The sight of Sasuke's pulsating, barbed Chidori Sharp Spear gave even the battle-hardened Kimimaro a moment's pause. A cold, analytical thought cut through his combat focus: 'If that strikes true… the structural integrity of my bones may not be the primary concern.'
He had no more time to ponder. Sasuke was a streak of blue-white lightning. The enhanced Chidori Senbon – Shi o Yobu Rōga Chō Shūshuku Yari lanced forward, its speed eclipsing Kimimaro's ability to fully evade. He managed a partial twist, but the spinning, drill-like tip of the spear slammed squarely into the reinforced bone armor covering his chest.
SCREEEE—GRIND!
The sound was hellish—the shriek of high-speed lightning grinding against super-dense bone. Sparks and flecks of white powder flew. An intense, searing heat bloomed at the point of impact, a sensation Kimimaro's nerve-deadened body wasn't entirely prepared for. The sheer concussive force lifted him off his feet and hurled him backward like a ragdoll.
He crashed through the already-dilapidated gates of Otogakure with the force of a cannonball, reducing the stonework to a cloud of dust and rubble that collapsed, sealing the entrance. Buried in the debris, Kimimaro's world went dark for a moment. In that emptiness, the old, hollow question returned: What is the purpose of my existence?
The Kaguya clan lived for battle, and died by it. He was the last. Orochimaru's voice, offering not salvation but simple, cold purpose, echoed in the void: "Living… might lead to something interesting. So… just live."
'Interesting…' he thought, as consciousness painfully returned. 'This… qualifies.'
"Kuh… Damn. That was… potent." Kimimaro pushed himself out of the rubble, wiping a trickle of blood from his lips with the back of his hand. But his eyes, now blazing with a feverish intensity, were locked on Sasuke. "Your little trick… won't land a second time."
As he rose, his body underwent a horrific metamorphosis. The black markings of the Cursed Seal of Earth spread like ink in water, morphing into the full, monstrous Level Two state. His frame expanded, skin darkening to a charcoal grey.
A long, segmented tail tipped with blade-like bones sprouted from his lower back, curling protectively around his torso. His speed and aura of raw power multiplied exponentially. Against this new form, Sasuke's previous attack speed would be laughably inadequate.
Sasuke felt the shift, his Sharingan capturing the terrifying spike in chakra and threat level. A fierce grin touched his lips. Good. If he couldn't handle a glorified guard dog, what hope did he have against the fox, Uchiha Itachi?
He flickered back to Naruto's side. "Naruto. Full charge. Now."
Naruto, having stabilized Sakura's bleeding and propped her against a tree, nodded grimly. "Make him regret it, Sasuke. Aim for the bullseye."
His own sea urchin technique was too slow for this opponent. His role was clear: be the battery.
"He'll be shitting bone fragments," Sasuke promised.
Naruto's hand clamped onto his shoulder. Instantly, a torrent of thick, crimson-tinged chakra—the Kyuubi's 'rent'—flooded Sasuke's pathways. The sensation was overwhelming, addictive.
'This… this is TRUE power!' Orochimaru's cursed seal, with its costs and corruption, was utterly forgotten.
"Raiton Hiden: Chidori Senbon – Shi o Yobu Rōga Chō Shūshuku Yari!"
This time, lightning erupted from both of Sasuke's palms. Two barbed spears of chakra, crackling with stolen bijuu energy, shot toward Kimimaro like vengeful spirits.
"Extend! Pierce!"
The spearheads morphed, their barbs flaring out before beginning a vicious, drill-like rotation. The leading tips swelled to the size of melons, their spiraling form and malevolent hum vividly reminding the watching Kyuubi, deep within its seal, of a certain yellow-haired nightmare.
'The Uchiha brat is a plague! The outside world is a minefield!' it seethed, vowing eternal hibernation.
Kimimaro became a blur of motion, his Cursed Seal Level Two granting him serpentine agility. He focused entirely on Sasuke's hands, predicting trajectories, dodging the lunging spears by millimeters each time. Whoosh! Whoosh! The lightning spears stabbed into the earth and trees behind him, missing their mark.
"See, Sasuke? This is the power Lord Orochimaru grants!" Kimimaro taunted, his voice distorted. "Do you desire it? Join us, and this strength could be yours!"
"Hah! That sick snake?" Sasuke scoffed, not breaking his assault. "If he showed his face now, my sensei would give him a complimentary drill to the rear, version 2.0."
He'd seen the hierarchy of power with his own eyes. Abandoning Raimon for Orochimaru would be the height of stupidity.
"Fool!" Kimimaro snarled. His spiked tail lashed out, deflecting one of the chidori spears with a shower of shattered bone spikes. The defense came at a cost. Seizing the opening, he formed a single-handed seal. "Sawarabi no Mai!" (Dance of the Clematis!)
The very earth around Otogakure's entrance erupted. A forest of sharp, rapidly-growing bones shot skyward, transforming the clearing into a deadly, impassable thicket. Sasuke and Naruto were forced into frantic, acrobatic leaps to avoid being impaled from below, with Naruto hauling the unconscious Sakura along.
"Ew! Why is Sakura-chan so… dense?!" Naruto grunted mid-jump.
Sasuke ignored him. From his new vantage point, he launched another spear. Kimimaro, moving through his bone forest like a ghost, evaded with contemptuous ease.
"You still believe you can hit me?" Kimimaro's voice echoed from within the skeletal labyrinth.
"Why don't you check your six?" Sasuke's lips curled into a smirk of pure, unadulterated satisfaction.
"Huh—?!"
The Chidori Spear Kimimaro had just dodged didn't dissipate. Guided by Sasuke's chakra threads and expert manipulation, it executed a sharp, impossible bend in mid-air. It reversed course, shooting back through the bone forest with unerring accuracy, its target no longer his center mass.
THWACK-SNAP!
The spear sheared clean through the bony tail protecting his rear before its barbed, spinning tip found its true mark with a sickening, wet crunch.
"Raiton Hiden: Chidori Senbon – Shi o Yobu Rōga Chō Shūshuku Yari: FULL DRIVE!"
Sasuke poured more Kyuubi chakra into the technique. The embedded spearhead's barbs extended, anchoring deep. Then, the dreaded secondary function activated: a rapid, jackhammering sequence of extension and retraction.
THRUM-THRUM-THRUM-THRUM-THRUM!
It wasn't just a puncture; it was a high-speed, electrified blending from the inside out.
"GYAAAA—! You… fight without… honor!" Kimimaro gasped, his body convulsing. The massive strain of maintaining his Cursed Seal Level Two form, compounded by his terminal illness and now this catastrophic, focused trauma, was too much.
The dark markings receded from his skin like a tide. The monstrous form melted away, leaving only a pale, sickly young man. All strength left him. The world tunneled into a vortex of pain centered squarely on his ruined posterior, and then into blackness.
Kimimaro's body went limp, collapsing face-first into the dirt amidst his own bone forest. The area where he fell was…
…a scene of utter, unspeakable devastation.
From his treetop perch, Namikaze Raimon watched the finale with an approving nod.
"Efficiency. I like it."
He then turned his gaze past the wreckage, past the fallen Sound ninja, towards the hidden depths of the underground base. His senses, sharper than any snake',
He hopped down lightly, landing beside his students. "Good work. Clean-up crew's done. Now for the main event."
He cracked his knuckles, a cheerful, terrifying smile on his face as he called out towards the sealed, rubble-strewn entrance, his voice infused with chakra to echo through every tunnel below.
"Alright, little snake~! Your welcoming committee has been… dismissed. Stop hiding in your hole.""Come out, come out, wherever you are~!"