tampered | (no subject)

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: Eastern Forest

(no subject)

When; May 7th, Evening
Rating; PG-13, maybe R.
Characters; Greed

nofunnybone
Summary; Kimimaro has had enough of Greed's bullshit. People tend to reach that point.
Log;

The feisty homunculus bounced in place from foot to foot, practicing his strikes. He knew ninjas were fast. Time to see if his training had actually paid off for him. He chose a spot that was downwind of the city, the better to smell his opponent coming. His nostril flared as he detected the scent. The same as the previous Kimimaro, unless he was the same guy. Never could tell, really.

"Come on out, kid!" he yelled, "I know you're out there!"

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Kimimaro felt the bones split from the skin in his arm as Greed came closer, felt the burning in his chest that meant he was activating the seal.

He couldn't help it. It was too much to listen to, the filth and lies spilling from this man's mouth.

"Orochimaru-sama saved us, ALL OF US, the ones nobody else wanted! They abandoned us and he WANTED us and gave us a home. You, with your fake body and your fake smiles. What do YOU know about loyalty? About human feeling? What point is there to YOUR immortality? What do you have to LIVE for? YOU HAVE NOTHING."

And Kimimaro struck, blindly, sharpened bone spiking outwards from every part of his body as he drove his fist towards Greed's chest.

Greed didn't even block the attack, allowing the bones to penetrate.

"Aagh! You little shit! Do you really wanna' go full-tilt in close combat with a homunculus?" he choked out through his own blood, "I guess you need an ass beatin' to learn your place."

Greed brought both arms up and together, trying to trap the other man.

"Orochimaru didn't SAVE you, he only used you! If you exist for one year or one thousand years, and either way you never choose to have a dream of your own, then you're nothing but a WORM, Kimimaro! A worm who worships a thieving snake!"

No longer listening, nor attempting to keep calm, Kimimaro kept driving forward, feeling the curse marks spread across his face and his body. He ignored the strange embrace, confident that his bone shield and the porcupine-like eruptions from his skin would prove an impenetrable defense.

He tasted Greed's blood in his mouth and felt it burn on his tongue like something unnatural.

"Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUT UP, I DON'T CARE!"

Greed's position didn't allow him to get any purchase, the wounds in his body also prevented him from fully shielding.

"THE HELL YOU DON'T! YOU TRYIN' TO TELL ME YOU ENJOY BEIN' A BITCH?!"

Greed kicked off, launching high into the air and landing twenty meters away. His wounds quickly started to mend, crackles of alchemical energy crackling over his body.

"Gimme' more, kid! Show me all that the power you're so needlessly proud of!"

Kimimaro felt the lines across his skin connect, thicken, and darken, his body contorting into the second level of the curse seal's power. When Greed wrenched himself off his bones and away from him, Kimimaro snarled in rage and tracked the movement with cold, animal eyes.

He reached back and split the flesh at the base of his neck, pulling out the ridged bone of his spinal cord with a wet, scraping sound in one smooth motion.

"I WILL SHOW YOU OROCHIMARU'S GIFT," Kimimaro screamed, and then sent the bone vine of the Tessenka no Mai outwards towards Greed, seeking to immobilize him.

Greed failed to get back far enough, getting him caught up in the bony whip. His body was momentarily held fast as he gasped in shock and cursed his opponent.

"There's no end to the crazy shit you pull, is there?!"

The angry homunculus inhaled and began raising his arms outward, straining against the bonds.

"This...won't...hold...ME!" he yelled, the constraining, bony prison starting to give way.

The bone whip was beginning to creak and crumble. It wouldn't hold for much longer, but Kimimaro only needed a few seconds to pull the bones of his forearm out and together into a huge, reinforced, drill-like weapon, stronger than all of his bones put-together.

Kimimaro felt the strain of using the curse seal start to deal damage to his organs, felt the blood start to pool again in his lungs and knew he didn't have very long to make this strike count.

Choking on anger and the blood in his mouth, Kimimaro thrust his arm forward in a massive strike, just as Greed broke free of his hold.

Greed broke free, shatter the binding bones, and raised his shield over his flesh. The hardened bone collided with his newly hardened flesh. He felt himself being driven back by the impact of the weapon.

He grunted loudly and dove to the side, sparks flying where the sharp appendage scraped across him.

"Well," he said, getting to his feet, "That was certainly close..."

'Damn him.'

Kimimaro coughed wetly, his bones absorbing back into his body as he struggled with the seal. His last resort was the Sawarabi no Mai--his final dance, one that had hastened his death the last time he used it.

He was already dead. If he used the dance, what would happen? Even though his heart wasn't beating, he still felt the creeping pain of his illness traveling through his veins. Could it be that using the curse seal had brought on his sickness once more?

Coughing again, Kimimaro faced Greed, who was already standing up, practically unaffected by his second strongest attack. It was not fair.

"You...have no right..."

Greed's ears focused on the his opponent. He could hear the wheezing in his voice, the strained breaths of gurgled air. He stood up and crossed his arms.

"Come on, this is pointless! Even if you manage to wound me, your body isn't gonna' be able to take the strain. You're practically on death's door. What the hell's the point? You're not proving anything! Even if you managed an attack that destroyed my entire body, it would still regenerate from my stone! Don't throw your life away!"

Kimimaro laughed bitterly, a grating sound that degenerated into a series of wheezing coughs.

"You have no right," he repeated, "to talk about Orochimaru-sama like you know anything about it. To talk about devotion like it means nothing. Can you not see? I have already died for him. And you think I care if I die again?"

"What's the point of bein' bound to someone you already died for?! That's completely stupid! He doesn't give a shit about your sacrifices!"

And there it was. A barb Kimimaro could not help but feel. It was a secret fear, and had been ever since Kabuto had first diagnosed his illness as fatal. But still...

"Even if that's true, he is still my most important person."

"And why can't you just find a new one? Why can't you just see if somebody here can help with that little illness of yours and find a NEW way to live. There are people from worlds way beyond yours. It's like you're content to never move forward. In a way, it's like just giving up."

Find a new one. Like Orochimaru-sama was an old pair of sandals with a few snapped thongs and all he needed to do was go out and buy another set.

"You truly don't understand anything about humans," Kimimaro muttered scornfully.

"I've been around for about three centuries, kid. I DO know humans, and I know they always follow the same patterns. You're a born follower. You worship him for givin' you a purpose. A reason to exist in a life you don't consider to be worth much WITHOUT a purpose. Am I close to the mark?"

"You remind me too much of my siblings."

"What's wrong with that?" Kimimaro said, a touch of resentment colouring his voice at being pinned down so exactly by someone he barely knew.

"At least I have a purpose."

"But what does it MATTER. Plenty of things continue to exist, purpose or not. Things like "purpose" and "reason for existence" are concepts humans created to make sense of their lives. I don't CARE why I exist, but as long as I do, I'll keep doin' and takin' whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want. You think a tiger has a mid-life crisis where he wonders his motivation for hunting? No. It's survival instinct. You IGNORE that instinct for the sake of preserving the life of another. And not even someone who would do the same!"

"...I see." Kimimaro shook his head, the curse marks slithering back over his skin and fading into the curved seal on his chest.

"How very sad, Greed-san. You with all this power, and no one to protect."

"I protect people who I like. But I don't devote my life to them. That's codependent. You act like you can't do anything under your own power. You've been nothing but a willing slave all your life. I owed my whole creation to one being, but when the time came, I realized I'd never be free if I didn't run off. So I just did."

He returned to a more human form, his skin shifting to normal.

"Truth be told, I dislike your boss, not you. Especially because he screwed Tayuya up so much. She's a beautiful girl and he messed up her head!"

"Strength, on its own, is meaningless. Of what use is a beautiful flower without someone to appreciate its adornment?" Kimimaro intoned, thinking back to his first meeting with Orochimaru, and how it felt to be called something precious.

"Tayuya made her choice to follow, like the rest of us. If she is dissatisfied now, it is due to a flaw in her own heart."

Greed narrowed his eyes and grinned.

"Except for one delusion, Kimmy. Snake-eyes DOESN'T APPRECIATE YOU. And once he gets a more powerful minion, you're just trash he'll cast off without a second thought."

"He used her from when she was a child. That's no better than brainwashing attack dogs. There is no choice involved."

Kimimaro's chin lifted and he sent a scowl in Greed's direction.

"If Orochimaru-sama discards me, it is because I can no longer be perfect for him. That is my flaw, and one I must beg forgiveness for."

The man spoke as if childhood was somehow different from every other period of life. How stupidly naive. None of them had ever really been children. They had been shinobi from the very beginning.

"And what about Tayuya? And all the other people he fucks around with and murders for no reason?"

"He has reasons. Even if they aren't ones you agree with."