"I remember you said I wasn't your only option, that you had other pieces on the board. Let me guess... it's Hyūga Neji, right?" Sasuke said suddenly.
The shadow cast him a glance. "When did you get so sharp?"
"Don't forget, I'm an Uchiha." Sasuke tilted his chin up slightly, like a proud cat. "The Aburame clan's fate is eerily similar to what happened to the Hyūga back then. And Hyūga Neji, like me, is trapped between hatred and duty. So, I figured he must be involved somehow."
That night, Sasuke had attacked Aburame Torune. The Root members who rushed in to help were captured, then tortured for information. After that, it was like something inside Sasuke had awakened—something strange and dangerous.
Aburame Torune's brain had been scooped out, and his body was taken away by the shadow. The next day, trouble erupted at the border of the Land of Lightning. Their efficiency was frightening.
"I want to meet Hyūga Neji," Sasuke said sincerely.
"And what for? Looking to get some career advice from your talented senior?"
Sasuke paused for a second.
"I have to admit, I'm pathetic. Neji quietly stirred up so much chaos while I was still hesitating. Honestly, his actions... they moved me. I want to see another 'Night of the Clan Massacre'—and the Hyūga clan sounds like the perfect stage."
The shadow nodded approvingly.
"Alright. Neji will probably agree. I bet he envies you for having such a 'wonderful' big brother who wiped out your whole clan~"
...
The tension across the shinobi world was at an all-time high. Every major village was dealing with serious internal problems.
Meanwhile, in Kusagakure—
A young ninja burst into Karin's home, his face twisted in pain.
"Karin! I'm hurt! Let me bite you, quick!"
Karin stood up calmly, walked over, and without hesitation, plucked out one of his eyes with a wet, squelching sound.
The young ninja shrieked in agony, furious. How dare a 'medic pack' resist like this? Outrageous! He had to punish her!
He hastily started forming hand signs.
But before he could finish, Karin killed him instantly.
She dismembered the body methodically, mumbling to herself as she worked,
"Nanami-san... was this the right thing to do?"
Before her eyes, a red-haired woman materialized out of thin air.
"You did great. Anyone who tries to bully you doesn't deserve to live."
"But they're all stronger than me..." Karin muttered, dejected. Kusagakure had never taught her any real ninjutsu—only enough to control her.
"That's fine. I'm here to help you," said the red-haired woman with a savage glint. "If you want someone dead, we'll kill them!"
Karin hesitated for a second... then nodded decisively.
The red-haired woman was named Nanami. She claimed to be the ghost of the Uzumaki clan—Karin's 'aunt'. She had first appeared in Karin's mind one evening... and ever since then, people in Kusagakure had started dying.
That first night, Nanami had dragged Karin along to ambush a ninja who used to bully her. They beat him into bloody paste inside a sack.
At first, Karin had felt thrilled. Then the panic set in.
"Nanami-san... what if they find out? Kusagakure will hunt us down!"
"Don't worry," Nanami said smugly. "I'm a supervillain, after all! As a villain, we're supposed to do bad things. You're my little villain-in-training. Kusagakure? Pfft, it's nothing! We'll wipe it off the map when we have time."
Nanami decided then and there to start Karin on her 'dark training.' From that moment, Kusagakure became a living hell.
...
Half a month later—
"Smack!"A Kusagakure ninja who tried to ambush Karin was sent flying. When he crashed to the ground, all the skin on his body had been stripped away, leaving only a blood-soaked, screaming mass of muscle.
"Idiot!" Nanami barked.
"I'm not an idiot!" Karin protested weakly.
"You got snuck up on and didn't even notice! What do you call that, huh?" Nanami scolded, furious. "And that Uzumaki Skinning Jutsu—I've been teaching you forever, and you still can't use it properly!"
Karin looked pitiful. "Is the Skinning Jutsu... really an Uzumaki clan secret technique? It's so... cruel. Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them?"
Karin knew deep down that Nanami's identity was suspicious. Nanami barely even bothered hiding it. "Ghost of the Uzumaki" felt more like a convenient excuse than anything else. But even so, Karin was grateful to her. She truly saw her as family. Kusagakure was hell. Nanami was the light pulling her out. Her salvation.
What Karin needed most was a pillar of support. Based on her past experiences, it was the role of "mother" that she yearned for the most—and the devil exploited that opening.
The dark training continued.
"Harder! Are you starving or something? It's just peeling off human skin—why are you shaking?!"
Nanami's fierce roars made Karin burst into tears. She was just a teenage girl—this really wasn't the kind of thing she had ever imagined doing!
But—
"Ah! I did it! Look this time the skin came off perfectly! Not a single hole!" Karin beamed proudly, holding up her gruesome prize.
"Very good," Nanami said, ticking "live skinning" off a list in her Witch's Handbook.
Karin peeked over curiously. "Nanami-san... what's 'Boiling Alive' and 'Quartering'?"
"Oh, those? Standard skills for a little witch like you. Let's see what's next—ah, creating a living mutilated corpse."
Karin didn't quite understand what that meant, but she still nodded enthusiastically.
"Nanami-san's always right!"
The unfortunate soul who became the first human 'project' was a white-haired kunoichi named Ryūzu. She wore a green headscarf and screamed at Karin for being ungrateful, claiming that Kusagakure had given Karin's family shelter—and that this was how she repaid them?
Karin slapped her across the face, hard. "
Shut up, you hypocrite! You used to bite me like I was a blood bag, don't act like you're some innocent victim!"
Half an hour later, the once-kind, justice-filled Ryūzu had been turned into a mutilated horror by Karin, who now showed neither morality nor humanity.
It was tragic. Truly.
The shinobi of Kusagakure had treated Karin like a human healing machine. Deep down, her heart had long since rotted with hatred and resentment. It wasn't hard for her to cross the line—she just needed a little push.
Once her hands were stained with blood, the floodgates opened. Nanami barely even needed to guide her anymore. Karin instinctively knew what to do.
Nanami said that if you're going to chase thrills, you should commit fully. And so, together, they slaughtered every living thing in Kusagakure and Hozuki Castle.
Their victims cursed them, begged for mercy, wailed in agony—but Karin didn't waver. Her hands were merciless, because Nanami had told her:
"If you don't kill them all, they'll just come back for revenge later."
Endless cycles of vengeance... or one decisive massacre to cut the chain forever.
Karin found Nanami's reasoning incredibly persuasive. Though she killed without restraint, she believed she was being merciful.
"Nanami-san is doing this for my own good," she thought. "Living only brings more hatred. And besides, the Land of Grass is so poor—dying together as a family is better. That way no one's lonely in the afterlife."
When the master of Hozuki Castle, Mui, was slaughtered, he stared at Karin with wide, disbelieving eyes. Was this... something a sane person would say?
Well, no. Karin had never been sane to begin with.
From Mui's perspective, Karin had always been speaking to herself, switching personalities mid-sentence, smiling sweetly as she slaughtered everyone around her.
Every ninja in Kusagakure had, in their final moments, fulfilled the "value of their life": their souls devoured by the Box of Ultimate Bliss, their chakra consumed, their corpses reduced to fertilizer.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss awakened—and out crawled a monstrous being named Satori.
Nanami circled the creature a few times, her face lighting up with sinister excitement as a thousand wicked ideas filled her mind.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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