Naruto: The Shadow Lord of the Nara Clan

The leaves rustled and trembled, and the noise disturbed the mind.

The chirping of cicadas and the humming of insects in the glaring sunlight carried a faint, burnt smell.

Masaki remained motionless, hidden in the bushes, carefully suppressing his breathing, his eyes fixed on a figure not far away.

She has been tracking Lu Ying for almost five hours.

Despite the various strange actions the other party made during those five hours (daily tasks), seemingly revealing many obvious flaws.

But Masaki dared not make any move.

Because she had personally witnessed three groups of examinees launching attacks on Lu Ying at different times.

But in the end, they all ended in failure.

They not only lost their eligibility to compete, but also their future.

Only a complete corpse remained lying beneath the cold earth.

Thinking of Lu Ying's unpredictable and elusive methods, Masaki nervously swallowed.

The sound was extremely faint, but it seemed to have caught Lu Ying's attention.

despair--!

The sound was crisp and clear.

The deer's shadow stopped moving.

In an instant, the chirping of insects fell silent, and all was quiet.

Masaki's heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand.

She dared not breathe, cold sweat beaded on her forehead, her lips were tightly pressed together and turned purple, and her palms were sticky and slippery with sweat.

Lu Ying lowered her head and nodded, as if she was thinking about something.

"Feel sorry."

He tilted his head, looking to his left front, his tone puzzled:

"You seem very angry?"

"We probably don't know each other, right?"

A figure emerged from the woods, dragging its feet.

Daimaru's expression was ferocious, and the muscles on his face kept twitching.

"It's all your fault!"

"They stole my thunder in the written exam! How am I supposed to show Temari my achievements now?!"

"And why does it smell like real trees around you?"

"Don't try to fool me, I'm very sensitive to smells! I can smell Temari's sweet body odor from a kilometer away!"

"You've definitely been in contact with Masaki! Tell me, where is she!"

"otherwise……"

Daimaru didn't reveal the result, but his vicious expression said it all.

Lu Ying didn't take the threat from the man with the buzz cut to heart at all.

He paused for a moment when he heard the name "Temari". If he remembered correctly, Temari was only a year or two older than Shikamaru.

She is completely in loli form.

On second thought, isn't this guy in front of me just a perverted stalker?

What does it mean to be able to smell body odor from a kilometer away?

This is absolutely disgusting!

Lu Ying then gave a look of disgust, as if she had seen a pile of rakes.

Upon seeing this, Daimaru, who already harbored hostility towards Shikakage, was instantly consumed by rage, his eyes turning bloodshot.

"Go to hell!"

He suddenly bent down, pressing his hands to the ground, and shouted angrily:

"Earth Release: Sand Dance!"

A large amount of chakra was injected into the soil, and in an instant, the surrounding land of more than ten square meters began to shake violently like a swamp.

Some of the dry dust rose up, gathered into lines, and transformed into small tornadoes that swept towards the deer's shadow.

Facing Daimaru's deadly attack, Shikakage half-closed his eyes, his toes touching the wriggling mud, his movements unaffected in the slightest.

His mastery of teleportation made him a highly skilled surfer, allowing him to navigate through mud waves and sand swirls with ease.

In less than a second, he was behind Daimaru.

A strong sense of danger made Daimaru's scalp tingle. He was about to turn around and launch an attack when he found himself completely unable to move.

Moreover, it's unclear whether it was just his imagination.

Daimaru vaguely felt that his breathing was somewhat obstructed.

This feeling grew stronger until he could only make a hoarse, grating sound, like a broken bellows.

Only then did Daimaru dare to believe that he had unknowingly fallen victim to Shikakage's ninjutsu.

His desperate will to survive caused the ground beneath his feet to churn like a raging storm, engulfing all the surrounding vegetation.

Even so, the deer's shadow remained unmoved, standing firmly on that small patch of soil.

He spoke indifferently:

"First of all, you really are disgusting."

"Perverted lolicons should just die."

"Secondly, I don't recognize or have ever seen that real tree you mentioned."

"So, are you satisfied now?"

Da Wan's purplish-black lips twitched, and her bloodshot eyeballs were almost squeezed out of their sockets.

"...Um...drink..."

Hearing his indistinct, eventually silent words, Lu Ying smiled and nodded.

"That's good."

The ground beneath their feet became thick and solid once more, and the power of the shadow returned to the shadow itself.

All that remained were the ravaged plants and the conspicuous finger marks on Daimaru's neck, telling the story of what had just happened.

After removing the number tag from Daimaru's corpse with some disdain, Shikamaru turned to a bush and announced loudly:

"So, you're... Masaki?"

There was a pause in the middle, as Lu Ying was recalling names.

Upon hearing his name, Masaki, who was hiding in the bushes, stiffened, like a cat being watched by a tiger.

She bit her lip, stood up tremblingly, gripped her kunai tightly in both hands, and spoke with difficulty:

"When...did you find me?"

"At the beginning?" Lu Ying asked rhetorically, but it didn't sound like he was asking a question.

Upon hearing this, Masaki's beautiful face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Why...?"

She didn't finish her sentence, but Lu Ying understood what she meant.

"You didn't attack me."

He shrugged, looking anything but like he was joking.

Although Maki found this result hard to accept, considering the current situation, she forced a smile and pleaded:

"Can you let me go?"

If she still harbored a sliver of thought about seizing the No. 35 identity token of the Deer Shadow before, then after witnessing Daimaru being mercilessly tortured to death, Masaki realized that this path was destined to lead to certain death.

Lu Ying thought for a moment:

Do you know the location of the ninja from Takigakure?

Perhaps due to bad luck, Shikakage has yet to encounter any Takigakure ninja.

—Takigakure Village?

Masaki hesitated for a moment, then nodded sharply:

"I know!"

Before meeting Shikakage, she had encountered two fierce-looking Takigakure ninjas.

Because she felt the other party was not someone to be trifled with, she chose to take a detour.

Although several hours have passed, the general location can still be determined.

"Let's make a deal. Tell me their location." Lu Ying raised an eyebrow, a smile in her eyes. "I can let you go."

Seeing the handsome young man bathed in sunlight, Masaki was stunned.

However, she quickly regained her composure, her face slightly flushed as she bit her lower lip.

"They are..."

Having obtained clues about the Takigakure ninja, Shikakage was not going to waste any time and immediately planned to launch a rapid attack.

Just before leaving, he glanced at Masaki, who was slumped on the ground, exhausted from his struggle to survive:

"By the way, isn't your master Ye Cang?"

"...Hmm." Masaki nodded blankly, her mind completely empty.

"So it was you."

Only then did Lu Ying remember the identity of the girl in front of him.

After thinking for a moment, he took off his number plate and threw it in front of Masaki.

"I should be your prey."

"Consider this a gift for you."