Uzumaki Clan

The Chunin glanced at him, his gaze lingering on his rear shoulder for a moment. "You're injured?"

Lin Chongshu nodded.

"Then do you have money?"

Lin Chongshu instantly became alert. Was this Sunagakure all over again?

"If you have ten thousand taels, get your injury treated so you don't hold everyone back later." The Chunin's tone was perfectly casual.

Lin Chongshu froze. Ten thousand taels to heal an arm whose muscles had been severed by the Mystical Palm Technique?

He nodded and took out ten thousand taels, handing them to the Chunin.

The Chunin accepted the money, delight flashing across his face as he led Lin Chongshu toward the back of the village.

In truth, treatment was supposed to be free for candidates participating in the Chunin Exams. It was a standard benefit Kusagakure offered them. But seeing that Lin Chongshu was a newcomer who knew nothing, the Chunin decided to take the opportunity to extort him.

At the edge of the village stood a small house.

The door to the house was pushed open. It was dark inside, and a thin mattress lay on the floor. A red-haired woman was lying on it.

She looked to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with the full figure of a mature woman, yet she seemed frail and insubstantial. Her skin was bloodlessly pale.

Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was shallow and rapid. Every rise and fall of her chest came with a faint tremor.

Beside the mattress knelt a girl with long red hair as well. She wore round glasses, their arms wrapped several times with strips of cloth.

She had her head lowered, holding her arm up to the woman's mouth.

The woman parted her lips but did not bite. She merely touched the girl's skin with her lips, then shook her head and turned her face aside.

The Chunin walked over, his tone impatient. "What a waste of all the time we've spent raising you. You're completely useless. If you still can't awaken your power, your mother will die right in front of you."

After Whirlpool Hidden Village was destroyed, the surviving Uzumaki Clan members scattered across the various countries. Kusagakure took in Karin and her mother.

But being taken in came at a price. They had become Kusagakure's medical resources.

The Uzumaki Clan's bodies possessed recovery abilities far beyond ordinary people. With a single bite, wounds could heal faster and chakra could be replenished.

Kusagakure treated them as consumables. One wounded soldier came to take a bite today, a sick patient came for one tomorrow. Once they were bitten until they were barely alive, they were fed a Military Ration Pill to keep them alive. When they recovered a little, the biting continued.

[Detected Karin generating a strong source of negative emotions toward the host. Karin has experienced intense mental fluctuations due to her mother being tortured to the brink of death. Target possesses a special constitution. Extraction triggered.]

[Obtained: Six Paths Sage Body (incomplete Uzumaki Clan member version)]

Lin Chongshu stood where he was, his heart suddenly pounding.

There were three types of Sage Body in Naruto.

One was Jiraiya's kind. It had nothing to do with chakra or ninjutsu itself; it involved absorbing Natural Energy to enter Sage Mode. It was this world's native power.

Another was the Sage of Six Paths' Sage Body, which consisted of spiritual power and physical power. The spiritual side was Uchiha Clan, while the physical side was Senju Clan and Uzumaki Clan. Neither could be missing.

But it had to combine the bloodlines of Indra and Asura to truly take shape. Obito, who possessed Hashirama Cells and a Sharingan, failing to awaken the Rinnegan was an example.

The third type was Kaguya's Sage Body. The Uchiha Clan, Hyuga Clan, Senju Clan, Uzumaki Clan, and Kaguya Clan were all branches of that power.

What he had drawn now was an incomplete version of the second type, containing only the Uzumaki Clan's physical component.

But even an incomplete version was enough to make him happy for three days.

He had originally planned to rush to the Hidden Leaf Village and pick up the scraps from the Uchiha Clan massacre, yet he had first stumbled across the Uzumaki Clan bloodline along the way.

I really hit the lottery today. Land of Grass, you really are my lucky land!

The Chunin pulled a Military Ration Pill from his pocket. Its surface was covered in fine patterns, and it carried the scent of medicinal herbs.

Lin Chongshu noticed that it was identical to the two pills he had searched from the Hidden Mist rogue ninja.

The Chunin stuffed the Military Ration Pill into the woman's mouth, pried open her jaw, and poured in some water.

The woman swallowed, and her breathing became slightly steadier, though her eyes remained closed.

That Military Ration Pill replenished stamina. It could let someone on the verge of collapse catch their breath, but that was all.

Her body had already been drained to its limit. The pill had merely pulled her back a little from the brink of death; she was still a world away from recovery.

The Chunin turned to Lin Chongshu. "Let her rest for a while. Later, take a bite from her and all the injuries on your body will recover." With that, he walked out, leaving Lin Chongshu alone inside.

Karin knelt before her mother, her back drawn taut and her shoulders hunched. She did not dare turn around to look at Lin Chongshu.

Lin Chongshu waited for a while, then crouched down and gently rolled up Karin's mother's sleeve.

Her thin wrist was mottled with bruises and covered in bite marks. Some had already scabbed over, while others were still bleeding. Old and new wounds overlapped until there was almost no intact skin left.

Karin stood helplessly beside them. Her lips trembled as though she wanted to stop him, but she did not dare say a single word.

Lin Chongshu did not lower his head to bite.

A ball of green light lit up in his right hand. He placed his palm over Karin's mother's wrist, and the green glow slowly seeped in. The old bite marks faded beneath the light, while the fresh wounds that were still bleeding gradually stopped.

Karin's mother opened her eyes and looked at him in surprise. This was the first time someone had treated her injuries.

Lin Chongshu met those exhausted red eyes, and a thought surfaced in his mind. Don't get any ideas. I just have a germ phobia and don't want to bite someone else's bite marks.

Only after Karin's mother had recovered somewhat did Lin Chongshu begin healing himself.

A wave of warm chakra surged into his body through the wound, spreading through his blood vessels to every limb and bone.

The numbness in Lin Chongshu's left shoulder felt as though it had been washed by hot water. From his shoulder blade to his fingertips, the muscles Shizune had severed rapidly repaired themselves under the Uzumaki Clan's power.

He raised his head and moved his left arm. His fingers could clench into a fist again, his wrist could rotate, and his shoulder no longer felt sore and numb.

Why the hell would I even learn the Mystical Palm Technique? The passive effect is better than the active one!

And since Karin ranked twenty-fifth on every Naruto transmigrator's must-have list, now that he was here, he naturally did not want to let her go.

He released Karin's mother's wrist, took out an Advanced Military Ration Pill from his clothes, and placed it in her palm.

Karin's mother's fingers twitched, and she looked at him again in surprise.