Somewhere in the forest, the Man runs around aimlessly. After jumping away from the village, he is now trying to find his bearings. Those girls weren't there the last time he showed up, and they sure weren't happy that he was there. He's hungry for more food though, so maybe he'll go back later.
Suddenly, he turns around, hearing something. He sees one of them again. A lone pink-haired kunoichi has found him. And this girl is ready to fight. She'll defeat him right here, all by herself. She doesn't need help. This will be over in a few minutes.
Benisumomo opens the fight by spitting out some fire jitsu at her opponent. He steps back to avoid being burned, and Benisumomo doesn't let up, throwing some kunai at him right after. The Man is able deflect the kunai with his tentacles, and he starts to run forward towards Benisumomo. She runs towards him, and manages to slide underneath him. He turns while running, and his ends up colliding his back into a tree. He's now facing Benisumomo, and spits out oil at her, which she counters by spitting out more fire jitsu. Their attacks cancel each other out, and the Man grabs two tree branches with his tentacles, breaking them off from the main body and throwing them at the girl.
Benisumomo rolls to the side and dodges the branches. She barely has time to roll again as the Man charges forward again and almost runs into her, instead smashing into a tree, this time with his head. She expects him to be hurt from doing something so stupid, and prepares to stab him. But when she turns to him, she's hit in the face with the Man's arm. She's sent flying backwards, landing on the ground and rolling quite a bit.
She's hurt now, but she gets back on two feet. One lucky hit won't keep her down. Benisumomo jumps into the trees. The Man tries to follow her up there, jumping up and grabbing onto the same branch she's currently standing on. She spits out a few needles into his face, just barely missing his eyes, and he falls back to the ground, landing on his feet. She quickly jumps down and stomps on his head, and bounces off to another tree. Being used as a bounce pad makes the Man fall over and land on his behind. He hastily gets back up and turns to his enemy, just in time to deflect some thrown kunai.
The Man extends his tentacles forward, grabbing onto the new tree branch that Benisumomo's standing on. She jumps off just has he breaks the branch into pieces. She goes over his head and lands behind him. He turns and launches out some oil at her, but she simply stands still. When the oil collides with her, Benisumomo suddenly disappears, and a log appears where she stood. It's a substitution to distract him. From behind, he's kicked in the back of the head by the ninja. He stumbles forward, and bangs his head into a tree once again.
As he turns around, his face catches another kick from Benisumomo. As she tries to stab him, he begins flailing his tentacles, and one of them manages to slap her in the face hard enough to make her spin around. Now facing away from the Man, she gets punched right in the back. The punch sends her face-first into the ground. He lifts up both arms and tries to slam them down onto her, but she rolls to the side just in time, and let's out some fire jitsu right onto his chest. He hops back, and begins to spin to try and put out the fire. Benisumomo has to step back to avoid getting hit again as he spins and spins around, eventually putting out the fire.
She's hit him multiple times, made him run into trees more than once, and just set him on fire, but it doesn't feel like she's hurting him all that much. The Man keeps shrugging off everything she throws at him. Meanwhile, the hits she's taken are affecting her ability to move and fight. She's trying to ignore them, but they're wearing on her. Once the Man stops spinning, she tries to hit him again with fire. Maybe he'll use the same method to extinguish himself and eventually get too dizzy to fight. However, he's ready for this, and runs forward while spitting out more oil, once again cancelling out the attack. Benisumomo tries to jump away, but this time the Man manages to grab hold of her leg.
With his opponent finally in his grasp, he slams her to the ground, and then throws her forward. Benisumomo flies through the air, and the back of her legs come into contact with a tree. This hit causes her to flip around the tree in a way that also makes her hit her back on it. She continues to fly forward, before once again hitting the ground and rolling, eventually coming to a stop a good distance a way. Everything hurts now. She can't bring her body to move at this point. Her injuries have become too much. Unable to even turn her head, she can only lie still as she hears the stomps of the Man approaching. He seems to stop just behind her. It's silent for what feels like forever, as Benisumomo waits for him to finish it. After a while, however, the Man begins to walk away, leaving her there on the ground.
After about a minute of lying on the ground, she finally lifts her head and looks around. She's alone now, no sign of the Man anywhere. He really did leave the area. The wounded girl slowly crawls along the dirt, to the base of a tree, attempting to give herself a bit of cover. Hopefully no one finds her like this if she hides a bit. Leaning against the tree, she begins to lose consciousness. With the last of her energy, she thinks about how the Man is stupid for not finishing her off. She'll definitely get her revenge, she thinks, as she passes out.
Back at Akane Village, the twenty girls that stayed behind all sit in the dining area. They sit in two groups talking. There's Mokuren, Tachiaoi, and Mizubashou sitting together and discussing things with each other while watching over all the underclassmen, who comprise the second group on the other side of the room. The two groups are far enough away that if they talk quietly, the other group can't hear.
Sazanka sits with all the other underclassmen, though she's not engaged with their conversation. She'd rather leave and go save Tsubaki, but she's currently bound by rope, with Touwata keeping an eye on her. She's been waiting for an opportunity to slip away, but one hasn't appeared yet. Every second spent here tied up is a second wasted. So Sazanka assesses the current situation, looking at all the other underclassmen as they talk. There has to be a way to get out of here, and it will probably involve them somehow.
She focuses on Uikyou and Kikyou, the Snake Unit. Specifically, she looks at the bells that each wears on their headband. Their Sleeping Bell jitsu would be helpful for getting past the three upperclassmen and Touwata. But they probably won't listen to her. They'd be more likely to listen to someone "responsible", like Touwata, and she won't be convinced to leave, at least not by Sazanka alone. Luckily, Sazanka's not the only one present who has someone that needs saving. Itadori and Ume tried to run out earlier when Fuki got tossed away. If she can get them on her side, there's a higher chance of Touwata being swayed. Add in Asagao, and the peer pressure should get to her even more.
Sazanka: "Oi, Touwata. Untie me."
Touwata: "Huh? No!"
Sazanka: "They need us out there. We're kunoichi too, we can help."
Touwata: "We were told to stay here. We can't disobey."
Sazanka: "Your squad leader broke the rules!"
Itadori: "Yeah, Benisumomo went off on her own twice already! If she can, then why can't we?"
Touwata doesn't have an answer to this. Her leader has been troublesome today. Sazanka focuses on Ume and Itadori. She asks them if they want to save Fuki, and they both nod. They're nervous, but they do want to help. She then asks Touwata if she thinks her leader is in danger, after going off alone, probably to fight the man by herself. She does think this, but is still trying to hang on to the rules.
Housenka: "Hey, you're not actually thinking about going out, right?"
Sazanka: "Scared, chimp?"
Housenka: "If we go out there we'll just get hurt! And you already got someone hurt today!"
That's right, Sazanka did get Higiri injured today, didn't she? When Higiri went out to look for her, she injured her leg. Touwata heard about it earlier. Despite being on the Team with Sumire and the others, she wasn't told about how the injury was actually fake. As far as she knows, it really happened. She looks to Sazanka, who's started to argue with Housenka about bravery, and begins.. to relate with her? After all, the kunoichi are only in this situation because Hana got hurt. And she got hurt because of Touwata herself. The teachers could have dealt with the man easily on the first night if they were here. But not after the injury caused by her asking to see Hana lift the stone. After Hana and Konoha left, Touwata volunteered to help out with running the village, because she felt that she had to make up for what happened. Is it possible that Sazanka is feeling something similar? She says she wants to help Tsubaki, which is understandable, but is she also wanting to make up for what happened to Higiri? Touwata even begins to think about the Tiger's mindsets as well. Itadori and Ume were the ones to discover the first signs of the Man, and the threat of him has been in their minds ever since. And now their leader is out there with him. These girls all have valid reasons to want to go out there.
Against all of her better judgement, Touwata says that maybe they should go out. Everyone is surprised. She says that if the Dogs and Tigers really want to help save their leaders, then she can't say no without feeling terrible. But she also knows that the upperclassmen won't let them participate and will keep them all here. Sazanka says not to worry, and turns to the Snakes.
Back over at the table where the upperclassmen are sitting, they talk about what to do if the Man shows back up here. Mizubashou wants to set up traps, just in case, but the other two aren't sure about letting her rig the village up. Their conversation is then interrupted by the soft sound of ringing bells. The ringing begins to make them drowsy pretty fast. The trio turn their heads to see the Snakes using their Sleeping Bell jitsu. Since the jitsu is pointed at the three older kunoichi, it's mainly affecting them. But the jitsu uses sound waves, so it reaches everyone else in the room too. Even when the younger girls knew it would happen and started covering their ears beforehand, they still struggle to stay awake. Luckily for them, they don't have to wait long, as Mokuren and Mizubashou succumb to the jitsu, with Tachiaoi following shortly after. All the underclassmen uncover their ears, hesitant to make much noise out of fear that they wake up the girls.
Next, the underclassmen gather their roster. Touwata and Sazanka will lead, Asagao, Itadori, and Ume will follow them. Ajisai asks to join them, hoping to help defeat the Man and gain more respect from her unit members. Hasu says that she'll go with them for extra fighting ability, and says she can also use her Misdirection jitsu to escape the Man if things go bad. The Tiger duo also ask Housenka to go with them, since a healer would be nice, as they or their leaders might need a medic. Housenka still doesn't want to go, but after some prodding by Sazanka, who calls her scared, she reluctantly agrees to go.
As for the rest of the underclassmen, they will all stay behind and watch over the village. Hagi would never go out there with a threat like the Man running around, and Higuruma wants to protect Tachiaoi. Azami and Tanpopo also want to protect their home, and don't want to run into an angry Sumire out there. The Rabbits, who aren't really combat-orientated, will also stay, and Kagetsu mentions something about penning a song based on the girls leaving to go help. As for the Snakes, they repeat that their jitsu will be too much of a risk to use in a group fight, so they'll stay here.
The group quickly goes to gather some supplies from their rooms. They mostly grab weapons and rope. Asagao sneaks some food into her clothes, while Housenka packs some medical supplies. Ajisai grabs more arrows for Suzuran, and while she's in her room, she spots some of the scented repellent she made earlier today with Mokuren. She grabs it, and despite it seeming useless, she still decides to take it. It might help right?
With everyone ready, Touwata puts the Snakes in charge, telling them to take care of everyone. She says not to wake up the older girls for at least the next ten minutes, to give them time to travel. They nod in unison and wave the eight girls off. With Sazanka and Touwata leading, they walk in the direction of where Tsubaki was thrown earlier. They're all nervous to some degree, but are determined to help. No turning back, the Man is going to regret hurting their friends.