"What's with this Ryūchi Cave? How much farther is it?"
Wearing a hooded trench coat, Karin stood atop a tall, bare rock pillar and gazed north, unable to stop herself from muttering.
"Quit complaining. It's unprofessional," Wu Yu said without even looking up from the sheltered crevice below.
Nearby, Jugo and Kimimaro were setting up temporary camping tents.
Karin muttered, "You can hear that too? Why are your ears so sharp—"
When she looked down, Wu Yu, who had been sitting below just moments ago, had vanished. The next instant, his voice sounded behind her. "You know I can hear you, and you still dare talk shit behind my back?"
Karin snorted. "If I know you can hear it, then it doesn't count as talking behind your back!"
It had been about a week since they left Orochimaru's Northern Base. Following the directions Jugo provided, the group of four had headed north in search of Ryūchi Cave, one of the three great sacred summoning grounds.
As for Yinglian, she had parted ways with them when they left the Northern Base. This time, she finally believed and accepted Wu Yu's recommendation, taking the child whose disability had been cured to Konoha in the Fire Country.
This was different from the Southern Base last time. The Northern Base had been specially used by Orochimaru for human experiments. Those imprisoned here were all lucky survivors of Cursed Seal experiments, where the survival rate was less than one in ten. One could only imagine how many people had died here.
Wu Yu had always naturally felt more sympathy for victims of human experimentation. He felt nothing about leaving the prisoners at the Southern Base behind without a second thought, but this time was entirely different. Even though he believed that these people, having already