Kaida once again found himself at the crossroads of choice. When he was this close to finally reaching the boy, the massive wall of a legendary Sannin was in front of him now.
Since he had first-hand witnessed the power of a Sannin himself when training under Jiraiya, he knew whatever he knew from his previous life about Sannins was not an overstatement at all. Heck, it was not even justifying their strength.
Not only were they at the top of the strength level in the world, but they also had enough experience to use that strength perfectly. And now he could face against one of them, the one who was hailed as a genius among all these three, not to mention known as the unkillable cockroach who had more feats to his name than Kaida had lived years.
'Is it even worth it?' Kaida thought as he practically went against Orochimaru in his mind in tens of battles. The odds were not good at all. In almost 7 out of 10 fights against Orochimaru, he lost, or one can say died.
'Will I be getting enough return for taking this risk... wait, from when did I become this calculating? It is like I am putting the life of a young boy on a scale of profit and loss.
Will I leave my family to die if I don't profit from saving them? If I keep becoming more calculative?' The thought was much more scary than even the prospect of fighting against Orochimaru. Kaida was not unknown to his feelings, or the lack of them.
He had been actively suppressing them for quite a lot of time, and only using his brain for finding the best outcome in every solution. But without his knowledge, he had started keeping humanity and compassion out of the equation slowly, as they were bringing down the efficiency of his actions.
"Is this what brother meant when he said that Sharingan changes a person?" Kaida caught his head as he went silent for quite some time, trying to think things through.
For once, he decided to stop holding back the flood of emotions in his mind. The fear, anger, pain, and worst of it, the joy of not losing Yomi, even though he knew the cost of it – everything he had been suppressing hit him like a bullet train.
For an unknown amount of time, Kaida was just sitting on the branch of a tree, looking towards the setting sun. And even after it had long set and a full moon emerged in the sky, Kaida didn't move from his position, not wanting to suppress his emotions any further.
It was also not helping that the Sharingan naturally increases the emotions of a person many times, let alone Mangekyo, whose effect is many times greater than the 3-tomoe Sharingan.
It was like trying to stop crying when someone very close to you died, but 10 times the difficulty, and something that keeps reminding you of the last scene of their death. After trying for very long, as half a day had passed since he was sitting on the branch, Kaida finally stood up, still not fully in control of his emotions, but now he was embracing them rather than suppressing them.
'Feels like I just put down a thousand kg I have been carrying on my chest for who knows how long.' With a deep breath, Kaida looked towards the next village. Since he had already confirmed whatever he wanted, there was no need to follow the trail left by the fleeing boy.
Also, there was now no doubt in his mind as well. There was a boy who was being mentally manipulated to think that the whole world hated him, that there was no purpose for his life anymore, so that he will become fully dependent on the first who will give him a purpose.
So much so that he will be ready to die for that man of his own free will, if that could even be considered a free will. Since he had the power to save that boy, why not do it? In the off chance if something really goes wrong, he could always run away later.
"I can't say whether Orochimaru is more of a genius or a sick psycho who had no morals in his life at all," Kaida thought out loud before disappearing from his position. There was still a large distance to be traveled before he could reach the last location Kimimaro was spotted.
…
After traveling the entire night, Kaida finally reached the last location where Kimimaro was spotted. After this point, he was not spotted in any other villages till now, which means for an entire week, no one had seen that boy.
So either Orochimaru had already gotten his sick hands on him, or he is still on the run, and there is only one way to find that out. Kaida activated his Sharingan and went through the memories of one more villager to know completely what had happened here before moving forward.
Which led to him standing in front of the house from which Kimimaro had tried to ask for food, more like buy using the amount he was able to get. Sadly, Orochimaru had already gotten his influence on these people, resulting in another chase and death of the man of this house.
There was nothing Kaida could do to help them now. With a deep sigh, he turned to the area Kimimaro ran off. Since the boy was trained to be a killer from a young age, some techniques like leaving no trail behind while running away were taught to him from a young age.
And since he was being chased by both ninja and civilians alike, he was putting good use of those techniques. Always there was so much a young boy could do in such conditions. The trails which were difficult to find through naked eyes became as clear as day when Kaida activated his 3-tomoe Sharingan.
Swiftly following through the trails left by Kimimaro while also searching for any trace of Orochimaru, but unlike the 8-year-old boy, Orochimaru was both skilled and smart enough to leave no trails behind at all. There was a reason why neither major villages like Konoha nor Akatsuki were able to find the man even when they were trying their hardest.
So Kaida was not even trying to find any traces but just searching for his presence nearby so that he would not be caught in an ambush by Orochimaru, as that would be a death sentence for him.
This time his speed was reduced by a huge margin as he had to both follow the hidden trail while also maintain constant surveillance in the surrounding.
And even though he didn't want to, Kaida still had to take many breaks in between the chase as he could not constantly activate his Sharingan. Otherwise, if he actually found either Orochimaru or Kimimaro, in both cases he would have to fight an S-rank ninja. So it would be the epitome of foolishness to get tired and render your most important and deadly resource useless.
So after traveling for seven more hours, Kaida finally stopped as the trails became indistinct, like Kimimaro had just passed through these locations.
But they were not straight, rather circular. Before even thinking, Kaida jumped from his place, landing a few feet away from the location he was standing on, which was now resembling a sponge.
"A Sharingan user, and so young. Perhaps fate is offering me something even more valuable than Kimimaro today."