A Growing Affection

Chapter 36: Broken Song

Kabuto's left limb was longer than his right, and for the most part it was paler and skinnier. However, at five seemingly random spots across the surface, bulbous lumps of differently colored and textured flesh had been attached to the arm.

"Digital Shrapnel," Kabuto extended his bizarre hand, and a pellet of bone shot from each of his five fingers. Naruto blocked four of the bullets, but the last tagged his right shoulder.

"That's move," Uzumaki straightened, staring suspiciously at his opponent's modified arm, "Lee and Gaara told me about it. That bone guy used it on them. What was his name? Kumi... Kumimura?"

"Kimimaro," Kabuto growled, annoyed that his crowning moment was co-opted by Naruto's notoriously short attention span and poor memory, "I must admit the idea came from your precious teacher. After all, if a simple ocular transplant could give Kakashi Hatake the Sharingan, why couldn't I could gain the Shikotsumyaku in a similar manner?"

"Shikotsumyaku?" Naruto scratched his face, utterly lost.

"The Kekkei Genkai to control bones."

"So wait, you got bone powers from an eye transplant?"

Kabuto looked ready to explode, but instead he just sighed. He decided to fight the battle he could win. He grew a pair of bony spikes out of his left arm, and he slashed at Naruto. The red chakra blade moved to intercept, but Kabuto caught Kitsune between the two spines. With a slight strain, he twisted the staff-blade out of the boy's hand. He attempted to follow up by beheading the boy, but Naruto caught his wrist. Kabuto extruded spikes of bone into Naruto's palm. The crimson-eyed Genin snarled, and his tail of chakra batted the doctor away. Unlike the earlier wounds, this one healed almost instantly.

"So you attached a dead man's arm to your body," Naruto barked with two voices, struggling lightly to keep the fox at bay, "But what's with those weird bumps?"

"Pretending to be stupider than you normally are..." the Sound leader smirked as he regained his feet, "All you need to know, is that the 'bumps' are for enhancement and control."

The Kyubi jerked her head, and Naruto glanced where she indicated. He briefly studied the three green tubes again.

"You used those arms," the Leaf Genin suddenly recognized, "The left arms of Orochimaru's hosts. You're adding their powers to Kimi-whatsit's arm. But now you have to hide your arm."

"That is temporary," Kabuto waved it off, "A few more months and the integration will be complete."

"So you're not done yet?" the teen grinned wickedly.

"Not at all," Kabuto shook his head ruefully, "How can I explain this... It's like squeezing an orange into a river. The color might change but the course of the river will not."

"But wouldn't the river taste different?" Naruto pondered out loud.

"Argh," Yakushi grunted, "Ok then... It's like the fourth Princess Gale movie, when the villain broke the Spear of Storms. Gale could still use it to animate lightning, because it wasn't a real weapon, the spearhead was a jutsu focus."

"I get it," Naruto nodded, glaring again, "So even though it looks messed up, it works fine."

"Precisely," Kabuto agreed, growing spears of bone above and below his left hand, "And in a few weeks, it will even look normal."

"You ain't got that long," Naruto darted forward, his chakra tail wrapping Kimimaro's arm. He started to punch at Kabuto's jaw, but the spears spread wider, loosening his grip, and allowing the Sound Leader to stab a third bony blade into the knucklehead's right side. The skeletal projection also pushed Naruto back, just far enough that his fist failed to connect.