Suigetsu hacked down harder at Choji.
Shino could no longer move—his whole body weak and shaking. He knew he was dragging the team down, but there was nothing he could do.
Again and again Choji threw himself in front of the blows for Shino. His chakra bled away; his wounds deepened.
"This won't do. Choji won't last," Shikamaru said, calm even now.
"Ino, find a way to control him," Shikamaru urged.
They had to pin Suigetsu before Choji's pill wore off—or they'd all be in mortal danger.
Shikamaru's mind raced. In rain like this, with puddles everywhere, the field belonged to Suigetsu. And for them it was worse than a disadvantage—it was a disaster. Under these storm clouds, the arena lights were smothered; shadows were almost nowhere to be found.
No shadows meant his ninjutsu was useless.
Even if Ino seized Suigetsu's mind, it would only be for a moment. The instant he was struck, the feedback would injure her too.
But if they didn't attack Suigetsu, they couldn't save Shino.
Shino's earlier swarm had truly enraged Suigetsu. Now he meant every word he'd spat—he would hack off Shino's arms and then chop him into eight pieces.
Anyone else might have been bluffing. Suigetsu wasn't.
Anger spiked his power, and Mangetsu's man-made rain turned the entire floor into their perfect terrain.
"Rain…" Shikamaru looked up, catching ten falling drops in his palm. If Mangetsu could make it, there had to be a way to stop it. Scatter those clouds, and shadows would return to the ground.
With shadows, he had a path to beat Suigetsu.
Ino had already caught Suigetsu's mind; he froze in a striking pose.
Across the way, Mangetsu and Neji faced each other. Mangetsu glanced at Neji's blue-lit eyes. "I've seen someone with eyes like yours."
Neji blinked. "Who?"
Mangetsu only curled his lip and didn't answer. "Power like that always takes its price."
He flicked a look toward Sasuke and Naruto, whom Tsunade herself had escorted out not long ago.
"Sasuke can't pay it. You can't either. Even his brother paid what it demanded."
The words seeded a thousand questions in Neji's mind.
Why is there a price? What price? Why did I receive this power? What just happened? What changed in my White Eye?
Was this evolution like the path the Copy Wheel Eye walks?
His head swirled, but he locked it down. When this exam ended, he would ask Hiashi: can the White Eye truly evolve?
He had always believed it nearly impossible—opening eyes inside the clan already demanded brutal, inhuman training.
And yet this change had come too easily. He was seeing things no ordinary White Eye could see. What did that mean? He didn't know.
Watching beneath the Divine Tree, Kaede did. He knew exactly what Mangetsu meant.
(End of Chapter)
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