Reika's lips parted slowly, her gaze not leaving his even once.
The frost on her fingers had long since melted, but the steel in her eyes had not.
"My name is Reika Yuki," she said evenly.
"Daughter of the Yuki clan's main line. My father and grandfather remained in the compound five years ago, when Kirigakure made its move against us to finish their genocidal long-term persecution. Maybe you've heard about the famous bloodline purges that are going on inside the Water Country. They died there. My mother and I lived in hiding ever since then, moving between villages, never staying anywhere long."
Kimimaro said nothing, his expression calm as stone, but his attention never wavered.
He was measuring her every word, the cadence of her voice, the weight in it.
Reika continued, though her voice dipped, harder now.
"A few days ago, they found us. My mother… she eventually froze them all in a giant block of ice. Every last one of them. But, at the cost of her last desperate spark, the final chakra exhaustion and... ultimately, life. Her last act was to leave me an opening. I fled by boat."
Her jaw tightened. For a moment, silence hung between them.
Then she added, more controlled now: "In the past, she told me of her mother. My maternal grandmother. An Uzumaki woman who once married into the Yuki back when that clan still existed. She said this place belonged to that clan. She told me, if I ever had the chance, to come here. That perhaps… something would be waiting."
Kimimaro's fingers flexed against the stone ledge where he leaned.
His lips curved faintly, but his eyes stayed sharp.
"Patriarch's blood of the Yuki, quarter Uzumaki, carrying a mother's last wish," he murmured, just loud enough for her to hear.
"You didn't come here chasing ghosts. You came here chasing strength."
Reika didn't deny it. Her chin lifted a little, proud despite the grief that still clung to her aura.
"I want power. Enough to make Kirigakure choke on the blood they spilled. Enough to erase the chains they put on us."
At that moment, Ashina's seal pulsed faintly from within the ruins, a ripple of intent brushing against Kimimaro's mind.
Calm. Not attack.
The old man's presence pressed harder than usual, like a hand on his shoulder.
'Don't waste her. Uzumaki and Yuki both. Bloodlines like this aren't cast aside.'
Kimimaro's smirk widened just faintly.
He didn't need the reminder.
His own thoughts were already turning.
'She's not weak. She's not naive. She's already tasted death, and her grief hasn't broken her. If anything, it sharpened her edge.'
His gaze slid back to her, weighing every movement.
'Yes… she could be my first blade. A subordinate, but not in name. A weapon honed under me. But first, I need to know more. I need to test whether she bends… or refuses.'
Outwardly, his tone remained calm, deliberate, and almost playful.
"Then it seems we've both bared something. Your turn is done. Mine begins."
Reika's brows rose slightly.
She said nothing, only waited, but her vigilance sharpened again.
Kimimaro straightened slowly, stepping down from the broken wall, his movements unhurried but precise.
His voice echoed lightly against the ruined walls.
"I am Kimimaro. These ruins are also partly mine now. I came here years ago, and they accepted me. I won't explain how. Not yet. But I know what they hold, and what they no longer do. I know the echoes that remain, the scraps of knowledge that could sharpen you."
His eyes glinted faintly, and though his words were smooth, there was steel beneath them.
"So if you want strength from this graveyard, you'll have to take it from me. Not with your ice… but with your resolve."
He stopped a short distance from her now, hands folded behind his back, his presence unflinching, his way of speech like he was an old man.
Ashina's voice hummed faintly in his skull, amused. 'You sound like a clan head, not a boy. And as if the Uzumaki heritage is your own property. Are you forgetting something there?'
Kimimaro ignored him. His gaze stayed fixed on Reika, and his thoughts ran cold and clear.
'I won't waste my health trying to crush her. Not when Ashina also keeps nudging me to stand down. This was the first and only real Uzumaki descendant, to an extent, he saw in over twenty years. It's understandable why he would never allow me to fight with her. Not when I can see she's worth more alive than dead. If I can bend her into my orbit, she will be the first. The first leaf of my future tree. My first blade in this world. I can 'compromise' here.'
And then, out loud, he asked simply, with a faint smirk tugging at his lips:
"So, Reika Yuki… do you want revenge badly enough to take my hand, or will you keep throwing shards of ice until you shatter yourself?"
Reika's eyes narrowed faintly at his words.
She let the silence hang for a moment, then finally asked the question that burned on her tongue still, after hearing his previous speech.
"And you? What are you? You still didn't tell the whole story. These ruins… they don't just let someone like you claim them. So, are you a part Uzumaki, too, like me? Is that ability of yours from somewhere else?"
Kimimaro tilted his head, expression unreadable for a beat.
Then, with deliberate calm, he spoke.
"As a token of trust, I'll share. You gave me your full truth. I'll give you mine to reciprocate."
Inwardly, he smirked at the irony.
'Not out of honor or manners, but out of necessity. If I want her closer, I have to give her something to clutch. A subordinate needs a chain, even if she doesn't know she's wearing it.'
His voice lowered slightly, though it carried clearly through the ruined square.
"Actually, I'm from the nearby Land of Water as well. Also, from another bloodline clan that Kirigakure erased from the map directly, even before your clan. The Kaguya clan. I also have no Uzumaki bloodline, as I'm a full Kaguya descendant."
Reika's eyes widened at once, disbelief flashing across her face.
"Kaguya…? Impossible."
She shook her head, tension rising in her aura.
"The Kaguya clan were known raiders who only knew how to use their tough physiques. Arrogant berserkers who charged headlong into battle and died screaming. That's what everyone knew them as. And you—"
Her eyes flicked up and down his form, taking in his still posture, his sharp gaze, the disciplined steel in his voice, his refined vocabulary, even his distinct and slightly otherworldly hair color, "—you're nothing like them. Not in bearing. Not in ability. Not in… anything. Not even the looks."
Kimimaro's lips pulled into a grin that carried no warmth.
"Of course not. Their idiocy is the reason they're gone now. My kekkei genkai isn't the same as theirs, or perhaps it was a unique evolution to me alone. They feared it, despite all of their bravado. They didn't understand it, so they locked me away."
His grin thinned into something harder, eyes distant for a moment.
"From the age of three to seven, I rotted in cages. Small cells. My only company was the sound of my own bones cracking when I experimented and played with what they hated."
He lifted his hand slightly, letting a thin, pale blade slide from the back of his palm, glinting sharp before it retracted again, seamless as skin.
"Shortly before their world finally burned, and they were annihilated by Kiri, three years ago, as well. I slipped away. And unlike your Yuki, they weren't clever enough to scatter survivors or lay down contingencies. They were fools to the end. So, I may well be the last of a kind..."
Reika stared at him, speechless for a moment.
The name "Kaguya" conjured only images of savage, mindless warriors.
To see this boy, calm and razor-sharp, his voice steady, or even a bit playful, at times, his movements exact, his face extremely beautiful and proportionate, angular at the same time… it clashed violently with everything she'd ever heard, no matter how she reasoned it then.
She muttered almost to herself, still processing: "Yeah… you're truly nothing like them."
Kimimaro's smirk returned, this time tinged with contempt.
"Because I wasn't one of them, from the beginning. A 'unique flower', as I once called myself when I was younger. Not really. My blood was theirs, but my mind never was. That's why I escaped. That's why I'm standing here now, instead of rotting beneath the dirt like they do."
He glanced toward the ruins around them.
"My steps brought me here by chance, into the skeleton of another clan's fall. Legendary Uzushiogakure. Your grandmother's home. My hidden sanctuary, hidden from Kirigakure's eyes. I've been here three years now. Training. Learning. Building. Until you appeared."
Reika's fists clenched at her sides, not at him but at the flood of bitterness his words slowly stirred in her own chest once again.
"Those Yuki scatter survivors you mentioned just now... They didn't even get the chance to regroup or fight again as we planned. I might also be among the last, if not the last. Civilians turned us in. Strangers we tried to live beside. Neighbors who whispered and pointed. Even without shinobi, they hunted us when they could, betrayed us for scraps from Kirigakure. Like we were beasts. Worse off, they were probably the ones who tipped the Kiri this time, resulting in my mother's sacrifice."
Her voice came hard and cracking, edged with anger, her fists cracking especially in the end.
Kimimaro's eyes immediately narrowed.
His lips twisted faintly into a sharper smirk.
"Not 'monsters'. Not in their eyes. Instead, you were a reminder of what they'd never reach, proof they could never stand where you were born."
"Their hatred wasn't logical, girl. It was envy, the same kind they hurled at the Kaguya."
"Your ice and your bloodline simply marked you as different, and that made them feel small. And when people feel small, they act like insects."
"They swarm upward and bite at what they can't match."
His voice dropped lower, harder, striking at the core of her anger.
"So, don't burn hatred on their 'reasonings'. Don't lick after their acceptance. The proper response to envy is simple: become the one they can't touch. Not something hoping for a seat, but the presence they kneel to out of instinct."
The words hit her like a stone.
Reika's breath caught, her eyes widening before narrowing again, this time not in disbelief but in thought.
Her shoulders tensed, then slowly eased as her expression shifted.
Her reply came quietly but steadily. "…Maybe you're right. I always thought… if only we could've explained, proven ourselves, shown that we weren't a threat…"
Her fists clenched tighter. "…but no. They never wanted the truth. Only a reason to destroy us. Maybe strength really is the only answer."
Kimimaro's smirk widened faintly, though inside his thoughts pressed sharper.
'Good. Let the seed root. She's closer already. She doesn't even realize...'
His gaze stayed locked on Reika, sharp and unblinking, and when he finally spoke, his tone was calm as steel.
"Then stop clinging to what's already burned away. Move. If you want revenge, I know the road. If it's power you crave, these ruins may still have plenty buried in them. Choose."