People in Demon Slayer: The Journey That Began with Demon Slayer

Chapter 253 Kaguya Kimimaro

Wearing a hood, Naruto traveled a long way and arrived at the Land of Tea.

Naruto chose this place as his temporary residence.

The Land of Tea is a peninsula country surrounded by the sea and rich in fisheries. Because it is self-sufficient, it does not have much interaction with neighboring countries, making it relatively safe for Naruto.

When Naruto stepped into the Land of Tea, he sensed a very familiar chakra. After carefully sensing it, Naruto was surprised to find that the chakra was almost identical to his Sage Mode chakra.

Naruto followed the Sage Chakra to a mountain range and found an entrance. After going deeper inside, he discovered that it was a base.

The base's grounds were covered with strange creature limbs preserved in bottles and jars, which was quite eerie.

Naruto saw a layer of snake skin on the ground. After squatting down to examine it, a cold glint appeared in Naruto's eyes.

Orochimaru...

However, apart from the Sage Chakra, there was no trace of Orochimaru in this base, and the entire base was in a mess, seemingly abandoned.

Naruto followed the chakra to a sealed iron door, from which Sage Mode chakra was emanating.

Naruto slammed a Rasengan into the iron gate, and the immense impact easily destroyed it.

Naruto entered the room and discovered a scene that surprised him.

A boy, reduced to skin and bones, was covered in tubes. The equipment connecting the tubes had stopped working, and without any nutrition, the boy had become malnourished.

Hearing the noise, the boy didn't open his eyes, but weakly asked, "Who is it?"

Naruto did not answer the boy.

The boy suddenly asked excitedly, "Did Lord Orochimaru send you? Do I still have any use to Lord Orochimaru? I'm willing to accept any kind of experiment, as long as it can help Lord Orochimaru!"

Naruto realized that the boy was one of Orochimaru's test subjects.

Seeing that Naruto remained silent for a long time, the boy realized that the person who came here might not have been sent by Orochimaru.

"What's your name?" Naruto suddenly asked.

"Kaguya... Kimimaro."

"Kaguya Kimimaro... This place looks like it's been abandoned for a long time. You were abandoned by Orochimaru."

The boy murmured forlornly, "Approaching the end of my life, I am still useless, still unable to help Lord Orochimaru..."

"Has he been brainwashed that badly..." Naruto found it hard to understand why Kimimaro, even after hearing that he had been abandoned, still cared about Orochimaru.

Kimimaro suddenly opened his eyes, his green pupils filled with rage: "I haven't been brainwashed! Lord Orochimaru and I understand each other, what do you know?!"

"I don't understand. If we understand each other, why were you abandoned here? And it looks like you won't live much longer. You're just clinging to life with Sage Chakra. In the end, it's just wishful thinking on your part."

Kimimaro murmured sadly, "Perhaps it is true. My body is afflicted by illness, and I have little time left. I have been thinking about why people have to keep living. Later, I realized that people are born for a certain purpose. I firmly believe that there is an important mission to live, and my mission is for Lord Orochimaru."

"I am incapable of fulfilling even a portion of Lord Orochimaru's ambitions. Lord Orochimaru no longer needs a vessel; I am utterly worthless. It is only natural that Lord Orochimaru would abandon me."

Naruto retorted without hesitation, "Humans never live for others. Humans are selfish creatures and will only ever live for themselves. You just met Orochimaru at the wrong time and place. Orochimaru only saw you as a tool to achieve his goals, and you were just a loser who pinned your hopes on Orochimaru."

Kimimaro closed his eyes again: "It doesn't matter anymore. I don't have much time left to live. These things mean nothing to me now."

Naruto said with a hint of sarcasm, "Kaguya Kimimaro, you are really pathetic. You regard Orochimaru as your everything, you hope to gain his approval, and you think you have gained his approval. But you know in your heart that Orochimaru has never approved of you from beginning to end. Orochimaru is the kind of person who will only ever approve of himself. You just can't accept this fact."

Kimimaro, who had already lost the will to live, remained unmoved: "I said, none of this matters anymore. You can choose to kill me now, or let me die here."

Naruto neither killed Kimimaro nor chose to leave; instead, he remained standing in the same spot.

"Kimimaro, you have the courage to accept death, but do you have the courage to change things? Do you have the courage to live for yourself even once?"

Kimimaro opened his eyes again, his gaze filled with confusion: "Change...for myself...to live once more?"

Naruto nodded and said, "That's right, it has nothing to do with Orochimaru, nothing to do with purpose, nothing to do with mission, it only has to do with you."

I used to think that my life was superfluous. I longed for friends, warmth, attention, and recognition, but I found that all of that was fake.

You're probably resentful too, aren't you? Resentful that Orochimaru abandoned you. You gave him everything, and in the end, you could only spend your life in this prison-like room, with no one caring whether you live or die.

Kimimaro's eyes flickered. Naruto was right. Even though he considered Orochimaru his whole world, being locked up in this place waiting for death made Kimimaro doubt whether his actions were worthwhile.

Kimimaro recalled the last time he saw Orochimaru.

Orochimaru coldly said to the seriously ill Kimimaro, "Kimimaro, I no longer need a vessel to achieve immortality, and you, suffering from the Bloodstained Disease, are no longer of any value to fight for me. This base is abandoned, so you can stay here and be abandoned along with it."

Seeing Orochimaru's cold, serpentine eyes, Kimimaro's warm heart turned cold. He had given everything for Orochimaru, yet it seemed that Orochimaru had never felt a ripple in his heart.

A tear rolled down Kimimaro's cheek as he lay in bed.

Kimimaro believed that he had emerged from despair the day he met Orochimaru.

But in reality, Kimimaro simply moved from one despair to another.

Why destroy the last vestige of faith in my heart at my final moments?

Naruto replied earnestly, "Because I like you, I like your loyalty, I like your simplicity. If you can become my comrade, I feel that I can rely on you for support."

Kimimaro didn't answer, but looked at Naruto and asked, "We've talked so much, and I still don't know your name."

"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Chapter 254 Companions

"Naruto Uzumaki, if only I had met you back then, but unfortunately, there are no 'ifs' in this world. It's all fate..." Kimimaro sighed as if resigned to his fate.

"Ha, fate? I, Naruto Uzumaki, don't believe in fate! If fate truly exists, it will forever be in my own hands! Kimimaro, will you become my comrade?!"

Kimimaro said regretfully, "I really wanted to become your comrade. I felt that becoming your comrade would bring me different kinds of joy. However, my body is already terminally ill, and I have completely lost the ability to move. There is nothing I can do to help you."

Naruto looked directly into Kimimaro's eyes: "If you are my comrade, then I will never abandon you, Kaguya Kimimaro. Do you want to live? Do you want to be my comrade? If you want to live! If you want to be my comrade! Then tell me!"

Kimimaro stared blankly at Naruto's serious face, feeling his cold heart warm up once again.

He wanted to live, he wanted to be companions with the man in front of him—this was the voice from his very heart!

With all his might, Kimimaro shouted back to Naruto, "I want to live! I want to be your comrade!"

Upon receiving a response, Naruto immediately activated Kurama Sage Mode.

Naruto spoke to Kurama in his inner world: "Kurama! Use all your Sage Chakra to stimulate my body. The Uzumaki clan has extremely strong vitality and self-healing abilities, but I only inherited half of the Uzumaki bloodline, so I can't fully utilize the characteristics of my Uzumaki clan's constitution. With the stimulation of your chakra and Sage Chakra, the characteristics of the Uzumaki clan's constitution should be able to be brought into full play!"

When Kurama saw that Naruto had taken the initiative to find his companions, he was very willing to help Naruto heal Kimimaro and agreed to Naruto's request without any hesitation.

Naruto rolled up his sleeve and placed his arm in front of Kimimaro's mouth: "Bite down, Kimimaro. My life force and chakra will help you recover quickly."

Kimimaro looked at Naruto in front of him, then at the arm so close to his own, and an indescribable emotion welled up inside him.

Kimimaro bit Naruto's arm, and a continuous stream of life force and chakra flowed into Kimimaro's body, healing him.

Kimimaro's pale face began to regain its color, and his body was no longer as emaciated as it had been when they first met.

Eight minutes passed, and Naruto could no longer maintain his full-power Kurama Sage Mode, so it automatically disappeared.

However, the result was also pleasing. At this time, Kimimaro's complexion was rosy, and although his body looked thin, he was no longer skin and bones.

Naruto asked, "How is it?"

Kimimaro slowly sat up in bed, took a deep breath, and said, "I have never felt so relaxed before."

"And what about your bloodstain disease?"

Kimimaro shook his head: "My bloodstain disease has not been cured."

Naruto fell into deep thought. It seemed that he had only replenished Kimimaro's life force and chakra; the Uzumaki clan's constitution did not have the ability to cure diseases.

Kimimaro felt the life force and chakra within his body, all given to him by Naruto. This meant that Naruto had given him a second life, and now everything he had belonged to Naruto.

Despite it being their first meeting, Naruto seemed to possess some kind of magic, making people involuntarily believe him.

Kimimaro looked at Naruto, who was deep in thought, and secretly vowed to himself that he must keep getting stronger until he could become Naruto's backbone.

Naruto snapped out of his reverie and comforted him, "Don't worry, as long as you're alive, there's time to find a cure for your bloodstain disease."

"Alright! Naruto-kun!"

Kimimaro smiled for the first time, her smile as radiant as a flower.

...

On the other side is Yosuke.

Orochimaru's base in the Land of Frost is located in a canyon between two icebergs.

Following the route given by Minato, Yosuke and Yokura found a rock door buried deep in the snow.

Yosuke drew his katana, destroyed the Iwamon gate, and entered the inner base with Yokura.

The base looked like it had been abandoned for a long time, covered in dust.

There are many skeletons in some rooms that look like prisons, but these skeletons are not simply human skeletons, but skeletons of animals that are the result of a combination of humans and animals.

The existence of these skeletons is self-evident; they were used in Orochimaru's human experiments.

Yosuke and Yekura's investigation led them to some of Orochimaru's research records.

The record states that Orochimaru discovered the corpse of a now-extinct creature that existed only a thousand years ago in the permafrost of the Frost Country's icebergs.

Orochimaru began his research on this, studying whether the biological genes in these corpses could be combined with humans to explore whether humans could acquire these biological abilities.

Each line of data in the research record represents a life lost, and the record is incomplete, demonstrating just how inhumane Orochimaru's research experiments were.

At the end of this record is a piece of experimental data recorded by Orochimaru.

The cursed seal can suppress the rejection reaction caused by the combination of genes from different organisms, but the survival rate is extremely low...

The subsequent data has been corrupted, and Yosuke has no way of knowing what the cursed seal is.

After a subsequent search, Yosuke and Yokura did not find any useful information.

Although he had expected it, Yosuke still couldn't help but sigh, "What a waste of time... Let's go, let's go to the next Orochimaru base."

Orochimaru's next base is also located in the northern part of the Land of Fire, but on an island near the coast.

Yosuke and Yekura left the Land of Frost and arrived at the port after a long journey of many days.

However, the port, which should have been bustling with activity, had only a handful of scavengers picking through the trash, and not a single ship was docked on the shore.

"What happened here? Why is it so desolate?" In Yecang's mind, ports like these, which connect to various places, should be very prosperous.