"Kimimaro senpai, are you sure you have to leave?" Hanataba asked as she looked into her beloved senpai's green eyes.
"Yes Hana san, I must. It is what Orochimaru sama wishes and what he desires come first." the boy replied with an edge of coldness to his voice.
"You're sick! Please let me go with you to back you up!" the blonde kunoichi begged.
"No, I must do this alone." he told her seriously. He then sighed, "Hanataba , I'm dying. The illness I have is going to end my life." he began. Hanataba began to shake her head, she did not want to believe that the boy she loved was going to die. "Hana san, I'd rather die in battle serving Orochimaru sama, then waste away in a hospital bed." Kimimaro said to her.
"Please promise me something, please promise that you will try and come back alive. Juugo and I are not ready to lose you." Hanataba replied.
"I cannot make a promise to return, but I will promise to fight my very hardest." Kimimaro said. Hana nodded and looked away. She could feel the tears starting to come.
"Hanataba look at me." Kimimaro requested. Hanataba looked back at him.
"I want you to promise me something." Kimimaro said.
"What is it?" she asked as she held his hands.
"When Sasuke Uchiha comes, I want you to respect him. He is my replacement. Promise me that you will be good to him." Kimimaro said.
"I will." Hanataba replied.
"Then this is farewell, Hanataba." Kimimaro said as he released her hands, and began to walk away.
"Kimimaro! Wait!" Hanataba called.
"What is it?" Kimimaro asked as he turned around. Hanataba then went up to the former leader of the Sound Five and kissed him passionately. After a few seconds, Kimimaro broke the kiss, and backed up a bit. His face was red.
"Hanataba, why did you do that?" he asked her.
"You said it was the last time, so I had to. I did it because I love you Kimimaro, and I always will. I love you, I love you so much." she confessed.
"I always knew you cared for me Hana san. I must leave now. Farewell Hanataba." he said giving her a bow as a sign of respect. He then ran out the door of Otogakure.
As Hanataba walked through the halls of Otogakure, she worried about Kimimaro. She didn't want him to die, she couldn't let him. She decided that even though he said he needed no back up, that she was going to go to him anyway. She had to try and save his life. She rushed to her bedroom and changed into some leggings and a tunic with an undershirt. She placed some strong body armor under her clothes to protect her brittle bones. She put her blonde curly hair in a high ponytail to get it out of the way, and put her sound forehead protector around her head. She then put her shoes on and got a lot of kunai and shuriken.
Once she managed to sneak out of Oto, she took off in a run. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins. She ran through the dense forest as fast as her legs could carry her. She could feel her tibia and fibula aching, and practically screaming for her to stop running. She ignored the pain, to her Kimimaro needed her more. 'Don't worry senpai, I'll be there soon.' she thought as she ran.
Orochimaru had noticed Hanataba leave. In fact he had watched her leave without her noticing. He knew she would go after Kimimaro. He also knew that she would not like what she would see when she would catch up to him. 'Poor little fool.' he thought as he went back to his chambers. She would just have to learn the hard way wouldn't she? When he made it back to his room he took a seat in his chair, and he called for Kabuto.
"Yes my lord?" Kabuto asked.
"In a few minutes I would like you to go and fetch Hanataba. She has run after Kimimaro. She has this foolish idea that she can save him." Orochimaru ordered. Kabuto sighed.
"Oh come now Kabuto. I know you had a little disagreement with her, but you will disregard that and bring her back to me? I'm already losing one bloodline limit, I'd hate to lose another." Orochimaru said as he smirked through his bandages.
"That was no little disagreement. That little bird-brained brat was accusing me of murder." Kabuto responded as he remembered that fight
**FLASHBACK**Kabuto was walking to his lord's chamber's to care for him. Orochimaru sama was always in so much pain due to losing his soul arms due to that old fool the third Hokage. "Kabuto! I must speak with you now!" a high pitched voice called to him. He winced when he heard the voice. It was Hanataba, that annoyingly stupid girl that Orochimaru kept around due to her Kekkei Genkai."What do you want Hanataba?" Kabuto asked, the irritation in his voice was evident."I heard what you said to Kimimaro." she said as she got in front of the medic."Oh did you now?" Kabuto asked as he smirked down at her."Yes I did. You were extremely rude." the petite girl said. A frown was on her face. Her facial expression and anger were rather amusing to Kabuto. He suppressed a laugh."Oh you think I was rude? I believe what I said was honest and necessary." Kabuto responded in a condescending voice. Hanataba's jaw dropped."Kimimaro senpai is a brilliant shinobi! The fact that you called him useless is just not true and completely mean!" the midget exclaimed passionately."Hanataba, you've spent nearly every waking moment by his side since he has fallen ill. You know how sick he is. He can't hardly move." Kabuto explained to her."You know what I think Kabuto?" Hanataba said through gritted teeth."What do you think in that little brain of yours?" Kabuto asked smugly."I think you are killing Kimimaro. You are jealous of him, and you made up all of this rare illness crap so Orochimaru sama wouldn't be suspicious of you!" she accused."You foolish child! You have no idea what you're talking about!" Kabuto said back to her."Yes I do! I know you're a brilliant medical shinobi, and Orochimaru sama said that you were almost better than his friend! So Kimimaro's illness should be a walk in the park for you to cure! You're probably neglecting him or even worse you are poisoning him!" Hanataba said her high pitched voice became sort of shrill and sounded like a screech at the end of her statement."You know what? If you had any sort of common sense I would make you look at the charts that show your little "boyfriend's" health, so you would believe me instead of this nonsense you've invented in your head, but you are too damn stupid to comprehend something like that! Now get out of my way and let me care for Orochimaru!" Kabuto said angrily as he shoved her out of his way.**End Flashback**
"When I find her, what do you want me to do with her?" Kabuto asked.
"I want her to be brought back alive. I'm already losing one bloodline limit and I would hate to lose another. If she manages to break a bone, set it and bandage it. She gets nothing for the pain." Orochimaru ordered.
"As you wish my lord." Kabuto said as he walked out the door.
Hanataba was still running at full speed. As she ran, she noticed on the forest floor was becoming sandy.
'Sand? In the forest? How odd, I'm sure I'm nowhere near Sunagakure.' She thought as she ran. Then she heard four horrid cracking noises. Both of her tibias and fibulas had broken. She then fell face first into an area where more sand had accumulated, making it a huge sand pile, which broke her fall. She pulled herself up, got the sand out of her eyes and spit out the sand in her mouth. The aching in her legs was terrible, but Kimimaro needed her. She could perform her Raitoningu DÅbutsu, and make a large dog to fight along Kimimaro.
She rolled herself down the sand dune, and began to army crawl as quickly as possible. As she moved along the sand got deeper and deeper. She rolled down another hill. When she lifted herself up this time she saw Kimimaro's bone forest.
'Wow, he must be fighting somebody really strong...' She thought as she looked up at the bone forest with wide eyes. She crawled through the forest, and it was quiet. Too quiet, for a battle. She then saw something green and red. As she got closer, she saw several white flower petals. She got up to the plant, it was a flower stem with only its center, stem and a few leaves. The red was blood dripping from above. When she looked up, it was her worst nightmare come true. Kimimaro was in the bone tree. He was in stage two of his curse mark, he was still. Completely still.
"Kimi senpai?" she asked hoping he would respond. He did not. Her eyes then became blurred with tears.
'Oh my Kami, please, please oh merciful Kami above. Please don't let him be dead.' she thought as the first few tears of many began to roll down her cheeks. The bone forest then began to disappear. Kimimaro's body fell down from the ground and his body fell with a thud. The effects of the curse mark had gone away. He still wasn't moving. Hanataba's heart began to beat quickly as she crawled to him. She looked up and saw two boys, that were probably a few years her junior.
One of the boys was a pale boy with red hair and what looked to be a gourd on his back. The other was quite hideous to Hanataba, he had a bowl cut hairstyle and ridiculously thick eyebrows. They looked really shaken up. They said a few words, and then walked away. They didn't look down into the pit Hanataba was in. They then got up and walked away. Hanataba would never forget their faces. She vowed that if she saw them again that she'd avenge Kimimaro.
She looked away from the ledge and crawled to Kimimaro, who hadn't made a peep. 'Maybe he's just unconscious. He has to be!' she thought as she made her way to him. She looked at his face. His mouth was covered in blood that he had coughed up. Hanataba removed her tunic and wiped his mouth.
"Kimimaro? Kimimaro? Please wake up." Hanataba said gently patting his face. When she didn't see a response her breathing became quicker. She took a deep breath and put her head on his chest, hoping that there was a heartbeat. There was none. The horror and shock came in like an intense tsunami. he was dead, Kimimaro, her senpai and first love was dead and gone forever. She had failed in her attempt to rescue him.
"No! No please! Kimimaro!" she cried as she began to sob uncontrollably.
'Please, please let this be some sick nightmare. Come on Hanataba, wake up!' she thought as she sobbed, her head buried in Kimimaro's chest. She then began to scream out in grief and physical agony. Her adrenaline had worn off, the full scale of the pain in her lower legs had now began to set in. That physical pain was nothing compared to the grief she was now feeling.
After about an hour of her screams and cries. She heard footsteps coming towards her. Did one of Kimimaro's murderers seriously have the nerve to come back? She lifted her head, it was Kabuto.
"Alright Hanataba, time to go home." He said plainly as he tried to pull her off Kimimaro's corpse. She got his hands off of her and clutched Kimimaro tighter.
"Enough of this foolishness Hanataba. Orochimaru sama wants you home now. He's been worried sick about you and is very cross." Kabuto said making up the last part about Orochimaru being worried. The frustration was evident in his voice. To him, Hanataba's cries sounded like a baby's cry. A really annoying baby's cry.
"You leave me with no other choice." Kabuto said to her. He pulled out a syringe with tranquilizer and injected it into the girl's upper back. Hanataba then was silenced. Knocked out by the effects of the drug. Kabuto checked Hanataba's pulse and threw her over his shoulder, and grabbed the arm of Kimimaro's corpse and proceeded to go back to Otogakure.