Within the borders of the Land of Fire.
Inside a guest room on the second floor of a certain inn.
Naruto was setting up a Sensory Suppression Barrier in the room.
Karin stood in the center of the room, her hands folded over her lower abdomen, looking at the room somewhat blankly.
Compared to her dilapidated confinement room in Kusagakure, the conditions of this inn were practically a palace.
The bed was covered with white sheets, and the window glass reflected the light pouring in from outside.
Karin turned to look at Naruto, who was drawing the Sensory Suppression Barrier, and couldn't help but ask, "Naruto, what did you bring me here for? This isn't Konoha, is it?"
Naruto stood up after confirming the barrier was functioning. "Konoha is still being rebuilt right now, and the village is in a mess. It's not very convenient to take you there yet. You stay here for a month first."
"This inn is very safe. I've checked the owner's family—they're ordinary people with no connections to any ninja village. No one will track you here."
"The barrier in the room can block outside perception. Unless a sensory ninja of Jiraiya's level passes by the door, no one will find you here."
"I've prepaid thirty days' worth of room fees, with any difference to be settled later."
Naruto pulled a pouch of coins from his ninja tool pouch and placed it on the table, then laid several clean clothes on the bed.
"Settle down here first. In a while, I'll come back to pick you up and take you to Konoha. Once we're in Konoha, you can be a ninja if you want, or a regular civilian if you don't. Just do whatever you want. No one will lock you in a room to use you as a first-aid kit anymore."
"Oh... okay." Karin nodded without asking further.
She didn't press Naruto on how he would arrange a brand-new identity for her, nor did she ask if Konoha's rules allowed harboring a rogue ninja from Kusagakure.
These things didn't matter to her at all. From the moment Naruto appeared in that dark room to take her away, she had decided to trust him.
"Then... Naruto, what if I need to find you? In case of an emergency..."
Karin looked out the window at the unfamiliar street scene, her voice laced with a hint of anxiety.
She had been locked in that room in Kusagakure since childhood and had never lived on her own, let alone staying in a completely foreign town by herself for a month.
Naruto pointed to the Kunai in Karin's ninja tool pouch. "If you run into an emergency, just channel Chakra into the Kunai like you did just now."
He reached out and patted Karin's head. "If you feel bored and want to chat with me, you can also activate it to call me. It doesn't have to be an emergency."
Karin nodded, a faint hint of color finally returning to her face.
"I've already had the owner send some food over, so I'll head back first." Naruto smiled slightly.
He took a few steps back, and locked his mind onto the Flying Thunder God Kunai on Konoha's back mountain.
Whoosh!
In the next moment, his figure vanished from the room.
Karin stood where she was, staring at the spot where Naruto had just left for a long time.
She pulled the Flying Thunder God Kunai from her ninja tool pouch and placed it next to her pillow. Then she took off her shoes and crawled under the covers.
Lying on her side, she stared at the Kunai for a while, then closed her eyes, her lips curving into a smile as she whispered, "Thank you, Naruto."
...
Konoha, Back Mountain
Whoosh!
As Naruto's figure appeared, his Negative Emotions Sensing automatically spread out, scanning the surroundings.
Everything was normal, there was no one around.
'First, I'll train.'
Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!
Wasting no time, Naruto summoned two hundred Shadow Clones and began focusing on integrating Lightning Chakra into the Rasengan.
Two hundred Shadow Clones simultaneously began forming Rasengans in their palms, then attempted to channel Lightning Chakra into them.
Once he successfully integrated Lightning Chakra into the Rasengan and gave it the property of disappearing, he would possess an ultimate move that couldn't be tracked by conventional sensory methods in battle.
If he could further apply this vanishing trait to the Rasenshuriken, the ultimate Wind Release Ninjutsu, which could kill Kage-level ninjas, would become a deadly phantom.
Just as Naruto and his two hundred Clones were fully engrossed in developing the Rasengan, a figure strolled up the mountain.
Walking onto the back mountain, Jiraiya saw at a glance two hundred Narutos holding Rasengans and channeling Lightning Chakra into them.
"Naruto, are you adding Lightning Chakra to the Rasengan?" Jiraiya walked over curiously, crossing his arms over his chest.
Narut looked up and seeing Jiraiya, he dispersed the Rasengan in his hand, and stood up.
"Oh, it's the Pervy Sage. Yeah, I'm trying to see if I can integrate Chakra nature transformation into the Rasengan to raise its power."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Jiraiya's eyes lit up, and he said in a serious tone, "Integrating Chakra nature transformation into the Rasengan is the advanced direction of the Rasengan."
"When Minato first created this Ninjutsu, he hoped it would eventually serve as a vessel for nature transformation. But he passed away too early, and he didn't have time to complete this research."
"I tried integrating Fire Release into the Rasengan back then, and I almost blew away one of Mount Myōboku's mountain peaks."
"This isn't a domain ordinary people can touch. But since you have a training method like the Shadow Clone, there's no harm in trying."
"But why didn't you start with Wind Release first? Why use the Lightning Chakra you just trained?"