135. Wake Up, Kimimaro
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Kimimaro lay still her body wrapped tight like a mummy.
But this wasn't a burial.
It was preservation.
Neji stood over her, calm and composed. The clone holding her had dissolved. Only the real one remained.
He reached up and unclipped the pendant around his neck a sleek, silver medallion engraved with the kanji: [念] ("Thought").
He poured chakra into it.
POOF!
Smoke exploded around him.
When it cleared he was dressed head-to-toe in sleek black: fitted combat suit, formal vest, tie, and a wide-brimmed fedora. A white half-mask obscured his face.
The signature uniform of Organization D.
Professional. Discreet. Deadly.
(And no, not a coffin-carrying meme squad.)
This wasn't cosplay. The suit was battle-ready woven with chakra-conductive fibers, resistant to elemental damage, and tailored for mobility.
---
Moments later, two figures arrived silent and swift.
Neji tossed Kimimaro's sealed form to them without ceremony.
"Take her back to the base. Give me your pendants. I'll issue replacements."
They nodded, removing their masks and revealing the faces of Zabuza and Haku.
Both had been sent to the Land of Waves under Neji's command.
He took back their old pendants marked 斩 (Slash) and 白 (White) and handed them two new ones.
More smoke. More suits. Two new agents, fully geared.
"Also—take these," Neji said, handing five polished black spheres to Haku. "Set them into the chamber slots. You'll know where."
With curt nods, the duo vanished no questions asked.
Mission protocol. Just the way Neji liked it.
---
Back in Konoha, the aftermath was settling.
Choji was hospitalized. Naruto and Kiba were both badly hurt. Shikamaru had minor injuries. Neji, unsurprisingly, walked away unscathed.
In Tsunade's office, Neji gave a full, clinical report. She sighed heavily.
"Have them rest and recover. That's an order."
Neji bowed. "Understood."
---
Later, Shikamaru sat on his hospital bed, haunted by failure.
He'd been the leader and in his mind, he'd failed.
Neji, visiting, placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't dwell on it. But from now on meet me every day for a month. Training."
Shikamaru flinched. "Every… day?"
"You want to stay weak?"
"…Fine."
Neji smirked to himself.
Thirty days of training? That's thirty days of free XP.
And once Naruto and the others recovered?
Even more.
But right now he had other matters.
Kimimaro was en route to his lab.
---
Back at the Land of Waves D-Base, Zabuza and Haku had already returned.
Awaiting them: Karin red-haired, sharp-eyed, and currently Neji's field medic-in-training.
"sir," Haku said through the communication crystal. "We've returned. Instructions?"
Neji activated the channel. His voice, altered and mechanical:
"Place the five spheres in the array chamber. Align with the glyphs. Don't mess it up."
"Roger."
---
Neji and Izumi stood in the mirrored array chamber back at the main lab both dressed in formal black.
The circular platform beneath them was etched with ancient runes and five empty recesses.
Izumi took the spheres and slotted them in each one pulsing with violet light.
The glyphs activated. The runes lit up in concentric rings.
Across space and time, at the base in the Land of Waves, the same formation activated.
Perfect synchronization.
The runes shifted, distorted, and restructured into something far more complex.
Neji's eyes gleamed.
"It worked."
He reached for Izumi's hand.
"Ready?"
She nodded.
"Let me show you real space-time ninjutsu."
[Transfer Technique – Version 1.0]
Five seconds passed.
Then—flash.
They vanished.
---
In the base's array room—
FLASH.
Two figures appeared.
Zabuza and Haku staggered back.
Even Karin was wide-eyed.
"…Is that a teleportation jutsu?!"
Neji emerged first, brushing off his sleeves.
Still masked.
Still elegant.
"Yes. You'll get used to it."
He gestured casually. "Now bring me what I asked for. To the lab."
---
A few minutes later…
Kimimaro's sealed form had been delivered.
Neji rolled up his sleeves.
Everyone else was gone.
The lights in the lab dimmed. Only the surgical bay remained lit.
He placed his hand on the bandaged form.
Unseal.
Cloth unraveled.
There she was.
Still unconscious. Still.
Perfect.
But this wasn't just scientific curiosity.
He was playing a deeper game.
Each of the hormones he'd sent to Orochimaru had been "enhanced." Laced with deep-suggestion triggers.
Triggers that made whoever used them subtly associate their loyalty and their emotional core with him.
Over time, it would grow.
Loyalty.
Devotion.
Trust.
Not through genjutsu.
Through pure psychological reconditioning.
And that last injection? The one he gave just before sealing her?
It activated the buried programming.
Soon, she would see him as the one who mattered most maybe with respect, maybe with admiration, maybe…
He paused.
"…Thanks, Orochimaru. You did all the hard work."
Even if you turned her into a woman.
Neji cleared his throat.
Not the worst outcome.
He poured chakra into his palm.
The seal glowed.
Kimimaro stirred.
Fingers twitched.
Eyelashes fluttered.
"Wake up…"
Neji's voice was low, almost kind.
"Wake up, Kimimaro."
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