The sun made the narrow canyon as hot as an oven. Rasa adjusted the brim of his Kazekage headdress.
"Only an outsider would choose such a time for a meeting," he said.
The two masked guards behind him didn't respond. Looking ahead, Rasa spotted the envoy they were looking for.
"Do you represent Orochimaru?" he asked, coming to a stop in front of the boy.
He was pale and shirtless with bright green eyes. He tilted his head, shaggy white hair framing his face.
"I would never dream of representing him," Kimimaro said. "I am a mere tool that follows his wishes."
Rasa scowled. "Then what good are you in a negotiation?"
Kimimaro didn't answer. Rasa felt something was wrong.
Gold dust surged out of the sand. It formed a sphere around the Kazekage, shielding his body. He hadn't seen or sensed an attack. It was nothing but instinct that made him act. Instincts that kept him alive this long.
The attack came from behind him. Rasa raised his shield—
Only for it to be pierced.
One of his guards had moved faster than any Suna shinobi. A sword appeared in his hands. When the blade hit the gold dust, it penetrated Rasa's invincible wall. The point speared toward his chest.
Until his attacker was crushed.
Thoom!
A boy had fallen from the sky like a bright orange meteor. He had stunningly blond hair and whisker birthmarks. Naruto growled. "Got you!"
He had jumped from the rim of the canyon and landed on top of the guard who nearly killed Rasa. Rasa was stunned— but too experienced to freeze.
The guard's joints reacted like water, letting him slither out from under Naruto's feet.
Rasa directed his dust to pierce the man, but he was forced to abort offense in favor of defense. The second guard lunged at him with chakra scalpels around his hands. From the back, Kimimaro fired finger bullets. In blocking these attacks, Rasa gave the man that nearly killed him a chance to escape.
The guard's mask had been cracked when Naruto struck him, so he discarded it. Underneath was a face that Rasa recognized as one of his ANBU. The man served him for decades. He wasn't a traitor— he'd been killed in the line of duty. There was only one shinobi that could move the way Rasa just witnessed.
"So in the end, the alliance was nothing but a pretense, Orochimaru."
The guard giggled. He grabbed his face and peeled the skin away. Underneath was a pale, yellow-eyed man. He flexed his back, creating a succession of popping sounds as bones and joints locked into the right places.
"Don't look so hurt, Rasa," Orochimaru said. "This is merely business."
His tongue flickered over his lips, elongating the final syllable.
"Today is the day you die, snake," Rasa said.
Orochimaru giggled at an unnatural pitch. "That day will never come. Kimimaro, Kabuto, deal with our young guest, then aid me. Time is precious."
For a moment he looked covetingly at Naruto. With that beastly chakra and the distinctiveness of those features, he could easily recognize who had intervened. At another time, Orochimaru would've made an offer to bring Naruto to his side…
Or found a way to take him alive, as an infinitely-healing subject.
But Naruto's arrival came at too delicate a point. Suna wasn't far enough for Orochimaru to linger. Everything relied on the Kazekage dying quickly— discovery meant death in the face of Suna's full force. It was impossible for a shinobi to take on a major village by themselves.
"I do not know who you are. Frankly, it doesn't matter," Rasa said. "I will take the snake if you handle his helpers."
Naruto squinted at the Kazekage, putrid chakra making his pupils into slits. He nodded. "Don't let him stab you. If I have to take three of them I'll be screwed."
"Do not worry." Shimmering sheets of golden dust flooded out of Rasa's surroundings. "He will not get past my guard twice."
A bone nearly stabbed Naruto in the back of his head, but he bent forward and let it miss. Naruto sprang away, separating from Rasa as a storm of gold enveloped the kage. Kimimaro followed him, swinging two blades of bone, but Naruto deflected and dodged each swing. A heavy downward slash made Naruto leap back. His chakra-enhanced legs launched him nearly twenty meters. He and Kimimaro regarded each other while Rasa and Orochimaru battled.
"Fool," Kimimaro said. "I have to kill you now."
Naruto snorted. "Then all I've gotta do is stop that from happening. Doesn't sound too hard."
"Why did you come?" Kimimaro asked. "I was pleased the ending we chose—"
"Well, I wasn't. Just because you're dying is no excuse to throw your life away." Naruto bared his teeth. "You told me this life was picked for you when you were born. So why are you still letting someone make all your choices?"
"Orochimaru is my purpose," Kimimaro said. "You cannot convince me to turn my back on him."
"Yeah, I've realized," Naruto said. "But leaving it like this gives me this nasty taste in my mouth. So I figured it out!"
The vague haze of chakra around him exploded. The shade darkened to red as tails formed behind his back— three in total.
"I just have to get rid of Orochimaru."
"We can't have that."
Naruto's second opponent blurred past him. Kabuto's chakra scalpels hit the tendons in Naruto's shoulder, leaving his right arm limp. Three taps was all it took to render an arm useless. Kabuto's fingers darkened and burned where he touched Naruto's cloak, but were already beginning to heal
"I warned you to clean up your loose ends, Kimimaro," Kabuto said. "Oversights always crop up when it's least convenient."
Before he could retreat to the Kaguya's side, the arm he'd disabled shot up. Tendons re-knitted as Naruto's arm blurred. Red chakra extended his grip, catching Kabuto above the wrist.
"Butt out!" Naruto said.
He threw Kabuto into the cliff so hard that the rocks cracked. Kabuto tumbled into the sand facedown.
Kimimaro eyed his ally. "Very well Naruto," he said. "If I must send you ahead of me… so be it."
Chakra expanded starting at the back of his neck. His skin turned purple and a tail grew out of his lower back. It wasn't a chakra construct like Naruto's, but a physical extension of his body. Bone barbs sprouted out of the tail and formed along his back. Black marks ran down his forehead, curving around his eyes.
Chakra bubbled into the shape of claws on Naruto's hands. Two-meter lances grew out of Kimimaro's arms, enveloping everything below his elbows.
The two monsters sprung at each other, cracking the ground where they kicked off.
Kimimaro was slower in this form. The tradeoff became apparent when Naruto caught a blow from his twin lances. Even drawing on the power of four tails, Naruto was pushed back across the sand.
"If your intention is to stall me, it's futile," Kimimaro said. "You cannot match me unless you aim to kill. And regardless, my master will not die."
Naruto grinned, bearing his fangs. "We'll see! That old man had shitty eyes. People like that are never weak!"
It was impossible to make out the state of Rasa and Orochimaru's battle. Dust was flooding the canyon while Orochimaru was a barely-trackable blur. Neither Naruto nor Kimimaro could spare the attention to see more.
"My master is the strongest!" Kimimaro said.
"Is that why he ran out of Konoha with his tail between his legs?"
Kimimaro snapped. He spun to the side and swung his fleshy tail at Naruto's side. Two of Naruto's tails caught it and held it in place. Kimimaro's ribs shot out in the form of curved blades, puncturing Naruto's stomach, who didn't try to dodge. They couldn't reach deep enough to cripple him. By taking the hit, Naruto had time to punch Kimimaro straight in the cheek. The boy flew back.
"Raahhhhh!" Kimimaro screamed.
He plunged his arms into the sand. Shifting and popping could be heard. A second later, a ten-meter spike erupted from the ground. Naruto barely crossed his arms to block it. The point dug into his forearm, making him wince.
"A direct hit could kill in an instant," Kyu said. "Even I cannot save your flimsy mortal vessel then. Do not let it strike your vitals."
Naruto had been lifted into the air by the rising spike. Kimimaro tried to impale him against the wall of the canyon, but Naruto flipped backwards to get out of the way. Three more spears shot out of the ground to catch him. Naruto made a hand sign and blew a stream of wind, throwing himself into a different trajectory.
The instant he landed bones erupted around his feet. There seemed to be no end to the number Kimimaro could generate. His darkened arms were still buried in the ground, no doubt spreading a network of bones to cut off Naruto's every move. Naruto aimed a Fūton jutsu at his stationary form, but Kimimaro's body formed a hard shell that repelled the impact. Naruto dodged two more spears, weaving between them with his enhanced speed, and spat fire instead of wind. It failed to even char Kimimaro's bones.
"It's futile," Kimimaro said. "You cannot harm me from afar."
Naruto growled. The energy around him shimmered and multiplied as a fourth tail formed.
"Careful, Brat. You're reaching your limit."
Kyu's power was potent and addictive. Even with her helping hands guiding him, it was a challenge to control it. Clarity was a must in fights between shinobi at this level. Naruto couldn't let the power cloud his thoughts for a second. He sharpened his mind like a kunai, completely focused on Kimimaro.
With his speed increased, he launched himself straight at the pale boy.
"You are too easily guided, Naruto," Kimimaro said.
The instant Naruto came close, a garden of bones shot up to skewer him. The trap had been set in advance, blocking any way out. Naruto ducked a crag that aimed at his head and twisted the side, allowing himself to be stabbed in the gut, sparing his heart.
His legs were pierced in two places, but his arms stayed free. Strangely, Naruto hadn't even tried to use them to guard himself. Kimimaro's posture relaxed.
"Stay there," he said. "Please."
He twisted, going to help his master.
"Don't turn your back."
A sense of doom struck Kimimaro. He swiveled, wrapping his tail in front of him. Bones exploded out of his tail and arms in the shape of a half-dome. He thickened the shield to the width of a stone wall. The entire time, Naruto formed handseals.
With the right hand, he channeled his natural wind element. With the left he wielded Kyu's affinity for fire. One wanted to blow down anything in its path, the other wanted to expand indiscriminately. The freedom of wind and the viciousness of fire. The lesson Kimimaro's words accidentally taught him repeated in Naruto's head. Embrace the differences. Welcome contradiction.
Flames flooded from Naruto's mouth as his cheeks puffed out. Simultaneously, they were caught and amplified by wind. The elements blended together, traveling faster and burning hotter, brighter, harder.
Kimimaro's bones blackened. His shield fractured. When the attack burned away, all that was left was charred sand.
Twenty meters away a spike burst out of the ground. Kimimaro melted out of it, barely catching himself in a crouch. He coughed for nearly twenty seconds, spewing blood.
Naruto grabbed the bones that had pinned him in the air and pried them apart, landing on the sand. He bled for a moment before his wounds healed. Kimimaro looked worse. His mutated appearance couldn't hide the fact that he was barely staying on his feet.
Naruto allowed his borrowed chakra to lessen, halving the power he was drawing on. "You can't keep fighting. This is over."
Kimimaro smiled, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "Is it because we're similar that you would go so far for this? You're misguided, but I feel the need to thank you. All the same… you're wrong. Kimimaro Kaguya was born to fight. He will never stop. Until the moment he dies."
Bones shot out of his arm like the antlers of a bull elk. They kept branching, spawning into a seemingly infinite web before plunging into the sand.
The ground shook. From every single direction, hundreds of bones broke the surface.
The exertion left Kimimaro coughing blood. For once, he didn't keel over and stop, but kept his technique going. He had no intention of letting his body rest.
Kyu's chakra flared around Naruto as his anger spiked. "Stop!"
"Face me, Naruto." Kimimaro was smiling despite the blood trailing off his chin. "Show me all that you have—"
They were interrupted by a bellow of pain.
The golden storm around Rasa was disrupted by a moment of false serenity. There was a strange impression of time standing still as Rasa stood there, Orochimaru still twenty steps away, his sword through the kazekage's stomach. The blade had extended in a straight line and pierced his opponent. Rasa managed to turn, avoiding a fatal shot, but Orochimaru was a snake. There was no chance his fang wasn't poisoned.
"One kage finished, one to go," Orochimaru said.
Rasa's golden dust was disrupted. What had raged like a tempest fell to the ground in sheets. He swayed on his feet. The eyes Naruto called nasty were full of fire as he gnashed his teeth. His skin was already getting paler.
"It's done," Kimimaro said. He didn't sound relieved. His faith had never wavered.
"That man is not dying," Kyu said. "His expression is too smug."
He didn't look very smug to Naruto, but Kyu was the kitsune here. If someone was going to pick up on deception, it was her.
Because of Kyu's warning, Naruto was watching Rasa extra closely. That's how he noticed something strange. Gold dust was coming out of his mouth.
It wasn't much. Really, it was only a small shimmer. But what had it been doing there?
Orochimaru's blade retracted. Rasa dropped to his knees. He breathed in sharply, as if it could be his last, and cut off Orochimaru's arms.
That was how suddenly it happened. The dust that had fallen, inert, formed blades that came from every angle. He would have taken off Orochimaru's head if the snake-like man didn't catch his sword with his tongue and use it to protect his neck. Orochimaru tried to run, but Rasa's gold dust was everywhere. It attacked from below, in front, and behind. Often at the same time.
The Kazekage climbed to his feet. "Suna is the mother of poisons. Did you believe I would shake hands with a snake without solving its venom? I'm not a fool."
"He held it inside of his mouth," Kyu deduced. "A false tooth made of gold, to counter any snakebites. Sly… for a mortal."
Orochimaru stamped his foot and black ink spread around it. Snakes sprang out with puffs of smoke. None of them were colossal; in fact, most were only a few feet long, but they were the best he could do without his arms to channel chakra through.
The snakes were bisected in seconds. Orochimaru continued to flee. His body was unnatural to a surreal degree. He contorted in ways no human should be able to. Where he should have been gushing blood below the shoulders, the flow had already gone dry.
"Kimimaro! Delay him!" Orochimaru said.
"No!"
Kimimaro was already moving. Naruto shot at him and managed to pin him down, pressing his stomach into the sand. Kimimaro looked back.
He was smiling.
"Goodbye Naruto."
His body melted into the ground. Rasa's dust wasn't the only thing spread through the clearing— Kimimaro's garden of bones had spread everywhere. With the help of his cursed seal, that meant he could be anywhere.
He melted into a bone and traveled through it out of Naruto's reach. His eyes flickering over the scene, Naruto spotted the only place Kimimaro could be going.
Rasa had prepared a lance of golden dust lined up with Orochimaru. It shot forward, too large to block and too quick to escape. A pillar of bone lay in its path. That's where Kimimaro would appear.
Naruto called on four tails again. A fifth flickered behind him, unable to materialize. He would cross the distance and tackle Kimimaro when his friend appeared. He was fast enough to do it.
Kimimaro melted out of the bone. Naruto kicked off—
And landed face down in the sand.
For a moment his body was on fire. Wrists, knees, elbows, shoulders, and ankles. Every major joint had been severed in a flash. Kabuto smiled above him, his mask gone and his unremarkable face visible. His hands had been massacred by Naruto's chakra, all ten fingers burned into stubs that were struggling to re-grow.
"That won't do," Kabuto said. "This is the part where we watch, Naruto."
Every bone in Kabuto's body should've been broken after hitting the cliff. He had healed himself the way his hands were recovering. Then he lay in wait, picking the perfect time to act. Naruto's body healed in seconds, but those seconds were precious.
The lance of dust struck Kimimaro's stomach. For a moment armor formed over his torso and the bones kept the attack at bay. The dust kept grinding forward, but the bones held on.
It ended with a single cough. It was the only sign that Kimimaro's body was finished. His muscles relaxed. The golden spear cracked through. The Kaguya's bones failed.
"No!" Naruto roared. "That's now how it was supposed to go!"
Kimimaro looked over at him. Somehow, he was still smiling. Tilting his head back, he looked up, toward the sky above.
"We never traveled… But I suppose things still ended under the sun."
He grinned at Naruto, his eyes shut, bloody streaks between his teeth. That was how he fell with a muted thud. Behind him, the master he sacrificed his life for shook his head.
Orochimaru didn't spare a single word. It was such an inane gesture. Where was his anger? His gratitude? Where was his fucking heart?
Naruto's body rose, lifted by a growing cloud of dark red chakra. Flickering shapes appeared behind him. None of them materialized as a proper tail, but there were more than five. Six, seven, eight, nine…
"Brat!" Kyu's voice was distant; quiet. "You can't! You aren't ready yet—"
Naruto wasn't thinking. He could barely make out her voice. At times, it even sounded like there were two voices screaming at him… But all he could see was Kimimaro's smile, and that bastard shaking his damn head.
Suddenly, his nose stung.
"Ouch!"
The uncomfortable feeling snapped Naruto out of his trance. It wasn't even that painful, not compared to the way that he fought, it was just annoying. Two tendrils of golden dust had penetrated his chakra cloak and gone straight up his nose.
"Calm yourself!" Rasa said. "I will not have another tailed beast rampaging through my village! If it's revenge you need, then watch. There's no need to give yourself up."
Somehow, in the disturbance, Kabuto had completely disappeared. Kimimaro had saved his life but Orochimaru was still stuck. He did anything that he could to run, pumping his shoulders as he fled without arms.
The dust Rasa had spread around formed a cage. It coated the canyon walls and covered the ground to stop any earth jutsu. It blotted out the sky, and the sun that had shone on Kimimaro's last moments.
Orochimaru lashed out with his sword, wielding it with his tongue. It was unbelievably sharp. Like when it first pierced Rasa's defenses, a blow that would've been fatal without Naruto, the sword managed to cut through the cage. But the blade passing through couldn't open a gap for escape. Blades attacked from below and the sides. This time, Orochimaru's tongue was cut straight through.
Orochimaru spun around. He dropped to the ground and literally slithered like a snake. He was aiming for his arms, Naruto realized. With how twisted his body was, Naruto wouldn't put it past him to be able to reattach them if given the chance.
"Are you back to yourself?"
"Sorry about that Kyu," Naruto whispered. "I'm good now. So… one more burst?"
"You better not mess this up."
A three-tail cloak surged around Naruto. He appeared over Orochimaru's arms before the slithering man could lunge for them. Glaring him in the eyes, Naruto smashed the arms into each other, pulverizing them.
A cloud of golden dust formed above Orochimaru. Faster than he could react, a golden guillotine cut his neck.
Naruto watched the head roll away from the rest of his body. He achieved what he came her for… and utterly failed at the same time.
"You. Missing-nin."
Rasa was still on his feet, but it was clear the wound he accepted to bait Orochimaru was sapping his strength. He staunched the bleeding with golden dust and put a hand over it.
"My shinobi will arrive imminently," Rasa said. "I will not claim to understand your motive for being here. I will simply say… Have you ever thought about visiting Suna?"
O-O-O
"You k-killed O-Orochimaru?" Hinata asked.
"Well, Rasa did." Naruto patted the sand next to where he was reclined, just to the side of Kimimaro's grave. "He would've died if I hadn't been chasing Kimimaro. Ever since then he's been pestering me: join Suna, join Suna! He's a piece of shit, but I know what kind he is, y'know? He wants me on his side, so he won't do anything that would piss me off too badly." Naruto's eyes roved the old gouges taken out of the canyon. "Which is good. I'd prefer to never fight him."
"He would die by our hands."
Naruto ignored his bloodthirsty copilot. "Orochimaru was going to attack Konoha, actually. It would've been huge. They were going to use Gaara and everything. So I guess, indirectly, I kinda saved the village." He smiled viciously, shaking his hand at the sky. "Hear that, bastards? I saved your asses!"
Naruto chuckled, his energy gradually fading. He glanced at Hinata and saw her staring at the bones that had become Kimimaro's commemoration. They were just one part of the garden of spikes he summoned in his final moments. Naruto had salvaged them and propped them up in their current pattern, after burying his friend's body.
"I'm pretty goofy, right?" Naruto shook his head. "We knew each other for a week. And here I am, acting like we were best friends." He sighed. "It's not about how well we knew each other. It's about… what could've been, y'know? If this world wasn't the way it is."
"Do you want to change it?" Hinata asked.
Naruto was silent. Eventually, he grinned.
"Change the world?" he said. "That's way too big for me. I'm already struggling to make the life I want. Oh, but I'll get there! When I'm so rich that I have to buy a whole village just to store my money, then I can live how I want! And you'll be there too!"
Hinata jumped. "M-Me?"
"Yeah! We'll find you something to do. And Gaara will be the butler… because he likes that, for some reason. Kurotsuchi will dance for the guests. Temari won't leave Suna, but I'm sure she'll come and visit. And by the time we get there, how many other friends will we have made?" Naruto grinned at the sun— the one thing that hadn't changed in all this time. "Everyone will have a job! And you know what?" Naruto held one hand toward the sky, spreading his fingers. "We'll even have a florist. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Hinata glanced at the grave.
"Very nice," she said.
O-O-O
Above the traveling pair, on one of the cliffs that lined the canyon, a man applauded Naruto's speech. He was too far away for Naruto to hear it. His own ears could only catch the words because they had transcended their natural state a long time ago.
His silver hair was tied into a ponytail. In places, his skin looked cracked and oily, more scale than flesh. Eyeglasses rested on his nose despite the fact that his vision was fixed long ago.
"What a good speech!" Kabuto said. "This is why I look up to you, Naruto. You see your own future so easily." He glanced to the side. "Don't you think it's funny, though? He's come here to visit you… on the very day I arrive to bring you home."
Kimimaro's body lay on its back. The natural energy from his cursed seal had preserved it just how he died. His eyes were closed peacefully, as if in a deep sleep.
For now.
Kabuto stood up. He leaned over the lip, looking down at Naruto.
"We'll meet again," he said. "Until then, don't let your light go out. I'm too curious— how long can you keep going, walking against the path of the world?"
Perhaps sensing something, Naruto looked up.
By the time he did, Kabuto had disappeared, taking Kimimaro's body with him.