Chapter 301: Begin (cont.)

But now the arrow was already on the string; there was no choice but to let it fly.

After all, he had already appeared here and been seen by others. For the time being, he had to maintain his current image.

He also had to get to the bottom of this.

And at a time like this, he really couldn't think of anyone who would scheme against him.

Natsuhi? That was impossible. After working together for so many years, he considered himself fairly familiar with Natsuhi.

This was absolutely not something Natsuhi could do.

Besides, what would be the point of colluding with outsiders to eliminate him?

Leaving aside whether Natsuhi's personality would allow her to collude with outsiders, even if she truly could, she definitely wouldn't lure him to a place so close to the village.

What would be the point of doing that? There was no point. And since there was no point, it became a dead end.

So the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was just a minor matter. Maybe he really was overthinking it.

Hoshigakure was not large, and the site of the incident was only a few hundred meters away from the village.

Before long, Akaboshi's group of three, along with the Hoshigakure ninja who had also been alerted along the way,

arrived here together.

In truth, this huge boulder was not as large as they had imagined. It was only because Hoshigakure sat within a valley that the rock's fall had caused such an enormous commotion.

But now a circle of people had gathered around it, and there seemed to be nothing unusual. It was simply that this boulder had perhaps originally been above the valley,

and had likely slipped down due to some unforeseen factor, creating the scene