The kubikiribōchō immediately blocked Orochimaru, and Kano also pulled out her hunting flute for defense.
"Stop, I can't handle the Cursed Seal of Heaven. Go give it to Sasuke; he can take it."
"Alright then."
Orochimaru left.
Kano breathed a sigh of relief and summoned the Shadow Deer to take her down the tree to pick up her shoes. She didn't want a tattoo, especially a hideous full-body one.
Now that she had both the Heaven and Earth scrolls, the next step was to find Naruto and Sasuke and leisurely head to the finish line.
Oh, right! She had to go back first! She needed to collect the previous corpses. Now that her shadow count had increased to 60, she could use them to upgrade her other shadows. Kano was feeling quite murderous now!
Holding her ugly Ninja shoes, Kano sat on the Shadow Deer, swinging her feet as she headed back. As for Naruto and Sasuke, it was unlikely they'd be in danger, but she should still go look for them.
Shadow Haku was the fastest, so she let him go look for them alone. Shadow Zabuza still had to protect Kano. To be honest, the remaining Shadow Ninja had some stats, but its mechanics were still too weak; it didn't even have the Demon Brothers' Flying Chains anymore.
It was basically a blank slate.
"I won't upgrade Zabuza and Haku for now. It would be terrible if the upgrade turned out badly."
She saw many corpses of the defeated along the way and picked up five shadows for free.
As Kano was walking, she heard the sound of fighting and curiously went over to check it out.
After all, in the Chunin Exams, there was no one besides Orochimaru who could pose a threat to Kano.
"Two teams are fighting. I'll loot the bodies once they're dead."
She watched from a distance, waiting for them to finish. A red figure seemed to be among them.
"That one has red hair. Is it Karin? Should I kidnap her?"
Karin's childhood was quite tragic; she was only treated as a blood bag in Kusagakure. Kano actually wanted to give her a hand.
The battle ended with the victory of the Kusagakure team. Only one member of the other team died, while the other two fled.
"Hey, you! Hurry up and hold out your arm so I can bite it!"
The two Kusagakure Genin seemed to take biting Karin for granted, and they would even hit her if she didn't cooperate.
"Okay..."
They bit down hard, and their injuries quickly recovered. Karin screamed in pain, but the two remained unmoved.
Just like that, the two men's heads fell to the ground.
"Aaaaaah!"
Pain accompanied by fear, Karin fell to the ground in terror and crawled backward.
"Don't kill me, don't kill me!"
Kano arrived riding the deer, and Shadow Zabuza once again raised the kubikiribōchō.
"Please, don't kill me! I'll give you the scrolls, just spare my life!"
Little Karin was scared to tears. Kano put on her shoes, got off the deer, and walked up to Karin.
"Hello, are you okay? That's just a guard summoned by my Ninjutsu. He won't hurt you."
"You... you're the konoha songstress?"
"Oh? You actually know me. Am I that famous?"
"I heard you sing live before."
"So you're a fan of mine. Then I'll play a tune for you, so don't be afraid anymore."
Kano whistled a lullaby and pulled up Karin, whose emotions were gradually stabilizing.
"How do you feel now? Is it better?"
"Thank you, I feel much better."
Karin's heart calmed down, but her brow furrowed again.
"What's your name? Where are your teammates?"
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