Orochimaru stared coldly at the two, bit his finger, and flashed through a string of seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!" With a bang of smoke, a colossal serpent's silhouette loomed.
"Manda, I summoned you for a reason this time." Orochimaru's voice was icy. "Help me, and you'll have more sacrifices when we return."
"Oh? I want a hundred living humans," the great snake rumbled as the smoke cleared, revealing his massive body.
Tsunade furrowed her brows, bit her finger as well, and slammed a palm down. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!"
"Tsunade-sama…" A gigantic slug appeared.
"Katsuyu, that shameless snake is yours."
"Understood…"
Manda scoffed. "A crawling soft-bodied worm dares to challenge me?"
With a blur, Manda shot forward like a pillar of light, coiling around Katsuyu like a steel cable. Jaws yawning wide, he went to bite down—but the serpent's coils suddenly loosened as Katsuyu split into countless tiny slugs, slipping free and recombining a short distance away.
"Hmph. Still as disgusting as ever, Katsuyu," Manda sneered. He opened his mouth and belched a billow of green poison.
"That poison is useless on me, Manda. Sokubaku Neki (Binding Slime)…" Katsuyu sprayed white adhesive that wrapped around Manda. Straining and furious, the serpent writhed. "You revolting thing—damn you!"
The two summons tangled and countered, stalemated. Tsunade and Orochimaru were the same—locking one another down, neither daring to split their focus.
Kimimaro, meanwhile, noted how Kakashi paid him no mind, eyes fixed on the Sannin's clash. He frowned, forming a conical bone drill in his hand. In a flash, he was before Kakashi. "You still have the leisure to watch others? Are you too arrogant, or do you lack battle sense?"
His bone drill thrust for Kakashi's chest. Kakashi didn't dodge—he countered, sweeping the blood blade to deflect the thrust, and his other hand tightened. "Raikiri (Lightning Cutter)." With a crackling surge, the blade of lightning stabbed for Kimimaro's torso.
"—gh!" Kimimaro coughed blood, but refused to yield. Gritting his teeth, he condensed chakra at his chest, forming a hardened bone plate that halted Kakashi's hand mid-drive.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed; he sprang back, dismissed the blood blade, flew through seals. "Raiton: Rai Sokusatsu (Lightning Release: Thunder Suppression)!"
A torrent of electricity engulfed Kimimaro.
"Ah—!" His body screamed with pain. Even protected by iron-hard bone, it felt like the lightning would crush him flat. Images flashed through his mind—Orochimaru taking him in, the only one who didn't treat him like a monster. He had vowed to give everything for Orochimaru, even his life. "Orochimaru-sama… I won't let anyone hinder you," he whispered.
The black cursed mark at his chest flared like fire, surging outward until it covered his whole body.
Kakashi's Sharingan tracked it all. "Such a fierce will to fight—and that Juin (Cursed Seal) is potent. His power just multiplied several times…"
With a boom, Kimimaro tore free of the lightning net. His face twisted, skin turning ruddy-brown, a strange tail sprouting behind him.
Kakashi frowned. "So he's getting serious…"
Kimimaro vanished. A heartbeat later, he was behind Kakashi. "—pff!" Blood sprayed beneath Kakashi's mask. He glanced back. "Fast…"
Bone blades erupted from the sword impaled in Kakashi's back, spiking through his body. With a puff, Kakashi blew apart into smoke.
"Another Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone)…"
"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu)…" Kakashi's hand clamped Kimimaro's ankle and yanked him underground, leaving only the boy's head exposed. Kakashi burst from the earth—bone spines speared from Kimimaro's ankle. No time to waste: seizing the opening, Kakashi channeled lightning into the blood blade and drove the tip at Kimimaro's skull.
Kimimaro's scalp prickled; the bone of his skull ballooned into a vast dome.
"Haa—!" Kakashi roared, thrusting into the bone umbrella.
Crack— Even that iron-hard shield couldn't withstand the lightning-fed blood blade. It punched through. Kimimaro's expression didn't change. "Mai e… Sōgi no Mai! (Dance… Sawarabi no Mai / Dance of the Seedling Fern!)"
Thud-thud-thud— Pillar-thick bone spikes erupted from the earth around Kimimaro, a forest of spears racing upward. Kakashi's eyes widened—the towering lances were about to skewer him.
If I dodge, I lose this perfect opening… I'll have to use it.
"Mangekyō Sharingan—Kamui (Divine Might)…"
Fwooo— The massive bone spikes ahead of him warped and vanished. A visible, pulsing void churned in the air—space itself peeled open by the Sharingan, swallowing the spikes into another dimension.
"—gh!" Kakashi's blade punched through Kimimaro's head.
As life faded, Kimimaro's lips moved. "Forgive me… Orochimaru-sama…"
Kakashi looked around. Aside from the cleared gap where his Kamui had erased the spikes, the land was a bristling forest of bone tens of meters high. He stood frozen a moment. Without the Sharingan… what would I have done?
He looked down at Kimimaro's still form. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to kill you this way…" Piercing the skull of a sixteen–seventeen-year-old boy felt brutally cruel. He shook his head. "You had your conviction. But… you followed the wrong person."
The clash between Orochimaru and Tsunade had already halted; Kimimaro's technique was too loud to ignore.
Orochimaru stared. "Kakashi… and still you couldn't be killed… Was that Jikū Ninjutsu (Space–Time Ninjutsu) just now?"
"Something like that," Kakashi said.
Orochimaru's voice went cold. "Don't get cocky. Sasuke will come to me soon. Once I have the Sharingan, you'll be nothing before me. As for now—I could kill you, but this body is at its limit… We'll meet again, Kakashi."
He vanished—so fast even the Sharingan couldn't catch him.
Kakashi frowned. "As expected of a snake. If he won't reveal himself, no one can find him."
Tsunade walked to his side. "Let's go. We owe you for this."
"You overpraise me, Tsunade-sama. Let me bury Kimimaro first. Please tend to Shizune."
Tsunade blinked. "He's an enemy. Why show him this kindness?"
Kakashi sighed. "Kindness? He was still just a teenager—sick, yet he fought for the man he believed in. That deserves respect. And the way I killed him was too cruel. I feel I owe him that much."
Tsunade's full figure trembled. "We'll do as you say. I'll wait."
Kakashi nodded. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama."
After laying Kimimaro to rest, Kakashi, Tsunade, and Shizune set out for Konoha.
"By the way, Kakashi—was that space–time technique taught by the Fourth?" Shizune asked.
Kakashi shook his head. "No… You could call it my own creation." In truth, it was thanks to his Sharingan. Thinking of space–time—and of the Fourth—Kakashi remembered Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God). He had tried training it long ago, but his chakra reserves were too small to continue. Still, the Fourth had entrusted him with some of its formulae long before.
If I could use Hiraishin, my strength would climb again.
"Self-created? A move like that can be created?" Shizune's disbelief showed.
Kakashi ruffled his hair. "It's not wrong to say so. After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan (Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye), I studied the principles of space–time and derived that technique."
"Mangekyō Sharingan…?" Tsunade and Shizune traded looks. For someone outside that clan to reach such a level… No wonder even Orochimaru regarded him warily.
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