Escape

"Hyuga..."

Sasuke had just stood up and walked toward Hinata when—

"Hey, Sasuke, what are you doing here? Looking for a beating?"

Before he could even finish speaking, Naruto blocked his way.

"You're annoying. I'm not in the mood to argue with you right now, so get lost." Sasuke looked utterly impatient.

"I won't... Ah! I get it. Don't tell me you want to team up with Hinata? Don't even think about it! It's impossible!"

Sasuke's face flushed as though Naruto had exposed his thoughts, though it was hard to tell.

Sasuke secretly glanced at Hinata, not daring to look directly into her eyes.

"No!"

Sakura, Ino, and the other fangirls let out loud cries of despair. If Sasuke and Hinata really teamed up, they would be in the same group. After spending time together back and forth, what if they ended up together?

Most of the boys in the class also glared at Sasuke with hostile eyes.

"He actually dares?"

"Something I never even considered."

"Just try agreeing to him!"

At that moment, they had completely forgotten that this was only a temporary team-up. More importantly, Sasuke had not formally invited Hinata, and Hinata had not agreed.

"Naruto." Hinata spoke at last.

"What is it, Hinata?" Naruto answered instantly.

"You and Sasuke should team up."

Naruto and Sasuke: "???"

What did that mean?

Naruto was stunned, and so was Sasuke.

Even the classmates watching the show nearby wore looks of utter surprise.

They had considered that Hinata might reject Sasuke's invitation, but they had never expected her to try to pair Naruto and Sasuke together!

"Who would team up with him?!" Naruto and Sasuke said in unison.

""Do you have any idea how annoying this guy is?""

""Don't copy me!""

""You're the one copying me!""

The two drew closer and closer, their faces nearly pressed together.

The classmates in the room looked at them speechlessly. At that moment, they suddenly felt that the two of them were surprisingly in sync.

"All right, it's decided!"

Hinata clapped her hands and cheerfully made the decision for Naruto and Sasuke.

""No, Hinata—Miss Hyuga—you should think it over!""

"Hmph!"

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glance, snorted coldly, and turned their faces away.

Meanwhile, the upperclassmen had already descended into chaos.

As expected, the barrier they had set up did not even last a minute before it was breached.

More importantly, they did not even know what kind of ghost this was.

That was undoubtedly fatal!

Only a few seconds after the ghost appeared, several students had already been eliminated.

By now, two-thirds of the students had vanished.

The remaining students were fleeing in every direction.

Several students had gathered around Neji. His Byakugan could more or less make out traces of the ghost's attacks, so they had voluntarily clustered around him.

Although his Byakugan could indeed roughly see the traces left by the ghost's attacks, the ghost's appearance had changed the entire environment of the school building.

In his vision, the whole building was shrouded in black mist. With that mist concealing everything, it was becoming harder and harder for him to see the traces of the ghost's attacks.

"I wonder how Miss is doing..."

He did not know whether Miss's eyes could see more clearly than his Byakugan, but no matter what, her situation had to be much better than his.

"It's coming."

Naruto and Sasuke, who had still been bickering, immediately stood back-to-back and warily watched their surroundings.

"Where?"

"Yeah? Hinata, where is it?" Naruto's voice trembled slightly. To be honest, he still held some fear toward things like ghosts.

"Anywhere."

"Wasn't that the same as saying nothing?" Shikamaru said helplessly.

Even so, the classmates in the room subconsciously fell silent and watched their surroundings warily.

"Woof, woof, woof..."

In the quiet classroom, a burst of barking suddenly rang out. Kiba Inuzuka immediately leaped onto a desk.

A pair of arms stretched out from beneath his seat.

They were rotten arms, exposing stark white bones, with strips of decayed flesh hanging from them.

The instant they saw those arms, they seemed to smell a stench so foul it was unbearable.

Kiba Inuzuka and his little white dog both tightly covered their noses.

"Aaaah! Help..."

As though that had been a signal, pairs of rotting arms covered in decayed flesh emerged from the classroom floor, walls, and ceiling, grabbing at everyone.

The moment those arms appeared, several students were caught and dragged underground.

The rest all jumped onto their desks.

Fortunately, the arms were of normal length. Standing on the desks and gathering in the middle of the classroom, everyone was temporarily safe.

Except for the desk Choji stood on, which groaned as though it could barely bear the strain whenever he moved...

That made Shikamaru break out in a cold sweat.

But this was only the beginning. They did not believe that a few arms alone could take care of the upperclassmen so quickly.

"Kiba, what's wrong?"

A classmate beside Kiba Inuzuka noticed something was off and asked.

It was not just Kiba Inuzuka. Even his little white dog had stars in its eyes and swayed unsteadily.

"The smell is too strong. If this keeps up, even if those arms don't catch them, they'll pass out from the stench." Shikamaru explained the reason.

"Then what do we do?!"

Hinata tapped Kiba Inuzuka and his little white dog twice on the face, and both of them immediately felt much better.

Hinata explained, "I sealed their sense of smell."

"Thank you."

"Woof."

Kiba Inuzuka and his little white dog thanked Hinata.

"H-head... The head is coming out."

Everyone looked, and sure enough, the heads and necks had already emerged, down to their shoulders.

In a little while, they would all crawl out.

"H-hey, this is bad!"

"Hurry up and think of something!"

"We can only clear these things out first, leave the classroom, and get somewhere open, like the field! And why aren't you thinking of something yourself?"

"That's the only option, but how are we supposed to clear these things out?"

Everyone was stumped. None of them wanted to touch those things.

"I'll do it!"

Sasuke stepped forward and began forming hand seals.

Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!

Several fireballs appeared and struck the corpses crawling out of the floor.

When the flames dispersed, a clear path had opened from where they stood to the door.

Everyone immediately jumped down from the desks and ran out of the classroom along that path.

As Hinata ran out of the classroom, she saw that the people ahead of her were running down the corridor toward the school building's main entrance.

Hinata: "..."

Those idiots had a shortcut and still insisted on taking the long way around.

With a sharp crack, everyone turned around and saw Hinata smash through a window, leap out of the school building, and run toward the field.

Everyone: "..."

That was an option?!

Wouldn't smashing a window get her punished by the teacher?