"Cough, cough, cough!"
Karin pried the severed hand off with all her strength, then clutched her neck and coughed violently.
"Get up. You're safe now."
When Karin raised her head toward the voice, her blurred vision gradually cleared, and Sasuke's handsome, cool face came into focus in her crimson eyes.
He's so handsome.
That was Karin's first thought after narrowly escaping death.
For a girl barely in her teens, no matter how tragic her past was, there was still a corner of her heart reserved for fairy-tale romance.
She imagined herself as a princess trapped in a demon's clutches, rescued by One handsome hero who descended from the sky...
Though reality differed from her fantasy, Karin's heart still couldn't help racing.
"Th-thank you. You're..."
After a moment's daze, Karin hurried to thank Sasuke, but One cheerful laugh soon interrupted her:
"Hehe, Sasuke, you lost!"
Naruto, who had helped Sasuke take down the two Grass Ninja behind him, walked over grinning, his hands behind his head.
So his name is Sasuke?
Karin quietly committed it to memory.
"What did I lose?"
"I beat more people than you, and I took down their Leader too. No matter how you count it, I won!"
"Did I agree to compete?"
Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets and flatly refused to acknowledge it.
Inwardly, however, he still quietly updated his record.
0 wins, 199 losses.
"The Leader? He was defeated?"
Hearing the blond boy's words, Karin froze, then hurriedly looked toward where she had been before.
The Grass Ninja leader she feared so much, who had always acted so invincible, lay on the ground with his eyes rolled back, just like the lackeys beside him.
"No way. He's a jonin, and he was... beaten just like that..."
Having spent her whole life in Kusagakure,