Leaves rustled overhead, the sound grating on the nerves.
Cicadas and insects droned under the glaring sun, carrying a faint scorched smell.
Maki stayed perfectly still inside the thick bushes, breathing shallow and silent, eyes locked on the figure not far ahead.
She had been tailing Shikage for nearly five hours now.
During that time he'd done all kinds of bizarre movements—stuff that looked like obvious openings.
But Maki didn't dare make a single move.
Because she had personally watched three different groups of candidates attack him at different times.
Every single one of them had failed.
They didn't just lose the exam—they lost their futures.
All that remained were three intact corpses lying cold in the mud.
The memory of Shikage's traceless, unknown methods made Maki swallow hard.
The sound was tiny, but it still caught his attention.
Tap—
A crisp footstep.
Shikage's stride halted.
In an instant, the insects went silent. The forest held its breath.
Maki's heart felt like it was being squeezed in an iron fist.
She didn't dare breathe. Cold sweat beaded on her temples. Her lips pressed into a pale, bloodless line. Her palms were slick.
Shikage tilted his head, staring toward her left-front, voice puzzled.
"Sorry… are you angry at me?"
"We don't even know each other, right?"
A figure stomped out from the trees.
Daimaru's face was twisted with rage, every muscle twitching.
"It's all your fault, you bastard!"
"You stole my spotlight during the written test! How am I supposed to show Temari what I can do now?!"
"And why the hell do I smell Maki on you?"
"Don't even try to lie—I've got a nose like a bloodhound! I can smell Temari's sweet scent from a kilometer away!"
"You definitely ran into her! Tell me where she is!"
"Or else…"
He didn't finish the threat, but the murderous glare said everything.
Shikage didn't take the buzz-cut idiot's threat seriously at all.
The moment he heard "Temari," he paused for half a second. If he remembered right, Temari was only one or two years older than Shikamaru right now—still in full loli mode.
So this guy was just a creepy lolicon stalker?
Smelling someone's scent from a kilometer away?
That was straight-up disgusting.
Shikage's face twisted into the exact same expression he'd wear after stepping in dog shit.
Daimaru, already hostile, saw that look and snapped. His eyes went bloodshot.
"Die!"
He slammed both palms to the ground and roared,
"Earth Style: Sand Dance!"
Massive chakra poured into the soil. In a heartbeat, the ten-meter patch around them turned into a churning swamp of mud and sand.
Dry dust spiraled upward, forming dozens of tiny tornadoes that screamed toward Shikage.
Facing the killing move, Shikage half-closed his eyes, toes lightly tapping the roiling ground. The terrain didn't slow him at all.
With flawless Body Flicker, he became a master surfer, weaving effortlessly between the mud waves and sand funnels.
Less than a second later, he stood directly behind Daimaru.
A violent sense of danger exploded across Daimaru's scalp. He tried to spin and counter—only to discover he couldn't move a muscle.
Worse, his breathing was growing labored.
The feeling got heavier and heavier until he was wheezing like a broken bellows.
Only then did Daimaru realize—he had been caught in Shikage's technique without even noticing.
Desperate survival instinct kicked in. The ground beneath his feet erupted like a tidal wave, swallowing every plant in the area.
Even so, Shikage stood perfectly steady on his tiny patch of solid earth.
He spoke calmly.
"First, you really are disgusting."
"Creepy lolicon stalkers deserve to die."
"Second, I don't know any 'Maki' and I've never seen her."
"So… satisfied?"
Daimaru's purple-black lips twitched. His bloodshot eyes bulged so hard they looked ready to pop out of his skull.
"…Guh… haa…"
Listening to the gurgling, fading noises, Shikage smiled and nodded.
"Good."
The ground beneath his feet turned solid again. The shadow power slid back into his own silhouette.
All that remained was the wrecked vegetation and the glaring finger-shaped bruises around Daimaru's throat.
Shikage picked up the plate from the corpse with mild distaste, then turned toward a certain bush and called out clearly,
"So… you must be Maki, right?"
There was a tiny pause—he was trying to remember the name.
Hearing her own name, Maki froze inside the bushes like a cat caught in a tiger's stare.
She bit her lip, stood up on trembling legs, kunai gripped tight, and forced out,
"You… when did you notice me?"
"From the beginning?" Shikage answered with a question, but it didn't sound like one.
Maki's pretty face drained of all color.
"W… why?"
She didn't finish, but Shikage understood.
"You didn't attack me."
He shrugged, looking completely serious.
Maki found the answer hard to accept, but given the current situation, she forced a weak smile and pleaded,
"Can… can you let me go?"
If she had still harbored any thought of stealing Shikage's number 35 plate before, watching Daimaru get casually slaughtered erased it completely.
Shikage thought for a second.
"Do you know where the Takigakure ninjas are?"
Maybe his luck was just bad—he still hadn't run into a single Taki ninja.
—Taki?
Maki blinked, then nodded hard.
"I know!"
Before she ran into Shikage, she had crossed paths with two vicious-looking Takigakure shinobi.
They looked too dangerous, so she had detoured around them.
A few hours had passed, but she could still point out the general direction.
"Deal. Tell me their location," Shikage raised an eyebrow, smiling, "and I'll let you walk away."
Looking at the handsome boy bathed in sunlight, Maki froze for a moment.
She quickly snapped out of it, cheeks faintly pink, and bit her lower lip.
"They're…"
Once he had the lead on the Taki team, Shikage had no intention of wasting time. He was ready to move out immediately.
Before leaving, he glanced at Maki, who had collapsed to the ground in relief.
"By the way… isn't your teacher Pakura?"
"…Yeah." Maki nodded blankly, her mind still completely empty.
"So it really is you."
Only now did Shikage remember the girl's full identity.
After a quick thought, he took off his own number plate and tossed it in front of her.
"You're supposed to be hunting me, right?"
"Consider this a gift."
Maki stared at the plate on the ground, completely stunned.