Hearing Xuandou's voice, Tsunade immediately put down Kashin Koji, gathered chakra throughout her body, and stood on guard.
She had always trusted Xuandou deeply.
Meanwhile, the peanut-sized, black-hole-like circular portal in the upper-left corner of the Laboratory trembled slightly and closed, concealing its traces.
Severely injured on the floor, Kashin Koji lay expressionless with his eyes closed, occasionally convulsing and coughing up a mouthful of blood.
His slightly twitching ears and the chakra constantly gathering in his depleted chakra pathways showed that he was not being quite so docile...
The Laboratory fell silent.
"Still not coming out?"
Xuandou paused and surveyed the chaotic Laboratory, his gaze passing over where the portal had appeared. With a soft chuckle, he tapped the lid of a nearby hibernation pod.
"Mr. Bagu... please get up. Lying on the floor any longer would be a little rude."
Tsunade's expression shifted, and she followed Xuandou's gesture to look at the old man on the floor beside the hibernation pod.
The old man, Bagu, slowly opened his eyes, rubbed his head, and timidly rose. He looked at Tsunade, then at Xuandou, his movements stiff, looking nothing like the acting head of a base.
"Open these two hibernation pods."
Xuandou glanced at the circular portal that had reappeared beside Kashin Koji. Pretending not to notice, he turned his back and told Bagu to open the hibernation pods.
"S-sir, Lord Bogu has sole control over the hibernation pods. An old man like me can't open them!"
"Besides, out of fear, Lord Bogu specifically injected large quantities of energy suppressants and sleeping drugs into the pods."
"Without the passwords and the special opening procedure, the drug concentrations inside the pods will keep rising. Not only will they not open, but the people inside will be harmed."
"So..."
The white-bearded Bagu