Chapter 22: Dead-Eyed Deceiver
"Oh, shit..." I muttered nervously, my posture suddenly becoming stiff and rigid as I slowly began scanning the area with my eyes.
Is this linked to those bitches in the forest who tried to enslave me? I knew it. That was planned and now they're back.
Who is the pretender? Is it one of the students? Is it one of the teachers, perchance? Maybe they're less of an imposter and more of a traitor.
Could I get help from the teachers? No. Just like the time with the 10 jounin, they most likely found a way to bypass security measures, so I'm on my own.
Though I guess that the other 30 or so kids are in some danger as well, but I don't really give a shit about them.
At least I don't have to risk dying, unlike last time. Hell, this could actually be pretty fun if I play this right.
And when I finish this mission, I get a random skill which would be great.
So, the thing I need to do now is to find a good spot for resting purposes, find a source of water, and set up a way to defend myself.
I also have lay low. In a couple of days, Sayuri would sneak in and take me out of the village with her.
And then I'm out of this joint. I will lose access to Hanabi and Sakura and such, but I will gain different opportunities.
Besides, it's not like my opinion matters on this. Me leaving the village is for safety, and Naruko wouldn't allow me to be in danger.
But in the grand scheme of things, this would very much benefit my plans for the future.
Oh, right, I almost forgot. Every morning, the teachers would be leaving some full meals hiding out in the forest for us to find.
We could fight over it, share it, or destroy it. They just wanted to see what happened.
I already had a plan for that, though. One where I wouldn't have to do any work and would still get that food.
"Alright, then, time to get started..." I muttered to myself as I put on a pair of big sunglasses, activated the Byakugan and ran into the forest depths.
After a solid 5 minutes of running, I figured that I was at a good enough spot to activate my camouflage and slowed down.
Now invisible, I began slowly traversing through the forest, spotting a few lost kids wandering aimlessly as I gathered all of the materials I found on the ground.
Soon after, I wandered upon an area with a bunch of uprooted thick roots and a miniature waterfall about the size of my wrist.
"This should be good enough," I muttered to myself, finally turning off my invisibility as I placed all of the things I collected on the ground.
This place was well endowed with water and natural barriers, all that was left was to fix this place up to keep me hidden until the end.
I probably wouldn't need to leave this place once it was ready due to me pre-packing some food because I had prior knowledge of what the assignment would be.
Unlike the rest of the poor saps who didn't know shit about what this would be and were stuck fending for themselves.
With that thought in mind, I pulled out some ninja wire and went around my area binding up thin roots/branches and making wired webs around the thicker, more shadowed ones.
Though the wires were sharp, I was doubtful of their usefulness and placed a thin layer of barely-noticeable web between the spaces of the wires.
The process involved me slowly flexing the web muscle to eject the webs like an actual spider's spinnerette and pulling it out slowly using my hand to make a sort of string-like substance.
I then webbed all of them up between the wires in a manner that I intentionally made web-like in composition.
The next step was to get all of the materials I collected on my way here and use them to cover all of the unnatural traps in a forest-like shroud over me.
After finishing all my preparation, I made my way over to the mini waterfall and placed a pot under its dripping side.
And then I sat down and unsealed a sandwich.
"I guess it tastes fine..." I mumbled between bites of my sandwich as I leaned against the mossy rock behind me.
Just like that, roughly an hour passed of me sitting aimlessly while everyone else toughed it out.
However, as I was about to pass out, I suddenly heard the clash of metal and a few shouts that snapped me out of it.
"Give me..." One voice echoed into my den.
"...You!" Another one spoke.
I could only catch brief glimpses of the conversation through my thick veil, but my curiosity had been tempted.
So I slowly got up and made my over to a gap in the roots, ducking down slightly as I peered through it.
I could see 2 sets of 2 different kids staring each other down, the group on the right having a frustrated expression.
Actually, now that I took a closer look, I noticed that one of those kids on the right was actually Sarada.
Oh, and that other kid is Cho Cho.
Judging by what they were speaking of prior and the scene before me, it would seem that they were fighting.
And, from what little I heard of their conversation, Sarada and Cho Cho wanted something back.
"Give it back!"
There it is.
I leaned in closer with an excited look and watched in anticipation as the group facing Sarada's shouted.
"Hell no. We're starving and this is the only food here!" She shouted as Cho Cho gained an angry look.
"That was ours! We got here first!" Cho Cho unsurprisingly shouted in a hangry fit as the other group pulled out their kunai.
Before I could even chuckle in amusement, their argument soon erupted into a desperate fight.
With a sudden push, Sarada and the other person ran at each other and slammed Kunai together.
The other girl spun a shuriken in her hand, using it to cut Sarada's hand, causing her to drop the kunai as the girl kicked her in the side.
Suddenly, Sarada grabbed the leg that kicked her and punched the other girl right in the face.
I restrained a chuckle as I shifted my attention over to the Cho Cho fight.
The moment I laid my eyes upon their fight, I had to physically fight back tears as I tried not to burst out laughing.
Cho Cho was currently chasing around a skinnier girl with a slightly-inflated fist.
The girl she was fighting stood still until Cho Cho caught up to her and then took a few steps back before doing it again.
"Hmhmhmhmhm....!" I muffled my laugh using my hand as I stared joyously at the comical scene before me.
It wasn't even that Sarada and Cho Cho were doing bad against them, it was simply because it looked ridiculous.
All of these kids were of lacklustre skill and hadn't had much fighting experience so it really only looked like a bunch of newborn chimpanzees wrestling.
Though I had to give it to the girl fighting Cho Cho. She was actually pretty skilled compared to the rest.
"Right! Left! Give him the old sweep of the leg!" I whisper-shouted to myself as the fight ensued.
Cho Cho got angry at the constant dodging and punched a nearby tree with her enlarged fist, sending multiple wooden shards at the other girl.
Surprisingly nice move.
Of course, aside from the shards that came back at her and stabbed her side.
Fucking imbecile.
Meanwhile, Sarada and the main girl were engaging in a slightly more entertaining duel involving knives.
Sarada threw a shuriken at the girl who, in a panic, deflected it with a kunai which knocked her arm back.
Sarada took advantage of the opportunity and ran over while readying a punch only to freeze as the girl used the movement of her left side being knocked back to kick Sarada in the side of the head.
Sarada was sent rolling across the ground, straight into Cho Cho who was in the middle of punching the 2nd girl.
"Oof, boring ending. Way to get your ass beat..." I judged the entertainment and watched Sarada and Cho Cho groan in pain in a pile.
Oh well, it was entertaining while it lasted, now time to do my thing.
With that thought in mind, I slowly made my way out of my den and activated my invisibility, swinging into the air with a web as I landed near the group.
My landing made a crunching sound due to landing on a pile of leaves, alerting the two kids.
"Did you hear something?" The girl with the injured hand questioned nervously as the other girl silently glanced around the area, "Probably just an animal."
Right as I approached the group of two, I suddenly froze.
'...What?...'
I don't know if I was just imagining things but I thought I saw one of the girl's eyes land directly on me.
Standing still with a stone-faced look, I stared unblinkingly at the girl whose eyes remained fixated on me.
'I wasn't imagining things... she can see me...' I thought to myself nervously.
In order to test if this was real, I moved away from my spot and watched the girl's eyes to see what happened.
Then, I sighed in relief and rolled my eyes.
Her eyes remained staring at the spot where I previously was. She wasn't staring at me at all.
I was just standing in front of a fox. She most likely thought that the fox made the noise and that's why she was looking there.
And I wasn't able to pick up on her not focusing on me because her face was being obscured by her large hood.
Not to mention that my Spider-Sense isn't going off either.
'I'm an idiot...' I shook my head in amusement.
Of course, even if she did actually see me in some way, a small dose of venom would be enough to disable her.
While they were busy contemplating whether someone was here, I slowly walked up behind the girls and resisted the urge to scare the shit out of them.
I would've enjoyed it a lot and it would be fun to fuck with them, but I was still cautious of that one girl.
Quitely, I raised my right arm, a sharp spike jutting out of the bottom of my wrist as I lightly sliced one of the girls across the cheek.
"Wha-! What... is..." The girl muttered drowsily, lightly touching the blood on her cheek before freezing up and collapsing.
The girl next to her narrowed her eyes and swiftly took an offensive stance. Curiously, she didn't have too much of a reaction to her downed teammate
Her body flinched to the left only to freeze before a similar cut mark appeared on her cheek and she suddenly felt her body freeze up.
I could've sworn that she was about to dodge.
But, again, my spider-sense was still silent. Not a single ounce of danger was present.
And when gazing at her chakra with my Byakugan and my Sensor skills, there was nothing giving away any sort of emotion or any clue as to if she sensed me.
I've gotta be cautious. There is a chance that she's that pretender, but it's uncertain.
If she isn't who I think she is, then I won't be seeing her again. But if she is indeed the pretender, then I'll be prepared.
As the two girls lay paralyzed on the ground, I grabbed the basket of food that the group was fighting over and began walking away.
Sarada groaned and finally took notice of her surroundings, "What in the...?" She muttered, staring at the floating basket.
'W- Why is the basket flying...?' Sarada muttered within her mind, mouth agape as the basket suddenly vanished.
Well, it didn't really vanish, I just put it into a seal and swiftly jumped all the way back to my den.
It was a simple and efficient plan; wait for them to finish beating each up and then come in to sweep up the goods.
With those thoughts circulating through my mind, I walked into my den and disabled my invisibility.
Meanwhile, at the place of the battle, the girl with the large hood gazed blankly in the direction that I left.
The girl's brown eyes all of a sudden rolled into the back of her head and came back around. This time the eyes were grey.
Suddenly, the girl's body began spasming and twitching violently.
Her teammate noticed her strange body movements and attempted to call out to her friend in desperation.
"M... Mu-- Hel...p Herp me..." She muttered drunkenly as the twitching girl all of a sudden froze.
The paralyzed girl gained a confused and slightly frightened look as one of the gray-eyed girl's dead eyes turned to her.
And then the paralyzed girl gained a shocked expression at the next thing the other girl did.
She stood up.
'How is she...?' The girl thought to herself as the gray-eyed person began walking forward.
"Hey...! He...lp me up!" She pleaded to her standing friend, finally regaining feeling in her mouth.
However, the girl ignored her and continued forward silently.
A recovering Sarada noticed the exchange and silently observed the dead-eyed girl walk toward where the basket had vanished.
Sarada shuddered in fear upon catching a glimpse of her empty eyes.
She knew instantly to stay quiet and not interrupt whatever she was doing. For those were no little girl's eyes.
Despite the numerous people around her, the girl sauntered forward and then ran off at astonishing speed.
'Found you.'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone