On the vast prairie, Gaara and Kimimaro stood face to face.
According to Rock Lee's recollection, the atmosphere was oddly tense—neither of them moved, simply staring at each other for a full ten minutes. Then, without warning, the sand in Gaara's gourd erupted, rushing straight toward Kimimaro with deadly force.
Kimimaro's sharp eyes flickered.
"He doesn't seem like a close-combat fighter," he thought. "Getting near him won't be easy."
Kimimaro leaped away to evade the attack and retaliated instantly. In midair, he fired his finger bones at Gaara.
"Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets!"
The projectiles shot toward Gaara, but just before they could reach him, his sand automatically intercepted them.
Rock Lee's eyes widened as he observed the fight. One was relentlessly pursuing his opponent with sand, while the other was casually tossing bones into it as if for sport. A small pile of discarded finger bones had already begun to accumulate at Gaara's feet, seeping into the sand ominously.
"Their movements aren't wasteful," Lee muttered, astonished.
Gaara remained still, hands clasped, unmoving like a statue.
Meanwhile, Kimimaro dodged and weaved through the battlefield, his lithe body twisting as the sand chased him relentlessly. In the process, he even lost a few fingers.
"Huh…?" Lee shuddered. A chill ran down his spine.
As he continued evading, Kimimaro analyzed the situation.
"A perfect blend of offense and defense… but there's a limit to how much sand he can control at once."
Kimimaro suddenly stopped moving, his piercing gaze locked onto Gaara.
"Without sand, you're powerless!" he declared.
Gaara remained unfazed.
"Sand Drizzle."
Above, a thick cloud of sand loomed, descending like a downpour.
Kimimaro scoffed. "Such a simple trick."
He prepared to jump, but—
"What?!" His eyes widened in shock as his feet refused to budge. The ground beneath him had ensnared him in an intricate web of sand.
Above, the sand-rain gathered, forming an inescapable prison around him.
"Sand Coffin!" Gaara intoned emotionlessly.
The sand clamped down with a crushing force.
Thin trickles of blood seeped from the cracks in the sand.
Gaara lowered his hand slowly, his expression unreadable.
"When I look at him… I can't help but think of that man… Uchiha Sasuke." Gaara's eyes darkened. "He has the same eyes—eyes that seek the meaning of existence."
Suddenly—
Shff!
A cursed-marked hand burst free from the sand's grasp.
Kimimaro's body reemerged, his eyes burning with an eerie determination. His voice was steady but chilling:
"I have no purpose… except to fight."
Bones erupted from his flesh, piercing through his skin like deadly spikes. His entire skeletal structure shifted grotesquely, reinforcing his body with an armor of his own bones.
"This guy… he's a monster," Gaara muttered flatly.
Rock Lee glanced sideways. "You have the nerve to call someone else a monster?"
Kimimaro's voice was indifferent. "I underestimated you. I won't make that mistake again."
Gaara's demeanor hardened. For the first time, he shifted his stance, abandoning his usual unmoving posture. He lowered his legs into a wide stance, hands forming a quick seal. The sand in front of him trembled, rising like an ocean wave.
"Sand Tsunami."
Kimimaro's eyes widened.
Rock Lee gasped. "What?! That's…"
A monstrous tidal wave of sand surged forward, swallowing everything in its path. The impact obliterated the surrounding trees, flattening the landscape in its wake.
"Damn…" Lee muttered in awe. "It's over."
But Gaara wasn't finished.
"Sand Burial."
The sand swirled, forming a massive vortex centered around Kimimaro. The ground itself turned to quicksand, pulling him deeper into an inescapable abyss.
Darkness.
Buried underground, Kimimaro slowly opened his eyes.
"So… am I still alive?"
A whisper echoed in his mind.
"Orochimaru-sama…"
Memories surged—his encounter with Orochimaru on the night of his clan's extermination. Orochimaru, a man with an unsettling presence, had towered over him, his golden snake-like eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Life doesn't have to be meaningful," Orochimaru had said, crouching beside the wounded boy. "But… perhaps you'll find something interesting in it. Just as I have found you. Now, come with me."
Kimimaro's lips curled into a bloodstained smile.
"Yes… People must have a mission to live."
The cursed seal spread further across his body. His flesh twisted, reforming as he ascended from the depths of the quicksand.
Gaara tensed as Kimimaro emerged, his tail extended and his body fully transformed.
"Sand Binding Coffin!"
Sand surged, attempting to imprison Kimimaro once more.
But he didn't resist.
Instead, he let the sand wrap around him… and then tore through it with brute force.
Gaara's eyes narrowed as Kimimaro rushed toward him.
Gaara slammed his hands together, summoning a towering wall of sand.
Boom!
Kimimaro smashed straight through it, sending shockwaves through the battlefield. He appeared behind Gaara in an instant, delivering a powerful strike.
"So much for 'absolute defense,'" Kimimaro scoffed. "Pathetic."
Gaara staggered back, his sand armor crumbling away. But within moments, a fresh layer replaced it. He stood, untouched.
"I see," Kimimaro mused. "You coat yourself in layers of sand armor."
Then, with an unsettling motion, he reached behind him—and pulled out his own spine.
"What the?!" Rock Lee recoiled in shock. "Did he just… use his spine as a weapon?!"
Kimimaro lashed the spine-whip forward. "Dance of the Clematis: Vine."
The bone whip coiled toward Gaara, forcing his sand to react instantly. But Kimimaro wasn't done.
A massive drill-like bone formed on his right arm, spinning with terrifying speed.
"Dance of the Clematis: Flower."
Blood dripped from his lips.
"Not much time left…" he muttered.
Gaara's hands formed another seal. "The Ultimate Absolute Defense—Shukaku's Shield!"
A massive earthen wall shaped like Shukaku, the One-Tail, rose to protect him.
Kimimaro's drill-like bone spear clashed against the shield. The battlefield froze.
One was the ultimate spear.
The other was the ultimate shield.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then—cracks spread along Kimimaro's bone drill. With a sharp snap, it shattered.
Gaara exhaled. "It's over."
"Sand Mausoleum Seal."
The sand coiled, pulling Kimimaro into an abyss of swirling quicksand.
Rock Lee cheered. "Finally… it's over."
But then—
A whisper.
"Dance… of the Seedling Fern."
In an instant, a massive forest of bone spikes erupted from the ground, transforming the battlefield into a nightmarish hellscape.
Gaara grabbed Rock Lee, flying into the sky to escape the deadly forest.
For a moment, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Then—
"Die!!"
Kimimaro lunged from the bone forest, his weapon aimed directly at Gaara's heart.
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