For what felt like an eternity, Kimimaro and Konan had been locked in a deadly stalemate. Neither could land a decisive blow. Konan's paper physiology made her entirely elusive, while Kimimaro's White Knight defense rendered her paper explosive clones or paper drizzle useless.
Locking his eyes with Konan, Kimimaro put his right hand forward. His five finger bones detached, whistling through the air like bullets. They ripped cleanly through the floating sheets of paper, tearing gaping holes where Konan's head, chest, and shoulders should have been.
"You can never reach me," Konan's voice echoed lazily as the paper sheets fluttered back together, seamlessly reforming her perfect visage.
Kimimaro's lips curled into a smirk. "Let's see about that."
He possessed enough mastery over his Shikotsumyaku, allowing him to alter the viscosity of his osseous tissue. With a tug of his chakra, the five bone bullets that had passed behind Konan suddenly liquefied and stretched, snaking backward. They interconnected in mid-air, weaving into a dense, malleable net that snapped shut around her.
"Smooth Bone Cocoon!"
"You will have to try harder," Konan replied smoothly as the trap fully stuck to her body, preventing her from dissolving into a cloud of paper. The cocoon snapped shut trapping her. High above, a dozens of paper clones materialized seamlessly on the branches of the surrounding tree branches.
Kimimaro clicked his tongue. The clones dove simultaneously, descending upon him like a flock of birds. As they reached him, they detonated. A chain reaction of explosive tags blasted around him.
Suddenly, a thick smoke bomb erupted in the center of the blast radius. Shino emerged from the haze, instantly deploying his Insect Jamming Technique. Thousands of kikaichu swarmed the area, scattering everywhere to disrupt Konan's chakra-sensing abilities.
Seizing the distraction, Shino grabbed Kimimaro, and the two retreated into the dense thicket of forest, temporarily avoiding Konan's aerial vantage view.
"Shikamaru and I confirmed her weakness," Shino whispered rapidly, his voice urgent. "It is anything that makes her paper sticky. If we can bind her together, she won't be able to split apart or reform."
"Do you have anything better?" Kimimaro countered. "I already knew that. But it isn't that easy. She is well aware of her own shortcomings; she won't let anything get close enough to exploit her."
Shino lifted his finger. "I have insects that secrete a highly viscous mucus. Furthermore, I have half a dozen Giant Parasitic Beetles. They can devour the opponent from the inside out. I will leave them with you... they can grow exponentially by feeding on your massive chakra."
Kimimaro glanced at the writhing insects, a cold chuckle escaping him as he tucked them beneath his clothing. "There is no guarantee they won't turn to stone. My chakra is fueled by natural energy now."
"She should have found us by now. We need to split—"
Shino's warning was cut short. A barrage of wind-enhanced paper shuriken sliced through the dense trees, shredding his body. But there was no blood; Shino's form disintegrated into thousands of insects. It was an insect clone.
Kimimaro looked up, watching Konan hover gracefully in the sky, her paper wings beating slowly. "I like your fighting style," he murmured, his eyes gleaming with inspiration. "Perhaps I should adapt."
Chakra surged through his right arm. The bone beneath his skin shifted, expanding and rupturing outward. He molded it, carving the calcified mass into a massive Fuma Shuriken. "Let us see which weapon is superior: the one forged of paper, or the one carved from bone."
With a powerful pivot Kimimaro shifted his center of mass, as he hurled the massive bone fuma shuriken into the sky. It cut through the air with a terrifying howl, as Konan evaded the strike however at right moment the Fuma Shuriken grew even longer as cut Konan squarely in the torso. On impact, the hidden explosive tags she carried detonated.
Kimimaro laughed loudly. He yanked on a nearly invisible wire woven from his own bone marrow, snapping the Fuma Shuriken back into his grip.
"I fear my own brilliance!"
The laughter died down, replaced by a cold tone. "Now, let me show you my true power."
Kimimaro's appearance was similar to that of a dinosaur, with dark grey skin, dark black eye sclerae, yellow eye irises, sharp teeth, six large bone spines protruding out of his back, a long bone-spiked tail and two dark black curved like markings under his eyes... one under each eye and two as elongated eyebrows... one above each eye.
"Dance of the Clematis: Flower!"
Kimimaro coiled his legs and launched himself into the air as multiple concentric rings formed around him each ring lower than other. Konan's eyes widened in genuine surprise as he matched her altitude in an instant. His right arm, encased in a massive, spiral-drilled bone spear, thrust forward impaling her through the chest.
Boom. It was another explosive clone. The blast sent Kimimaro hurtling back to the earth, landing heavily on his feet.
Just then he caught sight of a massive smoke rising in the distance. It was coming from the direction of Neji and Shikamaru's battlefield.
"Pointless," Kimimaro muttered, his yellow eyes tracking new clones as she reformed yet again in the sky. "This is never-ending."
He slammed both hands into the earth. He couldn't afford to waste his chakra on full Dance of the Seedling Fern, which would summon tens of thousands of bones across the entire forest and exhaust him completely.
"Dance of the Seedling Fern: Mini!"
Suddenly, towering spires of bone... stretching a massive 200 meters into the sky... erupted from the ground. They burst out upward directly beneath the coordinates of Konan's clones.
Konan's aerial maneuvering was impeccable. Anticipating the strike, she pivoted through the air with breathtaking grace. Ninety percent of her clones managed to dance through the gaps of the rising spears, while the some were impaled, detonating against the calcified structures and some which closely escaped where eaten away by the parasitic insects.
But Kimimaro wasn't finished.
"Dance of the Seedling Fern: Mini Bloom!"
The towering bone spikes didn't just stop. In a split second, the calcified branches shot outward in every direction, filling the empty air spaces and weaving a massive, inescapable thicket of bone branches.
The remaining clones were caught in the sudden, chaotic expansion of bone branches. They were pierced, crushed, and forced to detonate until only one figure remained.
Kimimaro looked up at her, his monstrous form looming over the destroyed landscape and high rise bone trees.
"You are the only one left," Kimimaro growled. "Which means the target, Fuu... is inside of you. Can you still risk splitting apart while the target is inside you."
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A/N: I have started writing extra chapters @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0