Chapter 86: A double-edged sword

He squinted as he appeared.

The sand slowly began to gather around his, following his orders, he stepped into the gourd bottle hanging on his back. The wind blew strongly, making the leaves of the trees dance to its rhythm. He blinked a couple of times as he analyzed the surroundings and, in a monotone tone of voice, said, "The allies of Konohagakure have arrived, the ninjas of Sunagakure."

He crossed his arms without looking away from the dangerous enemy in front of him.

This made Toru feel surprised. The reinforcements arrived too quickly, at least he thought that at some point ANBU ninja or other Jounin from the village would show up to help clean up this mess, however, what he encountered was completely different from what he thought from the beginning.

He kept the daggers in his coat as he waited for this reinforcement to answer his earlier question, though it wasn't necessary, Gaara simply spoke when he arrived, Toru understood this somehow.

'The Hokage thought of this, I guess it's a good thing.'

"Gaara of the Desert..."

Lee, who was lying on the ground, looked at the ninja who had appeared shrouded in a cloud of sand. Although he had bad memories with him, he knew right away that he was not an enemy.

"Asahi Toru, we meet again..."

Looking at the gray-eyed boy, Gaara narrowed his eyes remembering what happened the last time the two of them saw each other's faces. That memory was still fresh in his memory, it hit his mind softly, like a horrible explosion that seconds later caused him pain.

He had to admit that Toru was someone dangerous, not only did he have secret jutsu of great power, but his tactical intelligence was quite high.

"It seems so."

'Toru and Gaara... the two of them are looking into each other's eyes with determination. This is what sensei always talks about... the power of youth. I should too'

Getting up from the ground with difficulty, some drops of blood came out of the bandages on his arms and legs, he felt a little pain, but he resisted and managed to stand up to approach these two powerful ninjas.

'Are you ignoring me?'

With a dangerous gleam in his eyes, Kimimaro reached out his hand and, from his fingertips, small bullet-like bones emerged. He looked at the three children for a second before sighing heavily.

"Teshi Sendan [Piercing Phalanges]."

The phalanges shot out of Kimimaro's fingers in the direction of Toru and Gaara's face.

They saw this before reacting immediately.

Clang, click, clang!

The small bones were easily deflected by Toru's daggers. At the same time, the sand rose from the ground, turning into a wall that protected Gaara and Lee.

"You're so impatient," Gaara said.

"Lee, stay out of this. You don't have the necessary condition for combat, I'll take care of this together with Gaara."

Toru took a step forward as in his eyes, the light of death flared like a torch again. Rock Lee watched this with an expression of disappointment, but....

"No, I'm sure I can do this, here I come! Let's go!"

He tried to throw himself into the fight without a care in the world. Gaara took advantage of this and, using the sand, grabbed Lee's foot and threw him to the ground.

"When we fought you were faster, but he already said it, you can't fight. You don't have the necessary physical condition."

"You say that as if you had nothing to do with what's happening to me. Besides, I don't know why you're here, what made you come to help us?"

Toru was also asking himself the same question. Gaara didn't take long to answer.

"I'm here because I have a big debt to pay to Konoha..."

He narrowed his eyes, understanding what Gaara was referring to. Toru may not be an expert with human emotions, but with this he could deduce that this debt Gaara is talking about has to do with Naruto.

Lee, however, felt that he didn't understand anything, but he still couldn't sit idly by.

"In any case, I'll help them. Now, here I come! Ahh!"

The sand once again dragged Lee backwards.

"Please let go of me now! Huh?"

A bright light and a voice made Lee stop.

"Shakuton: Shimikomaseru!"

Toru's daggers glowed brightly, his eyes showed the Shigan slowly spinning inside his pupil, with an X that seemed not to belong to this world. The wind made his cloak dance to the rhythm of the wind and, for a second, the expression on his face changed to a dull and emotionless one before some words came out of his mouth.

"Lee... the condition you are in will not allow you to do anything. If you try to fight, you will only be a hindrance to us. When you woke up from surgery, I told you clearly that you should not exert yourself physically in the estimated time, however, you disobeyed what I ordered, now your body is injured again, which will lead to more recovery time. You will not be able to do anything else for another long months."

Hearing Toru's flat voice, Gaara narrowed his eyes.

He saw the mysterious ninja he faced during the chunin exams, but this ninja still lacked something and it was that shadowy, sadistic smile that somehow made him feel in danger. The glowing daggers, his eyes personified death, everything was exactly the same as that day.

When Toru rose from the ground as if he had come back to life, wrapped in the black cloak of death, Gaara saw... a monster.

But unlike what Gaara thought, Lee had a totally different thought that had to do with the comment Toru made earlier.

'That... no, he's right... me."

He clenched his fists looking at the ground. He disobeyed Toru's words, and now he was injured again. The wounds on his arms and legs opened up again due to the force he used while moving, no wonder his gray-eyed companion scolded him.

"I need information" Gaara said, attracting the attention of Kimimaro, who just watched silently, waiting for an opportunity to attack.

"He can mold the density and shape of your bones at will. He can also rip them out and use them as weapons. He seems to possess a great capacity for regeneration, as the wounds he inflicts on himself by ripping out his bones heal quickly."

"Well then, let's get started."

Sand started pouring out of the gourd, spraying all over the ground. A second later, dozens of hands made of sand began to come out, one by one, they surrounded Kimimaro, rising all the way up, as if the hands wanted to touch the sky, and just to his right, Toru took a few steps forward while holding the glowing daggers in his hands.

'I never thought I would face someone with such a strange power. No, that's what Yamato-sensei is already for.'

He disappeared leaving residual images of his body.

Kimimaro's eyes widened at the speed of his enemy. So he decided to counterattack right away, without hesitating at any moment.

But finding Toru would be difficult, as it was as if he had disappeared, but....

A bright trail began to move all over the place, using the sandy hands to propel itself. Like a star of fire, that was Toru, who kept zigzagging from place to place, leaving Kimimaro no chance to guess where the next attack would come from.

Clang!

The bone sword and the dagger collided, causing small sparks to fall to the ground, disappearing into the air like fireflies at dawn.

He looked him in the eyes and Toru did the same, but then, a gigantic hand of sand came out of the ground with intentions of crushing Kimimaro.

He took another swing with the bone sword and jumped backwards to avoid the sand hand.

Toru looked at it with narrowed eyes before frowning and disappearing again.

Kimimaro scanned the surroundings, looking for Toru with his eyes. He found him easily.

"Do you think you're fast?"

He appeared behind Toru, swinging the bone sword to perform a single slash that would possibly end up decapitating his foe, or so it should be, as multiple sandy hands reached out and held Kimimaro's torso tightly.

Toru closed his eyes and sighed. With Gaara here, this fight had become a little less difficult.

He watched directly as the sand swallowed Kimimaro up until he was completely covered, simply leaving a pile of sand in the shape of a butterfly cocoon.

"They beat him..." Lee said.

"No..."

Gaara and Toru replied in unison.

This caused the reddish-haired boy to look at the mound of sand and frown as he raised his hand.

"Sabaku Sousou [Desert Funeral]"

Like a liquid explosion, blood began to pour out from different places in the sand cocoon. Lee thought that this would end it all, but he was wrong, as a hand protruded from the sand.

Soon, Kimimaro was able to get out of the sand prison, showing strange black marks like tattoos all over his body. Some pieces of skin on his body were now nonexistent. A part of his face was broken, showing his teeth through the hole of the wound.

'He protected himself with bones, huh... I was hoping I wouldn't have to use all my chakra, but it seems I have no other choice.'

He sighed as he saw that Kimimaro was able to survive a jutsu that was capable of dismembering people in a very effective and easy way. Toru thought he had no choice but to use all his chakra against this enemy, to use all his strength.

Besides, if he used Gaara's sand, he could do some interesting things.

'His bones are too tough, my daggers bounce and don't cut through the kill lines. If this keeps up, I'll have to find another method, but I can't think of anything, no, I think I've got something. Using Gaara's sand, I could manage to hurt him, it only remains to try'.

Slow steps, which soon turned into a light walk, Toru disappeared again without a trace. Gaara saw this and understood what this guy wanted to do, that he was using the same move as always, appearing above the enemy.

Then, hands of sand began to cover the sky, blocking out the sunlight.

Kimimaro watched this, he wasn't going to let them do something like what they had just done again.

"If I hadn't created a layer of bones under my skin to protect me, I would be dead right now. I must admit I underestimated them, but that sand and shiny knives won't make a scratch on me again, it ends here."

Leaping forward, Kimimaro appeared a few meters in front of Gaara, this made different walls of sand appear to protect him, but he managed to break them easily with the calcium sword.

He quickly made his way through, breaking one after another of the sand walls, ignoring the hands of sand that covered the whole place. He thought that if he killed the person who controlled the sand, the battle against Toru would be easier, but that was only a mistake, as Gaara looked at him seriously before closing his eyes and sighing.

'Here he comes...'

A shield of sand formed above Gaara.

This caused Kimimaro to look up, that's when he could see it.

Through the fingers of the sandy hands, was Toru, with a sphere of fire in his palm.

'Damn!'

Kimimaro realized this too late, as Toru slammed Shakuton's wait into the sand hands, turning them into thin, sharp crystal thorns, which fell in the form of rain.

So, to defend himself, bones protruded from his knees and elbows, using them to block as many thorns as possible. He managed to deflect some, however, others managed to pierce his skin, digging into his bones.

Blood began to splatter again and again, Toru and Gaara's convulsive attack was working.

When the rain of crystals ended, Gaara reached out his hand when he saw that Kimimaro was still standing, at the same time, a giant wave of sand rushed against him.

Toru saw this and took a big leap in the air to dodge it.

Soon the sand covered most of the place, turning the forest into a small desert.

"Now did they make it?" Lee asked, but no one answered, not even Toru who was in the middle of all this small desert.

"¡¿?!"

Blood splattered on Lee's face. Toru's eyes widened as he saw strange bone thorns sticking out of the ground, these thorns pierced Gaara's back, the bone protruding through his stomach.

'How was that-'

The thorn went into the sand, and Gaara fell to the ground, wondering how this had happened, how could his sand not have protected him from this?

Well it's simple, the bone was faster than the sand. Even the sand armor wasn't enough, as it was easily pierced through.

'I'm screwed...'

Toru clenched the hilt of the daggers tightly as he looked in a specific direction where the lines of death were moving extremely fast, much faster than before.

"Gaara!"

Lee crawled over to where Gaara, who were currently being covered by sand.

The wound in his stomach was filled with sand, which changed its structure to prevent his blood from continuing to flow out of his body.

"Are you okay?"

"...It will take time to regenerate..."

"Huh?"

Lee didn't understand what Gaara meant, however, soon his attention was stolen by the strange creature emerging from the sand like a desert monster.

Toru saw this and sighed, dropping his arms over his shoulders.

'I have no choice, don't expect this guy to be able to do something like this.'

In front of him, stood Kimimaro. The color of his skin had changed, leaving aside that pale color and giving way to a slightly brownish gray color, in addition, large bones in the shape of horns were sticking out of his sword, a black colored mark showed around his eyes, and for some reason he had a tail very similar to that of a reptile.

"That absolute defense of the one you know as Gaara of the Desert, is that really all you can reach?"

Kimimaro looked at Gaara, a second later, his eyes fixed on Toru.

"You, on the other hand, hide your power. You've done nothing but dance back and forth, with quick meaningless movements. This is ridiculous, I'm getting tired of you two..."

He brought his hand to the back of his neck, where a bone began to pop out. The flesh tore, blood flowed like a waterfall and then, out of that place came his own spine, which was stronger than the bone he was using before.

'He tore out his spine...' Lee thought.

'This is the strongest bone in my body, it will be able to easily break through your sand defense. Moreover, it will be able to tear your body apart with just one move."

He pointed the sword at Toru's face, who closed his eyes and sighed while squeezing the daggers hilt gently.

"Gaara... drag Lee away from here. I know you can still use your sand, so I recommend you use it to protect yourself."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"If you don't, you'll die. Not even the demon hiding in your body will be able to save you."

"How do you know that?"

"Because Naruto is just like you, plus you became that demon before."

Gaara's eyes widened upon hearing this. If Toru knew about this, that meant that even Naruto could become friends with someone like him.

'Equal...'

He spoke no more and, without waiting that long, the sand created a small floating platform on which Lee and Gaara were able to mobilize, standing at an elevated height from where Toru and Kimimaro were standing.

Gaara decided that he would leave everything to this guy, the guy who made him bleed for the first time.

Although... Kimimaro was not going to let this happen, as he jumped with the sole intention of piercing Lee and Gaara with his sword, however, Toru appeared in front of him, blocking the attack with the daggers.

He stepped back a few meters after the impact.

"Your Kekkei Genkai, it's unique. I guess it belongs to your clan."

"The Kaguya clan, but now this is my ability and no one else's..."

"It's a pity, it seems that the Kaguya clan will soon become extinct."

"Hm, maybe. Because of my body's illness I won't last long, but that extinction won't happen, because I'm not alone. As long as I am helping Orochimaru-sama's dream, I will always be in his heart."

Toru sighed.

"What an effective brainwashing Orochimaru has done to you, I should ask him for the recipe."

Putting away the daggers, Toru took off his cloak and threw it on the ground. He adjusted the bandages on his arms and looked at Kimimaro one last time.

'Those death lines are scary, but I've already found the reason for this. The illness I mention... that's why. He tries to hold on to his life with all his might, he has a very strong will to do this, but this is as far as your story goes, Kimimaro...'

Toru disappeared, leaving a large crater in the ground due to the force he used.

Kimimaro reacted quickly, and parried the kick he was about to receive with the bone sword. Before he could counterattack, Toru disappeared again, positioning himself behind him.

"Your body is tough, so I can't use my daggers on you. However, I still have my strength and my jutsu."

Whispering in Kimimaro's ear, he brought his hands together in an attempt to deliver a hammer blow, but he managed to react quickly, using his tail to defend himself, he hit Toru in the stomach.

He recoiled due to the force of the blow and a few drops of blood came out of his mouth.

"Brainwashed, what would you know about me! Everything I do, everything I've done so far, is of my own free will, I want to fulfill Orochimaru-sama's dream!"

He lunged at that boy and, holding the bone sword, slammed it against the ground, place where thorns started to come out with the intention of piercing Toru, but Toru jumped high to avoid that.

"He's just dodging the attacks... it doesn't make sense" Said Gaara, who touched his abdomen in pain.

Although he could still use his sand to fight easily, for some reason this enemy was too strong, which left him with very little chance of winning, not even his impenetrable sand defense was of any help.

Even though he came to this place to help, he ended up getting hurt easily.

"Hm... I wonder what he's planning to do. He's just mindlessly punching and kicking, there doesn't seem to be any hidden agenda" Gaara said.

Lee looked at him before returning his gaze to the battle going on in front of them.

"Well... I don't know Toru well enough, but I could tell that he always hides things when he fights. That guy said it before, he's not using his full power. If I remember what happened in the chunin exam finals, I could be almost certain that he's planning something."

"You seem to trust him a lot."

"I guess, he is... someone I want to defeat with my own strength.

"Hm..."

He sat down on the sand as he took a breath. He thought that, unlike Naruto, Toru was the kind of guy who always kept hiding things, he could never guess what he was thinking about, and that poker face didn't help matters, this only generated questions and more questions.

At the same time, moving back and forth at high speed, Toru was trying to hit Kimimaro, but Kimimaro was reacting too fast, his reaction time was so fast that his speed seemed like a game to him.

"You keep moving like a cockroach, you're annoying."

Raising his hand, bones started to come out of Kimimaro's left arm, they came together one after another until they formed a kind of big sword that covered his whole arm. He looked at Toru with narrowed eyes before trying to run him through with the sword, however, he dodged it using the triggers.

Toru saw that he wasn't accomplishing anything just hitting him with meaningless punches, but he had still managed to gather a bit of information, this allowed him to find a perfect jutsu to end this battle.

'I hadn't used this jutsu before due to it being a double-edged sword. If I use it, I will surely end up in the hospital, although possibly, thanks to the bandages on my arms and the special oil they are covered with, I will be able to lessen the damage to a great extent'.

He adjusted the bandages on his arms again as he slowly walked around Kimimaro.

"Your name... is Kimimaro, isn't it?"

"What does that matter to you, you scumbag!"

"Well, I'll remember it by the time this battle is over. At least this way, you won't die completely."

"You must be very arrogant to say such a stupid thing."

Toru's hair covered his eyes and a smile formed on his face.

"Arrogant me? Hahaha, yeah... I guess you're right, but you're no better than me, you puppet of Orochimaru's asshole."

Through hisbhair, the Shigan's light shone brightly. The smile on his mouth was unsettling to Lee, however, Gaara could only remember what happened that day during their battle in the chunin exams.

"How dare you insult Orochimaru-sama!"

Kimimaro ran up holding the two swords in his hands.

On the other hand, while keeping the smile on his mouth, Toru looked at Kimimaro and....

"Shakuton: Shimikomaseru, Hiji dzuru no desutoroiyāfisuto [Shakuton: Imbuing, destructive fist of the rising sun]"

As if his words were a command, from his fingers to his elbows, the Katon and Fūton element began to combine, the wind like cutting blades, the fire like hell itself, all this... generated the light that gives life to this world. Like the power of the sun in the palm of his hands, Toru's arms were covered by Shakuton.

The light of death accompanied the light of life in this battle. So, with a smile that tried to hide the pain of feeling his arms being shattered by his own jutsu, Toru began to walk against Kimimaro.

Soon his steps became a race against time.

He appeared in front of Kimimaro like a bright light of death.

He opened his eyes, but his reaction was not fast enough and, although he managed to cover himself with the two bone swords, his arms had been completely destroyed, nothing was left but the blood coming out of the wounds this caused him.

'You...'

Kimimaro stepped back, but Toru didn't let him, as, appearing just to his right, he used his legs to make him fall to the ground. This worked, now he was vulnerable, this time he was about to be killed.

He saw death watching him, with eyes as blue as the sky, but he had a mission to accomplish, he couldn't die this way, so....

"Sawarabi no Mai... [Dance of the Seedling Ferns]".

Death's eyes opened the instant he saw how hundreds of bones rose from the ground in the form of thorns.

'This won't be enough' He closed his eyes and sighed, waiting for this jutsu to end.

"Toru!"

Lee and Gaara, however, watched the scene helplessly, but....

A great light radiated in the center of this entire forest of bones that had formed thanks to Kimimaro, at the same time, the sound of thorns being destroyed was heard.

They saw it, there it was, but there was something strange. There was smoke coming out of his arms, and the smell of burning flesh could be felt in the air, Toru was running out of time, if he didn't kill Kimimaro now, he would possibly end up running out of arms.

"Die!"

Appearing from between the bones, as if his body was being absorbed by them, Kimimaro used the sword to stab Toru, but the...

'Just in time' He turned around and then blood splattered on his face.

Kimimaro opened his eyes and saw that Toru's two arms were piercing his chest. From his mouth blood began to spurt out and his vision began to blur.

'Orochimaru-sama... I'm sorry... I... I'm dying...'

His eyes slowly closed and his last breath was heard by Toru.

He saw the corpse in front of him and smiled as his hair covered his eyes.

'What a sad ending you've had, Kimimaro. Knowing that Orochimaru has been using you until now, it certainly must have been sad, but you never opened your eyes. Hahaha, how ironic, and how stupid...'

The light in his arms and eyes extinguished, revealing scorched bandages and skin with second-degree burns. The pain was unavoidable, however, the jutsu was better than the last time he used it while training.

In the end, using this double-edged sword, he managed to finish off his enemy.

***

Sitting down, with the sword resting on a tree trunk, Gaara and Lee looked at Toru.

"Your arms..." Lee said.

He saw the wounds caused by Shakuton's flames. In a way, he could understand the pain Toru was feeling right now, but luckily the burns are not that bad, in a few days they will heal completely, but they will leave big scars.

"It's a price I have to pay to perform this jutsu, otherwise I would have died in the attempt."

"A double-edged sword, eh..." He crossed his arms as he let out a long sigh. This was harder than it looked.

Right now, Toru had killed Kimimaro, well, if he didn't kill him, his illness would have done it in a few minutes, but he had no way of knowing this. However, now that this was over, there was one last thing to do before finishing that mission, the main goal of all this.

Putting on new bandages that he took from a scroll he used as a first aid kit, Toru squinted his eyes thinking about what he would do next.

"Now that this fight is over, I suggest you two go help the others. I'll go take care of the main objective of this mission."

"You mean..."

"Yes, so, Gaara and Lee, I'll take care of the rest, I'll go help Naruto."

Leaving no further explanation, Toru vanished into thin air like a puff of smoke. Gaara stared into the void for a second before standing up and sighing.

"Let's go..."

***

A lot had happened in a single day, he felt mentally exhausted, however, it could be said that everything up to this point had gone well.

'My arms hurt... at least the oil I used lessened the damage caused by the Shakuton. Ha~ the first time I used that jutsu I arrived at the hospital on the verge of fainting. Although I'm surprised at the stamina I've gained over the years, but the problem is in my chakra, it runs out very quickly if I use jutsu on a large scale'.

He jumps from branch to branch, moving at a great speed.

'Oh... my triggers were also damaged in battle, I guess I won't use them anymore. This time, when I return to Konoha, I'll take care of creating new jutsu, that's the most efficient, artifacts are obsolete when chakra exists'

He had already thought of several things, but for that to be accomplished, he must complete this mission so he could return to the village.

Minutes passed as he moved through the tree branches with hurried steps.

Then, for a moment, the seemingly endless forest ended up in a strange place.

Two statues that were strangely familiar and right there....

"Sasuke!"

"Naruto!"

These two friends were killing each other.

-Somewhere in Konoha-

While rumors of Uchiha Sasuke leaving Konoha were spreading throughout the village, in the shadows outside the village, a man was drinking a cup of tea.

He looked out the window at the leaves of the trees, sighed and drank some tea.

"Danzo-sama, everything is ready."

Appearing in front of him, a man wearing the mask of a Chinese zodiac animal bowed. Placing a fist and a knee on the ground, he bowed his head and showed respect to Danzo.

In response, the man closed his eyes and took another sip of tea.

"Good. Then let's get this started. This is an order, spread the rumors throughout the village and deliver the evidence to the Konoha council, the latter you will do in my name, now go!"

"Yes, sir."

The ninja's body flickered then vanished without a trace. At the same time, Danzo continued drinking that cup of tea, a bitter tea that for some reason, this time had a sweet taste.

_______

Here is a bonus chapter, it will be the last one I will give away this week, so you should strive to reach the 70 power stones for the next chapter.