Another chapter is here!

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Kimimaro's body was breaking down. His heart threatened to give out with every passing second, and probably would have already if not for a cocktail of drugs that kept his adrenaline high and numbed the pain that came from his illness. His cells were being eroded from the inside-out due to the invasive chakra of the jinchuuriki, only to be regenerated thanks to properties of the natural energy coursing through the Cursed Seal that Lord Orochimaru bestowed upon him.

But they wouldn't last. They were only temporary measures to keep his ailing body moving, borrowed time at best. It would run out and then he would die, the flames of life snuffed out like a candle.

Knowing that, he rose to his feet and stared down the jinchuuriki sporting three tails now. The boy's cloak was bubbling on the inside, a violent maelstrom of corrupted chakra that steamed the air and blighted the land. To pierce it, he would have to use the densest weapon in his arsenal.

The moment that the jinchuuriki tensed, he sunk himself into the nearest bone and became one with his surroundings. In that state, he was aware of everything that went on in his domain, the forest of bones with their roots deep within the earth. Safe from the chakra claws that caused the ivory spire he'd taken refuge in to wither away, after he shunted himself into a different one, Kimimaro crafted a lance of the densest bone that he could from his palm, spiraling it around to compact as much mass as he could into as little space as possible.

Then he jettisoned himself towards the backside of the younger shinobi, a streaking blur of grey and white. The point of his lance speared through empty space as, in a mere instant, the jinchuuriki speared its tails into the ground and used them to rise above his joust, bringing his chakra arms down and expanding them as he raked the ground. They nearly caught the bone-user in a pass until he lashed his tail against the ground to change directions and sink into another osseous tree, moments before the jinchuuriki made contact with it in chase.

Surging through the forest of bones, he compelled them to sprout. Bony branches emerged, turning every spire surrounding the jinchuuriki into a wall of spear-length thorns upon which Kimimaro intended to skewer him. All at once they shifted to point towards their intended target and fired down.

It was a rain of white death. An attack from all angles that would leave no escape, no matter how fast the opposition was. Composed of bones dense enough that even the cloak shouldn't be able to waste them away on contact, they would turn Naruto into a pincushion.

Yet, all it took was a single roar to make it worthless. Backed by the increased chakra reserves, the bestial roar became an expanding shockwave of sound and air that served as a physical object. It scattered the rotted earth, toppled the ivory spires, and sent the raining spears astray from the jinchuuriki sitting at the bottom of the crater that formed, shifting his head back and forth in search of his foe…

Then the feral instincts screamed of an impending attack. The boy's tails lashed out towards the threat coming from behind. They ended up smashing ones of the toppled bone spires that had been launched towards him.

That was when Kimimaro erupted from the ground and impaled him from below, through the stomach with the lance forged on his arm. The closeness of the cloak to his body left him feeling as though he was standing next to a fire, but he bore with it to spin around. Carrying the jinchuuriki on the neck of the lance, he slammed the tip into the ground and staked Naruto into place as the boy screamed in agony.

Kimimaro backed away after separating his arm from the weapon, leaving Naruto impaled and pinned to the ground. It looked to be over as Naruto raked at the lance as with his claws to no immediate avail. But it wouldn't last for long; signs of bone rot were already setting in around the wound that frothed.

There was no getting around it. The boy was too dangerous to be left alive, more so if he could sprout another tail and become even stronger. Compared to bringing in the other two, the loss of the jinchuuriki was acceptable since it would also hamper the Leaf village. No matter how resilient his healing factor, taking off his head would be the end of it.

Kimimaro raised his hand, a sliver of ivory emerging from his palm as a long blade to decapitate the boy. Then a familiar pulsing sense of pain flared throughout his body. A vicious cough forced blood up through his throat and out of his mouth as it made his heart ache, dropping him to a knee.

Not yet, he thought desperately as he tried to keep it in check. The exertion and exposure to the tailed beast's chakra had strained the reserves of the Cursed Seal and drugs. I have to finish this quickly—!

His thoughts froze abruptly as a wet sound accompanied a hot lance of pain that shot through his chest. His eyes fell down to see that the end of a chakra tail had punched through his body from the rear, having extended from the cloak into the ground and then tunneled to take him from behind. Strength fled his body as his lungs stilled, leaving him unable to support himself as the tail whipped itself and tossed his body aside like a rag doll.

He came to a stop on the ground, unable to breathe as his ruined lungs failed to function. The transformation of the Cursed Seal wore off, melting away to leave nothing but his pale body. The gaping hole in his torso didn't bleed, but instead a dark and cancerous blemish spread out from the wound.

Not that he could feel it. Or feel anything really. In an instant after the pain, even before he'd been flung, a cold numbness spread across his body that was devoid of strength. Straining to stay awake, he could do nothing but lament his failure as the jinchuuriki finished freeing himself and then lunged for him with a chakra arm raised, forming into sharpened claws with serrated points.

As his death neared, time seemed to slow and stretch. It was torture to Kimimaro, unable to do anything as the thought of dying without being able to repay the debt he felt he owed Orochimaru for all he'd done haunted him. He could only curse the jinchuuriki with his final thoughts as the claws descended.

Then there was nothing.

[-oOo-]

"Damn it!" Karin said, her voice strained as she worked the kunai into the dirt and used it as a makeshift spade. The moment that Naruto let loose that roar, they had been tossed due to the displaced air and force. It was only by some miracle they had managed not to end up crushed entirely by the towering spires that came tumbling down.

However, Anko's left forearm was wedged beneath one and the ground, and was broken at the very least. It was too big for Karin to lift, but if she could create enough space between them then Anko could slip it out. Of course, it'd be easier to focus on the task at hand if not for what she felt what was transpiring elsewhere.

"How bad is it with him?" Anko asked in the wake of the swearing and a distant crashing sound. "He had three tails when he caught us in that roar, didn't he? Can you feel if he's still in control?"

"The Sound shinobi is dead now, but…" Karin bit her lower lip, leaning forward and scrunching her brows up as she kept digging. Naruto's chakra was slowly growing more and more faint. It was being swallowed up by the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra and buried within the hatred, like a salt cube being eroded in sea.

Anko seemed to pick up at least how serious the situation was from her silence. "Can he be saved?"

"If I can wrap a chain around him then I might be able to suppress the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra long enough for him to take control," she said as she hurriedly shoveled the kunai into the dirt. "But the longer this takes, the worse it'll get. If it goes too far…"

Anko sighed. "Go then. I can free myself from here."

"I'll be right back!" Karin promised as she passed back the kunai, jumped to her feet, and darted towards Naruto. He needed her more at the moment. She wove through the field of discarded spear-like protrusions and crossed the crater that had been formed towards where she sensed the bone-user's chakra be snuffed out.

Karin almost vomited when she arrived. The air had gone putrid and hot, worse than even the foulest locations she had come across in her life. She held her hand over her mouth and clenched her throat to force the bile rising up back down, along with the scream of horror as she stared at what had become of Naruto.

He'd gone feral, hammering the chakra arms against all that was left of his opponent's body—a stew of rotted and battered meat, roaring in fury. The Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra kept swelling, even with the threat gone. If it continued to do so, his own sun-tinged chakra would be swallowed whole entirely.

She gathered the remaining chakra that she had and tried to form the Chakra Chains again. Midway, she faltered as the limitations of the day were reached. The length of chain that dangled from her right hand was little more than a pathetically short whip, but it was solid enough that it could be used if she got close.

This is going to hurt, she thought to herself as the muscles in her legs tensed to move. That bubbling cloak was like seething lava that wrapped him, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to handle maintaining contact with it for long. But there was no other way to help him right now, so if that meant a little pain she'd endure it.

That in mind, Karin swallowed her hesitation and threw herself towards the maelstrom of malevolent chakra. It was oppressive, battering at her flesh and mind as the air grew hotter the closer she got. She wrapped the chain around her forearm and placed it in front of her to try and see if it had any effect, but nothing changed and wouldn't unless she made contact with the cloak.

"Naruto!" she called out as he continued to pound at the spot where the bone-user had died. "Calm down!"

The pounding stopped as he turned towards her. His eyes were now completely red like dying stars, sections of his skin peeling off to expose the muscle beneath the surface. The tails began to shift and close in around her, perceiving her as a threat to snuff out like the one before.

Karin barely managed to get away from the first one with a graze to her side, and that felt like it had burned her there. The second one tried to sweep her away, but she narrowly avoided it by flinging herself forward and onto the ground. That left the third to try and crush her, forcing Karin to bring her arm with the chain wrapped around it in defense. It popped on contact with the chain, unraveling and pulling back before reforming itself.

"It's me!" She called out to him again. This time she felt his chakra respond within the maelstrom. "It's Karin!"

The tails that were getting ready to attack her again stilled. "G-Get… away…" The two chakras signatures began to fluctuate now as he tried to regain control. He brought his hand to his head and curled into himself, the cloak's rampant bubbling slowing down. "Hard…to… control…"

"I can help you!" She ran forward while the tails were under control, closing the distance to where she felt like she was burning alive. She ignored the pain as she felt his control waver. "Just hang on a little longer!"

"S-Stop!" The chakra itself slinked out to stop her. It lashed out in the form of writhing tendrils, despite Naruto's efforts to suppress it. "Stay back!"

Karin unfurled the length of chain from around her arm and used it as a whip to strike down the acrid tendrils where she could as they stood in her path. Contact with the small tendrils was enough to make the chakra composing them disperse. But the numbers were too great as they struck her body in retaliation and seared where they touched, flesh and clothes alike.

"Ahhh!" She couldn't keep her voice in check as the pain mounted with the lashes. Each spot blossomed with pain that sank deep and took root. One even struck her across the face and knocked her glasses off, breaking the lenses and denying her the ability to see without them.

But Karin could still perceive it all with her Mind's Eye, allowing her to make out Naruto still struggling to regain control and keeping it from doing worse. That drove her to keep pressing ahead. She wasn't going to let him lose himself to the fox sealed inside of him, not when he went that far to save them.

Pushing through the pain until he was finally within reach, she lunged for him. There was a flare of unholy agony as the boiling cloak of chakra withstood the chain's attempt at suppressing it on mere contact. But she managed to guide the chain around him and pulled it with her other hand, successfully forming a loop around his stomach and sealing off the source from where it all bubbled up.

The Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra was sealed away once more, leaving Naruto to collapse unconscious.

Karin fell right next to him, in enough pain that tears were leaving her eyes with every agonizing breath. The corrosive nature of the chakra was worming its way into her body, and if she didn't act fast it would become poison that rotted her body away. So she brought her trembling arm to her mouth and sank her teeth into her own burned flesh, the skin crunching with a sickening sound that made her stomach churn.

The Healing Bite's effect kicked in. It was enough to purge the invasive chakra from her body and reduce the severity of the burns, but that was the third time she'd been bitten tonight. There just wasn't enough chakra saturating her body to do more than that, nor in her reserves at all, leaving her weak and wanting nothing more than to pass out.

But she couldn't afford to now. Not when three chakra signatures that she recognized came into her range. The pursuers from before hadn't given up. Even with all the distance Byakko put between them, they managed to cover enough ground that they'd be there soon enough.

Karin forced her body to move. With trembling arms, she grabbed Naruto and began to drag him towards Anko's signature. They had to get away before they were set upon again and taken to Kabuto.

[-oOo-]

The pained groan that left Anko's mouth turned into a heavy sigh as she wrenched her arm free through the furrow that she managed to finish digging around it. The awkward angle and distorted flesh made it abundantly clear that it was broken. "Today has not been my day."

Anko winced as a spike of pain rippled through her as she made a splint for it, and then rose to her feet. She'd need to get it looked at back at the village, but first she had to find her charge and the boy. So she set out to find them by following the trail of destruction left behind, and couldn't help but feel horrified when she did.

The younger kunoichi stood trembling, her clothes ruined and torn to reveal mild chakra-burns all over her body. Her glasses were nowhere to be found as she tried pulling Naruto along with her, likely unable to even see in front of her face. The boy looked as bad, with bits of his skin peeled off, and was unconscious.

Anko ran over in time as Karin's legs gave out and gently lowered them to the ground. "Hey, are you okay?"

"We…have to… go," she muttered, eyes half-lidded as she tried to rise. Her arms couldn't even support her own weight and gave out, leaving her to whimper. "The others… coming…"

"Others?" Tension ran up Anko's spine at that as she registered what the girl meant. "You mean the ones that had been chasing us before? How far away are they from us?"

"Two…minutes…" Karin's body twitched slightly and she groaned in pain. The burns were taking their toll on her it seemed. She was in no condition to fight, and the boy was unconscious.

Anko's mind raced. Those Sound shinobi were already strong enough to push them to their limits before, and with only two out of five taken care of it still left them at a disadvantage. And that was before she factored in the protecting the kids and her own injuries, which left only one real option for her to take.

She had to get them out of there. Even if she didn't like the thought of having to fend off three more Cursed Seal-users on her own, it was better than allowing the pair to end up in the midst of anyone affiliated with Orochimaru. She wouldn't be much of an aspiring teacher if she was willing to throw them to the wolves just to save herself after all.

Enduring the pain as she made the necessary hand-seals, Anko slammed her hand onto the ground. The mole-snake appeared once more in response to her summoning. It drew close and loomed over her in attention.

"Did you get the last one to the village?" she asked. When the serpent bobbed its head, she reached up with her good hand and ran her fingers along its head. "Good. Now can you do me one final favor and get these two to the village in your stomach?"

The mole-snake shifted its body along the ground and peered at pair of Uzumaki, before turning back to its summoner and flicking its tongue.

"I know that you only like taking one person at a time because it hurts your stomach to fit more in there, but this is an emergency." Anko repositioned Karin so that she was against Naruto. The girl whimpered in pain, but didn't fight her on it. "They should be small enough to fit if they stay close, so do it for me. Okay?"

It hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

"Thanks." The older kunoichi then turned her attention to Karin. "This is going to be very uncomfortable and will probably hurt like hell considering the state of your body, but don't move and hold onto him in there as tight as you can. When you do get to the village, tell the Hokage everything. Understand?"

"Y…es…" Karin moved her arms around Naruto's unconscious form and held him tight against her body. Then she closed her eyes as the snake's maw opened wide and swallowed them both whole. Moments later, both of them were inside of the serpent's belly as it sank into the earth, speeding off underground towards safety.

That left Anko alone with the whistling night breeze that sifted through the remaining ivory spires that made up the forest of bones. Despite knowing the odds of the battle to come, she felt relief spread throughout her body. Those two had the potential to do so much good for the village that it would be a shame if it was snuffed out now. Even if Anko ended up being caught or killed, knowing she'd secured their future was good enough for now.

That being said, she had no intention of going down without a fight. She moved with hurried steps, using the remaining minute she had as a head-start to hide in a dense portion of the osseous trees. Then she reached for her remaining kunai with her good hand, stood up straight, and sharpened her senses in anticipation.

If they wanted her, Anko was going to make them work for it.