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A massive, skeletal construct loomed over Sasuko.
Across from her, Kimimaro's tightly bound torso began to pulse white bones sprouting through the gaps in his wrappings.
Calm and composed, Kimimaro watched Sasuko's half-formed [Susanoo] with an almost detached gaze.
Then, with a crackling burst, countless bones erupted from his body, linking together in a seamless fusion until his entire form was encased within a towering skeletal warrior.
Its hollow eyes flickered to life. In its hands a spine-forged spear and a shield made of pure bone.
From its back, two-bladed wings of sharpened bone unfurled an angel of death wrought from marrow.
This was a new creation an experimental fusion of forbidden techniques and technological enhancement designed by [Sasori].
[Shikotsumyaku: Dance of the Sanctified Remains]!
A perfect blend of mechanical design and organic fortitude, it amplified both Kimimaro's power and speed to unnatural levels.
Humans, Kimimaro mused, had always ruled the food chain not through strength but through intellect and tools.
And this armor, this skeletal exosuit, was the ultimate weapon born from that principle.
[Scorpion] had based the design on Neji's puppet-armor research, refining it through countless prototypes until it achieved this living fusion of bone and chakra.
Shikotsumyaku's flexibility, resilience, and regenerative nature made Kimimaro the ideal test subject his very body a living experiment for mechanical chakra synchronization.
Opposite him, Sasuko summoned the first stage of her [Susanoo], its immense frame dwarfing Kimimaro's smaller figure.
But that "small" silhouette surged with brutal power like a berserk warrior charging straight into the storm.
A high-pitched whir echoed as the exoskeletal joints rotated, fracturing the ground beneath him with each step.
Cracks spiraled outward as Kimimaro's spear cut through the air, its sonic shriek forcing Sasuko's pupils to contract in reflex.
Boom!
The spear collided with [Susanoo]'s rib bone against ethereal armor.
For a brief moment, they held then the impact sent Sasuko skidding backward, smashing into a stone wall that cracked under the pressure.
Her incomplete [Susanoo] re-manifested, forming a crude humanoid outline as she steadied herself.
The giant's arm swung forward, clawing through the air toward Kimimaro.
Crash!
The strike tore the air apart but when Sasuko looked up, Kimimaro had already taken to the skies.
Bone wings unfurled behind him, vents between the blades exhaling bursts of vapor like jet thrusters.
Above, [Sasori] monitored every movement through holographic screens in the observation room, her expression unreadable as data streamed across the displays.
"Left waist joint adjusts the curvature by two degrees. Reduce airflow loss. Test Plan A uploaded."
"Initiate Plan B inject chakra surge, reinforce the bone structure for higher torque yield."
Kimimaro's pupils flickered with subtle light his contact lenses projecting Sasori's live adjustments before his eyes.
Each command was simplified into instinctive calibration data just a few centimeters here, a few degrees there.
It was like following a chef's "add a pinch of salt" precise to the trained hand, but meaningless to outsiders.
Kimimaro didn't need exact measurements; his body understood.
High above, Sasuko's eyes narrowed.
[Amaterasu]!
Black flames burst into existence, searing through the air toward Kimimaro but a single wing intercepted the strike. The flames clung to it, burning fiercely, yet Kimimaro didn't falter.
Before Sasuko could intensify the blaze, Kimimaro vanished in a burst of motion, soaring upward.
The wing that caught the [Amaterasu] detonated sending a storm of burning, bone-feather projectiles raining down, each wreathed in black fire.
"Hmph… clever," Sasuko muttered, her Sharingan spinning. "But that won't stop me."
She tugged on her chakra threads and the flaming projectiles morphed into orbs of dark fire.
Her left eye pulsed.
[Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi]!
The orbs coalesced around [Susanoo]'s arm, shaping into a black-flame longbow.
Sasuko smirked, drawing the arrow back.
"Flying or not—you're still just a target."
She loosed the arrow, black fire streaking skyward.
But Kimimaro didn't dodge. He raised his shield, gripping his spinning spear.
The weapon's vertebral segments began to rotate each section faster than the last, accelerating toward the tip until it howled like a turbine.
Neji had once called the design a "gear array"—a chakra-driven rotational system that could shred even reinforced steel.
But Kimimaro knew too well—push it too far, and even his bones would crumble under the stress.
He grinned faintly.
"Let's see which burns out first."
The spear launched with a thunderous boom meeting the black-flame arrow head-on.
The result was chaos. [Amaterasu]'s flames twisted violently, torn apart by sheer rotational force.
Sasuko's eyes widened as her projectile disintegrated midair and Kimimaro's spear shot straight through the inferno, too fast to follow.
Whirr—BOOM!
[Susanoo] raised both hands, forming a barrier.
It wasn't enough.
The spiraling spear pierced through the giant's palms, the impact carving a deep crater into the earth.
Sasuko was thrown backward, encased in her crumbling [Susanoo], smashing into the ground with a deafening crash.
When the dust cleared, the skeletal armor faded.
She lay on the shattered earth, panting heavily. Maintaining [Susanoo] after that strike had drained nearly all her chakra.
Kimimaro descended silently. The skeletal plating along his face split open, revealing his calm, almost cold expression.
He looked neither proud nor surprised only certain.
Sasuko gritted her teeth, blood trickling down her chin.
"Neji… is this what you meant when you said there are things I can't be taught?"
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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