Inside the Akatsuki.
Zou Hyuga received a reply from Konoha. Looking at the graceful handwriting in the letter, he could not help chuckling.
Although the wording was extremely cold, Oto's concern for his situation still showed between the lines, even though she knew perfectly well that he could leave the Akatsuki whenever he wanted. Perhaps that was a girl's sensitivity.
Once I return to the village, I'll confess properly and make our relationship official while I'm at it.
Zou Hyuga silently set that flag for himself, then crumpled the letter into scraps and continued his experiment.
Most of the items he had entrusted Bell Cat to deliver came from his recent experiments. Besides Chakra Armor technology, they included a whole range of other technologies, such as his research findings on white Zetsu cells.
Come to think of it, a considerable portion of those results had been entrusted to Sasori.
After capturing Sasori's core, he had been using Sasori's intellect for research. Sasori truly lived up to his reputation as the strongest puppet, having inherited all of Sunagakure's puppetry techniques and achieved an alternative form of immortality.
Unlike Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation, which resembled possession, Sasori had turned himself into a core, compressing his consciousness and soul into a single place. As long as the core remained intact, he could keep replacing his body.
Of course, this very trait also meant Sasori could never escape his grasp.
Zou Hyuga could not bear to kill such a gifted researcher outright.
After working for a while, Zou Hyuga suddenly looked outside the laboratory. He put away the project he had been working on, then headed out and arrived outside the hall of the Akatsuki's base.
Before entering the hall, Zou Hyuga spotted Orochimaru, Hiruko, and Shinnō.
Including himself, there were already four full-fledged