It was a being that was half man, half tree.
"This is the most complete one we've seen, isn't it?" Belaque said.
"The sound is coming from this person," Uchiha Madara said.
It had been making muffled, hesitant sounds all along, like someone whose life was under threat suddenly spotting passersby.
"You can hear us talking, right?" Carter Binda asked, looking at the tree-like man.
The tree man continued making those muffled sounds, but they had clearly taken on a pattern.
"He seems to understand what we're saying," Carter Binda said.
"But even if he understands us, he has no way to communicate with us. We won't be able to learn anything from him," Carter Binda continued.
"Just knowing there's another person like this is already shocking enough," Uchiha Madara said. "I just don't know what the process was like—how long does it take for a person to become like this?"
Uchiha Madara looked at the pitiful man. This was the most human-like being he had seen so far, yet there was no way to communicate with him.
"If he could talk, he'd be a tremendous help to us," Belaque said.
"If that were the case, he could probably explain this two-colored forest, their identities, and even everything we've encountered so far. It's a pity we can't communicate," Uchiha Madara said.
"Let's go," Belaque said. "There's no point staying here."
After hearing Belaque's words, the tree man's muffled sounds grew louder.
"We want to help you," Uchiha Madara said to the tree man. "But we don't have any way to do so right now. You can't communicate with us either. Can you tell us how we're supposed to help you?"
As soon as Uchiha Madara finished speaking, the tree man slowly began to tremble. With a hand that had almost