"They'll be fine. When I hollowed out this tree trunk earlier, I left quite a few hidden air vents. They'll be fine inside."
Hada Ryuhiko replied, clearly knowing whom Hada Anna was asking about.
At this moment, the tree trunk before them was not merely stripped of bark. Behind that broad section of bark, large enough for an adult to walk freely through, lay a huge hidden space occupying nearly three-quarters of the giant tree's diameter.
And hidden inside that space were the members of Kusagakure.
What Anna had asked about was their condition.
Clearly, Hada Ryuhiko had long since made a thorough plan. While hollowing out