"A monster!"
Shingetsu walked slowly out of the ruins. The Grass Ninja around the hospital screamed in terror, then turned and fled blindly.
But their escape was futile.
The next instant, countless vines and roots burst out of the ground like writhing pythons, binding the fleeing Grass Ninja tight.
Expressionless, Shingetsu approached the nearest Grass Ninja and demanded coldly:
"Where is your leader?"
His face was twisted with terror. All he could manage were choking gasps, unable to get a single word out.
Shingetsu glanced at him, then activated her Sharingan and forcibly searched his memories.
Then all the Grass Ninja bound by the vines let out desperate wails. The vines abruptly tightened, and blood splattered once more, staining the ruins crimson.
Looking at the blood beneath her feet, Shingetsu frowned in disgust and snorted.
She had governed her own world so well over the years that she had almost forgotten just how cruel the shinobi world truly was.
"Karin..."
Meanwhile, despite the combined efforts of both Hashiramas and the mother and son who were medical practitioners, the bite marks on the Uzumaki woman's body gradually faded, but she still would not wake.
Her last remaining shred of consciousness kept calling out her daughter's name.
At the sight, Shingetsu's anger slowly cooled, giving way to grief and heartache. She sighed.
"Let's find her daughter first."
Outside a crude thatched hut far from the village, a little red-haired girl wearing glasses crouched on the bare ground, tears streaming down her cheeks like pearls from a broken string.
When she noticed strangers approaching, her first reaction was fear. She immediately scrambled to hide inside the hut.
But when her gaze caught the familiar red hair on the stretcher, all that fear instantly gave way to anguish.
She ran toward her mother with