Tired, Taking a Break

But their legs were their own, and Hinata had no standing to influence what they thought. If they wanted to follow, then let them follow.

Using strips of cloth casually torn from the Puppet Corpses to wrap her hands, Hinata looked toward the densely packed Puppet Corpses standing in the second-floor corridor.

Hinata suspected they had gathered every Puppet Corpse in the entire Hidden Leaf Village at the Ninja Academy.

When Sakura ran into the school building, she found everyone vomiting their guts out.

"You guys... urgh..."

Sakura vomited too.

The entire school building floor was covered in severed limbs and rotten flesh. Half-decayed organs lay scattered everywhere, and beneath their feet was what felt like some sticky liquid—the black fluid that seeped out as corpses decomposed.

The entire school building reeked of rotting corpses, making everyone vomit until the acid in their stomachs was gone. Now they could only stand there dry-heaving.

"All right, we should hurry up and catch up. It'll be bad if these corpses reassemble or something."

Shino Aburame, who was in slightly better condition, said.

Fortunately, the past three years of training had not been for nothing. They quickly adapted to their surroundings and continued toward the rooftop.

Sakura, who had only just arrived, was still at the stage of vomiting up stomach acid. It looked like it would take her some time to catch up...

As they headed for the rooftop, all they saw along the way were severed Puppet Corpse limbs. There was no sign of Hinata.

Yet because of that, everyone became increasingly shocked by Hinata's strength.

This was no longer strength an eight-year-old should possess, was it?

Enduring the severed limbs and rotten blood along the way, they finally reached the rooftop.

"Hinata! Hinata... Where are you, Hinata?!"

Upon reaching the rooftop and not seeing Hinata, Naruto shouted anxiously.

"Stop shouting. I'm here."

Everyone looked up and saw Hinata sitting atop the rooftop structure.

For some reason, the males looking up felt a faint sense of disappointment.

That was because Hinata was not wearing a skirt today.

"Hinata, why are you sitting up there?"

"Tired. Taking a break."

Everyone: "..."

But why couldn't they see anything about you that looked tired?!

"Phew... phew... phew... You guys... phew... couldn't you... phew... wait for me?"

At that moment, Sakura finally arrived late.

Hinata looked at everyone who had gathered, then down at the students fighting the few remaining Puppet Corpses on the field below.

"Following the usual pattern, this should be when the big boss makes its entrance."

The moment Hinata finished speaking, the light around them dimmed. Looking up, they realized the sun had vanished at some point.

"No, where are the students who were lying here just now?"

Neji, who had been observing their surroundings, noticed that the students lying there had disappeared.

"N-No way..."

Looking at the missing students, Sakura seemed to think of something. She ran to the edge of the rooftop and looked down at the field, only to find that there was no one there either.

"Sakura, did you discover something?"

"C-Could this be an Alternate Dimension constructed by a ghost?"

"What?! That can't be possible!"

"No..." Shino Aburame's hand trembled slightly as he adjusted his glasses. "It may be just as Sakura said. This may be an Alternate Dimension, because..."

"...I can feel my Chakra disappearing!"

Hearing this, everyone carefully sensed the Chakra within their bodies. It really was beginning to drain away, but the rate was so slow that without Shino Aburame's reminder, they might not have noticed it at all.

Sasuke's face turned slightly pale. Among them, Chakra loss was especially deadly to him, the only one who had used ninjutsu!

"Chakra is disappearing? Is it? Why can't I feel it?"

Naruto scratched his head in confusion.

No one paid him any attention.

"Be careful. Normally speaking, the enemy could appear at any moment."

As soon as he finished speaking, a giant skeletal hand extended from the rooftop floor, followed by an arm, then a head, torso, and legs.

Climbing out of the floor was a small Skeleton Giant completely encased in bone armor.

The Skeleton Giant stood over seven feet tall and held a Giant Bone Sword nearly six feet long.

Its armor clearly had extraordinary defensive power, while the Giant Bone Sword clearly had extraordinary killing power.

A brush would wound you; a scrape would cripple you. That was no exaggeration.

"No, it isn't wearing armor. Its entire body is made of bones, so at first glance it looks like it's wearing armor."

Neji suddenly spoke.

"Doesn't that make it even worse?! If its whole body is made of bones, doesn't that mean it's even sturdier?!"

"Roar~"

The Skeleton Giant let out a roar, a sound no human could make.

A faint sense of fear rose in everyone's hearts.

Thud, thud, thud~

Every step the Skeleton Giant took produced a heavy sound.

Suddenly, before it had even taken two steps, the Skeleton Giant stumbled and fell flat on its face.

Everyone: "Uh..."

When the Skeleton Giant got back up, they discovered a black line on its left leg joint. Below that black line, its entire left leg had fallen off.

The giant tried to reattach its lower leg, but with the black line there, it could not reconnect it no matter what it did.

"Bugs?"

Sharp-eyed Neji saw the true nature of the black line.

Shino Aburame said, "That's right. They're my insects."

Naruto said, "Then release more insects and dismantle this big guy!"

"Unfortunately, I can't."

"Why not?!" Naruto shouted.

"To force apart its joints and sever its limbs, only the toughest insects could possibly do it. I don't have many insects like that. Making it lame is already my limit."

"Then what are we supposed to do?!"

Even with one leg missing, the Skeleton Giant used the Giant Bone Sword in its hand as a crutch and continued hobbling toward them.

"You said its joints are its weakest points, right?"

At that moment, Sasuke stepped forward.

"That's what I meant..." Shino Aburame adjusted his glasses.

Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!

A wave of heat swept out as the fireball Sasuke expelled from his mouth struck the Skeleton Giant's right arm joint.

When the flames dispersed, the giant's right arm had already been blasted aside.

Thud, thud, thud~

Under everyone's horrified gazes, the right arm, which still had not released the Giant Bone Sword even after being blown away, twisted as it crawled toward its main body.

If it really crawled back and reconnected with the body, Sasuke's Great Fireball Technique would have been wasted!

But Shino Aburame no longer had enough tough insects to stop it from reconnecting its right arm. Besides, there was something else he had not said: the life force of the insects he controlled at the Skeleton Giant's left leg joint was fading. Before long, his insects would probably die. When that happened...

"You're not crawling back..."

Naruto shouted as he lunged forward and threw himself onto the Skeleton Giant's right arm, pinning the entire arm beneath him.

At that moment, he had not considered what would happen if the arm gripping the Giant Bone Sword swung it at him...