Chapter 144: Grief in Konoha

Having finished their day's planting work, Sakura led the three of them to the tea street.

Konoha's tea street was one of the village's more famous areas, lined with numerous tea shops and dessert parlors. The best feeling was sipping tea while gazing at the Hokage Rock!

"Gulp, gulp... Ahhh!" Naruto took a long drink of tea and sighed contentedly. "There's nothing better than a cup of flower tea after a mission."

"Huh? Naruto, I thought you'd say a bowl of ramen was the best," Sakura said, surprised.

"Hehe, of course, a bowl of ramen is the best. But you can see the Hokage Rock from here," Naruto replied, turning his head to look at the monument in the distance.

"Sasuke, are you free tonight?" Sakura asked, turning to Sasuke.

"Probably nothing going on."

"Nothing? That's great. Spar with me tonight, okay?"

"Huh?" Sasuke looked at Sakura, a little puzzled.

Usually, Sasuke was the one to initiate their sparring sessions. Sakura had never actively suggested it before. Today was certainly unexpected.

"I've been working on a new jutsu. I want to see how it works," Sakura explained.

"A new jutsu? Sure," Sasuke agreed with a nod.

"Karin, you'll have to go home by yourself later," Sakura said to Karin, sticking her tongue out apologetically.

"Yeah, okay. No problem," Karin replied.

"Hey, hey, hey, I want to go too!" Naruto shouted immediately upon hearing this. "I've learned a really awesome new jutsu too!"

"That's perfect, Naruto, you can come too. I'm worried Sasuke might lose too quickly on his own," Sakura said casually.

"Hmph, still so arrogant," Sasuke scoffed.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt like he was being watched. He looked behind him, but there was no one there.

"What are you looking at, Sasuke?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Noth-nothing," Sasuke replied, unsure if he had just imagined it.

Karin suddenly reached out and tugged on Sakura's sleeve. Sakura saw that Karin's brow was furrowed, her eyes filled with a tense expression, and couldn't help but feel puzzled.

"What's wrong, Karin?" Sakura asked.

"Sakura, I felt two people over there just now," Karin said, pointing to the spot Sasuke had just looked at.

"People? What kind of people?" Sakura was confused. She looked in the direction Karin was pointing, but it was empty. Where were the people?

"Yeah, I only felt them for a split second, and then they vanished. I've never sensed chakra like that before," Karin explained.

"Uh..." Sakura hesitated, a bit unsure. Karin's sensory abilities were never wrong, but Karin had only been in Konoha for a short time. Even Sakura herself couldn't claim to have seen every ninja in Konoha, let alone Karin. What if they were ANBU?

"Hmm... Okay, but the chakra I sensed from those two... Ugh...!" Before Karin could finish, she suddenly coughed up a stream of blood.

"Karin!!!" Sakura watched in horror as Karin suddenly spat out blood, a samurai sword slowly emerging from her chest, piercing straight through her heart.

Seeing this, Naruto and Sasuke immediately drew their kunai, going on guard, but there was no one in sight.

"Quick, bite yourself!" Sakura said, covering Karin's wound with the Mystical Palm Technique while slowly pulling the samurai sword out of Karin's body.

Karin bit down hard on her own arm, but the wound showed no sign of healing. Blood continued to gush from her chest.

Why was Karin's ability failing? Sakura didn't have time to think about it. She intensified her Mystical Palm Technique, but the wound showed absolutely no improvement.

"How can this be?" Sakura's heart chilled as she looked at her hands, stained red with Karin's blood. "Why isn't the Mystical Palm Technique working...?"

She poured even more chakra into the technique, but it still couldn't stop the blood flowing from Karin's chest.

"Why! Why! Why!" Sakura was completely panicked. For the first time, she deeply regretted not studying medical ninjutsu properly under Tsunade-shishou.

"No... it's no use... Sakura... I'm going to die..." Karin weakly grasped Sakura's hand, signaling her to stop.

"Don't talk nonsense. I can heal you." Seeing Karin growing weaker, Sakura intensified the glow of the Mystical Palm Technique in her hands.

Karin shook her head and said, "...Sakura... I've been so happy these past few months... Thank you... It was... so good... to meet you..."

As she spoke, Karin's breathing grew weaker and weaker. Finally, she gave Sakura a blood-stained smile, a smile filled with such happiness.

"Sakura-chan, how is Karin?" Naruto asked, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings.

"......." Sakura didn't answer Naruto. She stared blankly at Karin, lying in a pool of her own blood. The Mystical Palm Technique had already stopped.

Feeling Karin's heart cease to beat, Sakura's mind went blank. She remembered the first time she met Karin.

The Karin who used a little trickery to escape the control of the Grass ninjas, the Karin who was a little dependent on her, the crying Karin, the timid Karin, the happy Karin.

Karin was already in Konoha, she had already escaped the Grass Village, she had already broken free from Orochimaru, she had thought she had changed Karin's fate, she had said she would protect all of this...

Just one more step, just one more step, and Karin could have had a life different from her destiny...

Tears streamed uncontrollably from Sakura's eyes. She tried to stop them, but she couldn't. Looking at Karin's body on the ground, Sakura felt a suffocating pressure in her chest.

What had she been doing all these years? She hadn't properly learned medical jutsu from Tsunade-sensei, her strength hadn't increased much, and she had watched helplessly as her comrade died before her eyes. Sakura was consumed by deep self-reproach...

"Hey, Naruto, don't go over there. Did you find something?" Sasuke asked from the side.

"Damn it, Karin is dying..." Naruto started to move towards Sakura, but she didn't respond.

"Idiot, calm down. The enemy is likely still nearby," Sasuke said, calmly observing their surroundings, though he couldn't find anything.

"How can I be calm?!" Naruto shouted. Even so, he heeded Sasuke's words and stood back-to-back with him, maintaining their guard.

"The enemy probably hasn't left. Karin has Sakura; you have to trust Sakura's medical skills," Sasuke continued. "Right now, the enemy is in the shadows. We don't know their objective, or who they're targeting. But one thing is certain: it's unlikely to be Karin. Karin is just a genin. It's unlikely the enemy would go to such lengths to infiltrate Konoha just to assassinate a genin."

"What do you mean, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"That means, if the enemy hasn't left, their goal isn't assassination, but capture. If they wanted to assassinate Karin, they would have retreated by now. That's why I asked if you found anything," Sasuke explained.

"Uh..." Naruto was momentarily speechless. He carefully sensed his surroundings and realized something was off.

"So, the enemy's attack on Karin was likely to create chaos and give them an opportunity to capture us," Sasuke concluded.

"Then why not just assassinate us?" Naruto asked.

"Hmph, if it was assassination, it wouldn't have been Karin who was just stabbed," Sasuke said, quietly activating his Sharingan.

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