Suigetsu's water arm returned to its normal form, grabbing the second hilt of the sword, making it easier for him to lift Hiramekarei and split Naruto in half.
Seeing the opening as Suigetsu lifted his blade, Naruto lunged forward—only to see Suigetsu turn the injured area into water.
A victorious smile appeared on Suigetsu's face.
"Sorry, you can't hurt me like that!"
His boastful declaration quickly turned into a cry of pain as he felt an electric current surge through his body from the pierced spot.
Naruto rolled away from Suigetsu and dashed behind him, pulling out his sword and slicing Suigets straight down the middle. Both halves turned into water and splashed onto the deck.
"Only someone from my family can grip this sword; otherwise, this happens."
Naruto released the sword as it pierced Suigetsu, allowing it to detect Suigetsu's attempt to wield it.
A strange emptiness, almost like a void, passed through Naruto's consciousness, instinctively urging him to dodge—so he sprang sharply to the left.
His right arm was pierced by a kunai thrown by Karin from behind, leaving a fairly deep and long wound.
Was she insane? Did she actually believe she could pull it off? Maybe so, since she hadn't kept Suigets from fighting him simply because she couldn't take him on herself?
That aside, how had she gotten so close?
There was no way she could have closed the distance so quickly from that far away, and Naruto had always been aware of where she was, even though Suigetsu posed a more direct threat.
Around Naruto, there were no signs of life—but that should've been impossible.
When Karin first appeared, she'd been one of the most noticeable presences on the ship.
She must have been masking her chakra the whole time, without even giving him prior warning of an attack. If she had been just a little faster, she would have caught him completely off guard.
This might be the skill of a sensor-type ninja hiding their presence—an ability ninja from Grass Country are especially skilled at—even if it meant they couldn't move while using Ninjutsu. Clearly, she really wanted him dead, or else she wouldn't have risked using such a technique.
But thanks to pure reflexes and combat instinct, she was destined to pay the price.
The moment Naruto saw blood spraying from his wound, he retaliated with a swing of senbon needles. His attack hit its target.
Karin knew from that moment on that she was as good as dead—she hadn't felt her kunai strike anything solid.
Her ability to suppress and hide her chakra only gave her one shot against such a formidable opponent. She thought she'd picked the perfect moment—but she hadn't.
She missed, and Naruto managed to land a free blow on her back, striking her with that deadly weapon.
The sharp blade cleanly sliced through the fabric covering Karin's back from shoulder to the opposite hip. Cold, piercing eyes—one blue, one red—stared down at her as her body crashed heavily onto the wooden planks.
But there was no blood.
That wasn't possible.
He could clearly see what was beneath her torn skin.
She hadn't enhanced her body, nor was she wearing any armor beneath her clothes.
Nothing should have stopped her from suffering such a grievous wound.
Even she seemed utterly startled, jolting upright before plopping back down onto the floor, staring at her hands in disbelief, as if trying to understand what had just saved her.
Naruto hoped his face wasn't betraying the shock he felt while looking at that petite red-haired girl, but the Nine-Tails' laughter reverberating in his mind told him something deeply unsettling was definitely happening.
"This is quite a situation, isn't it?" the fox taunted. "I thought only two other people could touch that cursed thing without getting hurt."
"What? Granny Tsunade and Tamako? Because they—"
"—are your blood relatives? Yeah, I know. The sword won't harm Tamako, which is why she could research the seals on it. It doesn't harm you either, aside from draining your chakra when you transform. Even Tsunade can handle it safely thanks to her bloodline, and now you can't hurt this girl with it either. So what does that tell you?"
The Millennium Blade doesn't affect members of the Uzumaki clan.
Wait… does that mean…
"Don't tell me… she's also an Uzumaki?"
He didn't need his own thoughts to confirm it—the Nine-Tails' laughter echoing in his mind did instead.
"If this keeps up, my life will end up being turned into some kind of novel." Naruto said aloud just as Karin shook off her near-death scare and aimed her hostility back at him.
"Who are you?"
"Maybe your cousin. Can't you hear straight or something?"
"Shut up. I want to hear what she has to say."
"Karin," she snapped coldly. "What? You into memorizing names of people you're gonna kill?"
Naruto ignored her sharp remark—like they were ever friends or something.
His team had taken a priceless artifact from her group. Her boyfriend and team leader nearly killed the girl he cared about most, and eventually he ended up killing that same leader during an utterly unrelated disaster of a battle.
Right now, they were still ready to tear each other apart over all he already knew.
"What's your family name? Your surname?"
"I don't have one."
"You do. It's Uzumaki."
"Don't joke around."
"This isn't a joke. My sword can't hurt you. That means you're part of our clan too."
Karin was visibly shocked.
Using her Kamui Sharingan, she could clearly sense his chakra—and there wasn't a trace of deception in it. Not even a flicker of doubt showed in his massive chakra reserves.
"…That means nothing to me. I'm still going to kill you."
"I figured as much."
Well then, that was it. He'd done his part by telling her.
If she still wanted to fight him to the death, so be it.
Other than a surname she hadn't known until now and a familial connection lost decades before their births, they had absolutely nothing tying them together.
[Wrath of the Sea!]
The ship lurched violently, and before they could exchange another word, everything shifted dramatically.
Naruto and Karin both stabilized their bodies with chakra, but one wore a smug smile while the other did not.
The reason was that Suigetsu, enlarged to a massive size, had lifted the entire vessel. He looked down at Naruto's tiny form.
"...Nine-Tails?!" Naruto could feel Sage Chakra surging through him as he entered Sage Mode.
"Thanks," Naruto muttered, ignoring Suigetsu completely as he sprinted toward the ship's railing and vaulted over it.
"Wait, what am I doing?! He's made of water—I'm jumping into the ocean!"
"You really do have some dumb moments..." The Nine-Tails pointed out, still watching from the sidelines as Naruto tried desperately to save himself.
Laughing, Suigetsu set the ship and Karin gently back onto the ocean's surface. He stepped onto the ship, his body continuing to grow larger.
"Still don't get it, do you? I don't just use the ocean as a weapon—I become the ocean itself through my clan's jutsu! On open water, no one is more dangerous than the Hozuki clan."
This was why larger-scale Ninja World Wars had never erupted on the Land of Water's territory—it was nearly impossible to reach in ancient times because Kiri had been ruled by the extremely dangerous Hozuki clan, led by the Mizukage.
The only reason the Second Mizukage fell in battle against the Second Tsuchikage was because their final duel took place on land. Even so, both fell together, resulting in a stalemate.
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