Kimimaro knelt on the ground at the base of a giant bone spire, his hands trembling, his eyes hollow and staring aimlessly at his own palms. The terrifying aura he possessed moments ago was no longer there replaced by an overwhelming despair.
"I failed... I am a failure..." Kimimaro muttered endlessly. "I couldn't protect you... Lord Orochimaru..."
Hearing footsteps, Kimimaro slowly turned his head. His eyes locked onto Neji, but there was no malice left in them... only a profound emptiness.
"Oh... Neji... you're here," Kimimaro rasped. "I betrayed you... I betrayed Guy-san, and I broke my promise to Lady Tsunade just to come here and save Lord Orochimaru... And in the end, I couldn't even do that. He's gone, the Akatsuki took him." Kimimaro is now drowning in an indescribable emptiness.
"I can feel him... Lord Orochimaru is still alive," Kimimaro murmured, his eyes fixated on somewhere random. "I have to save him." He sounded like a broken phonograph, repeating the same refrain over and over.
Neji took a step forward. "You can do that with Konoha's help," He said, keeping his tone calm to give a sense reassurance, while feeling sad his friend ended up like this. "We share a common goal now. Together, we can hunt down the Akatsuki."
Kimimaro stopped lamenting as his head tilted slowly toward Neji. "No, we don't. Konoha doesn't care what becomes of Lord Orochimaru. But I do." He stood up. "Don't worry. I won't slaughter anyone from Konoha. You aren't my priority."
"Don't move!"
Yamato surged forward, his right palm stretched out with a wooden sealing mark to suppress Kimimaro's chakra. But even in his weakened state, Kimimaro's instincts were terrifyingly sharp. He swiveled on his heel, catching Yamato's incoming forearm with a snap of his wrist. Before the ANBU could recover, Kimimaro sliced Yamato's arm and drove a front kick straight into his sternum. "Tenzo of the ANBU, I know you are the last one capable of using wood release. You are a successful experiment of Lord Orochimaru, back then he had to surrender all the data to Danzo. I will be taking this hand back you owe at least that."
Yamato slid backward, his soles ripping up turf before he slammed his palm. *Earth Release!* The ground behind him molded into an earthen wall stabilizing him instantly, though he coughed against the force of the blow and the loss of blood from his hand.
Before anyone could press, a thunderous *thud* reverberated through the bone trees. A colossal spire of bone crashed down. Kimimaro turned his head toward the source of the commotion. "Is that Sakura?" he mused softly. "She should be overjoyed to see Sasuke... However he isn't coming back to Konoha either. He is far too important a vessel for Lord Orochimaru. I can't allow him to simply walk off."
He placed his hand against the bone tree of a nearby spire. His body softened, slipping seamlessly into the marrow of the structure to travel through the underground network.
"Not so fast!" Neji lunged, thrusting both palms forward to unleash a concentrated *Air Palm Mountain Break*. The palm strike blasted into the bone trunk as a small crack started to appear on the thick exterior of bone tree, without the physical boost of his Curse Mark, Neji couldn't manifest large-scale offensive techniques, leaving behind only spiderweb cracks on the bone tree by the time Kimimaro was already gone.
---
A hundred yards away, Kakashi was locked in a blade-clash with Sasuke when Kimimaro emerged from a column of bone.
He glanced casually at Sasuke as he thought. "Should I just kill him? No, I am not in the right mind." Kimimaro dismissed the thought almost immediately, shifting his focus to Kakashi.
Sasuke didn't even turn his head, his Sharingan apun as he parried Kakashi's kunai.
"Kakashi... there is one thing I must thank you for," Kimimaro said, reaching behind his neck. With a wet plop, he drew his shoulder blade. "If all four of you had ambushed me at once, Sasuke would have slipped away, and I would have failed Lord Orochimaru once again. I am glad you held him down."
He glanced sideways at the Uchiha. "Sasuke, stay back. You aren't ready to defeat Kakashi on your own, I will handle him. Go check on Karin and Kabuto, then deal with Sakura."
Without waiting for an answer, Kimimaro blurred out of sight, executing a high-speed body flicker aimed straight at Kakashi's throat. "If you intend to use standard ANBU sword styles, don't bother," Kakashi warned. "I served in the operational units too in fact a rank above you. I know every counter to those forms."
Kakashi's left eye whirred, tracking Kimimaro's erratic trajectory. Rather than committing to a block, Kakashi stood his ground as Kimimaro drove the bone blade straight through his sternum.
Instead of blood, blinding blue arcs of electricity erupted from the wound.
*Lightning Clone!*
As it surged through Kimimaro's arm, locking his nervous system in place and sending smoke curling from his clothes. He gritted his teeth, forcing his marrow to shift in density and absorb the electrical shock and sent it to the ground.
"Damn it... you're quite smart," Kimimaro growled, dropping to one knee. Simultaneously, a white mist began to roll across, swallowing the surroundings in seconds.
"The Hiding in the Mist technique?" Kimimaro muttered. "That takes me back to Kirigakure..." He wove a rapid sequence of hand signs, inhaling deeply.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A gale-force gust tore through the trees puhsing the fog apart. But Kakashi hadn't used the mist to hide... it was a setup.
As the fog scattered, thousands of microscopic water droplets hovered in the air, suspended by Kakashi's chakra control as his Sharingan spun rapidly. The red glow reflected off every single suspended drop, creating a kaleidoscope of mirrors that completely surrounded Kimimaro.
Before Kimimaro could avert his eyes, the light hit him from a hundred angles at once.
"Sharingan: Genjutsu."
Kimimaro froze instantly, his pupils dilated and he was stuck mid-stance. Capitalizing on the opening, Kakashi materialized behind him, lightning crackling around his right hand. The high-pitched chirp of a thousand birds filled the forest as Kakashi charged forward with his Chidori, aiming to deliver strike at the base of Kimimaro's shoulder to decapitate him.
"Wait! It's a trap!" Neji's scream came from 8'o clock as he and Yamato, whose bleeding to put to stop by Neji.
~~
A/N: Here comes the aftermath after Orochimaru is captured with Kimimaro having to deal with Konoha.
Advance chapters available @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0 [7-day free trial]