The Forest Guardian extended a tendril and pointed outside the hollow.
"Look at those trees, the twisted ones glowing purple. That's what they look like after being corrupted.
And I-" it pointed at itself, "am one of the few native creatures that survived the corruption.
Most of my people died. The rest mutated into monsters.
Because I live in symbiosis with this ancient tree, I barely managed to retain my consciousness. But I'm trapped in this hollow, relying on the tree's roots to absorb energy from the ley lines to survive."
Naruto looked at the Forest Guardian, at its half-human, half-tree body, at the three sorrowful points of light on its face.
"Are those dark red plants still around?"
"Deep in the forest, there's an enormous cavity. That's the center of the corruption."
The Forest Guardian said, "There's a mother tree at the center of the cavity. All the corrupted plants spread from there. The corpse Uchiha Ryūha took away was found beneath that tree.
He sealed the mother tree before he left, but recently, the seal has weakened."
The Forest Guardian's voice dropped, filled with fear.
"I can feel it. The mother tree is awakening. It's calling for something, searching for something.
If it wakes up completely, the entire Forest of Menos-no, all of Hueco Mundo-will be devoured."
Naruto remembered the memory fragments Liuyu had given him. The Ōtsutsuki's colonization embryos, seeds that transformed ley lines, contingencies Kaguya had left behind.
The mother tree in the Forest of Menos might be one of those seeds.
And there was more than one seed.
"I'm going there," Naruto said.
The Forest Guardian's lights flickered violently. "Are you insane? In your current condition, you couldn't even beat an ordinary Gillian, let alone the mother tree."
"But I have to go." Bracing himself