Flickering Light in the Darkness, the Kaguya Orphan

Blocking out all light was the heavy door at the very bottom of the dungeon.

Curled up on the cold, damp stone floor, Kimimaro's small body trembled without end.

His white hair was stained with half-dried blood, clinging to his forehead and cheeks.

His skin had taken on a sickly pallor. Several sharp bone spikes had spiraled out of control, piercing through the flesh of his shoulder blades and elbows, exposed to the damp air.

Rather than granting him strength, these bone spikes constantly drained away what little life he had left.

Every breath sent intense pain through his lungs and organs, and the bloody taste clogging his throat could no longer be swallowed.

Flowing across the stone floor was the large amount of blackish-red blood Kimimaro had coughed up while instinctively gasping for air. The clots were mixed with tiny fragments of internal organs.

The backlash of the Dead Bone Pulse had penetrated deep into his flesh and blood. The pain came in increasingly fierce waves, gradually destroying his genetic sequence.

The mad members of the Kaguya Clan had imprisoned him here and forced him to kill.

Now that every last clansman was dead, only he remained, abandoned in this dim iron cell, waiting for his body to rot away completely.

Footsteps outside the door drew closer and closer. Then a key slid into the lock, and the sound of metal grinding reached the cell, painfully tightening his eardrums.

"Coughing like that... he's probably about to die, huh? It's fine, Lord Orochimaru will definitely like him. As long as, as long as we get him a new body..."

The Sound Ninja outside had a hoarse voice, his words filled with greed. But before the last few words fell, his voice cut off.

Two faint gusts swept through the corridor in quick succession. The black iron door remained unopened, and then two bodies crashed into the pooled water with dull splashes.

Kimimaro forced his eyes open to ease his discomfort, his blurry gaze falling toward the black iron door.

In the corridor, the two Sound Ninja preparing to open the door stared wide-eyed, desperately clutching their necks with both hands.

Two translucent, ghostly blue ice spikes had pierced through their throats from behind. The gushing blood froze instantly within the ice, and not a single drop fell to the ground.

Before either could sound an alarm, their bodies had already toppled stiffly into the water.

A dozen steps away, Haku lowered his hand and silently watched the two corpses sink into the water.

More than a dozen Hidden Mist Village Anbu guards concealed in the shadows on either side of the corridor immediately revealed themselves. Alert, they drew their ninja blades and rapidly formed hand seals, chakra gathering in their palms.

A pair of eyes glowing with eerie red light lit up in the darkness, just as the Water Release had yet to take form.

Izumi closed her left eye. The Mangekyo Sharingan in her right eye spun rapidly, and an invisible mental shockwave swept through the entire corridor in an instant.

More than a dozen Hidden Mist Village Anbu froze where they stood. Their hands remained suspended mid-seal, their fingers unable to move again.

Their pupils rapidly lost focus. Their minds were filled only with countless corpses and visions of death appearing one after another, and their neural centers ceased responding.

Zabuza stepped across the water beneath his feet, his massive body crashing directly into the crowd.

He used no ninjutsu. With one arm alone, he swung the damaged Executioner's Blade, its broad edge sweeping through the narrow corridor and raising a howling gust.

More than a dozen masked heads spun into the air. The sounds of breaking bones and tearing flesh mingled together as warm blood splashed across the stone walls, staining the slick moss a ghastly red.

Headless corpses fell one after another into the ankle-deep water, their heavy splashes echoing back and forth through the depths of the corridor.

In an extremely brief span of time, the entire process, from striking to slaughtering everyone, had been completed.

With killing intent, Zabuza stepped over the corpses and strode up to the black iron door. He poured massive chakra into his right leg and kicked the center of the door, which was covered in sealing script.

The enormous crash shattered the silence of the lowest level. The heavy black iron door was violently blasted free of its frame, flying more than ten meters into the cell before smashing against the rock wall at the back.

Cracks instantly spread across the wall. Large chunks of stone tumbled down, and the rising dust obscured the doorway.

Torchlight streamed through the open doorway into the dim cell, stabbing pain into Kimimaro's eyes.

He instinctively tried to raise an arm to shield his face, but his body had long since lost all strength. Even in his weakness, he could not maintain such a simple movement. His arm fell back into the bloody water halfway up.

Steady, powerful footsteps approached from afar. Leather boots stepped through pooled water and chunks of flesh, each step producing a heavy sound.

Kimimaro endured the pain in his eyes and peered through his fingers toward the doorway, barely making out the newcomer's outline.

A young man in a long black coat entered the cell. His face was hidden at the boundary of light and darkness, and his pitch-black eyes looked down at the bloodstains and broken bones on the ground.

He bore no mark of the Hidden Mist Village and wore no forehead protector. His composed demeanor was utterly at odds with the aura of death surrounding him.

Kabuto, Izumi, and Zabuza entered the cell in turn, silently stopping behind the young man. Their figures blocked the doorway, making the cramped space feel even more oppressive.

Ye stopped three steps in front of Kimimaro and lowered his eyes to examine this prey covered in bone spikes and on the verge of death.

The stench of blood in the cell was nauseatingly thick, yet his expression never changed.

Kimimaro lay at his feet, gasping heavily. Every breath drained away what little life he had left.

Unwilling to accept it, he dug his bloodied hands into the stone floor, clenched his teeth, and forced his upper body up. He raised his head to meet Ye's gaze.

"Are you... are you here to kill me too?"

Black blood continuously trickled from the corner of Kimimaro's mouth.

"Or... cough, cough, does this, does this ruined body of mine still have some use to you?"

Kimimaro revealed a bleak smile. His arms immediately gave out, and his entire body crashed back onto the ground.

The exposed bone spikes struck the stone floor, and a small section snapped off on the spot.

Just then, that familiar system prompt sounded in Ye's mind once more.

"Ding. An important plot character has been detected on the verge of death. Please make a choice as soon as possible, Host."