Hey everyone been a while I know, writing to let you know that this is the second to last chapter of part one of Naruto: That Which Connects Us I'll be dropping that chapter tomorrow.

Naruto CH71

At the village of Konoha in the office of the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade was lamenting her discussion with the traitor Gakuto Aikawa

"I am a traitor"

Tsunade frowned, barely a week or so into the role and she was already face to face with a traitor, seriously? "explain yourself!"

So he did, telling the story of his life as a traitor, who he was working for, the things he had to do, the intel he leaked, how he'd sabotage perimeter defences, how he had to deliver info to others inside the village at expected locals and to never learn their identity small things that likely helped add up to the big attack on Konoha over a month ago now. He also explained the why, why he did it and Tsunade felt her rage give way to pity and shame at what led him down this path.

Tsunade looked at the medical record of Atsuko Aikawa and sighed. The party by now had been sent out to try to retrieve Sasuke. During that time Gakuto had been taken into holding for the time being and now she had him back in her presence. He sat before her, quiet, head low, the man was practically dripping with shame, shame he'd probably been keeping buried deep inside for years and was only now letting it fully hit him. From what this record stated on the young girl's condition she should be long dead and doctors have countered it as a miracle, she spat at that! What has her villages medical field fallen into without her!? She was ready to tear this record apart with her teeth!

Tsunade looked back at the shame ridden man. She did not know what to do with him. She sighed and scratched her forehead.

"I should be punished! Locked up and have the key thrown away! O-or executed for what I've done!" he buried his head in his hands, shoulders throbbing his voice a muffled quivering mess.

Tsunade felt pity for him but she could not allow pity to be what drives her decision making. She could see clear as day that he is a good man who was dealt a bad hand, she knows all about being dealt bad hands and she also knows Orochimaru has a six sense for knowing when someone is in a bind.

Tsunade made her decision "you will not be arrested"

Gakuto ceased crying as his head snapped back up in shock "w-what?"

"Or executed" she next stated.

Gakuto simply could not believe what he was hearing "b-but that cannot be, I told you I am a traitor! A-and"

"Are you though?"

Gakuto flinched back "e-excuse me?"

"You were a traitor, are you still a traitor?" there wasn't much of a tone that suggested her question needed an answer for it seemed the Hokage already long since had her's.

"Still a traitor? I don't know what to say to that ma'am"

Tsunade leaned forward on her elbows, eyes locked with Gakuto "the way I see it there was a father and husband who was desperate to save his child so much so that he was even willing to make a deal with a demon to do it, why did he do it? Because his villages Doctors failed his daughter, he took the deal not because he was tempted but because the only other choice left to him was to let his daughter die, not much of a choice there really".

Hope seemed to flash into the man's eyes but only for a moment as his face become solemn once again and his head fell "D-don't".

"Hm?" voiced Tsunade with a raised brow

"Don't pardon me"

Tsunade's back straightened and her gaze narrowed "Oh and who are you to decide who I can and cannot pardon?"

"Please Hokage I have got to pay for what I've done!"

A tiny smile peeked through the corner of her mouth "instead of punishing you for it how about you help me fix this problem"

"Fix?" Gakuto sounded confused as if the word was a new concept to him.

Tsunade rose from her desk, stepping around it and leaning back on the front of the desk right next to the trembling and red eyed Gakuto. She smiled at him, the expression between kind and cunning "In your confession to me you highlighted drop off points where you would deliver whatever it is Orochimaru had sent to you to his other spies insides the village, now how about you maintain your role and feed us the intel next time he contacts you, with you maybe we can uncover the other spies and then based on their circumstance well, who knows, but maybe we can unravel his network within the village and perhaps even further beyond. Would that not be a better use of you?"

"M-me? Help you? To bring down Orochimaru?" everything she said clearly sounded ludicrous to him almost like she was asking him to help her in a dream. He began questioning if this whole this was even real and not some cruel illusion that would be ripped away at any moment.

Tsunade nodded "I think this is the best way you can help make up for what you've done, you are not powerless to fix this Gakuto, no one ever needs to know of what you did, I know that there are those out there who could never understand why you did it and you and your family don't need to bear that shame, it will be classified even if you say no" she reached out a hand for him to grasp "are you in?"

Gakuto was on the verge of tears, this time tears of gratitude, his daughter and wife don't need to suffer for what he did and he can even help make amends, he nodded and took her hand "thank you Lady Hokage"

Hiro tilted his head left, then right then a little further right avoiding the testing strikes of Kimimaro's bone blade "so are you just gonna keep playing avenger or are you gonna start making a real attempt to kill me?" Kimimaro frowned and suddenly his thrusts picked up speed, Hiro's eyes widened and with a little "Woah!" leaned his head left before quickly leaning it backwards and avoiding having his skull and jaw made truly separate. Hiro grinned and continued falling back, removing his feet from the ground, landing on a hand and shooting out with a double boot to Kimimaro's head sending him flying off his feet.

Kimimaro was quick to correct himself with a quick somersault as he landed into a crouch, rubbing his jaw. Hiro smirked from his position on the ground, laying on his side before doing a quick spin and turning back up onto his feet in a patronizing style. "Tell me kid, why are you serving him?"

Without clearly no thought he just said "Lord Orochimaru is great"

Hiro's face was a blank canvas to that answer "he really isn't, now give me a real answer"

Kimimaro's eyes averted from Hiro's, he was silent, perhaps he was wondering why to even bother answering someone he planned to slay but regardless of that his firmly clenched jaw did move. "Lord Orochimaru has given me purpose, duty, he values me and my powers he does not cage me like they did"

Hiro nodded to this, a picture forming in his mind "yes your clan, the Kaguya's, if you were born much sooner you'd have been their leader"

Kimimaro's head snapped up to that, a true interest now born of vengeance showing itself in the boy's eyes "what? Me? The head of them?"

"Of course you would have, I know not what happened to change the succession like that, perhaps it was envy or growing superstition that caused them to start viewing your gift as a curse, truly it is tragic how time changes things not always for the better"

"Oh" Kimimaro looked at the extremely collagen and calcium phosphate dense blade in his hand "so this power of mine was supposed to hail me as the true clan leader?"

"Yes, once, long ago"

Kimimaro felt something at knowing this, he couldn't help but imagine how different his life could've been, maybe how different his whole country of birth might have been if this little bit about his clan had remained intact. Kimimaro let out a quiet sigh "well it doesn't matter now, the Kaguya name will end with me"

Hirofumi took a serious step forward "it does not have to, I am sure Orochimaru does not care about you nearly as much as you do him, I once met two others in a similar situation to you and I do not doubt in my mind that your situation is far bleaker and loveless"

Anger washed over Kimimaro's face "you don't know anything about him!" he shouted before rushing forward and violently swinging his blade without care at Hiro who was effortlessly dodging every swing "he's great, brilliant, he's the only person in this world who wanted me! Who needed me and I'll do anything for him even die!"

Hiro's face hardened "this kid, that snake really has his fangs in him doesn't he?" "if that is what you really want then" Hiro turned to the left, avoiding the thrust and jumped far back "I am done being patient, sorry kid I cannot let you live". Hiro did some quick hand signs and pressed his hands to the ground and all around the field, multiple walls of earth shot up seemingly at random.

Kimmimaro's green eyes moved placidly around the field looking at the numerous walls of dardened dirt and rock, a tiny smile of contempt formed on his pale face. "You should really vary your Jutsu if you wish to hurt me, those kicks you landed" he tapped his chin with his bone blade "I barely even felt them"

"Just wait and see what I can do to you with my bare hands and some walls, you'll probably stop being so confident about your hardiness"

"I doubt it" he said before rushing Hiro who quickly began skipping around the field away from him, Hiro was backing into a wall and seemingly remembering exactly where it was jumped right and around just as Kimimaro slashed at him leaving a small scratch in the stone "tough" he briefly thought before kicking off up and over the wall to ambush Hiro. He landed before the man, sides facing the wall as Kimimaro made a go at running his sword through Hiro's head but the ghost seemed to have been a moment ahead of him as suddenly as lightning a fast kick crashed into the side of his head. The initial kick though didn't really bother Kimimaro it was what came a split second after as the other side of his face was met with the sudden stopping power of the wall and everything got fuzzy.

Kimimaro felt blind to everything right now, sight, sound, direction and time all were unknown to him in this moment "w-what is happening to me? I-is this a Genjutsu" Kimimaro couldn't tell if he was speaking or thinking. Suddenly he could hear a ringing, he could see blurry shapes and colours all of which were regaining clarity until he could make out the shirtless form of Hiro who seemed to just be standing there patiently for him to come back around from whatever he did to him.

"You can have bones stronger than steel and ever coat yourself in it as much as you like but whether you like it or not inside you are still just as squishy as the rest of us" he spread his arms out to gesture to all around him "this is my counter to your powers, and what you suffered just now was a concussion, that is when your brain is left rattling around in your skull, hurts doesn't it? can be fatal if you ain't careful, so you see, to me, you're pretty vincible"

Kimimaro breath felt a little ragged "I see, no one has ever thought about that before not even I thought I had a weakness this...simple"

Hirofumi smirked, chuckling a little "not everything requires a plan within a plan and a nine-step execution kid"

The Kaguya glared"I feel you are making fun of me"

Hiro simply smiled innocently

Kimimaro frowned at something that seemed odd "why not capitalize while I was disorientated?"

Hiro huffed, scratching his head "as much as I rationalised killing you my heart is really not in it at the moment, I'm still hoping you're not entirely lost to him"

Kimimaro rose up, a brow slightly cocked as a breeze pushed through his hair "why do you even care?"

Hiro shrugged "I have my reasons to care"

"I will not turn on my master"

Hiro's jaw clenched in growing frustration, the whole length of his bare torso visibly reflecting this for a split second before he pushed it down with an exhale. "I ain't really asking you to turn on him, but do you honestly owe him your whole life!? Have you truly not given him enough back? Do you not desire your own life? Do you not want to be free?"

Kimimaro was still for a moment, he closed his eyes and felt beyond the painkillers fading in his system to the poisonous fire eating at his body and strength before removing his other arm from his sleeve and letting open his curse mark "there is no reason to be free, for this all I have now".

A single tear fell from Hiro's eye and down his cheek "I am sorry to hear you say that"

For the first time in their fight Hiro rushed him, displaying just how fast he was, Kimimaro on instinct threw out a hand, fingers straight and started unleashing a spray of finger bullets at Hiro who zigzagged through them before falling into a slide coming up to the Kaguya's foot before rolling left to avoid getting stabbed and continuing to do so to avoid all the following attempts before kicking out suddenly knocking the blade from his grip following it along with a kick behind his knee bringing him to a sudden kneel. Hiro twirled back up to a stand and Kimimaros disarmed arm sprouted dozens of protrusions that he attempt to use to slash Hiro.

Hirofumi made no effort to avoid them and instead met them halfway grabbing two of them and with feet firmly planted, a pull and twist of his strong core lifted Kimimaro off the ground like someone yanking a huge carrot out of the ground and swung him right back into the same wall he was previously knocked into. This time though not the same, though it still hurt this time he was able to brace himself and summon up some protrusions to help break the impact. He released the protrusions Hiro had a grip of and fell down then jumped right in order to avoid having his head smashed into the wall by a palm strike.

Kimimaro felt his illness flare over the painkillers and stumbled slightly, choking down a cough and expanded his curse markings to help return him back some strength "if the curse marks power ain't enough to defeat him I still have lord Orochimaur's trump card" he thought before deciding to give it his all and commit himself fully to this fight. The marks expanded further merging and beginning to turn brown, his green eyes turning golden, his sclera black. His focus on the transformation was interrupted when an image of Jugo, happy to see him then followed by the scene of him withered and unconscious in a bed, hooked up to multiple life-saving instruments. It now only just struck Kimimaro that Jugo will never him again and he Jugo, Kimimaro did not doubt that today could very well be his last, it was a miracle he lived even this long.

There was a small, tiny part of Kimimaro that didn't previously exist until recently that would honestly prefer it if he didn't die today and weirdly with this thought of Jugo it was getting louder. "Do you not desire your own life?" Kimimaro suddenly heard the man's question echo in his head "Have you honestly not given him enough back?" "do you swear to give your life to me and my ambitions?" Kimimaro heard Orochimaru ask him from long ago "I do" "I am in this very moment fulfilling my promise to Lord Orochimaru" for what other choices now remains for a dying man such as he?

With that doubt buried he completed his shift into his curse state, his skin now a dusty soil brown, some thick marking around his eyes and multiple protrusions coming from his back with the biggest addition being that of a thick muscular tail.

"Guess you're really staying on this course then" Kimimaro answered that with a sudden single bullet that shot out faster than any before it and Hiro barely avoiding it going through his eye and escaping with only a graze to his cheek that leaked an invisible film of chakra before stopping. "This form of yours might actually be trouble" Kimimaro lifted up both hands, tips protruding bone "oh shit" was all he said before the hale of finger fire began. He ducked and weaved where he could receiving small grazes for his effort, he ran behind his walls when he could think for a small moment but the bullets were powerful enough to rip through them in seconds, Hiro noticed Kimimaro's lost bone sword and snatched it from the ground "finally, a weapon! Or in this case a shield" he used the sword to deflect the bullets as he rushed Kimimaro.

Every parry reverberated up his arm and he took notice of the quickly wearing edges of the blade "so even his former blades strength is barely holding up against this newly acquired power of his". Hiro zigzagged to try and keep out of the line of fire but Kimimaro was not making it easy and Hiro was only about to get another three or so deflections out the bone blade before it snapped barely leaving a handle left. "congrats Kimimaro you've pushed me this far" Hiro's eyes in less time than it would take to blink shifted red and bloomed three tomoe, the worlds clarity grew and time seemed to slow allowing Hiro to see a solution to his problem. With his newly enhanced reflexes he threw the handle to an incoming bullet, throwing it off course and into another and the handle continued on into another knocking it off course which knocked others of course and so and so forth allowing Hiro enough space and time to rush in, picking up enough speed to slide the rest of the way under the gunfire.

When Kimimaro realised what happened he attempted to redirect his fire to Hiro but a flawlessly timed scissor kick to his hands made Kimimaro fire harmlessly at the ground around him before following up with a third double boot that day to the Kaguya's jaw but this time harder than ever sending him flying up off his feet. The Curse Bearer looked down and saw Hiro turn 180 degrees, grab his tail with one hand while the other lagged behind doing something unseen, when his hand caught up and got a firm grip of his tail Hiro slammed his right foot down! he seemed to firmly anchor himself, becoming stuck to the ground and without holding anything back brought Kimimaro back to earth face first!

The dirt, the loose soil, felt like hitting a steel wall for Kimimaro at that moment! Everything was pain and fuzziness, he could feel it now, the shire stopping power of the floor and everything bouncing around inside of him. He honestly thinks that if not for the curse power toughening up his ill body he'd be dead right this moment. So simple a tactic to pierce his once thought impervious body yet so very ruthlessly effective.

Hiro stood behind the crumpled form of Kimimaro as he struggled to get up, coughing, only natural after having the wind knocked out of you like that but then the coughing continued then worsened as his shoulders violently convulsed "hmm?". Hiro walked around and was greeted to the sight of an unnatural amount of blood being coughed out onto the grass, the blood stopped but the intake and exhales of breaths that followed were rough to listen to and the curse power his body was coated in was attempting to recede.

Pity filled Hiro at the sight of this young lad "how long have you had it? And have you honestly been fighting me this whole time in that state?"

Another rough cough followed by the spitting up of blood and salvia "I think...nearly six months now and yes I have" a small smile curved his blood speckled lips "does it wound you to know you've been fighting a deadman?"

"Admittedly I little bit" Hiro was silent for a moment "this is your last fight isn't it? your last mission for him, this is you giving your life for him" Kimimaro's stare and silence confirmed it for him "what if I told you that I know what you have?"

Kimimaro's eyes widened his little smug grin falling away "im-impossible, not even Kabuto or Lord Orochimaru knows (cough!) what is wrong with me!"

"Trust me when I say that there is a lot that I know that they don't!" Hirofumi sighed "you have something called Bone Marrow Rot"

"Bone Marrow Rot?"

Hirofumi started walking in a steady circle around the down teen, hands in his pockets, ponytail flapping in the breeze "yes, that being its modern name, previously it was called Bone Sickness or Bone Death, it's something that popped up in the Kaguya clan long ago, killed many, it also seemed to become hereditary as well, your bone marrow is literally being attacked, resulting in you producing useless blood and useless blood means a dying body, at least that is how I understand it"

Kimimaro looked to his skin and the bones protruding from his flesh, his stare like one accusing treachery "Is that what is killing me? My own blood?".

"Yes, not even your ancestors, those that had the bone pulse were immune so there is no reason to assume you would be as well" Hirofumi stroked his chin "now what if I told you that I know how to cure it"

Kimimaro's head snapped up "r-really?" he almost kicked himself for sounding eager.

"Yep, your fellow clansmen found a cure for it long ago, once it's completely cured it never comes back and I'll tell you what it is under one condition of course"

Kimimaro frowned, he felt he knew the condition.

"Leave Orochimaru" he said, his voice nearly pleading "start a new somewhere else, make a life for yourself"

Kimimaro was silent, this was it, a way out from under Orochimaru, is what he imagined anyone else in his situation would think, today he had a different perspective on his situation literally beaten into him by this man but despite all that, his heart didn't agree. "am I really so hopeless, Am I really so empty that he is all I have? All I wish to live for? If so then..." "no, I refuse to leave him".

Hirofumi took a deep breath "you are breaking my heart kid!" almost without any build-up he stomped Kimimaro's head into the ground with a body shivering slam. Hiro was forced to jump back when a bone came shooting up out of the ground, then another and several more making him skip back twenty-odd meters. Kimimaro stumbled up to his feet, shaking off the wooziness, the illness clearly quickly robbing him of his strength faster than predicted.

"I am gonna have to use it" he said to himself before pulling out a slip of black paper, he slapped it on his chest and white marks appeared on it before the colours inverted and white burned away leaving a new black marking superimposed over his curse seal.

Hiro watched as Kimimaro shivered like he was being revitalised like all the fatigue had its edge removed but then something occurred which had Hiro's stomach sink. Suddenly a golden aura flared around Kimimaro an all too familiar one, one that grew what seemed to be a pair of massive bunny-like ears and a single bushy tail.

Hiro frowned for the first time in abject anger "it can't be" the ghost sighed as he took this as a sign of what he had feared "what did it cost?" Kimimaro starred at him, perhaps not understanding the question "how many lives did he waste in order to open that book?".

Kimimaro expression sank ever so little "I don't know, but I think I and one other were the last"

"You? And another?"

"The other being the subject in which curse marks are based on, his material being the heart of every one of them"

"I see, I can understand how your combined efforts might've done it in the end" Hiro turned back to Kimimaro, his stare like a freezing tundra "the sight of you wearing that angers me greater than I could've imagined, please tell me that is the only one?"

"what the fuck is this?" yelled Kiba, looking out at the remaining 5 super Nins or whatever, each of them now wearing what looked like Naruto's chakra cloaks! Kiba now had bruises all over his face, blood running down his lips and clutching an injured Akamaru. Choji was down, having used all three of his family's sacred pills to take out two of these amped-up nin's while Shino had them distracted. They were now faster, stronger, their Jutsu's packing more power. Really Lee was probably all that was keeping them at bay but Kiba was unsure on how long Lee could keep it up for and now they had a man down that they needed to protect.

"Shit!" was all Kiba could say.

"You bitch!" screamed Sakura as she punched through the tree that Tayuya was at a moment ago, her ashen face growing paler from what might be her mind showing her what her face might have been if she was even a second slower to run!

Though her foul attitude was quick to return all the same "who do you think you're calling a bitch you cunt!"

Veins throbbed on Sakura's forehead "you, you thieving bitch!"

"What did I steal!?" Tayuya gestured to the golden cloak surrounding her body "this? I didn't steal this, I barely even know what this is! My boss forced me to take it and try it out!"

Sakura pointed violently at the redhead "I don't care what your excuse is! Give it back to Naruto it ain't yours to use!"

Tayuya went dead quiet as he body shivered before she exploded into an anger-fueled rant "fuck you! You pink bitch, I'll do whatever the fuck I want with this golden whatever it is! I don't care if it's your friends, your boyfriends, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, mothers or whoever's it is it's mine now and I'll do what I want with it!"

Sakura glared daggers at that "I'll make you sorry that you ever met me"

The venom could be felt in the air between these two now "same here"

Shikamaru was just silent throughout, wishing he could just go home, he even debated sitting the whole match out since those two now seemed to really have it out for each other, they probably wouldn't even notice him missing.

Neji was on his last knee, staring down the barrel of death, he almost had him at one point, a grip on a thread that should have killed him but his fake chakra cloak seemed to allow him enough protection to avoid a fatal wound. Kidomaru was still injured sure but also functional enough to fight and drawback a kill shot. Neji had nothing left in the tank to fight with.

Kidomaru drew back, a small bloody grin crossing his face "farewell Hyuga" and unfurled and with a noise that sounded like it could break the sound barrier the arrow was released, blowing leaves up from off the ground, shaking ferns and plant life with its passing and making the air whine in what almost seemed like pain. Seconds before it could reach him Neji closed his eyes, closing his Byakugan and awaited his end. He heard the boom before he felt the pain, with such speed and force along with no way to defend himself it will have likely gone through him like a needle through wet paper.

"Neji! Are you still alive, please! Answer me!"

Neji's eyes snapped open and he was greeted with the teary sight of Hinata, clearly distressed by the bloody mess that was him right now. "w-what are you doing here, it has only been a few-!"

"I heard Sasuke had disappeared and that you and everyone had gone out to find him I couldn't just stay behind and do nothing so, oh my god look at you!" she said shivering with a hand to her mouth as she really looked at him "we need to get you back!". Her panic turned to alertness as she snapped around into a guarding position, ready to fight as Kidomaru appeared up high in some trees panting.

He looked angry and fed up "oh great another one of you! Screw this I am out of here!" he declared before turning and shooting off.

"Is he really?" asked Neji, right now lacking the strength to call upon his Byuakugan again.

"Hinata nodded "yeah, but let's not wait to find out, ok?" Neji grunted in agreement as he worked with Hinata to get himself back on his feet "was it just me or did that power look a lot like...Naruto's"

If Hiro still had blood he was sure it'd be boiling over right now, so much of Naruto's hard work was robbed from him and now in the hands of those less deserving but he supposes that Orochimaru's real gift, sticky fingers, such a multi-talented Parasite sucking the strength from others and usings others hard-earned might for his own ends.

Kimimaro felt frozen in place, he could feel the rage and murder in the air around him, wafting of this man like the heat from an unseen furnace. It felt like it was saying that if he took one wrong step now he'd be dead before his mind could realise.

SNAP!

That sudden noise made every sense Kimimaro has flare with alarm causing him to lock eyes with Hiro for but a second and he felt the world around him begin to W~A~R~P. The bone manipulator was quick to break it with a quick stab to his leg but when it was over he noticed Hiro was nowhere to be seen. Two things happened, Kimimaro heard what sounded like shifting earth and then felt pain like never before coming from his right knee causing him to fall down and choke down what may have been an ear-piercing cry. He looked to his knee, pulling his trouser leg and saw that it was dislocated.

"You can't shield your joints, how else would you move?" said Hiro as he crawled out of the dirt like a corpse from its grave, his eyes glowing an ominous red from behind his freshly freed hair.

Kimimaro gritted his teeth and shot out a hand that fired a sudden finger bullet. There was a sound of contact as Hiro's head snapped back, he stumbled clumsily back until he stopped dead, arched limply back before slowly righting himself up with his head lagging behind showing the finger bullet caught between his molars to the shocked audience of Kimimaro. Hiro spat it out to the side and rubbed his teeth with his tongue "I think that chipped a tooth"

"H-how? How is that even-" the ghost rushed the stunned Kimimaro, yanking his arm into a position to dislocate his elbow joint with a crunch "arrgh!" was all the noise Kimimaro made, still managing to hold back the worst of it as he swiped at Hiro with his still active tail which wasn't even close to getting him. Suddenly, despite the added fuel of the Kyubbi Chakra the power of his curse mark began to leave him "w-what? why?" he uttered to himself as he saw it all receding.

Hiro began to circle the teen, eyes harsh, patience thin, frustration on full display "I don't see why you are willing to give up a second chance at life for that user, he sent you! a dying boy on a suicide mission rather than take care of you and pursue a cure for your ailment!" he yelled, hands rapidly gesturing at him

Kimimaro felt compelled to defend his Lords honour "he sent me here because he trusts me!"

Hirofumi laughed with contempt at that "he sent you here because you have, in his eyes! become expendable, he's a user!"

Kimimaro clenched his jaw and fist, his eyes heating up "he's a great man!".

Hirofumi leaned in close to Kimimaro's face, zero worries of being attacked and spoke steady and clear "he's a fucking parasite! A leach! A vampire he's nothing great or beautiful he's ugly inside and out but mostly inside! He really has you fooled and convinced that you are helping him work towards something meaningful, that his life and his betterment is the best thing you could be using your life for". Hiro suddenly snapped back up, his eyes holding a realised glint, before he chuckled to himself like he was the biggest fool that had ever walked this earth "I can't believe I only just now realised it, I am betting back when you were a healthier boy he told you he'd make you his next vessel".

Kimimaro's face fell, his eyes steadily watering as his form slumped "yes, he did and it made me so happy when he told me that he wanted my body to be his next vessel but then" he clenched a fist, his eyes staring angrily at the unseen killer inside his bones "then this happened and now I ain't good for anything!"

Hiro sighed, his eyes holding a kingdom's worth of pity for a lost soul "you poor foolish lad, he groomed you so...masterfully".

"N-no he-"

"YES HE DID!" Hiro snapped, sick to death with this boys delusions "stop lying to yourself that his intentions were any nobler than getting what he wanted from you...you were his perfect vessel not because you were special but because you lack identity and on top of that you are packing power, much like Sasuke you have something he doesn't, something he could never have under any other circumstance and I am not about to let you hand over that power by curing you, if you really have nothing to live for in this life apart from him then I will let you perish here under my watch".

Kimimaro's breath was ragged now, his heart thumping in his head "he is great, he can do great things for this world!"

Hiro shrugged with little care "he could do but he doesn't want to, he doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself and his pursuit for immortality".

Kimimaro held up an arm, the golden aura around it bellowing "look at me! I am wielding the power of tailed beast because of him!" he said with wide awing eyes.

Hirofumi snuffed at that, his eyes brimming with disgust! "no you are not! you are wearing the power of Naruto Uzumaki! If you were wielding the power of a real tailed beast right now you would be writhing on the ground in agony as your chakra coils slowly dissolved and your body burned from the inside, you are alive because of that boy's hard work not because Orochimaru decided to make sure it was safe for you and others, he does not care! He does not care whether you come back all he wants is Sasuke, you know this!".

"I-I...do" he admitted falling low "but I do not care, he is all I care about, without him, without his orders, without his approval I am nothing! There is nothing to live for without him"

"ok, I understand" said Hirofumi, head low, defeat in his voice "lay back I'll make it quick then"

Kimimaro nodded in defeat, he had no strength left, no will to fight after having his whole reason for existing torn to shreds layer by layer "I am done" he thought as he laid on his back and starred up to the sky and saw Hiro looming over him as a ghostly silver aura arose around him and from it started to construct a golem of Chakra. Translucent bones wrapped in silver sinew that brandished a straight double-edged blade that it hovered over Kimimaro. "Death comes for me" he thought with a stranger serenity as he closed his eyes.

Behind closed lids, his life played and he saw only himself, alone for the longest time, unwanted, unneeded until one day he was pulled out to fight in something that he knew nothing of and then survived but was yet again alone. Then there was that flower, that white silent flower amongst the fog, he hated how it ignored him. Orochimaru found him and took him in, gave him purpose made him do all sorts of things that, well served to better his life and further his research with the ultimate reward being the surrender of his body to him, was that all he was really worth in the end? "I've served no greater use to anyone other than Orochimaru, I fulfilled my promise to him and with that I am satisfied"

That thought, that acceptance of a debt fulfilled removed something from Kimimaro, a weight, like a thousand chains left him all at once bringing with it the flashings of what almost feels like a whole other life. Young him finding a small cave within staying a man more cursed than even himself, taking that man in and vowing to be his warden, this worlds protector against him to be his friend and intern he...his. Warmth filled Kimimaro at realizing that he did do some good, however little in this life and then sadness at realizing that was now coming to an end.

Hirofumi ordered his Susanoo to heft the massive blade up before brings it down

"I'm sorry Jugo" whispered Kimimaro to himself

BWHOOOOO!

Kimimaro's eye snapped open to see the massive blade's tip hovering inches from his throat.

"What did you just say? Sorry Ju-go? Last time I checked that was not Orochimaru's name" Kimimaro did not say anything "is this Jugo someone you would be willing to live for?"

Kimimaro searched his heart for that answer and nodded steadily

"Is he someone you would be willing to leave Orochimaru for?"

Kimimaro closed his eyes and searched, deep, he felt his duty, his adoration and loyalty to Orochimaru not gone but maybe now succeeded by his care and fondness for Jugo, his friend, his one true friend. Kimimaro smiled "yes, I think he is, on the brink of death I found my second life".

Hirofumi smiled "good and I believe you have" his eyes glowed and the world shifted and suddenly Kimimaro found himself not on his back but his knees, his cursed state still active, his joints not dislocated, he was fine.

"How? I broke your Genjutsu?"

Hiro gestured to his eyes, his tomoe having in fact become Magtama "the eyes you starred into were not regular Sharingan, unlike most mine change more subtly"

Kimimaro nodded "I've heard the stories, I suppose the Genjutsu those eyes cast can be complicated to get out of once caught"

"They can be especially to the unexpecting" Hiro clapped his hands together "now the cure to your ailment I'll transfer into your head via a Genjutsu" not waiting for confirmation Hiro's eyes glowed red, Kimimaro tensed and fell unconscious "he'll be out for a minute or two" thought Hirofumi before his pleased expression darkened as he looked to the Horizon where Sasuke and Naruto had run too "now to go put another lost boy back on the right path"

Chapter End

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