22 Golden bones

After easily acquiring the corpses due to the large number scattered everywhere, we found Kimimaro lying in the snow a few kilometers from the site. In a way, it gave me déjà vu of how I met Haku.

"Is this the child you mentioned?" Ameyuri asked as she crouched down to see the unconscious child in the snow, prodding him a bit to see if he was still alive. "Doesn't seem like much, must be about five years old, like the Yuki clan child."

"I can assure you he's talented," I said as I picked up Kimimaro and placed him on my shoulders as if he were a sack of potatoes. "In fact, he's so talented in combat that his clan was scared and locked him up in a cell, only releasing him when they went to war against someone."

"If he's half as talented as you say, it could be entertaining to train him. But can you cure his hereditary illness? I'll only consider it if he's healthy and not afflicted by his clan's madness. I don't want to train a lunatic," Ameyuri replied, furrowing her brows.

"Please, doubt offends me," I said, rolling my eyes. "I can have him healthy in a day, as for his mentality... well, he was raised as a weapon of war, and perhaps we'll need to work on that aspect a bit, but I doubt he's a psychopath if that's what worries you. They had him isolated, after all."

"Alright, I'll give him a chance. If he doesn't meet my expectations, I can always finish off the last remnant of the Kaguya clan with my own hands," Ameyuri considered it for a moment and agreed. "It's a shame there are only two children in our village with this one. If there were one more, we could form a squad to train them together."

"I think that would be less efficient," I shook my head. "It's better if one master teaches one student full-time rather than having to divide their attention among three. They can practice teamwork later. Kakashi's Team Seven is a good example of this. Naruto barely improved under his tutelage, despite knowing his identity, and Sakura made no real progress because most of her focus was on training Sasuke. If Kakashi took it a bit more seriously, Naruto could have shed some bad habits, and Sakura could have improved significantly with the right motivation, but he ignored her most of the time due to her civilian background. Besides, teachers need to be able to teach something useful to their students to avoid repeating the case of Team Eight. It's obvious to anyone with two brain cells that Kurenai isn't suitable to teach Hinata, Kiba, or Shino. The only reason she got these clan heirs was because of her relationship with the Third Hokage's son, Asuma. I'm not saying she's not a capable kunoichi; it's just that Asuma doesn't hesitate to use his influence to her advantage. But since her specialty is genjutsu and no one on her team ever used anything like that in the entire series, it would have been more useful to assign a tracking specialist jonin as the teacher and give Kurenai a squad with talents for illusions."

"Villages don't have time for proper training; they just need effective replacements to quickly replenish their ranks," Ameyuri agreed with what Enel said, but the reality was very different. "That's why there's a minimum requirement for the number of missions to take the rank advancement exam, to filter out the talents the village will rely on in the future, from the cannon fodder used for the most dangerous tasks."

"Be that as it may, let's get back to the village quickly. I don't think it will take long for curious onlookers to arrive in the vicinity, and I need to treat the child," I told Ameyuri.

I suppose Orochimaru must be nearby, but I tend to think that his encounter with Kimimaro happened a few days after his escape, rather than on the same day. It's still a bit early to run into the snake, so it's better to leave early to avoid trouble.

...Back in Seimeigakure...

I have a nervous tic in my eye. Shortly after our return, Kimimaro regained consciousness, and after looking around with unnatural calmness, the first thing he said when he saw me was:

"Am I dead?"

Why do people have such a habit of asking me if they're dead? No! Do they think that just because they wake up on a cloud in the sky and see the tallest person in their lives, the only reasoning in their minds is that they're dead? Okay, for some reason, it didn't make sense in my head, but now I see it.

"No, but I can remedy that if you want," Ameyuri replied while laughing at the expression on my face.

Pakura, I see you trying to contain your laughter! I'll remember this...

"You're not dead; Lord Enel saved you," Haku appeared and reasoned with Kimimaro, although the way he's doing it makes me look like some sort of savior, which is odd.

"So I'm still alive?" Kimimaro said it as if it were a bad thing; that's not the maturity or attitude a child his age should have, that's for sure.

I leave the place while everyone explains the situation to him; I'm tired of doing it despite the few times I've done it. To not waste time, I head to what would be the engine room and prepare to move the Sky Island after reading the manual on a shelf next to the entrance.

The system is quite similar to the golden ship Enel built in the series. I need to sit on a golden throne and place my hands on two different surfaces to discharge the electricity and power the engine. At the same time, thanks to my control over electricity, I can steer the direction without too much trouble due to the different instruments in my field of view. There's even a TV that shows me the landscape below the island in high definition! Maybe it's for better parking, I imagine.

Since it's the first time I'm moving the village, I have to stay seated while providing the energy, but this won't necessarily always be the case. The island has custom-made special batteries that I can leave charged in case it's necessary to move the village in my absence or I don't want to spend so much time sitting, but that will have to wait until next time.

I don't know how fast the Sky Island can go, but it should take us a few days to reach Kusagakure.

...One week later...

It was strange passing over Konoha during the trip, but we finally arrived in Kusagakure without any issues.

I've been trying to cure Kimimaro using the knowledge I gained over the last few days, but not achieving the desired results, I made a golden apple smoothie and poured it into the tank with the nutrient solution where Kimimaro has been floating for the past few days, with nothing but an oxygen mask.

This is partly to explore the limits of the effects of the golden apple, wanting to find out if eating it is necessary or if it has other applications.

Kimimaro absorbed the smoothie through the pores of his skin, and within a few hours, it looked like someone had thrown a sack of flour into the nutrient solution, so I had to renew it.

Examining the now whitish solution, I discovered that it was actually tiny, countless bone fragments. It seemed that the root of the disease was Kimimaro's own bones, or maybe they were only in his bone marrow. Either way, his bones were destroyed and expelled from his body, while completely new bones grew inside him. The process seemed painful, but he endured it like a champion.

Absurd? Well, I don't think he's going to complain.