Death? Life?

The fight was completely one-sided.

Perhaps it couldn't even be called a fight; it was more like the Mist Ninja were simply bullying them.

Shuriken flew past Katsuki's ear, slicing through strands of his crimson hair, leaving a shallow cut on his fair cheek.

A slight stinging sensation on his cheek, Katsuki's vision blurred. A fist with thick knuckles filled his sight. With a crisp crack, like crushing a biscuit, a tsunami of pain surged through his nervous system. Tears streamed down uncontrollably.

He was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string, rolling several times on the muddy ground. Clutching his broken nose, he wailed.

He finally understood what pain was. He had never experienced such agony in his current or past life, as if someone was repeatedly jabbing his nerve endings with a drill. His nose bled and tears flowed profusely. Mud and grass clung to his face, making him look as pathetic as a stray dog.

In the direction the siblings had come from, a dazzling blaze of fire shot into the sky. These cold-blooded bastards, the Mist Ninja, didn't just kill people; they set fire to the village. Now they truly were like stray dogs.

Kushina burst into tears but couldn't break free from the Mist Ninja's grasp. She could only keep shouting Katsuki's name, mixed with curses at the scum who had hurt her brother.

"Boss, didn't the higher-ups say these kids were supposed to be captured alive?" A Mist Ninja approached the scarred face, looking at Katsuki wriggling and struggling like a maggot. He worried if their captain would just finish the kid off with one punch!

If a little brat died, so be it. But if those higher-ups got angry, they deserved to die a hundred times over.

The scarred Mist Ninja wiped the blood from his fist, a ferocious, bloodthirsty smile on his face. "What does it matter? Even if that brat dies, there's still one left here!"

"Villain, scum, trash… Katsuki, are you okay? Katsuki?" Kushina's eyes were red from crying, her voice hoarse. Seeing her brother wailing in pain felt like a knife twisting in her heart, and she cursed the scarred face like a madwoman.

Kushina's curses were repetitive and crude. She had no talent for the art of cursing.

However, these Mist Ninja could feel the girl's intense hatred. The Mist Ninja holding Kushina couldn't help but think that if this little girl survived, their captain would probably be killed by her someday.

The scarred face's eyebrows drooped, and the ugly scar on his face twitched slightly. His eyes, as cold as a wolf's, fixed on Kushina. "That brat won't die. Take that brat back to report. As for this little girl… kill her directly!"

"That… might not be good. If those Jonin get angry…"

"I'll take responsibility. I'll do it myself."

The scarred face didn't hesitate. He drew two shuriken from his ninja tool bag and threw them directly at Kushina's neck.

Thwack! Thwack!

Two dull thuds echoed as the shuriken embedded themselves deep into muscle, making a sound like tearing leather.

"Katsuki, Katsuki! What's wrong, you idiot, what are you doing?" Kushina cried out hoarsely.

The shuriken hadn't hit Kushina. Instead, they had pierced Katsuki's chest. Two blood flowers bloomed. Katsuki lay on the ground, his limbs numb, his hands and feet ice-cold. He could clearly feel his life force draining away, his body withering.

In the midst of his pain, he had heard the scarred face say he would kill Kushina. In that instant, the desire to protect Kushina had suppressed the intense pain, allowing him to unleash a speed he couldn't have imagined, charging in front of Kushina and using his body as a shield to block the two shuriken.

What a failed transmigration!

At that moment, Katsuki became strangely calm. The pain that had raged like a hurricane and a typhoon became so distant.

But as long as my sister is alive, I guess I'm not a complete failure!

A self-deprecating thought flickered through his mind. Katsuki waited quietly for death to arrive… until the sound of thunder approached from afar, echoing in his ears. His blurry consciousness suddenly sharpened. He struggled to open his heavy eyelids. A silver light danced in mid-air, and a fountain of blood sprayed… and Kushina's tear-streaked face…

Darkness, boundless darkness. He couldn't distinguish up from down, east from west, north from south. Only this eternal darkness!

"Kushina, is Katsuki still not awake?"

"Mm, his fever just broke today. I don't know when he'll wake up!"

Such familiar voices. Suddenly, voices echoed in the darkness, and they were so familiar… Then, a cool sensation wafted over his forehead, so comfortable he almost moaned.

The flag of the Land of Fire fluttered in the sea breeze. Seagulls circled above the ship.

On the deck at the bow, the red-haired youth sat in a wheelchair, breathing in the fresh air, squinting as he admired the vast blue sea. He hated the stale, stuffy air in the cabin. He had been confined there for two whole days and would suffocate if he stayed any longer.

Katsuki wasn't dead.

Although the two shuriken had pierced his chest, they hadn't reached his heart. Thanks to the Uzumaki clan's monstrous vitality, he had survived. Moreover, Katsuki was a man… Boy… who had eaten the Human-Human Fruit. After being unconscious for two days and two nights, he had finally woken up, thanks to the treatment from the medical ninja under Sakumo.

Through Kushina, he quickly learned what had happened after he fainted. The White Fang, that god of slaughter, had found the siblings, killed all the Mist Ninja, and then retreated with the unconscious Katsuki and a crying, near-fainting Kushina.

Sakumo's mission was to protect the future Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, not to fight the Mist Ninja. He took Kushina and Katsuki back to the ship and directly evacuated the island where the Land of Whirlpools was located.

Then, according to the intelligence gathered by the White Fang, the Uzumaki clan was finished. The Mist Ninja, with their usual ruthlessness, had even attempted to pursue the ship heading for the Land of Fire. Of course, the outcome was predictable. Konoha's White Fang never showed mercy to his enemies. The cold-blooded butchers were defeated by the even more ferocious Konoha's White Fang and died in the sea, their bodies likely already devoured by fish and shrimp.

"Uncle Sakumo, how much longer until we reach the Land of Fire?" Katsuki turned to look at the White Fang, who had suddenly appeared beside him.

"Soon. We'll be ashore by noon tomorrow. More importantly, how are your legs?" Sakumo asked with concern.

Katsuki shook his head and gave a bitter smile. His legs wouldn't heal anytime soon. In his desperation to save Kushina, he had unleashed an overloaded burst of speed, nearly crippling his legs. His leg bones were shattered, and multiple tendons and muscles were severely torn.

If he hadn't been an Uzumaki, for anyone else, this would have been a guaranteed disability.

Even as an Uzumaki, without the Human-Human Fruit further enhancing his physical condition and greatly improving his self-healing ability, this injury would have kept him bedridden for at least one or two months. However, now, he wasn't sure when he would be able to walk again.