Return

Shikamaru carried Naruto, whose legs had gone weak with fright, and jumped down through the window Hinata had smashed.

"Ah, that hurt."

Naruto landed face-first and clutched his nose. "What are you doing?!"

"I wouldn't mind if you wanted to blame me, but those things are about to crawl out."

Shikamaru pointed at the Puppet Corpses beginning to crawl out of the classroom.

Naruto's legs went weak again.

"I've already spotted some upperclassmen. We should meet up with them first."

Kiba Inuzuka sniffed. He could still breathe through his nose, but he could not smell anything.

The little white dog on his head kept sticking out its tongue and licking its nose.

"Fine."

The classmates who had jumped out the windows all agreed.

"Miss, are you all right?"

Neji, who had spotted Hinata with his Byakugan, ran over and asked.

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"I'm fine, but a lot of my classmates were taken away."

Neji looked toward the rooftop of the school building.

His Byakugan had seen it: after those students were dragged underground by arms emerging from beneath their feet, they reappeared on the rooftop, still unconscious.

"We ran into some Puppet Corpses. What about you, Senior?"

A voice suddenly rang out, startling everyone who had been talking.

They turned to see Shino Aburame, wearing sunglasses with an impassive expression.

"Why did you suddenly speak up? You scared me!"

Ino Yamanaka was badly startled.

But Naruto had the strongest reaction. He was now hugging Shikamaru, his legs wrapped around him like an octopus.

"Aren't you ashamed?" Sasuke said speechlessly.

"We ran into Puppet Corpses too. Looks like we encountered the same thing."

"Senior, do you know what abilities those Puppet Corpses have?"

"Looks like you haven't fought them yet. That's good, because these Puppet Corpses are extremely troublesome."

"Not only are they incredibly strong, but Ninjutsu also has a hard time killing them. Most importantly, as long as you come into contact with one, your whole body will weaken and you won't be able to use any strength. Without classmates nearby to help, you'll be in danger!"

"How are we supposed to fight that?!"

"It's fine." Neji looked at Sakura, who had cried out in alarm. "As long as you don't make direct contact. Even if there's only a layer of cloth between you and a Puppet Corpse, you won't be affected by its power."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

At least that was good news.

But at the same time, Taijutsu was the only method they currently had to deal with those Puppet Corpses.

Shikamaru looked at Sasuke. He might still be able to use Ninjutsu once more, but one technique would be far too weak against an unknown number of Puppet Corpses.

"Miss, those Puppet Corpses should be coming out soon. Please don't stray too far from me."

"No..."

"I'm going to act alone."

Hinata's words greatly shocked Neji.

"Miss... all right. Please be careful."

Hinata headed toward the school building.

"Wait, wait, wait... Hinata, where are you going?"

Naruto stretched out his arms to block Hinata's path.

"I'm going to verify a guess of mine. Naruto, stay here... Brother, help me protect Naruto." Hinata turned to Neji.

Hinata suddenly remembered that, given Naruto's personality, he might foolishly follow her. "I'm leaving. You... don't do anything rash." She specifically warned Naruto.

"I..."

Before Naruto could finish, Hinata had already left. This time, she was nearly at the school building's entrance.

"Do you know what Hinata is going to do?"

Kiba asked Neji.

"He should be going to save the students on the rooftop. What a pain..."

"What?! Haven't the students on the rooftop already been eliminated?"

"Not necessarily." Shino adjusted his sunglasses. "This test never explained the rules. No one told us we couldn't save classmates who had already been eliminated. When it comes down to it, no one can say for sure whether those classmates have really been eliminated."

Naruto clenched his fists and charged toward the school building without looking back!

"Hey, Naruto! What are you doing?!"

"I'm going to help Hinata..."

Do you even know your own limits? You'd only get in the way if you went up there! Sakura roared inwardly.

"I'm going to bring that idiot back."

Sasuke went after Naruto.

"I'm going too."

Hinata had asked Neji to protect Naruto before leaving, so he could not stay too far away from Naruto.

"If it weren't for Hinata, I'd already be unconscious and eliminated. So I'm going to help Hinata."

"Woof, woof, woof." The little white dog on Kiba's head agreed with him.

"What are you doing?"

Shikamaru looked at Shino, who was also heading toward the school building.

Shino adjusted his sunglasses. "I just want to go to the safest place."

"You'd better come with me too."

"The safest place? What do you mean?"

Everyone looked at Shikamaru, because he was the smartest among them.

"What a pain. Since Hinata is there, the school building has become the safest place." If it's only Puppet Corpses that have appeared...

Shikamaru looked at the people around him, wondering whether he should stay on the field and just scrape by with a passing score.

But he had forgotten that if he really only scraped by with a passing score, his dad might beat him half to death.

"Shikamaru, let's go help Hinata."

Akimichi put away his bag of chips.

"All right..." Shikamaru looked at his friend. Since he agreed, Shikamaru had no reason to refuse.

And as a member of Ino-Shika-Cho, Ino Yamanaka naturally followed Shikamaru and Choji.

"I..."

Sakura looked at the group running toward the school building, then at the other classmates discussing how to resist the Puppet Corpses. She was utterly conflicted.

"Aren't you going after them?"

At that moment, a girl with her hair in buns and dressed in a qipao patted Sakura on the shoulder.

"Sakura, don't be afraid. The best way to eliminate fear is to face it!"

Rock Lee, with thick eyebrows, a bowl cut, and dressed all in green, raised a thumbs-up and flashed a brilliant white smile.

Sakura did not know whether it was an illusion, but Lee's teeth seemed to glint.

Watching the two run toward the school building, Sakura finally followed them.

It was not because Rock Lee's inspirational speech had snapped her awake, but because she felt Shino was right: wherever Hinata was would be the safest place.

Over the past three years since enrollment, Uchiha Sasuke's incredibly miserable daily life had proven that point to every teacher and student in the Ninja Academy!

Hinata: "..."

Hinata, who had already reached the second floor of the school building, was completely speechless. So as long as I only told Naruto not to follow me, all of you would follow me instead? Come to think of it, I'm not even surprised Naruto followed me. If Naruto had obediently stayed put, I'd have wondered whether he'd been possessed.