Karin stretched lazily, her tone tinged with boredom—and deeper contempt.
"No wonder… Demon God-sama always said those who cultivate chakra are nothing more than 'ingredients.'"
"I didn't get it before. Chakra seemed amazing—running across rooftops, breathing fire, spitting water…"
She curled her lip, as if mocking her former naivety.
"But now I understand a little. Your chakra system looks flashy, sure. Plenty of variations, decent power. But it can easily influence the mind, be specifically targeted, be sealed… There are way too many loopholes. It's like a sieve full of holes."
She tilted her head.
"Who knows? Maybe someday someone will just come along and absorb all chakra directly."
Then she studied Indra and Asura with her crimson-glowing eyes and asked a question that would drive the entire shinobi world into paranoid speculation.
"Hey, you two fossils… You wouldn't happen to be the masterminds who created this flawed chakra system, would you? Designed it on purpose so you could… harvest something? Or control it?"
The moment the words left her mouth—
Indra and Asura's expressions changed drastically.
It wasn't merely anger.
There was shock—as though a core secret had been touched—along with wariness and something far more complicated.
They neither denied nor admitted it.
Their ancient eyes locked onto Karin with unprecedented scrutiny, as if trying to see through her—through her—to the so-called "Demon God" behind her.
Was this just ignorant conjecture?
Or had she stumbled upon a truth never meant to be known?
Inside and outside the Sky Curtain, silence fell.
Karin's shocking statement did more than hint at her own power—it pointed toward the very foundation of the shinobi world: chakra.
For the first time, countless shinobi began to doubt the system they had relied on all their lives.
From genin to Kage, from elite jōnin to village elders—everyone wore the same stunned expression, as if their worldview had shattered.
They already knew the world was more complex than they imagined.
They had seen ancient beings. Heard of abyssal forces. Witnessed power beyond comprehension.
But now—
Chakra, the foundation of their strength, their battles, their beliefs—
Had been dismissed as a flawed construct.
And they—the ones who trained and fought for it—had been labeled "ingredients."
Ingredients?
For whom?
The Demon God?
Or those ancient beings?
Fear spread like a plague.
"If chakra has so many weaknesses… if it can influence thought… be sealed… be harvested…"
"Are we really just 'ingredients'? For what?"
"What is this world? Everything we fight for… was it just livestock on someone else's table?"
"What is truth? Do we even understand our own reality?"
Panic. Confusion. Anger. Despair.
Negative emotions boiled across the shinobi world.
Like drowning men clutching at the last straw, they pinned all hope on the Sky Curtain—longing for an explanation, even a cruel one, rather than sinking into ignorance.
But what happened next disappointed them.
On-screen, Karin—who had just posed a question capable of overturning the world's understanding—suddenly seemed to lose interest in Indra and Asura.
Her curiosity and mockery faded, replaced by detached indifference.
"Boring."
Dark crimson energy pulsed lazily around her.
"I don't really care what you are. Puppet masters, originators—whatever."
"It doesn't matter to me."
"As for you two…"
She slowly raised her right hand, fingers curling inward.
With that motion, countless fragmented, twisted crimson particles—filled with malice and destruction—from the air, the ground, even the remnants of the shattered satellite, surged toward her palm.
They gathered frantically.
A power purer and more lethal than before began to compress—condensing into a sphere of pitch-black energy so unstable it seemed capable of devouring even light itself.
The aura radiating from it made Kabuto, observing from afar, feel a stab deep within his soul. He instinctively retreated hundreds of meters.
"I'm not interested anymore."
"So… die."
Her voice was terrifyingly calm.
Indra and Asura's spiritual forms trembled as they sensed the annihilating force within the sphere—a power aimed not at chakra, but at the very essence of existence.
In their current condition, they could not withstand it.
For the first time—
Fear flickered in their eyes.
And just as the two ancient wills stood on the brink of complete erasure—
"Sigh…"
A long, ancient sigh echoed across heaven and earth.
It was not loud.
Yet it resonated directly within every soul present.
It carried exhaustion.
Resignation.
A weight that seemed to span eternity.
With that single sigh—
The entire space froze.
Not time—
But space itself had been forcibly interfered with.
Dust hung motionless in the air.
Energy ripples halted mid-wave.
Even the violent fluctuations of the black sphere in Karin's palm stopped, suspended unnaturally.
Karin's posture froze in place—
Only the faintest flicker of surprise passed through her deep crimson eyes.
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