"It was all my fault."
In an empty room Tsunade had specifically set aside in the Hokage Building, Karin, Sakura Haruno, and Shiho waited. Karin sat with her head lowered, occasionally muttering to herself.
Shiho blamed herself, too. She was the oldest among them and should have stayed alert while they were out, yet she had been so careless. How could someone her age still get separated from the group? Was it because she believed Karin, Sakura, and the Hyuga sisters were all at least as strong as she was, so she saw herself as the one being protected?
She said quietly, "It wasn't your fault, Karin—"
Karin blinked. "Did I say something just now?" She shook her head and sighed. "I have the best sensory abilities, but I didn't notice anything wrong. The enemy abducted Hinata and Hanabi, and I didn't even know—"
Sakura Haruno gently rubbed her friend's back, unsure what to say. Anything she said would feel hollow and do nothing to help. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly asked, "Why did those two Cloud Ninja disguise themselves as Hinata and Hanabi and come back to meet us?"
"Maybe they wanted to follow us into the village?" Shiho guessed.
"Or maybe they just wanted to delay us discovering Hinata and Hanabi had been abducted, to keep us from rescuing them—" Karin said.
The door suddenly swung open, and Left Mysterious Tsunade, who had remained in Konoha all along, walked in.
A short while earlier, Karin and the others had rushed back to Konoha. On the way, Karin had channeled chakra into the Rabbit Bracelet and contacted Wu Yu, who was far away overseas on Mount Huaguo.
Although they desperately wanted to pursue Hinata and Hanabi immediately, there were several problems. First, even with Karin's sensory abilities