Muin grabbed one person in each hand and snarled to the surrounding shinobi, "Don't try to ambush me. I've implanted sealing chains inside their bodies. If I sense an attack, I'll trigger them—they'll be incinerated before I die. And don't follow me. Anyone tracking me will get them killed too."
Laughing triumphantly, Muin vanished into the forest. No one dared to stop him.
"Damn it!" one Iwagakure ANBU clenched his fist. "Track him!"
"Wait." Jūgo and Guren stepped in front of them.
"What the hell are you doing? Our comrades were taken too!"
"Calm down," Jūgo said. "Kimimaro let himself be captured. If you follow too closely, it'll ruin everything."
"Let himself be captured?"
Suigetsu leaned against a tree, smirking. "Yup. That idiot Muin walked straight into it. He's already done for."
Muin had run more than ten kilometers before stopping in the middle of a dense forest, panting.
"This is it! Once I deliver these two, I'll be a Kusagakure hero," he muttered. "The girl's reaction to the drug should peak soon… but no time to play now. I need to move."
As he caught his breath, Kimimaro calmly asked, "What did you do to Kurotsuchi? She's burning up."
"You've got time to worry about her?" Muin scoffed. "You should worry about yourself. She won't die—yet. But you might."
"Me? No. I won't die."
"Still so smug? The Kaguya clan freaks might lock you in a cell for life. That's worse than death."
Kimimaro's voice turned cold. "No. Because you're the one who's going to die."
"What?"
"Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu." (Water Release: Water Prison Technique)
Muin flinched as Kimimaro formed a single-hand seal. But to his shock, the target wasn't him—it was Kurotsuchi, now suspended in a protective globe of water.
"You... you can still use ninjutsu?!"
Muin panicked. He immediately understood: the Heavenly Prison technique's chakra-burning chains lost their effect when submerged in water.
"Thanks to you," Kimimaro said, stepping forward, "I lost a few hundred points of life force… but I replenished that from you."
Before Muin could react, white bones erupted from the ground, surrounding him in a cage. Simultaneously, roots sprouted up and entangled his legs.
Kimimaro grabbed Muin's arms with both hands—his grip like iron.
"Absorbing your life energy now."
Muin screamed as his chakra and vitality were rapidly drained. His body began to wither and pale, even as he struggled against the restraints.
"Pathetic," Kimimaro muttered. "Barely 20,000 life force. Not even close to my limit."
He checked his system's status. His accumulated life force had risen to about 35,000. Once the conversion period was complete, he would be able to unlock the Hagoromo clan's bloodline serum.
As for the uneven numbers—it all began when he activated the Byakugan gene serum, which still left him with about 18,000. And thanks to Karin's analysis, he'd learned that Katon: Tenrō no Jutsu (Fire Release: Heavenly Prison) could be nullified in water.
So Kimimaro had preemptively used the Hōzuki clan's bloodline serum—though it wasn't fully matured, he used it early, costing him only a few hundred life points.
A few days earlier, Suigetsu had cheerfully offered to teach him the clan's Hydrification Technique. Kimimaro, already adept in Water Release, had mastered its basic applications quickly. While he couldn't liquefy as completely as Suigetsu, it was enough.
When Muin injected the chains into him using Heavenly Prison, Kimimaro's internal structure was already water-based. The technique simply fizzled.
A perfect counter.
Unfortunately, Kimimaro's scan showed that the Heavenly Prison technique didn't rely on bloodline compatibility. It was a pure fūinjutsu-based secret technique. So he didn't bother collecting Muin's bloodline data. He did, however, harvest the bones before incinerating the corpse.
As Muin's heart stopped, the sealing chains in Kurotsuchi's body disintegrated.
Kimimaro canceled the Water Prison.
Kurotsuchi collapsed, drenched and shivering. Kimimaro rushed forward to catch her.
"Still hot… But the seal is gone. The water should've cooled her down."
Her flushed cheeks and unsteady breath puzzled him. She wrapped her arms weakly around his neck.
"Kurotsuchi, wake up. What's wrong?"
"…Kimimaro…"
Her voice was soft, barely audible, but he caught it.
"H-he drugged me… chakra suppressant… aphrodisiac... I can't… hold on much longer…"
She clung to him instinctively, but her grip lacked strength. She was also trying to push him away with trembling arms.
Kimimaro stiffened. An aphrodisiac? What kind of despicable trick is this?
He hadn't expected something like that in the world of shinobi—so base, so vile.
Now he was left holding her, confused and torn.
What should I do...?
Kimimaro stood frozen. His expression was calm as ever, but internally, he was conflicted. His relationship with Kurotsuchi wasn't that deep—certainly not to the point where touching her in such a state wouldn't feel like a violation. And yet... could he really stand by and watch her suffer like this?
"This situation is absurd," he thought.
But reality often was.
Kurotsuchi had been force-fed a drug—likely a modified version of a paralysis or chakra-suppressant agent—and its effects were intensifying. At the start, a medical-nin might have had a chance to counteract it. Now, however, her entire body had gone limp. Purging it with conventional means was no longer an option.
There was only one viable method left—to isolate her chakra system and induce a controlled purge through forced circulation. Dangerous, intimate, and not guaranteed to work.
"Kimima...ro..." she gasped weakly, barely able to focus. "It's unbearable... If it's you, I... I can—no, this isn't right. Don't... please..."
The drug had overrun her system, clouding her judgment. She clutched at his arm and collapsed, her skin flushed from internal chakra disruption.
Kimimaro acted quickly. Channeling chakra into his palms, he placed one hand on her back and another on her abdomen, guiding his energy in rhythmic pulses to stimulate her tenketsu. The improvised method was adapted from techniques he'd learned while observing Kabuto and Orochimaru's experimentation—highly advanced chakra control bordering on medical ninjutsu.
"This location is too open," he muttered, forming hand seals. "Wood Release: Four-Pillar House Technique."
A small wooden hut sprouted from the ground around them, sealing them off from outside view. He continued the treatment in silence, methodically pushing the toxin-laced chakra toward her tenketsu for venting.
Time passed—twenty, maybe thirty minutes.
When the technique was finally undone, the house crumbled back into the forest floor. Kimimaro stood, still holding Kurotsuchi steady as she found her footing. Their clothes were untouched, but the atmosphere between them had shifted.
"I…" Kurotsuchi looked at him but hesitated.
Kimimaro opened his mouth to speak, but she reached out and gently covered his lips with her fingers.
"Don't say anything," she whispered. "Just... let me have a moment."
Suddenly—
"They're over there!"
Several Iwagakure Anbu burst through the foliage. Kimimaro instantly stepped in front of Kurotsuchi on reflex.
"That was close," he muttered under his breath, relieved. "At least we didn't lose too much time."
"Miss Kurotsuchi, are you alright?" one of the Anbu asked, panting.
"I'm fine," she replied softly, her voice nearly inaudible.
"What about the enemy ninja?"
Kimimaro glanced back at the smoldering clearing behind him. "He tried to resist. I burned him with a bone technique from within. There's nothing left of him now."
The Anbu exchanged glances, impressed.
"As expected of one of Miss Kurotsuchi's companions. To dispel such a technique… remarkable."
They didn't press him for details—Kurotsuchi was safe, and that was what mattered.
The group began their trek back to the village.
But as they walked, the others noticed Kurotsuchi lagging behind slightly. She said nothing, perhaps still recovering from the effects of the drug. And notably, she didn't speak a word to Kimimaro the entire way.
Instead, Karin and Suigetsu hovered around him, pestering him with questions about the battle.
Kimimaro told them only what was necessary—how the enemy ambushed them, how he responded, nothing more.
Later that night, back at their lodging, Kurotsuchi passed him quietly on her way to her room. She paused just long enough to whisper, so only he could hear:
"I don't regret it."
Then she walked away.
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