An Unexpected Turn

Although the live broadcast made her somewhat uncomfortable, the villagers meant no harm, and she had even become part of the audience.

All she could say was that watching a bunch of rookies hack apart Puppet Corpses felt like a blockbuster.

The only drawback was that her teacher's crystal ball was far too inconvenient to watch. It would be nice if it could be replaced with a huge screen, like one in a movie theater.

The test still used Puppet Corpses this time, but Hinata was absent, and the Puppet Corpses' appearance caught the students off guard, causing them to perform even worse than last time.

This time, they had arrived at the open training ground early.

But no one had expected that the Puppet Corpses would not crawl out from underground this time—they fell from the sky!

More importantly, it was not just Puppet Corpses falling from the sky. Severed limbs fell as well.

And the severed limbs made up the bulk of it!

The clan heads, and even the Third Hokage, could not help looking at Hinata.

Those severed limbs were Hinata's handiwork.

Hinata: "..."

Hinata: "Are you blaming me...?"

The Puppet Corpses falling from the sky caught the children completely unprepared.

A few were unable to dodge in time and were knocked unconscious by the Puppet Corpses, then dragged into the shadows.

The ones knocked out by the Puppet Corpses were fortunate. Those struck by severed limbs were left with no small amount of psychological trauma.

They had been standing perfectly fine on the training ground when something suddenly struck them on the head. Looking closely, they discovered it was a rotting severed limb.

When they shakily felt the spot where they had been hit and looked at their hands, they found them covered in rotten flesh. There were even wriggling maggots on their hands...

And that was not even the worst of it. If they were hit by organs or something similar...

Before the Puppet Corpses could even drag them into the shadows, quite a few students had already fainted.

Some fainted from fright, while others screamed so hard from fear that they passed out from lack of oxygen...

Sasuke and Naruto's group fared somewhat better, since they had seen this situation once before.

Even so, they were not having an easy time.

Kiba Inuzuka: "I can't do this, brothers. I might hold everyone back. I... I'm so dizzy..."

Akainu: "Whine... woof, woof."

Seeing this, Neji hurriedly sealed off their sense of smell.

Even so, they remained groggy. They probably would not recover anytime soon.

"Everyone..."

Shikamaru reminded them.

The Puppet Corpses that had fallen from the sky around them had already stood up.

Most were missing quite a few legs, and some could only crawl, but their oppressive presence had not diminished in the slightest.

Everyone exchanged glances.

"Just as we expected."

"Then let's proceed according to plan."

Taking advantage of the Puppet Corpses having just risen and not yet gathered around them, they ran toward the school building.

Along the way, they did not rush to destroy the Puppet Corpses, instead doing their best to avoid them.

When they reached the entrance to the school building, they did not rush inside. Instead, they took out shuriken, kunai, and other hidden weapons and hurled them at the Puppet Corpses.

However, they were not aiming for their heads, but their legs.

Their throws were remarkably accurate—especially Naruto's.

They deliberately targeted the Puppet Corpses' joints, causing large numbers of them to collapse before they could reach the school building.

Tenten's ninja tools had contributed greatly to this.

"Alright, that's enough. We need to conserve our strength."

Even though they had crippled a large number of Puppet Corpses, some with intact legs were still staggering toward the school building.

After entering the building, they did not immediately run upstairs. Instead, they moved desks and chairs out of the classrooms and used them to barricade the entrance.

Seeing this, the Third Hokage nodded.

So far, they had performed fairly well. But that alone would not be enough to meet the graduation standard.

After blocking the entrance, everyone went to the second floor.

They moved more desks and chairs over, but this time, rather than simply blocking the stairs to the second floor, they deliberately piled desks and chairs all over the staircase, then tightly blocked the exit.

Even normal people would have trouble getting up under those circumstances, much less Puppet Corpses whose limbs were loose and liable to fall apart at a touch.

Now, those Puppet Corpses should not be able to get upstairs.

The Third Hokage's eyes were full of admiration. These children were quite clever.

The clan heads also relaxed slightly. At the very least, they had made no mistakes so far and had done quite well.

However, the final Skeleton Giant would not be so easy to deal with.

The Skeleton Giant appearing this time naturally could not be the same one from last time.

Or rather, it was an upgraded version of the previous one.

Although the village wanted to accelerate the training of the new generation, these children were still too young. The village would never send them on such dangerous missions.

So from the very beginning, the village had never intended for them to graduate this early.

Well... Hinata was an exception.

After blocking the stairwell, they did not head upstairs. Instead, they moved more desks and chairs, this time placing them loosely around the corridor for some unknown purpose.

At the stairway entrance on the third floor.

Looking at the scattered desks and chairs in the second-floor corridor, Shikamaru sighed. "I hope this works. Otherwise, we'll have no choice but to use Plan B."

Thinking of something, Sakura shuddered. "I never want there to be a time when we need to use Plan B."

"Let's quickly recover some strength. If our guess is right, that big guy will be coming out soon."

Shino Aburame pushed up his sunglasses.

Everyone immediately slumped to the floor. They were exhausted.

Just a few minutes after sitting down, they felt tremors coming from beneath their feet.

No! The source of the tremors was above them!

!!!

A Giant Bone Sword they recognized pierced down through the ceiling above them.

Then the Giant Bone Sword was pulled back, only to stab down again somewhere else. This repeated several times.

As if realizing something, Shikamaru cried out in alarm. "Not good! Move!"

Almost the instant Shikamaru finished speaking, the ceiling above them cracked open. With a thunderous crash, a Skeleton Giant even larger than the one they had seen last time fell into their midst.

Yes, it had fallen right into the middle of them.

But perhaps that was a good thing. They had the Skeleton Giant surrounded.

Although the Skeleton Giant was unexpectedly much larger, they had no time to think.

Just as they were about to follow the plan and deal with the Skeleton Giant, it struck first.

The Skeleton Giant drove its sword downward, and the floor, already riddled with cracks from its fall, split even further.

When the Skeleton Giant stabbed into one of the cracks, no one knew how it did it, but the ground before it suddenly collapsed.

Naruto and Akimichi, unable to dodge in time, immediately fell from the third floor to the second.

That was not all. The Skeleton Giant turned, and its broad left hand seized Sakura.

Crack, crack—bone scraped against bone as the Skeleton Giant's chest opened before their eyes.

There was nothing inside.

Then, in the next instant, the Skeleton Giant placed Sakura inside its chest.

If you enjoy this book, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you do not lose it next time.