eals, body flicker, delicate and precise manipulation, and the explosive power granted by vast cShakra—
These are the key components of Karin's strength.
Not flashy, but solid and effective.
By the time Team Three arrived,
The battle was already over.
Puppet wreckage lay scattered all over the ground.
Karin's hairstyle was a bit messy, tousled by smoke, but other than that, she was completely uninjured.
As for their target—the rogue Sand ninja named "Mukade"—he was utterly wretched.
His limbs were bound by golden chains.
His left hand was half-gone.
"So fast," Tenten exclaimed in astonishment.
They had fought Mukade before. While he wasn't an elite, he did have jōnin-level skill. Especially in familiar terrain, he was tricky and experienced—very difficult to capture.
If Naruto had stepped in, that would have been understandable.
But…
It seemed like only Karin had fought.
They were a little slower getting here, sure, but the gap was only a few minutes at most.
"Only by being around strong people can one become stronger," Neji said in a low voice.
He had some impression of Karin.
Three years ago, during the Konoha "Joint Chūnin Exams," she had participated.
Back then, she had been a lower-tier genin who couldn't even pass the second round of the exam.
No strength, no talent—
That was the general consensus about her.
But now...
Even he wasn't confident he could defeat her.
Karin stood on tiptoe, completely ignoring the arrival of Team Three. She waved toward a direction and called out, "Naruto, how did I do?"
"Very well," Naruto stood nearby, smiling and clapping for her.
Tenten opened her mouth to speak.
But glancing at Neji and recalling his earlier attitude, she swallowed her words.
"Uzumaki... Lord Naruto." Mukade, suspended in the air, finally realized that the golden-haired boy who had been observing the entire fight was that Naruto. His voice trembled.
Naruto tilted his head, looking toward Neji and the others. "Why did this guy defect?"
"According to Sunagakure," Neji answered promptly, "he was discovered after harming fellow villagers, and defected as a result."
Naruto turned his gaze back to Mukade. "Is that true?"
"I just wanted to become stronger," Mukade said, voice quivering. "Lord Uzumaki, you've seen Sasori, haven't you?"
"His human puppets are our puppeteers'…"
Karin's Kagura Mind's Eye sensed that he was telling the truth.
Which meant—
The part about him harming his comrades was true as well.
Naruto raised a finger and touched it to Mukade's forehead.
A stream of spiritual power locked his throat.
Kurama's tail extended out, striking his chest.
Though still bound by chains,
Mukade's soul was drawn from his body.
His chakra and spirit merged into one form—prompting the "Six Paths Power" to descend, following the aura. Unlike when Naruto had faced Sasuke—who bore some of the Shinigami's power—this time, it acted decisively and tore the soul away.
Naruto stared at the ground, deep in thought.
He had encountered the "Six Paths Power" several times now.
It didn't feel "alive" to him. More like... a "program."
A soul appears, and it responds.
Then it makes a "judgment": is the soul leaving the body due to death, or due to a jutsu?
If the latter, it doesn't take the soul.
If the former, it forcibly pulls it away.
The flash of soul light made Karin pause. Though she also practiced Kagura Mind's Eye, her level was nowhere near Naruto's—she couldn't sense the presence of the "Six Paths."
"He got taken away?" But she could deduce the process from what had happened.
Naruto nodded. "That's why I didn't recklessly test it on you. It was the right call."
Karin lowered her head, muttering to herself.
"What was that?"
The members of Team Three were stunned.
What came out of the body must have been the soul, right?
And it got taken?
Controlling the souls of the dead…
It sounded like something evil.
But since it was Naruto doing it, it didn't feel so hard to accept.
"Do you still need this corpse?" Neji asked.
Naruto thought for a moment, pulled out a scroll, and extracted Mukade's chakra, leaving a slightly shriveled body behind. With a wave of his hand:
"Thanks."
Neji nodded and turned to Tenten.
The bun-haired girl understood immediately and body-flickered over to seal the corpse.
Naruto, meanwhile, walked to the center of the tower's sealing formation.
"Karin, want to give it a try?" he asked with a sideways glance.
Karin looked over. "A jutsu of the Uzumaki clan?"
"But Uncle Minato made some modifications."
"His sealing arts are quite advanced too."
"Let me try."
Naruto stepped aside.
Karin pulled out a scroll and began to carefully examine the formation.
Forcefully breaking the seal wasn't a problem for her.
But for a sealing master, that method was disgraceful.
It meant admitting your skills were vastly inferior to the other's.
Tenten finished sealing the corpse.
Team Three didn't leave.
Neji was the captain, and he hadn't given the order.
Hinata didn't really want to leave either.
After over an hour,
Karin clapped her hands. "I've figured out how to break the seal, Naruto. Shall we begin?"
Naruto nodded.
Karin put away her scroll and pressed her palm onto the center of the formation.
From her palm, countless intricate symbols spread out, overlaying the original formation—almost perfectly matched.
Driven by chakra, the twin-layered seal began to rotate.
Creak, creak, a soft grinding sound echoed.
As if a door was being unlocked.
On the three-pronged kunai, flames ignited, burning away the seal's anchor points.
The seal bulged and opened.
A purple light burst forth—an enormous amount of chakra stored for decades surged out of the small crack, gushing like a torrent, stirring up a massive whirlwind.
And this strange chakra distorted the surrounding space.
Twisting the very void.
"Naruto?" Karin, a little flustered, turned her head.
Naruto focused on the energy fluctuations, then shook his head. "It's alright. It's not harmful."
"It's only disturbing space-time."
Karin calmed herself.
She had gone over everything. No mistakes.
"Maybe," Naruto said, feeling space-time power tug at his body as if trying to pull him somewhere. He looked at Karin. "We're about to take a strange journey."
"Don't be afraid."
"I'll find you."
Karin blinked.
She didn't quite understand what Naruto meant by that.
In that moment, the purple light engulfed her completely.
Then it expanded—consuming the entire tower's space, taking Naruto, and even the more distant Team Three, along with it.
Karin used her chakra to protect herself.
But…
Just as Naruto had said, the purple power didn't harm her.
It only scrambled her senses.
"Up-down," "east-west," all blended together in a vortex of purple light.
It felt like she was being tossed in a washing machine for minutes on end—making her nauseous.
Finally, the sensation faded.
Thud—she fell into sand.
She raised her head and looked around.
Her eyes were filled with confusion.
Had the power of the Dragon Vein transported her?
Endless yellow sand—likely still within the Land of Wind.
Karin stood up and looked ahead.
Towering buildings—more grand and refined than anything in the Land of Rain—rose above the desert.
She frowned slightly.
The Land of Wind was poor. It couldn't afford to build a city like this.
Besides, the architectural style wasn't familiar.
But it looked familiar… she had seen it before.
It looked like the style of "Rōran."
After a few more glances, Karin was sure—
This was Rōran.
But how could a nation long since collapsed and destroyed suddenly reappear?
Karin remembered what Orochimaru had said about the Dragon Vein—it had the power to alter space-time.
So…
Had she been transported to the past?
This realization made her nervous.
But then Naruto's gentle words—"I'll find you"—came to mind again.
They calmed her.
He was with her.
Besides, she wasn't the same weak Kusagakure genin from three years ago.
Karin pressed her hands together.
"Kagura Mind's Eye" activated.
Moments later, she opened her eyes and looked in the direction away from Rōran—toward Konoha.
In that direction, there were a few chakra signatures.
Two of them—
Were familiar.
Neither of them was Naruto's, of course.
In the desert,
A squad of Konoha shinobi moved swiftly.
"Could this be false intel from Sunagakure?" a masked Kakashi—his eyes still intact—asked coldly. "How could the Byakugan show up in a small country like Rōran?"
A blonde-haired man, Minato Namikaze, shook his head. "That's what we thought at first."
"But the Anbu confirmed it—and even got photos."
"Not just one."
"There were two Byakugan users."
"One male, one female."
The Hyūga shinobi in the group spoke solemnly, "The scariest part isn't the Byakugan leaking."
"The photos were sent to the Hyūga clan."
"We confirmed—"
"The male's forehead is covered by ornaments, so we couldn't confirm his identity."
"But the female Byakugan user—her forehead is exposed. No Caged Bird Seal."
"That means—"
"She's from the Main Branch."
Kakashi remained silent.
The Hyūga continued, "What's even stranger is that, after reviewing the clan's history—going back even before Konoha's founding—there have only been a few instances of Byakugan leaks. No Main Branch ever defected."
"The Branch Family has had a few cases."
"But once the Caged Bird technique is activated, those attempting to defect die."
"No successful cases on record."
He furrowed his brows.
"That's why this mission is so difficult," Minato said softly. "Anyone who can possess a Byakugan… is no ordinary enemy."
As he finished speaking—
A sunglasses-wearing Aburame ninja spoke. "Ahead, there's a large chakra source."
"Unknown—no match in our records. Unknown if friend or foe."
"Should we avoid it?"
Minato frowned. "Evade—"
"She's coming straight at us. Very fast," the Aburame added quietly.
As he spoke—
A head of brilliant red hair burst into their view.
"Kushina?" a burly man in the squad widened his eyes in disbelief and muttered a name.
(End of Chapter)