"Great Majesty: Sky Pierce!"
The golden bird-person spiraled in mid-air, then dove downward wrapped in compressed hurricane winds.
The air along the way seemed to come alive, not only failing to create resistance but actually enhancing the bird-person's speed even further.
After mastering Garuda's power, Karin seemed more inclined toward developing the fruit's abilities rather than focusing particularly on learning ninjutsu. This was also a valid choice—you couldn't say Karin was putting the cart before the horse.
At least now Karin had already developed several jutsu based on Garuda's power.
This current "compressed air cannon" attack was one of them.
Compared to using large-area hardened feather attacks, air cannons were faster and dealt more concentrated damage.
Below, Sasuke, already transformed into Misfortune Wolf beast-human form, stared intently at Karin above, seemingly searching for some weakness.
The next moment, towering flames swept toward the sky.
The scorching fire waves seemed to distort the surrounding air.
That wasn't entirely the Calamity Fire accompanying the Misfortune Wolf.
After Naruto's guidance, Sasuke had also realized that the true usage of "Calamity Fire" shouldn't be limited to direct damage. It was more about "enhancing" himself and other released flames.
The Misfortune Wolf was naturally a mythical beast that could devour flames and manipulate fire.
With this transformation, even Sasuke's Fire Release jutsu gained tremendous power boosts.
Not only did temperature and damage range increase, even the casting motions could be shortened. The Great Fireball Jutsu that previously required complete hand seals could now be performed with just a clap.
At the same time, Calamity Fire could fuse with flames created by those jutsu, forming more destructive black seas of fire.
It could burn not only flesh but also destroy spirits—provided it could actually contact the enemy.
"Naive!"
Before the flames could reach Garuda's body, they were swept aside by violent air currents.
That overwhelming fire seemed unable to harm Karin at all.
"Huh?"
Still lacking combat experience after all.
When Karin passed through the flame layer, her air bullet carved a deep hole in the ground, but she couldn't see her opponent's figure.
Bang!
Flaming giant claws struck Karin directly.
Fortunately, she reacted in time, hardening her wing feathers to block in front of her.
Even so, she could still feel a wave traveling through her body's surface into her interior, shaking her internal organs.
At the same time, memories of being enslaved in Grass Village surfaced uncontrollably.
Karin was indeed briefly dazed for that moment, but immediately after, the figure who'd saved her from the quagmire replaced all those previous misfortunes.
Her consciousness quickly recovered, then she opened her mouth and let out a great roar.
"I'm not who I used to be!"
This roar wasn't just expressing her determination—it was one of Garuda's attack methods.
"Great Majesty: Thunder Cry!"
The almost substantial sonic boom struck Sasuke at such close range that even in Misfortune Wolf form, he couldn't resist that backward force.
Meanwhile, that sound seemed to inflict some kind of mental damage, but unfortunately, Sasuke already possessed Mangekyō Sharingan in his Misfortune Wolf transformation state.
Though not complete, his mental defenses had improved considerably, so this level of "genjutsu" attack couldn't affect him at all.
Of course, Karin hadn't planned on that anyway.
As she wished!
Gentle winds lifted Karin's body. She just lightly flapped her wings to reopen the distance, then launched another barrage like a storm with her feather volleys.
Sasuke also wasn't backing down. "Karma" further enhanced his physical abilities—he didn't even plan to defend, jumping from his position to try grabbing Karin down by force.
The sparring between them had long exceeded "practice" range. Fortunately, the area they were in was completely uninhabited for dozens of miles around, or just the battle's aftershocks would've been a major problem.
They'd conducted many such sparring sessions since leaving the curry shop.
Both Naruto and Jiraiya were used to it by now.
At this moment, one was preparing grilled meat while the other was writing something in a notebook, seemingly inspired.
"Hey—that's about enough, come down and eat. We still need to travel."
After saying this, Naruto turned his head to read Jiraiya-sensei's newly created work.
This could be called zero-distance following updates.
Hmm, the literary quality's as consistently high as ever.
After fighting for a while longer, even without a life-or-death struggle, Sasuke still maintained the upper hand.
After all, he'd received combat training since childhood, and his responses to various battle situations far exceeded Karin's.
Though Karin was also working hard, over ten years of learning experience couldn't be caught up to in just one month.
Several sparring sessions had knocked her post-ability "inflation" back to reality.
This was exactly why Naruto let them beat each other up.
For the next phase, Naruto planned to teach Sasuke Navy Six Powers, Fishman Karate, and other techniques, so he could have self-protection against aerial units or in water battles.
Unfortunately, Sasuke didn't seem very interested in swordsmanship.
When Naruto had previously demonstrated overwhelming power, he'd used fist techniques. Combined with Sasuke's greatly enhanced physical abilities, this led him to prefer fist-to-flesh combat over swordsmanship, which relied on weapons.
For Karin, it was also time to put Haki training on the schedule.
With Garuda's body, she could completely withstand Naruto's hellish training.
In this aspect, Naruto had always been gender-equal and wouldn't give her any special treatment.
After eating, they continued their journey.
Along the way, they encountered some bandits, thieves, bounty hunters and such. Naruto basically left them all for Karin to handle.
Finally, before the sky darkened, they reached a small town.
After booking rooms, they first went to the local hot springs.
Though it couldn't compare to the Land of Hot Water, the hot springs here were fairly famous within Fire Country, and at least Naruto and the others found them quite pleasant.
This time Karin had no awkward situations and could finally peacefully enjoy the hot springs.
In the hot spring on the other side, Sasuke, Naruto, and Jiraiya relaxed their bodies, meeting honestly in the water.
Even Sasuke wasn't bashful in this environment—they were all grown men, nobody had anything extra.
"Speaking of which, I once went with Minato... Haha, you don't need to look at me like that. This size is normal."
Jiraiya seemed to want to get some sake, so he stood up from the water.
He kept talking, but then he noticed Naruto and Sasuke both staring at him.
He followed their gaze downward, then laughed proudly.
But as he laughed, Jiraiya realized something was wrong.
He stopped laughing and looked down.
He looked at himself, then at Sasuke, finally at Naruto.
Hiss...
When they emerged from the hot spring, Karin, Sasuke, and Naruto all looked relaxed, while only Jiraiya-sensei appeared incredulous.
"It doesn't make sense... Naruto I can understand, but why does this brat also—"
He continued muttering under his breath.