Third heartbeat

Rarely have I felt so low-spirited since I arrived in this world. In the end, I couldn't even electrocute Ino because I didn't want to ruin her more than she already was. I took off my bracelet and made an extremely thin needle that granted her a painless and almost instantaneous death when I stabbed her at a precise point on her body.

Then, so that she could be buried with dignity and not devoured by wild animals in the area, I stored her body in a universal capsule.

I spent the night without the slightest hint of sleep, silently watching as Sasuke escaped with the Sound Four. By the time dawn began to break, I took Ino's body and moved it near the hospital to a visible area, leaving her in a position as if she had just been attacked. The body hadn't even cooled down as I stored it quickly.

Yes, in the eyes of Konoha, Ino died being attacked by the Sound Four.

They had already killed several during their infiltration, and it wasn't difficult to make them assume the blame, especially with Jirobo breaking a few bones when he finished those vigilant ninjas.

What I did might be petty, but it's better than letting it be known that she tried to kill her friend for some unknown reason.

Nemu didn't answer my call, so I assume she's still operating on Hinata with Shizune. I know they can save her, but I still feel uneasy.

Because I know that somehow this must be my fault or the fault of my actions, even if it's just a minor butterfly effect. In the original timeline, something so dark would never have happened between them.

The Hyuga clan people were searching for Hinata all night, and I thought about leaving them a note or something, but...

How do I explain how it ended up like that and where I sent her?

The same goes for the people of the Yamanaka clan.

And Hinata... I don't think she would want to know when she wakes up. I just hope she doesn't end up like Mikoto.

That's also partly why I placed the body here. Hinata will also know that it was the Sound Team when she returns from the words of others. I just found her lying on the ground.

Kosuke sent the original group early in the morning to my surprise to pursue Sasuke after Sakura's warning! I had completely forgotten about her with the situation...

Although this time, they had people available to lead them, they used them to try to locate the missing heiresses as a priority. No adult could accompany them.

One would think that Guy would step forward, but it seems he's helping Lee see that being a civilian is also "youth," which is somewhat true. Moreover, it seems that he was actually recommended as an intern to learn to be a taijutsu master in the academy.

So after waiting to see with my own eyes how they successfully found Ino, I got up and hurried towards Naruto's group, which was starting to move out of my Mantra range.

I have no intention of intervening; it will be more of a spectator mode.

I'm just not in the mood for popcorn.

Actually, I'm not hungry at all right now...

Well, Jirobo and Choji are fighting.

Neji and Kidomaru... I won't be taking samples of those arrows, how disgusting.

And my treasures would kill me if I tried to bring one of those spiders to the Sky Island.

I admit that maybe I stayed longer than necessary watching Tayuya's fight against Shikamaru, but I was curious to study Tayuya's melodies.

But I missed about half of everything, not being able to feel the chakra and all...

At least, she knows how to play very well. In fact, I'd love to do a duet with some tunes I have noted that require more than one type of flute. Too bad she's "bad," and I can't trust her because she's Orochimaru's people, so I won't invite her to the village.

Tayuya moved to the second level of the Cursed Seal when she was caught by Shikamaru's shadow and managed to break free from the control. So Shikamaru tried to strangle her with the shadow as the next countermeasure. It's...

Kind of pathetic, in my opinion.

I mean, really?

So much planning by the Nara clan, and he doesn't seem to be able to learn a D or C-rank offensive technique?

Even a Fireball Jutsu would work wonders in his situation!

Also, I never understood why Shikamaru deserved to be promoted to Chunin with the performance he gave during the exam. He didn't make the cut, not by a long shot!

Sure, he has a strategic mind.

But even a civilian could have one, and they don't make them Chunin for that!

If he doesn't have the strength to carry out his ideas, what will he do when facing someone with enough power to render his brilliant plans worthless?

Because when someone like that appears, running is not an option.

I think his promotion was more for the purpose of boosting morale and some shady deal behind the scenes by Shikaku. It would have been very demoralizing if, after all that happened in the village, not a single genin got a promotion.

It would be like saying that his generation has it very tough, not to mention the future.

Honestly, even if they didn't use their Devil Fruit powers, the current Karin or Fu could give him the beating of his life with just the basic techniques from ninja academies.

They should have paired Shikamaru with Guy; maybe then he would wake up once and for all, and... oh, he's dead.

Tayuya just killed him, in a somewhat unpleasant way.

Using the horns that sprout from her head thanks to the second level of the Cursed Seal to stab through the eyes and reach the brain is brutal. Especially now, seeing how she's trying to pull them out without much success from the corpse, spreading blood and brain matter everywhere.

Couldn't she just deactivate the Cursed Seal? Weird.

And there's no trace of Temari in the vicinity, so it seems that Sunagakure didn't send reinforcements as I expected or maybe Kosuke didn't contact them in the first place.

"I can't believe Tony fell in love with her..." I murmured to myself, remembering one of my favorite fanfics.

I was going to say more, but then I thought about my partners and wisely decided that everyone has their unique tastes, and it's not right to criticize. After confirming that Shikamaru's nervous signal is off, I jumped and continued my journey as a spectator.

Tayuya's POV

Damn! I can't believe my gamble paid off; he finally left.

For a moment, I thought the owner of the third heartbeat I heard was reinforcements for the Leaf bastard, but he didn't make a move. When I finally managed to surprise-kill him, I didn't know if he would make a move when the fight ended, so I didn't dare to deactivate the Cursed Seal, no matter how exhausted I was.

But most importantly...

Who the hell is this guy named Tony?!