Poof Orochimaru appeared in his lab, the same place he had been experimenting before his clone decided to summon him in an ambush.
'Hah, such a perfect body. If I can get my hands on that boy...' Orochimaru thought as he dissected the live ninja in front of him. The ninja was begging, pleading, not to live but for a quick death, but the Juinjutsu seal on his mouth was not allowing any sound to come out.
Orochimaru looked around his surroundings. Tens of his shadow clones were busy with similar things, some dissecting the ninjas, while others were recording the findings. Some were using strange Juinjutsu seals to pick the souls of the persons, causing unbearable pain, which had mostly crushed the minds of their research subjects.
He chuckled, thinking about how he had to come back because of low amount of chakra. In reality, more than 60% of his total chakra reserves were here experimenting. He just didn't want to hinder his research for now.
'Not like the boy is running anywhere. Today or tomorrow I WILL get my hands on you,' he thought, plunging the knife too deep in the person's skull in his excitement, killing him by accident.
Tch
With that, he moved to the next test subject.
…
Puck, puck, puck
The bone bullets, which should have killed any chunin level ninja, were now resting in Kaida's hands. With a speed difficult to follow, his hands moved with only fingers turning dark because of Iron Skin Jutsu. Kaida caught all of the bullets in the air.
His eyes no longer having the flower shape, but still even with 3 tomoe rotating in them, the world was too slow for him to miss those bone bullets.
Seeing his attack dealing no damage at all, Kimimaro became increasingly tense. Even Jonin level ninja who came after him occasionally took some damage from his attack, but this? It was completely new to him.
Since everyone he had met after his clan was purged had tried to kill him, there was no doubt in Kimimaro's mind that the man standing in front of him also had similar intentions. Leaving the water, he also stood on the sea like Kaida, with his bones ready to enlarge to become his weapon for the last fight of his life.
'If I have to die, I will die fighting,' Kimimaro thought. As a child whose whole life revolved around this word till now, in what he believed were his last moments of life, that was the only thought that came to his mind.
"I am not here to kill you."
"...?"
"I am not here to kill you," this time Kaida said with a smile. Though his eyes still had 3 tomoe rotating in them, now his stance was clear—no sense of preparedness for offense or defense.
The fighting instinct in Kimimaro was screaming at him that he would not get a better chance than this for an attack, but something in the eyes of Kaida, which were both deadly and beautiful, was stopping Kimimaro from attacking him.
His heart stirred a little because of that gaze. The look he had not gotten from anyone in his life till now—it was not the anger and despair from his victims, or fear and loathing from his own clan, neither the anger and disgust of the people he had met till now.
No, there was something in that gaze saying that he was not the monster no one was going to like, he was not the demon to be hunted.
"Calm down. As I said, I'm not here to harm you." Seeing the tears forming in Kimimaro's eyes, Kaida gently moved forward, slowly to not scare the boy in his sensitive state of mind. Gently, to show his intention, without a hint of attacking intent, he moved toward Kimimaro.
Gently embracing the boy in a tight hug, even though he couldn't see it for himself, the boy—more slim than a skeleton wearing human skin—started trembling.
Kaida's clothes started to get wet. The stench of the boy who was living in the forest, eating everything raw and sleeping in caves filled with decaying leaves to hide his smell from trackers, which even the water of the sea was not able to wash away, went into Kaida's nose.
He grimaced, not because of the smell, but by thinking about the life this frail boy was living till now. True that he was physically more powerful than 98 percent of the world population, but mentally he was still a frail boy who was not given a shred of love by the world.
Kaida remained like that until Kimimaro stopped trembling, letting all of the emotions fall out of the boy—all of the emotions he had been holding onto till now. Kimimaro also kept on crying, feeling something he was never allowed before.
After quite a long time standing in the center of the sea, the two separated. Kimimaro's eyes were a little red from crying so much, but aside from that, there was something else on his face as well, something which was not present before—a semblance of peace, comfort.
"Are you alright now?" Kaida asked, smiling while wiping away the tears formed on Kimimaro's face.
"Why?"
"Hmm?"
"Why are you being nice to me, when the whole world hates me? Why are you trying to be nice to me rather than trying to kill me?" Kimimaro asked, though Kaida noticed how he was not as defensive as before.
'Now how should I handle this?' Kaida thought. If Kimimaro was Naruto or any other kid who had been bullied, the most optimal solution would have been presenting the truth in the wrap of a beautiful lie. But here, this boy had already seen the cruel side of life.
More likely lived on that side. There was no use trying to hide anything from him, not like it would be worse than what he had lived through till now.
"How about we go to that island first?" Kaida asked. At that, Kimimaro nodded his head and followed Kaida to a nearby island, where Kaida created two chairs with a simple Earth Jutsu.
"First of all, let me make two things clear before I begin my discussion," Kaida said when both of them took their seats, looking directly into Kimimaro's eyes.
"First, you are really special, which I think you already know, which is one of the major reasons for your misfortune. And second—the whole thing about the world hating you was a lie. Someone was manipulating things behind the scenes for you to feel like that," Kaida said, waiting for Kimimaro to process what he had said. He knew a big explanation was required.
Even though there was a golden opportunity present in front of him to become the hope for Kimimaro which Orochimaru had so meticulously planned—getting a reliable ally who would be ready to die for him.
'But even thinking about that repulses every cell in my body. I will tell him everything straight, and he can then make the decision after that.'