Dusk thickened. Sunlight slipped behind cloud and the forest settled into a deeper hush.
Crunch.
The crackling boar skin was salty and crisp, the meat beneath melt-soft. Naruto chewed with puffed cheeks, trying not to swallow his tongue.
"So good."
Chōji gripped a hind leg in both hands, juice running down his chin.
Ino ate while glaring at Konome, who sat there reaping the reward. She had tended the spit all afternoon through heat and smoke, only for most of the boar to be claimed as a so-called naming fee.
Who does that.
Shikamaru felt equally pained. Meat meant to feed three for three days had drawn two bottomless pits. Chōji and Naruto both ate like wolves. Konome ate more than everyone combined.
She tore off a rack of ribs with her bare hands, bit through meat and membrane with a single crunch, and swallowed the lot in a few gulps. Shikamaru's teeth ached just watching.
The smoke should have drawn Academy instructors first, and driven nearby students away second. No one wanted to get caught.
He had not expected the one person they were mimicking to walk straight in.
Sensory skills.
He eyed Konome's fully covered eyes. As daylight dimmed, the black cloth over them seemed darker still.
He had known she could sense to a degree. He had not realized the range was this wide. Even in sprawling Training Ground Zero, she had pinpointed him without issue.
That level of perception might already rival the Hyūga's Byakugan.
Konome had no idea what Shikamaru was thinking. She held the roast and ate.
Rich fat broke down as her stomach worked. Cells pulsed like a 130-teraflop engine, spinning out body energy and feeding it into the chakra seed without end.
Since entering Training Ground Zero, the old feeling of being watched had only intensified. Whoever it was no longer bothered to hide.
Because animals held no chakra, she could not tag which creature served as the enemy's eyes. Any of them might. Or none.
She suspected the enemy meant to act here.
Why.
In the Forest of Death she had given them clean chances while alone, and they had not shown.
Here there were a dozen chunin instructors and at least one jonin, Kazama Etsu.
Why move now.
Only one difference came to mind.
Her classmates.
The target might not be only her. It might include Shikamaru and Naruto.
Most likely Naruto. The Nine-Tails in his gut was worth far more than her Byakugan. With the Uchiha affair concluded, other villages might have decided to test Konoha's guard.
That never happened in the original story, did it.
The manga began with Naruto's graduation. Before that, the timeline was hazy.
Konome's knowledge was not exhaustive. After work she had watched episodes with a bowl of rice. She could not swear this diverged from canon.
So her earlier read was wrong.
The watcher did not lack confidence against her. Their ambitions were larger. They would not waste time on one girl.
Arrogant.
Her teeth ground the boar meat to paste.
Shikotsumyaku, long dormant, stirred restlessly. Muscle beneath the periosteum swelled. Cords that already wound like steel wire tightened further.
Steam bled hot from her nose and lips.
She did not plan to leave the enemy alive.
They had likely already learned she was training Gentle Fist. Either the watcher died or the Hyūga did.
Neither could be spared.
Order mattered.
The Hyūga were populous and backed by Konoha. Thanks to Hinata and Neji trading tidbits from within, she had a clearer picture of the village's foremost clan after the Uchiha's fall.
Counting the clan head Hiashi, they had two elite jonin.
Few chunin, almost no genin.
But more than fifty tokubetsu jonin and standard jonin. With Byakugan as the baseline, their floor was high. As a Byakugan user herself, she knew how unfair those eyes were in a fight.
Dozens of jonin swarming could trouble even an average kage.
Pick the soft fruit first.
Compared to the Hyūga, eliminating the watcher would be easier. She put that at the front of the queue.
Whoosh.
Pop.
Fireworks cracked at the horizon while they ate. The sun had not fully set. Red flares glimmered dull in the last light.
"It is a distress signal. Someone called a teacher," Chōji said, tilting his head back.
Ino looked up too, pale blue eyes tight with worry. "Do you think they are in danger."
"Relax. Training Ground Zero is low-risk and the teachers are everywhere. It will be fine."
Shikamaru's voice was easy, and Ino believed him. Lazy as he was, he was steady when it counted.
"Uh, Konome, why did you stop eating."
Naruto patted his happy belly and glanced at her.
"Quiet."
Konome stayed his questions with a hand.
The birdsong that had been a constant thread sharpened into needles. What she had tuned out now scraped her ears raw.
No more words were needed.
Her Byakugan bloomed. Invisible sight rippled outward.
There.
Her dead-grey pupils constricted. She rose.
The movement drew Shikamaru and the others' eyes. They started to speak.
In the dim forest, dozens of green points lit up, encircling them.
Grraah.
Fur heaved like bellows. Rank drool dripped.
The pressure alone made Chōji set down the hind leg and swallow hard past the delicious clog in his throat.
Everyone got to their feet.
"So many."
Ino's voice trembled. She drew a new-forged kunai from her pouch.
Naruto unstrapped his limb weights and set them down.
He stepped with fists raised to guard Konome.
Shikamaru yanked a flare from his pack and aimed at the sky.
Before he could fire
whoosh
whoosh whoosh whoosh
a sheet of distress flares burst above the canopy. Firelight spread like a wound across the clouds, redder than the dying sun.
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