Chapter 63 - 57

Two shadows silently ran towards a certain room in the dark hallways that is only slightly lit by the torches placed on the walls.

Hikaru made a clone to deliver Tayuya to a certain place somewhere in the forest that only he knew where. She would only be a nuisance here, after all.

Hikaru made his way towards a certain room while the dark figure right beside him hid somewhere.

The room had no door, only a hole that's the size of a person.

Inside that room was Orochimaru, he was sleeping yet Hikaru can feel that he hasn't let go of his guard yet. One wrong step and he'll awaken him but that's not really a problem any longer. There's a much bigger thing he wants to do right now.

He walked towards the middle of the room with footsteps loud enough for a trained ninja to hear. Orochimaru immediately opened his eyes and yelled while he got up, "DId I not say not to disturb me!?"

Hikaru, with an apathetic look on his face, took out a spear from his inventory box and threw it at Orochimaru's shoulder, pinning him onto the wall.

It was so fast that Orochimaru had no time to dodge, and his reflexes were not fast enough to catch a thing like that.

The wall behind was pierced by the spear that Hikaru threw with his shoulder also stuck on the wall. He screamed in pain as he tried to pull the spear out from his shoulder, but Hikaru gave him no time and appeared in front of him standing on top of the bed as he punched him in the stomach and held his neck tightly, immobilizing him even further.

Hikaru leaned a little closer and said to Orochimaru as he smiled as if he hadn't seen a longtime friend, "Hey, how are you doing? I wanted to stick a literal stick up your ass but that would be quite disgusting. You have to consider the feeling of this spear, after all."

"Who,,,the... hell are... you!? Gah!" The snake barely wheezed out as Hikaru held his neck quite tightly.

"Who? Me?" Hikaru looked around and pointed at himself.

It seems to pissed Orochimaru even further.

"I'm just joking, don't look at me like that. Don't bring me to your pedo fantasies, 'kay?" Hikaru said as he winked at him playfully, which served to pissed the already pissed snake even further.

"You…worthless...mongrel!!" Orochimaru hissed.

"Oh wait, you couldn't breath because I'm strangling you with this hand of mine. But you have to understand, I don't want to see another you coming out of your mouth, that would be pretty disgusting." Hikaru said.

Then, Orochimaru opened his mouth and Hikaru got confused as to why he would do that, only for a sword to come out of the snake's mouth. Hikaru saw that and did nothing, as when the sword reached his face, it only made sparks as if it was hitting a very hard object.

The sannin widened his eyes in shock when he saw his sword didn't pierced the kid in front of him.

Hikaru is wearing armor that's been reinforced with titanite to +10, and coupled with his steel hard skin, he's basically immune to physical attacks and some jutsus. The dark mask was covering his head, but even without that, the Kusinagi sword still wouldn't pierce even the outer layer of his skin.

"That wasn't nice, you know? Heh, no matte-"

He was interrupted when Orochimaru used his substitution jutsu, and another him came out FROM his stomach. That one was fast enough to slither towards the door like a snake, yet Hikaru was still faster than him.

Taking out a random long sword from his inventory box, he appeared in front of the snake instantly and cut all of his limbs.

"Raaahh! You bastard! I'll kill you!" Orochimaru hissed.

This time, Hikaru replied no longer joking around, "With what army? Face it, you're going to die. At least die a little bit graceful." He thought about it for a little moment and said "No, a snake like you shouldn't deserve that kind of respect from someone like me."

Orochimaru smirked and snakes grew out from the parts where he lost his limbs. All of them attacked Hikaru but they all just burned to ashes when the Undead used his pyromancy. It was different from any other flames, it was redder than normal yet Orochimaru could feel the heat of it. The flame was melting his body even though he was quite away from it.

"Be honored, snake, for you were able to see the chaos flame in action before your eventual death. But before you die, tell me what do you think about Kimimaro?" Hikaru said.

"Why would you want to know a useless thing like him? He's going to die soon!."

"Speak now, or I'll burn your souls." Hikaru threathened.

"Tch, Kabuto and I were experimenting on him once but we accidentally did something to his bloodline. It mutated and grew stronger, at first we were joyful but then we learned that there was a side-effect. It shortened his life span. An illness grew inside him, and it would only happen to a Kaguya who's already in their sixties. Knowing that, I worked him to the last of his usefulness so that the time I spent on growing him wouldn't go to waste. He's useless now, he could barely leave his bed. I'm gonna throw him away soon, so see? I know you are interested in someone who has a Kaguya's bloodline like him, but give it up. He's already six-feet underground." Orochimaru smirked at the last of his words.

But Hikaru only seemed to grin and said, "You hear that, Kimimaro? He's disposing you soon."

Then, out from the shadows of the room, Kimimaro came out. Tears were streaming down on his face, those hurtful words hurt him the most. It was his master's fault why he had this illness. Thanks to Hikaru giving him that bottle, he was finally cured. Hikaru asked him to accompany him towards Orochimaru's room to listen to his explanation about him. Kimimaro hid so that he could hear the truth from his master's own mouth, yet it was something he didn't like.

He only wiped away his tears and calmed his raging emotions soon before he said, "So this was supposed to be my ultimate end, dying after being manipulated by a sick bastard. I feel sorry for the others. I trusted you as my master, but now, no more."

Kimimaro's face was quite somber, knowing that he had already lost his purpose. That was the only thing keeping him alive, yet, now that was also taken away from him.

Hikaru smirked at Orochimaru's despair. He could see it on his face, how his face slumped down and how his eyes drooped.

He just lost the best shinobi, who would have easily been a powerful body for him. But that matters not, he still has Uchiha Sasuke, a prodigy like his brother. He just needs a little bit of polishing and he'll be a powerful body soon.

"Hah, it doesn't matter! You could leave all you want but know this, I will hunt you for the rest of your life!" Orochimaru screamed maniacally.

"Alright pal, now die." Hikaru grabbed Orochimaru's face and the rest of that snake's body became black before slowly transforming into something grotesque. It didn't grew larger, his body only turned into some kind of snake but eyes were everywhere on its body. Long tongues wiggled out from that grotesque body.

"Ho, so this is what you look like without your humanity. How disgusting." Hikaru held a black and white ethereal object on his hand before popping it.

Hikaru then burned Orochimaru's grotesque form to death and before his soul could leave his body, Hikaru caught it and put it inside a jar filled with holy magic. He has sealed Orochimaru and no one would no longer be able to use Edo Tensei on him. And he can no longer revive like he always does.

Hikaru put the jar back to his storage box and left the base along with Kimimaro. Using his pyromancy, he burned the entire underground base to the ground. Everyone in Konoha woke up when they saw a bright light far ahead of them.

Hiruzen looked out of his window and immediately knew that that was Hikaru's doing and paid no mind. He'll be coming here soon, after all.

Meanwhile, Kin Tsuchi was out enjoying the fresh wind outside of the underground base when she saw flames redder than normal burst out from that base.

She dropped the apple candy she was eating and ran straight towards there.

Back with Hikaru...

He stood in front of the large fire he just created but he was keeping it from spreading even further with his pyromancy.

"Wonderful, isn't it? Join me Kimimaro and you will grow stronger than you are now. Maybe even stronger than a kage!" Hikaru offered.

Kimimaro only shook his head and said, "I'll have to decline that for now. I have been thinking since earlier when Mas- I mean, Orochimaru died. Why do we exist? Since young, I've been locked up under my clan and when they were massacred by the Kiri Force, Orochimaru rescued me. Since then, I've always been loyal to him and thought that to be my purpose, yet now I have no purpose. I want to know the meaning of my existence. I'll travel around the elemental nation, and when the time comes, I'll go and meet you again. I don't want to serve anybody as my purpose any longer, you can understand, right?"

Hikaru only smiled and said, "Well, at least you'll come meet me again, right?"

"Yeah." Kimimaro nodded.

And so, with the resolve to fin the meaning of his existence, Kimimaro set out to travel the elemental nation but not before Hikaru gave him a dozen Divine Blessings. If someday he's in a critical condition, he should be able to heal himself instantly.

And with that, Hikaru and him parted ways.

Maybe someday, they'll meet again.