Mizuki's Delusions

Mizuki, who was coming down the mountain, encountered a white tiger halfway down.

Moreover, this white tiger was wearing a mask.

Mizuki's hair stood on end, realizing that such a dangerous beast had been following him.

But this tiger was wearing a mask, so it didn't look like a wild animal, and there hadn't been any rumors of tigers on this mountain.

So, it must have an owner.

Mizuki didn't dare to act rashly. If it was a Summoning Beast, it might understand human speech.

Mizuki tentatively asked, "What are you doing following me?"

Byakko slowly approached Mizuki.

Mizuki breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Byakko really understood him, otherwise, it would have already pounced.

Mizuki couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.

To have such a powerful-looking tiger as a Summoning Beast, its owner must be very strong.

Maybe that expert behind the tiger had taken a liking to him and was going to teach him some powerful ninjutsu.

At the thought of this, Mizuki got a little excited and took the initiative to approach Byakko.

Mizuki walked up to Byakko, full of confidence, and said, "Take me to see your master!"

Byakko slowly raised its right front paw.

Mizuki looked at Byakko in confusion. What was it doing raising its paw?

Was it going to point the way for him to find the person himself?

That would work.

"Then point me in the right direction, and I'll go find them myself."

Byakko raised its paw to the highest point.

Mizuki looked up at the sky in puzzlement.

Was that mysterious expert in the sky?

Impossible, right?

Suddenly.

Byakko slammed its paw down, hitting Mizuki hard on his left shoulder.

Mizuki's eyes almost popped out, his face instantly turned red, and a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

Mizuki felt like his left shoulder was... broken!

And Byakko's paw was raised again.

Mizuki was terrified. Another hit and he might lose his life!

Mizuki hurriedly covered his left arm with his right hand and turned to run frantically down the mountain.

"How could this be! Isn't there supposed to be a mysterious expert? Why didn't it attack me at the beginning, and instead suddenly hit me like that?"

Mizuki was thinking quickly.

Suddenly, Mizuki thought of a possibility!

"Could it be that the tiger pointing its paw to the sky was trying to tell him that the mysterious expert was observing him, and the tiger attacked him to test him, to see if he was qualified to inherit the mysterious expert's ninjutsu?"

"Yes! That must be it!"

Mizuki felt that this must be the reason.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why Byakko had so many opportunities to attack him before, but didn't.

Mizuki stopped abruptly, turned to face Byakko, and took out several Shuriken from his ninja pouch with his left hand.

Mizuki looked at Byakko with a full fighting spirit: "I will definitely win this trial!"

Mizuki threw all the Shuriken in his hand at Byakko.

Byakko suddenly jumped high, dodging the Shuriken attack, and jumped onto Mizuki's head, then its two powerful hind legs kicked hard at Mizuki.

Mizuki's heart skipped a beat. If he was kicked, he would be crippled even if he didn't die.

Mizuki quickly formed a hand seal.

Substitution Technique!

A log of wood replaced Mizuki.

Byakko kicked the log, and the log was directly kicked to pieces.

Mizuki, hiding in the grass, didn't dare to breathe.

Byakko didn't seem to have found Mizuki and was searching around.

Seeing that Byakko hadn't found him, Mizuki breathed a sigh of relief and racked his brains to think about how to deal with this Byakko to pass the trial.

Byakko strolled to the edge of the grass where Mizuki was.

Mizuki held his breath, not daring to make a single sound.

In reality, Byakko had discovered Mizuki long ago.

But Uzumaki Menma's order to it was to 'play with him.'

Byakko thought Mizuki was quite foolish. Not only did he discover it and not run, but he even proactively approached it and then asked it to take him to Uzumaki Menma.

And now he thought he was safe hiding in the grass. It was a tiger! A tiger's nose was extremely sensitive. It could smell the blood even if Uzumaki Menma covered its nose.

It had never seen such a foolish human.

Byakko sauntered behind Mizuki and suddenly let out a roar.

The roar nearly scared Mizuki's soul out of him.

Mizuki incredulously turned his head to look at Byakko behind him, but Byakko had already raised its paw again to strike him.

"No! Not enough time to dodge!"

Mizuki pulled out a handful of kunai and stabbed them at Byakko.

But the kunai stuck into Byakko's body without doing anything at all. Mizuki felt as if his kunai had stabbed into a steel and concrete slab.

Byakko's paw landed heavily on Mizuki's stomach.

Mizuki curled up, spitting out a mouthful of blood, then collapsed to the ground, his eyes rolling back as he passed out.

Mizuki's commotion startled Byakko.

Had it killed him with that one blow?

It had clearly held back its strength. How could this human be so fragile?

Uzumaki Menma's order to it was just to play with him, not to kill him.

Byakko guiltily looked around, noticing a squirrel in a tree.

Byakko directly flattened the squirrel with a paw.

That way, no one or beast would notice, right?

After flattening the squirrel, Byakko transformed into a puff of smoke and slipped away.

At Tsubaki's house, Uzumaki Menma sensed that Byakko had returned, indicating that the task it had been given was complete.

Uzumaki Menma stood up and bid farewell to Tsubaki, saying, "Miss Tsubaki, it's about time, so we'll head back now."

"Should I see you back?"

Tsubaki was still faintly worried, because that roar really sounded like a tiger, and not like a sound Uzumaki Menma could make.

"It's okay, Naruto and I have walked this road countless times. Goodbye, Miss Tsubaki."

"Alright then, if you ever want to eat Flower Cakes or come to play, you can always come find me."

"Okay, then see you next time, Miss Tsubaki!"

Uzumaki Menma carried Neji on his back, and he and Naruto left the wooden house.

"Neji, Naruto and I will take you back to the Ninja Academy now."

Neji looked at the setting sun and twitched his lips. "What's the point of going back to the Ninja Academy now? School's already out. Just take me home."

"No problem, we can stop by Hinata's house for dinner. I wonder what Aunt Kumiko will prepare today."

Just as the three were imagining what they would eat for dinner at Hinata's house, they spotted a figure crawling slowly on the ground.

Uzumaki Menma and the others took a closer look, and the figure turned out to be Mizuki.

At this moment, Mizuki's collar was stained with a large patch of blood, his hair was disheveled, and he looked extremely miserable.

Naruto and Neji's eyelids twitched wildly.

This was what Uzumaki Menma meant by not killing him?

The way he looked, it seemed like he wasn't far from death.