Karin tilted her head.
Her smile was sweet.
Her eyes were cold.
As if everything she had just said—those soul-piercing words—had merely been a neutral recounting of facts, and Sasuke's attempt to stop her was the real overreaction.
And then—
Uzumaki Naruto slowly lifted his head.
Golden hair fell aside.
Revealing eyes—
Burning red, so fiercely that even the Rinnegan could not conceal them.
Silence fell across heaven and earth.
Karin had succeeded.
Naruto did not explode in rage.
He looked at her with a near-dead calm.
"And then?"
Karin brightened immediately, as if delighted to continue an interesting story.
"Later I found out that Naruko's family used to be the wealthiest and most respected in the village! Too bad her parents died protecting it."
She clicked her tongue in exaggerated pity.
"And what did the villagers do? Disgusting people. Took the house, the land, the savings… and treated Naruko like a dog—no, that's insulting to dogs. At least people feed their dogs. They wouldn't even spare her an extra bite of spoiled food."
She sighed theatrically, then continued.
"So I found Naruko hiding in a broken shed. I asked her: 'Hey, little Naruko. If—just if—one day you gained incredible power, what would you want to do?'"
She paused.
Her scarlet eyes gleamed maliciously as they locked onto Naruto's blood-red gaze.
"Guess what she said?"
Her voice shifted, mimicking a child warped by pain.
"She said—"
"'I'll kill everyone in the village.'"
"And I told her, 'Isn't that wrong? Your parents died protecting them. How can you kill them?'"
Karin turned back to Naruto, smiling.
"Guess what she said then?"
Boom.
This time even Neji couldn't remain still.
This wasn't provocation anymore.
This was lighting the fuse to a powder keg.
Two attacks launched simultaneously—one from Sasuke, one from Neji.
They had to shut her up.
Now.
Before she pushed Naruto past the point of return.
But both attacks dissolved midair—
Crushed before they even reached her.
Naruto had acted.
His eyes shifted slightly toward them.
An invisible will descended—cold, silent, absolute.
Their attacks shattered like dust.
"Don't force me," Naruto said calmly.
"To kill you now."
There was no threat in his tone.
Only statement.
Sasuke's face darkened. His remaining hand clenched until his nails pierced flesh.
Neji stepped forward urgently.
"Naruto! Wake up! She's provoking you! Twisting your pain!"
Naruto turned slowly toward him.
Those crimson eyes held no ripple.
Only a depthless void.
"Twisting?" Naruto asked quietly.
"Did she lie?"
Neji froze.
How could he answer?
The details might be embellished.
But the core—
The cold stares.
The bullying.
The silent confiscation of property.
The unspoken agreement that the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki could be mistreated so long as he didn't die—
Those weren't fabrications.
Neji understood injustice.
He had lived beneath the Caged Bird Seal.
He knew what it meant to be treated as a tool.
And because he understood—
He couldn't refute it.
Naruto turned back to Karin.
The red in his eyes deepened.
"Tell me."
"What did Naruko say?"
It was as if he needed to hear it spoken aloud.
To justify everything.
Karin's smile widened—radiant, almost tender.
She spoke slowly, clearly.
"Naruko looked at me with eyes I've never seen on a child."
"Cold."
"'Because they forgot,' she said."
"'They forgot my parents died protecting this village.'"
"'They forgot this village exists because my parents gave their lives.'"
"'They only remember how comfortable it feels to take what they want. How convenient it is to order me around. How easy it is to bully a child with no parents.'"
Karin paused.
Then finished.
"'So let them all die.'"
"'Let the whole ungrateful village die with them.'"
"'If my parents knew what happened to me… they'd support me.'"
"'And after being bullied like this—'"
"'Why should I care if the world drowns?'"
Silence.
At the bottom of the crater, the air itself seemed to stop.
The dark red energy around Naruto no longer raged.
It condensed.
Compressed.
Becoming something deeper.
Colder.
More resolute.
The bloodlight in his eyes settled into twin abyssal voids.
Naruto looked at Karin.
Slowly.
He nodded.
"I understand."
"So this is…"
"The answer."
"Naruto, don't let her manipulate you! There are innocent people!" Sasuke roared.
Karin didn't argue.
She simply skipped backward a short distance, smiling lightly.
She knew.
Naruto had already been seduced—
Not by her words alone—
But by the resonance of his own buried darkness.
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