Opening - D-Tecnolife by Uverworld
The northernmost of Orochimaru's hideouts in the Land of Rice was also one of the largest, and one of the few that stood above the ground rather than below it. Here, Orochimaru had carried out the majority of his experiments with his Cursed Seals, and here was where the majority of the survivors still resided.
Of those, five shinobi and two kunoichi were standing in front of the only entrance to the base. They didn't know why they'd been assigned by the Otokage to guard duty in front of an isolated base occupied solely by unsympathetic, cold ninjas who each were empowered with a Cursed Seal in either its first or second stage of evolution. They were, however, about to find out.
There were four shinobi approaching the base at a leisurely pace, all armed, and none of them were familiar faces.
The one in front was a young teenager, perhaps fifteen years old with spiky black hair that reached almost to his waist. His eyes were almost but not quite as dark as his hair, a very deep grey hue. His clothes were also dark; he wore a charcoal-grey cloak of a material that looked tough and heavy, over a short-sleeved black shirt and a pair of loose black pants with a set of dark metal shinguards over them. The only trace of vibrant color on his body was the insignia of a red and white fan, subtly displayed as a small mark on the right side of his cloak's collar.
Shortly behind him was a somewhat older, bespectacled girl who looked to be around sixteen, with her vibrant red hair tied back in a high ponytail that spiked outward somewhat, as it fell down her back to just above her shoulder blades. She wore a jacket of soft black leather that oddly had sleeves that only reached her elbows, over a formfitting long-sleeved pale pink shirt that was lined with mesh armor. She also wore slim, dark red shorts that reached her knees and black boots with metal shinguards. Over her shoulders, a pair of curved sword hilts were noticeably visible, and they were made of a polished, off-white material.
Next to her stood the most imposing figure, a boy of perhaps seventeen years with white hair that lightly brushed his shoulders. He was wearing a set of white hakama pants, and the entire upper half of his body except his head was covered in plate armor made of the same white material as the girl's swords, incredibly hard and dense bone. There was a circular hole in the armor on each of his shoulders, and his right forearm was encased in a colossal swirling lance of bone. He also carried a large, kite-shaped shield on his left arm, again made of his own bones.
Fourth and final, there was a young man at the back of the group in an unadorned black robe with deep grey lining. His hair and eyes were also black, and he wore his long hair tied behind his back, along with a Konoha forehead protector in pristine condition, without so much as a single scratch on it. Without his Sharingan, and with the red clouds on his robe erased by a midnight-black dye, the fearsome Itachi Uchiha could actually pass for someone ordinary if he set his mind to it.
"...Who the hell are you kids?" One of the Oto-nin asked bluntly.
"Does it matter?" one of the kunoichi answered before the younger ninjas could. "They're here, and we're guarding this place. Our job is to cut 'em up, and if we don't... Kami know what Kabuto will do..." she drew a kunai from her pouch, and activated the first stage of her seal. "Be useful for once, you idiots. Help me kill these brats."
Sasuke flicked open his cloak, and pulled out his shashka while activating his own seal. The Oto-nin hesitated, and Sasuke pointed his blade at the kunoichi. "None of us have anything to gain by killing you, so if you get out of our way right now, you won't be harmed. Turn to your left or right, and run away." He gave off a violent surge of killing intent, and his sword lit up with lightning that screeched piercingly before settling down into a quieter chirping sound.
"Hell no!" The woman lunged and aimed her kunai to pierce Sasuke's heart, but the younger ninja caught the tip of her weapon on the side of his sword. The Chidori surging throughout his blade electrified her own, numbing her hand and shocking her into releasing the kunai. It thumped into the ground lightly, and Sasuke stepped forward.
Karin drew the twin cutlasses from her back. They were just over twenty-five inches long, significantly shorter than the black one Sasuke recalled Naruto using. "I've got this; you guys can just stay out of the way."
"Oh?" Kimimaro looked at Karin's hands as she stepped forward. "You're not even bothering to make shadow clones this time?"
"Why waste the energy?" she answered lightly. "Sure, I get most of it back when my clones dispel, but these chumps are gonna run away soon anyway. Isn't that right?" she addressed the Oto-nin ahead of her. "What are you all waiting for? Go ahead, run!" she grinned, and two of the shinobi took a step back. "Maybe you need a little more convincing..." she sprinted forward, targeting the only ninja opposing them who carried a sword. It was a katana, with a leather-lined hilt worn out from frequent use.
The Oto-nin stood his ground and drew the blade, swiping at Karin with it. She deflected the hit with one cutlass while stabbing forward with the other, but her opponent dodged. He stepped back and slashed at her horizontally with more force. She stepped backward, then forward again with her left sword raised to stab him. He dodged to the left but she followed through with a slash from her right sword, cutting open his left bicep.
His next swing with the katana faltered noticeably as he favored his injured arm, allowing Karin to block the strike from cutting into the side of her head. She swung her right-hand cutlass again, but this time the Oto-nin dodged straight backward and settled into a one-handed stance. Karin caught his next overhead swing with both of her cutlasses crossed, then shoved him back while pulling her blades across each other.
There.
She slashed open the front of his chest digonally with her left sword, then cut horizontally across him with her right and followed through with that motion by spinning and swinging her left sword at him backhandedly. When she came to a stop facing him again, her movements accelerated and she dealt blows to him more quickly and recklessly, since at this point his sword had slipped from his right hand, landing in the dirt behind him.
"Twenty-two." the man fell, with exactly twenty-two gashes across the front of his body. Some were shallow, but others were much deeper. "Twenty-two cuts in seven seconds. That's an average of just over three cuts per second." she glanced around at the remaining six Oto-nin. "You guys seem really surprised that I took him down. I guess that means he had you convinced he was a skilled swordsman... Maybe the six of you would do a little better if you all rushed me at once? But then you'd have to deal with Kimimaro, Sasuke, and Itachi... hm..."
The survivors turned and ran away, leaving Karin to flick blood from both of her swords before smoothly returning them to the dark brown scabbards on her back. "Told ya. Orochimaru always made sure to have loyalty in his soldiers, even if he had to get it through fear. Kabuto just doesn't give a crap about whether people want to follow him or not. Sooner or later, he'll change that attitude, but right now his ninja are more scared of us than him."
"Something isn't quite right, though," Kimimaro shook his head. "You heard what they said. They were assigned to guard this place. That usually doesn't happen... did Kabuto know we would come here?"
"Of course he did," Sasuke stepped forward, "because he knows by now that you're alive, Kimimaro. It's obvious that you would come here at some point to retrieve Juugo. But what can he really do to stop us?"
Kimimaro nodded in agreement. "You're right... even if Kabuto is here in person... no, especially if he is. We'll force aside anyone in our way, or cut them to pieces. Whichever is quicker. I won't wait any longer to see my friend again!"
He blurred forward with a Pulse Step, smashing open the doors of the base with his shield. He stopped there, allowing the Uchiha brothers and Karin to catch up. "Sasuke," Itachi spoke up as they arrived, "I'm going to follow behind your team without getting involved unless you need me. This way, you'll experience the battle as if I wasn't there, and become stronger for it. At the same time, if Kabuto actually is here, I can quickly come to your aid against him."
"Fine by me." Sasuke activated his Sharingan, searching for chakra signatures in the oddly dark hall ahead of them. "There are three ninja hiding up ahead, and they each have the second stage of their seals already active."
Karin drew one of her swords again. "Just three? Then stay back here while Kimimaro and I deal with them."
"...Hn?"
The two of them ran forward into the dark, with Kimimaro in front holding up his shield. Karin reached into the pouch behind her back with her free hand, pulling out and throwing a small, round white bomb that gave off green light and sparks as it hit the ground ahead of them. She drew her second sword and caught up to Kimimaro, already watching the first moves of the three exposed Oto-nin.
"Ironwood Dance," Kimimaro intoned in the dim green light, pushing his shield aside to stab forward with his lance. The Oto-nin attempted to catch the lance, but failed miserably and was impaled by it instead.
"Ivy Dance!" Karin called, chaining together a flurry of slashing attacks with both of her swords before her target could think of a way to defend himself. She had named the first of her advanced kenjutsu combos in the style of Kimimaro's moves, honoring him for teaching her to wield her twin swords.
Both of them then turned to face the third Oto-nin, who clapped his hands together in a seal as they approached. He opened his mouth and let a vivid orange fireball roar forth toward Karin, but Kimimaro stepped into the path of the jutsu and caught it on his shield without slowing down. The Oto-nin retreated into the shadows beyond the range of Karin's green flare, and Kimimaro stopped with his shield up.
"Kagura Shingan!" Karin's eyes briefly flashed a vibrant blue, then returned to their normal crimson color with no apparent changes. With her sensory ability active, she spotted the Oto-nin hiding in the darkness while making more hand seals. She charged headlong toward him, dodging diagonally forward past the next jutsu that he launched, this time a Fire Dragon Bullet.
Kimimaro's eyes widened as the fire construct opened its jaws and snarled before striking his shield. He stabbed past his own defense with his lance, then swept his weapon out the side of the dragon's mouth to disrupt its form into loose flames that quickly winked out in midair.
Meanwhile Karin stabbed directly into the Oto-nin's chest with her right cutlass before punching him with the guard of her left, pushing him off of her blade. She crossed her extended arms and laid each of her cutlass blades on her opponent's shoulders. For a moment, his eyes went wide with horror. She brought the blades across each other somewhat like scissors, and his head tumbled away in the darkness.
Panting lightly, she flicked her swords clean again. "Clear!"
Still standing next to Itachi, Sasuke clapped his hands together in the Tiger seal. "Phoenix Flower Jutsu." He sprayed small fireballs down the hall, letting them stick to the walls in various places and fill the air with a warm orange glow.
Kimimaro caught up to Karin, now wielding a lance and shield that were both singed and stained black with soot. "You've gotten skilled with those swords, Karin."
"Yeah, well I had a kickass teacher," she tapped her left sword against one of the bone plates on his shoulder.
"You can't give me credit for it," he replied. "All I did was teach you the Camellia Dance and make a weapon for you to use it with. You were the one who developed it into your own style, and you were the one who had the idea to use two blades for it at once. You should be proud of your own accomplishments. In fact," he added after a moment, "your style doesn't even look anything like the Camellia Dance at all now. It originally used fast, chaotic stabbing moves, but your style is mostly focused on broad slashing moves. It's all your own creativity."
Karin smiled faintly, and slipped her blades back into place behind her. "I really wasn't fishing for compliments, ya know... but thanks anyway. When you're not too busy being a badass, you're a real softie, Kimimaro." she activated her Kagura Shingan again, glancing around the now-lit hall. "Wait... that can't be..."
"What is it?" Kimimaro asked, slightly worried.
"I'm not seeing any more chakra signatures in the whole compound... Just one, up there," she pointed to a spot on the ceiling. "Three floors up, there's a big guy sitting alone in the corner of a room. I can tell by the way he's sitting there, that he isn't in a chair or anything."
"Juugo," Kimimaro breathed.
"That's my guess too," Karin answered, "But where did everyone else go? We've only ran into ten enemy ninja so far, and everyone else in the building seems to be gone..."
"Maybe Kabuto took the rest of them away as soldiers? An army of ninja equipped with two-stage Cursed Seals..."
"Maybe," Karin agreed, "But if that's the case, why leave ten ninja here with Juugo?"
"The obvious first guess is that Kabuto anticipated our arrival, and wanted to leave an ambush here for us," Sasuke noted as he approached. "But after what we did to Oto itself, he wouldn't want to risk many shinobi in an attempt to stop us. He probably knows it wouldn't work anyway. As for Juugo, everything I've heard about him suggests that he's too volatile to use as a weapon, and Kabuto already has the formula for the Cursed Seal from his body. His only options would be to kill Juugo or leave him here. I don't see why he chose to spare him, but we're lucky he did."
"Then let's go. We should get Juugo out of here and leave as quickly as possible," Kimimaro murmured. "Something about this whole situation makes me uneasy."
"Right," Karin nodded.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted simply, and followed both of them. Itachi silently trailed behind the three with his Sharingan active.
X
"A woman? Or a man? Definitely a woman... no, a man. If the next person who opens that door is a man, I'll kill him."
Juugo's eyes widened slightly with surprise and excitement, as he heard the iron door of his room creaking outward. He looked up, and split his face with a broad, psychotic grin.
Looking back at him with wide eyes was a white-haired young man.
He laughed madly and scrambled forward, lunging toward Kimimaro before he was even standing. "It's time to kill!"
"Juugo, wait!" the man shouted back, and caught his first senjutsu-enhanced punch on the white shield he carried. "Stop it! It's me, Kimimaro!"
"Kimimaro, huh?" Juugo laughed as he peered over the top of the shield. "It sounds like it should ring a bell, but I don't care! Just die!"
"What the hell's going on!?" Kimimaro exclaimed, catching a few more of Juugo's blows. "He's never been like this before," he called to Karin and Sasuke, "I've always been able to calm him down instantly; something's wrong!"
"What should we do?" Karin called back.
"Just stay back for now," Kimimaro answered and shoved his friend away with his shield, simultaneously activating the first stage of his Cursed Seal of Earth. Juugo transformed his right forearm into a large axe before charging at Kimimaro again with an insane cackle. "Damn it, Juugo! Don't you remember me!?"
"What does it matter?" Juugo laughed, cleaving into the center of Kimimaro's shield with a swing of his new axe. "Even if we were friends or something, it doesn't change anything! Killing is what I do!"
"That's not true!" Kimimaro detached the shield from his left arm, then swung his lance at Juugo. The side of the massive weapon struck Juugo's head, sending him flying. However, the lance had no edges, and Juugo was able to climb back to his feet easily and charge at Kimimaro again. "You always told me the opposite, Juugo. You always believed that killing was something you were forced to do!"
"That's pretty funny!" Juugo laughed. "Yeah, keep saying funny stuff like that, even while I kill you!" He swung his axe ferally, and Kimimaro sidestepped past the blade. He swung the blunt length of his lance as he moved past Juugo, smashing it into his friend's back. Juugo was thrown forward by the force of the blow, but he then simply scrambled back to his feet and kept moving in that direction, raising his axe as he sprinted at Karin.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" she shouted with her hands in a cross-shaped seal, creating five exact copies of herself. The first jumped between the real Karin and Juugo's axe, catching it with her own body and stopping it before dispelling. Juugo peered through the white smoke curiously, until a black-booted foot shot out of it and into his face, breaking his nose and knocking him back. The second clone landed in a crouch where Juugo had been standing.
"Kimimaro, I know this guy is your friend, but we're better off just knocking him out until we can get him under control!" Karin retreated away from Juugo, who still seemed overjoyed rather than angry about his bleeding nose. She noted with surprise that it had already set itself back into place as if she'd never broken it.
"You're right," Kimimaro agreed quickly, and the tip of his lance smoothed down to a round, blunt point while a new shield grew over his left arm. "But I don't understand why this is happening! I've always been able to easily calm him down before..." without saying anything further, Kimimaro used a Pulse Step to appear directly in front of Juugo, slamming the edge of his shield into the senjutsu wielder's chest. Juugo tumbled backward again, still laughing, but he fell silent as he smashed into a wall and kept going straight through it.
Kimimaro peered into the dark hole in the wall, slightly impressed by his own strength, then his eyes widened briefly as Juugo stepped out of the darkness. His entire body had now changed into a deep brown, stony color, and the axe on his hand was gone. Both of his arms were now enlarged to a monstrous size, with odd hollow tubes extending from the backs of his elbows.
"Okay..." he growled, "I don't find this fun anymore... you should've died already!" he charged, and blue light and flame surged out of the tubes on his arm. He roared, swinging his fists one after the other at Kimimaro. The bone wielder dodged the first blow and blocked the second, wincing as the impact struck his shield. Juugo didn't slow down; he kept throwing wild punches at Kimimaro until his shield began to crack and his arm thrummed with dull pain from the impacts.
At that point, a renewed grin broke out across Juugo's face, and he put all of his power behind one more right jab that would shatter Kimimaro's shield and likely crush the arm behind it. Through the intense blue flares shooting out of Juugo's right elbow, Kimimaro saw this attack for the threat it was. He dodged backward as quickly as he could while raising his lance. He pointed its tip directly at Juugo's knuckles, and the punch connected a moment later.
Kimimaro's lance crunched as Juugo punched into it, shattering first the blunt tip of the weapon before gradually smashing further through it. When his fist had obliterated a third of the lance, however, it came to a stop against the jagged, sharp remains of the bone weapon. Juugo pulled his hand back, and blinked at the splashes of his blood over the end of the broken lance.
The deep gashes that covered his hand healed in a matter of seconds, but while that happened Kimimaro swung his shield again, this time backhanding Juugo with it, and the deranged Sage stumbled backward in a daze. The shield collapsed apart into a dozen useless pieces of bone, and at the same time the remains of Kimimaro's lance crumbled into much smaller fragments.
Now with both of his arms exposed, Kimimaro flexed his hands into fists and back again while checking for any damage to the sleeves and gauntlets of bone armor he still wore. Warily keeping his distance from Juugo, he repaired a few small cracks in the armor before growing a new shield and lance.
"Stop running away so I can break you!" Juugo roared in frustration, but his eyes went wide as Kimimaro did exactly that, appearing before him with a Pulse Step.
He raised his shield and let the tip of his lance touch the ground as he crouched in a defensive stance. "I hope you can forgive me, Juugo... I'm going to hurt you quite badly in a moment." He drew back his lance arm slowly, and the blunt tip of the weapon grated along the floor.
Juugo snarled, and blurred forward at a speed comparable to the Body Flicker or Pulse Step. He again threw all of his weight and strength behind a single punch at Kimimaro's shield, and this time the Kaguya let his friend's punch connect. He was pushed back as his shield cracked and Juugo's fist pushed through to the armor underneath. Kimimaro's eyes narrowed slightly as the pieces of the shield fell downward, leaving only open air between the two friends.
Kimimaro's entire body tensed, and he stabbed forward with the blunted lance. His attack struck the dead center of Juugo's chest, and he shouted as he kept pushing forward, cracking a few of the orange-haired boy's ribs and throwing him backward again. Juugo smashed into a wall for the second time, but this time he had the misfortune of hitting a stronger point in the wall that was reinforced by a perpendicular wall between the two rooms beyond it. The wall crunched as his body bored into it, and he fell forward a moment later, limply collapsing on the floor.
Kimimaro panted, and withdrew the markings of the first stage of his Cursed Seal which were hidden under his armor. "It's over," he sighed while turning to face the others, "He's unconscious. How should we restrain him?"
He felt something thump into the right side of his back with significant force, and he stumbled forward. What...? The adrenaline pumping through his body initially prevented him from feeling pain, but he looked down and saw a straight, double-edged blade sticking out the front of his chest. It had sliced through his armor and flesh like paper, and that alone was enough for him to recognize the weapon as the Sword of Kusanagi.
Rather than feeling shock or concern for himself, his entire psyche thrummed with a single emotion, anger. "Kabu...to..."
The familiar easy chuckle of the silver-haired Otokage sounded throughout the hall. "Forgive me for laughing... I just can't help but find it funny that I have to do this a second time." The blade in his chest retracted backward at an incredible pace, leaving him with a hole in his torso that gushed blood through the armor. He fell backward, and as his head hit the ground he glanced upward toward Kabuto.
His nemesis was currently dressed in an Akatsuki robe, and at his side stood Orochimaru under a loose, black hooded cloak that was adorned with only a single red cloud on the right shoulder. "Juugo did well, don't you agree? It took me days to figure out how to induce a scenario like this, but fortunately I found a genjutsu that would do the trick. After that, I had to tweak it to account for Juugo's unique and powerful chakra... I admit I'm disappointed that he only tired you out, and not your whole team, but it certainly wasn't a wasted effort either."
"...Bastard," Kimimaro growled, and felt the odd tickling sensation of a drop of liquid running along his cheek. Blood, he guessed correctly.
"Now then." Kabuto clapped his hands once. "I'm here for Kimimaro's body, and also your chakra, Karin." he gestured to the red-haired girl who was staring back at him with clenched fists. "Itachi, your presence here is a bit problematic, but I do have a Sannin on my side, so perhaps we could talk this out and save time and effort. You and Sasuke can walk away for now, since I'm not ready to take the Sharingan yet. But Karin," he reached toward her casually, almost as if inviting her to step forward, "You'll have to come with me."
"Stay away... from Karin." Kimimaro was finding it hard to breathe, much less talk, but he managed to choke out those four words.
A line of blood trickled between Karin's right index and middle fingers; her palm was bleeding from how hard she was squeezing her hands into fists. Kabuto noted this, and also how her entire body was visibly trembling. Her gaze had fallen away from his, and now she was watching blood trickle out of Kimimaro's wound and onto the floor.
"Karin," Kabuto purred, "Rest assured that the experiments won't be lethal. I imagine they won't be particularly painful, either. I simply need to analyze the composition of your special chakra, and take a series of samples. With that, I should be able to replicate the chakra molding patterns unique to the Uzumaki Clan within my own body. I'll assign you as the new warden of the southern hideout; I'm sure you'll do well there. How does that sound?"
"Kabuto." She looked up into his eyes with a cold glare, and a drop of blood fell from her fingers to the cold floor. She stepped forward, and Kabuto began to realize something was wrong when he was hit with killing intent comparable to Orochimaru in a foul mood. "If you want this 'special chakra' so badly..." she raised her hands together in the clone seal, then raised her voice to a crazed roar, "Let's see if I can give it to you! Bastard!"
The hall was suddenly filled with shadow clones, each of whom shouted and ran toward Kabuto while raising two bone swords. Kabuto sighed with relief, but also with a condescending tone in his voice as he extended the Sword of Kusanagi to cleave through all of the clones at once. "Karin... I'm truly disappointed if that's the best idea you have."
His eyes went wide, however, when he realized that the real Karin was no longer in his field of vision. What!? He turned and looked over his shoulder, spotting the real Karin behind him with both of her swords descending toward his head. He whirled and cut through both blades with his Kusanagi while they were still high above Karin's head, and she snarled before tossing the weapons aside and punching him in the face. She wasn't very strong physically, but her aim was true and she broke someone's nose for the second time that day.
She screamed furiously, stripping her throat as she did, and aimed her left fist at Kabuto's throat. The older boy dodged to the side with a Pulse Step, eyes wide. Orochimaru moved toward Karin subtly, but Kabuto stopped him with a wave of his hand while he simultaneously dodged a third punch from Karin. "No, deal with the Uchihas!" he ordered. "Leave her to me!"
Orochimaru hesitated before nodding and vanishing with a Pulse Step of his own, placing himself in front of Sasuke and Itachi. He clasped his hands together in the Ram seal, pulling them from his loose sleeves in the process. Two sets of crimson eyes went wide at the sight of them; the hands were mechanical and looked to be made of a dull brown ceramic.
Meanwhile, Kabuto retreated a considerable distance away from Karin and shivered slightly. The hall now felt deathly cold to him, and he knew it was because of Karin's killing intent. His hands were shaking, clammy and cold, and his grip on the Kusanagi's hilt was tight enough to whiten his knuckles. He kept his eyes locked on hers, those wide scarlet eyes filled with fury and hate.
"Karin-"
"Shut up!" She shrieked hatefully, and her eyes flashed blue for a moment as she gathered her exceptionally potent chakra, building it up to the point where it became visible as a faint blue-green haze around her. Kabuto knew what she was doing; he knew it without needing to recall ever seeing it before. He knew, because this was exactly the intended result of the experiments he had been planning. However, faced with it in this uncontrolled environment, he found himself more afraid than he'd ever been before.
The first silver chain shot directly out of Karin's right palm, just below the small self-inflicted cut from her fingernail. It speared forward through the air and aimed itself at Kabuto's heart. He reacted by moving the Kusanagi between himself and the spearhead at the end of the chain, aligning its edge with the tip of her own blade.
Rather than slicing through the chain as he expected, however, the Kusanagi merely gave off a metallic ringing sound as it caught the blow and deflected it. Kabuto's eyes went wide as the chain's trajectory changed and it tangled itself around his jian rapidly. Karin made a fist, and the weapon was yanked out of his hand and tossed aside.
"Chains... is this what you wanted from me? Chakra chains?" She stalked forward slowly, and against his will he found himself taking a step backward, then another. "I wonder... how many of them can I make?"
Chains shot outward from behind her back, too many of them for Kabuto to count in the heat of the moment. They pierced the walls, floor and ceiling before stabbing back into the hall again and shooting across to the opposite surface, repeating this process for a few seconds. Kabuto moved to retreat from the approaching chains, but before he could, he heard stone cracking and chains rattling behind him. He spun, and gaped in horror at the crisscrossing chakra chains that obstructed his only path to safety.
Meanwhile, the chains coming from Karin's direction continued to approach gradually, mercilessly, tauntingly. He turned back to face her and quickly searched for a way out. By the time he found one, the chains reached him and pierced through his body in dozens of places. They went taut and lifted him into the air, pulling on his limbs and even twisting his torso agonizingly, trying to rip him apart completely.
He opened his mouth, and Karin's face was split by a dark grin as she awaited his scream. Instead, a renewed body grew out of the old Kabuto's mouth, and he wormed his way through the chains to safety using the lower body of an emerald-green snake.
Kabuto's attention was drawn by the sound of the base partly collapsing as Itachi's skeletal Susanoo ripped through it mercilessly. He glanced in that direction, and also saw a Sasuke spitting a series of fireballs shaped into dragons' heads at Orochimaru, who was slithering away from the destructive attacks carefully rather than attacking. The younger Uchiha had released the second stage of his seal, with his cloak now pushed back between his enormous bladed wings.
"You little bastard, look back over here!" Karin commanded, and made two fists. The chains that wormed in and out of the hall like stitches then went taut, ripping countless chunks out of the stone walls, floor and ceiling. The chains vaporized as the rubble kicked up a cloud of dust, and she activated her Kagura Shingan while sprinting forward through the concealing dark grey cloud.
Kabuto was unable to see her through the dust, but he could hear her footsteps and he knew instinctively that if she reached him, he would die. Knowing that, he followed those same instincts and turned away from her to use his Pulse Step, fleeing as fast as he could. He stopped for a brief moment in front of Orochimaru and hissed, "We're retreating," before he resumed fleeing from the bloodthirsty Uzumaki.
As Kabuto vanished again, Orochimaru cast a withering glare at Sasuke and Itachi, although he was careful to avoid looking directly at their active Sharingan. "...Tch," he gritted his teeth, then followed Kabuto with his own Pulse Step. Sooner or later, I'll take one of those eyes. Even if I never break free of Kabuto's control, I will fulfill my goal.
Karin emerged from the cloud of dust, panting and casting her glaring eyes around what remained of the hallway. She gasped audibly when she spotted Kimimaro laying just past where the floor had been ripped away by Itachi's Susanoo. A few fragments of the ceiling above had also fallen onto him, and were now resting against his bone armor while the sunlight was shining unobstructed onto him.
"Kimimaro!" she called frantically, and ran to his side as fast as her legs would carry her. Damn it, please don't let me be too late... She dropped to her knees a short distance away from him, skidding to his side. "Kimimaro, can you hear me!?"
The bone wielder drew in a breath as best he could, and rasped, "...Yeah, Karin."
"Oh, thank Kami." with her heart pounding in her throat, she rolled up the sleeve of her pink shirt and thrust her wrist in front of his mouth. "Bite me. Don't ask any questions, just do it."
"...Karin..."
"I said no questions! Do it or you're gonna die!" she snapped. "You have to do it hard enough to draw blood, so bite me as hard as you can, okay!?"
Kimimaro remained silent, and for a moment Karin's eyes went wide, fearing the worst. Then, he opened his mouth and lifted his head weakly. She helped him by lowering her wrist in between his teeth, and he looked up at her before hesitantly biting down on her arm.
The reaction was instant; both of them sharply drew in a breath as their bodies were rapidly, almost violently filled with energy. That energy brought with it a feeling that was neither pain nor pleasure, simply intensity that drew a loud moan from both of them.
A moment later, it was over, and Karin fell on her back next to him, panting in time with him. "Kami... that feeling gets... weirder every time," she gasped. "Kimimaro... are you...?"
"I'm okay," he panted back. "What... what was that?"
"Uzumaki kekkei genkai," she replied, "I call it the Healing Bite." she sat up, still out of breath, and added, "I can only use it... once a day, so... don't get stabbed again."
He sat up next to her, and a drop of her blood fell from his lower lip onto his lap. "Karin... you're bleeding?"
"Idiot... of course I'm bleeding. You bit me. I told you to draw blood." he glanced down at her wrist where the wound was quickly healing, but he also noted that there were dozens of older bite marks on her arm. Following his gaze, she gingerly rubbed the fresh wound, since it was itching as it healed over. "You're... wondering about the others," she guessed, then gulped and fell silent for a moment as she caught her breath.
"Karin... did Orochimaru force you to use this ability?" he asked slowly, horrified at his own deduction.
"He wasn't the only one conducting the experiment. I wanted to know how it worked, how to control it. I thought if I mastered it, I could use it at will to save people. Well... that's how it started, at least."
"And then?" Kimimaro pressed.
She hesitated. "Then... I found out what I wanted to know, and I decided to stop experimenting." she lifted up her shirt to expose countless more bite marks on her hips and belly. "He decided not to."
"Karin... I'm so sorry."
"Don't be." she tapped one of the bite marks on her belly. "I'm not ashamed of these. Each one of these marks represents a person whose life I saved. Even if I wasn't the one who actually decided to use it, I still saved them. Of course, I'd be lying if I said I didn't hate Orochimaru's guts for forcing me into that position..." she cut herself off, remembering just who she was talking to. "...Forget I said that."
"I can't," Kimimaro replied immediately, and she was startled to see him clenching his fists. "Why... why would he do something like that to you? Even if it's Orochimaru-sama... something like that is completely unforgivable. It can't be justified... but at the same time, I can't make myself feel angry at him for it. There's something wrong with that, Karin. There's something wrong with me."
She pulled him into a hug, which greatly surprised him. "Kimimaro... just don't get hurt like that again!" she ordered him, covering up her shaky voice with false anger. "I almost didn't make it in time, ya know! Next time we might not be so lucky, so promise me... promise me there'll never be a next time!"
"I..." he hesitated, and silence hung heavy in the air for a few drawn-out moments. Finally, he spoke up, "I can't promise I'll never get injured again, Karin. But I can promise that I won't let myself get hurt this badly. Not if it makes you feel this way." gently, he pushed himself away from her just enough to see the tears in her eyes. "I'll never do that to you."
Karin sniffled. "You..." she smiled, and slapped his right arm halfheartedly. "You can be such a sappy idiot sometimes." she looked up and spotted Juugo who was still unconscious, whether because of Kimimaro's attacks or the sealing tag that Itachi had placed on the boy's forehead at some point. "We've got your friend, and we're all still alive, so let's just get out of here."
"Hold on a moment," Itachi spoke up. "There's one more thing." All eyes turned to where he held up a kunai with an edge wet with blood. "I managed to hit Orochimaru with this during the fight," he announced. "In theory, this should be what we need to unlock the Ryuuchi Cave scroll."
Karin rubbed her eyes. "That's... that's great!" she exclaimed. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's open it up!"
Sasuke nodded, and pulled a small scroll from his pouch under his cloak. He unfurled it to reveal two storage seals. Each was filled with a much larger scroll, the first of which was handwritten by Sasuke himself and filled with copies of documents from Oto's library, mostly fire and lightning jutsu. The second, however, was the scroll filled with unspecified information about Ryuuchi Cave.
He unsealed it and handed it to Itachi without hesitation, who wiped the blade in his hand onto the blood seal. The fuinjutsu wrapping around the middle of the scroll glowed white for a moment before vanishing, oddly with a clicking sound. He handed the unlocked scroll back to Sasuke. "I thought you'd want to do the honors, little brother."
"Hn," Sasuke inclined his head with a slight nod as he took the scroll and unfurled it. His face was split by an uncharacteristic broad smile, as he crouched and laid the scroll over the floor. "Jiraiya was right." on it was a large, carefully drawn map showing Ryuuchi Cave and the layout of the surrounding area. Next to it, there was a wide section of the scroll filled with finely printed kanji. "There is a summon clan in the Land of Iron after all."
X
Next time on Sasuke Gaiden...
"Now perish with a clap of thunder."
The World Serpent - May 30, 2014
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