Chapter 36: One Tail
Konoha Forest, at a training ground with three wooden posts standing upright.
Falling leaves swirled with the wind, only to be instantly shredded by sharp weapons.
Thud, thud, thud—three kunai struck dead center on the targets. The girl with twin buns on her head couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"Bullseye! Neji, you're amazing!"
"This level isn't anything worth praising," Hyūga Neji replied coldly.
"Three thousand one hundred twenty-one! Three thousand one hundred twenty-two!…" Off to the side, Lee was gritting his teeth as he did one-handed handstand push-ups.
"It's already really impressive. After all, Neji is a genius," Tenten said, trying to encourage him.
"A genius?" Neji tightened his knee guards and glanced at Lee. "Uchiha Sasuke is the real genius. You only know the difference when you fight him."
"Neji, what do you think about that so-called Ninja God?" Tenten suddenly asked nervously, as if the thought had just struck her.
"They suddenly said Lord Hokage would die during the Chūnin Exams… and now even Guy-sensei has been summoned back by Lord Hokage."
"No idea," Neji said flatly. "The higher-ups will deal with it. It's not something we should be concerned with."
"That might be true, but the Chūnin Exams will definitely be affected," Tenten said worriedly. "This involves Lord Hokage himself. If things go wrong, the exams might be canceled."
"Canceled?" Still in a handstand, Lee looked at them, sweat pouring down his face. "Didn't Guy-sensei tell us? It probably won't be canceled. We should just focus on training."
"With things like this happening, it's really hard to say. What if that Ninja God's words turn out to be…" Tenten trailed off.
The so-called Ninja God had previously revealed secrets about both the Uchiha and Hyūga clans. And right beside her stood Neji, a victim of the Hyūga clan's Caged Bird Curse.
"Fake," Neji said calmly. "The village has already issued a statement denying it. We're told to ignore the Ninja God's claims."
"Yeah… they are the enemy, after all," Tenten sighed. "Still, I wonder who this Ninja God really is."
"Probably someone from the village," Lee said as he continued sweating through his exercise. "Guy-sensei said outsiders couldn't receive those messages in their minds."
Neji didn't respond. He simply continued his training, his gaze becoming increasingly serene.
A genius of the Hyūga clan?
Being born is a sin. As a bird in a cage, there's no need for talent.
All the Hyūga need are slaves to serve the Main Family. As long as you can survive, it doesn't matter if you live on like a wretched beast.
…
"What's with that message, anyway?" Shikamaru lay idly on the grassy slope, his half-lidded eyes staring lazily into the sky.
Asuma had to leave unexpectedly, probably to return to the Hokage's office. Being the son of the Hokage, he was no doubt worried about the Third.
With that, the Ino-Shika-Chō trio had nothing to do. Shikamaru, of course, would rest if he could; Ino kept training, and Chōji sat off to the side munching on chips.
At Shikamaru's question, Chōji crunched down on a handful of chips before replying with eyes narrowed to slits.
"Didn't the village say it was fake?"
"Who actually believes that?" Shikamaru muttered. "That Hyūga incident turned out to be true, didn't it? Last year's top rookie was from the Branch Family, right?"
"Where did you hear that?" Ino stopped her training and walked over, having overheard.
"My dad told me." Shikamaru stuck a blade of grass in his mouth, his dead-fish eyes watching cotton-candy clouds drift by.
"I bet that Hyūga prodigy has a Caged Bird Seal on his forehead too."
Ino sighed. "Things like that in big clans… we can't do anything about them."
"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed half-heartedly. After staring blankly at the sky for a while, he suddenly asked, "Ino, do you have some issue with Naruto?"
Ino froze, flustered by the question.
"N-no, of course not! Why do you ask?"
"Didn't you deliberately avoid him last time?" Shikamaru pressed. "I just found it weird that when we went to submit the Chūnin Exam application today, Team 7 only had Sakura and Sasuke there."
"That guy Naruto… I don't get it. He used to be desperate for acknowledgment, but now it's like he's lost all his drive."
"I have no idea," Ino said with a laugh. "And it's not like I haven't had my share of issues with him. Nothing strange about that."
"True. Who knows what's up with that guy," Shikamaru grumbled.
"Naruto?" Chōji, still eating chips, turned his head toward them and suddenly spoke. "I saw him once recently. He was with a little girl."
"A little girl?" Ino was slightly surprised.
"Probably an orphan from the village," Chōji said as he tossed more chips into his mouth. "I saw them at a barbecue place."
"That guy Naruto… he hardly seems like a shinobi anymore."
"Yeah, who knows. I haven't seen him training lately," Shikamaru sighed. "Last time I saw him on the street, he wasn't even wearing his forehead protector."
"No way!" Ino's eyes widened in shock. "He used to want that forehead protector so badly. Why would he…"
"Hard to say." Shikamaru stood up, climbed to the top of the slope, and looked into the distance.
His gaze lifted from the grassy plain, crossed the wind-swept field, skimmed past a flash of white from a bird in flight, and landed on several small dark figures far off.
"Those are Suna shinobi, right?"
Hearing that, Ino and Chōji also turned to look in that direction. Immediately, cold sweat formed on their foreheads.
On the grass some distance away, a ninja carrying a gourd on his back wore a dark, brooding expression. The other two, a boy and a girl, also looked none too friendly as they locked eyes with the trio.
The moment their gazes met, the Ino-Shika-Chō trio felt a chill run down their spines—a primal fear of being targeted by a predator.
Fortunately, the three Suna nin didn't approach them and instead changed direction, heading toward the Hokage's office.
"That guy with the gourd… so scary," Ino said, patting her small chest in lingering fear.
"Hope we don't run into them during the Chūnin Exams," Shikamaru muttered, pale-faced as he swallowed hard.
"Clatter! Crunch!" Chōji, completely spooked, tipped the entire bag of chips into his mouth.
…
"Temari, I heard this village has a jinchūriki too," Kankurō said as they walked, a bulky puppet mechanism strapped to his back.
"Yeah. The strongest of them all—the Nine-Tails," Temari replied. She carried a giant folded fan on her back, her shoulders bare beneath a mesh outfit, a faintly displeased look on her face.
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