Tsunade stood up and walked to the window, looking out over the village. The reconstruction was moving along, but the scars were deep.
"The final list for Konoha," she decided, her voice firm. "Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame, and Neji Hyuga. They are the ones ready to lead."
But the decision couldn't be just like that. The exams had been a joint venture with Sunagakure, and though the alliance had been strained to the breaking point by Orochimaru's deception, the bridge needed to be rebuilt. There was no Suna representative in Konoha anymore—not after the tragedy of the Fourth Kazekage.
She thought of Gaara whose cold eyes were starting to see the light and willfully surrendered Kimimaro as an apology for the Suna's involvement in the attack.
"I'll need to speak with Hiashi first to smooth over the Hyuga ripples," she thought, "and then I'll need to coordinate with Suna. Gaara is likely to be their next Kazekage. It's better we start this era on the same page."
~~
Kimimaro lay motionless, his pale skin nearly blending into the bleached sheets. The leather restraints around his wrists and ankles stayed on. Despite the bindings, Kimimaro was unnervingly still.
He had survived the impossible, rescued from the brink of death by the very enemies he had sought to destroy which he thought would be the last thing he could be of use to Lord orochimaru. His mind was honed by a new, desperate purpose, being to get cured and go back to Lord Orochimaru to be of his use.
The door slid open as Shizune entered, her face obscured by a medical mask. In her hand, she held a syringe filled with a viscous, pale yellow fluid... a potent mixture of high-grade sedatives, chakra-stabilizers, pain killers and the first dose.
"I am Shizune," she said, her voice muffled. "I'll be administering your first dose of the day. You're going to feel very sleepy, Kimimaro."
Kimimaro didn't resist nor flinch as the needle went under his skin. He merely stared at the ceiling, his voice a dry rasp. "Lord Orochimaru... wait for me."
As the heavy sedation and concentrated painkillers surged through his system, the ceiling began to blur. The sharp edges of the room softened, and within five minutes, the rhythmic beep-beep of the heart monitor slowed. Kimimaro fell into a slumber so deep it bordered on a coma.
Shizune waited, checking her watch. She pulled a penlight from her pocket, peeling back Kimimaro's eyelids to check his pupillary response. She moved the light left to right, watching the sluggish tracking of his eyes before they rolled back. Satisfied that his consciousness was fully suppressed, she looked toward the corner of the room.
"Inoichi-san, you can enter now."
Inoichi Yamanaka stepped out of the shadows. He was flanked by a specialized team from the Intelligence Division. "How long do I have until he wakes up?" he asked, his voice low.
"He's under a heavy sedation," Shizune replied, unbuckling the leather restraints. "He won't be conscious for at least twelve to eighteen hours. But be careful... his body reacts to deep pain even in his sleep. We don't want him finding about we have done to him and you are bring him back to this place before he wakes up."
A member of the analysis team stepped forward, hoisting Kimimaro's limp form onto himself. "Let's move," Inoichi commanded. "We need to begin before the sedation dulls the neural pathways too much."
~~
Kimimaro was placed inside a specialized containment unit, a metal casing that looked more like a sarcophagus. Four analysis specialists took their positions at the corners of the machine, their palms glowing with a steady, blue chakra as they acted as anchors for the transmission.
Inoichi stood at the head of the unit. He took a deep breath and placed his hand firmly on Kimimaro's forehead.
"Psycho Mind Transmission!"
Usually, entering the mind of a high-ranking missing-nin was like stepping into a storm of trauma, and Genjutsu traps. But as Inoichi's consciousness surged into Kimimaro's, he gasped.
He found himself standing in a vast, rolling meadow of vibrant green hills. In the center stood a single, towering tree, its leaves rustling in a breeze that felt impossibly real. The sun was warm, and the air smelled of grass and rain.
It was the calmest, most serene mindscape Inoichi had ever encountered in his decades of service. Under the tree sat a younger version of Kimimaro, looking peacefully out at the horizon.
A defensive layer? Inoichi thought, his mental form scanning for cracks. Genjutsu?
"Kai!" he whispered, pulsing his chakra.
The idyllic scene rippled and melted away like wax. The green hills were replaced by the cold, damp reality of a laboratory. The air turned stale, echoing with the rhythmic chirp of medical monitors.
A younger Kimimaro, already looking sickly, was sitting on an examination table. Kabuto Yakushi stood over him, flipping through a clipboard.
"Kabuto-san," the Kimimaro in the memory asked, his voice trembling with a vulnerability Inoichi hadn't expected. "Can I be cured? Can I still be of use to Lord Orochimaru?"
Kabuto didn't look up. "Kimimaro, you were the leader of the Sound Five. You single-handedly suppressed the Sound Four even after they reached the second level of the Cursed Seal. But your disease... it's mutating faster. You don't have much time left."
Kabuto finally met the boy's eyes, his glasses glinting. "If you want to be useful, bring Sasuke Uchiha back. He is the only thing Lord Orochimaru desires now."
The scene shifted as Inoichi watched the memories blurred. He saw a child Kimimaro, once a prisoner of his own clan, being liberated by Orochimaru. He felt the boy's overwhelming sense of gratitude—a misplaced, tragic love for a man who saved him and gave him a purpose.
Again the scene changed, Inoichi saw a massive, hulking figure—Juugo—thrashing in a stone cell, consumed by murderous rage. He saw Kimimaro walk toward the beast without a hint of fear. As Kimimaro's spine held Jugo in place.
"As long as I am here," Kimimaro promised Jugo, "you can be free."
Inoichi felt the genuine warmth of their bond, the only real friendship in his life. He saw their final conversation, where Kimimaro spoke of Sasuke as the only other "vessel" worthy of their lord. The memory ended with Kimimaro sprinting into the forest, his body literally falling apart as he chased his final mission.
Then Inoichi saw glimpses of Sasuke coming out of the cylindrical box and running away and Kimimaro fighting naruto, Rock lee and Gaara.
He began to "reverse-engineer" the location from his memories. By tracking Kimimaro's mental maps of his travels, Inoichi began to plot the exact coordinates of Orochimaru's network. The boy had been a high-ranking official of the sound; he had walked the halls of every major stronghold.