Hiruko

Konoha, Senju Clan Grounds.

During a rare break between missions, Tianyi shut himself away in a quiet room deep within the training grounds.

He sat cross-legged, with a Flying Thunder God Kunai placed dozens of meters away.

Its formula was inscribed upon it and kept in a lightly activated state, radiating steady spatial-coordinate ripples.

He was undergoing the first stage of adaptation training, identifying and locking onto that unique—

—the spatial-coordinate ripple belonging to the Flying Thunder God Formula.

This required an extremely high degree of mental focus.

A fine sheen of sweat formed on Tianyi's forehead, and his eyes trembled faintly beneath his eyelids.

His entire mind was immersed in the subtle interaction between those profound spatial ripples and his own chakra threads.

He could feel that wisp of connection slowly becoming clearer...

Huff, huff, huff! After taking several breaths, Tianyi rose to his feet and shook his head. That was enough for today.

Just then—

"Fox, emergency mission. Report to the ANBU base immediately." An ANBU member used the Body Flicker Technique to appear before Tianyi.

Tianyi immediately headed for the ANBU base with the ANBU member.

When he entered the squad assembly room, Captain Blue Bird and two other team members were already there.

Blue Bird did not waste words. Once everyone had arrived, he immediately spread a sealed mission scroll across the table.

Along with a border map of the Land of Waterfalls.

"Emergency mission. Target: former Leaf Village Jonin, Hiruko." Blue Bird's voice came through his mask.

Tianyi's pupils contracted imperceptibly behind his mask.

Hiruko... the infamous man obsessed with forbidden techniques, creator of the "Chimera Technique."

That mad researcher who sought to fuse multiple Kekkei Genkai?

If he had only just defected at this point, then the Chimera Technique should not have been perfected