"So the nobles in the capital have all been wiped out by that murderous god?"
In Kusagakure, one ninja couldn't help shivering after hearing the report sent back from the capital.
"Not just the nobles. The samurai, the ninja—none of them got away!"
"According to the intel, that tree in the capital hasn't withered at all. Corpses are still hanging beneath it one after another. Just looking at it fills people with fear!"
Another Grass ninja let out a sigh as he spoke. Kusagakure still had decent people in it—though perhaps not many.
After all, the Grass Village had always operated by the law of the jungle. If you didn't want to be treated as cannon fodder by the strong, then you had to become ruthless yourself—or be assimilated by Kusagakure's way of life.
A lot of ninja had already left Kusagakure a full day earlier. The ones still remaining were either clinging to luck, or genuinely believed they had never committed unforgivable crimes in their lives.
"Judging by the timing, that murderous god should be arriving at Kusagakure soon."
Another Grass ninja spoke quietly. His eyes were uneasy. Clearly, even he wasn't too sure whether his own past counted as sinful or not.
As these Grass ninja were discussing Uchiha Chizumi, they failed to notice the small girl nearby eavesdropping on them.
Or rather, they did notice her—they just no longer felt like bullying her.
"A murderous god…"
"The murderous god who wiped out all the nobles, the daimyo, and the ninja in the capital…"
"The murderous god whose very name made those despicable Grass ninja run away with their tails between their legs…"
Uzumaki Karin, about the same age as Naruto, listened to the Grass ninja talking, and a spark of curiosity lit up in her eyes.
She had only been released yesterday—or rather, from yesterday onward, no one in the Grass Village had cared enough to keep watch over her anymore. From the scraps of information she'd gathered over the past day, she had already learned why Kusagakure had fallen into chaos.
Apparently, a murderous god named Uchiha Chizumi had come from Konoha in the Land of Fire. That murderous god would kill any evildoer he saw. No matter how strong you were, if he set his sights on you, death was the only end.
But the Grass ninja who stayed behind also said that if you had never done evil yourself, then you didn't need to fear death.
That left Karin intensely curious about Uchiha Chizumi. After all, she understood very well that a large part of why she had gained her freedom was because of him.
Still, Karin didn't dare run just yet. She was afraid that if she left the village, she might run into those Grass ninja who had already fled.
"Chizumi, that's Kusagakure up ahead, meow!"
Perched on Uchiha Chizumi's shoulder, Kitsujiro looked at the Grass Village in the distance. Even before entering it, he could already sense that there didn't seem to be many people left inside.
"The Grass ninja… retreated."
Uchiha Chizumi frowned. He could see it clearly—the number of red names inside Kusagakure was pitifully low.
To be honest, he hadn't expected the Grass ninja to be this spineless.
A ninja from another village had already marched all the way to their doorstep, and not only did they not resist—they had abandoned their own village and fled.
"Then are we still going into Kusagakure?"
Kitsujiro didn't know how Chizumi could tell from outside the village that the Grass ninja had retreated, but he trusted him.
"Yes. There are still a few fish that slipped through the net in this village."
"Or rather… they think they've hidden themselves well."
Uchiha Chizumi let out a cold laugh. After moving across the Grass Country for the past few days, he had already seen through the Grass ninja's habits. In order to survive, some of them had even fled back into towns Chizumi had already purged.
If not for some of the more courageous townsfolk risking their lives to send him messages, Chizumi might not even have realized just how slippery these Grass ninja were.
As Uchiha Chizumi stepped into Kusagakure, the Grass ninja who had remained there all turned their eyes toward him.
Naturally, that included Karin Uzumaki.
From beginning to end, Uchiha Chizumi didn't say a single word. As trees rose up from the earth, the Grass ninja who had stayed behind in hopes of surviving were pierced through by branches before they could offer any real resistance.
Uchiha Chizumi was simply too strong now—so strong that even his most casual techniques were beyond what ordinary ninja could resist.
And with his Tenseigan already at its second stage, Kusagakure held no secrets at all in his eyes.
"M-my lord! I want to follow you!"
Right after Uchiha Chizumi finished slaughtering the Grass ninja in Kusagakure, Karin could no longer hold herself back. She shoved her way out of the crowd and shouted in a trembling voice at Chizumi, who had already turned away.
"Huh? There's actually someone in Kusagakure who wants to follow you, Chizumi, meow!"
Kitsujiro twisted his chubby body and looked toward Karin, curiously sizing her up.
"My lord, I'm not a ninja of the Grass Village. I—I'm from the Uzumaki clan. And you come from Konoha, which used to be allies with the Uzumaki clan!"
"Please, for the sake of the old bond between Konoha and the Uzumaki clan, let me follow you!"
Karin herself didn't know where she had found the courage, but she kept her eyes locked on the man and cat in front of her.
She knew she was an Uzumaki, and she had heard from her mother about the connection between the Uzumaki clan and Konoha.
She didn't want to go on being treated like a walking blood bag that people bit into whenever they pleased. She wanted to live. She wanted to live as a human being.
If Uchiha Chizumi had never appeared, Karin had no idea how much longer she would have remained Kusagakure's living blood pack. She had watched her mother die after those ninja drained her chakra dry, and she wanted to survive.
She knew very clearly that Uchiha Chizumi had saved her—even if he hadn't come here specifically to save her.
But right now, all Karin wanted was to follow Uchiha Chizumi.
"Go to Konoha."
"If you can make it to Konoha, then we can talk about anything else after that."
Uchiha Chizumi shook his head. He still had to continue purging the Grass Country's remaining ninja, and he still needed to figure out exactly where they had fled. He didn't have time to drag a child around with him.
"My lord! I know where the Grass ninja went!"
"Take me with you! If you take me with you, I can show you the way!"
Hearing Chizumi's answer, Karin's eyes dimmed at first. But in the next instant, she seemed to remember something and shouted desperately at his back.
She didn't understand Chizumi's thinking, but she knew he was hunting down the wicked Grass ninja.
And unfortunately for them, those Grass ninja hadn't bothered hiding anything from Karin before they fled. Some of them had even bitten into her one last time to restore their chakra and heal their wounds, and in the process they had accidentally revealed where they were heading.
"Kitsujiro, bring her along."
Uchiha Chizumi had already guessed Karin's identity. Since she was willing to help justice, he didn't think bringing along one small girl was any great burden.