On the outskirts of Kusa, a transparent figure moved between buildings and trees. The Transparent Release puppet relied on its invisibility to avoid detection as it searched every corner of the area.
More than a month had passed since the Nine-Tails incident. The crisis was over, the village was rebuilding, and life in Konoha had settled back into something resembling normalcy. But Kenji couldn't let go of one particular concern.
Uzumaki Karin.
He'd been searching for her and her mother since the Third Great Ninja War, sending puppets to Kusa multiple times without success. At one point, he'd started to wonder if his presence in this world had somehow altered the timeline. Maybe Karin's mother had never come to Kusa at all. Maybe they'd died during the war, lost to some forgotten battlefield. The uncertainty ate at him.
But he knew Karin was supposed to be the same age as Sasuke. If the timeline hadn't deviated too much, she should've been born by now. With the aftermath of the Nine-Tails attack finally settled, he'd sent his puppet out again. One last search to confirm the truth, one way or another.
The puppet had been circling the outskirts of Kusa for hours. The sun was sinking toward the western horizon. Still nothing. No sign of the red hair that marked the Uzumaki bloodline.
The puppet had been about to redirect toward the Kusa hospital, when it rounded a corner and something caught its attention. In the distance, on a slope at the forest's edge, stood a small wooden cabin. Completely alone in an area where most civilians avoided living.
The puppet stopped and observed from a distance.
The structure didn't match the round-topped hut from his memories of the anime. This was rougher, more hastily constructed, like temporary shelter that had become permanent. But the location fit. Remote enough that Kusa could keep an Uzumaki clan member hidden away.
After a moment's hesitation, the puppet moved closer.
As it approached, details became clearer. Clothes hung on a line outside, weathered and faded from too many washings. A wooden bucket sat beside the door, the metal bands holding it together rusted from exposure. Someone definitely lived here, and based on the small size of some of the clothing, at least one of them was very young.
The puppet extended its chakra senses, scanning the area for any watchers or guards. Nothing. Either Kusa didn't consider this person worth protecting, or they were confident that isolation alone was sufficient security. Probably the latter. The Uzumaki who'd survived the destruction of Uzushio had scattered across the world. Most of them harbored deep resentment toward Konoha for failing to provide aid when their village was destroyed. They wouldn't willingly seek refuge there. Kusa knew that. Which meant they could keep an Uzumaki here through intimidation and leverage.
The puppet produced a specialized tool and worked the simple lock on the door. The mechanism was crude, meant to keep out animals and curious children rather than trained ninjas. It clicked open easily.
Inside, the cabin was cramped and depressing. The main room held a single shabby table, a few battered cooking implements, and some threadbare cushions stacked in one corner. This wasn't a home. It was a prison that happened to have walls and a roof.
At the back of the room, a wooden door stood slightly ajar. The puppet could sense a faint chakra signature coming from beyond it. Weak, but definitely there.
It opened the door.
The bedroom was even smaller than the main room. A single bed took up most of the space, leaving barely enough room to walk around it. The mattress looked thin and uncomfortable. A single blanket lay draped across it. And in the middle of the bed, sleeping peacefully, was an infant with red hair.
"Finally," the puppet murmured.
He'd found Karin.
The puppet deactivated its technique, becoming visible as it approached the bed. It reached down and gently picked up the sleeping baby, supporting her head and body with motions Kenji had learned from caring for his own son.
Karin stirred at the movement. Her eyes fluttered open, revealing their crimson color. For a moment she just stared up at the puppet's face. Then she reached out with one hand and grabbed at the puppet's hair.
"Well, you're certainly calmer than Daiki," Kenji observed through the puppet's senses. His own son had a habit of waking up screaming in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, leaving both him and Honoka exhausted. But Karin seemed content to just look around and explore with her hands.
The puppet settled into a seated position on the bed, keeping Karin secure in its arms while it waited. Her mother should be returning soon. Probably forced to work at the hospital until they'd wrung every last bit of healing chakra from her for the day.
The Uzumaki clan's healing abilities were legendary. Their naturally massive chakra reserves combined with their unique physiology made them ideal medical ninjas. But that same value made them targets. After Uzushio fell, the surviving clan members had scattered. Some went into hiding. Others, like Karin's mother, ended up in villages that saw them as resources to be exploited. Kusa had probably promised safety in exchange for service. What they'd delivered was indentured servitude. Work until you collapse. Heal until your chakra runs dry. And if you die from the strain? Well, there's always your daughter to take your place.
The sheer stupidity of it infuriated him. Any competent leader would've treated an Uzumaki healer like the precious asset she was. Protected her, ensured she stayed healthy, encouraged her to have children to pass on the bloodline. Instead, Kusa was burning through her life force like she was a disposable tool.
With that kind of short-sighted thinking, it was no wonder Kusa had never grown beyond being a minor village.
An hour passed. Then two. The sun continued its descent toward the horizon.
Karin stayed awake, content to be held and occasionally making small sounds. After about three hours, she started getting fussy. The puppet recognized the signs, Kenji had dealt with them enough times with his own son. She was hungry. He summoned a different puppet to deliver supplies. Within minutes, baby formula arrived along with a bottle. The Transparent Release puppet prepared the mixture, making sure the temperature was right before offering it to Karin.
She latched onto the bottle immediately and started drinking.
Kenji watched through the puppet's eyes as the infant gulped down the formula. The Uzumaki clan's vitality was remarkable. In these conditions, with a mother who was probably too exhausted to properly care for her and a village that saw her as future livestock, any normal baby would've struggled to survive. But Karin seemed fine. Healthy, even. That resilience was probably the only reason she'd make it to the age where Orochimaru would eventually discover her.
After finishing the bottle, Karin didn't fall asleep like he expected. Instead, she seemed to have developed some kind of attachment to the puppet during the hours they'd spent together. She crawled around in its arms, fingers gripping its clothes, clearly wanting to continue being held.
Well, waiting around was boring anyway.
The puppet summoned another puppet and left it at the cabin to watch for Karin's mother's return. Then it activated the Transparent Escape Technique again and stood up, cradling Karin securely against its chest.
Might as well explore the village while I wait.
---
Kusa showed the scars of the Third Great Ninja War everywhere.
The Transparent Release puppet moved through the streets with Karin held in its arms. The village wasn't large, maybe a fifth the size of Konoha, and the war had hit it hard. Entire sections of buildings stood damaged or abandoned. Walls bore the marks of jutsu impacts, scorch marks and craters that hadn't been repaired. Some shops had their doors and windows boarded up, thick dust coating the wooden planks.
The few civilians who were out and about moved quickly, focused on getting wherever they were going. Nobody lingered in the streets. Nobody gathered to socialize. The atmosphere was heavy.
Karin, experiencing the outside world for probably the first time in her short life, looked around with wide eyes. Her head swiveled back and forth, trying to take in everything at once. When a stray dog trotted past, she made excited sounds and clapped her hands together. Watching her innocent reactions, Kenji was reminded of a detail from the original series. She had worn glasses from a very young age. At the time, he'd thought it was just a character design choice. Now, seeing her living conditions, he understood. Her mother probably left her alone in that cabin for hours every day, maybe entire days, while Kusa worked her to exhaustion at the hospital. An infant left alone in a dark room with minimal visual stimulation. That kind of environment could definitely cause developmental issues with eyesight.
The thought added another layer of anger to his assessment of how Kusa treated its Uzumaki "guest."
The puppet continued wandering aimlessly through the village as the sun sank lower. Karin stayed content in its arms, occasionally making small noises but otherwise just watching the world go by.
At one point they passed a group of children playing ninja in a cleared lot between buildings. The kids were maybe five or six years old, taking turns being the "evil ninja" while the others heroically defeated them.
The scene triggered a memory.
In one of the Naruto movies, one of the non-canon ones that had questionable continuity with the main timeline, there'd been a Kusa kunoichi named Ryūzetsu. She possessed a technique called Dragon Life Reincarnation, a forbidden jutsu that could revive the dead at the cost of the user's own life. It was supposedly a bloodline limit ability, passed down through her family.
Her appearance had been distinctive. Grey eyes with multiple circular patterns much like the Rinnegan but different in both color and function.
The movie's plot had contradicted the main storyline in several ways. Most notably, it centered around something called the Box of Ultimate Bliss, an artifact he had never heard mentioned in the shinobi world. He'd always assumed the movie was entirely non-canon, just a standalone story with no connection to events.
But what if parts of it were real? What if Ryūzetsu existed even if the Box didn't?
A technique that could revive the dead would be incredibly valuable. And if it was a bloodline ability, that meant it could potentially be studied, maybe even replicated through the right combination of research and experimentation.
Worth investigating, at least.
Based on the timeline, if Ryūzetsu existed, she'd be a young child right now. Maybe six or seven years old. Young enough to still be playing with other kids rather than training seriously.
The puppet adjusted its course, heading toward areas where children were more likely to gather. For the next hour, it worked through the village. Every time it spotted a group of children, it paused and observed, scanning for anyone who matched Ryūzetsu's description. But luck wasn't on his side.
By the time evening arrived and the streets began to empty as families called their children inside for dinner, the puppet had covered most of Kusa. Not a single child had matched Ryūzetsu's distinctive appearance.
Either she doesn't exist in this timeline, Kenji concluded, or she's not in Kusa right now. She could be at her clan's compound somewhere, if they even have one. Or maybe the movie really was completely non-canon and I'm wasting my time.
He was about to direct the puppet back toward Karin's cabin when a message came through from the puppet he'd left on guard.
A red-haired woman was approaching the wooden house. Moving quickly, like she was in a hurry.
Karin's mother had finally returned.