WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 173, "The Secret Behind the Underground Room," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The Boruto anime has gone into overdrive recently with Kara's intentions coming into the light. Victor and Deepa are hoping to play a part in the ultimate plan of feeding on the chakra fruit. The latest episode ties directly into this feast, because it has shockingly revived one of Naruto's deadliest enemies: the God Tree itself.
When the feudal lord of the Land of Valleys comes to Victor's lab, he and his bodyguards are taken to a secret section after being disinfected. However, his entourage is revealed to be Mugino and Konohamaru, who shape-shifted and assumed these positions. They break the lord out of his genjutsu, where he thinks he's seeing science cells with the Hashirama Cell healing people. When the facade drops, he realizes he's in a macabre experimental chamber where the DNA is mutating into a giant beast.
Konohamaru and Mugino start fighting off assailants as Victor and his assistant escape, indicating to the lord they want to save him and get the DNA back to Konoha. Unfortunately, that'll be easier said than done as the creature's tentacles are revealed to be roots, with one sapping chakra from Konohamaru's arm. This is the first sign of what the entity is, and as it breaks the containment unit, the tree rises up with the Divine Flower atop it.
This is why Victor has been collecting people fused with the unique DNA in overhead tanks: they're basically batteries, providing chakra to the tree. Hashirama's genetics boost their energy levels and make the fruit richer. Granted, it's much smaller than the tree from when Kaguya manipulated Obito and Madara, but its flower looks like it's filled with chakra. Kaguya's tree trapped all of the ninja alliance, bar Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, and once it drained everyone's life essence, she could eat the fruit, evolve and move to another planet.
The tree needs a master or else it could run wild, and it seems Victor's trying to be this to see if he and Deepa could upgrade too. It's unknown if there'll be side effects or if Jigen commissioned this as a test, but it seems to be working. Sadly, Victor's got two floors worth of staff he's going to sacrifice, but it could get worse -- the tree may turn into a version of the Ten Tails. This beast's husk is the seedling for the tree, so it's unknown how warped a diluted version can be or what it could do should the tree revert to such a form.
Victor himself might not be able to predict what's going to happen due to the violent and unpredictable nature of Hashirama's DNA, as well as whatever base he used for the tree. Luckily, Konohamaru remembers what happened during Kaguya's war and knows that he'll have to get news back to Naruto ASAP. If the tree goes sentient again, there will be hell to pay.
