The Heavenly Screen continued.
Just as Serpent Kabuto was still hesitating over whether to reveal himself, Karin—sitting atop Hokage Rock—suddenly stiffened.
Her previously wandering gaze sharpened in an instant, locking precisely onto the direction where Kabuto was concealed. A spark of interest flashed in her eyes.
Then her clear, confident voice rang out—casual, yet utterly certain:
"Huh? That feeling is… Orochimaru? Kabuto? And… a whole bunch of messy, garbage-like auras all mixed together?"
The words hit Serpent Kabuto like a shockwave.
His disguise and stealth had been exposed—just like that?
Worse still, Karin hadn't merely sensed his presence. She had accurately distinguished the "Orochimaru component" clinging to him, along with the chaotic traces of power gained through fusion and transplantation.
That was no ordinary sensory ability.
Alarm bells exploded in Kabuto's mind.
Before he could react or withdraw, Karin spoke again—this time with open confusion and faint disgust.
"Oh—wait. If I focus… Orochimaru's aura is just 'stuck' to you. So the main part is still you, Kabuto."
"By the way, what happened to you? Your aura's a total mess, and your body structure's all twisted up. I almost didn't recognize you."
She critiqued his monstrous form as casually as commenting on the weather.
Kabuto's vigilance surged to its peak.
She had seen through him completely.
Hiding was pointless now.
With controlled composure, Serpent Kabuto stepped out of the shadows, partially shedding his cloak. His mutated figure was revealed—the warped body, the horns, the face of Orochimaru embedded in his abdomen.
His expression was grave as he looked up at the red-haired girl perched high above.
Karin, however, showed no fear.
Her eyes lit up.
Like she had just spotted an amusing new toy.
From atop Hokage Rock, she waved cheerfully and called down with bright familiarity:
"Long time no see, Kabuto!"
Kabuto tilted his head slightly, his voice a blend of rasp and chill.
"Ah… long time no see, Karin."
The reunion of "old friends," staged atop the symbolic monument of Konoha—one relaxed and amused, the other alert and calculating—felt almost absurd.
"You turned into quite the freak," Karin said bluntly, clearly intrigued.
Kabuto did not deny it.
A twisted smile curved across his altered face.
"I must commend you. Even like this… you recognized me."
Karin shrugged as if it were nothing, though curiosity shone behind her red lenses. She pointed at the face embedded in his abdomen, then gestured at his distorted frame.
"So… did you 'eat' Orochimaru? And all those weird experimental leftovers from the old base too?"
The crude phrasing hit the core.
Kabuto shook his head calmly.
"'Eat' is inaccurate. I merely conducted certain… experiments upon myself. To understand more clearly. To exist more fully."
Karin immediately scrunched her face in disdain.
"Tch! For that? You messed yourself up this badly? I didn't realize you could be crazier than Orochimaru."
Kabuto ignored the mockery.
Instead, he studied her intently. His tone lowered—measured, edged with subtle caution.
"Likewise, Karin. I never realized how deeply you concealed yourself."
"Even in this form… I still feel something when facing you. A… primal unease."
He admitted it openly.
Not fear of raw strength—but something deeper.
An instinctive discomfort, as if confronting something fundamentally unknowable.
Karin's aura—purely strange, detached from conventional logic—made even a man who toyed with life and death uneasy.
Karin beamed brighter at the "compliment."
"I was never hiding anything! My greatness and power have always been right here in the open!"
She stretched the last words playfully, then added with sly condescension:
"You just didn't see it."
She paused deliberately.
"Including… that snake."
The implication was obvious.
Orochimaru.
Kabuto fell silent.
He remembered Orochimaru's eventual death at Sasuke's hands—and contrasted it with the unfathomable presence Karin now exuded.
After a few seconds, he let out a long sigh.
For once, something like regret—or perhaps irony—tinged his voice.
"Orochimaru-sama… died rather unfairly, didn't he?"
Karin burst into carefree laughter that echoed across Hokage Rock.
"Hahaha—seriously! He had so many of us… what, 'subordinates'?"
"And he still got taken out so casually by that smug Uchiha brat!"
"So anticlimactic! Hahaha!"
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