Thanks for the reviews everybody! Now here I will answer some of my favourite reviews.
Little Kunai: Yeah, it was gross, huh? Your reaction was exactly as I thought most people would react! I decided to do something different than the overused 'blood adoption' crap where they suddenly gain the power through drops of blood (I actually liked the idea of him getting it this way as it makes it seem like the bloodline is similar to something from the undead and eating the remains solidifies it). The worse part was that Kimi was unaware of what transpired and thought it was because of his induction into the clan. About the authority thing, there will be some conflict with Dumbledore in this chapter after the Second challenge, so don't worry.
To those inquiring about the cup portkey, there is a plan for that which will be explained in the next chapter. Also, my apologies for the lack of action in the second trial but I cannot see that much happening in terms of fighting for that trial.
Well, on with Chapter 4.
Chapter 4
The days to the Yule Ball were drawing close and many students were still trying to find dates to go with. Kimimaro was content that the women had stopped asking him to go and started bothering the other champions…why were the females here so troublesome? Switching between one boy and another…then again, many rookie kunoichi were the same.
Sighing, he realised that he only had 5 days until the ball started. He hadn't seen much of his partner Luna much as it seemed she wanted to keep her outfit a surprise from him…Heh, even with how she usually acts, she could be surprisingly different when it came to clothing.
Snapping out of his revere, he watched as millions of owls swooped into the hall. Despite his overall lack of care for any of the trash here, he envied that they had those companions of theirs…perhaps he should go to the alley sometime and look around…
He then watched as many more students came into the great hall, with a majority sending glares at him, particularly the Hufflepuff group he noticed. He wondered why the fools were glaring at him until he realised…they must hold resentment because he was in the tournament and outshining their champion. Shrugging in an uncaring manner, causing the glares to increase, he returned to his breakfast meal. He idly noted that Luna had slid in to sit next to him with a happy smile. Kimimaro raised an eyebrow at her odd behaviour.
"Good morning, Luna-san." He greeted. "How are your preparations for this upcoming event?" He questioned and the girl smiled at him.
"Oh, don't worry, everything is good. I managed to borrow one of mothers dresses…" She trailed off and Kimimaro slightly winced at reminding her of her mother. She then appeared to change her demeanour into happy mode once more.
"So, what about you? Have you bought a suit yet?" Kimimaro absently nodded. Yes, he had managed to secure a purchase of a suitable suit from a local upper class neighbourhood. As he let his eyes wonder, he noticed that the old man, Dumbledore, was looking at him with a frown and slight anger. Raising his eyebrow once more, he turned away and focused more on his conversation with Luna.
Albus was getting irritated. The boy he believed to be Harry was causing him problems, most of which were brought up by the students. At the time, he just dismissed them as mere child rough housing but seeing young Mr. Weasley's arm in such a damaged condition had now forced his hand. He would be addressing the issues with the boy after the second trial of the tournament…but for now, he would have to focus his attention on the suspicious murder of Barty Crouch Jr, who had been masquerading as his dear friend Alastor Moody…and find out where the real Moody was.
Night of the Yule Ball…
Kimimaro sighed as he pulled at his collar. He didn't have any particular fondness for these kinds of outfits but it wouldn't be proper for him or his 'date' if he arrived in his regular attire. He was clad in an all-white suit, even his shoes were white, and with the only difference being the black collared shirt underneath. To complete the look, he had insisted on putting on white gloves to adorn his hands. Finally, he had let his hair flow freely, without the red ornaments, leaving his white hair brushing just past his shoulders. Aside from his favourite lavender tunics, the colour white was amongst his favourites…
After waiting for a while, he heard soft footsteps echo down the common room stairs, gaining his attention. As the figure stepped in the light, Kimimaro's eyes widened.
Luna was standing there dressed in a flowing frilly light blue dress and long white gloves. She had made quite a bit of effort for this, as she had given her hair a slight curl, making some strands stand out. Finally, adorning her head was a headband with a white flower ornament attached on the left side. She squirmed a little under his stare.
"W-well, what do you think?" She questioned as Kimimaro snapped out his daze. He then, very faintly, smiled.
"You look…quite wonderful, Luna-san…" The girl then smiled radiantly at him and proceeded to drag him by the arm, making note of the actual smile appearing on the face of her date.
They really went to great lengths for such a short event. Large circular tables filled to the brim with food and some alcoholic beverages. Hell, there were even ice sculptures of all things…
He felt Luna tugging on him to pay attention to the meaningless speech that the old man was giving. He sighed in agitation, wishing that they could just hurry up and get on with it…
Soon, the ball began, with the four champions and their partners leading the dancing, much to Kimimaro's silent annoyance. He hated being the centre of attention as his line of work required him to be anything but. He also noted that Luna was getting a little tired so, feeling slightly exhausted himself, he guided her over to one of the circular tables.
Kimimaro idly noted the strangely named alcoholic beverages that darted all of the tables. He idly remembered that many shinobi had vices such as this, but not him. His loyalty forbade any form of alcohol consumption…well, except the occasional cup of sake, which he had once a year. That was his one exception. He sighed as he noted that these strangely named beverages had no appeal to him and he idly watched that red haired fool from earlier embarrassing himself by gulping down large amounts of beer and grabbing at the food while his date looked on in disgust. He smirked a little that someone as ill mannered as that pig could ever get a date…and with that ridiculous outfit to boot...the girl must have awful taste in men. Sighing, he pulled out his secret stash of sake that he had prepared just in case and pulled out a small saucer. As he poured the beverage and was about to drink, he saw Luna gazing curiously at the bottle. Shrugging, he decided to offer her some, which got a smile.
"Oh good! I've always wanted to try this but father keeps telling me to wait till I'm older!" She said and accepted the offered cup. Kimimaro smirked in amusement as the girls eyes went wider than usual as the suspected throat burning first shot took place.
"W-well, that was…that was certainly something different…" She admitted. Kimimaro looked at her.
"The first shot is always the strongest, try it once more." She complied a little shakily and was quite stunned that it tasted completely different, and proceeded to drink more. Soon, she began to fidget and murmur in her seat.
Kimimaro watched in concealed amazement as Luna continued to drink the beverage with fervour. God, he hoped she wasn't like Tayuya when she was drunk. Not only was she even more temperamental, she had even socked him with a few black eyes on certain nights. One time he got so irritated by her drunken brawling that he just dropped her down the stairs.
Later that evening…
Kimimaro sighed. He should never have given Luna that drink. He should have seen it sooner. Currently, the girl in question had her arm looped around Kimimaro's neck and was singing to herself while stumbling slightly. After a few moments walking, she leaned into him, surprising him slightly.
"Y-you know (hic) I think that…You." She then prodded Kimimaro's chest a few times. "You…are a very (hic)…attractive man." She said and then laughed merrily, which Kimimaro smiled at slightly. She had a nice laugh…
Wait. Where did that come from? This wasn't like him! Why did he think her laugh was nice? Why did this girl find him attractive? This was confusing…this world was changing him in ways he never would have imagined…He would have to ponder this after.
Soon, Luna had to be carried by Kimimaro bridal style as her stumbling became more frequent. He noted that occasionally she would let out a small giggle in her drunken slumber, which caused a rare laugh to escape his lips. He looked outside a nearby window, seeing a full moon, then looked down at the sleeping Luna and smiled slightly.
"Luna…child of the full moon…how fitting." He remarked as the moon rays shone on the sleeping girl as she snuggled closer.
Kimimaro had entered the common room and carefully walked upstairs to the girl's dorms with Luna in his arms. Upon entering, he located what he presumed was her bed and tried to place her gently on the mattress.
Tried being the keyword as the blonde girl had started to moan a little and cling to his neck. He sighed a little as he was failing to get the girl to let go. Suddenly, to his immense surprise, Luna had sprung up…and kissed him. Fully. With her tongue and everything!
He was too shocked to move as the girl had let go and gave in to slumber. He stood there with wide eyes and a shocked expression, before carefully placing his jacket over her slumbering form. He then proceeded to head to the boy's dorm and lay on his futon, wondering what to do about this damn conundrum…
The next day…
Luna woke up with a killer headache, wondering just what she did last night at the ball. She sat up slowly, noticing she was still in her dress, and prepared to change out of it slowly and get into some regular clothes as it was the weekend.
After taking some painkillers, she headed down into the common room and sat on one of the huge sofa's, while reading a copy of the Quibbler as she went over last nights events in her head.
She got drunk, that was the most memorable thing. Damn sake, it was so good that she kept swigging it. After that it became slightly fuzzy as she remembered being helped back into the common room. Then, the most embarrassing moment was when…
"I…kissed him?" She turned pure scarlet at this as she remembered the rather vivid picture of her attacking Kimimaro with her mouth.
With Kimimaro…
Kimimaro walked down the corridor to reach the library. He had been putting off this study as his preparations for the ball and the first task. He had to research into this 'barrier' that had connected these two different worlds, and hopefully find a way back.
While he honestly didn't mind this world, it offered little for his chosen profession and he didn't belong here. Thus, he would have to go back eventually…
Also, he had almost forgotten but he had to research that blasted screaming egg that some moron had attempted to steal and backfired when it opened up and deafened him. That was quite amusing…maybe he'd take the egg back to the Elemental Nations with him when he decided to return. Looking at the golden egg, he was quite confused as to what he was supposed to do with it. Was he supposed to sneak into the other champion's rooms and deafen them with its foul scream? Or bludgeon them to death with it? This was just a large annoying puzzle…
"Ah…so that is what I must do…" After being confronted by some strange creature with large ears claiming to hold the answer to his problem, he was rather sceptical at best. After heeding the thing's advice, he took a bath and listened to the thing underwater.
Apparently, the task was that something important would be taken from him and he would have to fight hordes of creatures to get it back. The question was…what was important to him in this world? Did he have anything like that?
Shaking his head, he returned to his more important matter…what to do about this 'barrier'. According to the book he stole from the restricted section, this barrier was created by these wizards to seal away the Elemental Nations. Looking at the nations overall, he couldn't help but reluctantly agree with the wizards. Hell, trained soldiers that could wipe you out in the blink of an eye is not something you'd want out in the open. It was much easier to erase it from existence than have them nearby…
He was getting annoyed now. This book wasn't very good in depth about trying to bypass the barrier. He may, just may, have to ask for help from that old trash that abducted him…
Day of the Second trial…
It was quite cold out in the middle of the lake. Many onlookers were openly shivering and even three of the champions were expressing their distaste of this weather, but not Kimimaro.
Shinobi often had to travel lightly to the snow barren reaches of areas like the Land of Snow so many of them had built up a reasonable cold resistance, but this was quite ridiculous in his opinion.
Why did they have to wear swimsuits of all things in weather like this? Sighing, he looked at his own black swim shorts. At least he didn't go with Luna's suggestion at buying a speedo…God, that would have been way too much skin exposure.
As he looked down at the water, he cursed these wizards. Why did these tasks hinder his use of the Shikotsumyaku in different ways. First, he couldn't pierce the dragons hide without using his curse seal, now if he used it here he would most likely sink due to the heaviness the bones gave him. He watched in morbid fascination as Krum transfigured his upper body into that of a shark. Such a thing reminded him idly of Orochimaru's true form…
The girl champion seemed quite annoyed with the lecherous looks she was getting. Well, if you wore such a skimpy swimsuit what did you expect, woman? Sighing at the insanity of women, he looked at his fellow Hogwarts champion who was warming up. Wow…someone was actually going to try this normally.
Looking into the murky depths, he pondered a few solutions to win. The first was to use water walking but seeing as these people wanted a show that was out. Next was swimming normally, which was also out as someone was already going to try it. Hm...
Well, the whistle blew, so with that they were off, with Krum speeding into the lead followed by Kimimaro, then tying for the last place was Cedric and Fleur.
That shark-man trash was definitely fast, there was no doubting that. He couldn't exactly fire off a Tenshi Sendan at him, as the water would slow it down. All he had now was his taijutsu. Don't get him wrong, taijutsu was his forte, but he had come to constantly use his bloodline in everything, as he wanted to make sure it was the strongest. Sighing in agitation, he then spotted what appeared to be a humanoid fish creature with a spear. Again he cursed, he would have likely been able to get a good fight in but because of this water and the surrounding viewers, he couldn't use his more dangerous jutsu in case the onlookers got themselves hurt. He would have to wing this one.
As he gracefully dodged the first spear, the second fish man struck his side, causing a gash to appear. Gritting his teeth, he punched the attacker in the face, sending him reeling into the surrounding coral reefs.
He could see them now…four people were strapped to a rock in the middle. The first was a girl with black hair and a dominant Asian look. The next was a girl with brown hair. Next was that little girl that he had apparently saved from the red head and his stooges. But the final one…
"Luna?" Yes, she was also there in an unconscious state. He had to hurry or she would drown…What kind of sick game was this? Playing with peoples lives? He would be having words and hopefully bone-powered strikes with the trash that dared place one of his friends in danger…
Reaching the rock, he noticed that Krum was trying and failing to gnaw through the rope of the brown haired girl. Sighing, Kimimaro just cut them off with a bone spike, receiving a grateful nod in return from the shark beast, which took the girl with him.
As he waited, it seemed as though the others weren't coming…dammit. More weight to carry for him. Idly summoning a Mizu bunshin, he ordered it to carry the other two girls up to the surface while he took Luna.
It was freezing. He cursed coming out of the water so quickly as he and his clone emerged. The clone had dispelled itself after safely placing the two unconscious girls on the grass. He noticed that Luna started to awaken and she coughed a little as some of the water had gone down her throat. After gaining a quick hold of herself, she looked at him and gasped before shakily pointing at his hip. Looking at where she pointed, he cursed. It seemed that the attack from the fish man was more damaging than he thought. As he sat there in silence, he noted that the other champions had resurfaced and had rushed to their hostages. The female champion, Fleur, seemed quite relieved and was openly crying that her sister had to go through such an ordeal. Narrowing his eyes, Kimimaro turned in anger at the smiling faces of the judges.
"You filthy gutter trash!" He snarled, making everyone look at him in shock. "This was all a game to you? These innocent people could have died and for what? Your entertainment?" He then lowered his head. "To have such a young child suffer through that…" He gestured to Fleur's unconscious sister.
"Disgusting vermin…" He then walked off, with Luna trailing behind him, helping steady him as he stumbled a little. He idly heard the other champions voice their anger as well at the situation. He saw the parents of Fleur yelling quite vocally at the school headmasters for the girl was in a state of shock at the danger that her sister could have perished.
He cursed now. The injury would get infected if he didn't do something. Thinking quickly, he came to a simple realisation and smacked his face. Foolish! How could he forget? He would have to use that technique that Orochimaru taught him…regardless of how disgusting it was.
"Oral Rebirth Technique!" With that, his mouth opened obscenely wide, and from within the mouth, a drool covered hand shot out, followed by Kimimaro's entire body. As he exited his 'skin' he idly noted with amusement that Luna was curiously poking the dead skin with her wand and taking notes on a clipboard. She then told him to take a shower, as the smell was unbearable and his drool was everywhere. Yes, he never liked that technique too much but it got rid of his sustained injury quite well…
Now, he was getting serious, these vermin had endangered someone dear to him. They wouldn't be getting off lightly with this, not a chance…
With Dumbledore…
"What is the matter with you? You knew all too well that the Veela and Mermen have had a rocky history yet you still allowed this?" Fleur's parents yelled at Albus. "You should be thankful that she is unharmed, or we would have pressed charges! Come Fleur, let us go and see Gabrielle." With that, the family had left the office, while Albus slumped in his chair.
He didn't think it would be that violent of a situation. He never thought that the mermen could be quite brutal judging by the large gash that young Kimimaro had suffered. His eyes narrowed at that thought. The boy was strong, no doubt about that, but he was a loose cannon. His seemingly comfortable attitude when it came to harming someone bothered him greatly. When he found Harry Potter, he was expecting a clone of either James or Lily, brave and courageous or smart and kind…but this was never what he expected. He wanted a hero who was compassionate and kind to the people, willing to give a helping hand while still willing to fight for the Light. He sighed, no doubt the boy would be coming up here soon to complain.
As soon as he thought that, his stone gargoyle had smashed through his door and an irritated looking Kimimaro had entered the wreckage. Dumbledore frowned.
"Now, was there a reason for that?" This just made Kimimaro angrier as he stalked up to the desk.
"What kind of sick and twisted trash are you to allow innocent people to be faced with death?" Here Dumbledore sighed. The boy's constant insult of trash was starting to get to him.
"That is Professor Dumbledore to you, and I have actually been meaning to converse with you about your actions during your stay here." Kimimaro still looked angry but calmed himself and leaned against the wall, refusing the offered seat.
"Prior to this event, you have engaged in conflict with Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley, with you attacking them-" He was cut off when Kimimaro cut in.
"I do not know what those vermin have told you but is it wrong for me to act in defence of innocent people and children being bullied?" He queried, then sneered. "But then again, I suppose you would encourage this 'in the name of the Greater Good' correct?" Sadly for Albus, the Delacour family had come back to yell some more and overheard the last snippet.
"What does he mean bullied children? Did someone try to harm little Gabby?" The patriarch snarled angrily at the aging headmaster. Kimimaro looked at him.
"This vermin has allowed his students to harass who I presume is your daughter. Had I not intervened, I dread what those trash would have done to her." The mother glared at Dumbledore, who wilted even further in his seat.
"When this sham of a tournament is over, expect our lawyers to be calling you. Good day." With that, the family left, with Kimimaro following. Before he left, he pulled out a bone sword and turned to Albus.
"Try another stunt like that again…and you'll end up like the last fool who tried to anger me." With that he turned to leave but the door had repaired itself and closed. Sighing tiredly, he turned to the old man, who was frowning at him.
"There is one more matter I feel we should discuss. What is that tattoo on your chest that reeks of dark magic?" He said with trepidation and Kimimaro looked solemnly at the tattoo and fingered over it lovingly as if remembering something long forgotten.
"This…was a gift from my former master." That threw Albus for a loop. The boy considered that dark anchor of the foulest magic a gift? And what was this about a former master? He did not like this. Not one bit.
"…And who might this master of yours be, Harry?" Kimimaro twitched at the annoying use of that name that this man sometimes called him to annoy and anger him. "I must insist that we remove that mark, before it can corrupt you fur-" His sentence was cut off when a Tenshi Sendan was buried next to his head, startling the sleeping Fawkes to wake up. Kimimaro looked at him emotionlessly.
"…This is all I have left of him, I will not allow trash like you to remove this beloved seal despite the risks it poses to my well being." Kimimaro said and then walked out the door, leaving an annoyed Dumbledore behind.
The nerve of that trash! How dare he try to suggest that he should remove the seal! Sure, it was a risk using the seal but it was his last reminder of his former master and nobody would take that away from him. It was his sign of loyalty that earned the mark in the first place so what right did this no name trash have to take that away? Nothing! He stopped his rant.
He was letting his anger control him lately. He could have just given his previous victims a verbal beat down but he drew a line when it came to ridiculing others. It was pointless and a huge waste of time and Kimimaro would only end up kicking their asses that badly that many of his victims would have given up the act rather quickly…He needed to control his emotions more.
Calming down, he proceeded to head to the forbidden forest to blow off unnecessary steam. Yes, the poor inhabitants of the dense dark forest had chills running down their spines…
The next day…
Kimimaro was in a rare good mood. He had a lot of fun hunting those gigantic bugs that reminded him of Kidomaru's spider summons. Now, he was calmly walking down the 5th floor corridor with his textbooks and some other equipment under his arm. One specific book would allow him to find clues as to how one can pass through the seemingly impenetrable barrier.
Of course, if he weren't on awful terms with him, he would have interrogated his kidnappers but that would just place suspicion on him knowing of the barrier in the first place and remove any hope he had of leaving.
Brushing past the greasy potion professor who scowled at him, he reached the huge winding staircase that constantly annoyed him with its twirling and spinning ways…
"Hey! Kimimaro!" he heard a familiar whiny voice. Oh Kami-sama no! Not him! Anyone but him!
Turning around gingerly, he was confronted by a flash of light and, as the light dimmed, he looked down and saw a small mousy looking boy with a camera in his hand looking at him in admiration. Kimimaro's eyebrow twitched violently. This menace had constantly managed to find him one way or the other and he had a sneaking suspicion that the boy, Colin, was a hunter-nin as his tracking abilities were simply insane. Ignoring the midget cameraman, he proceeded down the hall and out into the courtyard, with the boy seemingly blabbing on an on…Thank god he had patience, otherwise this fool would be splattered on the wall courtesy of a bone spike and maybe a few bullets to render his legs useless…damn he was getting sadistic.
As he sat under a tree, and thankfully camera boy went to bother someone else, he took out a canvas and painting materials and began to work. He had been letting his anger control him too much as of late so Luna had suggested that he should find some sort of side activity to calm his mind. Painting allowed him to express himself a lot easier and it had drastically lowered his volatile temper a good deal. He sighed in content, wondering why he never did these things in Otogakure, as this was quite enjoyable. Perhaps this was how many shinobi had stayed sane all the years, such as Tayuya with her music or Kidomaru with his video games…he supposed this was his form of escapism.
"Hello Kimimaro! It's a lovely day isn't it?" Luna had sat next to him as he nodded absently, still focused on painting. Luna had hummed in thought as she continued to watch him paint. He had actually just started to randomly sling the brush wildly to let himself loose and gain a calm mind but he was surprised and shocked by the result of his work.
He had surprisingly painted an image of Luna, sitting under a tree while reading a copy of the Quibbler. Her only difference was a flowing white dress instead of her uniform. He would have thought that his image would have been of Orochimaru…He looked at the girl in question sitting next to him. She seemed pleasantly surprised by his image, judging by the slightly growing redness on her face. She then smiled at him and, for some reason, he couldn't help the small barely noticeable smile crawl on his face.
"You are very good at this…" She commented in her dreamy voice. She then handed him another canvas and asked if he could do another, which he nodded in surprise. He didn't think that she would like it that much that she would want him to continue…
Splashing a visage of colours on the fresh canvas, he began to work, idly noting that Luna had placed her hand over his free one and slightly squeezed. Unknown to him, she smiled happily with bright red cheeks as she looked at the previous artwork.
A week later…
He sat in the library, thinking over what he had just overheard from one of the other headmasters from the other schools. Apparently, the last course of the tournament was to be a search for the cup itself. He cursed them, as they didn't give out any solid information that he could use as his advantage. He wandered around for a while, skipping the pointless History of Magic class.
Oh where could he start with that god-awful excuse for a subject. He had been looking forward to this at first as he thought he would be able to gleam some kind of hints on the world separating barrier and how it operated, but apparently the teacher was quite incompetent. Well, maybe not incompetent in such a word. The ghost teacher had some good insight of the previous wars between Wizards and beasts that had occurred ages ago. That was about the only useful thing he could garner from such a boring class that he just stopped going after a while...
And Divination! Oh don't get him started with that disaster. The senile old bat with huge eyes kept predicting his death in strange and somewhat amusing comical ways (to him anyway). This was a pathetic class and he had no need of such a useless 'Inner eye' and thus left after a few lessons. The future is what you want it to be, not predetermined by fate…
As he walked down the hallway on the 2nd floor, he felt a small hand loop with his. He didn't need to know who it was for she had taken to holding his hand instead of childishly tugging on his sleeve. It was a bold move, he theorised, as many couples he had seen just hugged slightly. He paused there.
Couple? Him and Luna? Yes, they had a rather brilliant relationship with each other compared to the trash that Kimimaro constantly met here but to think of her in that way...was something he had never felt for anyone before. Why was this happening? This was all so confusing…
Luna had noticed his pause and looked up at him in concern. He just waved it off as something else. He had been showing more emotion around her, aside from the anger reserved for trash, than anyone he had ever known in his life. This world was changing him and he had no idea how to feel about it…it was as if something was pricking at his cold dead heart, trying to bring it back to life somehow through means no one had ever tried before. He shook his head, there would be time for this later, and he had to focus on what the third and final trial would be. He then walked down the corridor, with Luna chatting animatedly about strangely named creatures and other bizarre concepts…
Day of the third trial…
Kimimaro was impressed. For the first time, the trash here had finally given him a decent challenge that wouldn't hinder his bloodline limit. As the judges droned on and on, he took note of the course.
A huge garden-like maze darted the huge stadium covered by an ominous mist, obscuring the deepest pits of the dark pathways. This was exciting to him. Finally a decent challenge!
He apparently was to go second, as Krum was currently leading followed by him, Fleur, and finally Cedric who seemed to be having bad luck in this tournament. Looking in concealed excitement, he noted that some movement was prominent in the maze, indicating some hopefully strong opponents like that winged beast he faced in the first trial. Yes, this would be good…
He then heard the sound of a horn being blown and watched as Krum entered the maze at a jogging pace. So that was the starting signal…
About ten minutes later, he heard the horn again and he sprung into the dark hallways of the maze with great anticipation of what he hoped was a good challenge for his Shikotsumyaku…
END OF CHAPTER
Okay, that's it for this chapter! Sorry if it is slightly shorter than the past chapters but I didn't want to jump straight into the third trial.
About the painting scene, I just couldn't resist putting a small fluff in there and I wanted the relationship to progress. You may notice now that Kimimaro is starting to look at Luna a little differently but this will only progress after he can gain a better understanding of what he currently feels about her. Remember that he had a crappy upbringing with a lack of friendly or romantic contact so he only knows of the basics of love and things related because he was taught it briefly when training with Orochimaru.
The next chapter will cover the third trial, the return of Voldemort and other stuff.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and will continue to read the story!
Endogetsu.