Jiro seed alright, but Naruto's getup just scread 'suspicious'. The mask and hood covered him completely. He might as well have walked in with 'Definitely up to sothing bad' stamped on his forehead. If soone like that didn't raise alarms, nobody would.
"Yuichi-sama!" Jiro called out to the leading Kusa-nin.
Yuichi's eyes narrowed, but a flicker of recognition softened his voice. "Oh, it's Jiro. What brings you back? Shouldn't you be tucked away in Hozuki Castle? What brings you running out to our poor little village?"
He smiled, but the air didn't ease up. If anything, it tightened. Kusagakure and Hozuki Castle might've been neighbors on a map, but they weren't exactly friendly. The castle, with its towering stone walls and fortress-like design, felt a world away from the modest hos of Kusagakure. Calling this place a 'poor village' wasn't wrong, and Yuichi knew it.
Sure, Mui used to be a Kusa-nin, a Jonin at that, but that didn't an anything now. These two sides were no longer fire and water, they didn't clash explosively. But they didn't mix either.
Why? The reasons were too tangled to explain. Not that Naruto cared. Mui wouldn't say a word, Jiro wasn't about to start, and Naruto had no interest in village politics.
Yuichi's gaze slid toward the hooded figure beside Jiro. "And who is this?"
Jiro stepped forward quickly. "This is Mui-sama's honored guest. He's here in Kusagakure... uh... looking for soone." He emphasized honored guest with all the weight he could manage, hoping Yuichi would take the hint and back off.
However, Yuichi was precisely here to cause trouble.
"Looking for soone?" Yuichi raised an eyebrow. "Then let arrange a few people to help you search." Rather than help, it sounded more like an offer to keep him under surveillance, perhaps even find an opening for a covert attack. 'What business do Hozuki Castle's 'honored guest' have in our Kusagakure?' the unspoken question hung in the air.
"No need," Naruto said calmly, brushing off the tension like it didn't exist.
He was already tuning out Yuichi's hostility.
He'd just caught it, that faint flicker. A ki signature, weak and distant, but unmistakable.
It pulsed like an echo of his own, five to six parts the sa. There was no mistaking it.
"I've already found them."
As soon as his words hung in the air, Naruto vanished from the spot, leaving behind the bewildered Kusa-nin who hadn't grasped the situation, and Jiro simply standing there, caught in the sudden stillness.
"Where did he go?"
"I think I saw him go in that direction."
"Wait... isn't that-?"
"Move!"
--**--**
In the northwest corner of Kusagakure, tucked away in a house that didn't match the rest of the village, a red-haired girl lay curled up in a futon.
She looked eleven. Maybe twelve.
The thin blanket barely covered her small fra, and the short-sleeved shirt clinging to her body belonged to another season, sumr, not late autumn. Her limbs trembled from the cold, even as she hugged herself tightly, trying to hold the warmth in.
*Grrrrgle*
Her stomach twisted, the sound loud in the quiet room. It felt like fire was gnawing at her insides, burning through her belly in slow, crashing waves.
The pain rippled out from her gut, sharp and piercing, like a thousand needles digging into her flesh. She curled up tighter, arms wrapped around her stomach.
'I'm hungry... So hungry...'
That was all she could think. She hadn't eaten in over five days. Real hunger, the kind that hollows out your bones, had long since set in.
'Mama said if I drink enough, I won't feel hungry...' She crawled out of the futon with trembling limbs and dragged herself to the sink. Her arm looked skeletal as she filled a chipped cup and gulped the water down in one go.
It hit her stomach like a stone. For a mont, there was a vague sense of fullness, then the hunger returned, sharper than before.
'Why am I still hungry...? Mama... you lied.'
She slid down the wall and sat on the floor, hugging her knees, forehead pressed tight against them as silent tears began to fall.
On her arms, her legs, even her neck, bite marks. Old and new. Dozens of them. Ugly, red, and raw.
'Mama... I miss you so much... It hurts...'
'It hurts so bad...'
Her mother had died three years ago. Due to long term malnutrition and excessive chakra depletion, chakra drained from her body until nothing was left. Not by chance. Not in battle. Just used up.
She had been Uzumaki, sa as Karin. Sa clan as Naruto. Naruto had his father's blond hair, but Karin and her mother carried the Uzumaki's red. And with it, the bloodline's monstrous chakra reserves.
So Uzumaki were born with a rare trait, bite healing. A body that could regenerate others through bites. Chakra, stamina, even wounds could be healed that way. Naruto didn't have it. Kushina hadn't either. But Karin and her mother did.
A blessing? Maybe once. Here, it was a curse.
If the Land of Whirlpools were still standing, they surely would have lived a happy life. But in a place like Kusagakure, such a physique wasn't a path to a good life, it was a magnet for disaster.
Kusagakure was deeply xenophobic. Karin's mother had fled there after the Land of Whirlpools fell, always an outsider. Even after living there for over a decade, she was never truly accepted.
Kusagakure was also incredibly greedy. After they accidentally discovered Karin's mother's unique physique, they relentlessly exploited and squeezed her for everything she was worth.
These Kusa-nin weren't interested in sustainable use or gratitude.
In this world, vast chakra reserves didn't automatically equate to imnse physical strength. Even though Karin's mother possessed dozens, maybe hundreds, of tis more chakra than an ordinary Kusa-nin, she remained powerless within Kusagakure because she didn't know how to utilize it well.
To protect her child, Karin's mother silently endured this inhumane treatnt. Being held captive by one person was difficult enough, let alone being held captive by the entire village.
She had considered escaping, but where could a weak woman take a child? She had also considered ending her life, as she couldn't bring herself to hurt her daughter. The Kusa-nin would surely turn on her, treating her just as they treated her mother. So, she couldn't die yet.
Until that day, Karin vividly rembered her gentle mother, the one who always smiled, who encouraged her to be optimistic and kind, being 'bitten' to death by the n wearing those Kusagakure forehead protectors.
When the n realized Karin's mother was dead, they simply turned to Karin and smiled. A dozen n, sprawled over her mother's body, still biting into her flesh even as she died. That image, those smug vicious smiles, beca the haunting shadow, the nightmare that would forever cling to Karin.
Every ti she recalled it, it filled Karin with unbearable pain.
Since that year, Karin had taken over her mother's role. Day and night, she treated the Kusa-nin injured on their missions. Day and night, she endured their bites.
So Kusa-nin with cruel personalities would even bite deliberately hard, finding twisted pleasure in Karin's miserable cries.
And the reward for this treatnt was just a few insignificant food scraps.
This place was hell.
Or perhaps, hell wasn't this terrifying.
--**--**
Narrator:
Naruto the honorary Tail Beast (title granted by Kurama) barges into Kusagakure.
They will soon learn what happens when a village bleeds an Uzumaki dry... and her kin cos knocking?
Kusagakure drained an innocent mother to death.
They turned a little girl into a bandage they could abuse.
And now...
They've drawn the attention of an Uzumaki with nothing left to lose, and more power than they could dream of.
Will Kusagakure survive Naruto's visit? After Naruto sees what they've done to one of his own...
How many Kusa-nin does it take to fill a crater?
Find out next ti on:
"Uzumaki Wrath: Bite the Hand, Bury the Village!"
===============
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