The Kumogakure prodigies immediately stopped running and arguing when they heard the voice. They stood where they were, faces tense, shifting into a back-to-back formation as they stayed fully on guard.
The six of them kept sweeping their gazes across the surrounding space, hoping to find some trace of the newcomer, but found nothing. The strange song continued, yet its voice drifted unpredictably, making it impossible to determine its direction. Whenever they followed their instincts and looked toward the sound, they found nothing. The stark disconnect between what they heard and what they saw left them dizzy.
"C! Did you sense his location?" Darui asked his friend quietly.
"No!" C answered, his face pale. "There isn't a single presence within my sensing range, yet I can clearly hear the voice. I have no idea how he's doing it!"
"Could we have fallen under a genjutsu? My head feels so dizzy! If I'd known, we should've just kept playing dumb instead of exposing Skywalker's scheme. Now we're going to be wiped out! Do you think Skywalker will capture us alive, or cruelly kill us like those jonin? Wait, he called us children in his song. Bad children, sure, but he probably won't kill us, right?" Omoi blurted out a rapid string of increasingly scattered thoughts, making the others even more irritated.
"Shut up! You're not cool at all when you babble like that!" Samui finally snapped, her expression icy.
"Big sis is right. You talk way too much! And where do all those questions even come from? At worst, we fight to the death!" Atsui said with a look of disgust.
"C! Aren't you supposed to be an all-around ninja? Are we under a genjutsu or not?" Karui looked grim. He was more concerned with the battle itself.
C spoke calmly.