The parting ways with Jiraiya, Naruto, and Kakuzu... Team Kimimaro left with their mission completed. Before them lay the long trek back to Konoha from where they were: Land of Rivers, nestled snugly along the border separating the Land of Wind from the Land of Fire.
Neji carefully picked up the lifeless body of Fū, securing her remains for the return journey. They had been traveling for a few steady, uninterrupted hours when Kimimaro suddenly halted, raising his hand to signal the team to stop. Instantly, everyone dropped into a state of alert.
Activating his Byakugan, Neji swept his view across the surrounding, piercing through trees, terrain, and foliage. Finding nothing but still continuing to search as he frowned slightly.
"Kimimaro, what is it?" Neji asked, scanning the perimeter with his eyes. "I don't see any danger."
Kimimaro slowly turned around to face his teammates, with his expression calm. "Neji, my good friend," he began, his voice echoed softly in the quiet forest. "I can hardly believe our time together in the ANBU has come to an end. But my master, Lord Orochimaru, needs me, so I must take my leave from Konoha."
Neji's eyes narrowed, his stance tensing. "Kimimaro, stop talking rubbish. This is no time for jokes."
Instead of answering, Kimimaro extended his arm, thrusting his hand forward as bone tips sprouted rapidly from his fingertips. "Wind Style: Spiraling Finger Bullets!" he shouted, launching the projectile bones at high speed.
Reacting instantly, Neji spun on his heel, erecting his Rotation defense, the dome of Chakra deflected the lethal bone bullets with a sharp series of metallic clatter. As the rotation slowed, Neji glared at his former partner. "Kimimaro, you know I am just as strong as you are. Otherwise, I would never have been assigned as your ANBU partner in the first place."
Shino used the Neji's dialogue as a distraction to quickly order his Parasitic insects on Kimimaro, which he gave during their fight against Konan, to devour him.
Using Neji's dialogue as a distraction, Shino quietly commanded his Parasitic Insects on Kimimaro... the very bugs he had gave to him during their earlier battle against Konan... to swarm and devour the paper clones.
The insects as if on cue bit down on to Kimimaro's skin but they met with the hardened osteoblast tissue Kimimaro had secreted across his skin. Their mandibles couldn't even dent the calcified defense.
"Shino, you are certainly clever," Kimimaro remarked coolly, feeling the slight pressure on his skin. "You gave me six Parasitic Insects during that fight, but you only used four against Konan. The remaining two were left on my body, weren't they?"
With a subtle surge of bone growth beneath his skin, Kimimaro crushed the insects instantly. He paused, his pale eyes narrowing. "Now it makes me wonder if you managed to place on me, the same kind of insect you did on Kakuzu, for tracking," he mused aloud, starting to thoroughly give a quick self-inspection.
Neji didn't give him the chance to do that as surged forward to close the distance. Utilizing his Byakugan's, he could pinpointed the Shino's insect on Kimimaro's headband... a small barely noticeable detail he has been seeing from the past two years, from when Kimimaro first received his genin headbands.
Simultaneously, Shikamaru seized the opportunity as he manipulated the shadows cast by the thick overhead tree, he extended his shadow across the ground, connecting it whole tree which Kimimaro was on. "Shadow Paralysis Jutsu complete," Shikamaru grunted, locking Kimimaro firmly in place.
Seizing the opening, Neji unleashed the power of his First Stage Cursed Mark. Black flame like markings spread across his face and body as he focused a massive burst of chakra into his palm.
"Eight Trigrams Mountain Crusher!"
Neji thrust his palm forward, releasing a devastating wave of compressed chakra. But just as the attack landed, Kimimaro covered himself in a thick calcium-rich liquid which began to ooze rapidly from his pores, instantly hardening upon contact with the open air. Within seconds, Kimimaro was completely encased. He looked like a White Knight, covered from head to toe in a seamless, overlapping suit of high-density osseous armor.
"Shikotsumyaku: White Knight!"
The force of Neji's Mountain Crusher forced the heavily armored Kimimaro skidding back. Spiderweb like cracks, fractured the surface of the bone suit, but Kimimaro remained standing.
"You really have grown strong, Neji," Kimimaro said, his voice muffled slightly behind the skeletal helmet. "However, you cannot defeat me. The only reason you are still breathing is because I have no desire to kill a friend."
As he spoke, the thick bone armor began to knit itself back together, mending the cracks and hardening into an even denser layer than before.
"Hand over the medical dose you received from Hokage Tsunade, and I will be on my way," Kimimaro demanded. "You can team up with the others to form a stronger squad later if you wish. But if you refuse to comply, I will have no choice but to kill..."
Before Neji could respond, Kimimaro's eyes turned direction. "Starting with them," he added softly.
In a flash of speed, Kimimaro blurred out of sight. Before Shikamaru could react, Kimimaro appeared right beside him. The armor around Kimimaro's hand morphed instantly into a lethal bone blade, pressing tightly against Shikamaru's neck.
"What is your decision?" Kimimaro asked, putting Neji in an agonizing position.
Shikamaru, despite the blade pressed against his throat, gritted his teeth and tried to reason with Neji. "Neji! Don't back down! He's bluffing because he's terrified his body won't be in optimal condition when he returns to Orochimaru! He's at just as much of a disadvantage as we are!"
Kimimaro clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Smart people really are troublesome," he muttered. "It's true... if I fight you, Neji, I can win, but it won't be without great difficulty. But regardless of my condition, Shikamaru's life is currently in my hands."
Though, Neji's demeanour changed a lot after he became a member of ANBU he could not afford to lose the life of his friend. If I defy Kimimaro, Shikamaru and Shino could lose life and I will have to fight him and he would still take the medicinal dose. If I agree to Kimimaro, I lose nothing but the medicinal dose. Either way, Kimimaro is defecting.
~~
A/N: As per Kimimaro plan he wanted to defect a few months later when Orochimaru would need a new body and his deal with Tsunade would finish.
But, Orochimaru is being targeted by Akatsuki, in canon Deidara and Sasori attacks Orochimaru but he ranimtes the third Kazekage and fights with Sasori's own third Kazekage puppets.
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