The battle was heating up between Sasuke and Kimimaro. It wasn't just the fire jutsu Sasuke was deploying either; both were starting to push to their limits.
Sasuke had already used up the majority of his chakra to keep Kimimaro at arm's length, frustrated that none of his jutsus were able to penetrate that bone armor of his opponent. Thus, he kept going back to his fire jutsu, currently the strongest technique in his arsenal. However, it was also the reason he was very close to running out of chakra.
Kimimaro was better in this regard. Using his Kekkei Genkai was taxing on his chakra, but not enough to tire him out this early in the battle. However, there were far more taxing charges of using Shikotsumyaku than mere chakra depletion.
His health, for instance.
He wasn't fine. Even after years of undergoing therapy and medication, his body wasn't fine. This was an inherited problem stemming from his very bloodline in the Kaguya clan.
Those who have Shikotsumyaku sometimes also develop this disease. The root cause was never deciphered; his clan wasn't known for their knowledge accumulation or farsightedness.
Even if the medicine he received after Hidden Mist's coup d'état easily curbed the chaos staged by his clan all those years ago, instead of killing the last member of the clan—him—they let him be, giving him a choice to remain a shinobi of the Hidden Mist.
Kimimaro knew that this decision had much to do with his bloodline. The Hidden Mist had already lost much of its power and bloodline clans during the Bloody Mist policy for them to have the luxury to kill off the last bloodline user of Shikotsumyaku as well.
He himself wasn't worth as much as his blood and his future children. However, for Kimimaro, that didn't matter. He was given a chance to live, and even they helped him suppress the inherited illness in his blood. That alone made him loyal to his village.
However, the Hidden Mist wasn't known for its medical achievements. All they were able to do was suppress his illness, not cure it. And when fighting a strong opponent while using his bloodline power to this extent, he was bound to take recoil.
In his case, the recoil was the degradation of his condition. So yeah, Kimimaro too wasn't holding out well.
Both he and his opponent were fighting with everything they had.
'At this rate, I only have that one trick left,' he pondered. He knew that using that last trump card in his arsenal would make his condition even worse. However, if he wished to win, then there was no other option.
Not once did he think it wasn't worth it. Kimimaro was the kind of person who didn't care about his life if it came to serving his master, his benefactor—in this case, his village.
Jumping back, he got ready to push his Kekkei Genkai to its limits. Sasuke, who was preparing to gather the last bit of his chakra for a desperate close-combat offense, halted at the sudden retreat of the enemy.
'Is he running away?' That thought crossed the Uchiha's mind only for a second before he let it go. From Kimimaro's face alone, he could tell that wasn't the case.
Kimimaro gathered all his chakra, ready to unleash his strongest technique. However, just as he was about to do that, he felt a sharp pressure on his shoulder.
"What—b-but how is this possible?"
His eyes went toward it only to find that a jet of water had pierced not only his shoulder but the incredibly tough bone armor he had beneath his skin.
The water didn't stop there; it dared to move toward his head, which Kimimaro reacted to almost immediately. He turned his body, saving his head but in the process almost completely severing his arm.
He could heal—Kaguya clan members had incredible healing—or else their own Kekkei Genkai would kill them. However, this level of damage would take time.
His hand, for the time being, was done for.
His eyes darted to the person responsible for this sneak attack.
There stood a pink-haired boy with both his hands clasped, pointing at him with a smirk on his face. By his physique, he looked strong.
"Sukuna," Sasuke called out.
"What the hell are you doing?" His tone was almost hostile, seeing Sukuna steal his target.
"Testing out a technique I developed. Not enough time I get a chance to do so, won't you agree?" he replied completely nonchalantly.
"That's not the point! This is my fight. I don't need your help!" Sasuke's temper rose a bit.
"Oh… sort of already. You had no way to beat him. None of your attacks would have made a dent. Not to mention, even you could tell with your Sharingan that this guy was up to something big," Sukuna replied, still smiling.
Sasuke didn't reply, because what Sukuna said was correct. He really didn't have a way to pierce through Kimimaro's armor.
He didn't ask how Sukuna was able to do that water technique—wasn't he supposed to not do any technique, period?
Part of the reason was because Sukuna was tricky like that. He sometimes pulled out techniques none of them knew while still being incapable of doing the most basic shinobi techniques. It's never that he was incapable of doing ninjutsu; rather, he wasn't capable of doing certain forms of techniques.
For Sasuke, it didn't matter. What mattered was that the pink-haired bastard just stole his opponent, and he couldn't even say anything because Sukuna was right—he really might have lost without any proper way to get through Kimimaro's defense.
His fists clenched tight, anger boiling once again at his own powerlessness.
"That was a cheap shot," Kimimaro turned to Sukuna, now completely ignoring Sasuke by showing his back to him as if the Uchiha couldn't do anything to him.
That grated even more on Sasuke's psyche.
"We are ninjas. What's cheap and what's not? As long as we can complete the mission, that should be a win in our books, wouldn't you say?" Sukuna shamelessly shrugged.
Kimimaro didn't reply; he knew it too. That's what it meant to be a ninja. A shinobi is the farthest thing from fair. For that, one can become a samurai.
Just as he was getting ready to fight off against Sukuna, a large blast resounded around the clearing.
Everyone turned their heads toward the massive tsunami summoned by Kakashi, throwing it right at Zabuza, who was forced to endure the full brunt of it.
"Zabuza-sama…" Haku, who was still stalling both Sakura and Karin, immediately reacted, rushing to Zabuza.
Kimimaro tensed seeing this. For a second, he looked at his own hand and then around, only to find that Suigetsu was also down.
They couldn't win at this rate. It was pretty clear. So instead of attacking, he used ninjutsu to get out of there—not going toward Zabuza, but to Suigetsu.
Stopping him was possible; however, Sukuna doubted he would go down that easily. He knew how dangerous Kimimaro could be when he didn't care about his own life. Part of the reason he acted when he did was because he saw Sasuke getting pushed back.
Farther away, Zabuza was barely conscious. He had broken many bones and was no longer in fighting condition.
"Zabuza-sama," Haku immediately supported him.
"Damn that Hatake," he cursed. However, unwilling as he was, he knew that they had lost. Even if all of his genin won their fights—which wouldn't happen—even then, they had lost.
Kakashi being in proper fighting condition while he was in none meant they had lost. There was no saying otherwise.
Little did he know that Kakashi too was running on fumes. He had exhausted much of his chakra to the point he might as well join him on a hospital bed at this point.
"Retreat." That was all he said.
Kakashi, who was panting and barely standing straight with all the exhaustion hitting him, saw them running away but could do nothing. He was spent.
Sukuna too didn't stop them. An eventual conflict with them was all but fate, and they would be excellent sparring partners for Naruto and others.
For him, killing them was easy, and thus he decided to let them go.
...
A/N : I will explain how he did that technique later on but meanwhile any one have any guesses?