Vengeful Strike! The Bracken Dance

Recognizing the potency of Gaara's attack and the strength of his defenses, Kimimaro hardens a bone around his arm into the shape of a drill. With this, his strongest weapon, Kimimaro charges at Gaara, though Gaara's final defense proves too much and it shatters. Calling upon the sand in the ground, Gaara pulls Kimimaro deep underground, confining him there until his eventual death. As Kimimaro sinks, he creates a forest of bones to burst from the ground, which Gaara is able to help Lee avoid at the last second. As the two sit, completely exhausted but relieved to have won, Kimimaro appears from one of the bones with his bone drill for a final attack. His disease gets the best of him at the last second, and he dies before he can finish Gaara and Lee. Gaara reflects that like Lee and Naruto, Kimimaro had someone whom he cared for so much that every ill done to that person was done to him as well, someone he was willing to die for, and that even the companionship of an evil person can be preferable to loneliness. Elsewhere, Naruto has caught up to Sasuke.