When Naruto dragged Sasuke over to find Karin, several Kusagakure ninja were already lying sprawled around her.
The symbols on their forehead protectors could not have been mistaken.
After everything she had suffered in Kusagakure as a child, it would have been stranger if they had run into her and still made it back alive.
Karin looked at Sasuke's face, swollen like a pig's head, and froze for several seconds.
"What happened to him?"
Naruto stroked his chin.
"He overdid the act and got punished by heaven."
Karin looked utterly bewildered.
"???"
Using a half-baked Sage Mode to challenge Naruto was beyond mere death-seeking.
Naruto quietly made a note of Jugo's version of Sage Mode, adding "prone to acting like an idiot" under its side effects.
As for the scrolls, Naruto held a Heaven-and-Earth Scroll, while Karin had two Earth Scrolls. Since Sasuke had run into Orochimaru first, his hands were completely empty—he had not gotten a single scroll.
But he had already gotten what he needed, so Naruto could not be bothered to waste more time and headed straight for Central Tower.
He had scanned Hinata and Ino with Mind's Eye of the Kagura. Neither of them had run into any trouble.
He had shown off in this Forest of Death before Izumi and Sister Hana. He could have walked through it with his eyes closed; he knew it better than his own backyard.
The shadow of Central Tower soon pierced his view.
"That was way too fast."
Karin stared at the tall tower and muttered.
Naruto smiled.
"It was only ten kilometers. Ninja marching speed was far more efficient than special forces from my previous life. As long as you were capable enough, the poisonous insects, wild beasts, and traps left behind by others in the forest were