"I'm not afraid of being alone," little Karin said, shaking her head fiercely, her cheek rubbing against her mother's clothes as tears slipped down her face. "I'm just afraid you won't come back, Mom. Those grown-ups take you away for so long every time, and whenever you come back, you have more wounds, and they hurt even worse."
The child's blunt words struck the softest, most painful spot in her mother's heart.
She bent down slightly and hugged her daughter tightly, her thin shoulders trembling.
Over the years, she had endured countless ninja biting her and plundering her chakra day after day. Even when her body neared its limits and the pain made her wish for death, she had never dared resist in the slightest.
Her sole obsession was protecting the child in her arms, giving everything she had to secure even the slightest chance for Karin to survive.
Those people had promised they would not do the same to Karin.
"Be good, Karin," her mother said softly, soothing her gently. "Mommy's fine. It doesn't hurt at all."
Karin raised her little tear-streaked face and looked at her mother's scar-covered body, her eyes red from crying. "It hurts so much inside when I see you suffering. Mom, can we stop healing those people? Can we run away?"
At the words "run away," her mother's gaze instantly dimmed, profound helplessness and sorrow welling in her eyes.
She gently wiped the tears from her daughter's face, her fingertips cold, her voice laden with endless exhaustion and resignation. "We can't escape, Karin."
"Our clan is gone. Apart from Kusagakure taking us in, we have nowhere to go."
"They haven't taken us in! They're bullying us!" Karin did not understand the helplessness of adults; she only knew how to speak plainly against injustice. "They