Wu Yu's "old friend of Kimimaro" was naturally Jugo, who was being held in Orochimaru's Northern Hideout—the original source of Orochimaru's Cursed Seals.
Karin continued using Physical Healing to restore Yinglian's strength, then asked, "I remember you were one of Orochimaru's subordinates. If you were able to manage that southern base, you must have held quite a high position, right?"
Yinglian looked at her suspiciously, and Karin suddenly realized she was wearing a mask!
Karin removed her bird mask, and Yinglian cried, "It's you! Then he—"
Wu Yu removed his mask as well and said, "It really wasn't easy to end up in such a state."
Yinglian hesitated. She looked at Karin, then at Wu Yu, and said, "I—after you left, I went to the Land of Whirlpools—that place was simply too chaotic."
She shook her head and sighed. "First, I somehow ran into some vicious Mist Village ninja. Then, when I was heading to Uzushio Village, a strange freak with a half-black, half-white face suddenly appeared. He seemed to have mistaken me for someone else! I was lucky enough to hide in the mountains—but the deep mountains of the Land of Whirlpools were full of bandits. Many of them were fugitive ninja who had fled from various countries—"
As Karin listened, she couldn't help glancing at Wu Yu.
"Why are you looking at me?" Wu Yu pressed down on her head. "She's just unlucky!"
"I met this child in a bandit den." Yinglian held the mute child with one arm and one leg in her arms. "I thought Orochimaru might be able to cure him, so I brought him north—but when we reached the border, we ran into a pair of strange people! One rode a bizarre white bird through the sky and liked tossing bombs at the ground.