For several moments, she examined the largest cluster of scars upon her forearm.
Then she drew a kunai and pressed the edge beneath the raised tissue.
Pain followed immediately.
Karin's fingers tightened, but her hand remained steady.
She cut around the damaged skin.
The sensation was sharp and intimate, very different from receiving a wound in battle. Every movement was deliberate. There was no enemy to blame and no surge of combat to dull the pain.
The kunai passed beneath the scarred tissue, separating it from the healthy flesh below.
Blood ran down her wrist.
Karin gripped the loosened section between two fingers and tore it free.
Her breath caught.
A raw patch of exposed flesh remained beneath it.
The bleeding stopped.
Fresh tissue began proliferating from the edges of the wound. New skin spread across the exposed area in thin, pale layers, joining together until nothing remained except smooth, unmarked flesh.
Karin stared at the result.
Pristine.
Her eyes hardened with satisfaction.
She moved to the next scar.
Then the next.
Some scars were shallow enough to cut away cleanly. Others extended deeper, forcing her to remove small portions of damaged flesh along with the skin. Her Sage-enhanced vitality replaced what she removed, rebuilding blood vessels, nerves, muscle fibers and skin.
The process drained her rapidly.
After removing only a fraction of the marks covering her arms, the red pigmentation around her eyes began to flicker.
The senjutsu chakra flowing through her coils had become thin. Her physical energy was heavily depleted, while the concentration required to maintain the correct balance had left her mind aching.
Continuing would be foolish.
If Sage Mode collapsed while a large section of flesh remained exposed, she could lose blood faster than ordinary chakra could repair it. Worse, an imbalance caused by exhaustion might trigger another mutation.
Karin lowered the kunai.
She expelled the remaining natural energy carefully and allowed the red markings to fade.
Exhaustion struck her at once.
Her shoulders sagged. Her breathing became heavy, and a deep hollowness filled her stomach.
She washed the blood from her arm and kunai in the river before settling beneath the tree.
Meditation came first.
Karin closed her eyes and regulated her breathing. She allowed her chakra network to relax while her physical and spiritual energies recovered naturally. Rather than drawing in more natural energy immediately, she focused upon calming her mind and repairing the strain caused by maintaining Sage Mode.
When hunger prevented further concentration, she rose.
The forest provided enough to survive.
She gathered berries and fruit, examining each carefully before eating. Her inherited knowledge of the region was limited, but her enhanced senses allowed her to distinguish healthy plants from those carrying strange chakra.
For protein, she stood beside the river and waited.
When a fish passed through the shallows, Karin drove a sharpened branch into the water.
She cleaned it with her kunai and roasted it over a small fire.
The meal was simple, but her depleted body absorbed it greedily. Food restored the physical energy that Sage Mode had consumed. Water replaced what she had lost through blood and exertion. Sleep and meditation restored the spiritual component.
The Next Day, Karin entered Sage Mode again.
The red markings appeared around her eyes.
She resumed her work.
Cut.
Tear.
Heal.
Rest.
She removed the scars in small sections, never allowing her reserves to fall low enough to endanger herself.
The scars along her left forearm disappeared first.
Then those upon her right.
She moved upward toward her shoulders, where several old bite marks had been partially hidden beneath her clothing. Some were deeper than the others, suggesting they had been reopened many times before being allowed to heal.
Whenever her chakra weakened, she stopped.
She meditated beside the river, caught fish, gathered fruit and berries, drank deeply, and slept beneath the protection of the trees. After recovering, she began again.
The process continued through the night and into the following day.
Karin sat beside the river with her sleeves pulled down around her waist. The setting sun painted the water red as she removed the final scar from her upper arm.
The damaged patch came free between her bloodstained fingers.
Fresh flesh spread over the wound.
The skin closed.
Karin waited until the healing finished before releasing Sage Mode.
The markings around her eyes faded.
She washed herself in the river.
Blood, sweat and fragments of discarded tissue drifted away with the current.
When she emerged, she examined her reflection.
Her arms were smooth.
Her shoulders were unmarked.
Every visible bite scar had disappeared.