Naruto: Boruto Returns to Shippuden

Chapter 106 Kimimaro

Sasuke felt a sharp pain in his back, and he clutched his injured "wing" tightly with his hand in agony. His eyes were bloodshot with extreme anger as he stared intently at Itachi Uchiha, who was closing in on him.

After activating the Cursed Seal 2, Sasuke felt a significant increase in his power, his strength more than multiplied several times. He thought this would be enough for him to fight against Itachi Uchiha.

However, reality was beyond his expectations. Even with the blessing of the Cursed Seal II, he still appeared so vulnerable and easily defeated in front of Uchiha Itachi. The gap between himself and Uchiha Itachi was far greater than he had imagined.

Itachi Uchiha sneered, "You're still so weak. Even if you transform into an ugly monster, it won't make up for your incompetence." After saying this, Itachi Uchiha raised his hand, preparing to attack Sasuke again.

Uchiha Itachi casually waved his hand to his side, and with a clear sound, he knocked a flying kunai to the ground.

At that moment, Boruto stepped forward and blocked Sasuke's path, coldly saying, "Don't come any closer to Sasuke!"

Boruto threw a punch at Itachi Uchiha in front of him, but Itachi easily caught his punch.

Itachi Uchiha gripped Boruto's fist tightly and then twisted it forcefully, trying to dislocate Boruto's fist from the joint. However, Boruto's body turned in the same direction as Itachi's twist, thus dissipating the force Itachi was applying to him.

Boruto then adjusted his posture in mid-air and hooked one leg at Itachi's shin, but Itachi immediately raised his other leg to block Boruto's attack.

Boruto, whose attack was blocked, pulled hard, and suddenly strands of barely perceptible silk appeared around Itachi Uchiha. As Boruto moved, the silk instantly tightened and wrapped itself around Itachi's body.

Uchiha Itachi, entangled in silk threads, spoke calmly: "Your idea is good, but in front of my eyes, all your actions will be exposed."

Uchiha Itachi's body suddenly twisted and turned into a wooden stake in an instant.

Seeing that his attack had been neutralized, Boruto immediately changed tactics, quickly retreating a few steps to increase the distance between himself and Itachi Uchiha.

After Boruto steadied himself, he put his finger in his mouth, bit it hard, and began to quickly form hand seals. Then, Boruto shouted, "Summoning Jutsu: Roof Collapse Jutsu!"

A powerful surge of chakra erupted from above Itachi Uchiha, and then Boruto successfully summoned a gigantic toad.

The toad fell from the sky, its enormous body destroying half of the building they were in, and with astonishing destructive force, it pressed straight towards Uchiha Itachi.

After a cloud of dust, Itachi Uchiha appeared in front of Boruto. However, Itachi dodged the attack with a Body Flicker and was not harmed.

Orochimaru's gaze swept over the ruins crushed by the toads, and his lips twitched. He realized that Boruto's use of this summoning jutsu was not to deal with Itachi Uchiha, but to take revenge on him for capturing him.

Although this is just one of his many strongholds, it contains a lot of his valuable experimental data.

At this moment, Itachi Uchiha suddenly spoke up: "Sasuke, come challenge me again when you have the same eyes as me. You're too weak for me to be interested in killing you now."

To prevent espionage and ensure that the organization's secrets are not leaked, the Akatsuki organization stipulates that members usually need to operate in pairs so that they can supervise each other.

However, being away from Kisame for so long might arouse suspicion within the organization.

After saying these words, Itachi Uchiha turned around and, before leaving, gave Orochimaru a meaningful warning look.

When Sasuke saw Itachi Uchiha turn to leave, he immediately stopped him, shouting, "Itachi Uchiha! Don't even think about running away!" He didn't want Itachi to leave so easily.

Uchiha Itachi ignored his shouts. Seeing this, Sasuke became angry and threw two shuriken at Uchiha Itachi to force him to stop or at least get his attention.

Faced with the shuriken Sasuke threw, Itachi Uchiha transformed into several crows and flew away in all directions, disappearing from Sasuke's sight in an instant.

However, one of the crows circled slowly in the air for a while before landing directly on Orochimaru's shoulder.

Orochimaru's gaze was fixed on the crow. He observed it carefully and found that it was just an ordinary summoning crow, with nothing unusual about it.

Orochimaru thought to himself: Itachi Uchiha still doesn't trust me after all...

Boruto looked at Sasuke and reminded him, "Do you really want to stay by Orochimaru's side? His goal is to take over your body."

Sasuke, unfazed by Boruto's concerns, said, "So what if I have to sell my body to a demon in order to improve my strength and defeat that guy? Staying in Konoha will only hold me back."

Orochimaru's cursed seal allows him to gain powerful strength more directly and quickly, unleashing the potential within his body, far surpassing anything he could achieve in Konoha.

After saying these words, Sasuke turned around without hesitation and took a step in the direction of Orochimaru.

Orochimaru chuckled, "Hehehe, Boruto, don't think of me so badly. As agreed, I won't touch Sasuke during these three years. After all, even if I wanted to, that guy wouldn't agree."

At Orochimaru's signal, Kabuto Yakushi immediately sprang into action, walking over to Sasuke and guiding him away into the distance.

Sasuke followed Kabuto Yakushi, and the two gradually disappeared from everyone's sight.

Boruto saw Sasuke about to leave and tried to stop him, but Kimimaro moved quickly and blocked his way.

Under the healing effect of Kabuto's Palm Technique, Kimimaro's external injuries have been significantly healed. Although not fully recovered, they are almost completely healed, and his condition seems to have greatly improved.

Kimimaro immediately activated the first form of the Earth Curse Seal in front of Boruto.

It wasn't that Kimimaro didn't want to activate his second form, but rather that his physical condition no longer allowed him to withstand the enormous burden that the second form would bring.

The moment Kimimaro activated the first curse seal, his entire body was covered with black markings, which appeared on the surface of his skin like extensions of blood vessels.

Kimimaro then manipulated the osteoblasts in his body to form bones by controlling the calcium concentration, and then pulled out a whole steel-like arm bone from his shoulder.

The wounds caused by the broken bones in Kimimaro's body are healing rapidly and will be completely restored in a short time.

Kimimaro gripped the bone sword formed from his arm drum and launched a swift attack on Boruto.

Boruto then drew a kunai from his ninja tool pouch to counter Kimimaro's attack, and the two weapons collided in mid-air.

"Wind Release: Rasengan!"

During a retreat, Boruto increased the distance between himself and Kimimaro, condensed the initial form of a Rasengan in his hand, and then infused it with wind-style chakra through a clone created using the Shadow Clone Technique.

Boruto looked at the Wind Release: Rasengan that had been condensed in his hand and threw the wind-attribute chakra sphere toward his opponent with all his might.

When Kimimaro faced Boruto's Wind Release: Rasengan, he quickly held his bone sword horizontally in front of his chest, attempting to block Boruto's ninjutsu.

However, the moment the bone sword collided with the Rasengan, the enormous impact caused Kimimaro to lose his balance, and he was forced to retreat repeatedly by the recoil.

Ultimately, Kimimaro could not resist the impact of the force and crashed into a wall behind him, causing the bone sword in his hand to slip from his grasp.

The strength of this bone sword clearly exceeded Boruto's expectations. He never expected Kimimaro's bone sword to be so hard; even his Rasengan couldn't leave any mark on it.

Kimimaro slowly rose from the ground, extending his hands towards Boruto: "Shikotsumyaku - Ten-Finger Piercing Shot".

Kimimaro's ten finger bones shot out towards Boruto like bullets.

However, Kimimaro uses the ability of the Shikotsumyaku (Corpse Bone Pulse) to make his finger bones grow indefinitely, and he can recreate them even if all of them are launched.

"Water Release: Waves!"

Boruto immediately used Water Release ninjutsu, spitting out a powerful stream of water, intending to use the impact of the water to break the finger bone that Kimimaro had launched.

The water collided with the finger bones, but Kimimaro's finger bones, with their extremely high penetrating power, easily passed through the obstruction of the water and continued to attack Boruto with great momentum.

Seeing the critical situation, Boruto immediately used the Substitution Jutsu, using the surrounding environment to quickly replace his body with a wooden board to take the hit the moment he was struck by the finger bone.

The wooden stake, unable to withstand the immense force of Kimimaro's finger bone attack, shattered into pieces, scattering fragments across the ground.

Boruto seized the opportunity to circle around behind Kimimaro, lightning forming a dazzling purple light as he shouted, "Purple Lightning!" and then hurled the purple lightning in his hand at Kimimaro's back.

Boruto's purple lightning struck Kimimaro directly in the back.

The lightning pierced Kimimaro's skin and penetrated his flesh, but Boruto immediately discovered that beneath Kimimaro's skin was a layer of hard white substance that effectively blocked the further intrusion of the purple lightning.

Boruto's hand was blocked by this substance and could not penetrate Kimimaro's body any further; he could only make a mark on it.

Kimimaro said calmly, "If I hadn't been able to create a membrane of bone under my skin, my body would have been pierced through by you."

Boruto said helplessly, "You really are a monster, aren't you? Your whole body is covered in bones."

Boruto adjusted the form of his Purple Lightning, changing its activation, and then unleashed it over a wide area towards Kimimaro's entire body.

The arcs of electricity formed by the purple lightning spread outwards from Boruto's palm, quickly covering Kimimaro's entire body.

Kimimaro, who was being subjected to a powerful electric current, suddenly had the bones in his shoulder and elbow rupture through the skin and pierce directly at Boruto behind him.

Boruto was caught off guard by Kimimaro's unexpected attack and was unable to dodge in time. Kimimaro's protruding bone spike pierced his skin, and blood immediately flowed from his body, staining the clothes around the wound red.

Boruto seized the opportunity to grab Kimimaro's protruding bone spur, using the opponent's attack as a fulcrum, and slammed Kimimaro heavily to the ground with an over-the-shoulder throw.

At this moment, Orochimaru, who was watching the battle, spoke up: "Boruto, Sasuke has already left. Do you still want to continue fighting with us?"

Orochimaru observed Kimimaro's condition and realized that Kimimaro's body had reached its limit.

Due to prolonged battles and the use of the cursed seal, Kimimaro's condition was about to relapse. His body could no longer maintain the state of Cursed Seal One and gradually returned to normal.

......

During the pursuit of Sasuke, the team suffered heavy losses. Apart from Shikamaru, who was the team leader and only suffered minor injuries, the other four team members were seriously injured and their situation was extremely critical.

Fortunately, despite their serious injuries, all of them survived and none of them were in critical condition.

Under Tsunade's orders, Konoha's first and second medical teams have sprung into action, rushing to various locations to search for injured ninjas and provide them with emergency treatment.

After completing the initial treatment, the medical team escorted the injured back to Konoha Village.

Naruto lay on the hospital bed, his body wrapped in bandages, looking very weak.

His gaze lingered on Sasuke's tattered headband in his hand, lost in thought. He recalled the promise he had made to Sakura to bring Sasuke back, but now, he had failed to keep that promise.

Shikamaru walked in from outside the ward and, seeing that Naruto was awake, said casually, "What? You're awake already."

Then, Shikamaru relayed to Naruto that everyone was out of danger.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Really? Everyone's alright, that's great..."

At that moment, Shikamaru glanced at Naruto and asked, "So... what about Sasuke and Boruto?"

Naruto said with a dejected expression, "...Sasuke, he eventually left and went to Orochimaru's side, and I never saw Boruto in the end."

Naruto asked Shikamaru, "And what about you guys? Have you found Boruto?"

Shikamaru shook his head slightly at this, but they learned from the Sound Four that Boruto was indeed being targeted by Orochimaru, and that Orochimaru was personally in charge of the operation.

Naruto never expected that after this incident, not only would Sasuke leave the village, but Boruto would also disappear. The once-great Team 7 was now in ruins, and all of this was due to Orochimaru.

Outside the door, Sakura had originally planned to visit Naruto and Sasuke, but when she heard the conversation between the two inside, her expression suddenly froze.

Her hand, which was gripping the doorknob, froze in mid-air. After a moment, her hand fell limply to her sides, and she leaned against the door.

......