We must kill him! (1)

The trio facing Tendo were all surprised to see him, all for different reasons of course. Gaara wanted to fight him again after his embarrassing defeat but he thought after absorbing the Shukaku, Tendo might've died when he escaped the village because of Shukaku's high tendency to break its jinchuriki's seal. Lee, on the other hand, felt extremely nervous when he saw Tendo. The scene where Tendo falcon dropped him kept replaying itself over and over in his mind. Even now, he wasn't fully healed from the aftermath of that faithful battle.

Tsunade had warned the team's, both sand and leaf about what to do if they happen to encounter him. They were to either try and subdue him as a complete team or if they were separated, they should not, under any circumstances, engage him at all. She said that she would provide the appropriate backup as Tendo at this moment in time, was a high jounin level opponent considering that he managed to kill Hiashi. Lee and Gaara knew though that he had to have gotten much stronger than that when they felt the ominous chakra emanating off of him.

Kimimaro saw the expressions of his two earlier opponents as they looked at this young man and as an experienced shinobi, he could tell they were nervous. He himself didn't know who this was but he would be lying if he wasn't incredibly curious.

Kimimaro: "Who are you? I'm guessing you didn't come to help them judging from their expressions."

Tendo: "Me? I am Tendo, the last one you will see before you die."

Kimimaro: "...very well. Try as hard as you can."

Gaara decided to interject as something wasn't right here. Their mission was to retrieve sasuke but when he saw the place Tendo was standing at, he knew that he wasn't just here for Kimimaro. He was blocking the direction sasuke and naruto went to so that meant he was also trying to stop them from catching up to them.

Gaara: "You're here to stop all of us, aren't you?"

Tendo: "How perceptive of you. Why don't we begin this-"

Before Tendo could even finish his sentence, Kimimaro shot a flurry of small bones at him that had incredible piercing power and speed. Tendo already saw him move and but instead of dodging as expected, he ran straight towards Kimimaro, letting the shots hit his body as he moved. Kimimaro thought he was a little arrogant for running towards the attack but when he saw them just get slightly stuck in Tendo's skin and the latter kept moving, he knew this opponent wasn't normal.

With his incorporeal spear drawn, Tendo closed in Kimimaro, thrusting towards him rapidly. Kimimaro managed to dodge the first few thrusts as they were the slowest, but in no time Tendo's spear movements sped up drastically as the latter ran his spear through Kimimaro's shoulder, lifting him up into the air. As Tendo was about to finish him off, Lee appeared and delivered a powerful kick to the side of Tendo's head hoping that it would stun him while Gaara started forming multiple hand signs as a giant wave of sand came out of the ground.

Gaara: "Lee, get behind me. Sand Tsunami!"

The giant wave of sand got even bigger and moved towards Tendo as Gaara continued forming hand signs. Lee managed to flicker out of there and landed behind Gaara, staring intently, nervously at the two being engulfed by the sand. Gaara then crouched down and put his hands on the edge of sand as he saw the two disappear under it:

'Giant Sand Burial!'

The earth started shaking rapidly as waves started traversing through the sand, brushing anything and everything that was under it. The duo looked on as the area grew extremely quiet, with Lee getting restless over the fact that they disobeyed Tsunade's orders.

Lee: "Dammit! Lady Tsunade said not to engage under any circumstances! Although you told me that if we do we can take care or at least damage them both at once, I still don't like disobeying orders."

Gaara: "Lee. As shinobi, we must be willing to risk our lives to complete our mission whenever the chance arises to do so. If we can at least kill one of them, we would have completed our mission."

Lee: "Gaara...dammit. Alright, I get it. Wh...wait Gaara, what is that coming out of the sand?"

Gaara was speechless as he stared cautiously at a small bump getting bigger and bigger as it came closer to them. The bump soon revealed the figure of a person as the sand began to fall off of him. Tendo came out of the sand with no injuries on him, his spear in his hand, and a small smile on his face. He looked at the duo then turned around and started looking under the sand for Kimimaro. The latter's hand shot out of the ground a short while later and he crawled up the surface with his curse mark fully activated.

His shoulder was bleeding profusely and the pain was immeasurable as his wound started decaying extremely fast because he was struck with the poison that is part of the demonic techniques. His animal-like appearance shocked Gaara and Lee but Tendo was already expecting it. Not wasting any more time Kimimaro used his Dance of the Clematis: Flower, causing a large drill-like bone to grow out of his arm.

He put his hands behind his back and drew out his spine as he spat out a massive amount of blood. Tendo started walking towards Kimimaro and the latter, seeing him coming, threw his spine at Tendo, wrapping him up with it tightly. Kimimaro then dashed towards Tendo with his last breath of life being used up in the process as he thought about his services to Orochimaru and how regretful he was that he couldn't serve him anymore. His only objective right now was to finish off as much as his enemies as possible so that they can't follow Sasuke.

Tendo watched as Kimimaro started coming closer at a fast rate and he felt the sand under him wrapping around his legs, making it's way up his body.

Tendo: 'A double attack huh? Sigh, I can already feel that they wouldn't even be able to damage me with these. Even if they did, I would regenerate immediately. I'll just finish everything off then, I've already wasted enough time.'

Gripping his spear tightly in his hands and with one swift movement, Tendo broke out of everything trapping him, dashing towards Kimimaro as soon as he did. The latter thrust his bone forward only for Tendo to tilt his head to the side, dodging it easily. This left Kimimaro's body completely exposed to attack.

'Lu Spear Technique, Sixteen Black Kill Thrusts.'

Tendo drew his arm back and the muscles on it started to expand slightly. With multiple quick motions, thrust his spear into Kimimaro's body sixteen times, destroying all his remaining bodily functions on impact. It was almost as if his body was some sort of pincushion.

[Ding]

[Kimimaro killed, 100 points gained.]

Using this opportunity when Tendo was distracted, Gaara tried to use Sand Coffin from below him and Sand Shower above him to attack him from both sides simultaneously. But before Kimimaro's dead body could fall to the ground, Tendo flickered from the spot and appeared in front of the duo, delivering two swift, powerful kicks to both of their faces, knocking them unconscious on impact. Even Gaara's sand armor was destroyed immediately as it couldn't even protect him. The only reason they weren't dead is because they were important to Naruto's growth and Tendo wanted him to become as strong as he had become, cannon wise. Tendo then flickered back and caught Kimimaro's falling body, using wraith execution on it immediately.

[Hosts body strengthened, Hosts soul strengthened. Shikotsumyaku gained. Hosts body is going under a transformation...]

Tendo felt all of his body feeling like it was being invaded by thousands of small ants as the Kekkei Genkai fused with his entire being. As he was standing there waiting for everything to be assimilated, he suddenly felt two hands grab onto his feet from underground. A figure suddenly jumped out from the ground with lightning in their hands while another one flickered behind Tendo with a ball of chakra furiously circulating in theirs.

'Rasengan!'

'Lightning Blade!'