"Why?" Sasuke asked coldly.
Sakura's gaze swept across the three of them before she spoke the word that could shake any intelligent being to its core.
"Because… when the Ope Ope no Mi is developed to its ultimate level, one of its final secret techniques allows the user to sacrifice their own life to perform the 'Perennial Youth Surgery'—granting another person true, eternal life."
Eternal life.
The two words struck like thunder.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji's pupils dilated instantly, disbelief written all over their faces.
Immortality?
That was the most fundamental—and forbidden—domain of existence itself.
Across the shinobi world, everyone watching through the heavenly curtain erupted.
"Im… immortality?!"
"It can make someone else live forever?!"
"If you get that fruit, you gain eternal life?!"
Commoners. Shinobi. Nobles. Daimyō. The elderly. The young.
In that moment, every breath grew heavier. Greed and longing flared uncontrollably in countless eyes.
To live forever.
To exist eternally.
Power, wealth, even strength—all seemed pale before endless time.
For an instant, innumerable minds imagined themselves as the fruit's wielder… or its beneficiary.
Elsewhere
"Immortality…" Orochimaru's golden snake-like pupils contracted sharply.
Then desire ignited within them.
He had pursued immortality for years—through forbidden techniques, body-switching rituals, endless experimentation—each method flawed, unstable, incomplete.
And now—
A fruit that could grant true eternity?
How could he not be tempted?
Yet soon, cold reason tempered his excitement.
"How interesting… For higher beings, is immortality truly so 'casual' a secondary function of a fruit?"
His instincts told him there must be an immense price.
Nothing so perfect came without cost.
Beside him, Karin let out a derisive snort, her red hair swaying lightly.
"What kind of idiot would spend their entire life mastering a Devil Fruit just to die giving someone else immortality? That's ridiculous."
Orochimaru's gaze sharpened.
"Sakura said Devil Fruits seek compatible hosts. Yet this fruit was taken by you, Karin."
His tone was layered with meaning.
"Does that mean… you are 'suited' for a fruit capable of granting eternal life to another?"
Karin blinked, momentarily stunned.
"Suited? Me? You think I'd use my life to make someone else immortal? Don't joke around."
Then she stroked her chin thoughtfully, a wicked grin spreading across her face.
"But… if the fruit really is that special, maybe I could find a more entertaining way to use it."
She shrugged casually.
"I've decided. I'll definitely steal that fruit someday."
Orochimaru smiled faintly.
Within the Heavenly Curtain
Sakura sighed at the trio's shock.
"That's why I said I hope you'd have a chance to obtain it. A fruit like that is extraordinarily rare."
"But I also know… if you understood the ultimate price, you probably wouldn't eat it. Nor develop that final technique."
To sacrifice one's life to grant absolute eternity to another—
Such a choice would make anyone hesitate.
Naruto slowly steadied himself.
"So Karin didn't take it to give someone immortality… but for something else?"
"Perhaps," Sakura replied evenly. "Or perhaps she just wanted to sabotage our organization's plans."
"Or maybe… she didn't even know what the fruit truly did."
Naruto gave a strained smile and exchanged a look with Sasuke.
Neji added quietly, "She acts on impulse. Curiosity. Whim."
"It's entirely possible she didn't understand the Ope Ope no Mi's true value."
"Maybe she just thought stealing from the Divine Knights was thrilling."
Sakura nodded—
"Yes—"
A voice cut in.
Drawn-out.
Playful.
Malicious.
"And now… I know."
The words rang out without warning.
A crimson figure appeared behind Naruto like a phantom—so fast that even Sasuke's Rinnegan and Neji's Byakugan caught only an afterimage.
Thud.
A sickening sound—flesh pierced.
Followed by a corrosive sizzling noise.
Time seemed to freeze.
Naruto's body stiffened.
The expression on his face still held the faint realization of conversation—but his pupils widened in shock.
Slowly, he looked down.
A small hand wrapped in dark red, ominous energy had pierced straight through his chest from behind.
In its grip was something writhing—emanating black, malignant vapor.
"NARUTO!!!" Sasuke and Neji roared.
"Karin! Are you courting death?!" Sakura's furious shout exploded like a volcano as she lunged forward.
But Karin was faster.
With a twist of her wrist, she drove the corrosive energy deeper into Naruto's body before yanking her arm free and retreating instantly.
Sakura's strike hit empty air.
She forced herself to stop and immediately dropped beside Naruto, both hands blazing with brilliant green medical chakra as she pressed them against the horrific wound in his chest.
Her expression changed at once.
It wasn't working.
Karin's attack was not merely physical.
The dark energy behaved like a virulent toxin and a corrosive acid combined.
It had instantly destroyed Naruto's heart and major chakra pathways—and was spreading at an absurd speed, polluting, eroding, dismantling everything within him.
Naruto's life force plummeted visibly.
His body turned cold.
Strange black markings surfaced beneath his skin.
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