Chapter 85: Unexplained lines

Appearing right behind Naruto and Shikamaru, the one whose name is Kimimaro appeared. Using his foot, he gently touched the barrel containing Sasuke and quickly snatched it out of Naruto's hands.

His body flickered and disappeared again.

'Looks like I miscalculated...'

With a sigh, Shikamaru lowered his gaze. He felt defeated for a moment, but then, in front of them, Kimimaro appeared again.

"You're too slow, Tayuya. Where are the other three of the group that was once known as The Sound Five?"

His skin was as pale as the petal of a white camellia. She had shoulder-length silver hair parted in an atypical zigzag signature parting, vivid green eyes, angular facial features and two scarlet dots on her forehead, which the same members of the now extinct Kaguya clan also possessed.

He wore the same clothing as The Sound Four, only with a few changes to it. It was a customized version of the traditional Otogakure outfit, consisting of a light lavender, loose-fitting, long-sleeved, zippered shirt, black pants cut to mid-calf length and bandages wrapped around his ankles, traditional shinobi sandals, and a purple rope-like belt tied in an inverted loop around his waist. She also wore two red, tube-shaped hair ornaments.

The moment Kimimaro appeared, Toru felt a shiver run down his spine, as if his own body was warning him of the danger emanating from this mysterious pale-skinned being.

And his body was not wrong, for just as he appeared behind Naruto and Shikamaru, his Shigan saw something that made him wish not to face that fellow.

"The lines of death... they move so fast that it's hard for me to see them..."

Shikamaru looked at Toru with wide eyes. There was no need to explain how the death lines worked to understand. If they move fast, it's because the enemy is powerful, if they move slow, the enemy is weak, but what Toru was seeing was something that was out of his reach.

'It's as if he's clinging to his life with all his might.'

He narrowed his eyes and tried to find a way out of this problem.

"Kimimaro... Why are you here? Your body was-"

"I won't move with my body ever again. This is the power of my will."

Kimimaro held the barrel over his shoulder and sighed. Seeing Tayuya somehow made him feel angry. She hadn't done her duty as one of The Sound Five, that was a disgrace to Orochimaru.

"Now I am able to understand everything. This is the perception of a life that will no longer be trapped in the prison of her body anymore. It is as if I have touched the edge of Orochimaru-sama's dream. That's why, this I have here is important to fulfill his dream. And you, Tayuya, you've been too slow."

She felt humiliated by Kimimaro, but he was right. All The Sound Four had done so far was just run from some kids who were chasing them nonstop, there was no merit in that, and it's something that made this albino-haired man feel angry.

Naruto, on the other hand, jumped into the attack without even considering the power of his enemy. He was sick of more enemies interfering with Sasuke's rescue, so his patience was over, if it wasn't over from the beginning of this mission.

"You damned bastard, stop talking nonsense and give Sasuke back!"

He raised his arm with the intention of throwing a punch and approached Kimimaro.

"Naruto, stop!"

Shikamaru tried to stop Naruto from continuing this, but he was faster, approaching in less than a second to Kimimaro.

But to his bad luck, Tayuya appeared and gave him a kick that sent him flying against Toru, who took care of cushioning his fall.

'Damn...'

Toru held Naruto up, but it was a bit difficult due to the recoil from the blow. Still, he couldn't take his gaze off Kimimaro.

"Tayuya!"

Kimimaro appeared behind her.

"The only reason I haven't killed you yet is because you have a mission to accomplish. So please take care of these three useless people."

Having said this, she took a long leap until she reached one of the farthest branches. He took one last look at Toru, sighed and then disappeared without a trace.

'Damn rats'

Having been threatened by Kimimaro in such a pathetic manner, she took out a flute that was hidden in her string belt, clasped her hands together and brought the object close to her mouth.

For a second she observed the surroundings and the enemies in front of her.

'The blond idiot only knows how to attack at close range using the shadow clones. The other one uses shadows at medium distance and is also a smart leader. The problem is just to my left, that idiot, Asahi Toru... Kabuto warned us about him earlier, he's dangerous and that's something I could already see. He moves at a stupidly abnormal speed, but I think Kimimaro is faster. I must find a way to kill all three of them without dying trying. This is going to be difficult'

He narrowed his eyes, not taking his eyes off Toru, who was still processing what he had seen.

'She said her name was Kimimaro. From what little I saw, and judging by his kill lines, that guy is extremely powerful. I've never seen anything like that in my life... How is it possible that death lines can move so fast?'

He clenched the hilt of the daggers tightly.

The mission was complete, they had Sasuke in their hands, but then Kimimaro appeared and everything was ruined. Toru felt stressed by all this, so much so that for a moment he felt like everything was spinning, as if he was trying to stay conscious.

"Toru..."

Shikamaru said.

Toru turned his gaze slowly and saw his two remaining companions. Naruto and Shikamaru had serious expressions on their faces, they were planning something, that was obvious, but with Tayuya present, whose powers have yet to be revealed, it would be hard to do anything against him, no, Toru could do something about it, but Shikamaru has planned something completely different.

He waved his hand, as if he wanted to communicate something. Toru understood, now he had to concentrate on this mission, even if he had to come to this place against his will.

'Good... I know what I have to do' The blue light in his eyes slowly extinguished, returning to the usual silver-gray color. Now that she understood Shikamaru's plan a little, she had to get to work.

"We're three against one, we have the advantage! We can win easily! Come on, Toru and Naruto!"

The three went on the attack at the same time.

"Pieces of shit, no matter how many there are, the result will be the same!"

"Don't underestimate our teamwork!"

"Here we go!"

Striking first with a kunai in his hand, Shikamaru managed to hit the blow against Tayuya's flute.

"Toru, Naruto, now!"

Jumping back and forth, Naruto readied his fist for a punch. In response to this, Tayuya opened her eyes waiting for the punch, but it never came, what's more, Naruto looked at her with a smile as he stepped over her.

But there was something he forgot about, and that something was Toru, which jumped from branch to branch, in a zigzag fashion, leaving residual images in the places where he was.

That time, Toru flashed his daggers in front of her face and Tayuya closed her eyes as she parried Shikamaru's attacks.

"Uh?"

The two's eyes met. In less than a second, this boy kept the daggers inside the coat, a millisecond later, he gave a small blow on Tayuya's forehead without taking his eyes off her face.

"You fell."

Toru vanished in front of her, reappearing next to Naruto.

'I did what you wanted, Shikamaru. Now it's your turn to make sure that girl doesn't catch up to us'

She disappeared into thin air like a shadow. This left Naruto confused, who as he ran, looked around for his teammate.

"Holy crap, how did they trick me, what kind of teamwork is that!" Tayuya said, to which Shikamaru replied with a tired smile.

"It was so easy!"

***

A few seconds passed since they left Shikamaru behind. Naruto felt confused, since Toru disappeared, but that didn't matter now, he had to save Sasuke no matter what.

'I don't know where you went, Toru, and that makes me angry, but I hope you show up soon.'

He took a leap arrived at a strange part of the forest, which was treeless, with a completely clear sky, blue with white fluffy clouds.

"Tayuya I'm going to kill you..."

Kimimaro shook his head at the sight of Tayuya's futility, this only made him angry and questioning himself.

He looked behind his back, where Naruto was. In that boy he could see something strange. Blood red eyes, with pupils very similar to those of a feline, his whiskers looked a little bristly as well as his hair and he also had a look full of anger on his face.

'He seems to have a strange chakra'.

"What the hell is wrong with Orochimaru, why does he want to take Sasuke away!!!"

Kimimaro narrowed his eyes and replied.

"Hm... Orochimaru-sama has already obtained his immortality technique. Now, in order to get all the remaining techniques in the world, he needs time..."

"And what does that have to do with Sasuke!"

"His immortality does not imply the immortality of his body. He must replace his body with a new and stronger one, before the old one withers away."

"Is that what he wants Sasuke for...?"

"That's right, it's exactly what you're thinking. Orochimaru-sama's new body, will be the body that is hidden in this container."

Hearing this made Naruto's anger rise.

"I won't let that happen, I won't let you take Sasuke!"

He clasped his hands together, forming a cross with his fingers. Instantly, hundreds of small explosions of smoke began to appear all over the place, completely covering the area that made up that forest.

***

"So that was it. Orochimaru was looking for a new body to possess. Sasuke and I were his two best options, but because I refused, he decided to go for Sasuke, who was an easy target, as well as possessing the Sharingan."

Watching the scene of Naruto and Kimimaro, Toru shook his head as his eyes glowed with the light of death in them.

When they had the opportunity to follow Kimimaro, he thought it would be a good idea to use Naruto to gather information about this enemy, after all, the speed at which his death lines moved was something he has never seen before. Therefore, without even knowing it, he could sense that the enemy was extremely dangerous.

'The fight has begun...'

Naruto launched all his clones against Kimimaro, but Kimimaro, with two strange swords that came out of his hands, managed to destroy a small part of them, turning them into mere clouds of smoke, which disappeared into thin air without a trace.

One by one, the clones tried to hit him, but it was useless, nothing worked.

Using smooth and graceful movements, with the white blades coming out of his hands, he moved across the battlefield, spinning and jumping, destroying every clone that stood in his way.

Naruto got tired of not being able to hit his enemy, so he threw a large number of clones on Kimimaro.

Toru watched this and frowned.

'Bones... he possesses a Kekkei Genkai...'

Bones protruded from different places on Kimimaro's body, all of them managed to destroy the approaching clones. This made Toru discover something about this enemy. He used his bones as weapons, apparently he could manipulate their shape.

He opened his eyes to see this pale-skinned man.

Right at his shoulder, the skin began to tear and a cascade of blood flowed from the wound. There it was, between the wound, a bone stuck out. Kimimaro grabbed it with his hand and pulled it out as if he felt no pain at all.

"This is the Camellia Dance."

'Disappeared...'

Toru saw it. Like a shadow, he appeared and disappeared, over and over again. Each time he did this, a clone disappeared, until in the end... only Naruto remained.

They looked at each other for a while until Kimimaro said something interesting.

"It's over."

Boom!

The barrel Sasuke was in exploded, revealing someone different. Although his appearance changed seconds later, at first you could see a being with long ash-colored hair and pale skin, that being was Sasuke, who began to laugh out loud.

'Sasuke... there is nothing we can do anymore. He has no salvation'

He closed his eyes and sighed. He already knew and decided not to intervene in this, he would only be a support in this team so that the mission would end up being a success, but in the end, that could not happen.

"Sasuke, where are you going?"

He left and Naruto tried to follow him, but Kimimaro stepped in the way. He held the bone sword in his hand and prepared to kill him.

'Damn, I must intervene'

Toru was about to jump into the battlefield, but then, a big breeze passed right next to him. For a second he could see it, it was the ....

'You should have stayed in the hospital...'

Rock Lee managed to stop the last attack with which Kimimaro planned to kill Naruto.

'This situation changed from one second to the next.'

Lee and Naruto exchanged words. After that, Naruto followed Sasuke and, when Kimimaro intervened, Lee obstructed his path while adopting his fighting stance.

'Lee... Why are you here? You're in no condition to fight'

After the surgery, Lee was supposed to rest for a whole month so he could return to training, but not to work as a ninja until his spine healed completely, but he disobeyed his and Tsunade's word, and now he was here, fighting Kimimaro.

'Lee won't be able to fight him, his condition is not the best for combat. I must interfere, otherwise he will die... Huh?'

The serious expression on Toru's face changed to one of curiosity when he saw Lee stagger back and forth, he had flushed cheeks and a sleepy expression on his face. Next to him, just below his feet, was a bottle with a label on it.

'The painkiller that Hokage-sama gave Lee to make the pain subside... but... oh, no.'

Although it was hard to see, the label on the bottle said 'Sake' so now Toru could tell what was going on with Lee.

It disappeared in everyone's eyes, now Lee was going to get serious.

After this guy had mistaken a bottle of painkiller for sake, he somehow became faster and stronger. Again and again, Lee started hitting Kimimaro, leaving him no chance to respond. This was undoubtedly surprising to Toru, since he should not be able to move like that and yet he was doing it.

'Suiken, I think that's what that type of taijutsu was called. When a taijutsu user is weak to alcohol, something like this could possibly happen... at least that's what I read some time ago in a book'.

He watched this fight carefully.

Lee was standing up to his enemy, leaving no chance to counterattack and delivering powerful blows that knocked Kimimaro back. This had become a total spectacle, but that ended when he got tired of holding his off.

The bones came out of his body, piercing Lee's fists, this made him finally wake up from his drunkenness.

Kimimaro looked at him like he was garbage. He was lying on the ground, his fists bleeding, unable to defend himself, looking at everything like a frightened animal.

He raised the bone sword to deliver the final blow, but then....

Clang!

The daggers and sword collided. Kimimaro saw Toru in front of him, they looked into each other's eyes for a second. The light of the Shigan distracted this man for a moment, because of how mysterious these eyes looked, in the end he knew that someone strange was in front of him.

"Toru! You're here!"

Lee sighed in relief, Toru had saved his life again after all.

But at the same time, as he tried to stop Kimimaro, sand began to rise from the ground, hands formed and grabbed Kimimaro by the torso. Lee and Toru watched this without saying a word.

The hands lifted Kimimaro, then threw him to the ground, leaving a large crater that covered part of the area.

"You... What are you doing here?" Toru asked.

_______

Volume 2 has already started. Can you guess what happened to MC?

Ah, I almost forgot. I will post the next chapter at 60 power stones, good luck and have a good day/night.