At Gua's words, Itachi froze for a moment.
He was just about to ask what had happened when he sensed a terrifying chill.
He whipped his head around.
A strange man stood on a tree trunk, dressed in a white robe, with long hair and bandages wrapped around his body.
His utterly emotionless eyes watched the two of them.
"Someone from Iwagakure?"
Itachi instinctively went on guard and pulled a kunai from his pack.
Strangely, the man wasn't wearing an Iwagakure forehead protector. More precisely, he wasn't wearing any village's forehead protector.
"You're still alive? What a shame. I was hoping to collect your corpses."
Regret seeped into the voice of the man in the tree.
Itachi's brows knitted tightly.
"Collect our corpses? What do you mean?"
The man still didn't answer Itachi's question. He jumped down from the tree.
He walked slowly toward them.
"Come with me. I need a small favor from you."
The man's voice was remarkably calm.
Hidden in the shadows, Fugaku's pupils contracted when he saw the man.
Itachi and Gua didn't recognize him, but Fugaku did!
"Hiruko!"
He was a shinobi from the same class as Orochimaru and the others, though his talent had been thoroughly unremarkable.
Later, he had researched forbidden techniques and defected from the village.
"I never expected him to turn up here."
Fugaku didn't reveal himself immediately.
Once they stepped onto the battlefield, they had to face whatever might happen.
Unless Gua and Itachi were on the verge of death, he wouldn't intervene.
Besides,
given Hiruko's talent, he shouldn't be particularly strong. At most, he would be at the level of a Special Jōnin.
They probably wouldn't die here.
Below, Itachi was already prepared to fight.
"Enough with the cryptic nonsense. If you want to fight, then come on."
Boom!