82-83

Chapter 82: The Trap  

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! 

A group of ninja academy teachers, each carrying students on their backs, darted swiftly through the forest. Behind them, wild beasts roared furiously, relentlessly pursuing. 

“Where did all these beasts in Training Ground Zero come from?”  

Mizuki, with Yuta on his back and Ryūya held against his chest, looked disheveled. His blue, short hair was soaked with sweat, sticking messily to his face.  

These students were the third group they’d rescued.  

Rescue signals lit up the sky nonstop, leaving him no time to rest.  

Ten minutes ago, the beasts began attacking the students.  

At first, the teachers thought it was just bad luck. But when they arrived, they realized something was terribly wrong.  

The crazed beasts attacked anything in sight, even as kunai pierced their bodies. They seemed determined to sink their teeth into flesh, no matter the cost.  

This frenzied state was far from normal.  

Moreover, Training Ground Zero shouldn’t have this many ferocious beasts. Even if you counted those from Training Ground One nearby, the numbers still didn’t add up.  

By the time the teachers grasped the severity of the situation, rescue signals filled the sky.  

Some teachers grumbled that Training Ground Zero was now more fitting of the “Forest of Death” nickname than Training Ground Forty-Four.  

“I heard it’s the work of spies from another village!”  

A fellow ninja academy teacher, also carrying several students, shared intel he’d just received from a comrade.  

“They found special powders placed at several points in the forest during the rescue.”  

“Powders?”  

Iruka’s curiosity piqued. “What do they do?”  

“They cause hallucinations and frenzy!” the well-informed teacher said gravely. “The first teacher to discover the drug said it can make beasts unnaturally calm, even turning natural enemies into friends with no desire to attack. But once the drug wears off, they become restless, then lose their minds and attack everything around them.”  

“No wonder!”  

Mizuki’s eyebrows shot up. He finally understood why the beasts were so deranged.  

“By the way, don’t you guys feel like it’s gotten… quiet?”  

Iruka frowned, breaking the moment.  

The group exchanged glances, a shared realization dawning. They turned around.  

The pursuing beasts had vanished completely, as if the beast tide was just a bizarre illusion.  

At Training Ground Zero, the sun had set, leaving only a crimson glow on the horizon.  

Gulp! 

Sawada Fuka, bundled in winter clothes, rode her giant bird, circling the sky. She watched the beasts and people clashing below, occasionally glancing toward the eastern forest, fidgeting like she had ADHD.  

She couldn’t help but be nervous.  

The drug’s effects wouldn’t last long. Whether Kumogakure’s diversionary tactic of striking east to attack west would work, and when Konoha’s reinforcements would arrive—or if they were already on their way—were all unknowns.  

Below, Hikari, known as “Sun-Chaser,” sat cross-legged on the ground, her body occasionally glowing with a faint halo, tinkering with something unknown.  

Kumogakure’s elite forces were temporarily held back by Kazama Yue, and the commotion in the east was intense. From the sky, Fuka could see trees collapsing, sensing the ferocity of the battle.  

That elite Jōnin couldn’t just be all talk, could he?  

Kazama Yue, the guy who’d been sent to the hospital with a single kick from Hikari—how was he holding out this long?  

Judging by the battle’s shockwaves, Fuka began to suspect Kazama Yue wasn’t as simple as she’d thought. Still, her anxious mind couldn’t stop spiraling.  

The pressure was overwhelming.  

She, an ordinary spy who couldn’t even beat a ninja academy student, was now brazenly flying above Konohagakure on a giant bird. At any moment, a ninjutsu could shoot up from below, ending her life before she could react.  

Tick, tick! 

Her watch’s hands moved steadily.  

Fuka rolled up her sleeve. It was 7:28 PM, two minutes from complete darkness.  

If the sun set fully, it’d take him longer to find her, wasting precious time.  

Hurry up!  

Clutching her wristwatch, Fuka closed her eyes and prayed.  

Below, the beasts roared, locked in combat with countless Naruto clones. Hikari sat at the center of the group, cross-legged, her palms glowing with radiant chakra, condensed to an almost tangible state.  

Shikamaru gazed at the fading sunset, his mind calculating time.  

Three minutes at most until nightfall.  

As the sun sank below the horizon, light scattering stretched the giant bird’s shadow infinitely across the ground.  

The good news: his shadow could easily connect with it with a slight move.  

The bad news: the shadow was growing so faint it was barely visible. Whether his Shadow Imitation Technique would work was uncertain.  

If Hikari couldn’t master her technique within three minutes, they’d be stuck waiting for Konoha’s rescue.  

That would be too passive.  

Shikamaru glanced at the giant bird still circling above.  

No matter how remote Training Ground Zero was, it was still within Konohagakure. Reinforcements could arrive any moment.  

The frenzied beasts couldn’t break their defenses, yet the enemy above remained calm, circling leisurely. There had to be a bigger card they hadn’t played.  

Maybe they had a hidden expert.  

Perhaps something unexpected had happened, or the ninja academy teachers had delayed them, keeping them from arriving.  

Was the person in the sky just a pawn to stall them?  

Shikamaru pressed his fingers together in his “thinking pose,” his mind racing.  

Roar! 

A black wolf lunged, snarling. Naruto dodged its bite, shielding his head with his left arm while sinking his right for an uppercut.  

His fist, sharp as a bullet, slammed into the wolf’s belly, sending it flying.  

Naruto’s daily training with 20-kilogram weights on each limb—80 kilograms total, equivalent to an adult man’s weight—had paid off. Combined with constant running and punching, his long-term training bore fruit.  

Whine! 

The struck wolf vomited green bile, unable to stand.  

Elated, Naruto didn’t notice another wolf, eyes blood-red, circling behind him. It leaped, its glinting fangs sinking into his neck.  

Poof! 

The screaming Naruto turned to dust.  

“Argh!”  

Another Naruto clone roared, stepping up to face the wolf.  

“Naruto, you okay?”  

Chōji, enlarged to two meters tall, sweated profusely as he pinned a wild boar. Seeing Naruto’s pale face, he felt both worry and awe.  

Naruto had always been the class’s weakest, the “dead-last” label louder than even “monster.” Yet now, he’d grown this much.  

Chōji stared at the dozen shadow clones around them, stunned by Naruto’s chakra reserves. If he wasn’t mistaken, Naruto had created over 500 clones already.  

“I can do this ten more times!”  

Naruto leaned against a tree, panting. Exhaustion and pain from every part of his body nearly made him faint.  

He still had chakra to spare, but each clone’s death brought waves of pain and fatigue, pushing his mind and body to the brink.  

“Don’t push yourself! You’ll die!”  

Ino rushed to warn him.  

She knew the Shadow Clone Technique well—every Konoha ninja specializing in Yin Release did. It was a classic technique developed by the Second Hokage, combining Yin and Yang Release, a textbook example of ninjutsu.  

During the First Great Ninja War, the battlefield was riddled with traps, causing heavy casualties among Konoha ninja.  

Thus, the Shadow Clone Technique was born.  

Initially, it had no limits, but its flaw became clear: fatigue from clones transferred back to the user, sometimes fatally.  

The Third Hokage, recognizing the danger, restricted the technique, adding seals to limit it to five clones at a time, regardless of chakra reserves.  

The original, unrestricted version became the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, sealed in a scroll.  

For most ninja, the standard Shadow Clone Technique was enough. Those skilled in Yin Release could modify it themselves, removing the Third’s seals to unlock the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.  

Naruto was undoubtedly using Konoha’s only universal forbidden technique: the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.  

If he wasn’t careful, the technique could literally work him to death.  

“It’s fine, Ino.”  

Naruto’s trembling arms pushed against the ground as he struggled to stand, his sky-blue eyes burning with determination.  

“I’m gonna be Hokage.  

If I can’t even protect my friends, what’s the point of being Hokage?”  

Ino stared at Naruto’s back, her lips trembling. Normally, she’d mock his big talk, but now, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything harsh.  

If someone like him didn’t deserve to be Hokage, who did?  

As they spoke, more shadow clones fell under the beasts’ assault, their numbers dwindling.  

A tiger, lurking at the front, seized its chance and pounced.  

Chōji stepped in to block it.  

Roar! 

The tiger clamped onto Chōji’s leg, sinking its teeth into his tendon.  

Sharp fangs pierced flesh.  

“Argh!”  

Chōji screamed in pain, pounding the tiger with his fists. After the long battle, his reflexes weren’t as sharp.  

“Chōji!”  

Ino couldn’t stay back, drawing her kunai to rush forward, but a blind cane stopped her.  

Blood flowed down Chōji’s leg, staining his pants red.  

Boom, boom! 

Chōji endured the pain, hammering the tiger’s head with his elbows.  

The tiger refused to let go, its jaws locked, determined to tear off his leg.  

“Shadow Clone—”  

Naruto rallied, trying to help, but a familiar figure moved past him toward Chōji.  

Slender fingers, glowing with chakra, tapped the tiger’s head.  

In an instant, the beast that had overwhelmed Chōji split in half!  

Hikari’s fingers traced the “king” mark on the tiger’s forehead, splitting its massive skull along a clean line.  

Red and white fluids splattered the ground, leaving a single clean line in the center.  

Roar— 

The fearless beast horde surged forward, but any that neared Hikari were sliced into pieces by invisible wind threads.  

The stench of blood filled the air, making the already frenzied beasts even more agitated.  

But no matter their ferocity, they couldn’t bridge the vast gap in strength.  

Hikari stood like an immovable reef, blocking the beast tide single-handedly, preventing any from reaching Naruto and the others.  

“Your secret technique’s done?”  

Seeing Hikari’s slaughter, Naruto shouted excitedly, as if his earlier exhaustion was an illusion.  

With Hikari finally acting, Chōji exhaled, as if finding his anchor. His enlarged body shrank, along with the gruesome wound on his leg, until it looked like a mere cat bite.  

“Pretty much!”  

Hikari’s palm gathered Wind Release chakra as she eyed the giant bird above.  

Combining Eight Trigrams Air Palm with Wind Release was a spur-of-the-moment idea.  

The principle of Eight Trigrams Air Palm was similar to the setup for her “High-Pressure Water Blade.”  

Before using Air Palm, she briefly gathered a large amount of chakra in her palm, compressing it into a highly condensed ball.  

Unlike the Water Blade, which released pressure through a small opening for continuous cutting, Air Palm unleashed the compressed force all at once, creating a pure taijutsu attack like an air cannon.  

With her experience compressing Water Release, mastering Air Palm wasn’t difficult. This was why, after recalling its principles, she confidently claimed she could learn it quickly.  

As expected, she mastered Air Palm in moments. The rest of her time was spent struggling to combine Wind Release with it.  

Initially, she was fixated on Wind Release’s tearing effect, trying to compress it into a vacuum blade.  

But it didn’t mesh with Air Palm’s mechanics.  

With no solution in sight and the sun about to set, Hikari had a flash of inspiration. Using Air Palm’s chakra-condensing method, she solidified gaseous Wind Release into a super vacuum cannon capable of reaching a hundred meters into the sky.  

Theoretically, it was sound.  

Whether it would work in practice, she couldn’t say.  

“No time to worry about that! Shikamaru, Ino, get ready!”  

As she spoke, Hikari’s hands formed claws, one high, one low, gathering power at her right waist. In moments, highly condensed Wind Release chakra glowed with an eerie cyan light.  

Shikamaru and Ino, waiting eagerly, responded in unison.  

Their hands flew into seals, activating the Yin Release chakra they’d already refined.  

Shadow Imitation Technique! 

Shikamaru’s eyes sharpened as he knelt, forming the “Rat” seal.  

Invisible Yin Release power flowed into the shadow at his feet.  

Soon, the barely visible shadow under the dim sky turned pitch-black, like an abyss.  

Having calculated the giant bird’s flight path, Shikamaru extended his shadow to a specific point, thinning and stretching it into a fine, net-like structure.  

While the Shadow Imitation Technique could change shape freely, it couldn’t increase its surface area.  

The net-like form solved this issue.  

Shikamaru licked his dry lips.  

Now, it was a matter of waiting.  

Waiting for the giant bird’s shadow to fall into the trap he’d carefully prepared. 

*Chapter 83: Fight for Life * 

The wind howled, tossing strands of hair wildly. 

Sawada Fuka clung tightly to the gray feathers of the giant bird, squinting through a telescope with one eye. 

The eastern battlefield had fallen silent, suggesting the fight there might be over. 

But down below, where Hikari and the others were surrounded, something shifted. 

In the beast-ravaged battlefield below, countless animal corpses piled up, staining the lush green forest with stark red. 

The trio, who moments ago had been passively enduring the beast onslaught, now stood up in unison. 

Fuka’s telescope wasn’t powerful enough to discern their exact actions, but the faint green glow emanating from Hikari’s palm—the strongest of them—set off alarm bells in her mind. 

That monster doesn’t have a ninjutsu that can hit me up here, does she? 

A startling thought crossed Fuka’s mind. 

No way! 

She dismissed the idea. 

Ninjutsu capable of reaching three to five hundred meters was already rare, reserved for the elite of long-range techniques. To avoid any risk, she had deliberately commanded the giant bird to soar nearly a thousand meters high. 

Few in the ninja world could fly. 

Thus, ninjutsu designed to counter aerial enemies was equally scarce. 

Ninety-nine percent of shinobi lacked anti-air capabilities. Even the Fourth Raikage himself, facing such a height difference, could probably only glare helplessly. 

Was it really possible she’d run into that one percent chance? 

Highly unlikely. 

If Hikari truly had a technique to strike a thousand meters up, she would’ve used it by now instead of sitting idly for so long. 

No way she just invented a long-range ninjutsu on the spot! 

Fuka pursed her lips. 

Konoha’s reinforcements hadn’t arrived, and the eastern battle had already concluded. Her mood lightened. 

She had stalled the Nine-Tails and the Byakugan heir, and Kumogakure’s elite jonin were closing in. 

The plan was nearly complete—she couldn’t afford a mistake now. 

Better play it safe. 

“Fly higher!” she commanded. 

The giant bird obeyed, flapping its wings rapidly to ascend even further. 

Fuka’s movement in the sky didn’t go unnoticed by Hikari. 

“She’s flying higher,” Hikari noted. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Ino and Shikamaru replied in unison. 

Ino framed the giant bird with her thumbs and index fingers, locking it in her sights. 

Shikamaru stared at the bird’s shadow on the ground, waiting patiently. 

The Yamanaka and Nara clans’ mental techniques were mechanism-based: once conditions were met, the target was guaranteed to be hit, regardless of distance. 

The only concern was whether Hikari’s newly learned “secret technique” could retain enough power over hundreds of meters to bring down the bird. 

Whoosh! 

The giant bird soared higher, shrinking to the size of a sparrow in their view. 

At last, its faint shadow fell into the intricate web of shadows Shikamaru had woven on the ground. 

His eyes lit up. 

“Ino!” 

“Got it!” 

Ino focused, her hand seals locking onto the enemy. Once Shikamaru’s technique took effect, she’d unleash all her mental energy to seize control of the target’s body. 

The shadow web snared the bird’s silhouette, merging the two shadows completely. 

Shikamaru clasped his hands together. 

Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique) successful! 

Unaware, the giant bird followed its master’s orders, soaring upward. 

Suddenly, its usually nimble wings met resistance. Then, uncontrollably, they folded together in front of its body. 

Screech! 

The bird’s startled cry jolted Fuka, who was perched on its back. Before she could react, the safety rope binding her dragged her down with the falling bird. 

Watching the giant bird tumble from the sky, wings clasped together, Ino slid her hand seals downward in sync with its descent. 

“I’m losing control!” Shikamaru shouted, trembling, sweat beading on his forehead. The intense chakra drain was thinning the dark shadow at his feet. 

Ino didn’t respond. 

Her cyan eyes dimmed. 

Unbeknownst to her, her Shinranshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Disturbance Technique) had activated! 

Thud! 

Choji, standing behind Ino, caught her as she collapsed, dragging her limping to Naruto’s side to lie down. 

To buy time for the team’s ninjutsu, Naruto had used Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone Technique) for the sixth time, shielding them from the beasts at the cost of being temporarily immobile. 

“Ugh—!” 

Shikamaru couldn’t hold on any longer. His hands parted, and he dropped to one knee, gazing at the plummeting bird. 

Whoosh! 

The rushing wind filled Fuka’s nose, bringing a suffocating fear. 

Clutching the bird’s neck, Fuka free-fell through the air. 

“What the—hell—is happening?!” 

Her voice, distorted by terror and the rushing air, came out shrill. 

Ignoring the enemy on its back, Ino, now controlling the bird’s body, adjusted to its condition. She spread its wings and began to fly again. 

But this time, not upward. 

She dove downward! 

Boom! 

The roaring wind drowned out Fuka’s curses. 

The wings sliced through the sky. 

Ino, carrying the enemy on the bird’s back, plummeted toward the ground like a cannonball. 

Hikari’s Byakugan locked onto the bird, tracking its altitude while condensing nearly a third of her chakra into her palm. 

Buzz! 

The restless Futon chakra, compressed to its limit, roared like a hurricane. 

Gritting her teeth, Hikari used her Byakugan’s precision to keep the chakra contained. One slip, and this “bomb” could erupt, wiping out the wounded allies around her. 

Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto gaped, nervously watching the sky. 

The bird’s form grew closer but blurrier. 

Time passed. 

The last light on the horizon faded. 

In the dim sky, the bird’s shape vanished, leaving only a rapidly descending black shadow. 

Ino, seeing the glowing green light below, suppressed the bird’s consciousness with her near-depleted chakra, diving toward the light source. 

Screech! 

The bird, controlled by Ino, let out a pained cry. 

Fuka, on its back, drew dual knives from her boots and stabbed them into the bird’s flesh. The pain jolted the bird’s consciousness, sparking a struggle with Ino for control. 

The two consciousnesses clashed. 

The bird’s body could no longer maintain a steady trajectory, its straight dive turning erratic. 

Sweat beaded on Hikari’s forehead as she controlled the chakra in her hand, calculating the enemy’s altitude. 

“Seven hundred… five hundred…” 

At that moment, Ino’s chakra gave out, and she lost control of the Shinranshin no Jutsu. 

Regaining its body, the panicked bird ignored everything, frantically flapping its wings to return to the safety of the sky. 

Too late! 

“Shinranshin no Jutsu has been released!” Shikamaru warned, seeing Ino stirring on the ground. 

Hikari didn’t hesitate. 

Her wrist aligned, fingers forming a claw, the terrifying Futon chakra aimed skyward. 

Buzz! 

A blinding green light illuminated the forest’s center. 

The long-charged vacuum cannon erupted. 

The air parted under the terrifying Futon, carving a green trail across the sky. 

“Climb, now!!” 

Fuka’s trembling voice screamed as she saw the blinding ninjutsu below. The bird fled desperately, but its speed couldn’t outpace Futon. 

Buzz!!! 

The green light surged, like a laser, engulfing the bird’s fleeing form. 

No screams, no struggle. 

The condensed vacuum cannon tore through flesh and bone without resistance. 

The giant bird, with its twenty-meter wingspan, and Fuka were shredded into fragments. The green light stretched far into the darkening sky before fading. 

Buzz, buzz, buzz. 

The cannon’s sound dwindled as Hikari’s chakra depleted, the green light vanishing completely. 

Huff! 

Having burned a third of her chakra, Hikari took deep breaths to ease her exhaustion. 

Watching feathers and flesh rain down, she smiled with satisfaction. 

One shot, one kill—human and beast! 

Perfect! 

“Amazing!!!” Naruto leapt up, somehow finding the energy, eyes sparkling as he mimicked Hikari’s air cannon pose. 

Clearly, he was awestruck by her technique. 

Shikamaru and Choji were no less impressed. 

The dazzling green light, which seemed capable of piercing the moon, redefined their understanding of Hikari. 

She mastered a technique like that in minutes? 

Is that even fair? 

Shikamaru’s sharp mind struggled to accept it. 

It felt like the rules governing humans didn’t apply to this girl. 

What a monster! 

Hikari, barely winded after her earth-shattering attack. 

Naruto, who’d spawned hundreds of shadow clones, gone from collapse to bouncing back like nothing. 

Shikamaru suddenly understood why these two were friends. 

“Ugh!” 

Ino, squinting, struggled to rise. Her consciousness had returned, but massive chakra loss left her immobile until now. 

“Ino, your back!” Choji noticed, alarmed, as Ino’s clothes were stained red. 

Hikari and the others turned to look. 

“Got stabbed twice by the enemy on the bird. It’s fine,” Ino waved it off, trying to act nonchalant, though her grimacing betrayed the pain. 

Injuries sustained during Shinranshin no Jutsu transferred back to her body. Luckily, she’d released the technique before Hikari’s cannon struck, or she’d have been part of the sky’s debris. 

Splatter! 

Flesh rained down. 

The beasts attacking Hikari’s group suddenly quieted, then chased the falling blood and meat. 

Hikari’s Byakugan revealed the beasts weren’t eating flesh but the powdered drug scattered with the fragments, broken by her cannon. 

“The enemy’s down, and the beasts are distracted. We can go!” Shikamaru said, noticing the beasts’ sudden lack of aggression, his face lighting up. 

Setting aside the monstrous Hikari and Naruto, Ino and Choji were injured, and Shikamaru’s chakra was nearly gone from controlling the bird. Their makeshift team was half-incapacitated. 

Now, with the enemy defeated and the beasts distracted, they could finally escape this dangerous place. 

No one objected. 

Hikari took point as the strongest. Naruto supported Choji, while Shikamaru helped the injured Ino. 

The five-person squad prepared to leave. 

Roar! 

A beastly howl came from the east. 

Then, a blinding lightning bolt sliced through the beast horde, charging toward Hikari’s group like a sword. The vivid blue chakra stood out starkly in the dark night. 

“Is that Sensei?” Ino’s pale face brightened. 

In their current state, a teacher’s aid would be a godsend. 

“No!” Hikari’s expression shifted, sensing trouble first. 

The lightning moved too fast, cutting a gap through the beast horde in an instant. No chunin teacher from the academy had such powerful Raiton. 

Her Byakugan’s vision extended forward. 

A towering figure wreathed in lightning, with elite jonin-level chakra, revealed the enemy’s identity. 

“It’s Kumogakure—” 

Before Hikari could finish, the lightning-clad giant crossed a hundred meters in a flash, hurtling toward her like a cannonball. 

So fast, even her Byakugan struggled to track him. 

Zzt! Zzt! Zzt! 

“Die!” roared the figure, a towering man whose fist, crackling with lightning, aimed to crush Hikari. 

The Raiton’s speed was inescapable. 

Raising her arms to shield her head, she took the full force of the terrifying punch. 

Boom! 

The immense impact felt like a freight train. Her arms screamed with pain, as if broken. 

Her vision blurred as she flew back over twenty meters, the force unrelenting. 

Zzt! 

The lightning wasn’t done. It chased her airborne body. 

Girai Senno Raifu! (Righteous Thunder Sinking Rage Axe) 

A deep voice, laced with fury and killing intent, accompanied a chakra-wrapped right leg raised high, smashing down on the airborne Hikari. 

Her eyes widened. 

In midair, with no leverage, she couldn’t dodge the terrifying kick. 

Boom! 

The devastating leg strike hit the ground, kicking up a dust cloud. 

Shikamaru and the others were stunned. The exchange was too fast—before they could react, Hikari, their strongest, seemed to have been killed. 

“Hikari!” Naruto shouted, letting go of Choji and rushing forward. 

“Stop!” Choji and the others grabbed him, pulling him back. 

“What are you doing? Hikari’s in danger!” 

“Calm down, Naruto! This level of fight is beyond us. Our priority is not to burden Hikari and to find reinforcements,” Shikamaru reasoned, snapping Naruto out of his rage. 

“Trust Hikari. Find help,” Ino and Choji urged. 

As the dust settled, a deep crater appeared. 

The towering figure stood, left foot grounded, his descending right leg caught by arms cloaked in red chakra. Hikari, half-buried in the pit, her arms covered in tailed-beast chakra, held firm. 

Zzt! 

Blue and red chakra clashed, Raiton and tailed-beast cloak grinding fiercely. 

“She’s okay!” 

“The enemy’s cleared a path. Go get help for Hikari!” Shikamaru fired a distress flare into the sky. 

Seeing Hikari unharmed, Naruto trusted Shikamaru’s judgment, helping Choji as they, with Ino, quickly retreated.