Perhaps because Tsunade had joined them, the two chatted and laughed along the way, their vigilance dropping considerably.
Robb, meanwhile, was focused entirely on searching for the scent pouch, so neither the two of them nor the dog noticed the figure lying in the mud they had just passed through, covered head to toe in filth.
The mud-covered man watched Tsunade and Hoshi leave, his eyes gleaming. He got up and ran toward a patch of dense forest nearby.
Inside the Jiajin Cult's temporary base, Lord Kirū waited anxiously for word from his followers, worried that those useless fools would fail to find even a single target.
Just as he was pacing in circles, the mud-covered man rushed in. "Lord Kirū, I saw the targets you selected. There are two of them, and they're traveling east together."
"Take me there, quickly!"
While Lord Kirū followed the mud-covered man to track down Tsunade and Hoshi, Tsunade and Hoshi ran into trouble on their end as well.
They had been moving through the forest for some time when Robb suddenly barked. It meant he had caught the scent of the pouch.
Hoshi and Tsunade were delighted. Just as they were about to change direction and search for the pouch's owner, someone came rushing over from afar, and the three of them found themselves face-to-face.
Under normal circumstances, Hoshi, who was eager to reunite with Sakumo and the others, would not have cared about someone approaching. As long as neither side started trouble, simply passing each other by would have been ideal.
But the man opposite them wore a Kumogakure Headband. That was something they could not ignore.
After all, their purpose in taking part in the Chunin Exam was to eliminate as many Kumogakure ninja as possible and prevent Kumogakure from winning