Mizuki's Delusions

Mizuki was coming down the mountain when he encountered a large white tiger halfway down.

The large white tiger was even wearing a mask.

Mizuki's skin crawled. A dangerous beast like that had actually been following behind him.

But the tiger wore a mask. It did not look wild, and there had never seemed to be any rumors of tigers on this mountain.

So it probably had an owner.

Mizuki did not dare act rashly. If it was a summoned beast, it might be able to understand human speech.

Mizuki asked tentatively, "Why are you following me?"

Byakko slowly approached Mizuki.

Mizuki breathed a sigh of relief, thinking Byakko really could understand him. Otherwise, it should have pounced on him already.

Mizuki could not help letting his imagination run wild.

If someone had such a powerful-looking tiger as a summoned beast, its owner had to be incredibly strong.

Maybe the hidden master behind this tiger had taken a liking to him and wanted to teach him some powerful ninjutsu.

The thought made Mizuki so excited that he took the initiative to approach Byakko.

Mizuki walked up to Byakko and said confidently, "Take me to see your master!"

Byakko slowly raised her right forepaw.

Mizuki looked at Byakko in confusion. Why was she raising her paw?

Was she going to point him in the right direction and have him find the person himself?

That would work too.

"Then point the way for me. I'll go find them myself."

Byakko raised her paw as high as it could go.

Mizuki looked up at the sky in puzzlement.

Was that mysterious master in the sky?

That could not be possible, right?

All of a sudden—

Byakko slammed her paw down, smashing it viciously into Mizuki's left shoulder.

Mizuki's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. His face instantly turned bright red, and thin streams of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Mizuki felt that his left shoulder had... broken!

And Byakko had already raised her paw again.

Mizuki trembled in terror. Another hit like that might kill him!

Mizuki hurriedly clutched his left arm with his right hand, turned around, and fled down the mountain at full speed.

"How did this happen?! Wasn't there supposed to be a mysterious master? Why didn't it attack me from the start? Why did it have to suddenly hit me?"

Mizuki's mind raced.

Then Mizuki suddenly thought of a possibility!

"Could it be that the tiger pointed its paw toward the sky to tell me that the mysterious master was watching me? And it attacked me to test whether I was qualified to inherit that mysterious master's ninjutsu?"

"Yes! That must be it!"

Mizuki was certain that had to be the reason.

Otherwise, there was no explanation for why Byakko had had so many chances to ambush him earlier but had not attacked.

Mizuki came to an abrupt stop, turned to face Byakko head-on, and pulled several shuriken from his ninja tool pouch with his left hand.

Mizuki looked at Byakko, brimming with fighting spirit. "This trial! I will pass it!"

Mizuki hurled every shuriken in his hand at Byakko.

Byakko suddenly leaped high into the air, dodging the shuriken, then landed directly above Mizuki. Her two powerful hind legs kicked fiercely toward him.

Mizuki's heart skipped a beat. If that hit him, he would be crippled even if he did not die.

Mizuki rapidly formed hand seals.

Substitution Technique!

A wooden log took Mizuki's place.

Byakko kicked the log, instantly reducing it to splinters.

Hiding in the grass, Mizuki did not even dare breathe when he saw that.

Byakko seemed not to have noticed Mizuki and searched around the area.

Seeing that Byakko had not found him, Mizuki sighed in relief and racked his brains for a way to deal with her and pass the trial.

Byakko sauntered over to the patch of grass where Mizuki was hiding.

Mizuki held his breath and did not dare make the slightest sound.

In truth, Byakko had discovered Mizuki long ago.

But Uzumaki Menma's command to her had been to "toy with him."

Byakko thought Mizuki was quite stupid. It was one thing for him not to run after noticing her and instead approach her on his own, but afterward, he had actually asked her to take him to find Uzumaki Menma.

And now he thought he would be safe just by hiding in the grass. She was a tiger! A tiger's nose was extremely sensitive. She could smell that bloody scent even if Uzumaki Menma covered her nose.

She had never seen such a stupid human before.

Byakko wandered around behind Mizuki and suddenly let out a roar.

That roar nearly scared Mizuki's soul out of his body.

Mizuki turned around in disbelief to look at Byakko behind him, but she had already raised her paw and swung it at him again.

"No! There's no time to dodge!"

Mizuki pulled out a kunai and stabbed it at Byakko.

But the kunai struck Byakko's body without doing a thing. Mizuki felt as if he had stabbed a reinforced concrete slab.

Byakko's paw crashed heavily into Mizuki's stomach.

Mizuki curled up completely, spat out a mouthful of blood, then collapsed limply onto the ground. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out.

Mizuki's reaction startled Byakko instead.

He did not die from that, did he?

She had clearly held back. Why was this human so fragile?

Uzumaki Menma's order had only been to toy with him, not kill him.

Feeling guilty, Byakko looked around and spotted a squirrel in a tree.

Byakko slapped the squirrel flat with one swipe.

Now no human or beast should have seen anything, right?

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

At Tsubaki's house, Uzumaki Menma sensed that Byakko had returned, meaning she had completed the task he assigned her.

Uzumaki Menma stood up and bade Tsubaki farewell. "Miss Tsubaki, it's about time. We'll be heading back now."

"Do you want me to take you back?"

Tsubaki was still faintly worried, because that roar had sounded far too much like a tiger. It did not sound like something Uzumaki Menma could make.

"It's fine. Naruto and I have walked this road more times than we can count. Goodbye, Miss Tsubaki."

"All right, then. If you want to eat Flower Cakes or come play next time, you can always come find me."

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

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

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

Neji looked at the sun, which was already close to setting, and the corner of his mouth twitched. "Why go back to the Ninja Academy now? School's already over. Take me home instead."

"No problem. We can even mooch dinner at Hinata's house. I wonder what delicious food Aunt Kumiko will make today."

As the three imagined what they would have for dinner at Hinata's house, they spotted a figure on the road slowly crawling along the ground.

Uzumaki Menma and the others walked closer and saw that the figure was actually Mizuki.

Mizuki's collar was stained with a large patch of blood. His hair was disheveled, and he looked utterly miserable.

Naruto and Neji's eyelids twitched wildly.

This was what Uzumaki Menma meant by not killing him?

He looked like he was not far from death.