Jiraiya moved with blinding speed. He slammed a suppression seal onto Naruto's forehead. The orange shroud flickered and died, the malevolent pressure vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. Naruto gasped, his body trembling from the sudden drain.
In a fit of frustration, Naruto shoved past Kakashi and Jiraiya. He didn't want to hear what they are trying to say. He burst out of the room and sprinted down the hospital corridor.
"Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi said, "Was that necessary? He isn't ready for that kind of truth."
"I know you think what I am doing is wrong," Jiraiya sighed, " But I can't have Naruto blindly rush to Orochimaru-possessed Sasuke and kill himself. So, we have to prepare him from now or the nine-tails out bursts will get him just like now. Give him some time and monitor him for awhile and don't let him see Kimimaro... that kid is a walking reminder of everything Naruto failed to stop."
Naruto, meanwhile, rounded a corner at full tilt and collided chest-first with a figure standing in the hallway. He stumbled back, looking up to see a man with sickly pale skin, two red dots on his forehead, and long, snowy hair.
Kimimaro Kaguya looked down at the boy who had tried to obstruct the path of his Lord's vessel. Though the Kaguya's presence was still chillingly sharp.
"So," Kimimaro said, "You're the boy Kakashi told not to talk to?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed, his hands curling into fists and his eyes turned red with a vertical slit again and his whiskers thickened. "You... you're that white-haired freak from the forest. What the hell are you doing in Konoha? You are an enemy...".
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
In a puff of white smoke, where there had been empty hallway, there were now few hundreds of Naruto, packed shoulder-to-shoulder. The sound was deafening as the clones immediately paired off.
In their palms, spheres of spinning blue chakra began, Rasengan's high-pitched whistle echoed off the narrow walls.
Kimimaro stood at the center of the hall, his expression as elegant as ever. He didn't hurry to attack as he simply watched with curiosity.
"Are you sure... you wish to proceed?" Kimimaro asked, "This is a hospital. There are patients behind these doors... people might be recovering from trauma. I don't wish for unnecessary bloodshed. Your lack of control could bring structural damage and this entire wing could go down. You would be responsible for their deaths."
The words hit Naruto like a blow, it felt like a sick joke coming from a man who had tried to capture his friend. He was agaigated that Kimimaro could say such words.. "Why do you care?"
Naruto stood back, as his clones lunged forward, the Rasengans illuminating the hall in blue. "You kidnapped Sasuke! You're the reason he's gone! Because of you, I don't even know if I'll ever see my best friend again. It's your fault... all of it!"
Kimimaro closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. "I don't care about the patients in the hospital, but I suspected you would. I believe that if you kill an innocent today, you will never recover from it. You would come to regret this more than you regret losing your friend."
"You're Orochimaru's pet!" Naruto lunged, as Kimimaro dodged Rasengan with ease as if he was dancing. "You're going to take me to him... right now!"
"I didn't want to do this," Kimimaro sighed. "But you've lined yourselves up so perfectly."
"The Dance of the Macabre"
Kimimaro raised his hand. With a sound like a dry branch snapping, the distal phalanx... the bone at the tip of his index finger... shot forward. It whistled through the air, piercing the lead Naruto clone squarely in the chest and all the clones behind went poof.
Before the smoke could clear, Kimimaro's fingers became a blur of rhythmic motion. He fired his own distal phalanx like a master marksman. One by one, the Naruto clones popped into clouds of white smoke. Kimimaro moved through the remaining clones with a terrifying, fluid grace, snapping Naruto through the air until the hallway was nearly empty.
Suddenly, the floorboards beneath Kimimaro's feet splintered. The "real" Naruto erupted from the floor, his fist cocked back, loaded with a desperate, chakra-infused punch.
He never connected.
With a sickening squelch, Kimimaro's rib cage protruded. Sharp, white spikes of ivory bone erupted through his chest, forming a cage. They caught Naruto in mid-air, the points snagging his jumpsuit and piercing his limbs as the rib bone went from front to back.
As the bones continued to overgrow, they hoisted Naruto into the air, pinning him against the wall like a specimen in a display case.
"So," Kimimaro said, looking up at the struggling boy. "You are the real one."
Naruto coughed, a spray of blood hitting the floor as the last of his clones vanished. His eyes were still red, but they were wide with shock.
"I don't usually enjoy stomping on the weak," Kimimaro continued, "It leaves a bitter taste. But I don't mind putting insects in their place. With your puny strength, you could never bring back Uchiha Sasuke. In fact, I doubt he exist now."
With a flick of his wrist, more bones extended from Kimimaro's shoulders and knees, striking Naruto's joints. Naruto let out a choked cry of agony.
"I won't kill you," Kimimaro said, detaching the overgrown rib-cage bones from his own body while they were still embedded in the wall. Naruto was now literally stapled to the corridor wall, the bones acting as macabre masonry nails. "Killing you would jeopardize my goal. But you need to calm your mind."
Kimimaro stepped back, the remaining bones receding into his skin as his skin closed instantly. Naruto hung there like a broken painting.