From Heaven to the Abyss

Sakura had a headache. Although she was worried about Naruto, she also had great faith in him.

After all, when it truly came down to the most critical moment, Naruto had never seemed to let her down.

What remained was to see which direction things would ultimately take.

What she wanted most was for Hinata's Byakugan to happen to see the moment Shinnō knocked her unconscious.

Then Hinata could immediately retreat and send out an emergency rescue signal.

But that possibility was unlikely, because Sakura felt that since Shinnō had chosen to act, he must have believed Hinata's Byakugan could not cover that area.

Sakura thought about it, then decided to stop worrying. Although they seemed to be completely on the defensive right now,

there was no telling. At this moment, Sakura instead felt that this situation might be a real chance to put into practice everything she had learned under Tsunade over the years.

After all, she had studied for so long precisely because she hoped to achieve a good result that would satisfy her.

Perhaps only by delving deeper could she determine the Sky Ninja's true purpose here.

Clearly, that was what truly mattered at this point. What was more, the Sky Ninja's attack not long ago had stirred up the suppressed fury of every Konoha ninja.

From Heaven to the Abyss

Meanwhile, after Yuliu had turned into that hideous tentacled monster—Zero-Tails—

Naruto was no fool. Although he had not figured out just how much was suspicious about all this, the sight had made him take things completely seriously.

He became even more vigilant.

The two continued feeling their way forward.

Because Yuliu had just transformed into Zero-Tails, she was clearly not in very good condition after waking up. She was groggy and unsteady,

looking as though she