Kaede's hand moved toward the kunai at his waist.
"Riko?"
The sensor closed her eyes.
Her concentration spread through the clearing.
After several seconds, her expression changed.
"Karin was here."
"How recently?"
"Perhaps two days ago. Maybe three."
"And the other person?"
Riko frowned.
"I can't sense anyone else."
Kaede studied the campsite.
The hidden infiltrator might possess exceptional chakra suppression. That would explain why Riko had never detected a second signature.
"What happened here?" Taro asked.
Hanako followed the bloodstains toward the river.
"Something unpleasant."
The first fragment was discovered between the roots of a tree growing near the water.
Hanako initially mistook it for the discarded remains of a fish.
Then she saw the skin.
She became very still.
Kaede noticed her reaction.
"What is it?"
Hanako did not answer immediately.
She put on a pair of gloves before reaching between the roots.
When she stood, she held a thin piece of human flesh.
Most of the blood had been washed away by the river.
Several pale crescent-shaped scars crossed the skin.
Kaede recognized their shape.
Every member of the retrieval squad had received a detailed description of Karin Uzumaki before departing.
Red hair.
Pale skin.
Crimson eyes.
Numerous human bite marks covering her arms, shoulders and other regions of her body.
The fragment in Hanako's hand possessed several of those scars.
Riko stared at it.
"Check the chakra."
Hanako placed the flesh upon a clean cloth.
Riko crouched beside it.
She did not need long.
Her face lost its color.
"It is hers."
Taro looked from the flesh to the river.
"That could have been cut off during a struggle."
Hanako examined the underside.
"The cut is controlled."
"What does that mean?"
"It was removed with a blade."
"How much damage?"
"Not enough to kill her by itself."
Kaede looked downstream.
"Search the river."
They found the second fragment less than twenty meters away.
The third had become caught among reeds.
The fourth lay beneath a stone, held in place by the current.
Soon they stopped counting.
Pieces of skin.
Strips of muscle.
Fatty tissue.
Part of a tendon.
Several fragments included old bite marks. Others had small strands of red hair clinging to them.
The cuts varied.
Some were smooth and shallow.
Others passed deep into the flesh.
They found fragments from an arm, a shoulder, part of the back and the side of the torso.
At least, that was Hanako's assessment.
She possessed enough field medical training to recognize the general origin of a wound, but the growing collection quickly exceeded her expertise.
Then Taro found the first bone.
It was caught beneath a cluster of branches slightly farther downstream.
The fragment was small.
One end bore a clean knife mark.
The other looked as though it had been torn free while the surrounding tissue was still attached.
Taro held it without speaking.
Hanako stared at the fragment.
"That came from a human arm."
"You are certain?"
"Yes."
The search widened.
Riko traced the remnants of Karin's chakra through the river while Hanako examined the banks. Taro lifted rocks and redirected sections of water with Earth Release.
Kaede remained alert for an ambush.
He expected the unknown captor to attack at any moment.
No one came.
Only more remains emerged from the river.
A section of rib.
Two small fragments of another bone.
Pieces of muscle from different areas of the body.
Skin carrying the unmistakable marks of human teeth.
The remains were distributed across almost half a kilometre of river.
Some pieces had become trapped naturally.
Others had settled into shallow areas near the bank.
By sunset, the squad had filled several preservation bags.
Hanako weighed them using the equipment in her medical pouch.
Her hands trembled slightly as she read the measurement.
Approximately ten kilograms of human flesh and bone had been recovered from the river.
All of it carried the same fading chakra signature.
All of it appeared to belong to a young girl.
Much of it came from different regions of the body.
Taro looked toward the bags.
"Could she survive this?"
She hesitated.
The Uzumaki clan was legendary for its vitality. They could endure wounds that would kill ordinary shinobi. Some remained alive after the extraction of a tailed beast, if only briefly.
But vitality was not the same thing as immortality.
"No," Hanako repeated. "Not even an Uzumaki could lose this much tissue from so many different parts of the body and continue living."