The statement struck Kimimaro instantly, and in that moment, everything clicked into place.
Arthur was indeed the one who had facilitated the healing—the sudden sting he felt on his thigh. But more than that: his "healing" had not been a complete remedy but a mere patch to a far heavier underlying issue.
Kimimaro continued to cough as he struggled to find his bearings. With trembling hands, he grasped the earth for support, fighting against the urge to crumple entirely.
"What did you do?" he growled in defiance and desperation.
Arthur paused, finally turning to face him. Without even a shred of amusement, he revealed, "You have a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta… Brittle bone disease is what it's really known as, and it wouldn't show up on record for more than one hundred years…"
No one would have known this fact since they weren't from earth nor had the medical expertise like Arthur had. It was also ironic considering Kimimaro's Kekkei Genkai was all about bone manipulation.
The revelation settled over the Sound shinobi hard. Because inside, he knew that Arthur was telling the truth.
Brittle bone disease—the cruel irony struck at Kimimaro's very identity. He had spent everything perfecting the manipulation of his bones, shaping and harnessing them as tools, and yet, somewhere within him, the twisted truth was too hard to bear.
The weakness he had felt, the moments of dizziness, the myriad times his body had faltered under the strain of his talents. It had all led to this moment, a culmination of a disease that rendered him both a principal and a prisoner to his own craft.
Arthur stood over him with a cold gaze.
"You see," he began, "the day I treated you, I made sure to give the right dosage—knowing precisely when it would wear off." Kimimaro's vision began to blur. "What Kabuto should have done back in the Sound Village was to monitor you for at least a week. That would have allowed them to keep tabs on your condition. But your pitiful Sannin didn't let him."
This caused Kimimaro to feel angrier.
"Even if someone had been astute enough to notice, it wouldn't have mattered," Arthur continued, pacing slowly around the shinobi. "I can create a whole new batch of treatment in no time, and I would have just used it again on you till you eventually fell into my trap."
Kimimaro struggled to wrap his hand around Arthur's ankles, but his body was simply too weak to try.
"You—" he coughed, forcing the words out. "You're saying this illness is… related to my Kekkei Genkai, right?"
"That's right," Arthur stated, arms crossed, moving his leg. "Each time you used it with that odd skeletal structure of yours, it resulted in biological changes that your other systems weren't accustomed to… Chronic pain, weakened physical endurance—it was only a matter of time before the strain caught up with you."
Kimimaro had no more strength to be angry. The disillusionment was suffocating him. He had always thought he was stronger than the issues that plagued him; he fought because he was bred to. Yet here he was, exposed and trapped amidst shifting tides.
"But lord Orochimaru… He could have fixed me," he tried saying, unable to hide his shaking voice.
"Your own clan didn't even know about your condition," Arthur mused. "Had that snake known about it, he could have risen as the strongest shinobi in the world on paper. But that's the flaw in his strategy, isn't it? He doesn't know how to control you."
An even greater question arose: How did Arthur know all these things? Little was anyone aware of, he had visited Kimimaro long ago, having taken his cells and used them to develop a treatment.
"Why do all this?" the shinobi coughed. "You… you wanted to control me?"
Arthur straightened with icy clarity and said, "You have the tendency to bow to those who save you from turmoil. Orochimaru had done it once, so that makes you of no use to me. I'll kill you now and see how many times I'll have to do it before you understand who your true lord is."
Just what did that mean? That phrase made no sense to Kimimaro; he struggled to comprehend the depths of Arthur's cruelty.
Without answering, Arthur stepped forward, towering over Kimimaro with a sense of empathy.
"I'll make you understand. Whether it takes days, weeks, or months, I'll keep killing you over and over and over again..."
Arthur slowly knelt and placed a palm over Kimimaro's eyes.
"No… you can't!" the shinobi barked, but those words stood little chance of dissuading Arthur from his course. "I'll always serve—!"
'Ice style: shattering ice spears…"
In an instant, jagged stalagmites of ice pierced through Kimimaro's body, shattering the fortified bones that had long been his pride. The ice spears violated him in ways that mere bone could never compare.
Silence fell upon the backdrop.
'Such a pitiful thing,' Arthur said, rising to his feet.
This fight had been more telling of Arthur's capabilities than one could grasp. He not only defeated an elite Sound ninja; he did it with just three techniques.
And that was just his spiritual energy at work. In terms of physicality, it was once seen that Kimimaro could cleanly slice through iron with his bones. When Rock Lee showed and managed to catch his weapon, it was clear that he was built different.
And if Lee was that durable, Arthur, who crushed Kimimaro's strongest attack without any chakra at play, was jaw-dropping.
Mere metal artifacts couldn't pierce him; neither could this world's deadliest poison harm him. As of right now, Arthur Bennett stood as the most versatile ninja to ever exist.
Within seconds, Kimimaro's body found itself materialized in the laboratory. Arthur's cold glance remained fixed on the fallen shinobi.
Brie swiftly turned around, startled to see him staring down at Kimimaro's lifeless body. The mutilated form was covered in blood, and fragments of shattered bone were scattered around. It was a grim display of the fierce encounter moments before.
"My lord, what happened to him?" she gasped, stepping forward to inspect the gruesome sight.
Having grown accustomed to seeing these things, she wasn't too in shock. Yet the degree of Arthur's brutal methods was something far worse than she had witnessed.
"Brie…" he called out in a voice devoid of inflection. Then he cast a sidelong glance at her. "Start preparing for preservation."
She swallowed hard but then quickly suppressed her qualms and pushed them aside. Ever in awe of Arthur's prowess and the seemingly endless possibilities his experiments held, she dove into action.
"Strange missions again," she said, sweat dripping from her face. "You keep bringing such… interesting specimens."
Ignoring her comment, he knelt down beside Kimimaro's body and began examining the wounds. The shattered bones, the damaged tissues—all needed to be correctly analyzed.
This was still Kimimaro, after all, the last remaining member of the famed Kaguya clan—the same clan which Kaguya Otsutsuki was stated to have formed. Who knew what secrets lay buried beneath the crumpled surface of his flesh and bones?
Brie continued to collect all that she could to preserve a cadaver, all while Arthur was still examining it. A nearby cabinet stocked with surgical instruments, vials, and tubes kept her heart pumping. She was in her element, and watching him already begin the dissecting part reminded her that she was on the right side.
Within moments, she returned with a stainless steel tray clogged with scalpels, syringes, preservatives, and various jars for samples. She looked a little too eager as she asked, "What should I do first?"
Without looking up, he replied, "Begin extracting his cells…"
Brie nodded, setting to work.
She first began by cleaning the area, laying Kimimaro's body flat on an operating table. Then she applied preservatives to prolong the integrity of the cadaver.
Arthur, indifferent to her marvel, concentrated on his analysis. He noted how brittle Kimimaro's bones had become, a reflection not just of his Kekkei Genkai, but of the ailment that had plagued him.
"His cells are sickly!" she remarked, listing through her observed data. "How could someone have been able to move under these conditions?"
"I know," Arthur replied. "They won't do me any good as they are, so we'll store them for now, and we'll study them later."
Brie's hands halted mid-cut as she asked, "You're not going to use it? But his Kekkei Genkai… the potential you could unlock…"
"Not yet," he coolly stated.
To use such infectious cells would only cause a negative side effect. If not now, something would eventually show in the long run. The best thing to do was to first preserve and explore Kimimaro's cellular makeup later.
Brie maintained her focus on the task. As the two worked, they pierced through layer after layer of the body's systems.
Arthur did his best to keep his mind in check, knowing how much potential having this Kekkei Genkai could mean for him. He saw endless prospects of what it meant to have full control over his own bones.
The possibilities were almost enough to excite him. But he stayed vigilant.
Brie extracted a sample from the shinobi's right arm. "There's a lot of calcium here," she announced, glancing briefly at Arthur. "It's strange considering his… condition."
"It's the essential component of everyone's bones," he replied. "But in his case, it was the anomaly in how it interacted with other biological systems that brought about his implications. Mark it down…"
"Got it," she confirmed. Underneath her eagerness, she was really curious as to why he had brought such a unique specimen. "What do you plan to do with it once it's all prepared?"
There was silence. How could he explain it to someone who might have been in the medical field but wasn't able to grasp the concept of chakra?
He could say that he intends to analyze how Kimimaro's unique physiology folded under pressures. Conceivably, his condition could provide insights into strengthening Arthur's own form—not just surviving the limitation of basic biology but also dominating it.
Would she understand if he worded it like that? Perhaps it was best to stay quiet.
Being used to this sort of treatment, she moved to retrieve a fresh jar, pouring the extracted cellular matter safely into its confines.
"I take it you're not interested in his bloodline?" she wondered aloud. "You want to push the boundaries of your physical stamina further, am I right?"
She was close, but Arthur did not respond directly, choosing to focus solely on Kimimaro's body. There was a deeper purpose, but he did not share that with her.
Metals clanged, and fumes expelled into the room as they continued their work. A whole hour would soon pass.
Upon finishing the preservation of the cadaver, Brie turned to Arthur and wiped the sweat from her brow.
"I think we did it," she said, panting.
As they completed the catalog of Kimimaro's unique components, the laboratory became silent once again.
It was inevitable not to wonder what the death of Kimimaro could mean. He had died before, only this time, it was much later. Because of that, there was bound to be some sort of butterfly effect related to the Sound Village.
So long as it didn't affect the main characters, things should continue as they were.
The biggest thing to consider, however, was what was that snake going to do once one of his subordinates didn't return from an assigned mission. Surely, he would send someone else or go to the Northern Hideout himself to discover what's happened.
Regardless of that matter, only one shinobi would care for Kimimaro's death. And that shinobi was going to still be locked up for another three years.
So Arthur believed.