Forest of Death, evening of the third day.
The air still carried the stench of damp earth and the scorched smell left by the recent battle. Gloomy daylight filtered through gaps in the canopy like a gray burial shroud.
Karin Uzumaki huddled in Naruto's arms, crying hysterically, smearing tears and snot all over his already dusty clothes.
Naruto did not push her away, allowing her trembling little hands to clutch his collar desperately.
That despair and dependence, like a drowning person clinging to their last piece of driftwood, greatly satisfied the "Uzumaki" instinct in Naruto's veins.
[Ding! Super S-rank potential target detected: Karin Uzumaki.] [Bloodline resonance triggered! Mission issued: Take her home.] [Pure Byakugan assimilation evolution seal remaining: 27 days, 14 hours.]
Naruto's eyes flickered.
Almost a month left?
By the timing, he would make it just in time for the official finals of the Chunin Ninja Exams.
A teasing sneer curled across his lips. This crappy system really knew how to pick its timing.
Riding the lingering effects of the bloodline resonance, Naruto instinctively released the spiritual fluctuations of the Great Evolution Divine Soul Art, intending to investigate the movement in the surrounding forest.
However, when his spiritual power extended several hundred meters away, it suddenly felt as though it had struck a thick pane of frosted glass, leaving a faint stinging sensation in his mind.
Hm?
Naruto frowned.
Reading minds within dozens of meters had once been as easy as drinking water, but once the distance increased, the spiritual power of those Genin seemed blocked by some invisible wall of consciousness, turning into a mass of garbled noise.
He could only barely sense vague emotional fluctuations in the distance, such as "fear" and "greed." He could not make out any specific thoughts at all.
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