Karina's life was like a candle flickering in the wind.
To protect that tiny glimmer of light, she was forced to burn faster and faster.
And Kusagakure's greed ensured she would not last long.
Outside the Heavenly Curtain, Karin was already sobbing uncontrollably. She abruptly turned her head away, unable to keep watching.
"It was too fast… Mom… she only lasted four or five years…" Her voice was hoarse, thick with regret and towering rage. "I was too merciful! I killed them too quickly! I should have made them… made them taste what it's like to be drained little by little—to die in despair!!"
Her face twisted with hatred. Killing intent radiated from her like a chilling aura.
To her, the destruction of Kusagakure was nowhere near enough to repay even a fraction of her mother's suffering.
Across the shinobi world, viewers sighed and murmured.
"So it really came to this…"
"Sigh. An ability like that, in a place like Kusagakure… it was practically a death sentence."
"That mother… she was too pitiful."
"It was all for her daughter…"
Their foreboding was quickly confirmed.
The images on the Heavenly Curtain began accelerating—like the rapid flipping of a diary stained with blood and tears.
At first, the leader did attempt to impose restrictions, allowing only severely wounded shinobi to seek Karina.
But such a fragile limitation crumbled before the tide of human greed.
Soon, shinobi with minor injuries—or merely depleted chakra—began protesting.
"Why do they get instant recovery while we have to heal slowly? That's not fair!"
The rival officials who had been suppressed by the leader fanned the flames from the shadows, chanting about "shared resources" and "equal treatment."
Pressure mounted. Clashes erupted.
In the end, whether to quell unrest or because he believed Karina's "reserves" were greater than expected, the leader abandoned his weak restrictions.
He chose to let things run unchecked.
That was when Karina's true nightmare began.
The Heavenly Curtain did not dwell in detail on the inhuman torment. Instead, it conveyed everything through rapid, starkly contrasting scenes:
At first, Karina could still stand upright. Only scattered bite marks marred her arms. A faint light lingered in her eyes.
Later, her face grew pale, her body thinner. Her arms were layered with overlapping bite wounds, almost no unbroken skin left. Her gaze dulled.
Then she needed to lean against walls to walk. Her eye sockets hollowed. Her breathing weakened. Each bite made her tremble like a withered leaf in the wind.
Finally, she spent most of her time lying in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling—like a hollow shell drained of its soul.
Time passed.
Little Karin grew to seven or eight years old. She began to notice her mother's decline, clumsily wiping sweat from her forehead with small hands, worry filling her young eyes.
Then came the final image.
Karina, utterly exhausted, collapsed silently—unable even to let out a final groan.
She never rose again.
Her life had been forcibly consumed by Kusagakure's greed.
The silent fall of Karina's life struck the shinobi world like a boulder crashing into troubled waters, stirring waves of fury.
"Animals! Those bastards from Kusagakure are animals!!"
"Is that even human behavior?! Treating someone like that?!"
"A strategic-level medical resource—and they drained her to death! What stupidity! What waste!"
"No wonder the 'Demon Child' wiped out their village! They deserved it!"
"Karina was too pitiful… her only wish was to watch her daughter grow up…"
"And Karin… losing her mother so young… If the village hadn't been destroyed, who knows what would've happened to her…"
Outrage and sympathy filled the air.
At the same time, certain factions began calculating.
"Find Karin! We must find her and bring her back to our village!"
"Yes! We'll treat her well—never like Kusagakure did!"
"The Uzumaki bloodline, plus what she endured… with proper guidance, her future potential is immeasurable."
Konohagakure – Hokage's Office
Tsunade slammed her fist onto the desk. The solid wood cracked instantly.
Her chest rose and fell violently. Rage burned on her face—but beneath it lay something deeper. Guilt.
"Kusagakure… damned fools!" she growled. Then her voice dropped, trembling slightly. "Karina… she was of my grandmother's clan… The Uzumaki clan reduced to this…"
She lifted her gaze toward the bustling village outside the window, eyes clouded with complexity.
Uzumaki Mito—the First Hokage's wife. The first jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails. She had given everything for Konoha.
Uzumaki Kushina—the Fourth Hokage's wife, Naruto's mother—had sacrificed her life to protect the village.
But the rest of the Uzumaki clan?
Where were they?
How had they lived?
The answer was painfully obvious.
"Does Konoha bear responsibility?" Tsunade murmured—perhaps to Jiraiya, perhaps to herself. "Of course we do. We were their closest allies… yet they wandered the world and suffered like this…"
Jiraiya stood beside her, equally heavy-hearted.
He sighed and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"It's too late to dwell on that. Let our shinobi keep watch. If we find any Uzumaki survivors… we do everything we can to bring them home and settle them properly. That's what we owe them."
Tsunade said nothing for a long while.
She simply nodded.
The weight of belated responsibility pressed heavily on her heart.
In the streets of Konoha, older shinobi—those who knew the history—glanced at the Uzumaki spiral emblem stitched onto their clothing.
They thought of the Hokage Monument towering over the village.
"The First Hokage's wife… the Fourth Hokage's wife… both Uzumaki."
"Konoha's jinchūriki across three generations—Lady Mito, Lady Kushina, and now Naruto—are all Uzumaki."
"We owe the Uzumaki clan far too much."
A quiet sense of guilt spread through the village like mist.
They had benefited from the sacrifices of the Uzumaki clan.
Yet they had failed to protect it.
The Heavenly Curtain had exposed not only Kusagakure's sins—but also reflected, like a mirror, the silence and unspoken debt beneath Konoha's shining image.
Far away, the aged and weathered Hiruzen Sarutobi gazed at the Heavenly Curtain.
The deep lines on his face seemed to grow even deeper.
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