Naruto drinking makes me stronger-Chapter 33: The Value Of A Res Flower

The Forest of Death was in ruins. Youyu's violent slashes had left deep trenches across the land, cliffs split in two, and entire groves of trees reduced to nothing but splinters. What had once been a thriving jungle now looked like a battlefield from a long-forgotten war, its terrain reshaped by sheer destruction.

In a hidden cave, the remaining Konoha genin huddled together, watching the devastation unfold in the distance. Some had suggested running, but they were quickly met with blank stares. Run where? The entire forest had become a death trap. If they left the cave, they'd be running straight into disaster.

Inuzuka, still aggressively securing his face full of red flower stickers, growled in frustration. "It's because you all refused to put enough on! I told you to cover yourselves completely!" His face was a sea of little red flowers, and with how firmly he had slapped them on, it was hard to tell if he even had skin underneath anymore.

The others grimaced, still skeptical of his extreme measures. Haruki Hyuga sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You really think pasting yourself with stickers is going to make that much of a difference?"

"Are you kidding? Of course it does!" Inuzuka snapped, shoving another sticker onto his cheek. "I haven't been attacked once! That's proof that this works!"

Before anyone could argue further, Haruki's instincts flared. Something felt off. If Youyu had really lost track of them, then by pure chance alone, at least one of his slashes should have landed in their direction by now. His stomach twisted. There was only one explanation.

"Byakugan!" Haruki activated his dojutsu, scanning the surroundings. His face paled instantly. "We're not alone."

Twelve figures moved swiftly through the trees, battered and bleeding, but their eyes gleamed with desperate determination. Their clothes were torn, their bodies covered in cuts and bruises from narrowly escaping death. They weren't just exhausted—they were cornered animals, driven by one singular goal.

They had seen the flowers.

The moment they locked onto the red stickers plastered across Inuzuka's face, their expressions twisted. For them, this wasn't just about surviving the exam anymore. It was about surviving Youyu.

Haruki tensed, his voice low. "Inuzuka, we have a problem."

Inuzuka looked up, still pressing stickers onto his teammates, and frowned. "What?"

A tense silence filled the air as the enemy genin closed in. Their bloodshot eyes bore into Inuzuka, their gazes filled with hunger. One of them, a shinobi from the Hidden Cloud, stepped forward, breathing heavily. "Hand. Over. The flowers."

Inuzuka blinked. "...Huh?"

Another shinobi, this one from the Hidden Mist, let out a choked laugh. "You don't understand, do you?" His fingers twitched as if he were barely holding himself together. "You haven't been out there. You haven't felt it." His voice cracked. "We haven't slept. We haven't eaten. We've just been running."

Haruki understood immediately. These people weren't just tired—they were broken. Youyu had driven them to the brink of madness.

Inuzuka took a slow step back, his instincts screaming at him that these weren't just fellow competitors anymore. They were desperate men willing to do anything for a way out.

Yuuna adjusted his sunglasses, his usual calm tone hiding a trace of unease. "Are you sure you want to do this?" His voice was deliberately slow and measured. "We have a way to contact him, you know. Are you really going to risk him thinking you're a threat?"

The enemy shinobi stiffened at once. The red in their eyes faded slightly, replaced with something deeper—fear.

Haneda Kaito, the Hidden Mist genin closest to Kisame, swallowed hard. "Ghost... what do we do?" His voice trembled.

Kisame was silent. They were gambling now. Betting that Konoha really did have a way to stop the rampage. Betting that if they made the wrong move, they wouldn't be erased in an instant.

Finally, one of them spoke. "Konoha, just... give us some. We'll trade our scrolls. We don't want to fight, we just want to live."

The words broke the dam. More genin began pleading.

"Please! Take our scrolls!"

"We'll give you all of them, just—just let us have the flowers!"

"We don't care about the exam anymore! We just want to make it out alive!"

Kisame clenched his jaw, his grip tightening over his wound. He had once thought himself a monster, but now, even he couldn't deny it. Youyu was something else entirely.

The air was thick with tension as the Konoha genin exchanged glances.

"...What do we do?" Inuzuka asked quietly.

Haruki sighed. "We trade. Their scrolls for our stickers. We don't need the flowers anymore anyway."

Yuuna nodded. "Besides, if they have them, Youyu will stop cutting them down. That means fewer bodies for us to trip over when this exam is over."

Inuzuka crossed his arms. "Fine, but I'm not giving up mine. You can have the extras."

He reached into his bag, pulled out a handful of small red flowers, and tossed them onto the ground. The second they hit the dirt, the enemy shinobi lunged, scrambling to grab one. Even Kisame, despite his injuries, managed to snag one and slap it onto his forehead.

For them, these weren't just stickers. These were shields against certain death.

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Then, everything froze.

A deep, rumbling voice echoed through the trees.

"Ah. There you are."

Time slowed to a crawl.

The enemy genin turned, some still mid-grab, others frozen in place. Their bodies locked up, gripped by a terror they couldn't explain.

They knew that voice.

They had heard it in their nightmares.

And now... he was here.

Youyu stepped forward, eyes glowing crimson, his sword already halfway raised.

"Now I can finally end this goddamn exam."

A dark purple glow flared around him, the energy distorting the very air. The ground cracked beneath his feet as his blade hummed with terrifying power.

The foreign shinobi opened their mouths to scream—

But the slash was faster.