"No... you're not Hinata!"
The moment Ino finished speaking, she flickered in front of Hinata and threw a punch straight at her.
"Ino! What are you doing?!"
A fierce look crossed Hinata's face as she reached out with both hands to grab Ino's incoming fist.
"As I thought... I was right!"
Seeing the look in 'Hinata's' eyes, Ino didn't hesitate—the punch landed cleanly.
"Partial Multi-Size Technique!"
Chōji's arms instantly swelled, grabbing Naruto and Sasuke in his enlarged hands.
'Hinata' was blasted backward by Ino's strike, and mid-air her form twisted into a pale, plant-like humanoid.
"Do it!"
Shikamaru issued the order immediately.
*Crunch!*
The Naruto and Sasuke held in Chōji's hands were crushed into white pulp.
"What the heck is going on...?" Ino stared at the fallen White Zetsu. She had never seen such a creature before.
More importantly—she hadn't sensed anything off about Hinata at all. If she hadn't casually asked about Hinata's usual appetite a moment ago, she might never have realized it was a fake.
"What a bizarre Transformation Technique... looks like we've got trouble."
Shikamaru's expression darkened as he looked into the distance. One by one, 'Konoha shinobi' stepped out from behind the trees, led by none other than Hatake Kakashi.
"Shikamaru, the three of you step aside. Kamizuki Hikari is suspected of stealing classified Konoha information. The Hokage-sama has ordered us to take him back!"
Seeing so many Konoha shinobi, Chōji's mouth opened as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he stayed silent and stepped in front of Shikamaru.
Ino formed a seal, activating her chakra sensing technique.
"Shikamaru... their chakra is identical to the real people's!" she said in a tight, uneasy voice. It felt disturbingly like she was about to fight her own comrades.
"Shikamaru, you're smart. I don't believe Shikaku-senpai would sit back and watch you betray Konoha like this!" Kakashi advanced with the other shinobi, pressure mounting.
"Shikamaru... these guys are transformed from those white creatures, right?" Ino pointed at the downed White Zetsu, visibly hesitant.
Fighting against fellow Konoha shinobi was no small thing.
Her heart was extremely heavy right now.
It wasn't just Ino; Shikamaru felt the same immense pressure.
Even knowing logically that the figures before them were impostors, seeing familiar faces with their own eyes made hesitation seep in.
"You're not allowed to come any closer. Whatever it is, we'll talk after Hikari-senpai wakes up. Otherwise, I'm going to fight!" Chōji growled in his low, muffled voice.
He stood before Ino and Shikamaru like a solid mountain, giving both of them a surprising sense of security.
"Akimichi Chōji, do you understand that shielding a traitor like this means you don't even care about your own clan anymore?!" Kakashi continued to close in with the fake Konoha forces.
"I'm not afraid of you!"
"Maybe I'm not as smart as Shikamaru, but I know one thing: you're not Konoha shinobi! Hikari-senpai would never betray the village. You're all fakes!"
His shout thundered through the clearing.
Shikamaru and Ino jolted, exchanged a nod, and stepped forward—forming three protective angles around Hikari.
"Attack! Akimichi Chōji, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino have betrayed Konoha! Kill on sight!"
With that, Kakashi lunged with a kunai.
"Human Bullet Tank!"
Chōji dove forward. His body rapidly expanded, limbs retracting as he turned into a gigantic spinning meat ball that barreled toward the crowd of fake Konoha shinobi.
Anything it touched died on impact; anything it rolled over was maimed.
Watching white limbs fly everywhere, Shikamaru and Ino gradually relaxed.
As long as they weren't really fighting actual Konoha shinobi, they had nothing to fear.
Just as they kept their guard up, a rippling distortion appeared over Hikari's body—as if something was trying to pull him into a mysterious different space.
"Obito. Do you have a death wish?"
A sharp, icy voice rang out. The ripple vanished. Then, reflected in Ino and Shikamaru's eyes—an enormous blood-red full moon appeared in the sky.
Bathed in that crimson moonlight, every White Zetsu collapsed and reverted to their original forms.
"This is..." Shikamaru looked around, stunned, unable to understand what was happening.
"You three are really useless. If I hadn't come, Hikari-senpai would've been taken already."
A cool female voice spoke. Ino turned and saw Yakumo appear beside Hikari.
"You are...?"
Searching her memory, Ino found no record of this woman, and Yakumo wasn't even wearing a Konoha forehead protector.
"Who I am is none of your business. If Hikari-senpai is willing to tell you, you can ask him. If not, then forget it."
Remembering the way the Ino–Shika–Chō trio had thrown themselves in harm's way to protect Hikari, Yakumo—though unimpressed with their combat ability—let her irritation fade.
In the end, it was all Hikari's fault anyway.
"This idiot... Why didn't he come to me while training? If I hadn't sensed something wrong here, that masked guy would've snatched you!" Yakumo glared at the unconscious Hikari and raised her hand as if to slap him awake.
The scene left Ino dumbfounded.
She had thought this woman was their savior, but looking at her now... she might actually be the disaster.
"Um, big sis... do you know what's going on? Could you tell us?" Ino cautiously probed.
Truthfully, the three of them still had no idea what they were caught up in.
A bunch of weirdos who could perfectly transform into Konoha shinobi, and even her sensing techniques couldn't detect anything abnormal—that was just too strange.
"It's a masked man hiding in the shadows. You don't need to know the details, and you shouldn't."
Yakumo glanced at the White Zetsu corpses scattered around and frowned.
"As for these things... wait until he wakes up—"
She suddenly cut herself off, eyes widening as she looked at Hikari.
A translucent version of Hikari stepped out of his own body.
"Hikari-senpai?!"
If Ino weren't a shinobi with a strong tolerance for weirdness, she would have thought she was looking at a ghost.
"It's me."
Hikari smiled, "I didn't expect mastering this technique to be so difficult. If Yakumo hadn't come, I really would've been in danger today."
While training, his consciousness had been trapped inside his unmoving body—able to sense everything, but unable to act.
Yakumo's genjutsu space had pushed his Spirit Transformation Technique through its first barrier, allowing his soul to leave his body.
"Hmph. Good that you know. Next time you do something this reckless, I'm not saving you!" Yakumo huffed, though her tone had softened.
"Yes yes yes, my bad!"
Hikari admitted fault instantly. "You can head back first. I'll cover your tracks here so you won't appear in any Konoha records."
"Fine. I'm too lazy to deal with Konoha people anyway!"
With that, space around her warped. The blood moon vanished, and the sky returned to normal.
"Whoa—!"
Without the protection of the genjutsu space, Hikari suddenly felt searing, burning pain throughout his body. Startled, he hurriedly returned his soul to his physical form.
"Hikari-senpai... just what on earth is going on?!"