Hinata Hyuga
Time: MidnightLocation: The Root Hollow, Forest of Death.
The root hollow they had decided to stay the night at while she healed her muscles slowly dropped in temperature as the midnight approached. It took Hinata a while to work through all the tears throughout her body and finally when she was done she decided to check on Naruto.
Naruto was still asleep from Orochimaru’s love taps from their last fight. He was still breathing heavily in his sleep and was perspiring constantly
“C’mon, c’mon work please work” She muttered as she tried to stare deeply into Naruto’s belly with her Byakugan pulsing with chakra.
The veins around her temples bulged as her vision shifted past his skin and muscle directly into his chakra network.
Normally she shouldn’t have been able to look at it easily but whatever Orochimaru had done had made it much easier to make out the Eight Trigram Divination Seal for her Byakugan. But more than that, the one that she could view much more easily was the superimposed Five Elements Seals that Orochimaru had applied.
The consequences of the seal were pretty easy to notice. A jagged, dense mass of black chakra sat wedged directly over his umbilical tenketsu. Orochimaru had slammed the Five Elements Seal into place with brute force to act as a solid physical dam. Beneath the black blockage, the Nine-Tails' volatile red chakra churned violently. The heavy, corrosive energy had nowhere to go. So, it backed up against the seal and boiled outward into Naruto's regular blue chakra pathways, burning his coils from the inside.
Hinata stared at the black mass. Her Kei Talent engaged quietly in the back of her mind. She cross-referenced the chaotic structure with the medical ninjutsu theories she had absorbed from the medical books she had read. It didn’t take her long to understand the exact mechanisms of the Five-Elements Seal. It was a five-point lock designed to disrupt the natural flow of the host's existing containment array. She could not simply heal the surrounding tissue to fix the problem. The blockage had to be unwoven manually first.
She held up her right hand. The skin of her forearm still looked raw and pink from the Chidori backlash, but her fingers remained steady. The technique she was about to use was the same one that Orochimaru had used to apply the seal to Naruto. She forced a highly concentrated, localized amount of chakra to the very tips of her fingers. The chakra condensed until it formed five microscopic, razor-sharp points. She treated her hands like surgical scalpels. She pressed her glowing fingertips directly onto the five black points burning on Naruto's stomach.
The resistance hit her immediately. Orochimaru's residual chakra fought back, cold and clinging. Hinata channeled more Yang chakra to sustain her jutsu. She pushed past the resistance and hooked her energy under the edges of the five-point lock. She twisted her wrist and manually pried the dark seal open. The black chakra shattered. It dissolved into harmless smoke and vanished into the cold air of the hollow.
The trapped red chakra instantly rushed back down into the depths of Naruto's primary containment seal. His erratic, boiling blue pathways smoothed out into a steady, even flow. Naruto let out a long, ragged exhale. The blistering heat radiating from his skin dissipated almost immediately. His rigid posture relaxed into the soft dirt, and his shallow panting deepened into the slow, even rhythm of normal sleep.
Hinata slumped back against the curved wooden wall of the hollow. Her lungs burned. The precise chakra manipulation had drained the last of her active reserves. She let her Byakugan fade and rested the back of her head against the rough bark.
"Are you done?"
Hinata jolted, her heel slipping against a root.
Sasuke was sitting up in the shadows near the hollow's entrance.
"Sasuke," she exhaled, catching her breath.
“How’s your body?” Sasuke checked her raw-looking pinkish skin out. “What did you do to Naruto’s body?”
“Uh- Orochimaru had applied the Five-Elements Seal to Naruto. It was disrupting his chakra constantly, kind of like how gentle fist works but almost permanent in effect.”
“So now you know fuinjutsu too huh?” Sasuke’s eyes narrowed. “What’s up with you Hinata? Even Itachi wasn’t like this. Even he didn’t know how to use seals mainly because no one was around to teach him Sealing. I don’t think you picked it up from some book either, they are all kept locked up.”
Hinata hesitated. She had promised Sasuke that she would trust him, that she wouldn’t keep her plans from him. Him having to plan around her abilities was already affecting him and she had no doubt that it would only grow worse the longer they were in situations like this. She had to at least put it in a way that wouldn’t ruin his world view.
“What do you know about our history, Sasuke? Not the one about Konoha, or the warring ages but about the origin of chakra in this world?”
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. “The sage of six paths gifted chakra to the people of the elemental nations. That is at least how the myth goes.”
Hinata shook her head. “That is true for most of the world, almost every genealogy can be traced back far enough for it to be noticeable that once humans didn’t possess chakra. But there are a few genealogies that do not have those genealogical traits, at least in dominant chromosomes. Can you guess them?”
Hinata drew a few symbols on the ground. The symbols for the Uzumaki, Uchiha, Hyuga and Senju Clans.
“Our clans? We have always had chakra?” Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “But why would that be the case for just these four clans?”
“Yes why would that be the case? What makes our clans so special?” Hinata pushed.
“Maybe we mated with some species that already possessed chakra and that resulted in us gaining the dominant genes of those species?” Sasuke commented.
“That’s closer to the truth than most would guess, Sasuke. The truth is simpler than that though. All these clans are descended from the family of the sage of six paths. The Sharingan, the Byakugan, the Uzumaki chakra and Senju’s vitality. All are parts of abilities that his family possessed.”
Sasuke looked at her skeptically. “Do you have any proof for this Hinata?”
“Not anything that would lead to you believing me completely” Hinata shook her head. “You just need to trust me.”
Hinata rubbed the symbols away.
“Sage of Six Paths was said to be the creator of moon. But that is a small portion of the truth. He created the moon to seal an entity even he himself couldn’t kill. His mother. She was a powerful being, more powerful than even the sage and his brother. And she had insatiable greed for more power. So the brothers sealed her in the moon.
“The Uzumaki, Uchiha and Senju clans are descendant from the Sage. While the Hyuga are descendants of the Sage’s brothers. But more importantly, I have seen a future where the mother finally breaks free of her restraints to take her revenge on the people of the elemental nations.”
“How did you see this future?”
“I- I don’t know. I have guesses but at the end of the day they are all guesses.” Hinata muttered.
I don’t want to lie to him completely, but I don’t believe I can tell him the full truth either.
“But that’s not all, every once in a while, I get new abilities, abilities that make me much more powerful. They come as tickets that I can use in exchange for random powers. I think it’s all to help me prepare for dealing with the clusterfuck that’s coming in the future but I am not really sure.
“I can’t see the future, Sasuke. I want to be very clear about that." She held his gaze. "What I can do is access the memories of someone who lived through events that, from our current position in time, have not happened yet.”
"It’s not a distinction that makes me feel particularly better about it," Sasuke said after a moment.
“I know.”
Sasuke swallowed hard. He looked like he was physically straining to force the next words out of his throat. "Did you know about the massacre before it happened?"
Hinata’s eyes softened and she shook her head. “I- I only got that ability the day after we passed our final exams in the academy. If I had known before, I would have done something.”
Sasuke looked… relieved. He closed his eyes, apparently deciding that was enough for one night. "Get some sleep. I'll take watch."
Hinata pulled her jacket tighter and looked once more at Naruto's steadily rising and falling chest.
He would have more questions, she knew it too. But she was thankful for a reprieve.
Hinata Hyuga
It was five in the morning when Hinata woke up again. Sasuke was at the entrance of the root hollow and Kaguya was tapping Hinata’s head.
The squirrels wish to say something.
Hinata blinked and focused on her surroundings. A sharp, erratic chattering echoed in her mind. Her Talk with Animals perk translated the frantic thoughts of a canopy squirrel hiding in a nearby pine tree.
Two-leggers! Three of them! They smell like damp metal and sound like breaking wood. They are stomping through the ferns directly toward the big roots. They are making so much noise!
Hinata immediately pushed chakra back to her eyes. The Byakugan revealed three distinct human signatures moving through the forest about four hundred meters east. They weren’t even attempting to conceal their approach. They trampled over fallen branches and shoved through heavy thickets. Their deliberate clumsiness indicated either supreme confidence or a trap.
"Three enemies approaching," Hinata whispered. She kept her voice barely audible over the sound of the dripping water. "Sound Village genin. They are moving fast and making a lot of noise."
Sasuke shifted from his watch position near the entrance. He looked down at the newly healed skin on Hinata's forearm. The tissue was still an angry, sensitive pink. He then looked at Naruto, who remained deeply asleep on the cold dirt.
Hinata placed her hands on the ground and started to stand.
Sasuke moved across the small space and pressed his hand firmly against her uninjured shoulder. He forced her back down into a seated position.
"Stay here," Sasuke ordered.
"Sasuke, you don’t have to fight them alone." Hinata insisted.
"I am not going to hide in a hole while you tear your body apart." Sasuke drew a kunai from his hip. The blade reflected the faint moonlight bleeding through the moss hanging over the entrance. "Everyone thinks I am someone to be trampled over. Itachi, Orochimaru and these genin. I am going to show them exactly what I can do with my own strength. You stay here and protect Naruto this time."
He turned his back to her and stepped quietly out of the hollow into the pre-dawn gloom.
Sasuke Uchiha
Sasuke stepped into the damp ferns outside the hollow. The air smelled of wet soil and rotting cedar. He slid a standard iron kunai from his thigh holster. He pushed chakra into his optic nerves. The world shifted into the sharp crimson focus of the Sharingan. He crouched behind the thick roots of a dead tree and waited.
He had been far too irritated by the recent events. First one of the sannin come to fight him specifically and then his teammate tells him that she is either crazy or she can see the future.
The Sound genin did not try to hide their approach. Heavy boots snapped dry branches. Zaku stepped into the small clearing first. Dosu and Kin followed closely behind him. Zaku grinned and raised his hands toward the moss concealing the hollow entrance.
He knew these idiots from the dossiers that Kabuto was passing around.
Sasuke moved before Zaku could speak.
He burst from the ferns. He moved without the heavy resistance weights Kakashi had forced him to wear for the past three weeks. His body felt incredibly light. He crossed the clearing in a fraction of a second.
Zaku startled and thrust his palms forward. Sasuke saw the hollow tubes embedded in the boy's skin. The Sharingan tracked the sudden spike of chakra rushing toward those circular vents. Sasuke dropped into a low slide across the slick forest floor. He drove his heel into the damp earth. A thick spray of wet mud flew upward and splattered directly into Zaku's open palms.
Zaku released his pressurized air attack.
The clogged mud sealed the exit vents. The supersonic air had nowhere to go. A sharp concussive crack echoed through the clearing. The pressurized wind violently backfired. It ripped through the flesh and muscle of Zaku's own forearms. Zaku screamed and collapsed to his knees. He clutched his bleeding, ruined arms against his chest.
Kin drew a handful of senbon needles. Small bells dangled from the metal rings at the ends. She threw them at Sasuke's chest and head. Sasuke mapped the trajectories instantly. He ducked under the first volley and pivoted smoothly to avoid the second. He drew a second kunai attached to a spool of ninja wire. He threw the weapon past her shoulder. The blade embedded itself in the trunk of an oak tree behind her.
Sasuke yanked the wire taut. The steel thread whipped around Kin's ankles and locked tight. Sasuke pulled hard. Kin lost her footing and slammed face-first into the packed dirt. She did not get back up.
Dosu charged. He raised his right arm. A porous metal gauntlet covered his forearm. Sasuke kept his eyes locked on Dosu's shoulder and elbow. The Sharingan registered the sudden tightening of the flexor muscles beneath Dosu's sleeve. Sasuke knew the swing was coming before Dosu's arm even moved.
Sasuke stepped inside Dosu's guard. The heavy gauntlet swung harmlessly past his ear. Sasuke drove the solid iron ring of his kunai directly into the hinge of Dosu's jaw. Bone crunched. Dosu stumbled backward and spat a mouthful of blood into the moss.
Sasuke flipped the kunai in his hand into a reverse grip. He stepped forward to finish the fight.
Dosu raised his uninjured hand. He looked at Zaku bleeding on the ground and Kin unconscious in the dirt. He looked back at Sasuke.
"We surrender," Dosu said. His voice was muffled behind his bandages.
He reached into his pouch and pulled out an Earth Scroll. He tossed the wooden cylinder onto the grass between them. Sasuke stopped advancing. He kept his kunai raised.
"Take the scroll," Dosu said. He walked over to Zaku and hauled the groaning boy over his shoulder. He nudged Kin with his boot until she stirred. "We will find another target."
Sasuke watched them retreat into the dense canopy. He did not pursue them. He walked over to the discarded scroll and picked it up. The smooth wood felt cool against his palm. He had dismantled an entire enemy team in less than a minute. He had fought with lethal precision and absolute control. He had not needed a parasitic seal to protect his team.
He deactivated his Sharingan and turned back toward the hidden hollow.
Naruto UzumakiTime: DawnLocation: The Root Hollow, Forest of Death.
The first light of morning crept through the moss hanging over the hollow entrance. It painted pale, watery strips across the packed dirt floor.
Naruto opened his eyes. He blinked at the rotting cedar roots above him. His mouth tasted like dry leaves and old copper. He sat up slowly, stretching his arms over his head until his spine popped in three different places.
"Man, sleeping on the ground sucks," Naruto groaned. He rubbed the back of his neck. He felt completely fine. He actually felt lighter than he had in weeks, though he had no idea why. His chakra hummed steadily just beneath his skin, clean and unbothered.
He looked around the small space. Hinata sat slumped against the curved wooden wall. She looked exhausted. Her right jacket sleeve was missing completely, and the skin of her forearm was a shiny, sensitive pink. Kaguya slept curled into a tight ball in her lap. Sasuke stood near the entrance. He held a wooden Earth Scroll in his hand and stared out into the forest.
Naruto scrambled to his feet. He pointed at Hinata’s arm. "What happened to you? Did we get attacked? Why didn't anyone wake me up?!"
"You were asleep," Sasuke said. He tossed the extra Earth Scroll into his supply pouch. "Orochimaru ambushed us yesterday afternoon. He knocked you out immediately. Hinata drove him off. Then a Sound team tried to jump us an hour ago, and I dealt with them."
Naruto stared at him. He looked at Hinata's arm, then back at Sasuke.
"You guys fought a Sannin and a Sound team without me?" Naruto's voice pitched up in sheer outrage. He grabbed his hair with both hands. "I missed the whole thing! I am going to be Hokage! You cannot just let me sleep through the most important fights of the exam!"
Hinata opened her pale eyes. A tired, genuine smile spread across her face. "You took a very heavy hit, Naruto. You needed the rest. Besides, we are perfectly fine."
"Speak for yourself," Sasuke muttered. He adjusted his weapons pouch. "We have three scrolls now. Two Earths and a Heaven. We don't need to fight anyone else. Pack up your gear. We are moving to the tower."
Naruto grumbled under his breath. He grabbed his backpack from the dirt and slung it over his shoulders. He hated feeling useless. But as he looked at Sasuke’s calm posture and Hinata’s quiet confidence, the frustration faded. They had protected him. They had held the line while he was down.
"Alright," Naruto said. He punched his palm. "Let's go finish this stupid test."
Hinata HyugaTime: Mid-MorningLocation: Canopy, Forest of Death.
The forest was waking up. The mist burned away as the sun climbed higher, leaving the air thick with humidity and the smell of blooming fungus. Team 7 moved efficiently through the upper branches. Sasuke took the point position, setting a grueling pace. He moved with a sharp, focused energy that told Hinata everything she needed to know about his state of mind. He had processed the truth about their clan histories and her future knowledge. He was using it as fuel.
Hinata kept to the center of the formation. She pulsed chakra into her optic nerves every ten minutes to sweep the perimeter. They bypassed two separate skirmishes between rival teams by simply altering their trajectory a few degrees east.
On her fourth sweep, the Byakugan picked up a massive, erratic chakra signature a mile to their left.
It was a bear. Not the polite, territorial bears from the clearing yesterday. This signature was frantic and hungry. It stood on its hind legs, boxing something into a muddy ravine. Hinata shifted her focus downward. Pinned against the base of a dead tree was a very small, very depleted human chakra signature.
The girl had bright red hair.
Karin Uzumaki.
Hinata stumbled slightly on her landing. She caught her balance on a thick oak branch. If she did nothing, Sasuke would eventually find Karin during the preliminaries or the finals, or Orochimaru's subordinates would scoop her up. Karin would spend the next three years as a prisoner and a living medical supply for a madman.
Hinata could not abandon her team to intervene. Kakashi had warned them about splitting up. But she didn't have to leave them entirely.
She had watched Naruto use the Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu countless times over the last month. Her Kei Talent had catalogued the exact chakra division ratio and the precise hand seal required to execute the technique.
Hinata slowed her pace just enough to put ten meters between herself and Naruto. She brought her index and middle fingers together in a cross shape.
She pushed chakra through her healing coils. The raw pink skin on her arm throbbed in protest, but she forced the energy outward. She split her consciousness precisely down the middle.
A puff of white smoke erupted on the branch beside her.
The Shadow Clone stepped out of the smoke. It looked identical to her, right down to the missing sleeve. The clone gave her a single, firm nod. It pivoted on its heel and launched itself westward, vanishing into the dense foliage.
Hinata dropped her hands and accelerated, catching up to her teammates before either boy noticed she had lingered.
Hina-Clone (Name still pending)Time: Mid-MorningLocation: A muddy ravine, Forest of Death.
Being a shadow clone wasn’t as weird as people though it was. She remembered watching movies in early childhood about evil doppelgängers and clones trying to take over their original’s lives but she didn’t feel any urges like that. She sort of felt like her existence was transient. Like a gust of wind destined to end in a short while.
It was probably some genjutsu bullshit that Tobirama built into this jutsu. She quickly put that thought out of her mind as she neared the site of Karin fighting the bear.
The bear roared. The sound rattled the leaves and shook the damp earth.
Karin pressed her back against the rough bark of the dead tree. Her legs refused to hold her weight. She slid down the trunk until she hit the mud. Her glasses hung askew on her face. Her breathing came in short, terrified gasps.
The bear dropped to all fours and charged.
A blur of dark blue hair and white light slammed into the mud directly between Karin and the predator.
Hina-Clone didn’t draw a weapon. She stepped cleanly into the bear's path and dropped into the Gentle Fist stance. The bear lunged, swinging a massive, razor-sharp paw at her head.
The clone ducked under the swipe. She stepped inside the beast's guard. She drove two glowing fingers directly into the nerve cluster behind the bear's front shoulder.
The bear’s right leg went completely numb. The massive animal stumbled, its momentum carrying it face-first into the mud. It let out a confused, panicked bellow. It scrambled backward, dragging its paralyzed limb, and turned to flee into the thick underbrush.
The clone stood up and brushed a splatter of mud from her pants. She turned around.
Karin flinched, pulling her knees tightly to her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut. She expected a kunai. She probably expected a demand for her scroll.
"Are you hurt?"
The voice was soft and completely calm.
Karin opened her eyes. The girl standing over her did not look like a killer. She looked exhausted. Her pale lavender eyes scanned Karin's body with quiet concern.
"I... I don't have a scroll," Karin stammered. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with a trembling finger. "My team left me. Please don't kill me."
The clone knelt in the mud. She reached out and gently straightened the collar of Karin's jacket.
"I don’t want your scroll," the clone said. She looked at Karin's bright red hair. "You are an Uzumaki, aren't you?"
Karin froze. "How do you know that?"
"I know a lot of things." The clone offered a warm, reassuring smile. She reached into her thigh pouch and pulled out a basic medical kit and a ration bar. She set them in Karin's lap. "The central tower is about three miles directly east of here. The path is clear. You need to get up and start walking."
Karin stared at the food. Then she looked back up at the strange Konoha genin. "Why are you helping me? We are enemies."
"We are just kids in a forest," the clone corrected gently. She stood up. "Go to the tower. Do not let anyone tell you that you are just a tool to be used. You deserve better than that."
The clone formed a single hand seal. A sharp pop echoed through the ravine. A cloud of white smoke swallowed the girl completely. When the smoke cleared, Karin was entirely alone.
Karin sat in the mud for a long time. She clutched the ration bar tightly against her chest. She looked toward the east. Slowly, her shaking legs found traction. She stood up, wiped the mud from her knees, and began to walk.
Hinata HyugaTime: Noon.Location: The Central Tower, Forest of Death.
The memory of the muddy ravine flooded into Hinata's mind the moment her clone dispersed. She stumbled slightly on a thick tree branch, processing the sensory feedback of the cold mud and Karin's terrified voice.
"You okay?" Sasuke asked. He glanced back over his shoulder.
"I am fine," Hinata said. She steadied her breathing. "Just tripped."
They broke through the final line of trees ten minutes later. The dense, suffocating canopy gave way to an open clearing. In the center stood a massive, circular building made of grey stone and iron grating. The central tower.
Naruto let out a loud cheer. He sprinted across the open grass and slammed his hands against the heavy metal doors. They yielded easily, swinging inward to reveal a wide, dimly lit hallway.
They walked inside. The air felt cool and sterile. A large wooden sign hung on the wall directly in front of them. It detailed a set of instructions about the Heaven and Earth scrolls.
"We need to open them at the same time," Sasuke read. He pulled the Earth scroll from his pouch. Hinata withdrew the Heaven scroll from her jacket.
"Ready?" Sasuke asked.
Hinata nodded. They gripped the wooden cylinders and pulled the tabs. The scrolls unrolled completely. The kanji written on the parchment began to glow with a bright, summoned chakra.
Sasuke dropped his scroll immediately. "It's a summoning formula. Step back."
They retreated to the center of the room. A thick cloud of white smoke erupted from the discarded scrolls. The smoke swirled and condensed until a figure stepped out from the haze.
Iruka Umino stood before them. He wore his standard flak jacket and a wide, incredibly proud smile.
"Hey, Team 7," Iruka said. He looked at his watch. "You are the second team to arrive. You beat the current record by an entire day."
Naruto threw his arms in the air. "Iruka-sensei! We did it! We totally crushed the Forest of Death!"
"You certainly did." Iruka walked forward and ruffled Naruto's blonde hair. He looked at Sasuke's focused expression and Hinata's exhausted posture. "You guys look like you have been through hell. But you made it out together. That is what counts."
Hinata touched her newly healed arm. Her muscles ached. Her chakra reserves were scraping the bottom of her coils. She looked at Sasuke and Naruto. They were battered, dirty, and bruised, but they were standing tall.
"Go through those double doors," Iruka instructed, pointing down the hall. "There are barracks, food, and showers waiting for you. You have a few days to rest before the remaining teams arrive for the preliminaries."
Hinata smiled. She reached up and scratched Kaguya behind the ears. The cat purred softly from the carrier pouch.
And she still had a ticket to redeem.
[ For sending Orochimaru running, you have been given One Silver Tiered Ticket! ]
Please roll it for me.
Soul Protection
It is common for people to attack each other’s Soul Realms, and a true master should know how to guard it well. Now, you have little to no need for it anymore: your Soul Realm is impossible to break while you are not incapacitated. This means your enemy needs to incapacitate you first before damaging in any way your soul realm. This does not have any drawbacks, such as making it impossible to cultivate a technique that requires you to destroy your soul and reconstruct it; you will find that you benefit completely from such techniques while not needing to damage yourself. This also nullifies the dangers of “over-cultivating”, cultivating so much that your soul threatens to explode. Taking a step further, you will not have any problems with demon spirits inside your Soul Realm. Post-Jump, this perk also covers any sort of metaphysical construct bearing any semblance to Soul Realms and Souls.
Devil Throne
Truly a chair fitting for a prince of darkness.This throne is massive, intimidating, luxuriously comfortable, and adorned in a style that fits perfectly with your favorite decor. Expect those that gaze upon you sitting in it to know you for what you truly are. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends upon you.
Patience of a Saint
A cultivator has enormous amounts of patience when they cultivate. Sitting for years or decades in a cultivation stance would be no problem to them, but it will test the will and determination of any normal man. Now with this you are able to sit and cultivate without moving for centuries with no problem, while spending countless years on a single task, or just living a normal life after spending years in a bloody battle, would no longer be a problem for you anymore.
Of the three , patience of a saint wasn’t really that helpful on the short term. Devil throne might be fun for the aesthetics and if she had the chance she would take one just for the fun she could have with it but the Soul Protection was way too good to not take right now. Especially with all the soul related shenanigans that keep happening in this world.
So she chose Soul Protection.
Author’s Note:-
So I ended up writing this chapter a bit late because my exams have started and I expect them to continue for the next 3 weeks, I have exams on every Friday and Monday which means realistically I will only have Monday nights and Tuesday mornings to write right now. Therefore, I am sorry if I am not able to post too many chapters ahead of the public release.
Overall, I am happy with this one as well. Hinata revealed more of what she talked to Karin about and we got to see more of what’s going on in Sasuke’s head. And we got Karin’s scene as well. I was thinking of writing that scene from Karin’s perspective but in the end decided I would do that later.
And Soul Protection was actually something I rolled way at the start of the story but it was only a 100 CP perk and I felt like it should have been more like 400 CP, So I ended up including it here.