Kimimaro could feel his chakra increasing as his body became stronger and more robust with the three tails chakra cloak wrapped around him, cloaking him in the bubbling thick red chakra that had now become visible to the naked eye.
"Amazing... This power. Show me more!" Tachi yelled as he watched Kimimaro become consumed by it before he let loose a powerful roar.
"That's it, show me your true power!" Tachi yelled as he leapt into the air, allowing bones to sprout out around his body in almost every direction.
Kimimaro dropped onto all fours glaring at Tachi as he leapt into the air, rushing towards him to attack head on.
The two of them clashed with both of their bones clashing and breaking against one another's hard shell, proving that neither of them could be killed so easily. However, Kimimaro had the advantage with such an increase in chakra, his strength had multiplied more than ten times allowing him to hit Tachi with a powerful chakra cloak punch, sending him flying through the air.
Tachi winched at the power behind Kimimaro's strike, feeling that it had cracked his exoskeleton shell and damaged him badly.
"So much power..." Tachi said, recovering in the air and flipping to his feet.
"Aarghhhhh!!" Kimimaro roared again, suddenly appearing behind Tachi as he got ready to deliver another powerful strike.
Tachi allowed his bones to suddenly shoot out of his back with force, hitting Kimimaro but failing to pierce his skin thanks to the chakra cloak.
"Such a powerful defence," Tachi said as he watched another of Kimimaro's punches smash into his face, knocking him to the ground with a powerful blast.
Kimimaro also landed on the ground on all fours, having lost full control of himself to the three tails. His eyes had turned red and the chakra around him grew more furious, forcing the bones in his body to continue growing, slowly taking the form of the three-tailed skeleton around his body.
"A true monster..." Tachi said as he stood back up, revelling that the force of Kimimaro's punch had broken the bone armour around his face.
"Arghh!!!" Kimimaro roared, running along the ground towards Tachi, who simply stood still and watched.
"I won't let you kill me so easily boy! You had better have more than that if you wish to defeat me!"
Meanwhile... Inside of Kimimaro's mind...
Kimimaro sat in a cold and wet dark place, not knowing where he was or what was happening right now.
"Where am I..." He asked, trying to allow his eyes to adjust to the dark.
"We can defeat him..." A voice suddenly said, causing Kimimaro to turn around to try and see.
"Who said that?" He asked, waiting for the voice to speak again.
"If you use my power, we can win." The voice said again, this time coming into the light.
"Three tails!" Kimimaro said in surprise, seeing the large cage that the three tails sat in appear before him, taking him by surprise.
"What's going on here? Why can I see you?" Kimimaro asked, not seeming afraid, something that the tree tails noticed.
The three tails remained silent as it waited to see what Kimimaro would do, feeling intrigued in the small boy, knowing that it was Saiken and Fuyona who had asked him to be sealed away in his body.
"So, you are the three tails that father told me about," Kimimaro said, standing tall as he walked over towards it.
"But why are you in a cage?" Kimimaro asked.
"I am but a monster to you humans, and monsters belong in cages." The three tails said.
"I know how that feels..." Kimimaro said, also having been treated the same way, imprisoned by his own clan when he was only a boy, acting as nothing other than a tool for them.
Kimimaro walked over to the cage and reached his hand to it, watching the beast without fear in his eyes.
"This boy... He isn't afraid of me." The tailed beast said, watching him carefully.
"Please lend me your power so that I can defeat this man." Kimimaro then said, suddenly finding strength within himself.
Isobu could see the determination within the boy's eyes, remembering the same look that he had seen within Yagura's all those years ago.
"Very well, I will lend you, my power, for now," Isobu said, making its mind up.
Kimimaro nodded and smiled at him.
"Thank you... Wait, what is your name? You must have one?" Kimimaro suddenly asked, remembering he didn't know what to call him.
"My name is..."
Tachi watched as Kimimaro stood back up on his legs, allowing the bones around his body to slowly retract as he regained control over himself, allowing the chakra cloak around him to calm, with the three tails it was sprouting merging into only one.
"I did it... Thank you, Isobu." Kimimaro said as he clenched his fist, looking toward Tachi with determination.
"Sorry for the wait." He said, flashing a confident smile his way.
Tachi had sworn that the boy had lost control of himself, amazed to see that he was able to so suddenly seize control of the power within him.
"I'm done playing around with you," Kimimaro said, quickly dashing forwards, jumping into the air and smashing a kick into Tachi's arm, who did his best to block the attack.
"Don't go underestimating me now boy!" He said, grabbing his leg and twisting him around before attempting to slam him into the ground.
However, Kimimaro allowed bones to grow from his body, using them to cushion the impact and easily bounced back up, using his free leg to kick Tachi in the chin, forcing him to let go of his leg.
Tachi wobbled backwards from the blow to his chin, becoming enraged that Kimimaro was suddenly so strong.
"You brat! I am Tachi Kaguya! I will not be defeated by the likes of you!" He yelled, allowing his bones to grow from all over his body, letting them all merge together into a large lance head that was attached to his arm.
"Dance of the clematis flower!" Tachi yelled, having completed his preparation for his jutsu, charging in with the huge amount of sheer density of compressed bone towards Kimimaro.
"This will end it!" Tachi yelled as he moved as fast as he could, charging in toward Kimimaro as if he was about to smash through the gates of a fortress with a battering ram, and Kimimaro's chest was the gate.
Kimimaro didn't have time to avoid the attack, realizing he had nowhere to go as his back hit a wall.
"Only one option... I have to stop it!" He yelled, allowing as many bones as he could create to form into a shield on his arm, trying his best to create the ultimate defence.
"It's not enough, I need more!" Kimimaro thought as he could feel that his bone shield wouldn't be strong enough to stop the force of Tachi's attack.
Tachi slammed his lance into Kimimaro's shield, thrusting forwards as hard as he could to try to rip the boy in half.
Kimimaro did his best to try and stand strong, but even with his chakra cloak, he was still struggling to hold Tachi back.
"Did you forget about my enhanced strength thanks to my exoskeleton jutsu!" Tachi said, pushing harder as he could feel his lance start to break through Kimimaro's shield.
"Just give up already!" Tachi said, continuing to try and break through his bone shield.
"No... I won't surrender!" Kimimaro yelled, trying to push back as he pumped even more charka into his bones, trying to reinforce them.
Tachi could feel the resistance growing stronger and tried to push forwards, even more, doing the same as both he and Kimimaro continued to clash between them, with an unbreakable shield and unstoppable lance.
Kimimaro had no choice and continued to pump all of his chakra into his bone shield, resulting in his chakra cloak growing larger as Isobu gave him even more chakra, allowing him to overwhelm Tachi and snap the head of his lance.
"NOO!!!" Tachi yelled, seeing that his attack had been stopped by Kimimaro, knowing that was his ultimate attack.
"It's over now!" Kimimaro yelled, using his bone shield to attack, smashing it into the side of Tachi's head, once again breaking the outer layer of his exoskeleton before he slammed the shield into the centre of his body, knocking him to the ground from the force.
Tachi hit the ground, feeling his body give in to the force of Kimimaro's attack, with his exoskeleton crumbling away due to his chakra running low thanks to his final attack.
Kimimaro however, stood firm and tall, aided by the chakra of Isobu.
"Go on... Finish me!" Tachi said, slowly using his arms to pull himself up.
"Take me out and you will become the next leader of the Kaguya clan," Tachi said.
Kimimaro couldn't place it, but something felt off about this situation, as if he was missing something, or had an itch that he couldn't scratch.
Kimimaro allowed a bone blade to grow from his arm, holding both his sword and shield getting ready to finish off Tachi for good now.
"That's it. Do it!" Tachi yelled, begging him to put him out of his misery.
Kimimaro lunged forwards, rising his arm with his blade stretched, about to deliver the finishing blow, watching the look on Tachi's face the whole time.
Kimimaro stopped his attack at the last possible second, holding the blade not a breath away from Tachis's throat as it hit him.
"This isn't real..." Kimimaro said, having finally realized what was going on.
Tachi lowered his head and smiled at Kimimaro, seeming impressed by him before he stood upright.
"So, you finally figured it out." He said, pushing the bone blade away from his neck.
"This is a genjutsu..." Kimimaro said, dropping his blade before he took a look around, confirming his thoughts.
"Yes... Now that you know, you have but to release it and break free." Tachi said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Kimimaro allowed his body to relax and let his chakra cloak fade as he placed his hands together, doing as he had been taught in how to release a genjutsu.
"Thank you for the lesson." Kimimaro then said, taking one last look at Tachi.
"Welcome..." Tachi said as his body faded and Kimimaro's reality changed, opening his eyes to see both Haku and Koyuki standing by him.
"He did it!" Koyuki shouted, slapping him on the shoulders with a large smile on her face.
Haku was also happy for his brother, seeing that he too had passed the test.
"What's going on?" Kimimaro asked, not understanding what was happening.
"You did well, Kimimaro," Fuyōna said, flashing a smile at the boy as he walked over towards him.
"The three of you. I'm a very proud father and sensei after watching you all complete my little test." Fuyōna said.
"That was all a test?" Kimimaro asked, not seeing why he would test them in such a way.
"I guess there is no harm in explaining it," Fuyōna said as he placed his hand on his chin to think.
"You see, I needed to test each of you individually, without you being able to help one another. I figured that a genjutsu where I could design the test from the ground up would work best." Fuyōna said, smiling at the three of them.
Kimimaro nodded as he understood what he meant, also surprised that his father could use such powerful genjustu.
"So, if I had killed Tachi, then I would have failed?" Kimimaro asked.
"That's right," Fuyōna said, happy that he understood.
"Not only that but each of you was put into a situation that pushed you to your limits, forcing each of you to come up with new ways of pushing past your own limitations, without the help of your teammates. After all, you will not always have squad mates to depend upon in the real world." Fuyōna said, getting a nod from the three of them.
Kimimaro turned his head to the others and also caught Hattori and Yuri sitting to the side, quiet and away from the others.
"Did we all pass?" Kimimaro asked after a moment of silence.
"You did," Fuyōna said, knowing that he was worried about the others.
"And thanks to that, you can now all move on to the real training," Fuyōna said, getting a serious look of determination from all of them, including Hattori who seemed a little different than he had done before the test.
"Lord Mizukage!!!" A voice suddenly shouted, catching all of their attention.
Fuyōna turned around to see who was shouting at him, seeing that it was a messenger from his office.
"What is it Oboski?" Fuyōna asked, sensing the urgency.
"My lord, quickly, lady Mei and Ao have summoned you." He said, trying to catch his breath.
Fuyōna could tell that he had rushed here as quickly as possible and nodded, clicking his fingers and summoning an ice mirror.
"All of you, you are dismissed for today, we will continue this once I am done," Fuyōna said, giving them a quick nod before he stepped into the ice mirror, allowing Oboski to follow so he didn't have to walk back to the village.
Fuyōna stepped out of his mirror and into his office to see both Mei and Ao, along with elders of the village gathered.
"What's wrong?" Fuyōna asked, knowing that whatever it was, it wasn't good.
"Sir... I'm afraid it's war..." Ao said with a serious expression.
Fuyōna looked to Mei, seeing that her face also confirmed his report.
"With whom?" Fuyōna asked, not understanding.
"The hidden Cloud have sided with the Stone and just launched an attack against the leaf village," Mei said, seeming to have worse news behind what she just said.
"No... I thought we had stopped this." Fuyōna said, not understanding.
"That's not all sir, I'm afraid that the Hokage has been reported KIA..." Ao said, getting a serious expression from Fuyōna.
"What! What in the hell happened!" Fuyōna demanded, growing angry all of a sudden, causing the air in the room to grow cold.
Ao the elders knew better than to beat around the bush with such news and Ao handed a scroll to Fuyōna.
"This is the report, sir." He said, causing Fuyōna to calm down and open it, seeing that the details of what had happened had been witnessed and recorded by a scout team.
Fuyōna quickly opened the scroll, reading the first line and scanning the rest with his eyes.
"It was squad Delta 5... They were tasked with keeping an eye on anything to do with each nation's Kage." Mei said, having a sad expression on her face, knowing this news would hit Fuyōna hard.
Fuyōna continued to read the report, seeing that the squad had recorded intel that the Raikage had requested a meeting with the Hokage for peace talks, meeting in secret with minimal manpower, recording everything that had happened from afar and from their point of view.
-Screen flashes into the Hokage's point of view-
Hurizen sat in his office, smoking away on his pipe as he filed more paperwork that had seemed to pile up behind his back. The day was peaceful, and the sun was shining through his office window, overlooking the whole village.
"Sir." A voice said as a knock came from the other side of his door.
"Yes, come in." The Hokage said, seeing none other than Itachi Uchiha.
Ever since the death of Danzo and the avoidance of the Uchiha massacre, Itachi had continued to serve the Hokage and his clan, helping the village and his clan to come to a better understanding of one another.
Itachi had also dealt with top-secret missions associated with the Anbu black ops during the battles with the Stone and Sand, becoming one of the Hokage's most useful aids.
"What is it, Itachi?" He asked, seeing that the boy had news.
"A scroll from the Raikage of the cloud, sir," Itachi said as he set it down on the Hokage's desk.
"Is that so?" Hurizen said, looking at it with surprise.
"What on earth would the Raikage want with me?" He asked, taking a large puff on his pipe.
Itachi waited for him to finish and watched as the Hokage opened the scroll, proceeding to read the message it contained.
"So, he wants to meet face to face, does he?" The Hokage said as he placed the scroll down.
Itachi didn't say anything, keeping his emotions in check as he waited for the Hokage to speak.
"Very well then, pack your bags, Itachi. We are going on a little trip." Hurizen said, getting a nod from Itachi before he placed his pipe back into his mouth and turned his chair towards the window.
"I will meet with the Raikage and get this over with."
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Alright thats the end of this chapter! Sorry for the wait, life has been crazy at the moment.
Remember to check out my P.atreon page for more!